Photographs by Ana Gibert
Leading an all-star band, singer, songwriter and Lovin’ Spoonful leader John Sebastian took a full house on a trip from the Delta blues to Greenwich Village’s jug band music. Early arrivals to the show were treated to a short and chilly dedication ceremony which officially (and appropriately) named the newly-renovated Bearsville Theater’s back porch after Sebastian, Freddy Neil and Tim Hardin, plus a preview of John’s wife Catherine Sebastian’s down-memory-lane photography exhibit.
The show began with a brief introduction from Happy Traum (described as “the bridge from Greenwich Village to Woodstock,”) with a bit of background about jug band music. Immediately, John Sebastian began solo with the tale of the late Fred Neil (“Everybody’s Talkin'”) and Tim Hardin (“Reason to Believe,” “If I Were a Carpenter”), then, by ones and twos, the rest of the band came onstage and added pieces to the jug band puzzle.
Complete with history, humor and humility, Sebastian, Jimmy Vivino and James Wormworth (guitar and drums/Conan O’Brien Show), Paul Rishell and Annie Raines (guitar and harmonica/duo), Cindy Cashdollar (dobro/steel guitar, called “the heaviest cat in the room”), Steve Boone (bass/Lovin’ Spoonful), Joe Louis Walker (guitar, vocals) and Benson Sebastian took the sold-out crowd through a history of blues from Mississippi to Woodstock with a little narrative and a lot of music.
Highlights included Paul Rishell’s amazing guitar on the 1930’s “Fare Thee Well Blues,” Annie Raines’ harmonica and James Wormworth’s washboard on “Good Old Wagon,” Jimmy Vivino on Sleepy John Estes’ “Leavin’ Trunk,” Joe Louis Walker and Scott Milici in a duet on Noah Lewis’ “Viola Lee Blues,” and the ensemble on Yank Rachell’s “Tappin’ That Thing,” plus Cindy Cashdollar’s dobro solos sprinkled throughout.
Appropriately, the encore closed out the evening with two Lovin’ Spoonful tunes, “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind” and “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice.” The evening couldn’t have been nicer, or more enlightening.
—Suzanne Cadgène
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