Hey now! Watching "Classic Albums" on VH1 Classic as I write this. If you haven't seen this show, its pretty cool. They pick a classic album (hence, the name) and speak with the musicians and producer that made it. They break the album down song by song and the coolest part is when they break down the parts of the songs themselves. For example, on "The Dark Side of the Moon" episode, they go back to the original master tapes and will isolate the slide guitar on "Breathe". Dave Gilmore and Alan Parsons then will talk about the sound of the guitar (but not too technically), overdubs and then show how they mixed in the other parts of the song. Its quite amazing how the choices and creativity of the artists come together to make a song, whose parts you may have taken for granted before.
Tonight's episode is on Deep Purple's "Machine Head". I'm not familiar with the whole album, but it definitely features two all-time classic songs. "Highway Star" is an awesome driving song, one of those songs that will play on the radio and you look down at your speedometer and all of a sudden you're doing 85. And then of course, the ultimate guitar riff of "Smoke On the Water". Everyone plays air guitar when that one comes on.
Onto this weekend's Richmond events. Brave the heat on Saturday night and come out to see the Black Crowes at Innsbrook. Gates open at 6 PM and General Admission tix are $16.50 in advance, $20 at the gate. Some band called Buffalo Killers is opening. The Black Crowes can still bring that loose Stonesy rock as well as anyone out there. When we saw them at Brown's Island last year, their guitarist had left three days before the show and even with the new guitarist, they were excellent. Now that the guy has been in the band for a year they should be even better. I won their recent live album "Freak & Roll - Live at the Fillmore" from the Grateful Dead Hour (thanks, David Gans!) . I put the tunes on my iPod and then the CD itself kind of got buried in my pile. Whenever one of the tunes would come on the iPod, I would be totally intrigued by the jamming and I'd look and ever time I would go "Wow! That's the new Crowes CD." So I'm looking forward to this show very much.
At Innsbrook on Friday will be Nickel Creek on their farewell (for now) tour with Fiona Apple. General Admission is $20 in advance and $25 at the gate. Fiona comes on around 6:30. I have liked what I have heard from Nickel Creek and Fiona Apple is always interesting.
For you winos, you can check out the Beach Party Wine Festival at James River Cellars. That is Saturday & Sunday from 11 AM - 5 PM. There will be wine and food and wine and music and more wine.
While you are at home, you can watch Lollapalooza, now a single fest not a traveling one, on the web, live from Chicago. Here is the address: http://www.attblueroom.com/music/. They'll be on 1:30 PM - 11 PM Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They'll be on XM's Ethel station too. I'm looking forward to seeing Amy Winehouse on the web Sunday night at 8:15 PM.
The Virgin Festival is also taking place this weekend in Baltimore. Much to chagrin of the horses that wanted to step on me again, I will not be attending this year. I haven't found a webcast of it, but it will be on XM's The Move on Sunday from 6 PM - 10 PM.
Hope to see you at the Crowes on Saturday. Until next week, sayonara.
Tony Jordan
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