Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
The August 2007 issue of Vanity Fair
Grateful Dead Hour #981
Week of July 9, 2007
Part 1 27:57
Grateful Dead 4/15/89 The Mecca, Milwaukee WI
WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE
QUEEN JANE, APPROXIMATELY
BLOW AWAY->
PROMISED LAND
Part 2 27:58
Grateful Dead 4/15/89 The Mecca, Milwaukee WI
CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER->
I KNOW YOU RIDER
New Riders of the Purple Sage Live New Year’s Eve 2006
ANY NAKED EYE (edit)
Robert Hunter, Tales of the Great Rum Runners
ARIZONA LIGHTNING
Mr. Smolin, The Crumbling Empire of White People
A GODDAMN THING
“Mr. Smolin” is my friend and colleague Barry Smolin, whose day job is teaching English at a magnet school in Los Angeles. He’s also the host of The Music Never Stops on KPFK. The Crumbling Empire of White People is his second album, and I am completely smitten with it – well, at the moment, I can’t get past my two favorite tracks: “A Goddamn Thing” and “Twilight in America.”
The Crumbling Empire was produced by Stew, a true genius, who is currently ripping it up in New York City with Passing Strange, a musical theater piece based on his own life. I saw Passing Strange at the Berkeley Repertory Theater last year; here’s a blog entry about the show, and here is an interview I did with Stew and his collaborator, Heidi Rodewald, during the Berkeley Rep run. (Here’s a review of Passing Strange from The New Yorker)
You’ll find some sample tracks from The Crumbling Empire, along with some bonus tracks, here. The CD is available at CDBaby, amazon, and elsewhere. I recommend it with both thumbs all the way up.
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:
Rhino Records, presenting Grateful Dead: Three From The Vault, a 2-CD set recorded on February 19th, 1971, an historic performance mixed from the original multi-track analog master tapes and mastered in HDCD sound. More information, cover art, and sample audio are available on the all new dead.net.
Audio Fidelity, presenting The Playboy After Dark Collection Two, a 3-DVD box set featuring video of the Grateful Dead performing on national television January 18th, 1969. Songs include Mountains of the Moon, Saint Stephen and Turn on Your Lovelight. The collection has over 55 songs, runs more than six hours, and also features Deep Purple and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles and many more. The Playboy After Dark DVD box set is available at all fine stores that carry music and from amazon.com.
Dead Symphony, an orchestral tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead. Performed by the Russian National Orchestra and conducted by composer Lee Johnson, Dead Symphony is available now for download at digital music service providers around the globe. More information and audio samples are available at deadsymphony.com
DG to play Hookahville Labor Day weekend
JUST CONFIRMED:
Hookahville, at Legend Valley in Thornville OH (just east of Columbus). eKoostik Hookah, Dark Star Orchestra, and others. I play Friday, August 31 1:00-2:30 pm and Saturday, September 1, noon to 1:00 pm.
Station list changes
We lost WAER Syracuse NY at the end of June.
We’re about to add a new station, WEXT, in Troy NY. Details to come ASAP.
GD Hour station list is here.
Report from GratefulFest
Jon Winer posted this on the GD Hour mailing list; I repost it here with his permission.
My sets and the Zen Tricksters‘ sets, and others from the festival (although not DSO’s and probably not Keller Williams’), will be available for download from digitalsoundboard.net
From: Jon Winer
Subject: GratefulFest 2007– Day 1
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007I stop at the corner gas/grocery store in Parkman, Ohio, on my way to Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, to attend the first day of GratefulFest 8. It is the Fourth of July, 2007. The young couple ahead of me in the check-out line is 25 cents short of being able to pay for their groceries. The cashier signals me to go ahead and check out, while the couple scurries out to search their car, looking for a quarter. The middle-aged lady at the register good-naturedly rolls her eyes. “They are heading over to that GratefulFest thing,” she announces, as if that one fact will explain the young couple’s 25-cent crisis. I’m headed there myself, I confess, as I place beer, ice and candy bars on the counter for her inspection. As the words sink in, she notices my Grateful Dead T-Shirt, and eyes me somewhat suspiciously as I sift through the contents of my pockets, and fish out a twenty.
When I drive up to the gate at the entrance to Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, the young man who greets me says “welcome back” as he hands me the “fest at your own risk” paper and shows me where to sign. I find it puzzling that he may remember me from last year, but then realize that he probably means something like “welcome back to the ’60s, old fellow.” Either way, the greeting seems good-natured, especially by comparison to the store clerk.
Boombox is playing on the main stage as I stroll past food, T-shirt and art vendors, on my way to a shady spot near the sound tents. The weather forecast calls for a chance of rain, but the partly cloudy sky is holding its water, despite the occasional fireworks explosions, which occur without warning. I watch the colorful young crowd bopping to Boombox. I am looking for Ric Findlay and Mike Byrd. No sign of them yet.
From the second stage, we are asked to “ride the peace train.” I’m on board.
The next performers on the main stage are the Zen Tricksters, including Rob Barraco. The Tricksters suggest we “carry the moments away” as they begin what proves to be an inspired and inspiring set. Halfway through “Simple Twist of Fate” I feel a weight lifted from my psyche, as my vision suddenly improves. I can see with greater clarity, without squinting. The sunlight changes hue, as the strangers all around me now look like old friends. The message on the back of the shirt in front of me reads “Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right.” I must be looking at it right. The last time I saw this light was at The Dead show in Columbus 6 or 7 years ago, just after I finished that Shakedown Street veggie burrito that tasted so good. But today I have had no burrito. Could it be something in the air? No matter, the doors of perception have opened, and just in time for the finest set I have ever heard The Zen Tricksters perform.
After Ruben and Cherise join the happy hippies twirling and bobbing on the sand in front of the NLQP stage, the Zen Tricksters jam around an allegro St. Stephen tease and finally into the St. Stephen Bridge-> The Eleven. Against a backdrop of baby-blue sky and a distant sunlit white cloud bank, the inflatable wind dancer is the seventh proud walker on the jingle-bell rainbow, stretching aerobically into the ether from high atop the roof of the stage. Now we are “Off to the coast, where I needed to go. That’s where I found what I needed to know.” The wind dancer is safe from Alligators, but not so the earthbound crowd. Watch out! It’s the meanest old alligator that I’ve ever seen.
During Alligator, David Gans appears from the wings, smiling at the Tricksters, with whom he has been traveling this week. An authentic Kreutzmann-like Drumz segment fills the Alligator sandwich, which the crowd enthusiastically eats up, leaving not a single crumb, as the final notes of the Zen Tricksters’ remarkable set recede into the wooded campgrounds at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park. I hope somebody recorded that set. Put me on the list.
Roots A Risin rises and shines on Stage 2, with Amazing Grace, and then takes us down to the Rivers of Babylon, as a shirtless long-haired hippie tightrope walks along an elastic ribbon strung between trees, juggling Devilsticks.
Just before DSO‘s set, I hook up with Ric Findlay and Mike Byrd. They both got in Tuesday night and were treated to an impromptu set from DSO, which evolved from a sound-check, after a crowd gathered. We have some fun guessing the year of the DSO show, which turns out to be a very fine rendering of 6-24-76. The musicians obviously enjoy playing GratefulFest, and they say so. DSO will recreate three more Grateful Dead shows before GratefulFest 8 is over.
Capping off the night (for me) is a moving set by our own David Gans. David slows down the pace, starting off with a looping instrumental medley, followed by An American Family, Ship of Fools, In Another World, Quarter To Five (For Tina Loney), Stella Blue, Down to Eugene (by request), Like a Dog and Brokedown Palace, with the crowd joining in. David has the ability to sing the songs to each member of the audience, as though he shares our thoughts. And, of course, he does. That’s what GratefulFest is all about.
On Day 2, Rowan and Rice will play at 1:00 pm. I’ll be there!