Leftover Salmon, catch ‘em while you can!! 

by terri sapp

with special thanks to “Downtown” Dave Erickson

Photographs by Leah Yetter

© Concert Sutra, All Rights Reserved

click photos for band website

            Sadly enough, after many years of touring together, since their formation in 1990, Leftover Salmon has announced that they will be on a sabbatical of sorts after this most recent tour is over.  This six piece “polyethnic-cajun-slamgrass” band has been through a lot together, good and bad as it goes, with losing one of their most revered banjo players, Mark Vann, in 2002, and adding (formerly with “Derek Trucks Band”) keyboardist Bill McKay, and banjo (among other instruments) player, Matt Flinner, and playing with a myriad number of guests such as John Cowan, Sam Bush, and Count M’butu, who is one of the best percussionists around.  A sign of a great band is their ability to roll with the changes, and Leftover Salmon is always changing.  Even with a break in the near future, most (if not all) of these guys already have their own projects formed and ready to take you on with their own force.

            On Friday, November 19, 2004 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Variety Playhouse, which is Salmon’s most frequented Atlanta venue, Drew Emmitt (vocals, guitar, mandolin, fiddle), Greg Garrison (vocals, bass), Vince Herman (vocals, guitar, washboard), Bill Kay (vocals, keyboards), Jeff Sipe (drums), and Matt Flinner (vocals, banjo), with special guest Count M’butu (percussion) came, saw, and conquered their final Atlanta show for an undetermined amount of time.  Their energy and style of music really meshed well together for plenty of ass shaking.  I must say that the crowd that congregated in the Variety Playhouse for this farewell-for-now tour was by far the largest I have ever seen in my years of going to shows there.  I was amazed.  Continue reading →