Now it feels like summer!

Our garden party show with Allysen Callery, Joseph Allred and Cosmic Karma was a beautiful time through and through. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

A sense of joy, and a loving wave of positivity hung heavy in the atmosphere. This collective positive energy perhaps even helped to ward off any significant rain showers while we all hung out together under the unpredictable cloud cover.

We had a relaxed but passionate crew of new folks and RCU regulars from all around the region lounging on blankets and chairs, as curious onlookers stopped by from the street.

Allysen Callery took the stage first, and sang with a voice that chilled like a ghostly autumn wind, recalling her haunted olde New England roots. She caught everyone’s attention with her first note, and the audience of friends, neighbors and other intrigued musical adventurers remained enraptured for the remainder of her set. Even the birds seem to be welcoming to her music, often singing right on cue. Serendipitous moments like this seem to occur often at our house gigs.

Her voice coasted on the cool breeze as dark storm clouds rolled past overhead, creating the perfect atmosphere for her elemental and shadowy songs. Despite being in a backyard in Central New Jersey on the brink of summertime, it briefly felt as though we were suddenly in October at one of Salem’s old burial grounds. She was splendid, highly spirited and effortlessly cool. I can’t wait to see her play again someday. 

Joseph Allred performed straight from the soul.

With a vibrant richness and a voice full of emotional subtlety and grace, Allred conjured the souls of the elements around us with their spiritually charged folk music. It was absolutely mesmerizing to watch them weave dazzling and complex webs of fingerpicked acoustic guitar like it was nothing. With meditative fantasias and harmonium songs that seemed to resonate with something deep within us all, it was a rare and moving treat to experience Allred’s music in such a close and personal way.

Seeing Allred perform these intensely heartfelt pieces in a down-to-earth and casual setting made their very humanistic songs all the more relatable and poignant. It felt like the memories of the land beneath our feet were coming through the music. Sort of anticipating such a vibe, I prepared the audience for Allred’s set with this poem that I wrote about their music:

The soil records
The soil maintains
The soil remembers
The soil sustains
The soil absorbs
and the soil is blown into the air

by the cyclones of progress
and modernity
and it rains down

down

down

to rest upon our houses
our tombstones
and in our gardens,
making them fertile
with abundant life.

Feeding it with memories
stories
tears
blood, laughter, and bruised hearts

and you can hear these stories in the wind
you can feel these lives of so many fathers
lost mothers, sisters, brothers,
friends, enemies, toilers and tyrants

if you slow down

down

down

and close your eyes, open your mind and listen.

Briefly between sets, we started to get some rain, and we quickly covered and unplugged equipment, as others scrambled to get under some of our trees. After ten minutes or so, the clouds relaxed and the rain stopped. 

To close the evening, we were delighted to have one of New Jersey’s more progressive acts in the jam band scene, Cosmic Karma. Regulars at our nearby haunt, Crossroads, and comprised of Matt Check (guitar), Jeremy Jordan (drums) and Chris Baron (bass), Cosmic Karma finds where the worlds of the Grateful Dead, bluegrass, jazz-fusion and hard psychedelia overlap, and they flourish greatly in that heady liminal space. With some revved up originals and covers, such as Chick Corea’s “Spain,” they were a fun party to wind down with.

In true Dead fashion, CK even brought out the sun. The clouds parted and sunshine poured down from above. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was even a rainbow somewhere in town.

As a special bonus, CK was joined by our bud and the photographer of all of the great shots you’re seeing in this post, Chris Bruno. Bruno is an underground home-recording Jersey heavy weight (he’ll cringe the moment he reads that, though!) with bands like Sophomore Peacock under his belt. He joined in on second guitar with an arsenal of effect pedals, and the band proceeded to mutate some classic Dead tunes into wilder, more hallucinatory beasts. 

With fierce and extra kaleidoscopic takes on China > Rider, Eyes of the World and Bird Song, the band ripped it up and had a ball, with Bruno and Check often heading into zones that recalled the likes of the Allmans and Howlin’ Rain. What a note to end the night on!

It must be said that the show not only had a great energy, good people and good vibes, but it also sounded amazing. Our soundman, Danny Vargus, once again made Burnside Ave sing with beautiful clarity. He really knows how to direct the sound within the natural shape of our yard, and work with the trees and the surrounding homes and sheds. Even the acoustic sets were perfectly balanced, often making each artist sound as though they’re playing right next to your ear.

I also have to pause to thank my wife, Sarah, for helping me wrangle the logistics, finances and other practical aspects for this and all of our events (and for manning the ticket/merch booth!). Without her savviness, my crazy dreams would stay being just crazy dreams.

It was a magical day here once again, and I can’t wait to do it all over again someday soon. Check out some of the videos I shot that day:

If you want to experience some of the magic that we conjure up in our yard every year, then you’re in luck. The good folks at Arrowhawk Records will be releasing a totally mindblowing tape of killer live cuts by Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders on June 16th, and three of its five tracks were recorded at our September house show—including the (what I would call legendary) 36-minute Dark Star that sent us all into the deep cosmos last year.

With the other two tracks being sourced from another Jersey show and Raven Sings The Blues’ Deep in the Valley Festival, this tape proves that there is something truly special vibrating throughout the Garden State and the Hudson Valley. Not only can you hear it, but when you experience good music here, you can also feel it deep down in your bones, too.

Preorder your copy from Arrowhawk today!

-KH