Bobbi Goodman also videoed our performance on June 5th, compiling both tunes into a single video.

On Sunday, June 5th, I was honored to be part of an afternoon of music & fellowship in benefit of the family of guitarist Chris Cobb, who lost their younger son Clay earlier this year. It was held at McGovern’s Bar in San Mateo and the music lasted from before 1pm until after 9pm. Some of the featured performers were Stan Erhart, Dave Workman, the Daniel Castro Band with Terry Hiatt, the Chris Cobb Band; there were many others. I played three numbers (one with vocals) with the able assistance of Jeff Kamil on guitar, Pat Tinling on bass, and Jackie Enx on drums, with Gino “Bambino” Emmerich guesting with us on one tune.

Dave Workman took some video of two of the numbers with his iPod Touch:
“That Road”
“Unchain My Heart”

As you can tell if you watch those YouTube vids, both numbers were somewhat shabby. We only had one very brief rehearsal about three or four days before the show. I made a bunch of glaring mistakes. But Pat and Jackie are such strong players that it almost didn’t matter – the groove and the drive were there for Jeff and I to surf on.

I saw the Tedeschi/Trucks Band a week ago last Sunday night at the Warfield in San Francisco.

Almost exactly two years ago I saw the Derek Trucks Band, which was also a fantastic show by a superb band. But this band is a notch or two better. There are a couple of holdovers – the singer Mike Mattison, though now he’s a backup vocalist rather than the featured vocalist, and Kofi Burbridge, the keyboardist and flautist. On bass now is Kofi’s brother Oteil, who has been the bassist in the Allman Brothers Band for many years now. There are two drummers, J. J. Johnson and Tyler Greenwell. There’s a three-piece horn section with trumpeter Maurice Brown, tenor saxophonist Kebbi Williams, and trombonist Saunders Sermons. Finally, there’s one more backup vocalist, Mark Rivers, for a total of 11 folks in the band.

The music was all new stuff to this ensemble, with the exception of the old Derek & the Dominoes song “Anyday,” which the DTB Band did perform, and maybe one or two other covers that might possibly have been in the repertoire in either Derek’s or Susan’s earlier groups. They performed “Space Captain,” the tune that they recorded with Herbie Hancock on his last CD, The Imagine Project, and a bunch of stellar originals, some of which I’ve heard already, like “Midnight In Harlem” which they did on the last Crossroads Guitar Fest DVD. They did a couple of interesting covers, like Jimi’s “Manic Depression” (which Oteil sang lead on) in the first encore, and the Meters song “Just Kissed My Baby” in the second encore.

Second encore! I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a show that had a second encore. They played a bit over two hours in all; I didn’t get home until midnight.

Their debut CD, Revelator, is being released in a couple of weeks (June 7th).