How is 2017 feelin’ to ya so far CRBeings? We sent 2016 out in style don’t ya think! I don’t see why we should waste any time getting back on that Cosmic California wavelength and folks have we got a mover tonight! Coming to you from the Historic Armory, in Ashland Oregon. Back on one of the best tours we’ve seen, Spring – Summer, 2014. This show blew my mind the first time I heard it and revisiting it today, it was even better than I remembered!! And it’s a loooooooong show, nearly 3 full discs. One you need to get your head together properly before starting the trip. Get your space cowboy boots on and let’s go let’s go let’s go!!
With that driving Hank Ballard cover, the band gets the crowd and the music hopping and hot right away. Blazing into Shore Power placed early in the first set. This is a heavy version that thumps and soars. Full of all the back alley grit and dirt that “New York City” ramble section holds. Sideways backwards straight ahead it’s all the same. You can FEEL the band and hear something special early on. Next, the acid sprawl of Tomorrow Blues gives Adam a blank canvas to go to work on, and he dances along with the crowd up and down the keys, outlined by an anchored bass line from Muddy. Switching to the honk of his Rhodes for a BIG finish with Neal hot on his trail. One of the set and show highlights appears in Meanwhile In The Gods. CR taking time to explain the meaning of the song! How cool is that? A little storytellers style intro. I won’t spoil it for you but it’s very cool. They then EXPLODE into the song and we enter one of “those” moments. The kind we all seek when listening to music of any kind, especially the mind and mood altering style we find in CRB land. A magnetic aesthetic grabs us early and the harmonic resonance is thick. Listen to the open air jamming at it’s finest during the improvisational section. New music seeking its psychedelic roots, all the musicians speaking the same language. Dig it. Not many bands can experiment on the fly like our quintet. Listen LOUD and try not to smile. I dare you!! Next, The Crickets – Love Has Made A Fool Of You, gets the exponential expansion treatment. Taking this bopping tune well past the 10 minute mark. Connecting it and Meanwhile with a seamless segue. Neal and Adam keeping the vibe full of freak as they really jam the intro, CR driving the rhythm right into our chests. The neighbors will either be rockin’ or knockin’ at this point in your listen. We then take a turn with Tulsa Yesterday, a performance that again twists and turns well past the 10 minute mark and could have continued for another 10 without getting stale. A honky tonk fever dream, growing from the gentle two step glide into a hall shaking heavyweight. Listen to the screaming solo Neal takes around the halfway point that blasts them into a deep space burn. The music crests and seems to parachute back down on a canopy of sound. THIS is my favorite Tulsa without a doubt, a version that must be heard. 100 Days of Rain follows, maybe giving a nod to the Pacific North West climate. In a show literally full of standout versions, don’t overlook this CRB classic that’s played to perfection. The musicians/guitarists in our congregation especially will enjoy the tone and performance by Neal and CR here. Vibration & Light Suite gets the rare chance to close a set and it does not disappoint! Powerful from the outset this one progresses into a controlled chaos. Taking curves at breakneck speed. The lights flying by at such a pace they stretch into beams of boogiefied bliss. And that’s just the main body of the song. The massive elctro-freak section mushrooms into pure madness. Again, at 15 + minutes, something I can’t begin to even describe and do any justice. Adam’s auditory assault is a brigade of sounds I don’t think I’ve ever heard him conjure before. This is a potion directly poured from the phosphorescent phial. Lose your wisdom, you sure will lose your way. The meltdown and reforming section takes the shape of a funky little jam with the band combing to sound like a demented brass section almost. WOW!!! And remember my cosmic welcoming committee, we are only finishing the FIRST SET!! I don’t normally have to pause between sets when listening at home. But with this show it’s an absolute MUST! It feels like you’ve just surfaced from some deep sea dive on a distant purple and green planet, only to find the natives looking down on you and shaking their heads. As if to say….”Silly humanoid, you can’t take that trip without your proton pills!” I’m going to go into the second set. But I’m not kidding when I say you REALLY need to have hit the link by now and have this one downloading. This is a top 3 first set of all time. ALL TIME!
~setbreak~
We emerge from the Oregon air into a second set that strides forward with Jimmy Reed’s Bright Lights Big City. It’s evident right away that the epic flow of the first has carried over, and all we can do is brace ourselves. Beggars Moon is a melodic stairwell up and down with enough force and imagery to hang our souls out to dry. Expanding and contracting as our master of ceremonies CR directs traffic. Right on it’s heels is one of the Better Star or Stones that we are lucky to have caught by the magnetic magic of Raven. As Betty said..”they just have that sweet shuffle”. Neal has a tone in his leads here that burrow into your soul and gives you the most achingly beautiful but melancholy feeling. The atmosphere of this song is as meditative as any in the CRB canon. The balancing of the negative and positive feel perfectly. The always smooth narcotic smile of Clear Blue Sky/Good Doctor fits perfectly next and as usual what a journey it is. CR is in classic form during the Good Doctor burn section. I always thought this was the origins of Burn Slow, but we’ll get to that another show 😉. We flow softly into the rolling daydream of the great Grateful Dead’s Ramble On Rose. What a treat! Not a song the Brotherhood covers often and what a joy to hear those familiar first notes from CR’s “Peace Pipe”! The Freakifornia has traveled north nicely and the vocal turned in by the band is warm and flawless, “one hundred verses in rag-time”. Neal striking that familiar tone that had us strolling through the flowers circa 70’s Winterland. The second set jam vehicle is Ride and here’s where you will all need to be seated with all hands inside the vehicle at all times. Freedom funk at its finest. Control tower like feedback starts this song out with a spooky feel underneath a very trippy arrangement. Seriously avant-garde jazz type of stuff descending into a heavy groove that takes off and leads us into some uncharted territories. You’ll just have to listen and report back where this 15 minute version takes you. The spaces between the music meaning as much as anything. Music that will set you free and completely overtake you, one door opening into another door seemingly endless and breathtaking. This is what it’s all about. We come down with the sway of Last Place That Love Lives, giving CR the chance to slip a little more soul in the space aged atmosphere of this show. The now classic rock and roll Rosalee puts our feet back safely in the California sand. For sure something special must be coming from the next encore and it was. The Memphis sound of The Box Tops – Soul Deep makes its CRB debut and this one couldn’t be anymore fitting for the band. A magical and memorable way to cap off one of the greatest shows in the archive.
As I said in my last Almanac entry I have no doubt that 2017 is going to be the best year yet for the CRB. With a bucket of new songs, Betty’s Blends Volume 3, and the band heading into the studio in a few weeks, we’ve got so much to look forward to. Get your year off to an amazing start by clicking the link and getting this quick! It will no doubt be one of your favorite shows in the collection. And don’t forget to spread a little extra love and light tomorrow! Freak On brothers and sisters!!
#crb #chrisrobinsonbrotherhood #letthecrbsetyoufree #freaktransmissions#crbismagic #crbeings #spaceisonthephone ✌️️👁
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Chris Robinson Brotherhood
5/8/2014
Historic Ashland Armory
Ashland, Oregon
SET ONE:
Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go
Shore Power
Tomorrow Blues
Meanwhile In The Gods
Love Has Made A Fool Of You
Tulsa Yesterday
100 Days Of Rain
Vibration & Light Suite
SET TWO:
Bright Lights, Big City
Beggar’s Moon
Star Or Stone
Clear Blue Skies/Good Doctor
Ramble On Rose
Ride
Last Place That Love Lives
Rosalee
ENCORE:
Soul Deep
