Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
Impressionists Two-Step
Photos from the Michelle McFee benefit
More wonderful photos from Bob Minkin:
Michelle McFee Benefit Concert : Santa Rosa, CA : 12/19/08 with David Nelson, Rowan Bros, Pete Sears, David Gans, Zac Matthews, Chris Rowan, Robin Sylvester, Rubber Souldiers, David Getz, Bill Cutler, Mark Karan, David LaFlamme, Bob + Betty, Bill Laymon, Pat Campbell, David Perper, Steve Shufton, Peter Harris and more.
Here’s a photo of Rubber Souldiers and friends. Back row: Steve Shufton, Robin Sylvester, Pete Sears, Chris Rowan, Mark Karan, David LaFlamme, David Perper. Front row: David Gans, Zac Matthews, Adam Perry.
Tour diary: Rubber Souldiers 1/4/09
Rubber Souldiers at the Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station Sunday, January 4, 2009 (left to right: Chris Rowan, David Gans, Lorin Rowan, CC Dawson, Paul Knight) after our show at the Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station CA. Photo by Rita Hurault.
We played 5-6:30, took a dinner break, and played til 8:30. This is Paul Knight’s regular “PK & Friends” gig, which is very explicitly a casual, unpolished affair. Also unplugged, albeit amplified w/ Paul’s PA system. Our drummer was there with a tiny kit. Chris, Lorin, and I played and sang into microphones.
We have a few pretty well worked-out sequences for our “Beatle jam band,” but we took advantage of this warm and intimate atmosphere to go way out there and try lots of new stuff – all of which, despite the occasional derailment, was great fun for us and very well-received by the audience.
I had my hand-held recorder with me but no cable to connect it to the PA, so I just put it in a spot where I might get some sense of what was played. The recording is clear enough for us to benefit from what we’ll learn from hearing it back, but not suitable for civilian ears.
I have the coolest role in this band in a way: the Rowan Brothers have been singing together for 50 years, and they have lots of Beatle songs in their blood and bones; I have the freedom to create a third part where there wasn’t one before. I sing less lead in this band, but that doesn’t bother me a bit!
Part of our pitch is that we stretch these songs out, blend them together, and loosen them up – without sacrificing the genius of the originals. One of the absolutely uncharted adventures from the first set for example, was Baby’s in Black-> Back in the USSR-> Get Back-> Baby’s in Black.
When we did “Here Comes the Sun,” I had been hoping for an extended instrumental in the middle. When we got to the end without having done that, I said something to Lorin and he immediately launched into a wonderful refrain that we teased out into an extended ride, loosely based on “Here Comes the Sun.” I thought it might have been something Lorin had done before, but he said after the show that it wasn’t. We invented a ton of new territory our the band to explore.
The restaurant was packed for the whole show, and the audience was singing along most of the time. And at the end of the second set, they were going nuts and demanding more. What a thrill!
There were moments when Lorin and I were exchanging information on vocal notes and phrasing via eye contact, and we have developed a very fluid way of passing instrumental leads back and forth. I tend to defer to Lorin as the “lead” instrument – guitar or mandolin – but whenever I get the fever and
start playing, there’s plenty of room for me and the handoffs tend to be pretty smooth.
We’re all seasoned players and singers and performers coming together over music that made us who we are; this is an almost ridiculously easy band to be in.
You’re Gonna Lose That Girl
All My Lovin’->
Within You Without You->
Rain
If I Fell->
Across the Universe
No Reply
This Boy
Doctor Robert->
Come Together->
Doctor Robert
I Should Have Known Better
Help!
When I Get Home
Wait
Baby’s in Black->
Back in the USSR->
Get Back->
Baby’s in Black
Hold Me Tight
She Loves You
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Girl->
Things We Said Today
I’ve Just Seen a Face
Yellow Submarine
A Hard Day’s Night
Glass Onion
It Won’t Be Long
Blackbird
Norwegian Wood
Here Comes the Sun
I Saw Her Standing There
Day Tripper
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
Here, There, and Everywhere
If I Needed Someone->
Paperback Writer->
With a Little Help from My Friends (reprise)->
Paperback Writer
The Word
Grateful Dead mondegreens
On KissThisGuy.com, The archive of misheard lyrics.
Grateful Dead Hour no. 1059
Week of January 5, 2009
Part 1 16:45
Boris Garcia 12/10/08 KPFA performance studio, Berkeley CA
THE OTHER SIDE (with Mark Karan)
MIDNIGHT MOONLIGHT (with Peter Rowan)
Part 2 39:40
Grateful Dead 6/22/74 Miami Jai-Alai
EYES OF THE WORLD->
JAM->
WHARF RAT->
SUGAR MAGNOLIA
~
JOHNNY B. GOODE
Boris Garcia is a Philadelphia-based band with three excellent songwriters. Here’s what I said about Boris when I played a track from Once More Into the Bliss in GD Hour #1055:
Boris Garcia is a band from the Philadelphia area that I’ve come to know and love in the last few years. One of the band’s three excellent songwriters, Bob Stirner, was in the Dead-influenced Philly band Living Earth for many years; you have made heard their CD on Relix back in the day. I crossed paths with Boris Garcia on the festival circuit and became a fan right away; my first (and toughest) criterion for appreciating a band is songwriting, and this band has three fine songwriters. As for the name, here’s what band member Gene Smith says about it in the band’s bio: “We were in the studio with a bunch of different guitarists. One of them was Tony Rice style, and the other was Flamenco/Middle Eastern. East meets West, and it was definitely odd, and Jeff [Otto] said, ‘This is weird. This is like Boris Garcia’s Family Reunion.'”
When Boris Garcia came to KPFA on December 10, 2008, they were joined by Ratdog guitarist Mark Karan. Earlier in the week I had been asked by Peter Rowan‘s management if he could come in that night and play a few songs to promote the 25th-anniversary Rex Foundation benefit, Sweet Music Everywhere, scheduled for 12/13. The Boris guys said they’d be glad to cede a few minutes of air time to a musician we all admire; when Peter showed up during our pre-air soundcheck, it quickly turned into a collaboration. “We know ‘Midnight Moonlight,'” said Bob Stirner, so they ran through that one quickly. Then Peter got the band up to speed on his arrangement of “The Cuckoo Bird.”
You can hear the 12/10/08 broadcast in its entirety on the KPFA archive. The playlist and some photos are in this earlier Cloud Surfing post. Susana Millman posted some photos of the broadcast event here.
The Grateful Dead Hour is made possible in part this week by Grateful Dead Productions, announcing Road Trips volume 2 number 1, MSG September 90. Two CDs and a bonus disc with great musical moments from the 7-man lineup with Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick on keyboards. More information, sample audio, and ordering link on the official web site, dead.net.