Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
Gans on tour this summer
Grateful Dead Hour #927
Week of June 26, 2006
Part 1 34:53
Interview: Bob Weir and Mark Karan of Ratdog
Bob Weir and Ratdog 3/31/06 Casino Ballroom, Hampton Beach NH
LOST SAILOR->
SAINT OF CIRCUMSTANCE
Interview: Bob Weir and Mark Karan
The Waybacks w/ Bob Weir 4/28/06 Merlefest, Wilkesboro NC
ST. STEPHEN->
WILLIAM TELL
Part 2 21:27
Interview: Bob Weir and Mark Karan
Bob Weir and Ratdog, Evening Moods
BURY ME STANDING
Interview: Bob Weir and Mark Karan
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from the 10,000 Lakes Festival, July 19 through 22 in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. 10KLF features Phil Lesh & Friends, Trey Anastasio, The String Cheese Incident, The Benevento Russo Duo featuring Mike Gordon, Keller Williams, Railroad Earth, Umphrey’s McGee, MMW, and many more. More information and tickets at www.10KLF.com
And from A Bear’s Picnic music festival, July 21 – 23 north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Three nights of music and camping with Dark Star Orchestra, New Riders of the Purple Sage, the Zen Tricksters featuring Donna Jean Godchaux, Stir Fried, Juggling Suns and more. Information and tickets at ABearsPicnic.com
Hunter’s journal
Robert Hunter turns 65 today.
Thank you for today’s journal entry, RH, and happy birthday. As always, you provide rich food for thought. I don’t agree with every word of it, but I am never unappreciative of your perspective. We’re all getting older with you, and we’re all trying to make contact through that “prevailing noise.” Your words have always cut through the drivel, and you have made better use of vagueness than just about anyone I read and hear.
Before I Wake – notes on turning 65
Ours was no chance alliance. Events conspired to make it what it was and not otherwise. The path by which it materialized is closed now, eroded by rain, flash flood, hurricane and revised memory. The path that is not closed is still in process and so cannot be defined. It will become its own definition. Who will walk it is a mystery, but it will be no chance alliance.
Hope cannot cut through the prevailing noise of this era, we must sustain what remains of that ephemerality from the ashes of the 60’s, a generation whose dreams were dashed and did not recover. There is never success, there are only efforts.
Since the new path cannot be defined, it cannot be attacked, ridiculed, turned back on itself and scuttled by those who resent its glaring and unforgivable unusualness. The desire of adversaries will be to prove that, despite its unusualness, it is very usual indeed. The usual makes inevitable inroads into the unusual since its force is unrelenting. But first it must be defined.
The unusual emerges from unpredictable quarters, thrives awhile, makes mistakes, innocent and otherwise, similar to its predecessors, and suffers an eventual descent into usualness, thereby surrendering its uniqueness, more often than not pleading economic necessity. Which is not untrue.
Meanwhile, vagueness is the protection of the path to come. There’s no bull’s-eye on that target until it becomes solid enough to be decorated with one. Are there any identifying marks? “Adequate conceptions in whose possession true felicity consists,” advises Spinoza.
What will cause its destruction? Notoriety. Defined into prominence, it will be consequently defined out of existence, surviving only in a much altered form if at all. But there is a thread of continuity between all such paths: an identifiable sense of hope.
Old, old Garcia tape for auction
Courtesy of Mary Eisenhart, this item from the “It’s Only Rock’n’Roll” auction site:
394: Jerry Garcia Earliest Known Soundtrack Recording
Category: Grateful Dead
Starting Bid: $500.00
Number of Bids: 13
Current Bid: $1464.10
1964. Jerry Garcia’s earliest paid soundtrack work can be heard on this one-of-a-kind 16mm film entitled “I Want To Be A Camper”, produced to fulfill a Stanford University student’s Master of Arts in Communication degree requirement. Upon completing the filming at a summer camp for diabetic children in King’s Canyon National Park, a friend of the filmmaker suggested Garcia for the job of augmenting the film with suitable acoustic guitar instrumental music – – a job for which he was paid $50. The filmmaker relates: “I doubt if we had to do any re-takes, as I remember him getting the feeling I wanted very easily. I also remember being impressed with how much hair he had!” The never released soundtrack is sold with full copyright.
DG’s musical adventures: this weekend and beyond
Hello, friends – happy SUMMER!!
I’ve got three Bay Area gigs this weekend, and I hit the road next week for my first festival of the season.
The in-between gigs are still being confirmed; please see https://www.dgans.com/gigs.html for the latest.
I’m in the middle of an online interview at www.well.com/inkwell – talking with Gary Burnett and other interlocutors about my adventures in the music bizniz, the mysteries of creativity, and various other subjects. You can contribute to the dialogue by sending email to inkwell@well.com
There are some samples of my new recording work at www.dgans.com/private-tunes.html . The new CD will be called Cloud Surfing; I had hoped to have it ready in time for Grateful Fest, but these things take time, and it’s better not to rush. I have been working with two brilliant sound designers – Jeremy Goody and Jim LeBrecht – and I’m just delighted with the work we’ve been doing.
This month has been a tough one on a personal and professional level. My dear friend Tina Loney, who was the “best man” at my wedding and was my close friend and most trusted counselor for twenty years, lost her long battle with lung cancer on June 8. You’ll find a picture of her and a few words at gdhour.com/logblog/?p=126
And before we lost Tina, on June 2, Vince Welnick took his own life. Vince was a member of The Tubes for 20 years and the Grateful Dead for five; in the decade following the end of the Dead, I had many opportunities to play music with him, each of which was a great pleasure and a learning experience to boot. I also worked with Vince on Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead, which I co-produced with Jerry Lawson. Vince and Jerry hit it off during those sessions and remained friends from then on. You’ll find a lot of music, and numerous tributes to Vince’s soulful nature and musical brilliance, on the logblog
I stayed home for most of the month of May in order to spend time with Tina, and I experienced a great burst of creative energy that I’m sure was fallout from the powerful emotions surrounding her passing and Vince’s. The music I play this summer will reflect the energy that came through our lives through these experiences.
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Here’s what I know about the summer as of now:
* Friday, June 23, 7:30-9:30pm: With Mario DeSio and Jeff Pehrson at the Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland CA. No cover, but you have to buy some coffee and/or food
* Saturday, June 24, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm: Grand Lake Farmers’ Market, at Lake Park and Grand Avenues in Oakland CA (across from the Grand Lake Theater). Excellent produce (organic!), prepared foods, and crafts. Free!
* Sunday, June 25: Far West Fest in Olema, California. Benefit for community radio station KWMR, with Alison Brown, The Mother Hips, Hot Buttered Rum, et al., plus local organic food and beverage, crafts, etc. I play an unamplified acoustic set at around 4:30l Aaron Redner of Hot Buttered Rum will
sit in on fiddle.
* Thursday, June 29: The Happy Dog, Cleveland OH. Details TBA
* July 4 weekend: GratefulFest at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, Garrettsville OH. Dark Star Ochestra, Hot Tuna, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Zen Tricksters, and more! DG plays Friday, Sunday, and Monday
* Friday, July 14: Master Musicians Festival, Somerset KY. (Festival is July 14-15). Donna the Buffalo headlines Friday; others TBA
* Saturday, July 15, 7:30 pm: DG opens for The Waybacks at The Dame, 156 W. Main Street, Lexington KY. $5. 859-)226-9005
* Wednesday, August 9, 7:00 pm: Songs to Fill the Air – A Tribute to Jerry Garcia. DG, Alligator, and the Chickenstand Throwdown Band. (DG plays at 8:40). Makor, 35 W 67th Street (between Columbus Ave & Central Park West), New York City. $15. 212-413-8809
* Thursday, August 10, 9-11pm EDT: DG appears on John Major’s Railroad Earth Happy Hour (probably in the second hour)
* Saturday, August 12, 8 pm: DG and the Shockenaw Mountain Boys (members of Railroad Earth) at the Fountain House, 439 Rt. 94 South, Newton NJ. 973-383-7976
* Fri-Sun, August 18-20: Gathering of the Vibes, Mariaville NY. DG plays Saturday, August 19
* September 22-24: Terrapin Hill Festival, Harrodsburg KY
* October 19-22: MagnoliaFest, Live Oak FL. Donna the Buffalo, Sam Bush, New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Duhks, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, many more!
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More dates will be added for July, August, and September. Stay tuned.
More information, web links, etc., at www.dgans.com/gigs.html