Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Yonder as Obama opener 8.28.08


All things come around Yonder! One of the biggest disappointments of the convention season was that CSPAN let me down. And to think I unofficially and secretly adopted Brian Lamb as an uncle after I met him. Holidays would be cool with a dude like that telling stories about when he worked as a military press coordinator for the Johnson administration. Yonder Mountain String Band was scheduled as the very first act at the coronation at Invesco Field on 8.28.08.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it was poor editorial decisions, DVR operator error or a combination of both. But Lincoln Heights Yonder party before Stevie, fireworks and all that was not to be. Until now, until I found that the outstanding netizens associated with archive.org came through once again. This is a great sounding take. I think it is a matrix tape. It sure sounds like a board but at one you hear some woman ask for passage in the crowd.

Yonder's set is a very solid one. They resisted broad strokes and covers and relied on their music for a four song set. YMSB is now a footnote of something genuine happening at an historic occasion that was highly staged. I listen to it with memories of at least a dozen Yonder sets from late night High Sierra to the after party at the River City Bluegrass party or the time they played the Schnitz on Halloween and they were all dressed up in various religious outfits. (Jeff was a priest, somebody else was the nun, but I know it wasn't the drummer hahaha)

But be sure also to check out the voice of the DNC announcing "The American progressive bluegrass group, Yonder Mountain String Band." It was an historical day indeed

The whole thing is a less than nineteen minutes long, but if you must jump to the must-hear tune it is track three. Jeff Austin is past the whole footnote thing and is going for a passage in a chapter, at least. The tune is called New Horizons and smokes up the sky long before the fireworks.

Yonder is a group as good as groups can get practically. Especially when applied to the model of the mystery of the thing as Alan Light, the New York Times reviewer for the new Clash book when he says "Somehow, every once in a while, a few individuals bump into one another, and they look exactly right together and share a focus and an aspiration and the right balance of musical similarities and differences." Yonder definitely also fits the this description of Clash's Joe Strummer about this convergent chemistry “It’s some weird thing that no scientist could ever quantify or measure, and thank God for that.”

Weird also is this message at the page this show is linked from. It says NOTE: We are not able to offer a simple piece of HTML to show the playlist along with the player. You gotta know there is some kind open source skufflebutt gossip about that one.

Another cool thing about Yonder's set is that each of the four had a chance to be featured on one of their songs. I regret to have it in print only, but any other option to create the "simple piece of HTML" seems too complex right now.


01 40 Miles From Denver (Ben)
02 Don't You Lean On Me (Dave)
03 New Horizons (Jeff)
04 Another Day (Adam)

.

Labels:

posted by well-executed buffet at 7:56 PM
Comments: Post a Comment