#nicki bluhm

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To Rise You Gotta Fall by Nicki Bluhm, live for 909 The Bridge x KCPT

[krispyweiss]

Holly Bowling is MVP of Phil Lesh’s “Clubhouse Sessions” Episode Two

If she isn’t Phil Lesh’s best Friend, Holly Bowling is undoubtedly the most musically valuable.

The pianist was onboard alongside the former Grateful Dead bassist; guitarists Grahame Lesh and Daniel Donato; singer Nicki Bluhm; and drummer John Molo for episode two of Phil Lesh & Friends’ “Clubhouse Sessions.” And while everyone played an important role - save for Bluhm, who was stuck shaking a tambourine and/or her body, given only a few lines to sing - Bowling, who brings a bit of Keith Godchaux to the music while being her own musician, was the woman of the half-hour.

Donato, too, conjures the Father Band, as he echoes Jerry Garcia’s tone more hauntingly that anyone since a young Steve Kimock came on the scene. In fact, the licks he plays on the Grahame Lesh-sung “Black-Throated Wind” are downright ghostly.

Donato, who has a high, feminine tenor, sung a triple-time reading of “Ship of Fools.” And while his voice - he also sings “Row Jimmy” - is the type Dead Heads will likely love or loathe, the radical change to the music served the dirge-like composition exceedingly well and demonstrated the worthiness of messing with arrangements.

But it just sounds silly and like a cover band when groups pull stunts like trading verses as Grahame Lesh, Bluhm and Donato do on “Tennessee Jed.” In these moments - and during Lesh the younger’s frankly terrible singing on “Me and My Uncle” - it’s Bowling who saves the music, playing colorful, imaginative solos that remind listeners why the Grateful Dead turned to pianists Godchaux and Bruce Hornsby over the course of their long strange trip.

While “Clubhouse Sessions” are expressly for the ears, the eyes will get a smile in seeing how the band members’ clothes miraculously change throughout the video, as if it was a poorly edited movie.

Read Sound Bites’ coverage of episode one here.

5/28/24

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How Strong Is A Woman (Ann Peebles cover) by Nicki Bluhm, live at Americanafest in Nashville for Jam In The Van

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Things I've Done by Nicki Bluhm from the album To Rise You Gotta Fall

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Keep on Growing by Nicki Bluhm [Free Download/Name Your Price on BandCamp]

[krispyweiss]

Inaugural Darkstarathon is Long, But Not Particularly Strange or Trippy

Phil Lesh’s long-promised, inaugural “Darkstarathon” is long at 42 minutes, but not particularly strange or trippy.

It also does not resemble what Lesh described in November 2023 as a “‘Dark Star’ that pauses but never ends.”

As with his first “Terrapin Clubhouse Session,” the former Grateful Dead bassist was joined by guitarists Grahame Lesh and Daniel Donato; drummer John Molo; singer Nicki Bluhm and pianist Holly Bowling - the star instrumentalist in the bunch.

“It’s in everyone’s power to suggest a song, even if the song is not on the list,” the elder Lesh told his collaborators before they started off with a brief segment of the titular number.

“If we’re in a key and it gives you an idea for something … start playing.”

He’s taken at his word as someone later nudges the band toward “Here Comes Sunshine.” The musicians play a few bars before perhaps realizing they couldn’t pull off the vocals and moving on.

And to erase any doubt, the session ended with Grahame Lesh and Donato singing “When I Paint My Masterpiece” as a triple-time shuffle that worked neither musically nor vocally.

In between come versions of “Franklin’s Tower” (with Donato on vocals), the Dead’s 1970s arrangement of “Good Lovin’” (G. Lesh) and a Bluhm-sung “Morning Dew.”

5/17/24

[krispyweiss]

Phil Lesh Debuts “The Clubhouse Sessions”

- Episode 1 features Nicki Bluhm, Holly Bowling, Daniel Donato, Graham Lesh and John Molo alongside former Grateful Dead bassist

Sound Bites wants in the Terrapin Clubhouse.

Former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh unveiled his new musical hideaway in “The Clubhouse Sessions - Episode 1,” featuring singer Nicki Bluhm, pianist Holly Bowling, guitarists Daniel Donato and Graham Lesh and drummer John Molo. The session presumably doubled as a rehearsal before the band performed May 9 as Phil Lesh & Friends in San Francisco.

The group sounds musically like a going concern as Phil Lesh and Molo have a long-standing sonic relationship; Bowling channels Keith Godchaux on the bench; and Donato and Grahame Lesh are fast six-string pals. Bluhm is, unfortunately, underutilized, singing lead only on “U.S. Blues,” in an arrangement - much like the Donato-sung “Beat it on Down the Line” and “They Love Each Other” - that harkens to GD ca. ’74.

Harmony vocals are rough throughout the 30-minute video, with Bluhm and Grahame Lesh unable to tie together Phil Lesh’s baritone and Donato’s high tenor. But that is small potatoes when Lesh the elder challenges his youthful collaborators to dig in to “Mexicali Blues,” which doesn’t require slick singing.

“Brown-Eyed Woman,” on the other hand, does. And with Lesh the younger and Donato alternating vocals, the Clubhouse gang comes off more as a cover group than a band taking things furthur.

Sound Bites still wants in the Clubhouse, but will happily peek through the virtual peephole as long as Lesh continues to offer such opportunities.

Now where’s that promised Darkstarathon?

5/10/24

[krispyweiss]

Song Review(s): Phil Lesh & Friends - “Deal,” “Jack Straw” and “Eyes of the World” -> “The Eleven” Live, March 18, 2023)

With Friends like these, Phil Lesh can breathe new life into old songs while maintaining ties to the past fans expect.

The four-song, livestream giveaway from Lesh & Friends’ March 18 show in New York featured adventurousness in instrumentation and arrangements and a passel of lead singers as the band stuck to the Grateful Dead’s pre-retirement repertoire.

The show-opening “Deal” was, indeed, dealing as Nicki Bluhm stretched her vocal cords to a rasp and violinist Katie Jacoby made herself known early and often across a powerhouse arrangement that planted the long-ago firmly in the here-and-now.

Son and father - guitarist Grahame and bassist Phil Lesh - sung the Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia lines, respectively, on “Jack Straw.” While Lesh the younger is not a particularly enthralling vocalist, it must run in the family, Dad was spirited, flexing muscle not heard in his baritone since the 1990s.

The band nearly fell apart coming out of the play for silver verse, making for a clumsy reading set to an aggressive presentation.

“Eyes of the World” was its typically glorious self, with the smooth James Casey at the mic. When he wasn’t singing, Casey wrapped his soprano sax around Jacoby’s violin in a warm aural embrace that further illuminated between-verse spotlights from the violinist, keyboardist John Medeski and guitarists Grahame Lesh and Rick Mitarontonda.

The rhythm section of Lesh the elder and drummer John Molo propelled “Eyes” seamlessly into “The Eleven.” And while the ensemble vocals were raggedy, the ensemble playing was the delightfully antithetical, giving the sonic illusion this particular band had played together for years rather than days.

Grade card: Phil Lesh & Friends - “Deal,” “Jack Straw” and “Eyes of the World” -> “The Eleven” (Live - 3/18/23) - A-B-/A/B

3/19/23