Like a lot of kids I had no time for my Mom’s music once I
was a teenage. I grew up in a trailer
park Cheyenne Wyoming
and my Mom’s taste in music leaned to the 70’ country side of things. I heard tons of Willie, Waylon, Johnny
Paycheck, Joe South, Jerry Jeff Walker, Johnny Horton, Hank Williams, basically
all the greats. On the other hand I know that she
like the Beatles as much as she liked Willie Nelson.
I spent the 80’s and 90’s listening to all variety of music
that wasn’t remotely country sounding. Hair
metal, thrash metal, doom, industrial, 90’s alternative, hardcore, indie rock
stuff. It took the Supersuckers
releasing a country album, and seeing Denver’s
own Slim Cessna to perk my ear up to anything that sounded remotely twangy
again.
As I was sticking my toe back in to those musical waters I
discovered Drag The River. I saw then open for two different shows with in a week of
each other and I was hooked. If I recall correctly they were on the bill with Slim Cessna
one night and BR549 the other. That was
it. I bought what was their only release
at the time Hobo Demos and was hooked.
Closed came out not too long after that and I’ve never looked back.
I've been a big fan ever since. I only regret that I didn't catch on sooner.
My discovery of Drag The River also coincided with the start
of my hobby of recording audio of live shows.
I started kind of primitively with some lower end recording devices and
microphones that I clipped to my glasses.
It wasn’t until a few years later that I discovered that DTR didn’t mind
being recorded and I stepped up the production values with better microphones
and recording techniques.
Back in the early 00’s I saw Drag The River so many times
that I would only recorded every other show.
Still I managed to amass a pretty big archive of live recordings. I would estimate that I have 30 or 40 recordings of the
band. That includes various incarnations
of the band, Jon and Chad sets, shows where Chad plays bass, solo shows from both Jon and Chad.
This is a set of recordings from 2001 to 2004 mostly with a
couple slightly newer ones thrown in too.
Most of these recordings are mine but some where done by other people. I know one of the Fox shows was recorded by
Jimmy Nomad. They other credits escape
me. Thanks to the other tapers that
contributed though.
Tracks were picked based on various criteria. Some are songs that they just never play any
more. Some are just takes of songs that
I particularly loved. I was trying to
come up with a summation of these when I was listening through the other night
and ended up with a pretty free form description.
Soundboards, room mics, combinations of the two.
Hot shows, drunken nights, guest shots & shout outs
1st time and maybe last times for some songs
Chatty dicks, drunk chicks & dudes
Flubbed lines, fun ad libs, and angry bartenders
I had originally combined these tracks for Jon Snodgrass to
check out. Being that his perspective on these songs and shows is from a
performers stand point he didn’t fall in love with all of these takes. He hears and remembers things that I just don’t
pick up on from a fan’s perspective. But
he gave me his blessing to go ahead and post it up for you all to check
out. He would like you to know that he
still feels bad for dedicating their set at the Stardust Lounge in Downey
California to the bartender. He was just trying to be nice but it turned
out that she really did hate live music and just got more infuriated.
Thanks to Jon Snodgrass and Chad Price for all the
years of entertainment and for basically becoming the soundtrack to my existence
for a good part of this century. Thanks to all of the other people that have been in the band
as well.
J.J. Nobody, Zach
Boddicker, Dave Barker, Casey Prestwood, Paul Rucker, Karl Alvarez, and anyone
else that I have forgotten to put on this list.
Check out their goings on here
http://www.dragtheriver.com/
And go buy some of their music here.
http://www.dragtheriver.com/merchandise.htm
They are recording a new album at the moment and could use the funds.
So here is it warts and all.
A for the fans by the fans Drag The River compilation. Hope you enjoy it. Dan Utter and I did a lot of work
listening to all of these shows. Picking
out the takes that we found the most interesting and remastering the raw
originals WAVs. Here is what Dan himself
has to say about it.
This was mastered in a
house high on a mountain, a multi month labor of love. All tracks were
converted to 8 track stereo. De-crackled, De-hummed, De-essed and de
noised to the best level I could. And finally put back together warts and all. There
are alot of years here and a few incarnations of the band. A great
band. One that brought back my interest in music after being burned out
from it in Seattle in the 90's. Thanks buddies
Thanks to Victoria Woodworth for her iron stomach and the photo
of the Waffle House dish.
Enjoy
Drag The River
Live Archive Vol.1
Scattered, Country, and Covered
01 Disbelieve
02 Lucky Joe's
03 Disclaimer
04 So Long Hoss
05 Oxes And Horses
06 Portland
(Replacements)
07 Columbus
Stockade Blues (Traditional)
08 Losing Letters
09 Seaminer
10 Back To God
11 Dirty Lips
12 Crocodile
13 A Shame
14 Next Time Not Around
15 Calloused Heart No.2
16 Medicine
17 Deminer
18 Modern Drunkard
19 Beautiful And Damned
20 Life Of Ruin
21 Ride Me Down Easy (Billy Joe Shaver)
22 Can't Hardly Wait (Replacements)
23 Down The Road (Steve Earle)
24 Johnny Come Lately (Steve Earle)
25 Rocking On The Country Side Of Town (Howard Eisberg)
Track Source
01 - The Stardust Lounge, Downey,
CA 5-8-2002
02 - The Gothic Theater, Englewood, CO 11-07-2002
03,21 - 15th Street
Tavern, Denver, CO 3-22-2002
04,20 - Larimer Lounge, Denver, CO 3-14-2003
05 - Hi Dive, Denver, CO 6-12-2007
06,07,13,17,19 - Benders Tavern, Denver, CO 10-1-2005
08,22,23 - Fox Theater, Boulder, CO 9-19-2003
09 - Larimer Lounge, Denver, CO 6-9-2006
10 - The Aggie, Ft Collins, CO 11-08-2002
11 - Fox Theater, Boulder, CO 3-11-2004
12 - Lion's Lair, Denver, CO 2-25-2005
14 - Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO 1-17-2001
15,16,24 - Fox Theater, Boulder, CO 1-29-2002
18 - Alley Katz, Richmond, VA
11-15-2006
25 - Starlight, Ft Collins, CO 2-20-2003
