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morst's PITOWN 2008 (pt 2)

Labels: Crampout, Greg Lisher, Jonathan Segel, Kenny Margolis, Pappy and Harriet's, Pioneertown, Victor Krummenacher

morst's PITOWN 2007 (pt 5)

Saturday, Sept 8, 2007
I guess Saturday started sometime around late Friday night, somewhere around dawn, when the last few wakeful stragglers took a walk around Pioneertown, out to the post office, the ORIGINAL OK Corral, and to a peace circle in a resident's yard.









Recording Studio/Barn tour: There was talk of a tour of the barn where Kerosene Hat had been recorded. . . and it was true! A bunch of Crumbs and Hackensaw Boys got to go check out the big room! The previous year, MTP and IAMA2 were given a tour with Bugs Salcido of the place, but it was neat to get inside and check it out for ourselves.



From there, we went over to the beer garden at Pappy and Harriet's for the "Band Singing" which was actually the band SIGNING- all the members of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven were available to sign autographs and chit-chat a bit at this open event. This was one more bit of evidence that these bands are super-cool to their fans! They had a merch table set out, but you could bring in vintage stuff for them to sign too. People brought records, posters, old tour shirts, and other memorabilia for the guys to sign. ALSO Jonathan Segel's handprinted CD covers for HONEY arrived from artist Michael Wertz just in time, and were available for sale for the first time. I think I bought the first one, but since they were numbered, I chose #13/500 for myself. (The first ten went to Jon.)


The Outdoor Stage had a nice variety of acts performing under the desert sun, starting with Sixer, featuring Casey Martin on bass guitar. Casey is the on-again-off-again production manager and sound engineer for Camper and Cracker. Other than his turn on stage with Sixer, he spent the entire weekend mixing sound, mostly on the outdoor stage, but also doing some acts on the indoor one. The Sixer setlist was I'll take another drink so why don't you get yourself one?, Snake Oil Medecine, Truckstop Jesus, Ground Zero, Cedar St. Prison, and finishing with Sugar Water.

Next on the outdoor stage was the Darkmeat Family Band Galaxy. They are a WILD group, weird to look at with their faces all painted, and very complex-sounding, with lots of people on stage. Their set consisted of 5 songs: Freedom Ritual, Dead Man, No One Was There, One More Trip, and Three Eyes Open.


Meanwhile on the indoor stage, Sean Kennedy finally got a chance to play, having missed his slot on Friday. Here we show Sean in the obligatory "Horns" configuration. . .



Next up outdoors were the Hackensaw Boys from Charlottesville Virginia. They have toured with Camper and with David and Johnny's duo tours over the past couple years. Their setlist was Train 45, Dance Around, Blue Run, Radio, Gospel Plow, Baltimore, F.D.R., Oh, Girl, Blue-Eyed Girl, Too Much Time, Miner, Sweet Petunia, Cannonball, and finally Look Out Dog, Slow Down Train. I was glad they allow recording since I was indoors enjoying the Camper Van Beethoven members' solo sets!






Too much fun for one set of ears at the Pitown Crampout! Good thing I had some extra help with the recording gear! Jon Segel was kind enough to let me use his M-Audio Microtrack 2496 digital recorder to record the indoor stage sets featuring the music of the solo Campers.


First was Victor on guitar and vocals, with a set featuring songs from his older material, as well as a number of tunes off his 2007 release The Cock Crows At Sunrise: intro->Nocturne, Not Comin' Back, Sunday Morning Blues, Jack of Diamonds, The Southern Heights, Bittersweet, Motherless Child, Gulf Road, My Baby's Brown Hair, In Queen City The Girls Are Weeping. Joining Victor were Jon on Violin and Mandolin, Greg aka Gerg on the electric guitar, Chris Xefos on bass guitar, Kenny Margolis on accordian, and Andrew Griffin on drums.





Next, Victor switched to bass guitar and Greg "Gerg Rcoks" Lisher played an all-too-brief set of Feeling Cheap, By The Wayside, For Yourself, The Factory, and closing with I'm Sure You'd Understand. His new album TRAINS CHANGE was available at the merchandise booth at the campout, and is now available on his website at GregLisher.com.









The Camper solo sets finished up with Jonathan Segel's set: Orebro, Angels, I Love You, Greedy, Can't Help It, Enough Air, Gravity, Wonder Seeker, and Scars.
Personnel for the jes set was the same crew as Gerg's set, but with some different assignments:


Andrew Griffin - drums
Victor Krummenacher - bass
Greg Lisher - guitar
Jonathan Segel - guitar, vocals
Chris Xefos - guitar, keyboards, vocals












I did not hear much of Steven Brower or Teddy Quinn's set, but the minidisc managed to capture most of them. The minidisc recordings are the only things I have not really gotten through from this year's event, so the details of those sets will be forthcoming when I get a chance to do that.

That's all for this installment of the morst-blog, coming up next time will be Gram Rabbit, Cracker, Jason Molina, Porchstock IIIc featuring trombone solo after trombone solo. . . and some special stuff after that too. . .

Labels: Camper Van Beethoven, Casey Martin, Chris Xefos, Cracker, Dark Meat, Gerg Lisher, Gerg Rcoks, Greg Lisher, Hackensaw Boys, Jonathan Segel, Kenny Margolis, Pioneertown, Sixer, Victor Krummenacher