Terrapin Crossroads presents Songs to Fill the Air featuring Phil Lesh with Stu Allen and Lebo
2016-10-11
the Back Porch Stage at Terrapin Crossroads
100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA
4:30 PM, Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[4:35 PM Phil out noodling, Stu and Lebo plotting a setlist backstage]

1. [4:41 PM] Big Boss Man (SA)
   [long pause]
2. [4:50 PM] Don't Think Twice It's Alright (L)
   [long pause]
3. [5:02 PM] U.S. Blues (PL)
   [long pause]
4. [5:14 PM] Stagger Lee (SA) $
5. [5:26 PM] I Feel the Earth Move (L)
6. [5:37 PM] Bird Song (PL)
7. [5:54 PM] See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
   [set ends ~6:00 PM]

• Stu Allen: guitar, lead and harmony vox;
• Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz: acoustic guitar, $ lap steel guitar, lead and harmony vox;
• Phil Lesh: bass, lead and harmony vox.

Not too many folks out here for the start of the set … maybe 50, at most. A nice, relaxed vibe on a pleasant fall afternoon. A Louis Jordan compilation is being played over the PA, and as Phil noodles and warms up, he appears to be dancing a bit to Louis' hep cat jive. Makes me think I should ask if he's considered covering any of Louis' tunes … there's a lot of good ore in that vein of musical gold!

Phil fluffs half the verses to U.S. Blues, but the crowd is an easy one, and no one razzes him over it. He promises to practice it more before trying it again.

Lebo is surprisingly tentative on Stagger Lee … he must have had something in mind before switching to lap steel, but I don't recall that he did all that much during the tune. Maybe it was Stu's suggestion to make the instrument swap?

Phil dedicates Bird Song to a gaggle of geese flying overhead as the trio gets things together following Lebo's Carole King cover.

Stu delivers an especially impassioned vocal on Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave Is Kept Clean – a grim topic to wrap up the set, but nicely rendered nonetheless.

By the end of the set the crowd has swelled to a hundred or more, but most folks drift away soon after, leaving the bar scene relatively mellow for the break before the “Stuesday” set begins. I expected that the place might be more crowded, what with the Giants-Cubs NLDS game on, but maybe folks are just watching elsewhere? I'd be happy enough just listening on the radio, but with commute traffic still thick, I opt to hang out in the bar awhile instead: way better to enjoy a beer and the company of fellow deadheads while watching the game on TV than to set myself homeward bound through heavy traffic!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!