Free New Basement Tapes show, LA, Nov. 13 '14

[johnfoyle]

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1d09SSb ... g/viewform

[FrankieJ]

Wow. Jealousy.

What are the chances of this happening in the UK? They seem to be in the US promoting it a lot at the moment. Any chance they will over this side of the pond too? I'd LOVE to see a show like that.

[MOJO]

An invite only event? Lucky you. Flying in for it?

[docinwestchester]

"Who's going?"

(haha!)

[MOJO]

If you click the link it takes you to a form where you can win tickets. Tempted, but even if I won I wouldn't be able to make it down to LA. Bummer. Let's hope for a 2015 tour. I'm speechless with mouth wide open when I listen to these tracks. Jonesin' for a live show right now!

[bronxapostle]

"Who's going?"

(haha!)

with a little luck, someone with taping capabilities! or at least, a pen and paper to write the setlist. i could see them dipping into original BASEMENT TAPES songs like: PLEASE, MRS. HENRY, MILLION DOLLAR BASH, GOIN' TO ACAPULCO or more, and naturally from the Dylan catalog proper. this could be a great little tour. all going tonight...ENJOY!!!

[docinwestchester]

"Who's going?"

(haha!)

with a little luck, someone with taping capabilities! or at least, a pen and paper to write the setlist. i could see them dipping into original BASEMENT TAPES songs like: PLEASE, MRS. HENRY, MILLION DOLLAR BASH, GOIN' TO ACAPULCO or more, and naturally from the Dylan catalog proper. this could be a great little tour. all going tonight...ENJOY!!!

There are a few good LA tapers out there. One can only hope that one of them gets in.

[woz]

I put my name in to try and get tickets. Will let you know if I'm successful. Cheers.

[And No Coffee Table]

To my complete astonishment, I managed to get in despite not having a ticket. They played just about all of Lost on the River. They didn't play "Six Months In Kansas City (Liberty Street)" and "Quick Like A Flash," but they did play two unreleased songs: an EC version of "Down On The Bottom" and a Jim James version of "Florida Key."

More soon...

[And No Coffee Table]

Setlist:

01. Down On The Bottom (Jim James)
02. Spanish Mary (Rhiannon Giddens)
03. Liberty Street (Taylor Goldsmith)
04. Married To My Hack (Elvis Costello)
05. The Whistle Is Blowing (Marcus Mumford)
06. Diamond Ring (Taylor Goldsmith)
07. Nothing To It (Jim James)
08. Lost On The River #12 (Elvis Costello)
09. Florida Key (Taylor Goldsmith)
10. Stranger (Marcus Mumford)
11. Hidee Hidee Ho #16 (Rhiannon Giddens)
12. Hidee Hidee Ho #11 (Jim James)
13. Down On The Bottom (Elvis Costello)
14. Kansas City (Marcus Mumford)
15. Duncan And Jimmy (Rhiannon Giddens)
Encore
16. When I Get My Hands On You (Marcus Mumford)
17. Lost On The River #20 (Rhiannon Giddens)
18. Card Shark (Taylor Goldsmith)
19. Florida Key (Jim James)
20. Golden Tom - Silver Judas (Elvis Costello)

Johnny Depp played guitar on "Kansas City," "Duncan And Jimmy," and the Jim James version of "Florida Key."

The Haim sisters provided backing vocals on "The Whistle Is Blowing" and "Kansas City," and one of them — I'm not sure which! — played percussion on "Duncan And Jimmy."

My Morning Jacket keyboardist Bo Koster played on "Hidee Hidee Ho #11," "Kansas City," "Duncan And Jimmy," the Jim James version of "Florida Key," and "Golden Tom - Silver Judas."

T Bone Burnett spoke at the start and (very briefly) at the end but did not otherwise perform.

Dylan was in the audience. And by that I mean Jakob Dylan, who was chatting with Pete Thomas after the show. (He didn't play either.)

[krm]

To my complete astonishment, I managed to get in despite not having a ticket. They played just about all of Lost on the River. They didn't play "Six Months In Kansas City (Liberty Street)" and "Quick Like A Flash," but they did play two unreleased songs: an EC version of "Down On The Bottom" and a Jim James version of "Florida Key."

More soon...

Wooohoooo!!!!! excellent!!

[And No Coffee Table]

"Married To My Hack" had an extended ending which seemed to have unique lyrics. But I couldn't quite make them out, so I could be wrong about that.

[bronxapostle]

To my complete astonishment, I managed to get in despite not having a ticket. They played just about all of Lost on the River. They didn't play "Six Months In Kansas City (Liberty Street)" and "Quick Like A Flash," but they did play two unreleased songs: an EC version of "Down On The Bottom" and a Jim James version of "Florida Key."

More soon...

stellar move nunk going there WITHOUT! some times, the stars align. A++++ for effort and reporting. as always.
one observance, one question from viewing set at wiki. four songs each sung, very equitable indeed. on how many did E play bass?

[FAVEHOUR]

Very cool that you got in, Nunki!!

A couple of videos centering on Mr. Depp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glLTzkOKoeA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QU-psVglyo

I see professionals filming and recording, do we anticipate some footage being made available, at least as much as the Roots did with the Brooklyn show last year?

DAve

[docinwestchester]

Looks like a helluva lot of fun last night:



Lucky for you to get in ANCT! Very cool to have an audio recording as well.

Four different people played the bass, which is interesting. Also interesting that they are using a second drummer, Taylor's brother Griffin, both here and on Fallon. I think he may be in some of the Vevo videos as well.

I doubt this crew will play again in public, which is a shame.

[sweetest punch]

http://www.mxdwn.com/2014/11/14/reviews ... w-setlist/

The New Basement Tapes Put On Stunning One-Off Show Featuring Haim, Johnny Depp and More (Review, Setlist)

There are those moments you wish you could freeze time and snatch up every person you love in the world, transporting them to your location. Halting the cosmos just long enough that all those wonderful people that make your life feel special could dance with you in a circle celebrating vitality and kinship. The Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Los Angeles just had one of those moments, featuring what may likely be the only performance ever from a supergroup of epic proportions, the affectionately named The New Basement Tapes. Assembled by super producer T. Bone Burnett, the group is comprised of heavyweights Marcus Mumford, Elvis Costello, Taylor Goldsmith, Jim James and Rhiannon Giddens. The band collaboratively composed and recorded a batch of songs based on unused Bob Dylan lyrics written (and subsequently lost for decades) from Dylan’s infamous early-career hiatus at Big Pink. That’s right, after a smattering of late-night TV performances, the group pretty much randomly decided to play a show in LA and gave themselves about a day to rehearse this monstrosity of a musical opus they call Lost on the River.

The results were nothing less than outstanding.

It’s not surprising given that any one of the five performers could put on a stellar show either solo or with their own respective bands. The players jumped between instruments all night. Opening with Mumford on drums, Giddens on fiddle, Costello on guitar, Goldsmith on bass, James took first vocal lead on “Down on the Bottom,” howling like a snarling beast. Giddens came next hooting “Spanish Mary” like a woods witch emerging from a Louisiana bayou. Goldsmith demonstrated that while perhaps not the biggest name in the bunch, he was easily the most versatile musician, playing a delicate piano line on a plaintive “Liberty Street.” Costello’s “Married to My Hack” was a short and punchy blues send-off. Mumford completed the first rotation, bringing none other than the three Haim sisters out for the calming “The Whistle is Blowing.”

From there, the group alternated out of sequence. Goldsmith’s cuts “Florida Key” and “Diamond Ring” ebbed the mood towards uplifting spirits. Costello’s take on “Lost on the River” bubbled up with gospel-infused warmth. Costello then took the opportunity to explain how in some cases they ended up with several versions of the same lyrics, so they would try to do two versions of one number “Hidee Hidee Hidee Ho” back-to-back. The first was driven by Giddens’ sultry voice, playing the song like the gleeful grimace of a cheating lover. James’ version swung with the patience of a half-comical jazz cat, the band’s back-ups of, “Making Love wherever we go” working as a foil for him to improvise off of.

The group played one unreleased track on the night. Sung by Costello, it featured the lyrical refrain “I’m going to heaven before it’s too late.” The next three songs are destined to become modern-day classics. Mumford’s awe-inspiring “Kansas City” was an enveloping piece of heartfelt joy, enrapturing through its earnest cry for reciprocity. On this one, Mumford was backed up not only by the Haim sisters, but also by actor/musician extraordinaire Johnny Depp. Next, Giddens quipped that while she had learned much through being a part of this band about guitars and amps, banjo was what she truly knew best. Mark my words, this primary set closing song “Duncan and Jimmy” will be a year-end favorite and be remembered for decades to come. This simple number anchored by Giddens’ strong voice and nimble banjo strum literally wrenched the crowd of their seats to a massive cheer. This one had heart, verve, a massive escalating crescendo and a cathartic conclusion. Immediately after the encore break, Mumford melted love struck hearts with his tender and unforgettable “When I Get My Hands On You.” Seriously, this is what should be dominating the charts in the USA right now.

For their final few songs, the group varied their approach. Giddens’ ultra spooky and ominous “Lost on the River” was followed by Goldsmith playing the early-1900’s retro-feeling “Card Shark” unamplified, his four band mates making humorous faces behind him while singing the song’s backing vocals. James opted for dialed-up force on the rocking “Quick Like a Flash,” punching up the power chords as much as possible. Appropriately, Costello had the night’s final words, bringing an edge of 60’s pop choral flair to “Golden Tom – Silver Judas,” a fitting finale given the tradition of the time that saw Dylan’s birth in the first place.

For those lucky enough to even know this was happening, this was one for the history books. A show likely no one who saw it will ever forget. Many, will likely wish they could see it again just as it happened to search for nuance they missed the first time while they simply watched in amazement. However, most of America, nay, most of the world will never know just what this was like in person. Between Giddens’ Carolina Chocolate Drops, Mumford’s Mumford & Sons, Goldsmith’s Dawes, James’ My Morning Jacket and the 8 billion bands and projects Costello finds himself in every year, their respective busy schedules will most likely make this be the only time the group ever performs together live. If ever the words of one scribe in the digital world that we call modern journalism could reach around the world and hit the right people in power, let that moment be now. To whomever is in the position of power to pull the right strings to make this happen, bring this group to the people. The fans deserve to see this, even if it’s just one short tour. Sometimes scarcity is what makes something special, but if basically no one gets a chance to see it, it diminishes the power and importance that it truly deserves. There’s so much disposable nonsense littering our airwaves and venues, let’s bring something pure and true to anyone that cares enough to listen.

Setlist:
Down on the Bottom – Jim James vocals
Spanish Mary – Rhiannon Giddens vocals
Liberty Street – Taylor Goldsmith vocals
Married to My Hack – Elvis Costello vocals
The Whistle is Blowing – Marcus Mumford vocals with Haim on backing vocals
Diamond Ring – Taylor Goldsmith vocals
Nothing to It – Jim James vocals
Lost on the River – Elvis Costello vocals
Florida Key – Taylor Goldsmith vocals
Stranger – Marcus Mumford vocals
Hidee Hidee Hidee Ho – Rhiannon Giddens vocals
Hidee Hidee Hidee Ho (alternate version) – Jim James vocals
“Unreleased track” – Elvis Costello
Kansas City – Marcus Mumford Vocals with Johnny Depp on guitar and Haim on back-up vocals
Duncan and Jimmy – Rhiannon Giddens vocals with Johnny Depp on guitar and Danielle Haim on shakers
– Encore break –
When I Get My Hands on You – Marcus Mumford vocals
Lost on the River – Rhiannon Giddens
Card Shark (unamplified) – Taylor Goldsmith vocals
Quick Like a Flash – Jim James vocals
Golden Tom – Silver Judas – Elvis Costello vocals

[And No Coffee Table]

on how many did E play bass?

There was so much instrument-swapping that I couldn't possibly keep track of it all. I distinctly recall EC playing bass on "Liberty Street" and "Diamond Ring," and there was at least one other, probably "Nothing To It" since he plays on the album version.

(The live instrumentation didn't always line up with the album though. EC doesn't play at all on the album version of "Lost On The River #20" but last night he not only played on it, he played the guitar solo!)

Rhiannon Giddens played bass on only one song, the Jim James "Florida Key." Jim James and Taylor Goldsmith were the main bassists.

I see professionals filming and recording, do we anticipate some footage being made available, at least as much as the Roots did with the Brooklyn show last year?

I saw some professional filming outside the venue before the show, but I was oblivious to any that happened inside. I didn't have the chance to look around, since the non-ticketholders didn't get in until well after the scheduled start time, and I spent the remaining time before they actually started sitting in stunned disbelief.

[MOJO]

I doubt this crew will play again in public, which is a shame.

Oh no, don't say that.

[sweetest punch]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... -bob-dylan

Marcus Mumford, Jim James, Elvis Costello & More Bring Bob Dylan's Lost Lyrics to Life in Concert

Sorry, Bob Dylan fans. It appears performances in support of Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes (the T Bone Burnett-produced collection of new music for abandoned Dylan lyrics) will be limited to a lone exhilarating concert. On Thursday night at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood, the New Basement Tapes team played for a packed house full of enthusiastic invitees.

Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith and Rhiannon Giddens of Carolina Chocolate Drops formed an estimable front line of revolving instrumentation, each taking turns romping through the rootsy effort that took stylistic turns with every new song. As an added bonus, Haim sang backup on several numbers and Johnny Depp played guitar on three cuts. Slower songs were saved the encore, making the presentation more consistently upbeat than the album, a vibrant addition to the canon of Dylan-related projects.

Twenty songs were performed over the course of an hour and 45 minutes, the musical styles ranging from late '70s British punk to Appalachian mountain music to contemporary folk-rock. The lyrics hit Dylan touchstones of waterways, trains, Biblical figures and the Midwest: three songs are concerned with spending too much time in or leaving Kansas City, and another hails a woman in St. Louis.

"We didn't know we were doing this until yesterday," Burnett told the crowd that included Capitol Music Group chairman Steve Barnett, Jakob Dylan, Sarah Silverman, actor Michael Sheehan and, backstage, Johnny Depp.

About a year ago, Dylan handed Burnett a collection of lyrics circa the Basement Tapes era, from which Burnett and his friends produced 44 songs that were recorded in 12 days up the street from the Montalban at Capitol Studios. The troupe has already promoted the album with a performance on The Tonight Show on Nov. 10; prior to the concert they taped an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Mumford said they spent a single day learning the songs for the concert.

As on the album, James opened the show with "Down on the Bottom," the one track on the 20-song collection that comes closest to echoing the atmosphere of the original Basement Tapes that Dylan recorded with the Band in 1967 and '68.

Beyond the opener, the songs flowed in the styles associated with singer delivering it. In Costello's case, the music tapped his early days as a force of bitterness in the British New Wave, as well as his more recent rural composing style. Goldsmith, an impressive multi-instrumentalist, framed Dylan's lyrics in the style of early '70s heart-on-the-sleeve folk-rock.

Giddens, who alternated between fiddle and fretless banjo, connected with the folk music that influenced Dylan, ending the main section of the show with what she called "a psychedelic hoedown" on "Duncan and Jimmy" that was as rooted in tradition as it was a free-form 21st century rock jam.

James, whose voice soared blissfully above the clamor, often opted for the experimental side of his My Morning Jacket work, while Mumford played it conservative, shining brightest on "Whistle is Blowing."

[And No Coffee Table]

"We didn't know we were doing this until yesterday," Burnett told the crowd that included Capitol Music Group chairman Steve Barnett, Jakob Dylan, Sarah Silverman, actor Michael Sheehan and, backstage, Johnny Depp.

They mean Michael Sheen.

[sweetest punch]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mu ... story.html

Review: Dylan songs come alive in Hollywood with New Basement Tapes group

How do you bring together five musicians, each with significant catalogs of their own, and put them onthe same stage without a hint of raging ego or argument over who gets the spotlight?.

Easy. Just throw them some vintage, unreleased Bob Dylan songs to belatedly bring to the world.

That’s what happened Thursday at the Montalban Theatre in Hollywood for the first and perhaps only concert appearance by the New Basement Tapes band, which includes Elvis Costello, Mumford & Sons’ Marcus Mumford, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Rhiannon Giddens and Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith. (The group was slated to tape a live-in-the-studio session Friday morning, which will eventually air on Sirius XM.)

The ad-hoc ensemble assembled by producer T Bone Burnett just released “Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes,” an album consisting of newly completed songs set to lyrics Dylan wrote circa 1967 and stashed away until recently.

The camaraderie and mood of generosity was apparent throughout Thursday’s nearly two-hour show, which James noted, “We didn’t know about until a day and a half ago.”

The quintet has been making rounds of promotional appearances and performances on the late-night talk show circuit, but hastily decided to put on a full-fledged concert as long as everyone was together. The result was a case study in the power of egalitarian artistic collaboration.

How much of a hometown party was it? L.A.'s sibling trio Haim showed up to add background vocals to a couple of numbers, and Johnny Depp slinked onstage to strum a low-slung electric guitar on a couple more.

Possibly the most illuminating facet of the show was the juxtaposition of the band members’ distinct interpretations of the same lyrics, demonstrating that there really is no single, “right” way to craft a song.

Giddens, the Chocolate Drops’ gifted singer, banjo player and fiddler, brought visceral gravitas to her darkly foreboding arrangement of “Hi-De-Ho,” while James, with his clenched, Dylan-circa-“Nashville Skyline/New Morning”-era vocals, turned the same set of lyrics into a dreamy ’30s-pop love song, replete with a handful of roses he tossed to the capacity crowd as he larked about the stage.

Goldsmith took the lead on a disarming rendition of “Liberty Street,” a lyric Costello paired with a driving rock beat.

The great temptation in hearing lyrics from the period after Dylan's mysterious motorcycle accident -- a time when he effectively escaped the media circus of the previous half-dozen years -- is to try to draw a line to what was happening in his life at the moment.

Was Dylan assessing his flirtation with stardom after his No. 1 hit “Like a Rolling Stone” when he wrote, in “Nothing to It”:

I knew I was young enough
I knew there was nothing to it
‘Cause I’d already seen it done enough
And I knew there was nothing to it

It’s also hard not to think about Dylan’s relatively new status as husband and father when James sang an elegantly simple arrangement of “When I Get My Hands on You,” with its recurring line “Now you know/Everywhere on earth you go/You’re gonna have me as your man” -- as powerfully straightforward an expression of love and commitment as Dylan ever wrote.

But it’s misleading to look to “Lost on the River” for direct allusions to Dylan and the Band’s “Basement Tapes” sessions. Yes, there were moments of shared expression—a couple of Goldsmith’s solos harkened to Robbie Robertson’s signature style, and at least once Mumford, when occasionally sitting behind one of the two drum kits on stage, invoked happy memories of Levon Helm’s deep approach to rhythmic fundamentals.

The relevant parallel is that in both cases a cast of musicians set aside pop conventions and let their hearts and minds guide them to the essence of Dylan’s lyrics.

[verbal gymnastics]

One day's rehearsal?

For once the Americans can properly justify the word "awesome"

[sweetest punch]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/b ... ics-749111

Bob Dylan’s Lost Lyrics Revived In New Showtime Documentary

A Hollywood screening of 'Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued' was followed by a private concert where artists, including Marcus Mumford and Elvis Costello, were joined onstage by Johnny Depp

Bob Dylan’s forgotten lyrics have made their way to Hollywood.

CAA and Showtime invited guests for cocktails and a screening of the documentary Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued, where T Bone Burnett spent two weeks secluding himself with prominent musicians of different ages and genres to record 43 adaptations of lyrics and drawings rediscovered years later by Dylan himself from his 1967 recordings at Woodstock.

Burnett aspires to bring back the period where Dylan’s Woodstock recordings influenced the same creative process with prominent bands such as The Beatles. With Dylan’s blessing, Burnett recruited Elvis Costello, Jim James (of My Morning Jacket), Marcus Mumford (of Mumford and Sons), Taylor Goldsmith (of Dawes) and Rhiannon Giddens (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops) for the album Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes. Although it was their first time working together as a group, the musicians ditched the formal recording process to see what creative results could stem from simply making music without expectations.

“I’m a musician and I spent many years trying to emulate the idea of friends getting together in a basement plying music,” director Sam Jones told The Hollywood Reporter. “The basement tapes started that trend of we don’t have to be in a recording studio. We can be in a house or we can be in a cabin in the woods and we can record. I love that aesthetic and that idea so I was in the minute they asked.”

Friends of Jones, including Cindy Crawford and her husband Rande Gerber, along with Parenthood showrunner Jason Katims came to CAA to support.

Showtime EVP of original programming Gary Levin expressed that one of the challenges during production was deciding which of the three or four versions of each song would be included in the documentary. “I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say it’s one of the most unusual collaborations in the history of pop music,” said Levin.

Levin stated that the next documentary that will be commissioned features the life of actor Marlo Brando, which will be narrated from audio tapes by Brando himself.

The screening was followed by a private concert at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood where the artists performed the new basement tapes live for the first time. They were later joined onstage by Johnny Depp for a “psychedelic hoedown.”

Masters of Sex couple Sarah Silverman and Michael Sheen also attended the concert for date night. “It was unbelievable,” Silverman told THR. “One of the greatest nights of my life.”

[docinwestchester]

Caption for the photo (I only recognize Cindy Crawford):
Showtime's Executive Vice President of Original Programming Gary Levin, Rande Gerber, Cindy Crawford and Writer/Director Sam Jones

[sweetest punch]

Kansas City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D4ncslRxRU