The Great American Quarantine Tour: Week Two

5 more commanding performances from the neverending living room concert

March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 Ron Hart 0 Comments Alexis P. Suter, Allman-Betts Band, Corona, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devon Allman, Diplo, Tilly Foster, Tim Fogarty, Yo-Yo Ma

Another week in the pokey during the Great American Quarantine means another round of online music performances from housebound artists all over the country.

It’s crazy and uncertain out there, but this sort of National “Time Out” as we wait for COVID-19 to run its course has been alleviated by the grace of all these talented people out there. Whether it’s the cast of Big Mouth doing a table read online or Neil Young’s Fireside concerts to South Florida musician Tom Charron’s showcase for local talent on Facebook, there is no shortage of art, music and culture to consume out there.

Here are five I caught this week on the socials that really captured my attention over the last few days.

Devon Allman

To see the Allman-Betts Band in full flight while opening for Charlie Daniels at the Beacon last November is just a stunning exercise of the spiritual connection between fathers and their sons in seeing Devon and Duane channel their dads through their own natural, individualistic patterns as performers of their own identities. But then you see Mr. Allman truly embody the soul of Gregg the singer-songwriter as this stirring solo acoustic performance from his We Are Still All Together concert series, which you need to bookmark yesterday.

Check it out here.

Tim Fogarty

This dude right here is my homeboy from way back. He went to the high school next to ours upstate, but we became true bros when we both attended SUNY New Paltz in the mid-90s. Back then, he was all about Bad Religion and The Misfits. These days, however, this single dad and full-time NYC fireman co-leads the Hudson Valley string band Tilly Foster, whose roots exist somewhere between The Punch Brothers and The Seldom Scene. But as this half-hour solo set from his dining room table shows, few men can split the difference between Greg Graffin and David Grisman quite like Tim. Check it out here., and stay for Tilly Foster mandolin player Mike Colucci’s set that just went down tonight as I write this. He just wrapped up a killer version of “Sailin’ Shoes” just now.

Mother Suter

With all due respect to the giants who came out of the Daptone Records multiverse, there is no one who does classic Brooklyn soul blues better than Alexis P. Suter. Clearly she gets her MOJO from her mom, an accomplished gospel singer who sang background vocals for such legends as Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Harry Belafonte and so many more. In celebration of her 98th birthday, Alexis posted this pair of performances of her mom at the family piano playing a pair of her favorite hymnals, her voice as mighty now as it was 80 years ago.

Diplo

There are a metric ton of DJs out there sitting at home with a wall of vinyl behind them and a makeshift setup for their rig like the family butcher block or whatever. And they are all as spinning sets for us of everything imaginable. So if one of them has a link to their Venmo on screen, you should bless a kid with a couple of dollars FYE. Diplo is a rich man now who does not need your cookie cash. But he is a DJ bored at home just like the kid up the block. And if you are a fan of old school Florida-era Diplo, you will certainly dig his Coronight Fever series, if only to remind yourself just what a master stylist he is on the turntables.

VIDEO: Diplo Coronight Fever (Livestream no. 1)

VIDEO: Diplo’s Coronight Fever (Livestream no. 2)

Yo-Yo Ma

The tragic ruthlessness of the Coronavirus across Italy reached 10,000 in its death toll as I write this. Speaking as one of the millions Italian-Americans living in the New York Metropolitan area, its been an especially painful experience witnessing what’s happening to the country’s citizens–people who might even have familial blood running through their veins. But the sorrow felt for Italy is as worldwide as this pandemic, and can be deeply felt in this beautiful rendition of music from the maestro Ennio Morricone’s Golden Globe Award winning score to the 1998 film The Legend of 1900 as part of his “Days of Comfort” concert series.

For Italy.
Per l'Italia.
Morricone, from "The Legend of 1900" ("La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano")#SongsOfComfort pic.twitter.com/kgdtBHsZOS

— Yo-Yo Ma (@YoYo_Ma) March 27, 2020