On This Day In Stoner Yodel History: December 20
Hard Working Americans play first gig
By Daryl Sanders
On this day in 2013, Hard Working Americans, the jam band supergroup led by Todd Snider and Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools, gave its first live performance at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado.
The band, which included guitarist Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood), guitarist Jesse Aycock, keyboardist Chad Staehly (Great American Taxi) and drummer Duane Trucks (Widespread Panic), performed all 11 songs from their eponymous debut album, which would be released a month later. The carefully curated material written by some of Snider’s favorite songwriters, included songs by Kevn Kinney, Chuck Mead, Hayes Carll, Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack. HWA also performed Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues” and a pair of Snider’s songs, “Guaranteed” and “Play a Train Song.”
“Guaranteed”
Their performance included the extended alternate arrangement of Kimbrough and Womack’s “Don’t Have a Gun” that detours into Gil Scott-Heron’s “Work For Peace” before circling back to “Don’t Have a Gun.” A recording of this extended version was released as “Don’t Wanna Hurt Nobody” for Black Friday Record Store Day on November 29, 2013, as a limited edition vinyl single — only 2,000 copies were pressed.
After opening with Kieran Kane’s “Mountain Song,” Snider spoke to the audience before they launched into a cover of The Bottle Rockets’ “Welfare Music.”
“My fellow Americans, it gives me great pleasure to be here with my friends tonight,” he began. “I feel like I can speak on behalf of the whole band when I say that we are very grateful to get to be part of your Friday night. We have come a long way to hopefully bring us all closer together. We are going to work hard for you — we are Hard Working Americans.”
It’s interesting to note even at Hard Working Americans’ very first gig, they were promoting their message of togetherness.
The band earned two encores that evening. They performed Kinney’s “Straight to Hell” and “Train Song” in the first encore and Gillian Welch’s “Wrecking Ball” in the second. Their 9:20 rendition of “Train Song” would have been mostly unrecognizable to anyone familiar with the original recording on Snider’s breakout album East Nashville Skyline. The band deconstructed it a la Dylan and turned it an epic jam.
“Wrecking Ball”
The setlist for the night was as follows:
1. “Mountain Song”
2. “Welfare Music”
3. “Another Train”
4. “Working Man’s Blues”
5. “Down to the Well”
6. “Run a Mile”
7. “Guaranteed”
8. “Mr. President”
9. “Blackland Farmer”
10. “I Don’t Have a Gun/Work For Peace”
11. “Stomp and Holler”
First encore
12. “Straight to Hell”
13. “Train Song”
Second encore
14. "Wrecking Ball”
You can stream Hard Working Americans’ debut show here.
© 2023 Daryl Sanders