Grateful Dead Hour #981

Week of July 9, 2007

Part 1 27:57
Grateful Dead 4/15/89 The Mecca, Milwaukee WI
WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE
QUEEN JANE, APPROXIMATELY
BLOW AWAY->
PROMISED LAND

Part 2 27:58
Grateful Dead 4/15/89 The Mecca, Milwaukee WI
CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER->
I KNOW YOU RIDER
New Riders of the Purple Sage Live New Year’s Eve 2006
ANY NAKED EYE (edit)
Robert Hunter, Tales of the Great Rum Runners
ARIZONA LIGHTNING
Mr. Smolin, The Crumbling Empire of White People
A GODDAMN THING

Mr. Smolin” is my friend and colleague Barry Smolin, whose day job is teaching English at a magnet school in Los Angeles. He’s also the host of The Music Never Stops on KPFK. The Crumbling Empire of White People is his second album, and I am completely smitten with it – well, at the moment, I can’t get past my two favorite tracks: “A Goddamn Thing” and “Twilight in America.”

The Crumbling Empire was produced by Stew, a true genius, who is currently ripping it up in New York City with Passing Strange, a musical theater piece based on his own life. I saw Passing Strange at the Berkeley Repertory Theater last year; here’s a blog entry about the show, and here is an interview I did with Stew and his collaborator, Heidi Rodewald, during the Berkeley Rep run. (Here’s a review of Passing Strange from The New Yorker)

You’ll find some sample tracks from The Crumbling Empire, along with some bonus tracks, here. The CD is available at CDBaby, amazon, and elsewhere. I recommend it with both thumbs all the way up.

Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:

Rhino Records, presenting Grateful Dead: Three From The Vault, a 2-CD set recorded on February 19th, 1971, an historic performance mixed from the original multi-track analog master tapes and mastered in HDCD sound. More information, cover art, and sample audio are available on the all new dead.net.

Audio Fidelity, presenting The Playboy After Dark Collection Two, a 3-DVD box set featuring video of the Grateful Dead performing on national television January 18th, 1969. Songs include Mountains of the Moon, Saint Stephen and Turn on Your Lovelight. The collection has over 55 songs, runs more than six hours, and also features Deep Purple and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles and many more. The Playboy After Dark DVD box set is available at all fine stores that carry music and from amazon.com.

Dead Symphony, an orchestral tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead. Performed by the Russian National Orchestra and conducted by composer Lee Johnson, Dead Symphony is available now for download at digital music service providers around the globe. More information and audio samples are available at deadsymphony.com

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