Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival delivered two solid weekends packed with highlights. Fortunately, the good times don’t have to end at the festival, as some of the strongest sets of the festival have been recorded, and we’re happy to share them with you. Three keys sets from 1/21 at the Auditorium are available here in their entirety to stream or as iPod ready downloads. Page Two of this post features a roundup of the best videos we’ve found yet, capturing lots of excitement from both nights, including some intimate backstage moments.  Stay tuned and we’ll try to add more as it becomes available.

David Grisman Quintet

?, Janice, Newly Wedded, Mad Max, Dawg’s Waltz, Grateful Dawg, Slinky, Dawg-matisicm*, Happy Birthday Bill Monoroe*, Opius 38* > Shady Grove * * with Don Stiernberg (mandolin)

Download Entire Set (mp3 .zip)

Del McCoury

Loneliness and Desperation, There’ll Be No Tomorrow, Quicksburg Rendezvous, Deeper Shade of Blue, ?, Nashville Cats, Orange Blossom Special, Kentucky Waltz, Hello Lonely, Blackjack County Chains, Never Grow Up Boy, Eli Renfro, High On The Mountain, Cheek to Cheek With The Blues

Download Entire Set (mp3 .zip)

Big Mon Jam

Long Journey Home, I Tried My Little Heart Out, In Despair, ?, Will You Be Lovin’ Another Man, A Good Woman’s Love, Back To The Old Home, I’m Blue and Lonesome Too, Blue Ridge Mountains, Uncle Penn

Download Entire Set (mp3 .zip)

Click over to page 2 for videos of these sets and more, including Dawes, Van Ghost Acoustic Duo, The Bluegrass Ball w/Austin & Nershi, Joe Purdy & The Giving Tree Band, and Henhouse Prowders

Dedication.  Hard work. Vision.  Networking.  All words often associated with success in business, but they equally apply to the way that Jim Boukas has built up a Chicagoland jamband empire of sorts over the last seven years.  By constantly tweaking the formula, breaking new ground, trying his hand at new things and fostering relationships with like minded musicians of all stripes, Boukas has found his way into several exciting projects that delve into the beloved catalogs of many of our favorite bands.

A new chapter unfolds for his longtime Grateful Dead band Paradise Waits as it makes a move to Double Door for a new Wednesday night residency on February 1st.  After previously holding court at various venues around the city (most recently Abbey Pub), the band could offer a clinic on how to cultivate a connection amongst the folks that come out to see them regularly.  While it’s no surprise that Chicago Deadheads have found a place to congregate over live versions of their favorite tunes, Paradise Waits has definitely found the right mix of community, repertoire and music, bolstered by an all-star lineup of musicians that at times includes Mr. Blotto’s Mark Hague.

With the change of scenery to the legendary Double Door comes some deliberate changes to the approach as well.  For the first time, Paradise Waits will feature a two drummer approach (with the addition of Tony Dellumo of Chester Brown, formerly of Mr. Blotto).  For nine-to-fivers that could only sparingly indulge in late night sets from Paradise Waits in the past, shows will start early, at around 7:30, but still pack a good 3 hours of music.  Not enough? Each show will be followed by an after party in the Double Door Dirtroom.  Boukas explains one more twist, “we’ll begin to revisit complete setlists from not only the Dead, but also Furthur, Jerry Garcia Band, Phil Lesh & Friends and some other surprises, too.”

Listen: A Paradise Waits Wednesday Show From The Abbey

All of this would be exciting enough, but Boukas is following his muse into other realms as well — seeking to own the “extended weekend” for fans of the big jambands in and around Chicago.  “I’ve been stretching my legs with some other musical outlets,” he tells The Barn.  The version of his Phish project, The Vasoconstrictors, which recently convened for the first shows of a Thursday night residency at Lilly’s in Lincoln Park, looks vastly different that the band that helped celebrate The Barn’s second anniversary at Brixie’s last November.  “We took a break over the last few months to regroup and tweak the line-up a bit. Vaso 2.0 is going to offer a little more versatility with vocal harmonies and song selection, all the while keeping the original mantra of ‘focus on the jam’.”

In this incarnation, Boukas is joined by Joe Re of The Coop on keys as well as two members of the popular Chicago jamband Family Groove Company — Matthias Blanck on drums and versatile bassist Janis Wallin.  Robin Eatman plays lead guitar.  He continues, “It continues to be a great creative outlet for me and offers the challenge to write rhythm guitar parts for songs like Stash, Foam, and You Enjoy Myself.”

Listen: Vasoconstrictors @ Lilly’s 1/14/12

“More recently I’ve started to dive into Bluegrass music, dusting off my acoustic guitar and collaborating with guitar virtuoso Eric Lambert [formerly of Sexfist/Henhouse Prowlers].  We became fast friends and started a ‘First Thursdays’ residency at Martyr’s, which will also be an early show (6-8pm), and feature many Chicago musicians,” Boukas explains.  The first gig started like a Rowan/Rice style flat-picking/vocal duo but evolved to encompass a set of high-octane covers that draw from the extended classic rock and jam canon.  Playing host to a number of guests titled the dynamics of the performance by the end of the evening, finding ample room in many of the tunes to stretch out — which brings us to yet another Boukas project…

Listen: Boukas, Lambert & Friends @ Martyr’s 1/6/12

“Eric and I have also teamed up with Wavy Dave (Cornmeal) and Thad Landis (The Dog Patch Ramblers) and put together a pretty sweet bluegrass jamband that I’m real excited about,” Boukas continues.  The first gig was at The Alley in Highwood on January 14, and really hit that sweet spot of rock-tinged bluegrass music, recalling the jammy acoustic sets from String Cheese Incident or Yonder Mountain String Band — the pairing of two version of “Cumberland Blues” back-to-back was a particularly inspired choice.  Though the band has yet to be named (The Dirty Joke Band is one contender), it is clear that anything goes in these sets.  Eleven minute, bluegrass “Shakedown Street” anyone?  Boukas is definitely pumped about how it’s coming together: “Many songs feature some of the best four-part harmonies I’ve ever been a part of. Some really obscure song choices too that we’ve bluegrassed up and should be a blast.”

Listen: The Unnamed Bluegrass Jamband @ The Alley 1/14/12

“On top of all that, I also started my own company called Chicago LIVE which mainly offers PA rental, but also recording, editing, photography, video, and band management.  When I have time,” Boukas adds with a snicker, “I also give music lessons for guitar, piano, voice, as well as basic live sound and recording principals.”

There’s nothing wrong with keeping yourself busy, especially when driven by a passion to perform and share music with those who crave it.  In summary, Boukas is quick to offer a (surprise!) Jerry Garcia quote, “Surround yourself with music!”

We will!

In mid-January, the online world was up in arms about the threat posed by the impending Congressional vote on SOPA and PIPA.  Public outcry, massive social networking campaigns, and high profile blackouts of sites like wikipedia and reddit, certainly brought legislators’ attention to the flawed nature of the bills on the table — and like the Krusty The Clown Show, the proposals were quickly “put on hiatus for retooling.”

While those protests and concerns were legitimately aimed at how violators would be identified and the means granted authorities to enforce, a bigger question still looms: what does the public really think of online piracy?  Has the Internet made us complacent with, and fiercely defensive of, accumulating copyrighted music and video content illegitimately?

The evidence would appear to appoint to yes, but I think there is a richer story at play here and one that reveals the lack of foresight, innovation and adaptability of the powerful heads of the companies lobbying to get bills like these through Congress.

What appears to be a bill set up in defense of artists and creative types, upon closer inspection appears more likely to be an attempt to line the pockets of the studios and labels in a gross attempt to exploit them.  Clinging to old business models, and living in a world of pre-Internet technology, they can’t seem to understand or establish new ways to offer music at prices that the public finds valuable — and compensate the artists accordingly.

Check out the following chart from theroot.com.  We’re looking at percentage points of your CD purchase making it’s way to a musician.

I think music fans have seen through the ruse and are hungry for new ways to consume (and compensate); however, barring that, they are willing to acquire (and share) media by any means necessary. Many of our favorite bands give away high quality live or even studio recordings to develop connections with their fans.  As sales plummet, forward thinking marketers and artists are turning the perception of music buying on its ear, and audiences are more than willing to follow.

We pulled some additional charts from a recent study of 2300 adults by the American Assembly (click the main chart to see the smaller charts in detail).  As threatpost.com summarizes:

And, contrary to the hard line on media piracy voiced by proposed legislation like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), those polled saw a lot more gray around the issue of copying music and other media. For example, a strong majority said that they felt sharing music was acceptable with family members (75 percent of those surveyed) and friends (56 per cent of those surveyed). The dissemination of copyrighted materials to a network beyond family and friends received very little support in the study, suggesting that respondents didn’t view all kinds of copying in the same way.

The data contained in these charts tells an interesting story.  Some pundits view the outcry around SOPA and PIPA as the public speaking out in favor of piracy.  I think there is a spublic conscience and a strong desire to support artists that we appreciate — we are just not always offered means that make sense to do it (at .99 per track, it would cost nearly $30,000 to fill a 120GB iPod), and we sure don’t want to be actively policed as we attempt to do things that are seemingly innocuous.  As always, The Barn recommends you see live music as often as possible.  As of yet, technology has yet to displace that experience!  Your attendance also supports artists in more direct ways (go ahead and buy some merchandise while you’re at it).

Click here to read the entire study

Greensky Bluegrass turned heads and won over many fans at the Park West last Friday, and even welcomed longtime friend Joe Hettinga of Strange Arrangment to the stage for a trio of tunes.  There will be plenty more on the blog about this show to come, but for now enjoy a full audio stream and iPod ready download of this incredible set.

Greensky Bluegrass
January 27, 2012
Park West, Chicago, IL
co-headline with Strange Arrangement

Setlist
Climbing Up A Mountain,Reverend,Kerosene,Atlantic City,Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,Lose My Way, Little Maggie, Don’t Lie, I’d Probably Kill You* >  How Far I’d Fall For You* > I Second That Emotion*, All Four

*w/Joe Hettinga of Strange Arrangement

The Stream

Download Entire Show (mp3 .zip)

Click here to see Strange Arrangement setlist and video of Hoffman, Beck and Bruzza sitting in on the encore of The Band’s “The Shape I’m In”

Steve Kimock & Friends
Friday, December 16th, 2011
Martyr’s, Chicago, IL

Set One
Sun Sun Sun, Berm> In Time Jam> Berm, Ice Cream, Many Rivers To Cross, Five B4 Funk*

Set Two
It’s Up To You> Rigor Mortis (w Manic Depression/Bobby Jam), Long Form IV> Merl’s Boogie (w Higher Ground/Bernie Jam), Hillbillies on PCP (w Kashmir teases)

* w/Fareed Haque on guitar (MathGames opened)

The Stream

Download Entire Show (mp3 .zip)

Personnel
Steve Kimock (guitars)
Bernie Worrell (keyboards)
Bobby Vega (bass)
Wally Ingram (drums)

There will be more to come on the blog regarding this show, but wanted to publish a setlist and share a video of this highly satisfying event.  The video featured below is the night’s finale featuring three members of Greenksy Bluegrass as guests on a cover of The Band’s classic “The Shape I’m In”.

Strange Arrangement
Park West
January 27, 2012

Destination > Bed Bugs > Booger Jam > Golden years > Sweet Love  > Weight Of Gold Intro > The Offer > Creston, Siete, Strange Overtones*, Polygraph

E: The Route*^ -> The Shape I’m In*^%

* w/Paul Hoffman from Greensky Bluegrass
^ w/Anders Beck from Greensky Bluegreass
% w/Dave Bruzza from Greensky Bluegrass

Strange Arrangement - Park West 1/27/12

Hettinga / Conry 1/27/12

Hoffman (Guest Vocals) on David Byrne's "Strange Overtones"

Click here to see setlist, stream or download the entire set by co-headliners Greensky Bluegrass

The Chicago Blackhawks sent three representatives to yesterday’s NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa, and UM has graciously lent the audio of the Death By Stereo track “Domino Theory” to a thrilling highlight film featuring Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews for Comcast Sports Net Chicago (csnchicago.com).

Perhaps the video pumped them up.  Hossa and Kane had a goal each in Team Chara’s 12-9 win — Hossa even added a pair of assists.

The video was produced by Jeremy Murayama with assistance from Matt Zickus and Jake Flannigan.

Here’s a taste of what to expect at the “First Thursday” residency from Jim Boukas and Eric Lambert.

These shows run from 6-8 on the first thursday of every month and the cover is only $5 (you can also grab a coupon to catch a set of Phish tunes for free at Lilly’s later that night).

For the first gig, they were joined by Wavy Dave (Cornmeal), Thad Landis (The Dog Patch Ramblers), Russell Wirt, Jaik Willis, and Janis Wallin (Family Groove Company) and they plan to welcome a host of guests to the stage in the months to come.

Setlist

Shady Grove
El Paso
Willin’
Pancho & Lefty
Bird Song
Maxwell Silver Hammer
With A Little Help From My Friends (w Russ, Thad)
Jenny Jenkins (w Russ, Thad)
Dreadful Wind And Rain (w Russ, Thad, Jaik,)
Ramble On Rose (w Russ, Thad, Jaik,)
Up On Cripple Creek (w Russ, Jaik, Thad)
She Belongs To Me (w Russ, Jaik, Janis)
Jack A Roe (w Russ, Jaik, Janis)
Dark Hollow (w Russ, Jaik, Janis)
Panama Red (w Russ, Jaik, Thad, Wavy)
Midnight Moonlight (w Russ, Jaik, Thad, Wavy)
Ripple (w Russ, Jaik, Thad, Wavy)
Shakedown Street (w Everyone!)

The Stream

Download Entire Show (mp3 .zip)

Listen to the debut The Vasoconstrictors’ new line up at Lilly’s.  This linueup features Joe Re of The Coop, Janis Wallin and Mattias Blanck of Family Groove Company, Robin Eatman, and Jim Boukas.

Download entire set (mp3 .zip)

The debut of an as-yet-unnamed Bluegrass Jamband, which should probaby gig a half a dozen times per year.

The lineup features Eric Lambert (formerly of Sexfist, Wavy Dave (Cornmeal), Thad Landis (Dog Patch Ramblers) and Jim Boukas (Paradise Waits, Vasoconstrictors).

Download entire show (mp3 .zip)