Jackie Greene’s Skinny Singers live in San Francisco with Phil Lesh

Around this time last year I wrote about a new side project of Sacramento, CA bluesy-rock wunderkind musician Jackie Greene called the Skinny Singers. This is a collaborative project between 26 year-old Greene and SF musician Tim Bluhm of the Mother Hips. I’ve been waiting for something new from Greene and this fantastic show from last month at The Independent in San Francisco fits the bill perfectly.

According to reviewer Dennis Cook who was there: “There’s almost nothing better than knowing with dead certainty the folks making music are having a grand time. Their voices – rootsy, high, lonesome and evergreen – meshed like Everly Brothers from different mamas. The trio swapped instruments freely, Greene being especially liquid, jumping from guitar to keys to bass as the song dictated.”

Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead also joined the band on 4 songs, doing bass and vocals.

THE SKINNY SINGERS
09/13/07
The Independent, San Francisco, CA
Soundboard recording
Goin’ Home Again
Infinity Blues
Heroes, Hear Me
Nothing Comes From Nothing
Where the Rain Don’t Go
Dirty Pharmacy
Silver Key
Baby’s Got a Mustache
Tim’s Story
Dear Wild Animal
Mexican Girl
Stoned Up the Road
Down in the Valley Woe
Gone Wanderin’*
Friend of the Devil*
Ripple*
Sugaree*

Lineup: Tim Bluhm (guitar, vocals, bass, drums), Jackie Greene (guitar, vocals, keys, bass, drums), Mike Curry (drums, vocals), *Phil Lesh (bass, vocals)

Stream it here, thanks to the original taper

Jackie Greene is currently on tour with Phil Lesh, and in addition to the new Skinny Singers album Strike Again! (out now, recorded at their San Francisco Mission Bells studio), Greene also has a new EP available for sale only at his shows called “Small Tempest.” This summer he also released a retrospective called Jackie Greene: The DIG Years 2001-2005 (the years before he was signed to Verve Forecast) with previously unreleased material.

This video I took of him last summer in Boulder is still one of my favorite videos to watch – love this song (off of his album American Myth) and the panache with which he plays it:

JACKIE GREENE: SO HARD TO FIND MY WAY

[direct link to video]