We're honored to be included on Jerry Jams for Rex, a recently released compilation of live performances of Jerry Garcia tunes to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his passing and benefit the ongoing efforts of the Rex Foundation.

Jerry Jams for Rex includes our version of Dupree's Diamond Blues, along with an array of inspired performances by the likes of Phish, Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, The String Cheese Incident, Keller & The Keels, Railroad Earth, The Black Crowes, Moonalice, Yonder Mountain String Band, Widespread Panic, Hot Buttered Rum, and Steve Kimock Crazy Engine. An exceptional tribute to an exceptional musician and spirit.

To learn more about this great tribute to Jerry and help the Rex Foundation carry on their good work, please visit this link to sample tracks and purchase the CD or downloadable tunes. Jerry Jams For Rex A project well worth your support!

We recently returned from an exciting new adventure in Waybacks land - orchestration! On June 12, we performed all of Abbey Road w/Special Guests Joan Osborne, John Cowan, and Jens Kruger at the Riverbend Festival in Tennessee, backed by the Chattanooga Symphony. All on a hot summer night atop a giant stage on the river facing the shore. What a trip!

Many thanks to our guest artists and Bob Bernhardt, Maestro of the Symphony for a job very well done. A sampling of the reviews captures how good we all felt about the show:

"The Beatles would have been proud last night. The Chattanooga Symphony, Joan Osborne, The Waybacks, and John Cowan combined to cover The Beatles Abbey Road album, and did it in a most spectacular way. George Martin, The Beatles producer, Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons, engineers on the Abbey Road Album, would be proud. Chattanoogans in attendance last night were proud of their symphony. I am proud of the folks at Riverbend who took a chance with this show and pulled off what may have been the greatest show in Riverbend history.

Opening with "Come Together", the group proceeded through the original album, scored beautifully, with Joan Osborne and John Cowan providing the lead vocals for the concert. The group even did an encore, which is hard to do once you cover the entire album, but they improvised and came up with a cover of "I Saw Her Standing There". Yes, The Beatles would have been proud, as was I."
- Bob Payne, The Chattanoogan

"Wow. I'm almost at a loss for words to describe how incredible it was hearing tonight's headlining performance of "Abbey Road" by the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera's partnership with vocalists John Cowan and Joan Osborne, banjo player Jens Kruger and The Waybacks.

Frankly, I don't think I've ever enjoyed live music quite as much as the hour long performance I just experienced.

Obviously, with such excellent source material as the Beatles legendary studio opus, it seems like it would be impossible to go wrong, but material that well-known is a decidedly double-edged sword. It's almost impossible to live up to a suite of music that well known, and if you try, your performance is automatically put under microscopic scrutiny. I think tonight’s show easily survived that scrutiny.

There's a reason "Abbey Road" was never performed live. Its intricacies and nuances were so heaped upon one another that to attempt to recreate it live would require, as it did tonight, a full orchestral backing. This was an exciting opportunity to experience the album in what I think is the form closest to how it would have been performed by the Fab Four live.

Guitarist/singer/songwriter James Nash, who founded The Waybacks, led us on a brilliant rendition that played to the ensemble's strengths. Cowan is the human equivalent of vocal dynamite, which I think was obvious to everyone after he lit into "Oh! Darling" ("Carry That Weight" was another standout).

Not to be outdone, Osborne showed she can dance like a Bond girl and fit vocal tongue and groove as the lead on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

The Waybacks and Kruger added incredibly spicy acoustic accompaniment in just the right places. If you think fiddle sounds like a weird ingredient to add to "The End" and "Her Majesty," you haven't heard Warren Hood give it a go. He made it sound, well, the word "good" comes to mind, but it doesn't do it justice. On the same song, Nash proved he’s got killer guitar chops that made me want to cut off my fingers I was so envious.

I know this comes across as a Beatles fan gushing, and I've never made a secret of my idol worship of the Liverpoolians, but I also scrutinize groups that cover them much more than I do tributers of any other group. This was, hands down, the best performance of Beatles music I've ever heard, including Abbey Road Live!, the Athens, Ga.-based group that make a living doing just this kind of tribute show.

If there's one thing that fans of the Beatles can take away from tonight, it's that to really do their studio work justice requires a full-on orchestra backing. The CSO's performance was just ideal to accompany this show. It seriously couldn’t have been done, well or not, without them. We should be proud to count such a group of musicians among our ranks.

Although the show was fairly short, at just an hour long, I've never been so entertained for that length of time. The cherry on top, however, was when we, the audience took to our collective feet and showed such appreciation that Nash came back out on stage.

"We didn't know Chattanooga was going to be this kind to us, so we didn't prepare anything (as an encore)," he said. "Give us a second, and we'll make something up."

I've gotta say, I envy their ability to improvise, if their bopping rendition of "I Saw Her Standing There" really was done on the fly. The awesome riffs seemed too good to be the product of flying by the seat of your pants, but these guys had already demonstrated they had incredible chops. I can't say I would have had high hopes for "Beatles banjo," which Nash asked Kruger for, but he certainly delivered the goods.

All in all, the best time I"ve had at Riverbend ... ever. It's hard to see how it can get any better than this."
-Casey Phillips, Chattanooga Times Fee Press

If you happened to make it to the Hillside Album Hour at Merlefest this year for the band's version of Abbey Road, you know what a stellar afternoon everyone had - musicians and audience alike. Well, through the miracle of modern technology, here's your chance to hear it all again. Or for the very first time, if you didn't get down to Hillside.

Our heroic cast of characters for the occasion included (in alphabetical order): Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas. Sarah Dugas, Byron House, Jens Kruger, Jim Lauderdale, and Shannon Whitworth. Head on over the our Mercantile and Boutique and check it out. Abbey Road @ Hillside Not to be missed!

We're just back from MerleFest and had a blast breaking out The Beatles at this year's Hillside Album Hour. A gorgeous spring day, thousands of jubilant fans, and an array of talented guest artists sitting in with us on one of the best albums of all time. Pretty great way to spend the day!

Many thanks to our special musical guests (in alphabetical order): Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas. Sarah Dugas, Byron House, Jens Kruger, Jim Lauderdale, and Shannon Whitworth.

Head over to our Gallery for a few of the pics!

We'll savor this one for awhile.

You've read the clues, weighed the evidence, employed your best instincts, and now it's time to for us reveal the Top 10 Guesses for this year's Album Hour. Whether the correct answer is even among them remains a mystery for at least few more hours, but here, in alphabetical order, they are. Stay tuned!

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix

Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Disraeli Gears - Cream

In Through the Out Door - Led Zeppelin

Joshua Tree - U2

Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

Who's Next - The Who