DBT #225 Warren Nelson and Friends

 

When my wife came out to the garden and asked, "Do you want to go see Warren Nelson at the Big Top from the front row?" and I said "Sure" but what I should have said, "Will he play a little lead on the banjo?"  Now this is not our first time seeing this ensemble of talented musicians from the first row, once we were vacationing in Bayfield and our Air BNB hosts said, hey we have front row tickets and can't make it tonight.  This time I had a better iPhone, and caught five tunes I'd love to share with you and document for Lori to listen to up at her computer.  We have a lot of music to see this year, but she's confident this was likely the best one of the year.  We don't like drums much, we're in the front row, and the songs were just of all of our favorites and brought us back to 1979 when we were first dating.

Warren is kind of old school so if you need to listen or buy some of his music go to his website https://www.warrennelson.com/

(We interrupt this post to tell you that all these videos are in my Around Town Playlist that will soon be over 200 videos strong. CLICK HERE to adventure around the US with me.)

So here's a song called the Glory Road that I wasn't familiar with, and it was Warren writing words to St. Anne's Reel:

We were so far ahead of the bluegrass popularity that I forgot about this song, and where the banjo reference above comes from:

Only two from the Lost Nation String Band were on the stage, and Otis McLennon was incredible on harp, he sang "Analog Man" that I'm assuming is Warren's song.

It was the first time I saw Warren's son playing with him, Rowan is a fine picker and played and sang song that was popular for Lost Nation to cover.  Randy Sabien a blog favorite is definitely melding with John Hartford during the song.

Lori was right the encore and the HIT was Whiskey Before Breakfast.

And because this song didn't exist in YouTube when I created the Whiskey playlist, I did upload the studio version of it.

Now because the picture included these videos here is the explanation behind them.

Twist my arm to see Luke Callen at the Trempealeau Hotel, ouch that's enough.  Such a treat that weekend he was celebrating his single release of The Fishing Song, with his friend Wolf Van Elfmann.  Great set of music.  I caught a piece of the traditional Green Green Rocky Road with Humbird reaching up to Luke's mic to sing harmonies, and tagged it to the beginning.

I picked two songs from Nikki Grossman's (of the Sapsuckers) house concert at the Bluff View.  Another special treat of a night, boy aren't all house concerts some of the best music and interaction with the artists that you ever experienced?

A view from the stairs:

A view from the mixer, suffice to say I cut off who the song is about but that's ok.

Next steps if you have time:

- Browse the rest of the blogs by stopping at this "Theme Page."

- Enjoy Tune Tuesday which brings you one song from a past blog post.

- See what other post have been most popular recently with our Stats Page.

- Find out who in the world thinks he has the authority to write this blog in the About.

- Let me answer why you won't find the playlists on Spotify here.

- Finally, the Mission page explains why there is no advertising cluttering the page.

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