Funk It’s Bear Creek Music Festival 2011 teaser video

As you can image, Bear Creek Music Festival was magical! The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park was amazing, the artists were amazing, and the people were amazing (and my close friends know that I don’t use that word often).

The music park is perfect, all of the stages are very close together yet there is very little audio bleed through. The vibe is loose and open and everyone is there to party and have a great time. I met a ton of people and I have never seen soo many audio and video tapers in one place. I was very surprised by the amount of people shooting video on either video cameras or SLR cams with external mics. From what I hear, this is one of the only festivals that is a complete free for all as far as shooting video is concerned.

Needless to say, I was a wild man and I ended up shooting 14 hours of video over the course of 3 days. I could have done much more, but I ran out of space and had to borrow a memory card on the last night (thanks Bob!).

Over the next few months I will be featuring many of these videos here. For now, check out this teaser video to whet your appetite.

Funk It’s Bear Creek Music Festival 2011 teaser video:

Funk It’s Bear Creek Music Festival 2011 teaser video:
01. The Funky Meters – Cissy Strut
02. Marco Benevento Trio with Johnny Vidacovich – Junco Partner
03. The Trio: George Porter Jr, Johnny Vidacovich & Jennifer Hartswick with Freekbass – Don’t Be Squeezin’ My Heart
04. Jon Cleary’s Piano, Bass & Drums – Tipitina
05. Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2 – Nautilus
06. John Scofield’s Piety Street Band – unknown
07. Freekbass & Skerik – Improv in the Silent Disco
08. Dr. Klaw with Jamie McLean & Sam Kinninger – Higher Ground
09. Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio – unknown
10. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey with Jonathan Lloyd, Chris Noonan, Mark Southerland & Skerik – The Burning
11. Orgone – Break In The Road
12. Medeski, Martin & Wood with Pee Wee Ellis – Where’s The Music?
13. The Lee Boys with Matt Grondin, Khris Royal, ?Shamarr Allen? & unknown trombonist – Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough
14. The New Mastersounds – Carrot Juice
15. Russell Batiste Band with George Porter Jr – Cissy Strut
16. The Coup – 5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO
17. Chali 2na Band – Get Focused
18. Snarky Puppy with Louis Cato – unknown
19. Garage A Trois – Rescue Spreaders
20. Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood – A Go Go
21. Anders Osborne, Eric Bolivar, Jamie McLean & George Porter Jr – Ya-Ya
22. Breakestra – unknown
23. Dumpstajam with Nigel Hall, Louis Cato, Eric Krasno, Freekbass & The Shady Horns – What Is Hip?
24. Lettuce – Sam Huff’s Flying Ragin’ Machine
25. Dumpstaphunk – Put It In The Dumpsta
26. Robert Walter, Eddie Roberts, Jamie McLean, Louis Cato & Ivan Neville – Standin’ On Shaky Ground

The Funky Meters – 4th of July in Louisville, Kentucky (VIDEO)

The Funky Meters were the featured performers at Louisville’s free annual Waterfront Independence Festival. Although they started over an hour late due to “technical difficulties,” it gave them the chance to play right through the fireworks display. It was quite an experience to see the fireworks display over the Ohio river while The Funky Meters ripped through Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner!

This featured video is a 26 minute edit of the set’s highlights, including the opening Cissy Strut, Chug-A-Lug, Africa, Doodle Oop (one of my favorite Meter’s tunes), The Star Spangled Banner, Fire On The Bayou, Just Kissed My Baby, and a blistering impromptu version of Jim Hendrix’s Purple Haze! Oh, and there are some fireworks on the video too…

I have to thank CMescia for sharing his audio recording (made with neumann mics) for this project. And i’d like to assure everyone that I will eventually get the full show posted as a DVD at thetradersden.org. For now, the full audio is available to download here: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=546918.

Finally, a shout-out to Rex-A-Vision who couldn’t make it out this night. I guess he just had too much fun at the Electric Forest festival the day before…

The Funky Meters October 8, 2000 Cincinnati, OH (VIDEO)

About ten years ago I packed some friends in my car and drove up to Cincinnati, Ohio to see The Funky Meters perform. The festival was free and they performed during the daytime, down by the river. The situation was ripe for my old Sony Digital Hi8mm video camera to capture it all. Ten years later it’s still one of my favorite videos. I used an external microphone (the same mic I still use today) so the sound quality is great, despite being a little “hot” due to the extreme volume (I can’t believe I didn’t wear earplugs back then!).

Poppa Funk Art Neville was still in good health and George Porter Jr was ten years younger. Russell Batiste played with focus and Brian Stoltz shredded with experience. I’ve decide to post the entire 80 minute video on youtube in 7 parts, and I am also seeding the full DVD here: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=347253
and here: http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=89869.

If you made it this far, then you probably know that The Funky Meters have been doing some shows recently with Brian Stoltz returning (after Ian Neville took over guitar duties for about 4 years). Here are links to some recent recordings:
1/14/11 NOLA @ Tipitina’s (Louie’s SBD + onstage matrix!!)
2/16/11 NYC @ Brooklyn Bowl
2/17/11 NYC @ Brooklyn Bowl

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