My Father's Placement: Day of the Dregs

Happy Father's Day! I am about to go to NYC for two weeks, but let's start the first of three consecutive posts to precede my departure. This one is a near-anniversary special designed to boost your celebration of all things paternal to new intensities, with what else but a show from the legendary My Father's Place in the village of Old Roslyn on Long Island, not far from where I will land on Wednesday morning.

A landmark concert venue in my growing-up years, MFP hosted any and everybody back in the halcyon days of yore. From 1971 to 1987, there was no better spot to see a show if small-club atmosphere with big-name bands was your pleasure. It is estimated that it hosted 6,000+ shows by 3,000+ bands in its 16-year run.

This is one of those 6,000 performances and it is a burner of burners, with insane Southern-tinged fusioneers The Dixie Dregs. Featuring the inimitable Steve Morse on flying fretting fingers and the powerhouse drummer Rod Morgenstein (who went to my high school), this set brings you The Dregs blazing through tunes from their then-current LPs What If and the live Night of the Living Dregs. It was recorded off the air onto a Teac reel-to-reel deck back when it was broadcast over equally-as-legendary Long Island radio station WLIR-FM, also a HUGE part of my youth.

DIXIE DREGS
My Father's Place
Old Roslyn, NY
6.19.1979

01 Odyssey
02 Patchwork
03 Night of the Living Dregs
04 Night Meets Light
05 Punk Sandwich
06 The Bash
07 Cruise Control
08 crowd
09 Take It Off the Top
10 Disco Dregs
11 crowd
12 Gina Lola Breakdown

Total time: 1:12:05

Steve Morse - guitars
Allan Sloan - violin
Mark Parrish - keyboards
Andy West - bass
Rod Morgenstein - drums

off-air WLIR-FM master reel

479 MB FLAC/June 2014 archive link

I hope you all have a great Father's Day and it is suitably embellished by this Southern-fried fusion excursion with the Dregs of Dixie, recorded at My Father's Place 35 years ago this week... I'll be back tomorrow with a commemoration of a recently-passed titan of jazz, but for now please do enjoy this ripping DD MFP set posted in honor of all the Dads out there :)--J.