In early May of 2004, I packed up my Ford Taurus station wagon and headed to some beautiful pasture land just outside Fredericksburg, Virginia, for the Haymaker Festival. The weather was picture perfect, I had some of my best music buddies along for the weekend, and I knew that Haymaker, with a bill that included Keller Williams, Del McCoury Band, Drive-by Truckers, Leftover Salmon, Brothers Past, and many others, would be a wonderful weekend of music.
Every anticipation I had for that weekend was realized and, for many reasons, Haymaker remains one of my favorite festival experiences to date.
Over the course of the weekend, my buddies and I dodged a tornado – some sort of microburst touched down Friday evening, demolishing one stage, damaging another, upending many a campsite, and rearranging the night’s schedule – and I somehow walked out on the Drive-By Truckers, which – to this day – remains one of my biggest festival regrets. I also got to witness one of my good friends impersonate another good friend in order to interview a band; the questions and responses of said interview were transcribed on a brown paper bag, a favored medium of music journalists everywhere.
Perhaps the highlight of the weekend, though, was being introduced to the music of Tea Leaf Green. These San Francisco rockers dropped a set of dirty, funk infused porn rock that transfixed me. Josh Clark’s wailing guitar gelled brilliantly with Trevor Garrod’s keyboard, and the 70’s induced jam rock was a perfect cap to my Haymaker Saturday night.
I dug the band so much that I caught them the following week at the now defunct Starr Hill Music Hall, and tunes like “Vote On Tuesday” and “Bootlegger” have stuck with me nearly ten years later.
Tea Leaf Green has returned with In The Wake – a great record that speaks to the band’s maturation after nearly twenty years together – and they will be sure to showcase many of those tunes when they land at The Hamilton in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, June 6th.
I would like to give you and a friend the chance to check the show out. Take a shot at the trivia question down below and email your answer to [email protected]. A winner of two tickets to the show will be drawn from all correct responses received by 5 P.M. on Thursday, May 30th.
For more information on Tea Leaf Green, their new record, and when the band will be in your area, surf over to www.tealeafgreen.com. Also, be sure to check out “Give Me One More Chance,” a great cut from In The Wake, on this month’s Trail Mix.
Trivia Question – This band used to regularly perform a song lamenting what iconic rapper’s hiatus from cannabis consumption?
Shoot me an email at [email protected]. Good luck!!
