Fans of The Band

[Mark Hudson]

I've been wondering why more of The Band's songs haven't been covered in the bluegrass world, after all you'd be working with some great Americana sound right off the bat. Certainly it would be less of a stretch than some of the 'Pickin' On' series.
So the only covers I'm familiar with, and been lucky enough to catch live, are Sam Bush doing 'Up On Cripple Creek' (example here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuAuwNQIWMk) and the Gibson Brothers doing 'Ophelia'.

Anybody know of other covers that I really need to hear? Links would be appreciated!

(Oh, and as far as being a fan - a 'Last Waltz' poster is framed and hanging on my living room wall )

[Keith Witty]

Punch Brothers do a great cover of Ophelia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pGi9mlXEcs

[allenhopkins]

Bluegrass Alliance did The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Here's a pretty "grass" version of The Weight with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show:

[Eliot Greenspan]

The Punch Brothers have done amazing versions of Ophelia as well (Gabe and Chris do some wonderful vocal harmonies), and I'll bet The Weight gets a good bluegrass cover here and there every now and then...

(looks as if I posted a tad late, as both just been mentioned)

[catmandu2]

I've heard a BG cover of The Shape I'm In done very well

[Mark Hudson]

Ah yes, I forgot about that Gillian Welch & OCMS cover... excellent ;-)

[Eliot Greenspan]

didn't take long to find this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTTL5CvPeHo

[catmandu2]

Cool. The version I heard had a much quicker BG tempo, though.

[allenhopkins]

Cool. The version I heard had a much quicker BG tempo, though.

This one by Still River?

[catmandu2]

This one by Still River?

Closer--but still not the one I heard, which had a quicker tempo still, very even syncopation, and nice tight harmonies: dare I say--more in the "classic" BG style..

[Mark Hudson]

Great, keep 'em coming!

[Ken Waltham]

My idea would be to have a good listen to a fantastic CANADIAN band, The Band themselves. They were all, with the exception of Levon Helm, who came here with Ronnie Hawkins at age 14, born and raised right near here.
One of the main reasons why I play music, any other versions would easily be a step backward, I would say.
Just sayin"

[Spruce]

My idea would be to have a good listen to a fantastic CANADIAN band, The Band themselves.

Here ya go...
One of the best pieces of film of any band, period...
"King Harvest" is just perfect...

[catmandu2]

Here ya go...

Excuse my french but...dam* right. These guys were sui generis.

[Laird]

Can't resist posting this scene of Rick Danko trying to keep it together on a very BG-friendly tune, accompanied by Janis, Jerry, and Bobby on the Festival Express. You can practically see the brain cells puddling up on the floor.

[Markus]

Here's a pretty "grass" version of The Weight with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show:

In B flat.

I guess if Gillian calls a key, you play it.

[SternART]

That Festival Express bought out the local liquor stores everywhere the train stopped.

[catmandu2]

These people were under some infuence of spirits?...

[Laird]

These people were under some infuence of spirits?...

Yep, as Bob Weir recalls in the film, these were rock musicians who had more experience with drugs than booze (though it's worth noting that the main supply of alcohol was promptly dosed).

[Marcus CA]

Bluegrass Alliance did The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Here's a pretty "grass" version of The Weight with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show:

That was stunning!

[J.Albert]

I've got a ragged version of "Daniel And The Sacred Harp" available here:
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=4725/singles

- John

[catmandu2]

Yep,

Oh. Thanks.

[AlanN]

Didn't The Fiction Bros. (Howie Tarnower) do The Shape I'm In?

[Rodney Riley]

Gillian Welch, David Rawlings,

Interesting story of the '35 Epiphone Rawlings plays in Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

Dave Rawlings’s 1935 Epiphone Olympic

Dave Rawlings’s signature 1935 Epiphone Olympic has helped define his sound ever since he found the small-body archtop in 1995. Here he tells the story of that fortuitous meeting:

In the winter of ’95, we went up to Boston to see our friend Earl, who played steel. We were at Earl’s dad’s house, helping Earl paint Bob Stanton’s 1977 Olds 88. It’s really cold, and I’m wandering around the basement, and over on the workbench is all this crap, and I see a guitar shape. But the guitar is completely covered with sawdust. There’s a saw right there, and the sawdust has blown over the guitar. On the headstock it’s about a 1/2-inch thick and down on the body it’s a 1/4-inch thick.

The back was stripped, it didn’t have strings, didn’t have a bridge on it. Gill brushed the sawdust off the peghead and said, “Oh, it’s an Epiphone,” I picked it up, turned it over, and tapped the back, which is something I always do, and I thought it had one of the nicest knocks I’d ever heard on a guitar. I like the sound of boxes, and it sounded clear as a bell. I walked out holding the guitar up and said, “Earl, what do you need for this?” Because I had it in my head for some reason that I don’t understand that a little archtop might be a cool thing to play. I just had some thought about midrange and about the way Gill played, but it wasn’t a very focused thought.

Photo credit, Jay Blakesberg

But Earl said, “I don’t want to sell that. I love that thing.” But I’m desperate to get it, and I don’t really know why. I just really loved the shape of it and the way it felt, even though it didn’t have strings. I hadn’t heard it, obviously. So Earl said, “Dave, listen, if you can get me a Bandmaster Reverb head, I’ll trade you.” [Laughs.] Now, I’ve never seen a Bandmaster Reverb head, I’ve never even heard of one. But I go into Boston the next day and go to Allston Music and there among the amps is a silver Bandmaster Reverb head! I don’t have any money at this point, because I never had any money, and it’s like $200 and I maybe have $120. I plug it in and it works, but the reverb doesn’t work. So I said to the guy, “Look, it’s a Bandmaster Reverb, but the reverb doesn’t work. Sell it to me for $120.” And he did. I take it back to Earl, who never thought I’d find one, because he’d been looking for one forever—apparently he thought it was a great steel amp. And he was like “What? You found it?” And he felt bad that I had to spend $120, so he gave me $60 back. I ended up with $60 and he gave me this guitar.

It has no bridge, and again, for reasons I would love to know why I thought this, I decided that because the body was so small and there was no space between the f-holes that it needed a one-piece ebony bridge that wasn’t adjustable. I took it back to Nashville, to Joe Glaser, and said, “I want a one-piece ebony bridge.” And then months roll around, I don’t think of it. We’re getting ready to go out to California to make the first record and I remember this guitar, and I’m like, “####, I should get this thing.” So the day we’re shipping guitars to Los Angeles, Joe gives it back and I string it up. I strum a G chord, and I liked the way it rang, so I thought, “OK, I’ll take it.” Because I had an extra box. It was the last guitar we tried when we were in the studio with T Bone that first couple days, and as soon as I heard it on mic, I thought, “OK, I’m done.”

[wayfaringstranger]

Yep, King Harvest (and the performance on YouTube that is linked to above) is the absolute best. The lyrics are freakin' genius: I love how the short sections with pastoral scenes from the countryside contrast with the grittier longer verses. I also love how the short sections are written in haiku (or very close to it). My band arranged King Harvest for bluegrass instruments and it's one of our favorites.

On our EP: http://music.bigchimneyband.com/trac...as-surely-come

Or on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_QoXzNj5C8