Best Live Songs of 2008 Part Three

6) Young at Heart Chorus, "Fake Plastic Trees" Newport Folk Festival, 8/2/08

  As I said back in August, Sweet Talk was proud of bringing several artists to stages all   around the country, but one of the absolute highlights was bringing the Young @ Heart Chorus to Newport Folk.  They are not a novelty, they are the truest form of musical expression, full of humor, joy, passion and poignant emotion. 

(photo by Joe Ruggeri)

 

 

And yes, Josh Jackson, Rita Huston, and I were all crying during their Radiohead Cover of "Fake Plastic Trees". Imagine if you will a petite 87 year old woman singing a capella:

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns.
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins.
And it wears him out, it wears him out.
It wears him out, it wears . . .

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love.
But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run.
And it wears me out, it wears me out.
It wears me out, it wears me out.

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time, all the time.
Oh, oh.

while a choir of fellow octogenarians sings harmony, and yes, you'd be balling your eyes out too.

(photo by Michael Weintrob)

5) Wilco "Remember the Mountain Bed" Jackson Hole Music Festival 8/16/2008

Set on the side of the Tetons with the Snake River and Sleeping Indian Mountain as a backdrop, the environs for the inaugural Jackson Hole Music Festival were simply awesome.

To accompany such an inspiring locale, we envisioned a one two programming punch of Brian Wilson into Wilco to close the first day. Bridging the gap between the original pusher of pop boundaries and the next generation with a mere 30 minute set break was truly a vision realized. While Tweedy dedicated a blissful "California Stars" to Wilson later in the set, the true highlight of the waking dream was Wilco opening with Woody Guthrie's "Remember the Mountain Bed", perfectly mirroring the spirit of the glowing revelers:

There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned/

Our greatest reason for being here‚ our bodies moved and burned/There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life's reason why/The people laugh and love and dream‚ they fight‚ they hate to die

Drinking tequila at the local watering hole with Nels Cline before the show, while Tweedy ran up the side of the mountain and Stirratt fished a secret local spot, it was clear in talking about the beauty of playing in such remote and breath taking settings such as  Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Alaska, the boys were thoroughly enjoying these rugged "Frontier" gigs.  Seeing the band on the top of its game, frolic in the gold light of a late mountain afternoon was truly soul satisfying.

4a)  Trey Anastasio "Bathtub Gin > Wilson", Newport Folk Festival 8/2/08

Having Trey at Newport was another dream I had long before it became a reality. Nearly a year and half absent from playing live and the only solo acoustic show other than Rothbury in memory, it was an amazing sight to see Trey walk onto the hallowed Fort Stage at Newport with nothing but an acoustic guitar under is arm. 

After the well documented hardships and healing of the last year or so it was an emotional set, particularly "Waste" and "Heavy Things" which were both especially poignant. With his long time friend and primary lyricist Tom Marshall standing side stage, Trey also busted out a song never before performed live called "If I Could Be a Sailor". Written over a decade before, he dedicated it to the sailboats anchored off the festival grounds. The boats in turn blasted their airhorns in appreciation. 

Soon after

 the aforementioned squall tumbled forth over the bay, rain started coming down in sheets cutting out the power to the smaller stages and soaking everyone to the bone. Rising to the occasion, Trey broke into "Bathtub Gin" which allowed for some hysterical crowd participation("We're all in this together and we LOVE TO TAKE A BATH" )  including singing the lead guitar phrases. Keeping up the sing along Trey segued directly into the call and response intro of "Wilson" which culminated in the crowd firing back the ultimate question on everyone's mind after such a long time away from the stage, "CAN YOU STILL HAVE FUN!"  

Although musically rusty and under such adverse conditions Trey's beaming grin, funky dance shuffle and belly laugh carried the obvious response.

Listen to  how hard the rain hits the mics

Bathtub Gin - Trey Anastasio

Wilson - Trey Anastasio

 

4b) The Felice Brothers "This Land is Your Land" Newport Folk Festival 8/2/08

Around the same time as Trey ushered in the howling gale, the gung-ho Felice Brothers were laying down their intensely raw, ragged glory, barn storming, dirt music on the Waterside stage that is until the power went poof., Instead of cutting their their short the entire band jumped off the stage and finished the set barefoot in the mud amongst the crowd around them for one big sing-along that would have made Woody Guthrie immensely proud.