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Press release: DECEMBER 1ST, 2006 MARKS THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF AN IMPORTANT COG IN THE GRATEFUL DEAD WHEEL After Thirty Years on the Road and a Brief Hiatus The Hard Truckers are Back. Back in 1975 a fledgling company formed in the Bay Area. Two Grateful Dead Roadies, Steve Parish and Joe Winslow, took what they learned as part of the team that built the Grateful Dead’s legendary Wall of Sound and began commercially building the touring professionals’ speaker cabinet. On the cutting edge of technology, the Hard Truckers produced speaker cabinets’ years ahead of their time. Used by the Bay Areas’ biggest rock stars, these hand-made speaker cabinets toured the world and back. Well now, Steve, Joe and the Hard Truckers are back. The Hard Truckers are proud to announce their return to the music gear scene. For this leg of the trip the Hard Truckers are honored to have their good friends from Tone Tubby speakers along for the ride. Called “the most significant development in speaker design for decades”, Tone Tubby and their hempcone speakers are committed to tone. The Hard Truckers are again doing what they do best as they set the stage for the hottest speakers the market has ever seen. Joining the original blond Hard Truckers Baltic Birch 2 x 12” extension cabinet (JG-1) is their new, ground breaking and bio-friendly, 2 x 12” Hemp and Bamboo cabinet (“The Fatty”). The new Hemp Cabinet sounds spectacular and is set to turn the industry upside down. Colonel Bruce Hampton calls his hemp cabinet “Hands down the best cabinet I’ve ever played.” The Hard Truckers are also setting out to change the industry by offering stunning “Hand-dyed, one-of-a-kind, removable speaker grills that will set Hard Truckers cabinets apart. Hand-made works of art, the Hard Truckers are the professional answer to generic gear. Musicians of all levels will benefit by the return of the Hard Truckers. hardtruckers.com

Jon Carroll publishes a version of this fine essay in his San Francisco Chronicle column every T-day. Here is today’s edition. A few excerpts:

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.

At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can wholeheartedly support (a) roasted turkey, (b) friends and (c) gratitude. My opinions on these matters are unambiguous; I am in favor of them all. I understand that there’s another story attached to Thanksgiving, all about a meal that may not have happened at all and certainly didn’t happen on the fourth Thursday of November. (Check the New England weather reports. Does it sound like a good day for alfresco dining?)

Thanksgiving provides a formal context in which to consider the instances of kindness that have enlightened our lives, the moments of grace that have gotten us through when all seemed lost. These are fine and sentimental subjects for contemplation.

First, there are the public personalities, artists and entertainers and philosophers, who have been there when they were needed, whether they knew it or not. Let us think kind thoughts about Nancy Pelosi and Helen Mirren, Barbara Lee and Frank Gore, Al Gore and David Milch, David Simon and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tom Stoppard and Keith Olbermann, Jennifer Egan and Peter Carey, Van Morrison and Clarence Fountain, Don Asmussen and Judith Martin, Duncan Black and Joshua Micah Marshall, Dan Savage and Masi Oka — this is my partial list; feel free to create your own.

Companions. We all learned about good sex from somebody, and that person deserves a moment. Somebody taught us some hard lesson of life, told us something for our own good, and that willingness to risk conflict for friendship is worth a pause this day. And somebody sat with us through one long night, and listened to our crazy talk and turned it toward sanity; that person has earned this moment too.

I’d be most thankful if you’d read the rest.

New song. This was its third public performance (at a house concert 11/12/06 in Forestville CA), and there are a few minor glitches in the delivery, but you get the gist.

Sweet, wise, reverent, blasphemous and witty.  Damn that’s nice.  – Gail Williams

RAN INTO GOD
David Gans
© 2006 Whispering Hallelujah (BMI)

I ran into God a coupla weeks ago
Sittin’ at the bar just before my show
She looks exactly like a female version of me. It’s uncanny.
We got to talkin’ about this’n’that.
Her heart is broken; she’s been laid out flat
Things just didn’t work out the way she planned

She said, “I liked you people better when the wheel was high-tech
You’re gonna leave this place a smokin’ wreck
I said to her, What the hell are you lookin’ at me for? I recycle.
She said, “In my imagination this was built to last
It makes me sad to see you use it up so fast
Driving your Belchfires til the air falls out of the sky
It pisses me off to see my intentions twisted
I’d kick some foolish ass if only I existed”

She said, “I love people more than I probably should
They got some wack-ass ideas about evil and good
Compassion’s out of fashion all around the world
Fundies with their undies in a permanent twist
Don’t they know the heathen have a right to exist
Human nature cannot be denied (and shouldn’t have to)
I meant to lay down the law but I got stoned and missed it
I’d forgive my own sins if only I existed”

God said, “I’ve been the victim of identity theft
Spiritual robber barons right and left
Ridin’ to church on Sunday in their stretch humvees
Telling everybody who to fear and loathe
Never mind the people they could feed and clothe
And claimin’ that the namin’ of their demons is the word of me
They keep callin’ even though my phone’s unlisted
I’d leave them a message if only I existed

“Some think I’m like Geppetto with a whittling knife
Crafting each and every individual life
It’s such a narcissistic notion of the way things work
(And who they work for)
I made this world you’re ridin’ on in less than a day
I’ve cranked out several million, each unique in its way
Set ’em down and put ’em in spin, and gave nature the deed
Faith is trying to snuff out reason and you’ve got to resist it
I’d give you some help with that if only I existed”

I ran into God a coupla weeks ago
Sittin’ at the bar just before my show
She looks exactly like a female version of me…

Join Rock the Earth and help protect the planet one beat at a time.