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Burlington Jazz Fest Discovers Water For Gasoline

June 29, 2017 - By Brando Rich

Article written by Martin Kelley

Photos taken by Sean Reen

Early in the month of June, Burlington had it's annual Discover Jazz Festival. Outdoor stages grace Church St. and there are a lot of special shows going on at the local bars, breweries, and nightclubs. It's a great time to embrace the warmer weather with a lot of fun and music, and goes on over the course of two weekends and the days in between. This year, one of the most talked about late shows was Water For Gasoline.

Taking it's name from a Howlin' Wolf song, and basically a preemptive strike on the second weekend of the festivities, WFG brought together the combined guitar power of Seth Yacovone and Bob Wagner with Alex Budney on bass, Steve Hadeka on drums, and Mike Fried on the keys...becoming a supergroup with the members of the Seth Yacovone Band as the foundation. Seth and Bob are two of Vermont's great guitar players. It's not often you can catch them on the same stage. Many of us were treated to their teamwork during Freeze A Peach: A Vermont Celebration Of The Allman Brothers Band where they glided through the dual melodies of several ABB tunes. So those in the know, knew that this was gonna be a special concert.

The very opening notes set the tone for what turned out to be a deep, gritty, and grimy set of the blues. The bassist turning his low string down even lower for the pulsing and crunchy intro of Baby Please Don't Leave Me (more inspired by the Buddy Guy version than the Jr. Kimbrough original) hit with full force, using every thing the subwoofers in the bar had to give. Letting the audience know that these guys meant serious business that night.

They moved into numbers by Willie Dixon, The Bobby Blue Band, Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Freddie Kind, Mississippi John Hurt, The Beatles, and a timely nod to Col. Bruce Hampton's version of Bukka White's Fixin' To Die.

One of the highlights of the show was during the second set, when they busted out Frank Zappa's Willie The Pimp>Bamboozled By Love>Magic Fingers>Willie The Pimp Reprise. That brought back memories of Wade-Yacovone-Wade, a trio that would play FZ and Jimi Hendrix covers. The energy of the show was climbing to some high highs at that point and the floor was shaking with a bunch of sweaty and practically hypnotized fans.

It shows the mark of good entertainers when the whole band can share duties and take turns complimenting one another, and there was no shortage of that at this show. The solid rhythm work of Alex and Steve, and the deep and funky soul of Mike's keys giving a perfect sonic platform for the guitars, showed that no one was slacking one bit.

In a show of mostly covers of blues traditionals, Bob and Seth each brought out an original tune. Earlier in the first set Bob sang his tune,I've Been Down. For the encore, after Bob took the lead and vocals on a great rendition of ABB's Whipping Post, Seth brought the house down with his very bluesy number, The Shortest Route To Heaven Is The Bomb.

It was a show that people could not stop talking about the next day, when the Friday night events were taking off. A lot of folks that didn't make it wished they had of. And those that had were glad they did. So many were looking forward to that arrangement, and they didn't disappoint...but anyone in the know already knew that they wouldn't.

The setlist that follows indicates the original artist of the tunes, as well as the version that inspired Water For Gasoline's renditions.

Set 1

-Baby Please Don't Leave Me (Jr. Kimbrough/Buddy Guy)

-Further On Up the Road (Bobby Blue Bland)

-Fixin' to Die (Bukka White/ Col. Bruce and ARU)

-Goin' Down Slow (Willie Dixon/Bobby Blue Bland)

-Down Along the Cove (Bob Dylan)

-Dreams (Allman Brothers Band)

-Who's Been Talkin' (Howlin' Wolf)

-Champagne and Reefer (Muddy Waters)

-I've Been Down (Bob Wagner)

-Goin' Down (Freddie King)

Set 2

-Willie the Pimp->Bamboozled By Love->Magic Fingers->Willie the Pimp Reprise (Frank Zappa)

-Stand Back (Allman Brothers Band)

-I asked for Water She Brought Me Gasoline (Howlin' Wolf)

-Make Me a Pallet Down On Your Floor (Mississippi John Hurt/Wood Brothers)

-Fourty Four (Howlin' Wolf)

-Yer Blues (The Beatles)

-Whipping Post (The Allman Brothers Band)

-Shortest Route to Heaven is the Bomb (Seth Yacovone)