Fink's Travels

I picked the song of the day for a couple of days for a Phish Facebook group I’m in so figured I would upload the selections to Fink’s Travels.  Chris Robinson Brotherhood Down Home Girl (live cover) Betty’s Midwestern Magick Blends October 14, 2016  Thalia Hall Chicago, IL (best guess) CRB released their fourth live album on Friday, a mere 2 days ago. So unless you’re a hardcore CRB fan odds are strong to quite strong you haven’t heard this tune yet.  The Betty’s Midwestern Magick Blends is the album that finally broke me out of my Kasvot Vaxt multiple listens a day habit (I’ve cut back to one listen a day, for now). The entire album is incredible and captures such a beautiful slice of time in the CRB universe. It’s so new I’m not sure which show this song is from. The Betty's Midwestern Magick Blends was recorded at shows in Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee during the CRB's October 2016 run and was played in both Chicago and Milwaukee. I think it’s Chicago because the en...

I picked the song of the day for a couple of days for a Phish Facebook group I’m in so figured I would upload the selections to Fink’s Travels.  A.R. Rahman Chaiyya Chaiyya Soundtrack for Dil Se.. (translated to From The Heart) 1998 Picking the song of the day is so much harder than I thought it would be! Not because I don’t have a ton of good music at my fingertips, rather because of the fine group of music loving freaks in this group. One of the benefits of being a Phish fan is that they have introduced me to so much amazing music.... in this instance a lot of those nuggets are already known by y’all because we are members of the same Temple. For example I thought about making something from the 1977 Prince Loring Park Sessions the SOD. However I figured most of you have already heard Prince lay down the funk at 19 years old because somehow that album has made its way around the phish community. If by chance you haven’t, do yourself a HUGE favor and check out the link in the com...

I picked the song of the day for a couple of days for a Phish Facebook group I’m in so figured I would upload the selections to Fink’s Travels.  The Meters It Ain’t No Use Rejuvenation  1974 All the talk about Jazzfest yesterday has me super fired up for the 50th next year. It’s my favorite weekend(s) of the year, a tradition for our crew. My first was in 1998, I’ve gone most years since then. If I could only choose one event to attend annually, it wouldn’t be Phish. It would be Jazzfest. Easily.  Speaking of, if the rumors are true and Phish is playing I imagine I’ll be seeing a lot more familiar faces in The Crescent City this year! New Orleans has culture, the best food, a vibe, an art scene, beautiful people that know how to host, of course music everywhere you go and soul. It’s my favorite city in the country to visit, in part because it doesn't feel like America. The song that I most associate with New Orleans and Jazzfest is Ain’t No Use by The Meters. Produced by ...

I picked the song of the day for a couple of days for a Phish Facebook group I’m in so figured I would upload the selections to Fink’s Travels.  Derek & The Dominos (kind of) Jam IV The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition Recorded August 27, 1970 In typical Fink fashion I will also probably be overly verbose but here is the background.  This box set was released in 1990. Three discs, the first CD was remastered and the third was outtakes. The second CD is one of the greatest CD’s ever; five studio jams simply labeled Jam I, Jam II, Jam III, Jam IV and Jam V.  No words, pure jamming. I specifically selected Jam IV for the song of the day because it’s my favorite. It’s actually a mix of Derek & the Dominos and the Allman Brothers Band. Listening to Duane and Clapton trade riffs and play off of each other in this jam is so mind blowing. Clapton has referred to Duane as “the musical brother I never did have but always wished for.” (Good time to stop reading for t...

Photo by Rene Huemer Finks thoughts 10/23/18 Nashville night 1  After college I moved to Nashville and was there from 96-00. Nashville is a pretty cool town, I enjoyed my time there. Was a young and dumb investment banker working way too hard, making way too much money and having way too much fun. It was a great time but a different Fink. I’m sure we all have grown and changed in 20 years, hopefully for the better. Anyway one of the things I really loved about Nashvegas (locals seriously called it that) was that it is a music town. As the home of country music, the music industry is huge there so the town is full of incredible musicians and people that know, respect and love music....all different kinds of music. As such it gets great shows at great venues and when bands play there the audience is extra attentive, quiet and respectful. They get it, music is church and I think the bands know that and feed off of that. That’s way too much of a lead up to this point: I feel most ...

3/20/18 WinstonsOB San Diego, CA I went out late on a Tuesday night to check out a brand new band making it's live debut in San Diego... Ghost Light . In addition to being the name of two great Phish songs, a ghost light is an electric light that is left energized on the stage of a theater when the theater is unoccupied and would otherwise be completely dark.  Tom Hamilton (lead guitar) and Holly Bowling (keys) have a great chemistry. They seemed lead the band. The bass (Steve Lyons) drums (Scotty Zwang) laid down a nice rhythm and back beat all night. I had never seen Raina Mullen before - never judge a book by its cover! They all seemed really happy to be playing together.  You would never know it was their first show. Really great show, nice energy and interplay. The band plays well together, listened to each other and have obviously been practicing. First show was good...if they collectively continue to devote time to this has seri...

In 2012 my girlfriend at the time Sara and I were looking for an active adventure vacation. We were debating a few different things when by chance we happened to watch a movie called  The Way . Note if you haven't seen the movie it's actually pretty good. Shit it ultimately led to one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Inspired by the movie we decided to travel to Europe and hike El Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James) via the Camino Francés (the French Way). It is a 490 mile route that runs from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles on the Spanish side and then another 780km on to Santiago de Compostela through the major cities of Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos and León. It took us just over one month to complete El Camino. Sara wanted our friends and family back home to share in our journey so she set up an account on Travelpod and began to blog our journey. Sara blogged the first two entires including an introduction and a...