#45 - (4/2/17) - St. Louis, MO - Raven's Reels Almanac

“So put on your dancing shoes, come on you know we’ve got nothing to loss, it’s only space and time”. This spring 2017 tour was riding an unmatched wave of momentum when it crashed into St Louis, sweeping our travelers and devoted through a Sunday night service they’ll soon not forget. Beale Street lay to the South in ruins and New Orleans and Alabama were still smoking from a magnetic quake of musical minds colliding with the love and freedom that is the CRB. Hundreds of years of universal truths and tales rest inside these songs so gather your friends and open your head as we trip the brotherhood through 4/2/2017.
The mighty Mississippi River bowed to the sound and heavy voice of Nat Stuckey’s classic jail house get down roaring to life as the band hit the stage warm and loose. Jeff was pushing the band early and right away the audience stopped consciously listening and just starting moving. The playing from the stage harder and faster with every snare snap and ride tap. The crafting of sound and detail evident as the quintet glides in formation through Roan County Banjo and High Is Not The Top. Reaching a purple skied powerful plateau where CR aches his way through Tornado, twisting our emotions and feather blown facades in preparation for the pathways to come. Every accent and note with a meaning, acting as custom cobblestones guiding our journey deep into the heart of the bliss. Clear Blue Sky is the runway for our imaginations airline and we are safe inside this cosmic fuselage, a fully air conditioned dance of freedom and delight. Adam takes the lead and he and Neal begin to spar as the gypsy like jam begins illuminating our road ahead. Soaring and penetrating until Tony starts to tumble, bringing our Hallucination Nations anthem to life with a beautiful buoyant bounce. Darkness runs for the shadows as the West Coast scene bursts into a million colors and we are pulled into Adams tide. An unlicensed freedom drips from ever key touched and the songs funky, mystical interlude allows the congregation a cathartic collapse into a heap of hope and connection. The night is alive now and we are all breathing from the same apparatus. A mellow March begins as Blue Star Woman enters and does its delicate dance toward it’s viscous backloaded jam. CR’s rhythm guitar providing just a faint brush of the ominous undercurrent the movement contains. Like a vibe shaman he calls the swell from some deep earth cavern and it screams into the light, chasing the echoes and reverberation around the room. Neal blazing like a comet across a canvas that’s now stretching and threatening to tear at any minute. The soft machine takes hold as Lazy Days lights one last fire for the set to find its way home. Like warriors returning to camp from battle, the entire stage connects as this Byrds classic erupts with towering twang and pop. Setting us down to rest and recover before the second leg of our journey.
~setbreak~
Leon’s uptempo loners lament kickstarts the second set drive toward the edge of night and we are off. Surrendering to the rhythm sections pace and the organs rush until 100 Days of Rain attacks our memory with a melancholy malaise and longing for a love lost or left behind. Neal and CR circle each other with such feeling and passion for the performance that it bleeds from the amps and pools at our feet. The elastic groove of Down Home Girl is a revelry call with which every head bubbles and bops in unison on a sea of dancing souls in love and lockstep. Tony and Jeff attacking with a furious force which propels CR’s funky cadence into territory usually reserved for those dixieland voodoo bandits of boogie. We even get what sounds suspiciously close to a Stones Honky Tonk Women riff thrown in for a few bars. By now Behold The Seer proceeds itself in representation and has yet to disappoint, ever. It brings with it some serious swing and when its eccentric, electrical charge does its thing, your dancing shoes aren’t the only thing “on”. It contains a riff that’s destined for immortality among the open air and open minds of our Freak communes across the land. The deep space breathing begins in full with this amazing submergence into Star Or Stone. Its happens with a flash of light and before you’re able to even grab your body, your mind has gone rogue. Skipping from one goo filled galaxy to the next tethered only by the tightly wrapped, laid back rhythmic spine that connects and feeds a set closing run of transcendental songs. Neal’s guitar passages in Star are nothing less than poetic, containing as much weight and definition as any lyric ever written. He’s telling the songs story in a way that defies words and can only be expressed with feeling and release. The solo’s push and pull perfectly timed to crest and curve at this exact moment with a liquid-like fluidity and flow. Ain’t It Hard But Fair follows, freewheeling in form and liberating in its lines and strut. Adam acts as our professor of prog as a fantastic landscape of light unfolds in this 16 minute free fall version of Vibration that is an uprising of epic, core magma proportions. Listen to Jeff’s lesson in low end theory as he drops strategically placed bombs throughout with precision and poise. What a gift he is to the band and when the jams end up in deep space it’s usually because he’s leading the way. Narcissus takes flight on wings of fire and fate holds all the funk, bringing the set to a close. Landing on a bed of boogie and get down that would blush a Saturday night and I’m sure Sunday hasn’t seen in some time. I don’t think there’s a cover that better sums up our community of kind and caring family than Hunter/Garcia’s, They Love Each Other. And anytime I hear it I can’t help but feel the band is giving a nod to this wonderful group of freaks that we have, cultivating compassion at every turn. It’s a beautiful and faithful way to end this phenomenal show from a tour absolutely full of them. Satisfied and still searching, what a way to live.
Go ahead and get this one downloading at the link and there are so many worthy other ones available there as well. The Spring Ravens Reels are coming fast now and it’s honestly one of the best tours the guys have put together yet. The new songs are just tremendous and I can’t wait until we are all discussing Barefoot In The Head in a few months. Betty’s Blends 3 will be upon us in a few days and that’s just the start of what’s going to be a great summer among the tribe and groove of the CRB. I want to thank you all again for the pure love and joy you shared with me at our Freaks For The Festival. Profound doesn’t even come close to how important that weekend was. I’m working on a special Almanac entry to try and describe just what Big Sur meant and how amazing it was, so be watching for the complete story soon. I’m so proud of what we have going and this grassroots love farm we have thriving and growing literally every day. This band truly has the greatest fans and I’m so happy to call you all my family. Freak On Brothers and Sisters!
#crb #chrisrobinsonbrotherhood #letthecrbsetyoufree #barefootinthehead #blissmerchants #ravensreels #freaktransmissions #crbismagic #crbeings #spaceisonthephone #dancefloorofyourdreams ✌️️👁🔮🌟🌙🍄🚀💫🏹🦉
Chris Robinson Brotherhood
4/2/2017
St Louis, MO
SET ONE:
Sweet Thang And Cisco
Roan County Banjo
High Is Not The Top
Tornado
Clear Blue Sky
Sunday Sound
Blue Star Woman
Lazy Days
SET TWO:
Stranger In A Strange Land
100 Days Of Rain
Down Home Girl
Behold The Seer
Star Or Stone
Ain’t It Hard But Fair
Vibration And Light Suite
Narcissus Soaking Wet
ENCORE:
They Love Each Other