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My friend Richard Gehr reviews Twisted Love Songs in a blog column that begins with this disclaimer:

Unless you’re some sort of sociopath, if you write about music long enough professionally, you’ll eventually become friends with musicians, their management, or both. Unfortunately, a certain awkwardness sometimes ensues when they send you their own often quite wonderful releases for consideration, since most media outlets of any integrity would prefer, for obvious reasons, that one not review one’s friends’ work. But insofar as this blogger’s his own editor—and because these discs are simply too excellent to ignore, and most of them won’t get the coverage they deserve elsewhere—here’s my take, with appropriate disclosures.

And here’s what Richard had to say about my CD:

David Gans, Twisted Love Songs (Perfectible) Most songwriters have but a single trick up their sleeve. This Bay Area performer, on the other hand, mixes his literate and well-crafted songs with heady instrumental loops that neatly blend the organic with the digital. David Gans‘s love songs are far cleverer than most: “Narcissistic cathexis is my ex’s pathology/ She hooks ’em and crooks ’em and cooks ’em with impunity,” he sings in “Desert of Love.” And his social criticism lies somewhere between hippie optimism, barricades-manning rage, and Firesign Theater absurdity. In “Ran Into God,” She bemoans, “Fundies with their undies in a permanent twist/ Don’t they know the heathen have a right to exist?” (We’ve been pals ever since the Grateful Dead’s publicist referred me to David for a story I wrote in 1987.)

He also has some kind words for one of my current favorite discs, Mr Smolin‘s The Crumbling Empire of White People:

Barry Smolin is a smart, hip Los Angeles high-school English teacher, and Crumbling Empire sounds very much like the sort of album Thomas Pynchon (or someone who’s read him very carefully) might create. One tune goes, “I lost my heart to Mata Hari/ It cost a lot of vo-dee-o-do/ Like a cross between a safari/ And a rodeo.” Produced (exquisitely) by Stew, Smolin (who, like David Gans, is a Grateful Dead-obsessed radio DJ) mixes cosmic conundrums with grassroots grievance. It’s not for everyone, nor would he want it to be. (I’ve been known to turn to Barry for advice on the care and feeding of teenagers.)

I just got word that we are confirmed for a Rex Foundation benefit at the High Line Ballroom in NYC November 17: Donna the Buffalo, Ollabelle, and me! Plus special guests, if they answer my calls :^)

NEW YORK–July 26, 2007 – SIRIUS Satellite Radio announced that it will air a “sneak preview” of its much anticipated Grateful Dead Channel. Dead fans can tune in August 1 through August 9 as the Grateful Dead Channel takes over Jam_On SIRIUS channel 17 for this special preview.

The Grateful Dead Channel will feature music spanning the band’s long and celebrated career with previously unreleased concert recordings, and special commentary from remaining members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann, as well as rare archival interviews with Jerry Garcia. Other exclusives will include memories and music from members of The Grateful Dead’s tight-knit musical family tree.

Jam_On, SIRIUS’ home for Jam bands, will return to its regular programming on August 10. The Grateful Dead Channel will officially launch as part of SIRIUS’ channel line-up later this summer.

To learn more about SIRIUS, please visit www.sirius.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fur Peace Ranch Hosts Multi-Faceted Performer David Gans for Intimate Instructional Sessions

39495 St. Clair Rd. Pomeroy, Ohio | Friday, Sept. 28 – Monday, Oct. 1 | apply online

Pomeroy, OH (July 10, 2007) – Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch will host multi-faceted performer, guitarist, and songwriter David Gans Friday, September 28 through Monday, October 1 for a series of intimate instructional sessions on electric and acoustic guitar looping techniques.

“I got the loop device as a way of enriching my solo performances,” Gans explains. “I wanted to be able to record the chord changes of the song so I could play a guitar solo over top. But once I had that thing on the floor in front of me, I began to explore the creative possibilities. Now I’m able to improvise multi-layered musical structures onstage – and some of them become compositions after I get them into the studio for editing and analysis.”

This first-hand workshop provides instruction in the use of a loop device as both an accompaniment for singer-songwriters and for the creation of multi-layered improvisations. Participating students need to bring a guitar that plugs in (acoustic or electric), and a Boss RC-20XL or RC-2 Loop Station.

For his live performances, Gans equips himself only with his sturdy baritone, a guitar and a pedal-controlled looping setup, the sum of which sounds anything but unaccompanied. Aside from these “solo” performances, Gans has performed with such legendary artists as Phil Lesh, Railroad Earth, Donna the Buffalo, New Riders of the Purple Sage, The String Cheese Incident, moe. and dozens of others. He has also written songs with a host of others, including Jim Page, Lorin Rowan, and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

Conceived in 1989 by Jorma & Vanessa Kaukonen, The Fur Peace Ranch is nestled in the rolling foothills of southeast Ohio. Over time it has evolved into an idyllic landscape of neatly arrayed cabins, workshop space, library, store, dining hall, plus a theater that hosts concerts performed by world-class musicians.

For class registration, please visit furpeaceranch.com. For music & video clips, images and further information on David Gans, please visit dgans.com. For David Gans publicity requests, please contact Dave Weissman.

Article titled “Ever grateful” by Jonathan Pitts in the Baltimore Sun July 22. Pitts interviewed Donna Jean Godchaux-Mackay at the American Roots Music Festival in Falling Waters WV. I was there, too, and Donna Jean and the Tricksters played a terrific set.

A couple of excerpts from the story:

Godchaux – now officially Donna Jean Godchaux-Mackay – is the only woman ever to have been a member of the Grateful Dead, and at 59, she’s old enough to be a grandmother. The flowing, nearly waist-length hair is flaxen now. As the Tricksters, her new band, swings into a slinky blues tune and she begins to sway, it’s hard to tell whether she has grown older or younger in the 28 years since she parted ways with the world’s first, biggest and most influential jam rock band.

She grew up Donna Jean Thatcher near Muscle Shoals, a northwestern Alabama town known for its influential recording scene. By 12, she had met a few musicians and “caught studio fever.” During her freshman year, she was splitting time between cheerleading at the local high school and doing backup vocals for the likes of Dionne Warwick, Percy Sledge and Boz Scaggs. She even recorded with Elvis Presley, on albums such as Let’s Be Friends and Back in Memphis, both 1970 releases.

“A total, absolute gentleman,” she says. “I had such a crush on him.”

…as Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, took the stage, “each band was better than the last,” she says. “When the Dead finally came on, they were on fire. They never did the same thing twice! To them, music was an adventure, like something spiritual.

“I’d never heard anything like that. I thought, ‘This is what I want to do.”

She met the Zen Tricksters, a Dead-style jam band based in Long Island, N.Y., during a benefit two years ago and, when they invited her to sing, was so impressed with their musicianship and originality that she started sharing the stage at gigs. (Baltimore native Mookie Siegel, formerly of Bob Weir’s band, Ratdog, plays keyboards.)

“They have the improvisational skills of the Dead, but a style all their own,” she says.

I haven’t seen the American Roots set online yet, but here is a recording of Donna Jean and the Tricksters from A Bear’s Picnic last weekend.