"W" Musicians and Artists Seen Live
Entering the Home Stretch..49 As Far As I Can Recall
The alphabetical recall of musicians I have experienced continues.
As I write this one of these “W” bands, War On Drugs, I will commune with again tonight. Outdoors at The Sidney Meyer Music Bowl and they will fill that precinct with their cinematic rock and roll. I am excited.
Waco Brothers- This band morphed from Jon Langford and The Mekons. From punk to cowpunk, Langford and company are still creating.
Waifs-I was suffering from the tail end of Covid on the 27th of March 2022. The Waifs were playing at a festival called Summersalt along the St. Kilda foreshore. The sun was out and I needed some Vitamin D. I checked out the scene, but knew I had no energy to hang out in the sun for hours.
I hung around long enough to sit outside on the grass and listen to some of their folk/rocking songs.
Walkmen
Wallflowers-Back in my IT days, I was in San Francisco for a Sales Conference. The company I worked for rented out an outdoor space on the Embarcadero. Tacos, free drinks and a set by The Wallflowers. My kind of corporate treat.
This was the first time I heard Stuart Mathis play lead guitar. Whoa! From that point on I saw him several times with Lucinda Williams.
Some guy named Dylan is the lead singer of this band.
Wally Ingram
Walter Trout
Walter Wolfman Washington- The Wolfman left the building in 2022. He was from N’awlins and that was the only place I saw him.
Wanda Jackson-If you don’t know Wanda, you don’t know Elvis. Wanda has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is now 86. She was still performing up until a few years ago. Losing her husband/manager, Wendell, in 2017 was a sad moment. They had been together for 55 years.
War
War On Drugs-Never disappointed by them live. Cinematic music and some great long car-driving tunes.
Warumpi Band
Warren Haynes-One of my favourite slide guitarists and a jam band king with Govt Mule and The Allman Brothers.
May 3rd, 2003 I was in New Orleans for The Jazz Festival and Govt Mule were doing a concert at The Saenger Theatre. Govt Mule bassist Allen Woody died in 2000. The band had started a Deep End PRoject where they had been touring with some of the best bass players in the business. This evening was to be the culmination of this project.
Sold Out. But my motto is: THERE IS ALWAYS A TICKET.
Found one 20 minutes before the gig, I think it was 20 bucks, and I went to get scanned in and the ticket had already been used. My heart sank.
Prowling the streets looking for small pockets of people that might be coming to the gig. I heard the music start up inside.
A taxi pulled up nearby and 3 people got out. Walked over to them and said, “You have any spare tickets for the Mule show?”
Sure enough, one of them had a ticket for me.
Bela Fleck, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, George Porter Jr, Rob Wasserman, Karl Denson, Sonny Landreth, Jason Newsted and Dave Schools were just some of the guest artists.
For nearly 6 hours we were treated to one of the best concerts I have ever attended.
On such a high at 4AM, I found a bit of a street party going on where people were drinking, smoking and holding balloons.
Found the purveyor of the NO2 balloons, inhaled deeply, and floated home to bed.
Only in NOLA.
Warren Zevon- Was lucky enough to see him in 1975 at The Calderone Concert Hall. This was a few years before The Excitable Boy Album. Caught him a few more times in the late 70’s and early 1980’s and then I moved to Australia.
October 24th, 1992 he played The Bridge Hotel in Rozelle and I don’t even think it was sold out.
I miss Warren.
Washington
Waterboys-I saw the crescent….what did you see?
Watermelon Slim
Watty Thompson-Just saw Watty and The Total Fire Band this past October 2023. Soulful, gritty, and full of life. One of the most positive sets of music I have experienced this decade. He can go from bush ballads to scrunching things up like Neil Young.
Waylon Jennings- The Lone Star NYC. We were drinking bourbon.
Wayne Hancock
Wayne Toups and Zydecajun
Weddings,Parties, Anything
Weeping Willows
Wes Pudsey And The Sonic Aces
Western Distributors
Wet Willie
White Stripes
Whitlams
Who-The Who Are You Tour was the first tour after Keith Moon died. Kenny Jones was on drums now and they still blew me away at Madison Square Garden on September 17, 1979. 32 songs. Pete cutting his hand and having to leave for several songs and sharing the moment with my very dear friend Sparky Andersen.
Whose Muddy Shoes
Wilco-I missed their first tour down under in 2003. They returned in 2007 and played a show at The Enmore Theatre where they made me cry they were so perfect.
I have not missed a tour since then and have seen them several times back in New York City.
Just recently in 2022 I caught them in Connecticut. Always a great gig.
March 2024 they are playing 3 nights in a row at The Forum in Melbourne. I will be at all 3 of those shows. When they do a residency they play 3 nights with no repeats. You get a good 65 different songs. Immersive time.
Wild Apache Mardi Gras Indians
Wild Magnolias
Wild Tchoupitoulas
William Crighton- If you have not heard of him, please do investigate. He is an excellent songwriter from New South Wales, Australia…and a good human being.
Willie Dixon-The Father of Modern Chicago Blues. Enough said.
Willie Nelson-Iconic human being and songwriter. Top shelf stoner. I would love to someday burn one with Willie on his bus but time is tight!
Willie Nile
Willie Tee
Willie Watson
Willy Deville
Willy Mason
Wilson Pickers
Wilson Pickett
Wilson/Diesel-Chris Wilson and Diesel combined forces for one record. And some shows. I was at the one below in 2013.
Wishbone Ash- Crossed paths with The Ash a couple of times back in the 70’s when I loved the sound of their 1972 album Argus.
Fast forward 20 years my friend Eddie was working for IRS Records and his boss was Miles Copeland. Miles had bought Marouatte Castle in Southwestern France. Miles said Eddie could stay there and it so happened that my partner and I were in France at the same time.
Eddie invited us down and the place was fabulous but still being renovated. Overseeing the operations was this guy named Steve who we got to know pretty well.
He was telling me one night about being a drummer in a band and we were sharing stories. I asked him what his last name was and he told me it was Upton. Steve Upton was the drummer for Wishbone Ash.
We had a marvelous time cooking market fresh meals each night and drinking beautiful wine.
After about a week we got a call saying that we had to leave in 2 days because Sting was coming to stay. There was plenty of room but I guess they did not need us hanging around!
Wolf and Cub
Wolf Mail
Wolfmother
Word
Wynton Marsalis