It’s 3:37 AM EST as I start to type this and the jams are probably still going on in the Yert (or is it Yurt) the Roadhouse, the Barn and just out in the fields near the stream, under the half moon. I can hear the music in my head…Liz Reed, Whippin’ Post…and many more. The youngsters take “Play all night” to heart and I feel they need to try to do it…especially on the first night of Roots Rock Revival 2024.
People come from all over the US and some from as far as India, or South America…or are regulars like Marcel, a physics teacher from the Netherlands…who because of his love of flying I was able to hook up with my old friend John and get him in the back seat of a vintage WWII trainer…a PT 19 built by Fairchild in the 1940’s.
I’m a tiny bit sad as I type this because I miss the “family”…the musical friends I’ve met and gotten to know over the years. I’m here in B-more this week because of a medical appointment I need to do tomorrow.
Butch (the visionary) Trucks started this camp in 2013 with a lot of help from his friends…and by finding this magical place that Henry created on the grounds of an old hotel “high in the Catskills”…near Woodstock NY he was able to flesh out his vision.
11 years later Butch is not with us anymore…but the vision lives on and is nurtured by Michael, Oteil and Luther who helped him create the first camp and now by more folks including his daughter Melody and son Vaylor…who just by the way are Derek and Duane Trucks cousins…( and if you don’t know who I mean…google Tedesdschi Trucks Band and Widespread Panic…) the musical DNA in the Trucks family is outrageous.
For folks in to this music, this is Christmas, it’s the best week of the year. I described it as a “bubble” to Henry…this perfect place where everyone agrees on the core values of the music…that it’s timeless… it is it’s own genre…people want to call it “southern rock” and they did start the genre, not because they set out to do that, but because the music media had to label it…and they go far beyond what most of those very fine bands were capable of. These 6 individual players blended more influences in more creative ways than I think any other American Band. Who else had tympani on stage along with congas and timbales…a B-3 and 2 lead guitars ???
During an interview we were doing a few years ago I told Oteil who started as a jazz musician and drummer in DC, that I felt the Allman Bros Band was the Weather Report of Souther Rock…who were to me the pinnacle of their Jazz Fusion genre. Miles Davis becomes a common element…a thread between the 2 bands. Here’s Oteil talking about the camp
I have a lot of things rolling in my head, far too much to express right now. It’s been a busy 2 weeks for me…in a space where all roads lead to Roots. Jaimoe’s 80th birthday…Melody’s tour with her young proteges the Fitzke Bros and their guitar & keyboard buddies…a LOT of music…
Marcel’s plane ride and visit to Paul Beards Guitar shop…we’ve documented it all…I thought that I had gotten my “Roots fix”, but not quite…so I’m going to go out and sit on my patio and listen to the crickets and imagine the music….and consider the documentary we are co-creating…and how to best tell you more of this incredible story about art and passing the torch…
Peace y’all.
miss seeing you dude