The crew just got back from the annual spring pilgramige to a
great music festival---Mountain Jam sponsored by Radio
Woodstock and Warren Haynes(Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule).
This huge party is held at the Hunter Mountain ski resort and
has some of the best music in the world..... Yonder Mountain
String Band, Les Claypool, Derek Trucks, Michael Franti,
Allison Kraus & Union Station, 2 nights of Gov't Mule, Steve
Earle, Levon Helm, and the list goes on. The crowd is very
unique.... to the point where I am normal, even a little square.
The hippest of the hippies, covering a ski slope in tie-dye,
blowing bubbles, drinking beers, and of course smoking pot
and dwelving into psychadelica......
Arriving late we found ourselves in a private campground away
from the tent cities and seas of people. That was just fine with
us after last year of pitching tents half way up the mountain and
nearly exhausting ourselves before the first band started.
Soon a luxury bus arrived, that's when it all began. The
feature, for me anyway, Gov't Mule took the stage at about ten
and that was a very fun, very interesting concert. The details
are foggy but for quite some time I was dancing around this
neat thing called a "Karma Wash" with a girl with fairy wings and
a guy wearing a white tiger pleather suit. The Karma wash is a
makeshift walkway in the middle of the concert where people
walk through and get cleansed...so-to-speak.. Lots of bubbles
and rubber chickens involved...you'd have to see it to totally
understand. Any way I had a real fun time dancing at the wash.
"Dark Star Orchestra" came on stage for a late night
show(ended at 4am) that was superb Grateful Dead music.
The "DSO" travels the world simply playing replications of GD
music, usually whole shows performed as close to when they
were by the actual band as possible. Regardless, they played
a mind altering show to say the least. By the end of it I was a
tired monkey....
Probably the best story to tell about the weekend happened
during that show, right after Warren Haynes and Danny Louis
walked off stage from a sit in with DSO(played Going Down the
Road Feeling Bad). As the musicians descended down the
from the stage who do you think was standing there waiting?
Brother Dan, who had no idea how he had gotten back stage,
shook hands and talked with them for a few minutes. To be
more specific for those who are interested, he stood around
while they talked about the Levon Helms 70th birthday
jamboree happening the next day. To quote Dan===
"They just came down the stairs and I shook hands with them
and we just stood around talking like it was normal. I told them
how much I was looking forward to the next day, they agreed
and talked about who was playing when, on what songs, just
normal talk". The best thing about that story is that he had no
idea how he got to that spot, just bam, Dans backstage with
Warren...shaking hands and talking tunes.... only at Mountain
Jam can that kind of thing happen.
great music festival---Mountain Jam sponsored by Radio
Woodstock and Warren Haynes(Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule).
This huge party is held at the Hunter Mountain ski resort and
has some of the best music in the world..... Yonder Mountain
String Band, Les Claypool, Derek Trucks, Michael Franti,
Allison Kraus & Union Station, 2 nights of Gov't Mule, Steve
Earle, Levon Helm, and the list goes on. The crowd is very
unique.... to the point where I am normal, even a little square.
The hippest of the hippies, covering a ski slope in tie-dye,
blowing bubbles, drinking beers, and of course smoking pot
and dwelving into psychadelica......
Arriving late we found ourselves in a private campground away
from the tent cities and seas of people. That was just fine with
us after last year of pitching tents half way up the mountain and
nearly exhausting ourselves before the first band started.
Soon a luxury bus arrived, that's when it all began. The
feature, for me anyway, Gov't Mule took the stage at about ten
and that was a very fun, very interesting concert. The details
are foggy but for quite some time I was dancing around this
neat thing called a "Karma Wash" with a girl with fairy wings and
a guy wearing a white tiger pleather suit. The Karma wash is a
makeshift walkway in the middle of the concert where people
walk through and get cleansed...so-to-speak.. Lots of bubbles
and rubber chickens involved...you'd have to see it to totally
understand. Any way I had a real fun time dancing at the wash.
"Dark Star Orchestra" came on stage for a late night
show(ended at 4am) that was superb Grateful Dead music.
The "DSO" travels the world simply playing replications of GD
music, usually whole shows performed as close to when they
were by the actual band as possible. Regardless, they played
a mind altering show to say the least. By the end of it I was a
tired monkey....
Probably the best story to tell about the weekend happened
during that show, right after Warren Haynes and Danny Louis
walked off stage from a sit in with DSO(played Going Down the
Road Feeling Bad). As the musicians descended down the
from the stage who do you think was standing there waiting?
Brother Dan, who had no idea how he had gotten back stage,
shook hands and talked with them for a few minutes. To be
more specific for those who are interested, he stood around
while they talked about the Levon Helms 70th birthday
jamboree happening the next day. To quote Dan===
"They just came down the stairs and I shook hands with them
and we just stood around talking like it was normal. I told them
how much I was looking forward to the next day, they agreed
and talked about who was playing when, on what songs, just
normal talk". The best thing about that story is that he had no
idea how he got to that spot, just bam, Dans backstage with
Warren...shaking hands and talking tunes.... only at Mountain
Jam can that kind of thing happen.
Gov't Mule Setlist....
Set 1
Railroad Boy >
Temporary Saint >
Gameface with 3rd Stone From the Sun, Mountain
Jam & Norwegian Wood Teases
Woodstock
Broke Down On the Brazos
Gordon James
Sad & Deep As You with Kofi Burbridge
Kind Of Bird with Derek Trucks
Blind Man In The Dark
Set 2
The Joker with Matisyahu
Frozen Fear >
D'yer Mak'er >
Frozen Fear
Rockin' In The Free World >
Machine Gun (Instrumental) >
Rockin' In The Free World >
Drums
Forevermore
The Spider & The Fly with Eric Kasno, Ryan Zoidis &
Sam Kininger
Ventilator Blues with Jackie Greene, Ryan Zoidis &
Sam Kininger
Monkey Man with Jackie Greene
Encore
Black
Train Kept A Rollin'
Set 1
Railroad Boy >
Temporary Saint >
Gameface with 3rd Stone From the Sun, Mountain
Jam & Norwegian Wood Teases
Woodstock
Broke Down On the Brazos
Gordon James
Sad & Deep As You with Kofi Burbridge
Kind Of Bird with Derek Trucks
Blind Man In The Dark
Set 2
The Joker with Matisyahu
Frozen Fear >
D'yer Mak'er >
Frozen Fear
Rockin' In The Free World >
Machine Gun (Instrumental) >
Rockin' In The Free World >
Drums
Forevermore
The Spider & The Fly with Eric Kasno, Ryan Zoidis &
Sam Kininger
Ventilator Blues with Jackie Greene, Ryan Zoidis &
Sam Kininger
Monkey Man with Jackie Greene
Encore
Black
Train Kept A Rollin'