Posts in category: Live Jam

Happy birthday, Mike Gordon! Mainly known for his bass bombs in Phish, the sly bassist has collaborated with some of the best and brightest in the scene throughout his lifetime. A founding member of Phish, Gordon tours extensively with his own solo band and maintains a healthy appetite for musical collaborations. Here are our ten favorite clips showcasing Gordon’s work with other crews:

Related: Phish’s Mike Gordon & Daughter Cover Grateful Dead’s “Pride Of Cucamonga” On ‘Terrapin TV’ [Watch]

1. Mike Gordon with Bob Weir – 2/24/2014

Gordon is no stranger to Grateful Dead collaborations. While he’s been known to share the stage with fellow bassist Phil Lesh, his appearances with Bob Weir have been just as captivating. Here’s Gordo sitting in with Weir and Ratdog on “Bird Song” during their 2014 winter tour at Boston’s House Of Blues.

RatDog ft. Mike Gordon – “Bird Song” – Boston, MA – 2/24/14

[Video: Chris Van Slyke]

2. Mike Gordon with DJ Logic, Stanley Jordan, & Warren Haynes – 9/10/2001

This session at the fabled Wetlands Preserve in New York City featured DJ Logic and guitar virtuosos Warren Haynes and Stanley Jordan. Gordon and the group absolutely tear up a half-hour-long jam based around Stevie Wonder‘s “Superstition”.

DJ Logic, Warren Haynes, Stanley Jordan, Mike Gordon – “Superstition” – New York, NY – 9/10/01

[Video: Lawrence Blumenstein]

3. Mike Gordon with Benevento/Russo Duo – 4/27/2005

If you’ve never heard the 52-minute rendition of “Foam” performed at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA, by Mike Gordon and the Benevento/Russo Duo, strap in because you’re bound for a sublime ride.

Benevento/Russo Duo ft. Mike Gordon – “Foam” – Athens, GA – 4/27/05

[Video: alexsh]

4. Mike Gordon with STS9 – 7/23/2008

In his only sit-in with STS9, Gordon was able to secure some space to lead a bass-driven improvisational jam that had the crowd at South Burlington, VT’s Higher Ground going wild.

STS9 ft. Mike Gordon – “Gordo Improv” – South Burlington, VT – 7/23/08

[Audio: Drew Taylor]

5. Mike Gordon with Umphrey’s McGee – 11/13/2009

Another collaboration at Vermont’s Higher Ground, here is Cactus sitting in with Umphrey’s McGee, taking over the bass duties from Ryan Stasik during the jam section of “In The Kitchen”.

Umphrey’s McGee ft. Mike Gordon – “In The Kitchen” – South Burlington – 11/13/09

[Video: chriscoekid]

6. Mike Gordon with Gov’t Mule – 5/3/2003

Anyone familiar with Gov’t Mule is probably aware of the band’s terrific Deep End releases that feature a great cast of musicians, Gordon being one of many. Here they are digging into Allen Toussaint‘s “On Your Way Down”.

Gov’t Mule ft. Mike Gordon – “On Your Way Down” (Allen Toussaint) –  New Orleans, LA – 5/3/03

[Video: Steve Midgley]

7. Mike Gordon with Marco Benevento – 5/31/2014

Next is another great little jam sesh with keyboard extraordinaire Marco Benevento and Gordon during the 2014 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. These two share a strong connection going all the way back to the time they spent playing together during the second Phish hiatus.

Marco Benevento w/Mike Gordon – “Jam” – Burlington, VT – 5/31/14

[Video: Joe Adler]

8. Mike Gordon with Victor Wooten – 2007

What happens when you throw two of the most prodigious bass players of their time, Mike Gordon and Victor Wooten, together? A whole lotta bass! Check out this great practice session recorded at Wooten’s Bass And Nature Camp also featuring Tony Trishka’s son, Sean, on drums.

Victor Wooten, Mike Gordon, Sean Trishka – “Improv Jam”

[Video: THE MUSICIAN NETWORK (TMNtv)]

9. Mike Gordon with Phil Lesh – 08/01/2013

All the way from Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, CA, this terrific version of the Grateful Dead’s “He’s Gone” features Gordon on lead vocals.

Phil Lesh & Mike Gordon – “He’s Gone” – San Rafael, CA – 8/1/13

[Video: LazyLightning55a]

10. Mike Gordon With Trey Anastasio Acoustic – 07/06/2008

In one of his first performances back from drug court, Phish guitar player Trey Anastasio was slated to play an acoustic set for the Rothbury Festival. It turned out to be a rejuvenation for Anastasio as well as Phish, as the beloved jam band reunited months later. Here is Gordon sitting in with Trey on the Phish classic “Chalk Dust Torture”, which begs the question: Can I live while I’m young?

Trey Anastasio & Mike Gordon – “Chalk Dust Torture” – Rothbury, MI – 7/6/08

[Video: acstalker]

Happy birthday, Mike Gordon!

[Originally published June 3rd, 2015]

PUTNEY, Vt. – The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents Guinean musical artist Sia Tolno and international musical collective Afro Dead, live at Cooper Field on Sunday, June 18, 2023, at 6 p.m. Sia Tolno will perform both solo, and as the lead vocalist of Afro Dead, which reimagines the music of the Grateful Dead in an African style.

“Sia’s already cultivated a name for herself in Africa and Europe. With this being her first U.S. tour, I imagine she will turn a lot of heads on this side of the Atlantic,” says Keith Marks, Executive Director of Next Stage Arts. “Her backing band, Afro Dead, is composed of some heavy hitters in the European jazz and jam band scenes – it’s a perfect pairing of European and African artists. Grateful Dead tunes in Afrobeat stylings, followed by a rising star from Africa.”

Sia Tolno is an award-winning global touring and recording artist, vocalist, and songwriter from Guinea/Sierra Leone, steeped in Afrobeat, Afro-blues, Mandinga, and soukous styles of African popular music. Her music is both personal and universal, singing about her unique past while making it relevant to the global masses. She has worked with Tony Allen – musical director for Fela Kuti – and Lusafrica records, and her new album is being recorded in Barcelona, produced by Aaron Feder in collaboration with Slow Walk Music.

Afro Dead is a musical collective from Africa, Europe, and the U.S.A., which is music directed by Aaron Feder and featuring the talented Guinean singer Sia Tolno and Diakanké guitarist Yaya Dambakate. Aaron Feder is the founder of Alma Afrobeat Ensemble – credited with five albums and four U.S. tours – and is a multi-instrumentalist with many years of extensive experience with Grateful Dead music, including playing and recording with members of Phil and Friends, Oteil and Friends, Peter Rowan, and more. Sia Tolno, an award-winning recording artist, vocalist, and songwriter, brings to the collective her years of extensive global live performance touring. Yaya Dambakate is a Griot musician who comes from a long tradition of modern and traditional musicians, and has toured and recorded with an endless list of African musical royalty.

This performance is co-presented with The Stone Church, and sponsored by The Richards Group.

The Bandwagon Summer Series is a family-friendly outdoor cultural performance series running from early May through mid-October. More than 20 performances, ranging from a diverse group of musical styles, circus arts, dance, and theater, will take place at ballfields, farms, and parks throughout Windham County. Kids under 12 always get in for free, and a dedicated play area will be available at all shows. Refreshments are sold onsite, including the return of the hugely popular Barr Hill cocktails. Bring a picnic and a blanket or fold-up chair to enjoy our concerts.

Support for the Bandwagon Summer Series is provided by Brattleboro Reformer, Landmark College, Oak Meadow, Barr Hill, Vermont Public, The Porch Café & Catering, and Southern Vermont Solar.

Tickets can be purchased online in advance, or at the gate for an additional fee. Children under 12 are admitted for free. Join us on June 18, at 6 p.m., at Cooper Field, located at 41 Sand Hill Road in Putney.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Next Stage website at www.nextstagearts.org.

Birthday wishes go out to Anderson Cooper, Mike Gordon and all the other celebrities with birthdays today. Check out our slideshow below to see photos of famous people turning a year older on June 3rd and learn an interesting fact about each of them.

Top celebrity birthdays on June 3, 2023

Actor James Purefoy turns 59

Fun fact: Played a serial killer with a cult following in the Kevin Bacon show ‘The Following’

Rocker Mike Gordon turns 58

Fun fact: His middle name is Eliot

TV host Anderson Cooper turns 56

Fun fact: Has appeared as a guest host on ‘Jeopardy!’

Actress Anne Winters turns 29

Fun fact: Originally from Dallas, TX

More celebrities with birthdays today

Actor Irma P. Hall (“Soul Food”) is 88. Singer Ian Hunter is 84. Singer Eddie Holman is 77. Actor Tristan Rogers (“General Hospital,” ″The Young and the Restless”) is 77. Actor Penelope Wilton (“Downton Abbey”) is 77. Bassist Too Slim of Riders in the Sky is 75. Singer Suzi Quatro is 73. Singer Deniece Williams is 73. Singer Dan Hill is 69. Actor Suzie Plakson (“How I Met Your Mother”) is 65. Actor Scott Valentine (“Family Ties”) is 65. Guitarist Kerry King of Slayer is 59. Country singer Jamie O’Neal is 55. Singers Ariel and Gabriel Hernandez of No Mercy are 52. Actor Vik Sahay (“Chuck”) is 52. Singer Lyfe Jennings is 50. Actor Arianne Zucker (“Days of Our Lives”) is 49. Actor Nikki M. James (“The Good Wife”) is 42. Actor Josh Segarra (“Chicago P.D.”) is 37. Actor Lalaine Dupree (“Lizzie McGuire”) is 36.

Other popular or historical birthdays on June 3rd

Jefferson Davis, Confederate president

George V, British king and Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather

Josephine Baker, actress

Allen Ginsberg, poet

Chuck Barris, game show host

with The Associated Press

Celebrity fun facts

Recent lists: Kevin Costner fun facts | Tom Cruise fun facts | Gal Gadot fun facts | Hilary Swank fun facts | Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson fun facts | Reese Witherspoon fun facts

Popular lists: Robert Downey Jr. fun facts | Emma Watson fun facts | Jason Momoa fun facts | Miley Cyrus fun facts

Check out our full list of more than 40 celebrity fun facts.

Movie and TV fun facts & more

Recent lists: ‘How I Met Your Mother’ guest stars | ‘Groundhog Day’ fun facts | ‘Yellowstone’ trivia

Popular lists: Canadian celebrities | ‘Friends’ guest stars | Celebs on ‘The Office’

Check out our rundown of more than 30 posts featuring trivia and fun facts about movies and TV shows.

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A quintessential hit of the mid-1970s kind of happened by accident. Elvin Bishop, a gutsy and eloquent guitarist formerly with ‘60s standouts Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was at Miami’s Criteria Studios recording his next solo album. Bishop and his band were working with producer Bill Szymczyk, known for smashes like Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way,” B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” and Eagles albums like “On the Border.”

“We got almost enough tunes in the can for the project,” Bishop recalls during our recent phone interview. “But then the producer said, ‘Man, we need one more piece of material. You got any old thing laying around we can do?’”

It just so happened Bishop did have a tune in his back pocket, a blues-pop number he’d written called “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” At Criteria, Bishop and his band first cut the song’s basic tracks, the musical part of the recording.

“It came out pretty nice,” says Bishop, who speaks in a gravely, cowboy-like tone. “But I tried to sing it and my voice it’s good for some things but not for that.” Bishop asked his background singer Mickey Thomas if he wanted to give it a go at lead vocals on the song. “He got in there and just killed it,” Bishop says of Thomas, whose big voice would later become a huge part of the bands Jefferson Starship and Starship.

Upon its 1975 release, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” off Bishop’s “Struttin’ My Stuff” album, became a top five smash. In later decades, the song continues to reverberate as a ringer for soundtracks of hit movies like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Boogie Nights.”

Born in California and raised in Oklahoma, Bishop’s career zoomed after he moved to blues-hub Chicago, and joined Paul Butterfield Blues Band, known for their faithful and virtuosic blues playing. They also did tasteful expansions on the blues, as heard on the raga-flecked jam “East-West.” The band’s members included both white and Black musicians, no small detail in the turbulent 1960s.

Bishop’s most recent release is 2020′s “100 Years of Blues,” a refreshingly raw album with harmonica great Charlie Musselwhite. In addition to his own distinguished career, Musselwhite has guested on recordings by the likes of INXS, Bonnie Raitt and Tom Waits. This summer, Bishop and Musselwhite are out on the road as the support act for Boz Scaggs, known for another very mid-‘70s hit, “Lowdown.”

On a recent afternoon, Bishop, now 80, checked in for this interview from his Northern California home. Edited excerpts below

Elvin, your guitar solo on “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” is so tasty. What do you remember about recording it?

Elvin Bishop: I’ve always used a Fender amp and a Gibson [ES] 345 guitar, so I know that much about it. But it seems like it fell together pretty easy. Everybody was in the mood that day to do the right thing, you know?

For you, what was the magic of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band?

We had real good musicians, and I think it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time. This big, beautiful blues music had never really been introduced to the white public to a very large extent. And it was delivered in a package they could accept a little easier than they could older Black guys, I’m afraid. So that’s what happened there.

What was it like being in band with both Black and white musicians during the ‘60s, with Butterfield Blues Band?

Well, they were great musicians and it worked musically. It was a little rough finding hotels that would accept us all, you know, at the time. I mean, even in Chicago, in the North. It was a little rough in that respect, but it was a real cool experience.

You and Michael Bloomfield made for a potent guitar-duo in that same band. What was cool about playing music with Michael? [Bloomfield also played on classic Bob Dylan album “Highway 61 Revisited” and well as the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Dylan famous first electric-guitar gig]

He was an amazing player. He’d been playing in bands since he was like 12 or something and I was, as they say in Chicago, square as a pool table and twice as green. I learned a lot from him. He was an out of the box thinker and wasn’t scared of anything. He’d try to play [Indian music] ragas and stuff, and we’d listen to records and work on playing the horn harmonies on guitars.

You jammed on guitar with two of the biggest jam-bands ever in their prime, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers. How did playing music live onstage with the Dead compare with playing with the Allmans?

Well, the Allman Brothers, their music was pretty much blues based, you know, so it was really my kind of deal. I felt very comfortable playing with them. They’re very friendly guys. The Grateful Dead, their type of music was what I normally play … And you had to watch out what you drank backstage at their gigs.

I’ve read the Dead would often “dose” drinks backstage with LSD.

There you go, yeah.

What did it mean to you being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 with Paul Butterfield Blues Band?

I surprised the hell out of me. I bet you Butterfield sold less records that anybody in that sucker.

Why do you think you all got inducted into the Rock Hall? Respect for the band’s musicianship and influence, maybe?

I have a lot of musicians tell me that they got into music because of Butterfield. At the time, he was way more popular with musicians than he was with the public — he was just influential like that. And I think a lot of those guys ended up being on whatever committee it is that votes on who gets in.

As a solo artist, what did you enjoy most about your time on the Southern rock label Capricorn Records? My understanding is there was a great camaraderie between the different musicians on Capricorn.

Yeah! I made really good friends with Duane [Allman] and Dickey [Betts] from the Allman Brothers, and Toy Caldwell from Marshall Tucker [Band]. And with Charlie Daniels – he wasn’t on Capricorn, but he was kind of in that circle, that Southern rock circle. And Jimmy Hall [frontman with Mobile-founded band Wet Willie] was a cool guy. Just a lot of guys that were all down my alley, you know?

Do you remember what your reaction was the first time you heard the shoutout Charlie Daniels gives you in his hit “The South’s Gonna Do It Again”? [That song’s lyrics include, “Elvin Bishop sittin’ on a bale of hay. He ain’t good lookin’, but he sure can play.”]

[Laughs] My first thought was, “Well, he’s too big to make any objections to.”

You toured with B.B. King in the ‘90s. What’s something you learned from being around one of the greatest blues guitarists to ever do it?

I was already well hooked on B.B. way before that. I first played with him at the Fillmore [Auditorium] in San Francisco in the late ‘60s, maybe. We did a gig together, and he invited me to come up to his hotel the next day and I did. He had sheet music spread all over his bed, and he was working like a dog on scales and stuff. I was with the Butterfield Blues Band, and we’d gotten kind of famous by then. And I looked at B.B. and this guy has been the greatest blues guitar player for years, and here he is still trying to improve himself. I thought, this is a little tip for me.

On June 3, Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite will perform at Sand Mountain Amphitheater in Albertville, Alabama. Boz Scaggs is the headliner. Showtime is listed as 7 p.m. Ticket prices start at $34 plus fees, via etix.com.

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Pier 4 park was once again the scene this week of the annual Hamilton Children’s Water Festival for grade 4 kids. This unique educational event events is spearheaded by Hamilton Water, but brings together a wide range of Hamilton environmental stakeholders to teach kids about the environment through the lens of water. The goal of the annual event is to give students a new respect for water and the environment as well as make them aware of local water issues.

The broader goal is to foster decision-makers, initiate the process of behavioural change, to empower children to initiate change within their homes, schools and communities, and to encourage children to become catalysts for change by taking information and new found respect back to their own environment.

Some of the highlights included:

• Fluid Power. A short discussion about Niagara Falls and the Sir Adam Beck Power Plant. The students helped ‘save’ someone using a water wheel and use a syringe of water to help lift a load in a toy truck.
• Stormwater Runoff presented by Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC). Using a visual model, students were able to interact with the model and see how pollution makes its way into our local waterways.
• Getting Back to Our Roots In this activity each student learned why trees are important, water conservation related to tree planting, nursery production and storage.
• Aqua Chow Chain Presented by Hamilton Conservation Authority. An active game where students were aquatic animals competing for food resources. The activity highlighted the importance of healthy aquatic habitats to provide food for animals.
• The Filtration Station Presented by ArcelorMittal Dofasco. This activity taught students the importance of wastewater treatment, how it is treated using filtration, and the value of ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s wastewater treatment process.
• Safari Niagara Outreach: What’s With the Wetlands? Presented by Safari Niagara provided informative videos and signage, and some fun activities.
• Water Treatment Plant Presented by City of Hamilton, Hamilton Water. A working model of a drinking (potable) water treatment plant process illustrated the chemical and physical principles in water treatment. The treated water is then pumped from the treatment plant throughout the City using pipes, pumps, and water reservoirs to Hamilton homes.

• A Drop in the Bucket Presented by City of Hamilton, Hamilton Water. This demonstration illustrated the distribution of freshwater resources versus salt water and the actual amount of available freshwater in the world

• Osprey Survivor Presented by The Hamilton Naturalists’ Club. Students learned how pollutants affect Osprey and how they can help keep the Osprey’s food source pollutant free.
• No-Waste Water Presented by McMaster University, Let’s Talk Science . Students were introduced to a wetland ecosystem and its benefits for flood and pollution control. Using the example of wetlands, the activity introduced raingardens for runoff control and better flush filtration.

• Put Waste in the Right Place  Presented by City of Hamilton, Environmental Services. Children were given the opportunity to become Waste Champions by learning where every day items that they see at home and in school should be placed for disposal after they have been used.

• Bugs N’ Slugs Presented by City of Hamilton, Hamilton Water. We flush our toilet and put water down the drain and never think of where it goes. A model of a wastewater treatment plant showed the treatment processes on the sewage and the solids collected in the process.

• Trip of a Drip  Presented by The Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology. This activity took children back in time by allowing them to learn about water, waterborne diseases and how clean water is pumped from Lake Ontario to their homes.

• pHish Race. Presented by City of Hamilton, Hamilton Water Students learned what pH is, how it is linked to pollution and that it affects aquatic habitats.

• Water Main Break Presented by City of Hamilton, Hamilton Water. The students could see what a water main break looks like and helped fix the water main as the City of Hamilton employees do.

• Fixing Flooding  Presented by Green Venture. Have you ever stepped in a puddle on a city street? Think of all the things that could be in there – pesticides, fertilizers, even animal poop! When rainwater isn’t absorbed into the ground, these are all swept into our waterways.
• Only Rain Down the Drain  Presented by City of Hamilton, Hamilton Water. Students learned that a catch basin leads to the natural environment and only rain water or snow can go into a catch basin. They discussed what happens when common household products are disposed of in the incorrect location.

With the school year winding down and summer vacation around the corner, students around the country are cramming for final exams. Instead of pouring over Shakespeare or trigonometric identities, however, graduating senior Trevor Shepich was boning up on his Phish in order to arrange a performance of “Fuego” with his high school orchestra.

Shepich is no ordinary high schooler. Back in May 2021, Billy Strings pulled the teenager onstage during a run of pod concerts in Louisville, KY. Billy became aware of Shepich through the youngster’s guitar videos and noticed him out in the crowd during nights one and two. At the third show, Strings invited Shepich to the stage to sit in on Phish’s “Back on the Train” and the Grateful Dead‘s “Bird Song”.

Fast forward two years and the director of the Perry High School band Andrew Barnhart asked Shepich to arrange a piece for the ensemble’s final concert. Despite the fact he had never arranged music for a full band before, Shepich jumped at the opportunity and used the chance to pay tribute to his favorite group.

Related: Elementary School Chorus Sings “Turtle In The Clouds” By Phish [Watch]

“About six weeks before my final school band concert ever, my director approached me about potentially writing a piece to showcase what I plan on doing in college before I graduate,” Shepich wrote on social media. “I decided there would be no better way to go about this than arranging one of my favorite songs, Fuego, by my favorite band, Phish, for my school’s concert band to perform.

“Although this project isn’t perfect (I had no concept of how difficult the piece would be for my band when writing as I had never composed for concert band before), it’s important for me to share this if only as a milestone in my musical career,” he continued.

Check out Trevor Shepich’s orchestra arrangement of “Fuego” by Phish below. The guitarist, who plans to attend Western Michigan University in the fall, even snuck a bit of the klezmer from “Scent of a Mule” into his adaptation.

Perry High School Concert Band, Trevor Shepich – “Fuego” (Phish)

With the school year winding down and summer vacation around the corner, students around the country are cramming for final exams. Instead of pouring over Shakespeare or trigonometric identities, however, graduating senior Trevor Shepich was boning up on his Phish in order to arrange a performance of “Fuego” with his high school orchestra.

Shepich is no ordinary high schooler. Back in May 2021, Billy Strings pulled the teenager onstage during a run of pod concerts in Louisville, KY. Billy became aware of Shepich through the youngster’s guitar videos and noticed him out in the crowd during nights one and two. At the third show, Strings invited Shepich to the stage to sit in on Phish’s “Back on the Train” and the Grateful Dead‘s “Bird Song”.

Fast forward two years and the director of the Perry High School band Andrew Barnhart asked Shepich to arrange a piece for the ensemble’s final concert. Despite the fact he had never arranged music for a full band before, Shepich jumped at the opportunity and used the chance to pay tribute to his favorite group.

Related: Elementary School Chorus Sings “Turtle In The Clouds” By Phish [Watch]

“About six weeks before my final school band concert ever, my director approached me about potentially writing a piece to showcase what I plan on doing in college before I graduate,” Shepich wrote on social media. “I decided there would be no better way to go about this than arranging one of my favorite songs, Fuego, by my favorite band, Phish, for my school’s concert band to perform.

“Although this project isn’t perfect (I had no concept of how difficult the piece would be for my band when writing as I had never composed for concert band before), it’s important for me to share this if only as a milestone in my musical career,” he continued.

Check out Trevor Shepich’s orchestra arrangement of “Fuego” by Phish below. The guitarist, who plans to attend Western Michigan University in the fall, even snuck a bit of the klezmer from “Scent of a Mule” into his adaptation.

Perry High School Concert Band, Trevor Shepich – “Fuego” (Phish)

They come to his small apartment above a boat storage yard on the northern edge of Boulder City at all hours, day and night.

“It’s almost midnight and I hear someone outside my front door saying, ‘Hey, Jeffrey, are you home?’ I go to the door and there is a 6-foot-3 biker standing there. He hands it to me, gets back on his bike and rides off.”

“It” is a hand-crocheted blanket known popularly as an Afghan and “Jeffrey” is Jeff Axelrod, a local artist and collector known by many as Afghan Man, whose story goes way deeper than just the piles of colorful blankets in his storage unit.

Walking into his apartment is like entering an explosion of raw creativity. Every surface of every wall is covered with artwork he’s created of a type called “assemblage” or art created by assembling disparate elements —often everyday objects —that are often salvaged by the artist. Axelrod is constantly on the hunt for odd-but-beautiful items for his art, which is what led him to the blankets.

“I volunteer a lot to help clean out old houses or buildings like churches and I probably came across an Afghan doing that and was just struck by it and started collecting,” he said.

He has hundreds in a bay in the storage yard. Enough people know about his collection that they reach out to him with blankets they found at a yard sale or that someone was about to throw out. Axelrod accepts them, has them dry cleaned and bagged and then they get stacked on shelves.

Handmade Afghan blankets sell on various websites for hundreds of dollars each, but Axelrod has no interest in selling them (however, a visitor to his home will nearly always end up taking one home with them).

“To me, they are just art,” he explains. “I mean, look at these! Every one of these represents probably a year of someone’s life that they took to make it. I love the texture and the colors and the patterns.”

He tells a story about two blankets, one all bright white and the other a rainbow explosion of color. “I tell people, look at this one,” pointing to the white Afghan. “I gave that one acid and it turned into this!” indicating the color explosion.

And, speaking of acid…

Axelrod has a history forever tied to sex, drugs and rock and roll, his fascination with blankets notwithstanding.

At root, he is a businessman with the soul of an artist. He moved from Boston to New York in the 1960s and by the latter part of that decade owned a gas station and two parking lots in the area of the city known as Chelsea.

“We were always pretty wild,” he recalls about his group of friends. “We would go out to a restaurant dressed up like it was Halloween and order food but tell them we would not use utensils and just eat Viking-style.”

His friends told him he needed to move to the West Coast so he got rid of the gas station and got to California as a stowaway.

“I had friends who were stewardesses and they said they could get me on. So I put on every piece of clothing I owned and packed everything else into a small duffelbag and they snuck me onto a plane and stashed me in a bathroom. When we finally took off, they took me out of the bathroom, handed me a glass of champagne and plopped me into a seat in first class.”

That was 1969. He made his way from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where he met Barry Anderson and John Bulka. Barry was an artist and John could build anything out of scraps and Jeff was the business guy. They decided to try making silk-screened T-shirts for the bands around the Bay Area and Hip-O-Potamus Creations was born in 1970.

Their first rock and roll client was the guy who ran the Winterland auditorium who asked if they could do 40 custom shirts for a show happening in just two days. “We had no idea how to do 40 shirts that fast but we said yes and they sold out and that was really the beginning.”

Name a big band from that era or name a graphic trope and Hip-O-Potamus was probably involved. The skull and roses that became synonymous with the Grateful Dead was theirs as were the trippy mushrooms that adorned album covers and countless T-shirts for the Allman Brothers. Their pot leaf designs were ubiquitous during the first attempt to legalize marijuana in 1972. There were epic parties and stories that can’t be told in a family newspaper. There were setbacks that almost put them out of business.

Like when they were working in a warehouse in Marin and the fire inspectors came by and told them that they could not continue without a fire exit and that they had one day to correct the issue. Problem, the building had only one entrance at the front. “The art guys painted a big red square on the back wall and stenciled the word ‘Fire Door’ onto it. When the inspectors came back the next day, they came in the front door, looked across the room and saw what looked like a door. They said we were good and left.”

As good as rock and roll was to the company, the real tsunami of business began in 1977 when they met a young Bay Area filmmaker named George Lucas who tagged them to do T-shirts for his new movie called “Star Wars.”

“It was never-ending,” he recalls. “For several years, it seemed like we did nothing but Star Wars merch. We would print it by the truckload and it was still not enough.”

At some point in the mid 1980s, Axelrod started to branch out. Among other ventures, he turned a friendship with one of the heirs to the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco into a business that made high-end bathrobes for most of the big-name hotels in the U.S. Eventually, he started doing his own artwork, which is what led him to Boulder City.

“I have always used unusual materials and have for years painted using tea. My interest in different kinds and colors of tea led me to a tea convention in Las Vegas,” he explains. He was introduced to the woman who ran the convention and that turned into a relationship and he moved in with her in Sun City Anthem. When that relationship ended, he made his way to Boulder City. “I bounced around town for a while. First up by Hemenway Park and then in the mobile home park on the west end of town.” Eventually, a friend offered him the space above the boat storage yard.

While he sold Hip-O-Potamus to Winterland Productions decades ago, a version of the company carries on online under the name of HippoTees.com and you can still order custom shirts designed by Barry and sold by Axelrod.

But he is really all about his art these days and seems on a constant hunt to find beauty in the mundane, be that in a disused and discarded blanket or the cut-off end of a banana peel that he has dried and decorated with glass beads and combined with pieces of sandpaper into a collection of flowers that sits above the sink in his small but functional kitchen.

“I love Boulder City,” he says. “I can always find something out here that someone is going to throw away that I can turn into art.”

After ten years and 104 shows, Billy Joel is “Movin’ Out” of Madison Square Garden. The iconic “Piano Man” will end his record-setting years-long residency at Madison Square Garden with his 150th lifetime performance in July 2024.

Revealed on Thursday during a press conference, Joel announced plans for his final ten concerts at the World’s Most Famous Arena. The first in the final run of concerts is set for October 20th, 2023, with the rest of the shows taking place between then and the finale in July 2024.

“I’m kind of flabbergasted that it lasted as long as it did. My team tells me that we could continue to sell tickets, but ten years, 150 shows—all right already!” Joel said. “I do remember the first time we played Madison Square Garden, it was the pinnacle of my career. I thought, ‘My God, I’m headlining Madison Square Garden.’ Everybody in the world knows when you play The Garden, it’s not just New York. To our audience, I want to thank them for coming to our shows for this long. It’s hard to end, even at 150 lifetime shows. I just want to thank everyone for the wonderful thing that’s happened here.”

Joel’s storied history with MSG began back on December 14th, 1978 with his debut at the arena. Since then, Joel has continued to break his own records with each passing performance. After staging 12 consecutive concerts in 2006, he set the record for “most consecutive performances by any artists (Phish would later surpass that with the band’s Baker’s Dozen in 2017, though by then Joel was well beyond his original record).

“Billy Joel’s franchise run has made history—not only for Madison Square Garden, but also for the music industry overall,” James L. Dolan, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, MSG Entertainment said. “150 sold-out lifetime shows is a remarkable achievement, and speaks to Billy’s extraordinary talent, beloved catalog, and dedicated fanbase. Billy always has a home here at MSG even though the residency is coming to an end with his 150th lifetime performance.”

Related: Billy Joel Pays Tribute To Jeff Beck At Madison Square Garden [Watch]

In December 2013, Joel joined the ranks of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers as an official franchise at Madison Square Garden. The first “musical franchise” of its kind, Joel began his residency the following year, promising to play one show a month at the Garden “as long as the demand continues.”

Fast forward nearly a decade, and Joel has been adorned with banners, records, and even his own day in New York State (July 18th, 2018 in honor of his 100th lifetime show at Madison Square Garden). For that milestone concert, Bruce Springsteen stopped by to help celebrate the occasion with Joel, adding to the long list of special guests who have played with Joel on his home court including John Mayer, Miley Cyrus, Paul Simon, John Fogerty, Olivia Rodrigo, Billy Gibbons, and more. Over the course of his MSG run, Joel has sold more than 1.6 million tickets to fans from all 50 states and 120 countries around the globe.

“There’s only one thing that’s more New York than Billy Joel—and that’s a Billy Joel concert at MSG,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said. “For more than 50 years, Billy’s music has defined our city and brought us together. On behalf of 8.5 million New Yorkers, congratulations, Billy, on a historic run of sold-out shows at MSG, and thank you for a lifetime of bringing joy to us all.”

Tickets for the first of ten final Billy Joel residency shows at Madison Square Garden on October 20th, 2023 go on sale to the public on Friday, June 9th at 10 a.m. Various pre-sales will also occur throughout the week, including those for Citi cardmembers on June 5th at 10 a.m. and Verizon Up members on June 5th at 10 a.m. A press release asks fans to continue to check Ticketmaster as tickets will be available throughout the day. Tickets will also be available at the Madison Square Garden box office on June 10th.