Photo by Allison Murphy
The house lights stayed on for John Bell’s short set, completely acoustic, and pulled at my heartstrings. There is something about this man’s voice, something about him on his guitar, just made this part of the night so special for me. It was the “quiet down moment” of the evening.
Gregg Allman and Friends came next, and Gregg’s friends were: Warren, JoJo Herman, Audley Freed, Ivan Neville, Cody Dickinson plus a few others, on the stage for the first song, “Midnight Rider.” After this, Gregg plugged his new album and the date released is January 21. Check it!
“Dreams” with Ron Holloway on the sax brought this Allmans’ staple to another sexy, sultry level. Audley Freed played his solo, Ron wailed on the sax, and then Warren played slide guitar to round out the ballad. For me, the equation was: Sax + ABB + Ron Holloway = Bliss.
John Bell and Gregg Allman sang “Just like a Woman” and the slowness of the song was romantic – I looked around the arena to see couples arm in arm, swaying – the whole place was swaying. It was late now, after 1am. The place had cleared, a bit, but not much.
Gregg on acoustic guitar for “Melissa” was tender and beautiful before the set ended with “Key to the Highway.” Steve Miller and Warren exchanged solos, while Gregg soulfully sang it, and tossed the vocals to Warren, who then tossed to Steve. This was the warm up to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band All Star crazy Jam that was about to go down.
By this time, I figure it was about 2/2:30 am, the schedule was blown and I was floating, in musical overload heaven and my buddies were getting tired. Granted, we were there at 6 pm, had been standing since 3:30 pm over at the Emerald. We are not teeny boppers anymore – yes my legs were hurting as well, but I heeded it no mind as the adrenaline coursed through my body – music rush overtaking the bodily pain.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band closed the Jam, as they opened the Pre Jam the night before, bookending what was another successful Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam. There were a dozen people on the stage before the Dirty Dozen even showed up and I couldn’t count them all. I dropped my buddies off in some seats to enjoy the last set but I couldn’t stay seated – there was no way I could chair dance while this NOLA Brass, guitar craziness was going down.
The night was peppered with many men screaming “Who Dat?” in and out of the arena, in line for the beer, and up and down the ramp to go to the smoking area. From covering Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” to Bill Withers’ “Use Me.” the evening ended in a musical explosion, fireworks, with countless guests coming on the stage. By 3:30 am, the stage had cleared, all gazillion musicians had finished playing, the Civic Center was quiet and I sat down, finally, looking down at the cleared out hall. The snow was falling in huge snowflakes as we left the Civic Center, and I heard someone say “It ain’t Christmas Jam if it ain’t snowing, man.”
Next year I’ll bring warmer clothes, better snow boots and will prepare for the Jam with plenty of sleep before I get to Asheville. Now I know, there is no sleep for the Christmas Jam.
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