RSJ 08 Recap Photo Link Added!

[katreich]

After having a day to recuperate, it’s time to give a report on this year’s Riverside Jam.
I co-hosted this time around with my good friends Max and Michael Lescher, in Fox Lake IL, which is about 50 miles north of Chicago in the Chain of Lakes region. The Lescher ‘s recently moved into a home with a four car garage, which served as a perfect venue for rehearsing and jamming.
This years participants were as follows:

David Hodge
Karen Berger
Greg Nease
Nick Torres
Jose Velez
Mike Roberto
Mike’s nephew Derek (sorry, can’t remember the last name)
Tony Nuccio
Anne Oneil
Helena Bouchez
Paul McKenna
Laura Lasley
Dan Lasley
Michael Lescher
Max Lescher
Kathy Reichert
John Reichert

Once we had a clear idea of who was coming, I sent out a call for set captains. Each captain got to choose 6 songs. Or a half hour, whichever came first. Captains could choose from any of the people above to play on their set. There was a lot of e-mail back and forth with charts, etc, until the captains had a pretty good idea of what they would play.

The earliest arrivals starting coming in Thursday afternoon, and after helping unload and set up the PA system we were off. We had a break for dinner and then more practice, more arrivals.
Friday , more arrivals, more practice, with a brief break in the afternoon for a dip in the pool.
I always tell people that the RSJ is like musical boot camp, a lot of fun, but work too! I always come away with a new chord or a new song.

Saturday was more practice, with people splintering off to practice on the deck, and a complete run through of all the sets for the nights performance. Then we were off to the night’s venue, Jimmy V’s for the performance. Since several of us were local, were able to get friends and family as part of the audience. (never hurts!)
The set lists were as follows. Please guys, help me out if I omit anything, or add anything that wasn’t there.

David/Dan
Rain
Sapphire (Hodge)
City of New Orleans
In the Sun
Takin Care of Business
You Me and Julio

Anne/Paul
Girl from Ipanema
More Than You Know
Smooth
Fly Me to the Moon
Lido Shuffe
It’s Probably Me
Ain’t Misbehavin

Mike R
Heatwave
Let It Grow
Dancing With the Stars (Roberto/Reichert)
One Step Forward (Roberto/Reichert)
Something

Tony
Lodi
Rich Woman
Fade Away
Bertha Lou
300 Lbs of Heavenly Joy

Michael
Story in Your Eyes
Handle With Care
Piano Thru the Ceiling (Reichert)
Shimmering (Lescher)
Gone at Last
50’s Medley.

Greg
Pretty in Pink
Supernova
Safe European Home
I wanna Be Sedated
Paint it Black
Time Bomb

Nick/Kathy
Second Chances (Reichert)
No Reflection (Reichert)
Sexy Little Man (Reichert)
Allyson
Sultans of Swing

And a big group finish with
The Weight
Two Hangmen
Twist and Shout/La Bamba
As you can see every musical genre was represented. Where else can you get Sinatra and Rancid on the same bill? We had jazz, swing, blues ,classic rock, oldies rock, gospel, R&B and originals.
Stand outs for me were Annes blistering congas on Julio, Jose channeling his inner Sinatra on Fly Me to the Moon, David’s swing version of Taking Care of Business, Pauls vocals on Smooth, and Lido Shuffle, Tony and Laura nailing Rich Woman, Nick’s Time Bomb (the only time I have ever seen my son sing along on a song I was performing!) ,me getting to belt out Heat Wave, and singing Piano through the Ceiling with Michael, who was the inspiration for the song, as well as getting my husband John up on bass for One Step Foreward.

Sunday was a much more laid back affair, as everyone was pretty wiped out. My voice was strained to say the least. I was able to sing Dancing Barefoot in EM with no trouble at all! By early evening everyone started packing up to go. Time to get started on next year’s plans!

[Nick]

I've started uploading video to my youtube page

http://www.youtube.com/NFShakespeare

I had a blast...

Check out Mike Roberto on Something....

I haven't uploaded any of your stuff yet Kathy.

[Dan T.]

Sounds like it was a blast. Wish I'd have known about it. I'm just over the boarder in Central Wisconsin. I would have stopped down.

Dan

[rparker]

Looks and sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for posting the link too. I'll check back for more.

Say, would any of you who did this happen to have the chart for Girl from Ipanema that you did?

[Vic Lewis VL]

Wow, some great songs - and performances of same - there! Like Roy said, looks like you had a great time. Hope there's more video to upload yet!



Vic

[gnease]

As always, a good time! This year, I went with a punkier/rockier set and avoided perpetual lead playing duty in favor of grunting barre and 5th chord rhythms. Pretty funny watching the vids. We've been getting pretty unflappable when things go wrong. If you watch SuperNova, Tony and I (guitarists) talk while playing. Went something like this: "Tony, you missed the two measure lead and now we're already into the verse and Kathy's not singing. Take a lead. Now!" As some may know fromt the tunes, there is one profane word in my entire set (down from about fifty in the orginal set list), yet Kathy manages to changes the lyrics so she gets to say it twice. Wonder what Kathy was thinking about. Oh yeah ... I bought that d@mn autowah pedal just to hear Kathy (or Nick ) sing SuperNova. Totally worth it.

In my set: thanks to Helena, Kathy, David, Nick,Tony, Michael and Derek-the-drummer for learning all their parts in a day and really delivering. Of course, David already knew his, but thanks to him for stepping up as usual.

Other sets: Thanks for including me in your various tunes. And even though Smooth is not my fave Santana tune by a lot, I really enjoyed playing lead to complement Peter's vocals.

[katreich]

greg wrote:
" there is one profane word in my entire set (down from about fifty in the orginal set list), yet Kathy manages to changes the lyrics so she gets to say it twice. Wonder what Kathy was thinking about. "

Nick, I was thinking about Nick. It was the beard. I couldn't control myself.

[Nick]

Well that answers the question of now that I can shave, should I?

If it wasn't for that damn man code....

[Ricochet]

Well that answers the question of now that I can shave, should I?

If it wasn't for that darn man code....

I haven't since I got to the beach, which means I likely won't when I get back.

[greybeard]

Nick, I was thinking about Nick. It was the beard. I couldn't control myself.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooKkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy.

[Nick]

...but enough about me.

ROTFLMAO

Can you believe I said that? You didn't really believe me did you?

Yes, well, the beard was a result of the bike accident. I couldn't raise my right arm high enough to shave more than the lower half of my face. The one time I tried to shave I ended up looking like an Amish Elvis impersonator. Shaving lefty, I discovered, caused me to lose more blood than sliding over the concrete.

back to the Riverside Jam....this one had more amazing jam moments than any other one I've been to.

[Laz]

... this one had more amazing jam moments than any other one I've been to.

There certainly were many:

Helena stepping up for "Bertha Lou". Plus she can play Sultan's in her sleep (bass).

Kathy and Micheal "interacting" on "Piano through the Ceiling".

Tony and Greg trading licks.

Laura singing "Stormy Monday".

Mike Roberto stepping off-stage to get his solos right. Tasty too.

And don't forget the slide guitar-ist and bass player dropping in on Sunday. That Em jam became a free for all - fun to listen to.

I think it was great that the set-leaders picked out a lot of songs that had not been played at this Jam before. It was impressive to hear these songs played so well on one rehearsal.

[katreich]

Greg, that was Paul singing on Smooth, Peter was the sound guy. (although I've heard him do it too!)
Roy, David had to do a last minute transposition on Ipanema, so when he's back in town I'm sure he can get you a copy.
Anne sang the first verse in Portuguese, by the way!

[rparker]

Awesome. I bet that was neat. I hope we get to see a vid of that too.

[gnease]

Greg, that was Paul singing on Smooth, Peter was the sound guy. (although I've heard him do it too!)
Roy, David had to do a last minute transposition on Ipanema, so when he's back in town I'm sure he can get you a copy.
Anne sang the first verse in Portuguese, by the way!

Thanks -- of course it was Paul. Can't mistake that voice. I keep calling both Tony and Paul by Peter -- even after all these years.