Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
Dead to the World 3/15/06
Disaster on the Garden Isle
My wife and I have spent a lot of time on Kaua’i, and we love the place and the people we know there.
An earthen dam broke yesterday, causing a flood that has washed out the Kuhio Highway, destroyed several houses, and taken several lives.
Here’s a collection of photos from the newspaper The Garden Island showing the damage.
Our friend Don Mussell, who works on KKCR’s transmitter and other equipment and spends a lot of time on the island, has been keeping us abreast of events.
Bad news from the north shore today. A reservoir failed this morning at around 5:30 AM after 4 inches of rain fell in a few hours overnight. A wall of water 15 feet high and 1/2 mile wide came roaring through
the Waiakalua area. 7 people are missing, 4 houses were washed away, Highway 50 is gone (washed away, asphalt, rock, roadbed, everything) for about 1/4 mile between Kilauea and Moloa’a. Power lines are down, and the coast guard has been offshore looking for survivors. The water broke through an earth dam that has been in place for over 100 years, after overtopping it sometime in the early morning.KKCR radio is on the air providing updates as they become available. One of the rescue staff is on the air this morning, after being on standby all night. The north shore of Kaua’i has received a huge amount of rain in the past week, around 25 inches from reports I have seen.
You GO, Molly!
Molly Ivins gets my vote again:
I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight….
Every Democrat I talk to is appalled at the sheer gutlessness and spinelessness of the Democratic performance. The party is still cringing at the thought of being called, ooh-ooh, “unpatriotic” by a bunch of rightwingers.
Take “unpatriotic” and shove it. How dare they do this to our country? “Unpatriotic”? These people have ruined the American military! Not to mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world. Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs and hurricane relief.
I don’t know what it’s going to take to get the political system back from the moralists and corporatists – well, the answer might be contained in the question: we need to drive a wedge into the unholy alliance between the kleptocrats and the theocrats. All they really hav in common is a desire for power and influence.
If we could get the progressive, humane side of the political ledger to grow some balls, we might get somewhere. But I despair.
More musical adventures!
Last week was really great fun, all of it. Started with the Waybacks recording session at KPFA (to be broadcast April 19 on KPFA), then continued through the Hotel Utah gig w/ Henry Kaiser et al., and then two nights at the Freight w/ the Waybacks. And just to put a cherry on top, on my drive home from the Freight Saturday night I finally solved a problem I’ve been cogitating on for months: a couple of lines in “Shove” have been bothering me, and I sorta knew what I wanted to do but hadn’t come up with the right replacement til now.
Original:
So many things I’m glad to know
Are contained within those pages
All our bonds are self-imposed
It’s the wisdom of the ages
Changed to:
So many things I’m glad to know
Are contained within that text
If you deal with what you’ve been through
You can deal with what comes next
My opening sets at the Freight were ludicrously short: the house manager told me I could have 15 minutes – 18 tops. So I did three songs on the first night, and managed to squeeze four in on the second. I also sat in with the Waybacks – “That’s Real Love” (Stevie Coyle loves this song!) on Friday, “Jackaroe” on Saturday. Got a great reaction to my solo sets and my sit-ins, sold more than $100 worth of CDs, got two pages of new names for the mailing list.
The Utah sets were underrehearsed, but everyone had a fine time anyway. And all these players – Josh Zucker (bass), Josh Kaye (keys), and David Phillips (pedal steel) – are interested in playing more gigs together. I’m hoping to keep Adam Perry in the loop on drums, but he’s committed to The Love X Nowhere and may not be able to make the time. I love Adam’s playing, but I’m starting to like the idea of having a band that plays around here regularly and that might entail having a drummer who isn’t so tightly bound to another project (and let’s assume things are going to get busier and better for Adam’s main squeeze). He’s my first-call drummer until he says otherwise.
There’s a new club in Oakland called The Uptown. Dan McGonagle is working there, and he wants me to play. Might do another night with Henry there in April.
I’ve also confirmed May 13 at the Larkspur Theatre Cafe, with the Rowan Brothers. We’ll share a band – Josh, Josh, and David, plus Jimmy Sanchez on drums – and we’ll all be together in the middle for a Rubber Souldiers set of Beatle songs. We’re going to make a big deal out of this, pushing for coverage in the Chron etc., so I hope some of you will come out and help make it a success.
Last night I went to Kathi’s All-Star Jam at the El Rio in San Francisco. David Phillips is in the band, Train Wreck. The rest of the band are not people I’ve heard before, but they hold it together pretty well behind a parade of mostly amateur musicians. Ben Fong-Torres was there, singing two parody songs he wrote for the occasion (I gather he does new ones every month). I followed Ben, and I took maximum advantage of the band and my own skills by choosing the very familiar “Willin'” and “Pancho and Lefty” – both of which I have made my own over the years. I got a lot of good feedback after my performance, and I wound up singing harmony and playing acoustic guitar behind several other players, too. Kathi has a great posse of regulars, and she runs a very welcoming jam.
Also of note this week: I, along with Angie Coiro and her producer Lisa Lindelef, took a Pro Tools lesson from Gregg McVicar on Monday. Thus inspired, I finally got my Pro Tools system updated and configured, and I started playing with it in my studio. I’ve recently rearranged things in the house so I can rehearse, compose and record in the office, and now I need to do some more rearranging so I can connect the Pro Tools rig, the guitar rack, and the studio monitors and all the outboard gear I’ve got in the closet.
Alan Dalton’s O&ITW Banjo Book
GD Hour 914 will feature an interview with Alan Dalton, a Florida musician who put together a book of banjo tablature for the first Old and In the Way album. The Old and In the Way Banjo Songbook includes a CD of Alan playing Jerry Garcia’s banjo parts at normal tempo and then at half speed, so pickers can hear in detail how the parts go. (Listen to the interview)
Dalton did all this work on his own initiative, to show his banjo students how Jerry played. He was inspired to look into the possibility of publishing his charts, and his friend Vassar Clements – the legendary bluegrass fiddler, who passed away last summer – directed him to Alan Trist at Ice Nine, which handles Jerry’s music publishing. Trist loved the idea, made the connection with Alfred Publishing, and Bob’s yer uncle!
Here’s a link to a review of the book. You can order it here.
Here’s a photo of Alan that I took at Bean Blossom, Indiana in July 2005:
