Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
Bo Diddley, RIP
Wildman Steve online radio
Wildman Steve lost his radio station in Auburn, Alabama – damn that radio biz anyway – and in the bargain, the GD Hour lost its Auburn affiliate. But Steve picked up right where he left off by going online with Wildman Steve Radio.
The GD Hour will air Saturdays at 10pm Central Time.
Here is Wildman Steve’s mission statement:
When I was growing up, Radio was Everything. It was how you heard the best new music and songs you loved. It was diverse…you might hear Led Zeppelin followed by Johnny Cash. The DJs were distinct personalities that knew a lot about the music they were choosing to play. They told you interesting things and were spontaneous, fun and had no need to get raunchy or suggestive … it was about the MUSIC!
Today, the corporate mentality has taken over what was once a great institution and turned it into a vast, stale wasteland of repetition and mediocrity. The corporatization of radio has taken all the creativity and musicianship away, settling now for “voice talent” that reads jokes and stories purchased from “content providers” and know little or nothing about the music that is playing around their voice breaks. The music is chosen by test groups and/or by the financial rewards the company will reap by playing it.
Our mission is to bring back radio the way it should be. With live DJs who know what they’re playing and talking about, with a wildly diverse mix of quality music that comes from the heart. A huge catalog going deep into the classics, with music from an amazing array of artists that terrestrial radio has ignored for the last 20 years. You’ll hear great music by your favorite artists and we’ll turn you on to lots of GREAT artists you might never have heard otherwise. We will tirelessly search for the best music whether it be national, regional or local in its origin, and regardless of style, genre, or what “format” it fits under. We will present to you LIVE IN-STUDIO PERFORMANCES on a regular basis from artists we play, and if you become a Member of the WildmanSteve Radio family, you will have access to our Members-Only Download Page which will feature exclusive live performances you can download and keep. We’ll bring you great radio the way it was meant to be.
We mean it when we say “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!!”
Bill Cutler “Rockingham Mill” video
Bill Cutler has posted a video for his song Rockingham Mill, from Crossing the Line.
Peter Simon’s “Reggae Scrapbook”
Peter Simon, my co-author on Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead, has a new book: Reggae Scrapbook, a collaboration with Roger Steffens. Here’s a bit of the New York Times’ rave review from last Sunday:
….“Reggae Scrapbook,†a dazzling homage to the music and its birthplace. Simon’s magnificent photos are interspersed with his and Steffens’s text — historical morsels, interviews with reggae greats, frontline reminiscences about the music scene — and replicated goodies from the archives: concert handbills, autographed records, album covers, fliers promoting reggae shows in places as far-flung as Israel and Germany. Their work is evidence that fandom has all the trappings of religion: here are holy artifacts, testimonials, even lists of places to worship (i.e., global reggae festivals).
The book is, above all, fun. Turning page after oversize page, ogling colorful collages and wondering what treats were in store next….
Nice article on Donna Jean
Article (with a lovely photo) in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:
Donna Jean Godchaux grateful to sing again
Godchaux-Mackay dropped out of music entirely after she left the Dead and only made her first, tentative steps back into the field after her children were grown. “I was very inspired,” she says. “I started writing again. It was time.”
She first met the Tricksters at a New York concert on the 10th anniversary of the death of Jerry Garcia. “I was really impressed with their musicality,” she says, “and also what great people they were.”
She was also pleased to note the band had moved beyond being merely a Grateful Dead cover act and the band’s songwriters developed some strong original material of their own. “By the end of that event,” she says, “we were talking about hooking up and playing a few gigs.”
Donna Jean and the Tricksters have three gigs in the Bay Area this week:
Wed., 6.4.08, 9pm: 12 GALAXIES, 2565 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Thurs., 6.5.08 9pm: MOE’S ALLEY, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz, CA 95065
Fri., 6.6.08, 9pm: SWEETWATER STATION ON MAGNOLIA, 500 Magnolia Ave, Larkspur, CA 94939