Jackie Greene’s annual three night holiday run at the CBC
Event: Jackie Greene three night CBC 2013 holiday run!
Location: Crown Room
Date: Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday, December 28th, 29th, 31st.
Time: December 28th & 29th Doors at 8:00 Show at 9:00
New Years Eve Doors at 9:00 Show at 10:00
Cost: Saturday, December 28th with The Mother Hips All Tickets $30.00. After party with Midnight North featuring Grahame Lesh.
Sunday, December 29th (seated solo and duo show with very limited capacity) $25.00. After party with Jason King Band
New Years Eve all tickets $45. After party with Fox Street Allstar
If it’s New Year’s Jackie Greene must be at the CBC. This New Year’s Eve marks the fourth consecutive holiday run of shows for Jackie and friends in the Crown Room. On Saturday, December 28th Jackie, his band and The Mother Hips open the run with sets by each band and collaborations throughout the evening. This is always one of the most fun shows of the year and sells out in advance. On Sunday, December 29th Jackie is featured solo and duo in a more intimate environment with only 250 tickets available for this seated show. Finally Jackie and his band bring in the New Year on December 31st with a show slated to start at 10:00 and carry over to 2014 with confetti, party favors and a free champagne toast at midnight.
Jackie Greene began his career in his mid-teens working the bar and open mic circuit in and around his hometown of Sacramento. Since then, he has recorded seven albums and two EP’s, released a DVD, and published a book of lyrics. Upon witnessing his performance at Bonnaroo, Jon Pareles of The New York Times had this to say about the singer, songwriter, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, “Jackie Greene could be the Prince of Americana. That’s capital P, and not because Mr. Greene favors the color purple but for some musical parallels.”
Jackie released his acoustic-laced breakthrough, Gone Wonderin’ in 2002, and followed it with two more albums, Rusty Nails and Sweet Somewhere Bound, on indie label Dig Records. In 2005, he contributed to the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, and a year later he issued his critically acclaimed Verve debut, American Myth, which he co-produced with Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin.
Greene’s career took an unexpected turn that year when Phil Lesh name-dropped him in an interview tied to Bonnaroo. They started talking and, a year later, Greene joined Phil & Friends, thrusting him in front of a new audience of open-minded music listeners and fastidious Deadheads.
In 2008, Greene made the move from Verve to Savoy and released Giving Up The Ghost, of which American Songwriter wrote, “Greene adroitly maneuvers the crannies of blues, folk, rock and soul with an impressive songwriting toolbox that uses a wide palette to express his simple, but not simplistic, tales.”
Small Tempest, an EP of originals, quickly followed Giving Up The Ghost. In 2010, he dropped another EP of Grateful Dead covers, and in the same year his solo and Deadhead worlds converged on the epic Till the Light Comes. Relix Magazine: “His latest album finds the maturing singer/songwriter offering a sojourn into his own psyche where the waters of human suffering prove difficult to navigate…weighty insights are balanced alongside fist-pumping rock-revelries (“Spooky Tina,” “Medicine”) so jubilant they create an album whose sum remains uplifting and accessible. Half pop, half poetic— and all good.”
In 2013, Jackie was asked to join The Black Crowes for their epic worldwide tour. It was through his work with Lesh that Greene entered the Crowes’ orbit as the bassist regularly brought singer Chris Robinson and keyboardist Adam MacDougall into the PL&F fold. Greene drifted deeper into the Dead world when his friendship with Robinson and Bob Weir resulted in a new trio. And, by chance, he also joined Trigger Hippy, a supergroup that features Joan Osborne and Crowes drummer Steve Gorman. When Luther Dickinson was unavailable to tour with the reformed Crowes, Greene was a natural choice.
In 2014, with the Crowes tour behind him, Greene has his eye set on a new solo album, his first in four years, and hitting the road again…as the Jackie Greene Band.
The Mother Hips
Bluhm is the tall, rugged, front man that pulls the listener in while Loiacono is the compact, explosive guitar ace that drives the music. But it’s their partnership — the unique, almost brotherly way they sing and play together — that defines the band.
When asked what makes this album special, the two bandleaders come at it from a different angle. Loiacono references the second track, “Freed From A Prison,” a song he wrote but that Bluhm sings, citing the ability to
let go of the song that made it work. “That song is about the concept of being freed from a prison you didn’t even know you were in,” he says. “It’s this idea of finally opening up to an experience that was there for you the whole time. To me, a lot of this album is like that.”
Bluhm says that making the music meaningful — going beyond just having a solid, well-played tune — is the most important thing for him. “It’s about making creative choices that are unconventional but that are still appealing that hopefully can reach the listener in a way they didn’t expect and affect parts of their heart and mind they didn’t expect to be affected by rock music, he says. I’m trying to make music that has a spiritual aspect where it’s more than just a good song and more than just a rocking band or a commodity, an emotional
experience that you might not even know is happening because it’s surrounded by a loud rock band.”
It all started in 1990 at California State University in Chico when Bluhm and Loaicano found themselves living in the same house, teaching each other guitar chords and experimenting with harmony. They didn’t realize it but they were laying the foundation for a sound, a style and a partnership that would last their entire lives. The Hips were signed to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings while still in college and released their debut in 1993, followed by 1995’s Part Timer Goes Full and 1996’s Shootout.
The band found themselves swept up into the life of major label touring, along with the heavy partying and relentless grind that has destroyed countless bands. Little promotion from the label found the Hips self-releasing 1998’s Later Days and regrouping as a band. Since then, they’ve gone on to release independent studio albums (Green Hills of Earth, Kiss The Crystal Flake, and Pacific Dust) and have cultivated one of the most rabid and loyal fan bases in rock today. Focusing on quality rather than quantity, the Hips returned from a four-year hiatus (2001 – 2005) to find that they were more popular than ever.
The core line-up of the band has remained stable since 2004, Bluhm, Loiaconco and drummer John Hofer. In 2011, Paul Hoaglin left the band and Frank Zappa and Fear bassist Scott Thunes joined the Hips. These days, the Mother Hips have changed their approach to touring, playing 80 shows a year rather than hundreds, concentrating on well-defined tour markets rather than staying out for long hauls.
Today the Hips are free; they make their own schedule, recording and touring when it feels right. They’re a successful independent business as well, having built up a loyal following and community for their sound and gaining the respect of their peers and critics along the way. Bluhm coined the term “California Soul” back in 1998 with the song “Gold Plated” when he sang: “There’s some boys I know/ who play that rock & roll / they’ve slept on a lot of floors / to get that California Soul.” Flash forward nearly two decades. The term has stuck and they’re proud of the monicker.
“California isn’t just a state,” explains Bluhm. “It’s a psychic idea … the end of the frontier. It’s not just a place; it’s a style and a state of mind.”
The same thing can be said about the Mother Hips.
Tickets for all three Jackie Greene shows are available on our events page, by phone at 775.833.6333 or at the Crystal Bay Casino. Early purchase is advised as these shows will sell out. The Crystal Bay Crown Room is a No Smoking Venue. Sunday’s show is seated while the show on Saturday, December 28th and New Year’s Eve are standing room only. All Crystal Bay Casino shows are 21 and over.
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