With red-hot shades to match his red-hot signature Vox Custom Shop guitar, Robinson played an inspired set with his Brotherhood band at Mountain Jam—even using a garden gnome figurine as a pick. He describes his band’s sound as “classic California space boogie.”
The animal statues didn’t stop there—an owl watched over Neal Casal and his brand-new, beautifully carved custom axe as he played with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood. “My guitar was made by a guy named Scott Walker, out of Santa Cruz,” Casal tells Premier Guitar.
New Orleans’ roots guitarist Anders Osborne gets soulful as he wields his Gibson Les Paul Standard goldtop with P-90s.
Anders Osborne also brought along his well-worn seafoam green 1962 Fender Strat reissue that he bought in 1985 in a New Orleans music shop.
Sean Lennon works his No. 1, a 1963 Fender Jazzmaster that he picked up in 2000. It's been re-fretted and outfitted with a bridge and vibrato from Mastery Bridge since, but is otherwise stock. Lennon, son of the late John Lennon and Yoko Ono, has been generating quite a buzz fronting the distinctive psychedelic pop band Ghost of a Saber-Toothed Tiger, which he formed in 2008 with his partner, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. “This is the biggest audience we’ve ever played for,” Lennon told the Mountain Jam crowd.
Lucius guitarist Phil Lalish rocked his sweetly eclectic amp-in-case Silvertone, while his extremely decked-out Strat remained on standby.
Brooklyn blonde bombshells Jesse Wolfe and Holly Laessig play keyboards and tom drums while fronting indie band Lucius, with guitarists Phil Lalish and Andrew Burri, and a third drummer, Dan Molad rounding it all out … because why not?
In addition to his colorfully taped Takamine EN10C, folk singer-songwriter Sean Rowe had another weapon in his Lee Oskar harmonica.
Sam Beer (left) gets serious on a Les Paul while frontman Reid Morrison catches that vibe during the London-based Treetop Flyers performance of reminiscent rock.
Treetop Flyers guitarist Laurie Sherman handles 6-string duties on his favorite blue Tele.
Treetop Flyer Reid Morrison lays it all on the stage at Mountain Jam in Hunter Mountain, New York on June 8.
The turbo-energetic frontman for Michael Franti and Spearhead gets down during their set with his main axe, a 2010 Maton ECW80 dreadnought that’s outfitted with a Maton AP5 Pro pickup and hand-painted by artist Clark Hipolito.
As Spearhead’s motto goes: “All the freaky people make the beauty of the world …” J Bowman feels the love in the air after a marriage proposal during the band’s set at the Mountain Jam fest in the Catskill Mountains in Southeastern New York.
Warren Haynes was the guest of the night as usual, joining spiritual soulsters Spearhead. Warren guested on several sets and headlined two nights with Allman Brothers and his group Gov’t Mule—we’ll be seeing plenty of him despite the disbanding of the Allman Brothers.
Derek Trucks looks pretty happy to be onstage with his trusty No. 1 SG. The Allman Brothers Band's excellent festival-closing set at Mountain Jam was so on the money that fans were left wondering why the group is calling it quits.
Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes show that there’s no bad blood whatsoever as they close out the four-day Mountain Jam festival with the Allman Brothers.