The Sassjoy Forums

[LeeP]

Hello Everyone,

Suzanne and I have been busy lately seeing as many free musical performances as possible. Also, one not free show, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Steve Winwood as the opening act. I'll discuss these performances in reverse chronological order.

Last Sunday, Father's Day, I talked my parents into visiting us so that they could see Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder perform a free show out at Moraine State Park with us. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I love traditional music and bluegrass almost as much as modern jazz or anything else, so I was excited about seeing the current mandolin king of bluegrass and heir to Bill Monroe's bluegrass throne perform again. Suzanne and I first saw Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder perform with the Down from the Mountain tour on August 18, 2002, along with a whole bunch of other traditional music and bluegrass legends. That was a great time, and I wanted to see Ricky Skaggs perform again. I also wanted my dad to see this show because I got him into bluegrass a few years ago and he probably listens to it more than I do now, so I wanted him to be able to see the best of this musical genre perform in person. So, we went out to Moraine State Park here in Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 15, 2008, and saw Ricky Skaggs and his band perform a great free show. The performance was part of some evangelist named Steve Wingfield's traveling religious circus. They obviously had a big budget and were well organized with a high-tech multimedia extravaganza. I figured there was going to be some preachin', oh and big surprise there was, but I wish there could've been less preaching and more music. Oh well, it was a free bluegrass show, and even though Ricky Skaggs didn't look too physically well, he and his band put on a great performance. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was glad that my dad got to see the current king of bluegrass music sing and play some fine mandolin.

Here are three pictures that I took at this performance on June 15, 2008:






To see more of my picture from this performance, click here.
Also, to check out a video that I posted on YouTube which includes pictures from this performance as well as the audio of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder playing "Uncle Pen" live at this performance, check out the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvOnT4rYeC4

"Uncle Pen" is an old Bill Monroe (1911-1996) song about Monroe's uncle Pendleton Vandiver (1869-1932), who was a Kentucky fiddler. The picture of Pendleton Vandiver's gravestone seen briefly in the above YouTube video was taken by me while in Rosine, Kentucky, on August 4, 2007.

On June 10, 2008, Suzanne and I went to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Steve Winwood at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA. Yeah, Steve Winwood of Blind Faith (the group that Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker were in after the Cream), as well as Traffic, and the Spencer Davis Group, etc. I was as excited to see Steve Winwood as Tom Petty, because I love that Blind Faith album as well as the Traffic albums. We got there early and found a great spot on the lawn, and luckily we did because the place really filled up with more than 30,000 people. Steve Winwood's performance was great, he played some of his old hits including "Can't Find My Way Home", "Dear Mr. Fantasy", "Higher Love", as well as some of his earliest hits from the Spencer Davis Group, "I'm a Man", and, "Gimme Some Lovin'". By the time Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took the stage the crowd was going wild with enthusiasm (and perhaps some alcohol in a number of cases.) Petty and his band performed for over two hours, and they played many of their greatest hits including "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'", "Runnin' Down A Dream", "American Girl", "Refugee", "Don't Come Around Here No More", "Learning To Fly", "You Wreck Me", "Mary Jane's Last Dance", "Even The Losers", "The Waiting", "You Don't Know How It Feels", and even the song "End Of The Line" from when Petty was in the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne. It was a great time.

There's a write-up about this performance in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here, and this picture taken at the show by John Heller of the Post-Gazette also appeared:


Some people have posted clips from this performance on YouTube, and here are the links to some of these: Runnin' Down a Dream (4:47), The Waiting (4:45), American Girl (4:18.), I Won't Back Down (1:09), Free Fallin' (0:49), The End of the Line (0:38.), and, Don't Come Around Here No More (1:46). Also, you might be able to find some other clips here.

On Sunday, June 8, 2008, Suzanne and I went out to Hartwood Acres and saw the Yonder Mountain String Band perform a free concert. The Yonder Mountain String Band are a progressive bluegrass band, or a "newgrass" band, as some people call it. They play some of the old songs too, but also mix it up a bit with different styles. I thought it was a pretty good show.

Here's a picture that I took at this performance on June 8, 2008:


You can find a couple more pictures that I took at this performance here.

On June 1, 2008, Suzanne and I saw Ayo perform a free show out at Hartwood Acres. Ayo's father was from Nigeria, and her mother is a European Gypsy. Ayo was raised in Germany, and is a platinum-selling artist in Europe. She and her band were really good, and I wouldn't be surprised if she eventually becomes more famous in the United States as well. Her music can be described as a mix of Reggae, Folk, and Soul. We really enjoyed this performance, and the dancing crowd seemed to enjoy it a lot too.

Here are two pictures that I took at this performance on June 1, 2008:




To see more of my pictures from this performance, click here.

Also, to see some of the pictures I've taken at different performances over the last few years, be sure to check out my index of concert pictures.

Lots of fun and the summer is still young. Take care, enjoy, and Peace,

- Lee