Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
Grateful Dead Hour no. 1066
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from: Relix Magazine, featuring an exclusive cover story on THE DEAD with band members interview by some of the musicians they influenced: Phil Lesh interviewed by David Schools of Widespread Panic, Bob Weir by Keller Williams and Mickey and Billy by Billy Martin from MMW. Relix is on newsstands online at relix.com. The Suwannee SpringFest, a festival of American roots music March 26th through 29th at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, just across the Georgia line. Donna the Buffalo, the Emmitt Nershi Band, The Duhks, The Lee Boys, Darrell Scott, Darol Anger & Mike Marshall, The Gourds, David Gans, and many many more. Information is available at 904-249-7990 and magmusic.com, where you will also find information on Music Farmers, a documentary about MagnoliaFest and the Suwannee SpringFest, now available on DVD.
Viva Railroad Earth
I’ve been meaning to post something about Railroad Earth since I listened to their three-night New Year’s run a couple of weeks ago. Today I posted this on a mailing list of European Deadheads:
The reason I think Railroad Earth is the best band of the current era is that they have many of the same attributes you enumerate here [“heart and soul,” “fantastic songs,” “variety,” “inventiveness,” and “evolution.”]. Todd Sheaffer’s songs are complex and deep; like the Grateful Dead, he is not afraid to go to dark places and deal with adult themes. And the musicians who surround Sheaffer are brilliant storytellers in their own right: like the Dead, they know their job is to support the song, not to display their instrumental prowess.
A Grateful Dead show had a narrative quality – the collection of songs describing a place and a set of characters and conflicts, loose enough for each of us to imagine our way into that world and powerful enough to charge the atmosphere with provocative, evocative energy. I feel the same way about a Railroad Earth performance – maybe not quite as intensely as the Dead at their best, but this band very definitely shares that literary quality with the Dead.
By contrast, last night I hosted Andy Gadiel for a two-hour salute to Phish on the occasion of their return to performing. Lots of intense music and great playing, but they are the “Seinfeld” of improvisational music: most of their songs are quite deliberately about nothing.
The Railroad Earth New Year’s run is available from livedownloads – 12/29/08, 12/30/08, and 12/31/08 at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon. I am planning to play some of New Year’s Eve on the GD Hour and on Dead to the World. There’s a sweet rendition of “Sisters and Brothers” (familiar to fans of the Jerry Garcia Band), and “Warhead Boogie” from that show goes into some deliciously weird places. Other highlights include “The Forecast” (my favorite song on their most recent studio CD, Amen Corner) and “Railroad Earth” from their first CD, The Black Bear Sessions.
Grateful Dead Hour no. 1065
Part 1 32:13
New Year’s Eve Band 12/31/08 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA
DARK STAR->
NOT FADE AWAY
Part 2 24:12
New Year’s Eve Band 12/31/08 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA
US BLUES
RIPPLE
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Not for Kids Only
TEDDDY BEARS’ PICNIC
The Bobs Perform the Songs of…
THE GOLDEN ROAD (To Unlimited Devotion)
New Year Eve’s Band: Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Jeff Chimenti, Steve Molitz, Kenny Brooks, John Molo, Jay Lane, Mark Karan, Jackie Greene, Barry Sless
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:
Relix Magazine, featuring an exclusive cover story on THE DEAD with band members interview by some of the musicians they influenced: Phil Lesh interviewed by David Schools of Widespread Panic, Bob Weir by Keller Williams and Mickey and Billy by Billy Martin from MMW. Relix is on newsstands online at relix.com.
The Suwannee SpringFest, a festival of American roots music March 26th through 29th at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, just across the Georgia line. Donna the Buffalo, the Emmitt Nershi Band, The Duhks, The Lee Boys, Darrell Scott, Darol Anger & Mike Marshall, The Gourds, David Gans, and many many more. Information is available at 904-249-7990 and magmusic.com, where you will also find information on Music Farmers, a documentary about MagnoliaFest and the Suwannee SpringFest, now available on DVD.
Best “Weirdest” review yet!
Dennis Cook reviews The Ones That Look the Weirdest Taste the Best in jamabase:
Though the title suggests Captain Beefheartian oddity, this is in fact a very lovely, fairly pure folk-rock album, and perhaps David Gans finest recorded hour to date…. Gans has quietly grown & grown as a singer-songwriter in his own right, and his latest collection elevates him to the stature of John Gorka, David Wilcox and Greg Brown in the modern folk pantheon.
Read the whole review, please!
Another positive review for “Weirdest”
“…an artful collection of low-key, nicely produced songs that meander refreshingly like a backwoods brook.” – Nick Hutchinson, Associated Content