Lettuce, moe. and Oteil Burbridge‘s Oteil & Friends headlined the inaugural Suwannee Rising Music Festival this past weekend. The new event took place between Thursday and Saturday at the Spirit Of The Suwannee Music Festival in Live Oak, Florida.
The action started on Thursday with sets from The New Mastersounds, The Fritz, Melody Trucks Band and more. The New Mastersounds teamed with vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. for a set that included a cover of The Allman Brothers Band’s “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” Williams is the son of one-time ABB bassist Lamar Williams. The Allman Brothers Band extended family was also represented by Melody Trucks, the daughter of Allmans’ drummer Butch Trucks, who welcomed Lamar Williams Jr. for “Don’t Keep Me Wondering” and dedicated a tune to the late Col. Bruce Hampton. Melody told the crowd Col. Bruce taught her how to be weird. In addition, The Fritz honored Kurt Cobain, one day before the 25th anniversary of his death, with a cover of Nirvana’s “Lithium.”
Oteil Burbridge made the rounds on Friday as not only did he lead Oteil & Friends, but he also sat-in with Lettuce as did Ghost-Note‘s Robert “Sput” Searight. Burbridge was joined for the Oteil & Friends set by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, drummer John Kimock and guitarists Scott Metzger and Neal Casal. The quintet mixed songs from The Allman Brothers Band, The Band and the Grateful Dead with tunes from the Jerry Garcia Band repertoire. Suwannee Rising organizer Paul Levine introduced the set and shared memories of past events at the scenic site including Bear Creek and Wanee and also acknowledged the passing of Kofi Burbridge. Ghost Note dedicated a song from their set at the festival’s Porch Stage to Kofi.
moe., Lettuce, Dumpstaphunk, Ghost-Note and Ben Sparaco And The New Effect were among the acts to close out year one of Suwannee Rising on Saturday. The final set of the weekend belonged to Lettuce and the Suwannee veterans treated attendees to a career-spanning performance dedicated to Kofi Burbridge featuring such classics as “Madison Square,” “Lettsanity” and “The Force.” Suwannee Rising hosted a marathon moe. set that started and ended with “Rebubula.” In between, the band mixed it up with oldies “Bearsong,” “Opium” and “Lazarus” among the songs included within. moe. said farewell with a “Recreational Chemistry” encore. Florida’s own Holey Miss Moley took the Porch Stage in between sets from moe. and Lettuce with a performance that contained a guest spot from Melody Trucks. Dumpstaphunk’s set featured guest spots from bassist MonoNeon on Parliament’s “Up For The Down Stroke” and Nigel Hall of Lettuce on the original “Gasman.”
Check out a handful of videos shot by RexAVision’s Rex Thomson via Live For Live Music:
