Red Rocks Amphitheater was built for Umphrey’s McGee. Well, more likely, in their 12th year as a band, Umphrey’s has meticulously groomed themselves to the point that the fruits of their labor are best understood within the walls of the naturally acoustic canvas provided at The Rocks. Nestled ...view article
The excitement can be seen on every one of the other 49 faces in the Crystal Ballroom's waiting area as the anticipation for the Umphrey's McGee's second StewArt event reaches it's peak. After a few moments, the door opens and pianist Joel Cummins enters the room first, followed closely by the rest ...view article
Any moderately warm, sunny day spent in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is bound to be a good day. This past weekend proved to be no exception to this general rule as people young and old packed the park for the 18th annual four day long Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.17356
“Happy birthday America!” exclaims Brendan Bayliss, lead singer and co-lead guitarist of all-American proggy tonk boys Umphrey’s McGee after a captivating, full band a cappella rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ at the Denver (area) Gothic Theatre on Independence Day 2010. Yes, the ...view article
We rose some time after dawn in a small bed and breakfast lodge in Sacramento and I was still suffering a bit of barrel fever from all the whiskey I'd drowned myself in the night before. We had traveled East from San Francisco through the night to get a jump on the day. We'd be riding plum through ...view article
San Diego was visited by an embarrassment of musical riches on this particular Tuesday night. In patchouli-soaked Ocean Beach, the city's own beachside Haight Ashbury, Leftover Salmon's Vince Herman led his Great American Taxi side project through an evening of bluegrass-tinged, southern-fried rock.
Autumn came late this year to San Diego, "America's Finest City." But the damp, chilly sea air belied the rising temperature inside the Gaslamp District's House of Blues, where Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (GPN) heated things up with their scorching stew of roots-inspired rock that included liberal ...view article
With the epidemic-like spread of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games, Rock and Roll music has been packaged neatly into five little buttons as mind numbing, modified studio versions of classic hits are practically put on repeat in households throughout the world. Perhaps to counterbalance this ...view article