Local Musicians to Bring Summer Jam Anniversary Show to Sarasota
Posted
Dennis Maley
SARASOTA – In July of 1973, what was arguably the greatest rock festival of
all-time, took place at Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway in upstate New
York. Over 600,000 music lovers (approximately 1 in every 350 people in
the U.S. population at the time) turned out to hear the Grateful Dead, the Allman
Brothers and The Band play marathon sets over a full day. On July 29, an all-star cast
of local musicians will put on a 44th anniversary tribute show at
Kelly’s Live at Sky Bar Sarasota.
Despite being
much larger, Summer Jam has not maintained the historic cachet of
Woodstock, whose legend has benefited from both a concert movie and a
double album (The Grateful Dead would not agree to either for Summer Jam).
However, its significance in rock history, as well as its role in the
genesis of the modern summer rock festival, cannot be understated.
The
idea sprung from a Ô72 Dead show in Connecticut, during which ABB
members Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, and Jai Johanny Johanson joined the
legendary band onstage for a memorable jam. Summer Jam was then scheduled for
July 28 of the next year. 150,000 tickets were sold for the highly-anticipated
show, which featured three of the biggest groups in rock music at the
time. All three were at the peak of their careers and each were also revered
for their epic live performances. By July 27, tens of thousands of fans had
already arrived at the concert site. When The Band and the Allman Brothers did their
soundchecks, it was like a concert in itself, leading the Dead to take
stage and "soundcheck" for what would become a legendary two-set jam.
By
the 28th, organizers had given up on trying to keep order, and the
event basically became a free concert for those who hadn’t already
purchased their tickets. Rural roadways leading to the track couldn’t
manage the capacity, causing gridlock traffic jams, leading many concert-goers
to abandon their vehicles at bottlenecks to walk as far as six miles to
the site. In fact, track maintenance crews found abandoned vehicles from
the event on the fringes of the property as late as 2013.
The 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen
Despite fierce heat
and a severe thunderstorm, what historians have called the "largest
gathering of Americans ever," came off pretty much without a hitch
(though a would-be skydiver died when a flare caught his suit on fire.
His body was later found in the nearby woods). The Grateful Dead opened with
two lengthy sets featuring fan favorites like Bertha, Jack Straw and Playing in the Band. The Band played next, but one-hour into their set, the skies opened and the rains fell. During the downpour, Lowrey organ guru Garth Hudson kicked into his legendary organ improvisation, The Genetic Method, which, legend has it, stopped the storm. The rest of the group jumped onstage and transitioned into Chest Fever, a combo they would continue to perform live for years to come.
The
Allman Brothers Band closed out the show with three blistering hours
that included many of the tracks from their third LP, the breakthrough
1971 live album At Fillmore East, such as Whipping Post, One Way Out, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Stormy Monday, along with Midnight Rider,
a song that was first released on their commercially unsuccessful
second album but would become a hit when Gregg Allman released it as a
solo effort that same year.
By that point, there had already
been nine hours of live music. However, members of the three bands still
came together for an hour-long encore jam that included the ABB's
legendary Mountain Jam, and two standards oft-covered by the Dead: Not Fade Away and Johnny B. Goode.
For the anniversary, local Grateful Dead tribute band Ship of Fools is performing music by the Dead, while Kettle of Fish pays homage to The Band
and Berry Duane Oakley’s Jive Ass Review plays songs by the Allman
Brothers Band. Oakley is the son of founding Allman Brothers Band
bassist Berry Oakley, who died in a motorcycle accident less than a year
before the original Summer Jam, on the same road on which founder Duane
Allman died in the same fashion just one year prior.
Ship of Fools. Photo by Jim Hartzell
Oakley's band is steeped in Allman Brothers ties with members of Dickey Betts' Great Southern Pedro Arevolo on bass and Mike Kach on keyboard, while also channeling the voice of the late great Gregg Allman, a task Kach performs better than anyone I've seen. Oakley shares guitar duty with longtime collaborator Rj Howson, while the band's double drums are expertly handled by longtime Charlie Daniels Band drummer Pat McDonald playing Butch Trucks to Pressure Dem drummer Mike Fender's Jai Johanny Johanson.
While local fans are familiar with seeing various combinations of these musicians at the infamous Wednesday night jams at the Hoosier Bar, this line-up performing all ABB songs is likely the very closest you can get to an Allman Brothers show following Gregg's death in late May, and it's pretty damn close at that.
Berry Duane Oakley. Photo by Jim Hartzell
The show is part of a two-date series, which kicked off at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa last night with the bands sticking to the original order for the show. Ship of Fools opened with a killer set that was their tightest in recent memory, while Kettle of Fish came on second, putting together a set list that included a nice mix of popular favorites and deep cuts. Ship of Fools' Nate Howell even joined them onstage for an excellent rendition of the Bob Dylan classic, When I Paint My Masterpiece, a song penned by Dylan but first released by The Band. Oakley and his band closed the show, bringing down the house with a jam-laden set that included a jaw-dropping rendition of Whipping Post.
Kettle of
Fish front-man Dana Lawrence, who’s performed with both Oakley and Ship
of Fools in the past, had originally conceived of doing a Summer Jam
tribute in 2013 for the 40th anniversary, but it didn’t come off. At
that time, Lawrence envisioned his band playing the Allman Brothers role, but said
much had changed to pull the stars into alignment for this year’s event.
"Since then, I've grown to love The Band and their
musicianship, and Ship of Fools has developed into a top notch Dead
tribute, so I thought the best idea would be for me to do The Band and
let Berry put together a group and do what he knows best,“ said Lawrence.
Kettle of Fish
Asked
about the work involved in essentially becoming a tribute band for just
two nights, Lawrence called it a "labor of love."
"I
think we knew five tunes by the Band," said Lawrence. "We've learned
four new ones and are going to have Nate Howell join us for a song as
well. We had a practice for the new tunes and we've woven the new songs
into gigs over the last couple of months."
Arguably
the most underrated group of the '70s, The Band worked together as a
back-up band for Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan before making it big
on their own with enduring hits like The Weight, Ophelia, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and Up on Cripple Creek.
For the anniversary celebration, each band plays a one-hour set and then comes together for a jam at the end. The Sarasota show is scheduled for 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the
door. Kelly's Live at Sky Bar is located at 1927 Ringling Blvd. in
downtown Sarasota, across from McCurdy's Comedy Theater. Click here for
more information.
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