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1 May/June 2012 Still Dead

Issue #1 May/June 2012 www.stilldead.net

Wanee Festival Special Issue!

Uncle John’s Band A Tampa Institution 22 Years Strong

Buddy Guy Plays the Blues

Manzarek-Rogers BandTedeschi Trucks BandAllman Brothers BandCharles BradleyFurthur

1 May/June 2012 Still Dead

Buddy Guy 4

Uncle John’s Band 6

Charles Bradley 9

Furthur 10

Allman Brothers 14

Tedeschi Trucks 16

Manzarek Rogers 18

Table of Contents Credits

Editor in Chief: Steve Siegfried

Photographer: Steve Siegfried

Head Writer: Steve Siegfried

Legal Consultant: Steve Siegfried

2 3 Still Dead May/June 2012 May/June 2012 Still Dead

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Buddy Guy credited his appearance at Wanee Fest’s Peach Stage on Friday

afternoon to his driver. Apparently they had to drive 12 hours straight to make the gig. But Guy showed no ill effects from the long car ride. In tribute, he dedicated the song, “The Things I Used to Do” to his driver. Looking healthy and spry, the 76 year old blues legend was on fire from the beginning of his set. Early on, he had to chide the crowd for a lackluster attempt to sing along with the classic, “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Buddy let on that he played the same song in India the week

before and they knew the words better. While the audience might have been a made bit lethargic by the hot Florida sun, it didn’t take them long to rise to the occasion. From the second song on, Guy had them eating out of the palm of his hand. A highlight of the set was the interplay between Buddy and his ace second gui-tarist, Ric “Jaz Guitar” Hall. Hall dem-onstrated the chops that shows he could easily front a killer band of his own. The organist , Marty Sammon, held his own soloing as well, with a tight rhythm section of Tim Austin on drums

and Orlando Wright on bass holding down the bottom section. • • •Often credited as one of the few still-living blues legends, and a world class guitar player, Guy has been performing for live audiences for over six decades. His credits include play-ing guitar of best friend Junior Wells seminal album, “Hoodoo Man Blues,” widely considered the first album to actually capture the sound of Chicago Blues. Guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughn have all hailed Guy as a major influ-

By Steve Siegfried

Buddy Guy “76 Years Young”

ence on their styles.While he was a pioneer in the Chicago area blues scene, his style of blues has never been restricted solely to Chicago Blues, but has instead ranged across the different types of blues music and ventured into rock n’ roll. Throughout the set, Buddy showed he hasn’t lost a step when it comes to ripping off lightning-fast and intense blues riffs. He hasn’t lost his ability to sing either, with strong soulful vocals. Guy showed his ability to impersonate his late friends and mentors, doing a perfect John Lee Hooker, imitating the style of late blues legend Al-bert King, and mimicking his dear passed friend, Junior Wells. Reaffirming that age is just a num-ber for him, Buddy jumped next into a inspired version of the song from his latest album, “74 years young.” He even updated it with a verse about being 75 years young, though he is really 76 now. By the time Guy got to the part of the set where he comes out to walk around in the crowd and solo, the crowd was ec-static. As he ended his show, many in the crowd were certainly disappointed that Guy did not live up to his threat to keep playing all day long. This was one great

“When you make me happy, I like to play all day long. And I said that’s why they’re gon-na have to cut me off.”

Buddy hams it up for the audience

• • •Buddy Guys Set List:01 Intro > Nobody Understands Me but My Guitar02 Hoochie Coochie Man03 She’s 19 Years Old04 Someone Else Is Steppin’ In (Slippin’ Out, Slip-pin’ In)05 The Things That I Used To Do06 I Just Want To Make Love To You07 Banter/ “Sister Went To Milk” 08 74 Years Young09 Boom Boom 10 Drowning On Dry Land11 Use Me12 Strange Brew13 Let The Door Knob Hit Ya14 What’d I Say15 Voodoo Child > Sunshine Of Your Love > Miss You > Outro (instrumental medley)

way to beat the Florida heat. Considering his smoldering set and the enthusiastic repsonse from the crowd, it is a good bet that this won’t be the last time we see Buddy Guy at Wanee Fest. Here’s to hoping that in 25 years he will be singing about being “100 years young.”

Ric Hall held his own with Buddy


Carrying on the tradition Uncle John’s Band

By Steve Siegfried

Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa has a perfect atmosphere to catch a live

band. The stage is located outdoors between the bar and restaurant, with drinks available from stands. Every Thursday night for the past 14 years, Uncle John’s Band has per-frormed live at Skipper’s. The Grateful Dead cover band is a popular attrac-tion and still brings large crowds every week.

Uncle John’s Band was formed in Clearwater, FL in 1990 and is booked regularly in clubs around the Bay area.; On the Thursday night I happened to catch the band performing, they had chosen to play the complete Grateful Dead album “Europe ‘72” in order, song by song. The fact that these guys have been together a long time is evident as soon as you hear them play. They are a tight

band and they know the Dead song-book frontwards and backwards. Guitarist Alan Gilman achieves a tone with his axe uncannily close to that of Jerry Garcia, due in no small part to the replice “Tiger Rose” guitar he had built exclusively for himself. On this night he went for the clean Garcia tone of the early 90’s and it gave the songs from “Europe ‘72” a fresh sound.

perform other songs. I just happened to see them on a night when they were covering an entire Dead album. The band also has fairly regular gigs at The Ringside Cafe on 4th St. N. in St. Petersburg, FL. But if you have the option, see them at Skipper’s Smokehouse. The atmosphere, large hippie crowds, and energy level contribute to the fun. The cover charge of $8 is failry reasonable and Skipper’s also boasts drink specials and deals on beer during Uncle John’s Band shows. Skipper’s is also known for their food, with many people raving about

their seafood entrees. They even have been featured on The Food Network for their fare. While the band as a whole is good, the heart and soul of the operation seems to be guitarist Gilman. Born in New York state, Gilman has been a long time Deadhead, having gone to see shows since the late 70’s. After New York, Gilman resided in West Virginia for a time, working in lo-cal bands during his time there. He also is one of the longest running members of his band, having played with Uncle John’s Band since 1993 and also being a part of previous incarna-

Key to Uncle John’s Band’s suc-cess as duplicating the sound of the Grateful Dead is their employing of two drummers to provide the Rolling THunder sound of Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Drummers Dan Degregory and Mike Bortz complement each other well and hold the rythmn down with the help of bass player Mike Edwards. Edwards also shops off his vocal chops, stepping up to sing several of the songs in the groups repetoire. Second guitarist and main vocalist Steve Connely is adequate, but they could use a stronger vocalist. From what I could tell, keyboardist Art Nelson was solid, though he was too low in the mix to hear very well. Overall these guys are a solid, rock-ing band and provide a fun live show. The crowd was into it and danced along to the culmination with the songs, “Morning Dew” and “U.S. Blues.” If I had one reccomendation for them it would be to include some songs by other people besides the Grateful Dead, but then again maybe they do usually

Guitarist Alan GIlman tears off a Garcia-like lick

Steve Connely feels the groove


Life has been a long hard road for soul singer Charles Bradley.

The 64 year old Gainsville native moved to New York when he was young. After a period of time being homless, Bradley moved to upstate New York and took on a series of labor jobs to scrape by. But he never gave up his dream to become a soul singer. After years performing as a James Brown imper-sonator, Bradley finally got his break. In 2011 he released his debut album, “No Time For Dreaming” on Dunham Records. The album came out to rave reviews across the country and since then Bradley has been touring non-stop with his band, The Extrodinares. In a rainstorm at Wanee Festival, Bradley put on a typically smok-ing show. While the crowd was a bit smaller than normal due to the elements, they were no less enthusiastic when Bradley’s tight band started grooving their mixture of 60’s and 79’s soul and funk.

After a warmup by the band, the keyboard player stepped out as emcee to announce Charles to the stage. The man himself is a true throwback to the golden era of Stax and Motown.Stage presence is an understatement as he put everything he had into bellowing out his selection of original soul tunes,

mixed with a few covers. Dancing and moving across the stage

in true James Brown form, he had the crowd eating out of the plam of his hand. Aknowledging his birthplace of Gainesville, right down the road from the Wanee campgrounds, Bradley was quite emotional with the warm home-coming he received.

After several numbers, Bradley stepped out into the crowd to give tear-ful and hearfelt hugs to many of the audience members as his band held down the groove. These emotional displays are common-place at every show he does, but this time it took on extra weight as he played for the people of his birthplace. After several calls from the band to get back up on stage and sing, Charles finally made his way back to the micro-phone to deliver a couple more songs, including a slowed-down and particu-larly powerful version of his signature song, “Why is it So Hard in America.”

For those who braved the rain to see him, Bradley was surely one of the highlights of the weekend.

tions of the band. Nationwide there are literally hun-dereds of Grateful Dead cover bands, with at least on in every mid to large sized city. Uncle John’s Band definitely stands

out as one of the top tier in this group, so they are well worth the money to see. As trhe band closed out their second set of music with “U.S. Blues,” the crowd gravitiated back towards the

beer vendors, as few were ready to leave quite yet at the early hour of 12 am. Uncle John’s Band packed up their gear, and looked toward their gig the next day at The RIngside Cafe.

Emotional homecoming for Charles BradleyBy Steve Siegfried

Bradley tearfully hugs a crowd member


Two nights with FurthurBy Steve Siegfried

It has been a long strange trip for the surviving member of the Grateful Dead

since Jerry Garcia passed in 1995. While they have re-formed as The Dead from time to time over the years, mostly they have pursued projects with their own bands. While former Dead drummer Mickey Hart led his own band of Rythmn Devils of the Wanee Festival Mushroom stage earlier on the day, former band mem-

bers Bob Weir and Phil Lesh took to the main stage for two days with their cur-rent incarnation of the Grateful Dead, named Furthur. The first show on Friday was hit or miss, maybe due to the Florida heat taking a toll on a band used to playing at night. After opening with the anthem “Not Fade Away,” the band played a short, tight “Brown Eyed Women.”

After an uneven “Alligator” and a lethargic “Ripple,” they reached the highlight of the first part of the show. “My Brother Esau” was never a hugely poplar tune when the Grateful Dead played it back in the 80’s, but Furthur rocked this song hard. Hopefully they keep it in the rotation. A by the books “Scarlet Fire” led into a rather mundane “Eyes of the World.” A main reason for the lack of spark

during this first show might have been lead guitarist John Kadlecik. Known for his ability to eerily mimic the playing of Jerry Garcia, Kadlecik was a bit off on Friday, pushing hard to find a groove on his solos but coming out sounding stale and repetitive. Nexty up was the pairing of “Cau-tion” with “The Eleven.” Both well played but lacking in intensity. At this point we got to the highlight of this show. Starting with the jazzy in-

sturmental, “King Solomopn’s Marbles,” the band finally found their stride. What followed was a perfectly played “Unbroken Chain,” featuring an interesting jam between Kadlecik and bassist Phil Lesh. Bob Weir got his turn next, singing “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” and ramping up the intensity as it went along. A crowd favorite, “The Wheel,” followed. This song was a highlight

during Garcia’s lifetime, but the Furthur arrangement plays more as a crowd sing-a-long then a serious song to be explored by the band. After leaving the stage, Phil Lesh came back to give his donor rap. Since receiving a liver transplant sev-eral years ago, lesh has made a point to request that people donate their organs at every show he plays. On this night, Lesh was surprised as someone set off a sky lantern from the


crowd as he gave his speech. Having never seen one of the mini-helium baloon toys before, Phil inquired of the crowd “what is that thing. Something from beyond? Is it a bird, a plane?” While many people were expecting The Band song “The Weight” as the encore, as Furthur does cover that song and former Band drummer Levon Helm had died earlier in the day, instead they came back with “Touch of Grey” as the final song of the night. The song started off slow and sloppy but through his bass work driving the band on, Lesh was able to kick-start them one more time and get the song rocking. While this was certainly an up and down show, most people still left the show with smiles on their faces anticipating the next night. • • •

Saturday at Wanee got off to a blustery and stormy start. After the Government Mule show was cut short due to monsoon-like conditions, some people feared that Furthur might not take the stage at all. As the rain died off and things began to dry out, peo-ple’s hopes were restored, and when the band took the stage and launched into “Playin in the Band,” everyone knew this would be a different animal than Friday was. Kadlecik was on fire from the get-go and the band was in rare form. After a rocking “China Cat,” Weir provided a rare let-down on the night with a slow and unspirited “Estimated Prophet.” “Ramble on Rose,” “Bird Song,” and “Sugar Magnolia” were next, sandwiched between the “Playin” reprise. All good.

“What is it? Something from beyond? A bird, a plane?” - Phil Lesh

was treated to a stellar “Help on the Way” through to “Franklin’s Tower.” Going old school all the way, the band veered into “Cryptical Envelop-ment,” and “The Other One.” Now it was time for the crowd to dance even harder to a swinging “Shakedown Street.” Showing they can still get werid, Furthur next played a weird progres-

sion of “Viola Lee Blues” in three differ-ent tempos with “Bertha” and “Wharf Rat” stuck in the middle of it. Kadlecik sung out a sweet “Stella Blue” next to calm everyone down before the “I Know You Rider” closer. After Phil’s donor rap, the band came back one more time for an appropriate and rocking “U.S. Blues” encore.

After a somewhat disappointing Fri-day show, the crowd had finally been delivered the goods, in a big way. Furthur is set to play a run of shows in the fall, but after that it is anyone’s guess if Weir and Lesh will decide to continue this band or they will go back to their own bands full time. So do yourself a favor and get out to see them now while you can.

Phil Lesh at work

Bob Weir tries to play guitar


Wanee Fest : An Allman Brothers Family Affair

By Steve Siegfried

The Allman Brothers Band has hosted the Wanee Festival since its inception, and this year was no exception. With the large amount of side projects and bands affiliated with the Allmans, the festival takes on the air of a family. The bands at the festival that either included a member of the Allman Brothers Band or a family member of the group included Tedeschi Trucks Band, Govern-ment Mule, and Devon Allman. The Allmans headlined both Friday and Saturday nights of the festival, closing out on the Peach stage.

Clear to all in attendance was that founding member of the band, Greg Allman is not well right now. After liver transplant surgery in 2010 and a hernia operation last year, Allman has experi-enced a heart arrhythmia. He was weak for the entire festival and only sang on a few songs. Stepping up in the void was bandmate Warren Haynes. Haynes has become the ef-fective leader of this band, and it continues to thrive under his guidance. Haynes combines a blister-

ing ability on guitar with a voice perfectly suitted to the southern rock that the Allman Brothers specialize in. With fellow guitar master Derek Trucks, Haynes continues the Allman Brothers tradition of tight twin lead guitar attacks. On Friday night the band payed tribute to Band drummer and close friend Levon Helm, who died earlier in the day. They played twosongs by The Band, “It Makes No Difference” and “The Weight.” On “The Weight” they were joined by Trucks’ wife Susan Te-deschi and Furthur bandmember

Bob Weir. Of note in Fridays set was the rarely played Allman’s tune “Blue Sky” and the song “Dreams.” On Saturday they came back with an entirely different setlist. The second night was also guest might as they had three different people sit in for a time with the band. The band started out with the classic hit and crowd pleaser “Jessica.” A rare treat for die hard fans of the band was the performance of “Mountain Jam,” a classic All-mans guitar song that they rarely perform these days. They demonstrated that they

can do more than just southern rock and blues as well, treating the crowd to a jazzy version of the Bob dylan song “All Along the Watchtower.” “Statesboro Blues” is an All-mans staple and had the crowd on its feet. The Van Morrison song “Into the Mystic” was a good choice for Haynes to sing as it fits his voice perfectly. Sandwiched between ”Moun-tain Jam” was the Howlin’ Wolf classic “Smokestack Lightning,” featuring blistering harmonica from Jimmy Reed. Closing out the show, Greg Allman came out and was

propped up in a chair to sing the Neil Young song, “The Needle and the Damage Done.” Greg sang with heart, if not energy, as he struggled to get through the performance, slurring his words as though he were on pills or alcohol. Healthy Greg Allman or not, the band still put on a hell of a performance, but the mood was a bit bittersweet as the audience left the field. On the one hand, people were buzzing from the great mu-sic, but they also were worried about Greg Allman. Here’s to hoping for his full recovery.

Warren Haynes has become the band leader


By Steve Siegfried

The marriage of Derek Trucks and Susan Tede-schi is almost like music genetic engineering,

Their two children were born to immedicately be considered to have maybe the finest music genes on the planet. But even stornger is the band they have as-sembled for their current venture together. Boast-ing a picture perfect rhythm section, and a full horn section (all of whom can sing as well), this band is amongst the best touring today. Derek Trucks grew up in music, with his uncle Butch Trucks being a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. Developing his skills since childhood, Derek has become a world class slide guitar player, forming his own band and joing The Allman Brothers in 1999. His wife, Susan Tedeschi, has tons of acllaim under her belt to bring to their partnership as well. Tedeschi is a solid blues guitarist in her own

right, but it is her amazing singing voice that sets her apart. With a voice that could accurately be de-scribed as a more soulful and ranged version of Bonnie Raitt, Tedeschi has toured for several years with her own band before joining up with Derek. With a Gold record and sold out tours under her belt, Tedeschi met Trucks and the the rest is history. In 2011 they finally decided to form a band together, and went in the studio to record an album as they learned to work together. The resulting album,”Revelator,” won a Grammy Award and was hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as a “masterpiece.” Since then the band has been touring non-stop and has been generating serious buzz for their electric performances everywhere they go. • • • The band took to the Peach stage on Friday following a great performance by Buddy Guy.

From the start, they were picture perfect as usual. Kicking it off with the song, “Don’t Let Me Slide,” they got the crowd fired up right away, After a couple more songs, Trucks broke into a raga type solo that melded into the beautiful ballad “Midnight in Harlem.” The song is a perfect vehicle for the amazing voice of Tedeschi. It’s hard to say this was a seminal version of this song as they always seem to play it perfectly, but if you asked the crowd attending they would agree that it really doesn’t get any better than this. Another highlight was their version of The Staple Singers song, “Lord Pro-tect My Child.” The song allows Tedeschi to really strech her vocal range and helped to fire up the crowd even more. After the songs “Nobody’s

Free,”“That Did It,” and “Darlin Be Home Soon,” they closed out with another crowd favorite, “Bound For Glory.” After their epic performance, many in the audience agreed that they were the highlight of the entire festival. From Wanee they continue right back on the road, with a grueling non-stop schedule of concerts the world over. On deck next is alive album, com-plied of performances from the last year, due out in May. Tedeschi and Trucks then plan to bring the band back into the studio to record their followup to “Revelator.” Speaking of his hopes for the band, Trucks talks of the importance of honing a band’s skills on the road. According to Derek, only a packed schedule of concerts over a long period

can get aband to the point where they are at their peak musically and prefes-sionally. So the couple has no plans to devote much time to anything else besides this band for the near future. That is besides Derek’s appearances with The Allman Brothers Band. This group can only hope to get better. With their award winning combi-nation of blues, rock and soul music already realized, it is hard to fathom how much better they can get. It seems like ages since The Tedeschi Trucks Band debuted last year at the Wanee Festival. They seemed like a road hardened veteran unit wowing the crowd at this years festival. One thing is for sure, the sky is the limit for this pair, and fans of the band can only hope they come back to Wanee again next year.

Trucks and Tedeschi The Married Life

Tedeschi Trucks A must see Band


By Steve Siegfried

Showing that Jim Morrison wasn’t the only reason for The Doors’ success,

Ray Manzarek and his bandmate Roy Rogers brought their mix of jazz, blues, and rock to Wanee Fest on Thursday afternoon at the Mushroom stage, Sprinkling in re-arrangments of a few Doors classics, Manzarek wowed the crowd with his undiminished keayboard skills.

Roy Rogers utilized his twin-necked guiter to show off tasty jazz and blues chops throughout the set. Of particular note was a swinging and soulful version of “Riders on the Storm.” Manzarek dedicated it to Mor-rison, who died in 1971. Ray appeared touched by the warmth and appreciation of the crowd. He maented about how they failed to

achieve the goals of peace and love in the 60’s before telling the crowd they reminded him of those days. Mazarek showed real emotion as he explained that the Wanee Festival and the crowd made him feel like he was back in the 60’s. He even ran in to some old friends from those days, Jorma Jaukonen and Jack Cassidy, formerly of Jefferson

Airplane and now forming the band Hot Tuna, which also played at Wanee. “I haven’t seen these guys in so many years,” Manzarek lamented. Overall they gave a good perfor-mance. There is no question that this is a rocking and entertaining band. With a tight rhythm section and a propensity to jam out, they had the crowd dancing along even though they didn’t know many of the songs. If this band has one weakness, it is in the vocals. While Manzarek is somewhat servicable as a singer, and Rogers just mediocre, neither should be doing vocals. Get these guys a singer and they will be on to something. Prominent in the set were several songs from Manzarek and Rogers alnum, “Translucent Blues.” • • • Manzarek has kept busy over the years since the death of the man who co-created The Doors with him. After a few albums without Morrison, The Doors decided to call it quits. Ray

pursued a solo career for a time before focusing on producing other acts. Of signifigance was Manzarek’s production work on seminal Los Ange-les punk Band X’s first few albums. He also helped Iggy Pop out when he first came to Los Angeles, provid-ing him with a place to stay and even trying to start a band with him for a time.But none of that stopped him from getting back together with his former Door’s bandmates from time to time. Ray produced the final Doors album “An American Prayer,” in 1978. On the album the band recorded new material and placed poetry recored by Jim Mor-rison before his death over the music. The Doors have re-formed to tour a few times over the years with differ-ent singers taking the place of the late Morrison. Roy Rogers is no slouch either with his track record in blues recording, producing, and music writing. With his band The dela Rhythm Kings, Rogers has treated audiences the

world over to his virtuoso slide-guitar playing. As a producer, Rogers has worked on albums for people as diverse as John Lee Hooker and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Televison and film scores are in his resume as well, along with a couple Grammy nominations for songs he wrote. He has recorded music with the likes of Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Miller, and Sammy Hagar. The combination of Manzarek and Rogers, backed by drums and a bass player is an all-star lineup in it’s own right. Currently their band is set to tour Po-land, before taking a hiatus as Rogers goes out with his own band on tour. At Wanee they helped get the weekend underway with a serious shot of blues adrenalin. At 73 years of age, Ray has lost no ability to rock and is brining more intensity than ever.

Manzarek and Rogers jam out

After The Doors The Manzarek - Rogers Band

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