Save what I've typed, revert to full screen and a quick bathroom break brings me back in time to catch the ensemble in the process of settling one of those sanctified grooves from the album (at least I think it's from the album). Having started like they're still tuning up with instruments gradually meshing in, suddenly we're away in full flight.
Listening (and more importantly watching the nods and hand gestures) there's a definite feeling that The Word works through the rest of the band interacting with Mr Randolph.
They mightn't necessarily see it that way, but to me Randolph's pedal steel is the thread that holds it all together (along with the rhythm section, of course) as Randolph, Luther Dickinson and John Medeski play off each other.
The band is the North Mississippi Allstars (Luther Dickinson on guitar, Cody Dickinson drums and Chris Chew, a huge man, on bass) with added solo input through Randolph and John Medeski's keyboards, mainly B3 but there are a few others there as well.
But in most senses Randolph's the star of the show. Dickinson's no slouch and Medeski contributes some very fine playing, but I don't think I've ever seen someone with the sheer joie de vivre that Randolph pumps out in spades.
While I haven't seen all that much of him, Randolph almost invariably seems to be having the time of his life, and it's fascinating to watch him in action while someone else is soloing. He's there sniffing around the edges, looking for a little space to sneak in a lick here, a punctuating note there.
Around half way through the set Randolph switches to a Les Paul, and, interestingly, there isn't much difference in the overall sound, though some of the distinctive pedal steel licks are missing. Towards the end Chris Chew comes to the microphone to sing When I Lay My Burden Down, and the set concludes with Joyous Sounds. Title says it all, really.
6:00 Faced with a half hour setup for The Black Keys and the prospect of Mr Randolph sitting in with the Allmans, I decide to give the next bit a miss and retreat to the cot for a bit more sleep.
As it turns out, The Black Keys are one of three acts that aren’t participating in the webcast. The others are Govt Mule (sound man refuses access to an audio feed, and pictures won’t be much good without sound) and Derek and Susan’s new band (record company apparently causing the difficulty there).
Rising about seven-thirty I'm feeling good, and once I've had a shower and Madam has relinquished the laptop and we've finished the setup. Whoever they used to fill in for The Black Keys are into their last number and I'm into rustling up the regular Sunday morning Pasta Carbonara. I'd just about finished eating at 8:39 when the audience noise level surged and the various Panic merchants wandered onto the stage.
Starting off with Bell on mandolin, the next two and a quarter hours are a pleasant continuation of yesterday's groove. Over the space of about four and a half hours I've gone from a mild awareness of WSP, to a recognition that they're a fine little ensemble to the point of making them down as needing to be investigated to heading over to iTunes to check how much stuff is available there. As expected there's a swag, so further research will definitely be needed so I can figure out where to start.
Guest spots from Luther Dickinson and Warren Haynes towards the end were rather spectacular, but throughout the set I found myself reflecting on the weight that goes onto Mr Herring's shoulders. He handles it well, but it'd be interesting to see what would happen if he had another player to spark off.
WSP finished around 10:44, which gave the opportunity to resume typing, and half an hour later I was back in front of the screen, note pad and pen close at hand.
11:20 With definite signs of an approaching start I settle down for the ABB set having spent a while during WSP compiling a list of likely suspects. It wasn't something I set out to do any conscious research for, just a list of titles jotted down as I thought of them.
Figuring that it's a festival-type gig, and that most of tonight's crowd would have been on site yesterday I felt it was safe to assume that there'll be no repetition in the set list. I figure that we'll see a tendency towards classics rather than interesting rarely played tracks.