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Howling Wolves Present has announced dates for the eighth annual Purple Hatter’s Ball. Taking place at the famed Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, Florida May 8 - 10, 2015, the three-day music festival benefits The Rachel Morningstar Foundation (a non-profit 501c3 organization) in honor of longtime SOSMP friend and music festival lover Rachel Morningstar Hoffman.
“The older the song, the harder they slam” –Vince Herman
For the first time since Yonder Mountain String Band took up residence at The Boulder Theater for its holiday run (in 2011), the band decided to play three sets for New Year’s Eve. Each set had its own motif, but all three were governed by the same primary theme. When it initially hit the stage, the quintet played an hour of buoyant, uplifting songs that were singed with beauty.
This past Friday, Philadelphia’s kings of trance-fusion The Disco Biscuits made their triumphant return to the Windy City, delivering a two-night holiday run at Concord Music Hall that marked some of their most well-rounded, creative shows seen in quite some time.
Since their inception in Portland, Oregon, in 2003, the group has become recognized as one of the nation’s busiest and best live touring acts playing close to 200 shows a year. MarchFourth Marching Band (M4 for short) is much more than what its name might indicate. The performance is a visual and aural feast, with around 20 performers including approximately 8 horn players, 5 drummers, bass guitar, and 5 dancers, stilt walkers and acrobats.
One of the most exciting developments in progressive electronica is the return of acclaimed live breakbeat house trio The New Deal. Fans were thrilled when powerhouse musicians Jamie Shields (keyboards), Joel Stouffer (drums), and Dan Kurtz (bass) announced scattered dates earlier this year. It marked their return to touring after calling it to pursue other endeavors in 2011. The select fall and summer dates displayed the band in tiptop form with more onstage energy than ever. It appears that the band plans to continue reestablishing themselves in the genre they created.
We like to think of ourselves as intellectually superior beings. I am speaking of the jamband fan of course; but based on my observation, I am sure you already assumed that. We like to think of ourselves as intellectually superior, and we talk out of both sides of our mouth in doing so. We promote inner balance and are renowned for drug use. We promote originality, but foam at the mouth at a song played every 3rd show on summer tour for 30 years. We liken our musical preferences to art at its highest and we ignore anything that the masses have given the same validation.
GW: This is Dylan Muhlberg of Grateful Web here with Bay Area music legend Greg Anton. Greg began his professional career in the late 70s drumming with Keith and Donna Godchaux’s Heart of Gold Band. Later he cofounded the prolific Jam Band Zero. Since he’s participated in countless musical endeavors and projects. He’s a lawyer and an advocate for marijuana legalization. And now he’s an author. But instead of an autobiography he wrote a novel.
Back on August 2nd of this year, Railroad Earth rolled up on Red Rocks amphitheater, just outside of Denver, for a return performance from a triumphant show in July of 2013. What transpired was nothing short of amazing- a transcendent evening of music with the band giving fans 3 hours worth of RRE classics that not only involved the group’s 6 members, but a horn section, to boot, (dubbed that very night as “the Mile High Horns”)!
