Joyful Noise: The Derek Trucks Band At The Egg

Good morning Fackers. When Matt and I first decided to go to the Derek Trucks concert at The Egg last night, there was a chance that it wouldn't overlap with the Giants game. NBC still had the option to flex another more significant game into that spot, but as it turns out, the match up between the G-Men and the Eagles was one of the more important games of the week.

In a way, attending the concert was a win-win proposition. If the Giants had won last night, we would have been thrilled but if they lost, we would have spared ourselves the agony of watching it all unfold. In either case, because of the venue, the performers and the circumstances, we were fairly certain that the concert was going to be one to remember.

The venue is an intimate 900 seat theater in a building called The Egg which feels even smaller than that. Since The Egg is a center for the performing arts and a non-profit, they rely on donors to keep it running and sell season tickets. The upshot is that there were a considerable amount of empty seats (maybe 5%), probably already paid for by people more interested in the ballets or orchestras that take the stage there.

The opening act was Shannon McNally who played with guitarist Eric Deaton. Before performing one of her original songs, she described how she sat in on the one microphone recording session done as a tribute in lieu of a funeral for Jim Dickinson, whom Matt paid homage to when he passed away back in August. Her last song was Long Black Veil, famously covered by both Johnny Cash and The Band (among others) and McNally said that the latter version was what made her want to become a musician.

There was a short intermission before Derek Trucks and the rest of the band took the stage. As Matt mentioned yesterday, it was dTb's last show for the foreseeable future, but it didn't contain any long speeches or list of "thank yous". It did, however, contain two sets of music and an encore, something which the rest of their shows on this tour have not.

The crowd was remained seated for most of the show, with the notable exception of a guy in front of us with a "Got Melky" t-shirt who couldn't contain himself during a few of the tunes. The acoustics were crystal clear, in equal parts due to the design of the auditorium, the pure sound of the band and the largely polite crowd who cheered at times during changes within a song but mostly reserved their applause and chatter until their completion.

They opened with Soul Serenade, a song by King Curtis covered by Duane Allman and more recently, recorded by dTb for the title track of one of their albums. The first set also included personal favorites I Wish I Knew, Get What You Deserve, Volunteered Slavery, Already Free and a blistering version of the Bob Dylan tune Down In The Flood.

The second set consisted of some older tunes like 555 Lake, which was on their first (self-titled) album, along with dTb staples Leaving Trunk and Gonna Move. It also featured two Derek and the Dominoes tunes - the appropriately chosen Key To The Highway which came late in the set, and a long and winding version of Anyday which was chosen as the encore (although without the song's last verse).

Before the band started up with the 2nd set closer Joyful Noise, drummer Yonrico Scott stood up to the microphone behind his kit and said "So, after 16 years...", a reference to how long the band had been touring. However, he didn't finish. Or maybe that's all he had planned to say. And maybe that's because The Derek Trucks Band isn't finished.

Who knows what this hiatus will bring for Derek and what direction he will go in next. But it's hard to imagine the seemingly effortless chemistry between Trucks, Scott, vocalist Mike Mattison, keyboardist Kofi Burbridge, bassist Todd Smalley and percussionist Count M'butu not being rekindled at some point in the future.

Since I haven't found it anywhere else online, here is the setlist as Matt transcribed it last night.

Set 1
Soul Serenade
Preachin' Blues
I Wish I Knew
Get What You Deserve
Volunteered Slavery
Already Free
Yield Not To Temptation
Down in the Flood

Set 2
Leaving Trunk
555 Lake (instrumental)
Sweet Inspiration
Young Funk
Home In Your Heart
Gonna Move >
Key to the Highway
My Favorite Things
Joyful Noise

E: Anyday

Fack Youk Field Trip: The Egg

Time for another Field Trip Fackers, and with it being the baseball off-season this one will involve our other favorite pastime here: music. While the 21st Annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam took place in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend, Jay and I will be heading to The Egg in Albany this evening to see Haynes' fellow Allman Brothers Band guitarist and blog favorite The Derek Trucks Band. We'll probably have a summary sometime tomorrow.

Unfortunately this show comes on a night that the Giants and Eagles meet in a crucial NFC East match up. As disappointing as it will be to miss the game, it figures to be worth it. dTb announced in November that they will be going on an indefinite hiatus in 2010, tonight's show is the band's final performance for the foreseeable future. They're a band I've seen countless time over the past decade, starting with a performance for about 20 people at Boston College's O'Connell House during my sophomore year at BC. It will be nice to catch their final performance for the next year or so.

As we've mentioned before, Derek Trucks is a relative of the oldest living former Yankee, Virgil Trucks. However, I previously fouled up the specifics of the relationship. Our last post about it was picked up by an Allman Brothers Band listserv, where Vaylor Trucks - Derek's cousin, Butch's son, and the little kid on the cover of the ABB's 1973 Brothers and Sisters album, set the record straight. Virgil is the first cousin of Butch's father, making Derek Virgil's third cousin twice removed.

Now that we have the family tree squared away we can head off to the show. Here's the Derek Trucks Band, along with Derek's wife Susan Tedeschi, covering some Derek and the Dominoes:

Randy & Lonn Go To Court

Our New York State Capital Correspondent, Big Willie Style, informed me that our two least favorite Yankee Front Office execs are back in Albany today, talking with Richard Brodsky. Brodsky, as you may recall, became a Fack Youk favorite when he challenged Levine to an "in-your-face fistfight" back in January. 

Trost and Levine's side of the argument have called Brodsky's demands "grandstanding", "a personal vendetta", and "a grab for attention on his part". 

Brodsky complains the Yankees are "bullying" him and has countered by pointing out that the New Stadium has cost roughly twice as much as Citi Field, and claiming "The state could have bought the Yankees for less than it cost to build the stadium."

The issue that they argued over today was the release of records in conjunction with the construction of the New Stadium that Brodsky is demanding. The assemblyman from Westchester wants to see roughly 1.39 million emails and attachments and 408 boxes of records. The Yanks claim the emails alone would cost $5.5M to process with the paper records adding "several million more dollars" to the cost. 

One comment I found interesting from Trost was: 

I am fairly certain that some of those boxes contain documents relating to the project, however the boxes are not indexed in such a way as to determine which boxes contain such documents and therefore a fulsome review would need to be undertaken to determine which boxes contain responsive information.

On one hand, the Yankees are crying foul that they will have to pay, say $8 or 9 million dollars for the documents to be "fulsome(ly) review(ed)" by a swarm of lawyers being paid by the hour, but they are also the ones claiming that it is necessary for them to be reviewed. Maybe you should have organized the documents produced during the 1.5 billion dollar construction project a little better, Lonn.

After talking with our resident law school graduate, Joe, I've gathered that the review allows the Yankees the chance to redact anything confidential before it becomes part of the public record. As a private business, there are a vast array of things they don't need to disclose, but that would not include documents relating to public financing. 

Even if Brodsky does manage to force the Yankees to turn over the relevant documents, it will be after the Yankees' lawyers have had a chance to pour over them with a fine-toothed comb, a process that will certainly take a great deal of time. After that, The State will have to review what is turned over to them, which will most likely take as long or longer and cost the taxpayers even more money. 

In principle and for the sake of transparency, it seems like the Yankees should have to turn over these documents, because while $5.5M is a lot of money, they've received far beyond that in State funding for the project. What I'm thinking after doing some digging on the issue is that, A) It's going to take an eternity to do this and, B) I highly doubt that the Yankees are going to anything incriminating slip through the cracks if they can help it.

Sorry Brodsky, but I'm still in your corner for the Randy Levine fight.