Is the majority of the repertoire Band songs?

It’s mostly Band stuff. But I did “Caravan” by Van Morrison. We did a version of “I Shall Be Released” that was similar to the Band’s but also kind of different. There were a lot of cool covers. Dave Malone did “This Wheel’s On Fire,” which is a Band song but we had a special guest vocalist doing it. We approached it differently from song to song.

What did The Last Waltz and the Band’s music mean to you as an individual? Was that an influence on you early on? Did it make a big impact on you musically?

When I was a kid, everybody had The Last Waltz triple album in their collection. They were mostly people my brother’s age, older than me because I had two older brothers. One was three years older, one was five years older. So everybody we hung out with had The Last Waltz album. So we would hear it a lot long before I ever saw the movie, and when I finally saw the movie it was so intense to have all those people in one place that were all connected to the Band’s music. I think that music is more important now to me and to a lot of people more now than it was then.

You’ve been a part of so many great bands, be it your solo material, the music you make with Gov’t Mule, and of course the ongoing role you’ve played with the Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. You could have done tributes connected with those bands and their classic albums.

This opportunity came up because it was the 40th anniversary of The Last Waltz and it was something we were all excited about doing. The one-off version exceeded our expectations and we decided to keep it going a bit longer. I’m very excited it’s going to happen, and of course I was very close to Levon the last 15 years of his life and I really loved him and loved playing music with him as much as possible. We celebrated his 70th birthday with him at Mountain Jam a few years back and we had a lot of guests join us for that. It just feels right. It just feels natural.

Speaking of which, can you give us some idea of what you have on your slate for the coming months and the new year?

We’re just wrapping up a new Gov’t Mule album, which, if all goes well, we’ll have out sometime in May. So once that’s out, we’ll be touring with Gov’t Mule for the next year, year and a half or so. We’ll be going to Europe and Japan and all over the world to spread the word. Of course, there’s always other projects going on, but that will be the main focus for me from that time forward.

Are you ever home?

These days it’s either work or family, and those are the two things I focus on. When I’m not working, I’m home with family and I don’t really have a lot going on beyond that.

It seems like you would have to set aside time to be with the family because you tour so much. It must be a challenge.

It’s a challenge but I’ve gotten better and better with dealing with it through the years. I have a five year old son now, and when he was born we started looking at ways to keep me home more and gradually my schedule will slow down more. But as long as things are exciting and pertinent, I really enjoy my work and I feel fortunate to be able to do it.

Pages:« Previous Page