Best. Show. Ever.

The Lumpen Prof was here! Last Sunday was an amazing night. The Dave Rawlings Machine from left to right in the video above are John Paul Jones on mandolin (yes, that John Paul Jones, from Led Zeppelin), David Rawlings on his vintage Epiphone guitar, Gillian Welch on guitar, in the back on bass is Paul Kowert of the Punch Brothers, and on the right on guitar is Willie Watson formerly of the Old Crow Medicine Show.

The show began with a gorgeous rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," and included a medley of "I Hear Them All / This Land is Your Land" (with all the best subversive verses included). The high point of the show for me, though, was a truly mesmerizing version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer." A close second was their version of Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" performed in what Rawlings described as a "special Dark Lord tuning." Hearing Gillian Welch sing Zeppelin was a strange and wonderful experience.

Setlist.

Rumor Has It

I have been told a very excellent rumor. And I have a blog. So I will do what comes naturally.

I have it on high authority from low sources, that Led Zeppelin will in fact be be playing at Bonnaroo this summer. Trust me. Professional philosophers know these sorts of things.



Since this is just another round for a rumor that has been bouncing around the inter-tubes at least since December, I don't really expect anyone to take the word of an obscure academic blogger seriously.

I'll try to remember to come back to this and fact-check my first attempt at rumor-mongering later this summer. We'll see how well I did...