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Week of August 6, 2007

Part 1 41:01
Grateful Dead 6/20/87 Greek Theater, Berkeley CA
JAM->
GIMME SOME LOVIN’->
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER->
THE WHEEL->
THE OTHER ONE->
WHARF RAT->
SUGAR MAGNOLIA

Part 2 14:24
Boris Garcia 7/6/07 Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, Garrettsville OH
SCOOTCH
Interview: Bob Stirner
Boris Garcia 7/6/07 Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, Garrettsville OH
RED, WHITE AND BLUE

I suppose it’s because I’m a songwriter myself, but it seems to me that the most important, and often hardest to find, quality of a good band is good songwriting. Boris Garcia has three very good songwriters! I first head about this band from their co-manager, Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally – but curiously, the name “Boris Garcia” has nothing to do with the Dead! As you’ll hear in the interview with guitarist/bassist Bob Stirner, the name was intended to convey the band’s multi-cultural musical approach.

I enjoyed the Boris Garcia CDs I got in the mail, but I wasn’t really sold on this band until I heard ’em play live at Grateful Fest in Ohio over the July 4 weekend (source of the recordings you hear in this week’s program). Now I’m on the Boris Garcia bus for good! “Scootch,” by harmonica/recorder/vocalist Gene Smith, is a swell song in the voice of a cat – gotta love that! And “Red, White and Blue” scratches my itch for more politically-conscious songs in the musical stream.

This week’s unreleased Grateful Dead music includes the band’s first-ever live performance of Bob Dylan’s classic “All Along the Watchtower,” which remained a staple in the GD songbook for the rest of the band’s days. “Watchtower” has been covered by tons of artists, from Michael Hedges to Barbara Keith to Bryan Ferry, but the most famous recording – eclipsing Dylan’s own, really – is by Jimi Hendrix (on Electric Ladyland).

Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from Camp Zoe in Southern Missouri, presenting the Schwagstock festivals held year round and headlined by the Grateful Dead tribute act The Schwag. Camp Zoe features shaded camping, river floating, swimming beaches, hiking, and more, and has presented such acts as Keller Williams, String Cheese Incident, George Clinton, Hot Tuna and dozens of nationally touring bands.