Sazerwrap 2025

In years past we have delivered a Sazerwrap to catalog our personal New Orleans Jazzfest experience, so we will continue this year. 

We have reviewed some of the shows we caught already and it should be stated: Jazzfest in New Orleans is RtBE's absolute favorite time of the year. 

Happy 10th Anniversary to Angels & Vagabonds Anyways...

RtBE not only writes about music, but also creates some.  Angels & Vagabonds (mostly) acoustic EP titled Anyways... turns ten years old.

It is exciting to go from critic/reviewer of music, to creator of tunes. Special thanks goes out to friends and bandmates who helped with this one. While it has been quite a few years since a release from the group, more music is actually on the way...

Happy Anniversary to Angels & Vagabonds Debut, The A&V EP

Hard to believe @angelsvagabonds released our debut effort, The A&V EP eleven years ago today.

It has been fun writing about music on various websites and publications over the last fifteen plus years, but nothing beats the act of creating music, playing it live and recording it. Our first EP was an excellent experience, a huge learning process for me personally, and the whole band are still very proud of the final result.

From the serendipitous cover photo that stayed exactly as Bruno_Pek_ shot it, to the great production from our good friend Glen, to the contributions of everyone involved, The A&V EP is a joy to remember. More importantly, we still like listening to it and you can do that now.

You can download from our bandcamp site, you can buy it from iTunes, stream it on Spotify or below. As always, thanks for reading, and on this day I can say thanks for listening to my music.

 

Happy 20th Anniversary to Phish's 6/19/04 Show from Saratoga

RtBE have written about Phish a lot, but one show we have not mentioned is the June 19th 2004 monster of a night at the gorgeous Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, NY. 

It was the the first of a two night stand at the amphitheater in what would be their last summer tour for over five years. This era of Phish, between the hiatus and Coventry festival, is commonly known as Phish 2.0 and has many fans/detractors when it comes to the groups style during these years. 

Sazerwrap 2024

In years past we have delivered a Sazerwrap to catalog our personal Jazzfest experience, so we will continue this year. 

We have reviewed some of the shows we caught already and it should be stated: Jazzfest in New Orleans is RtBE's absolute favorite time of the year. 

Happy 9th Anniversary to Angels & Vagabonds Anyways...

RtBE not only writes about music, but also creates some.  Angels & Vagabonds (mostly) acoustic EP titled Anyways... turns nine today.

It is exciting to go from critic/reviewer of music, to creator of tunes. Special thanks goes out to friends and band mates. While it has been a few years since a release from the group, more music is actually on the way...

You can stream Anyways... below and you can also go here and download the album for free (or any donation you would like). The album is also available on Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music, AMI Jukeboxes and elsewhere. Thanks for listening and reading.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wishing everyone a happy safe and fun St. Patrick's Day from RtBE and we might as well throw in a self plug.

Here is Angels & Vagabonds Irish inspired tune, "Queens Boulevard Serenade":



The story goes...in the lead up to our first St. Paddy's Day gig our band (Angels & Vagabonds) were working on some traditional Irish songs to play and our lead singer/keyboard player Don McNally realized they were basically all the same chords just re-arraigned.

So the Irish American from Woodside, Queens, NYC dug into his past and crafted QBS. He brought it to the group and after a few tweaks it was ready for prime time, we actually played it only about a week after it was written. 

A little inside baseball into our process, now go celebrate by hoisting a pint....Happy St. Paddy's!

Sazerwrap 2023

In years past we have delivered a Sazerwrap to catalog our personal Jazzfest experience, so we will continue this year. 

We have reviewed some of the shows we caught already and it should be stated: Jazzfest in New Orleans is RtBE's absolute favorite time of the year. 

Like in 2022 (and probably for the foreseeable future) RtBE managed to hit parts of both weekends at the Fairgrounds with Sunday April 30th and Thursday May 4th being our two racetrack days. With so much music it is hard to put it all into words, RtBE won't really try this year, the pics can do the work:

Caught music from everyone from Dumpstaphunk to Kenny Loggins, Flagboy Giz to Jon Cleary, Buddy Guy to Meschiya Lake at the Fairgrounds. Also had some amazing eats.

Hard to call a favorite between the BBQ Fried Oysters and the Duck/Shrimp pasta...and impossible to pick a favorite artist from the load of amazing ones we saw from Los Lobos to The Rumble, The Iceman Special to Mdou Moctar, Hot 8 Brass Band to Santana. The hits just kept coming...

The trip isn't only the Fairgrounds though, outside of the fest proper we caught shows at Tipitina's, the Jazz Museum, The Rabbit Hole, BJ's, Saturn Bar, The Spotted Cat, The Joy Theater and so many more locales. 

That city is electric and getting to know more and more friends, catch amazing shows, and just reveling in that towns mix of magic and mayhem makes the last weekend in April and first week in May RtBE's favorite time of the year.

Until 2024...

Happy Opening Day!

 I see great things in baseball.  It's our game - the American game.  It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism.  Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set.  Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.  

~Walt Whitman

RtBE is here to wish you a Happy Opening Day! If you want to read a great piece about baseball check out this excerpt from Roger Angell's The Summer Game

Opening Day should be a national holiday, plain and simple. Once winter is gone (at least officially), Baseball can never arrive soon enough. Here's hoping your favorite team wins, especially if you are a fellow Mets fan. Let's Go Mets!

We know the ghost of Steve Goodman is rooting for those Cubbies though...


Here are some more baseball inspired tunes to start the magical day, when we are all in first place:

Sazerwrap 2022

In years past we have delivered a Sazerwrap to catalog our personal Jazzfest experience, so we will continue this year, even though this trip had the most official reviews we have ever done. 

2022 Jazzfest was a dream come true after the last two years were canceled. It was the first festival that RtBE was in town for both weekends in 10 years when we were down for an extended time in 2012.  This was also the first festival trip where we also got to stay in our own New Orleans home that was purchased pre-pandemic. Magical on all levels. 

We have reviewed many of the shows we caught down there for both Glide Magazine and this site, with even more reviews coming, but there was still a lot of music we didn't review and just enjoyed. 

The first ever Factory Fest was a hoot and we got to find some shade and relax to the sounds of New Orleans Nightcrawlers. 

The fantastic Little Freddy King also played the free show presented by the Louisiana Music Factory and was held at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in the lower French Quarter.   

The city always delivers as we made it over to catch Big Chief Donald Harrison play a set of classics in Congo Square which was a definite highlight of the whole trip. 

Other days saw us catching Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns at The Spotted Cat, our friends in Obliquestra with special guest scary clowns and so much more that we didn't take pics of.  

While we didn't review the Fest itself on the Friday we went, our favorite set was probably from The Stooges Brass Band as they delivered protest party music under the blazing sun. Preservation Hall Jazz Band was excellent as always on the Gentilly Stage and Big Freedia brought tons of ass shaking to Congo Square Stage as well; Friday was a scorcher in more ways than one.  

As far as the food front, so many good meals it is hard to pick a best. Gianna was amazing Italian offerings, Le Petite Grocery was divine, Herbsaint was tasty as all hell and the new Miss River was a food overload. 

No food pics like past years this time, but trust me that each restaurant delivered A+ offerings. Impossible to pick a favorite and can't wait to go back to all of them. 

The town now is officially part of RtBE's life now and we can not wait to return, or for next years fest. Until then, some video from this years fest:

Christone Kingfish Ingram in Red Dead Redemption's Blood Money Update

The phenomenal blues artist Christone Kingfish Ingram announced a surprise this week on his Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Christone "KINGFISH" Ingram (@callmekingfish)

 

That is amazing. Being HUGE fans of RDR this is exciting news to RtBE as we can't wait to see how this plays out when the new update drops on 7/13. 

Also Kingfish has a new album 662 arriving at the end of the month that we can't wait to hear as well, you can pre-order it today. RtBE will be reviewing it for the site, but until then here is the Blood Money trailer from Rockstar Games:

Happy Opening Day!

 I see great things in baseball.  It's our game - the American game.  It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism.  Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set.  Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.  

~Walt Whitman

RtBE is here to wish you a Happy Opening Day! If you want to read a great piece about baseball check out this excerpt from Roger Angell's The Summer Game

Opening Day should be a national holiday, plain and simple. Once winter is gone (at least officially), Baseball can never arrive soon enough. Here's hoping your favorite team wins, especially if you are a fellow Mets fan. Let's go Mets!

We know the ghost of Steve Goodman is rooting for those Cubbies though...


Here are some more baseball inspired tunes to start the magical day, when we are all in first place:

NOLA Jazz and Heritage Festival To Be Held In October

Offbeat Magazine is posting that the best American concert event is returning in 2021, just later than usual, which in these current dark days is GREAT news.

Boosh!

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A post shared by OffBeat Magazine (@offbeatmagazine)

While more details will likely emerge soon, October is shaping up to be an amazing month in the Crescent City as French Quarter Festival  would be the first weekend, JazzFest possibly the next two and maybe Voodoo Fest to round out the month..that would be something.

Here's hoping that these events stay on schedule and happen. To keep the positive vibes alive here is a tune from one of the most emotional Jazzfest sets ever, Bruce Springsteen's 2006 Seeger Sessions festival set, the first Jazzfest post Katrina:

Happy 25th Anniversary Tom Petty's Wildflowers

One of our personal favorites, Tom Petty's Wildflowers album turns 25 today.

Back in 2014 when it turned 20 we gave our thoughts on the record, so we won't rehash those, instead let's just enjoy some really cool songs from what we feel was the high point of Petty's career. 

He is missed but will always live on with amazing tunes like these:




 

Sazerwrap Part 1: The Food

The Sazerwrap has been the @RockBodyElec way of rounding up all the amazing things that happen down at our annual trip to Jazzfest in New Orleans.  We will breaking the review up into two parts, Food and Music, today is the Music.  Only 11 Months until next years festival!

It has been a few years, but RtBE is bringing back the Sazerwrap for the 50th Anniversary of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. This is our 11th straight year of catching the fest and needless to say each year is magic. The trips keep evolving as does the festival and city which hosts it. Today we will chat about the food we sampled and tomorrow the tunes we heard.

Angels & Vagabonds EP Anyways... Released Four Years Ago Today

We are proud that Angels & Vagabonds acoustic EP titled Anyways... Turns four years old today.

The album is important because, well, RtBE is in the band and it is exciting to go from critic/reviewer of music to creator of tunes. Special thanks also go to our friends who helped out and while it has been a few years since a release, more are on the way...

You can stream the album below and you can also go here and download the album for free (or any donation you would like). The album is also available on Spotify, Itunes AMI Jukeboxes and elsewhere. Thanks for listening and reading.

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Phil & Phriends Part 3: 4/17/99

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of Phil & Phriends Show from April '99 were the first true coming together of the Grateful Dead and Phish worlds. For those of use who remember the show announcements, the importance can not be overstated, this was going to be monumental, Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell would head west to join Phil Lesh along with Steve Kimock and John Molo at The Fillmore in San Francisco. These were the hottest tickets around and even more exciting the shows outshine the immense hype.

They remain some of the best live music produced by either outfits illustrious careers and deserve a revisit on their twentieth birthday. (Part 1, Part 2)

Today we look at the mid show of the run: 4/17/99:


(Listen through archive.org or watch through the youtube link above)




If the previous night was the Phish lead party night for this outfit, the closing night was highlighted by Kimock and Molo as the band got spacey, jazz directed and worked out some of the more intricate Dead tunes in relaxed, confident and down right jaw dropping fashion.

The opening huge tune/segue fest continued for night three and if asked what is the supreme highlight of this run, I would have to pick the opening segue magic of this show as the "Dark Star">"It's Up To You" "Days Between"> "Dark Star" > "My Favorite Things" is simply glorious. 

The playing in and out of "Dark Star" would be another trait Lesh would take with him moving forward but on this night Kimock shines bright as his tune "It's Up To You" blends wonderfully with the Grateful Dead old jam war horse, and the most underrated song in the band's catalog "Day's Between". Always a personal favorite, this version is magical and we haven't even dipped back into "Dark Star" and the instrumental take on the Coltrane classic.

The whole thing is moved along so swimmingly by Lesh and particularly Molo as the band just seems in total command over the opening hour of music. Donna Jean rejoins the boys to help out as "Bird Song" has flashes of that Dark Star jazz flowing through it as Page delivers his vocal highlight of the run to close out the magical set of music even though not everyone will dig Phil's backup vocals.

Here is where I will put a caveat, if you don't like Phil's style of singing these shows may not take on the legendary status they have achieved in the RtBE clubhouse. Sure there is enough music (as well as vocals from Trey and Page) but Phil is the main vocalist and his singing just fine for us, but he is clearly not for everyone.

The second set opens with "Terrapin Station" as the band goes big and while not an all-time must hear it is a respectable version (with some vocal flubs but excellent playing roaming over twenty minutes) but the set shifts into a higher gear with "Down with Disease" acting as a rev up before the band melds back seamlessly into Dark Star's sung second verse; simply gorgeous.

The group moves into some fan favorites mid second set and while perhaps a killer "Eyes of The World" jam would have seemed a perfect fit, they went with "Friend of the Devil" and "Casey Jones" both solid if not world beating. Things are soaring again though for "Morning Dew" and the raging running of "Going Down The Road Feeling Bad"

This particular group of players seem like they could have kept it going forever, but they never played together again, and that is OK as these shows captured a truly magical coming together of musical worlds and connected generations through music, love and pure joy. RtBE makes it a habit to listen to these shows often, you should do the same.