The Official Blog of the Grateful Web

Quick Q and A with Annie Raines

By Cliff Garber

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines were drawn into the blues as teenagers and have immersed themselves in it ever since. They’ve travelled thousands of miles bringing every style of blues to all sorts of people. Not only do they have an encylopedic knowledge of blues history, artists and techniques, they’ve played with not a few of the masters. Treat yourself to a trip to their website, making sure you sample their blog and sound clips. See ’em live on MySpace.

What is it about the blues that makes people from the suburbs devote their lives to it?

That’s an interesting question. But you might well ask, what makes a Midwesterner like Moby Dick? I think people either need blues or they don’t. It’s healing, soul-raising music.

One thing I have noticed in recent years is the demographic shift that has taken those baby boomers from the college towns and urban centers, where they first heard blues, jazz and folk in the bar scene from the ’60s through the ’80s, to the suburbs, where they raised families and now can use their time and resources as “empty nesters” to bring music to art and cultural centers close to home.

The blues is clearly alive and well in the hands of folks like you and Paul, but also in the hands of performers not known to the general public as blues artists, such as John Sebastian (and even Dion has a credible blues album out). Would you say there’s some kind of blues undercurrent that could break out to the surface and could you talk about the association you have with John Sebastian?

We’ve known John since 1994, when he heard a bootleg copy of Paul’s second solo album, “Swear to Tell the Truth” and tracked us down to recruit us into his jug band. We’ve recorded on a couple of his albums, toured around the U.S. and Norway and gotten to meet some of his oldest friends. John is an amazing person. Even without his fame and musical success, he would still be one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. The J Band essentially dissolved last year after the unfortunate death (from lung cancer) of the band’s jug/washtub player and longtime Spoonful muse Fritz Richmond.

We recorded a live show recently for a DVD and John sat in on harmonica. We even did a harmonica duet. It was taped to be used in a movie about jug band music that just came out called “Chasin’ Gus’s Ghost.” Our DVD/CD will be called “Live in Woodstock” and we’re hoping to get it out by next spring.

You’ve done a lot of traveling. What’s it like to take the blues to the people in the heartland? Do you find that newcomers are receptive to it?

Paul and I traveled 10,000 miles this summer on a cross-country tour, and we’ve played in almost all 48 contiguous states now in our 15 years of playing together. The eastern heartland, the Mississippi watershed, is part of blues history. Even white people from the suburbs of Des Moines can make a connection to it from hearing a radio show out of Chicago or Memphis when they were growing up, or seeing the riverboats on a trip to Davenport, or just their shared agricultural heritage. But our favorite gig of the whole tour was in Livingston, Montana, where we played at an Elks Lodge on a Thursday night. The audience was made up of 20 men and 20 women, most of whom who knew nothing about blues, and we all had a great time together. Farther west, it’s more sparsely populated and the cultural base just isn’t there. Blues isn’t as much a part of the language in Idaho or Nevada.

There’s still no place like home, though, and it’s hard to beat a Massachusetts coffeehouse crowd for sophistication and appreciation. We’ve gotten spoiled over the years.

What’s a good way for people to introduce themselves to the blues?

Go on Itunes or Amazon.com and listen to samples of music by Jimmy Rogers, Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Otis Rush, Tommy Johnson, and Jimmy Reed. There are so many varied and unique artists who can appeal to different tastes. Those are just a few of the greats and they’re all different.

What do you see as the future of the blues?

The blues seems to thrive in its own dimension and only suffers when the music industry gets hold of it and tries to wring all life from it. Its popularity seems to wax and wane in 12-year cycles. Things were percolating pretty well in the prosperous ’90s. Of course when they declared 2003 the “Year of the Blues” we knew it was all over, at least for now. The music is still out there and it’s there for the taking. There’s a lot of inaccurate information out there too, such as you might hear in the soundtrack for a rib commercial. Paul and I try to pass on the real techniques and stories as well the unwritten rules of blues to the best of our abilities whenever we teach or play. But music is a two-way street whether you’re communing with the past or projecting into the future. It’s always changing with the times and the only thing that counts is whether it sounds good. As Duke Ellington said, “If it sounds good, it is good!”

-- Cliff Garber
xposted by permission from Me & Thee Blogspot

Me & Thee is more than a 'Grate' Blog, its a real live coffee house where great sounds can be heard -- GW Editors
Me & Thee Coffee House 28 Mugford Street Marblehead, Mass. (781) 631-8987

Grateful Web interviews Fingertips Publisher Jeremy Schlosberg

Jeremy Schlosberg hosts Fingertips, a long running established blog that searches the internet for high-quality free and legal MP3s.  Songs linked to on Fingertips are legally distributed and are entirely free to download.....Fingertips is updated WEEKLY--three songs per week, with links and descriptions. Jeremy also hosts the full Fingertips web site for a wider range of more frequently updated information about where to find high-quality free and  legal MP3s. Grateful Web's Barney Moran caught up with Jeremy Virtually, and asked  him some questions about Fingertips, Mp3 and Web 2.0.

GW: Jeremy.  You launched Fingertips MP3 Blog in 2003, and it is going stronger then ever. You seemed to have pre-positioned Fingertips in the early years to take advantage of the Internet and MP3's, without the legal baggage many 2nd rate MP3 sites now carry. Who are you and how did you  envision in 2003 a safe legal template for MP3 Delivery that now, in 2007  stands the test of time. [I am not joking about test of time, a year in Web Evolution is longer then a dog year].

JS: I actually don't remember the exact spark of inspiration here. I know that I had watched the whole Napster thing unfold from the sidelines. That was at the very beginning of the decade. Maybe it's a sign of my age, but the idea of downloading illegally distributed music just never appealed to me. It struck me as electronic looting, basically-- like during a blackout, when crowds descend on stores and take stuff just because they can and no one is stopping them. By 2003, Napster was gone but there was still of course plenty of illegal downloading going on. At the same time, I had become slowly but steadily aware of the fact that there were not just illegally distributed songs on the web but legally distributed ones as well. Small record companies and independent artists were realizing that putting full-length MP3s online for free, and legally, was not a bad way to get music out there. I became kind of obsessed with sourcing these free and legal MP3s-- figuring out where they were and trying to find the good ones. Both of these aspects proved challenging. There was no central directory to go to to find them. And, yikes, was there ever a lot of free and legal music out there that really wasn't very good! So some of the task was hunting, and some was slogging through.

As for who I am, I was a freelance writer for more than 20 years, writing for a lot of different magazines, occasionally some you might have even heard of (such as GQ, Salon, SmartMoney, and Utne Reader) and most often publications you haven't heard of. Music has always been a passion, but I was never able to break into mainstream music writing, for reasons that had little to do with my ability to write. Early in this decade I picked up a tiny bit of HTML knowledge, so once the search for good free and legal music became an ongoing obsession, it occurred to me I might be able to turn what I was doing into a web site that at least some people might appreciate.

Above and beyond the free and legal niche, I also have always seen Fingertips as a haven for underappreciated pop music. The kind of rock music I've always loved has never been the really weird or really harsh stuff--I've always most loved music that is actually, I think, really accessible, but for whatever reason isn't often breaking through in a mainstream way. I envisioned Fingertips as a forum for this kind of smart, engaging rock music and always figured there was an audience for it, if only they would somehow stumble upon the site.

GW: Radiohead release this month. Downloaders name the price. No other way to get the music. Is this the future?

JS: I think it may well be at least a part of the future. This gives traditional record companies yet another reason to be worried, since Radiohead has deftly shown that any band with a large following does not really need a record company to distribute its music. This is kind of eye-opening, since in the past record companies to one extent or another have depended upon having bands with large followings safely on their rosters. Of course one can probably point to any number of situations in which having some sort of record company involved is going to be helpful for some sorts of bands in some sorts of circumstances, so I'm not going to jump on the "record companies are toast" bandwagon.

But I think it was a brilliant move by a smart and thoughtful group of guys. If you think about the fact that there are people who are going to take music for free and spread it around in any case, all Radiohead's doing is giving the people who *are* willing to pay, even in the free-for-all context of the internet, an opportunity to do so. Those who weren't going to pay weren't going to pay and were still going to get their hands on the album anyway. And I really like the name-your-price element. The web has been overused, I think, for certain kinds of feedback from end users (do we really need so many opportunites to "comment" on everything?) and yet underused for more substantive feedback mechanisms--like this radical idea of letting the consumer determine how much they would like to pay for the download.

GW: You describe Fingertips as a legal source for MP3's with 'descriptions'. Yet  these 'descriptions' are another level to Fingertips way beyond providing this wide range of free samples from so many different artists. Your 'descriptions' are truly intimate, methodical and extremely well researched mini 'reviews' of the music. But you resist any attempt to market Fingertips beyond the music you provide. Is this a conscious choice?

JS:  I really appreciate your appreciation here. And you know, I don't think of myself as resisting the idea of marketing Fingertips at all. On the contrary: I'd be thrilled to be able to do so--in a tasteful and meaningful way, that is. I would very much like to make a living at this, or at least a part-time living. So I guess the answer is it's not a conscious choice but an inexpert one. I haven't been able to figure out how to market it. So I have largely just put my head down and continued to write and hope someone's reading it.

http://fingertipsmusic.blogspot.com/

*****
Fingertips has a long history and covers a lot of territory. If you would like additonal information or have a question for Jeremy feel free to ask! -- GW Editors

Derek Trucks Band

Music News

Derek Trucks Band

Published on 7/15/2007 4:18:57 AM

photo by Don Aters

Recently, Ivan Neville commented, “Derek Trucks is a happening deal. He’s the best guitar player I’ve heard in years.” And, he’s absolutely right. It is praise such as that, coming from his musician peers, that has followed Derek Trucks’ entire life. Touted as a genius guitar virtuoso when he wasn’t out of high school, Trucks could have been either a flash in the pan or a pain in the butt. Fortunately for the musical work, Trucks has demonstrated staying power and innovation, while being just a humble, heck of a nice guy.

 

Trucks, who joined the Allman Brothers when he was 20 years old, recently did a year’s tour with guitar god Eric Clapton. That could swell a young head, but not Trucks. “I think we played something like 26 countries. It was a pretty amazing year,” he says. “I got to see and explore a lot of places that I didn’t think I’d get to play or visit. On top of that, the man was amazing. To be on tour with Eric Clapton for a year was not a bad way to go.”

 

Like Joe Bonamassa and Jonny Lang, Trucks found his roots with blues bands. “That was a base for me,” Trucks says. “That was pretty much the music that I grew up with back then. BB King records. Elmo James records. Allman Brothers records. That was really the starting point for me.” Trucks’ uncle was in the Allman Brothers band so it was natural that he gravitated to Southern rock and blues.

 

Though he has sat in with nearly every blues great out there and recorded on plenty of albums, recently he toured all of June with his wife, roots performer Susan Tedeschi. Combing her own firey guitar work with Trucks and her powerful voice, that tour put folk, gospel, blues, and rock out there for audiences to eagerly lap up. “It’s a chance for the whole family to be on the road,” says Trucks. “My kids will be out. My younger brother will be playing drums. My mom will be out helping with the kids.” For Trucks and Tedeschi, it was a working vacation that allowed them to create music together and do some writing.

 

But Trucks' greatest growth to date has been the work he is doing with his own band that is marking Trucks as far more than an erstwhile child prodigy. He has learned that he has to stand on his own continuing evolution.

 

The Derek Trucks band, started when Trucks was a teenager, may have been a way for him to feel validated as a young performer. Though Trucks had his first paying gig at 11 and started his first band at the ripe old age of 12, he wasn’t the youngest prodigy in his own band. Kofi “Punky” Burbridge started flute at six and later picked up keys. “Punky was playing really young with jazz bands and sitting in with city orchestras. When he was at 10 years old, he was out there doing it,” says Trucks. “Enrico Scott, our drummer, was playing in the church quite young.” Scott, though twenty years older than Trucks when he joined the band, started playing drums at seven. Todd Smallie, the bass player, also had similar experiences as Trucks.

 

There is always an awe around young players. Having members of a band who shared the stares and the brouhaha of early performance put him on an equal footing with his band mates and also showed him that there was some staying power after the first flush of ability. “But at this point, after I’ve been on the road with Ernico and Todd for 15 years now, the whole feeling has really shifted. Now at 27, you’re kind of in the middle of what you’re doing. You’re not really the young guy any more. Early on, it was nice having guys like that around. At this stage in the game, the over all feel is a little different. You’re expected to have it all together by now.”

 

Evidence of having it together is shown in his sixth album, Songlines, released last year. This CD is remarkable. Though solo guitarists often dominate an album and let their egotism drive the music, Songlines, telegraphs Trucks’ creativity and his generosity. The kickoff track, “Volunteered Slavery,” with its tribal sound enhanced by hand drums and an electric guitar melody line, sets the tone for what follows.

 

Trucks and his pale blondness, representative of the majority culture, stand in stark contrast to the ethnic and cultural richness of his band and this album. Yet, he delivers an eclectic sound that stirs. Trucks only has four original songs on this CD. Some of the other tracks are purely instrumental, making it clear that lyrics aren’t the selling point of this collection. It is the strong world music feel of the CD that transports the listener out of ordinary circumstance.

 

The combination of fuzzy electric guitar with intricate musical noodling and the intensive layering of hand drums, flutes, and other percussion creates a musical soundscape that moves more than the body and mind. Of particular note is the blues tune “Chevrolet,” which showcases Trucks’ Delta dobro work.

 

“All of the music on the record is something that we had heavily been into individually or as a group. It’s just music or styles that are important to us,” Trucks says. “Before we moved on to making more genre-specific albums, we wanted to do one that we really felt strongly about that went across the board. I think we’ve got that with this one.”

 

Additional members of the Derek Trucks Band are lead vocalist Mike Mattison and Count M’Butu on congas and percussion. Everyone sings in the band, except Trucks. Mattison’s vocals, however, are stirring, recalling the soul of Al Green and the freshness of Shu and spinning it all together with a rootsy earthiness that can only be Mike Mattison. Trucks is grateful for his contribution to the band. “He was kind of the last piece of the puzzle.”

 

Trucks and his band will continue to craft a tonal experience that bridges ethnicities and musical styles while exploring emotional spiritual depths. You can catch The Derek Trucks Band live at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes, MN, on Saturday, July 21, 2007, at 11:45 pm at the Field Stage.

 

Janie Franz,

The Grateful Web

Dumpsta-Divin’ with Ivan Neville

Interviews

Dumpsta-Divin’ with Ivan Neville

Published on 7/15/2007 3:52:23 AM

photo(s) courtesy of Chris Paton

Grateful Web recently caught up with Ivan Neville while he was in

Maryland

. The phone interview had to be postponed for two hours while Neville enjoyed some crab cakes, reputed to be the best in the country. “I’m in

Baltimore

” he said. “You’ve got to have crab cakes, and I want to give them my full attention.” While his meal was digesting, he spoke about his new band, Dumpstaphunk......

 

“I had an opportunity to play at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2003,” Neville said. “I had an idea of doing a different kind of band.” Instead of turning out his soft-selling, solo performance, he decided to build what he would consider his fantasy band. “I just grabbed a group of musicians I’ve known for a long time, pretty much the best that

New Orleans

has to offer. We played that one gig ,and it turned into playing again. We kind of played seasonally in

New Orleans

. We’d play the Jazz Festival and do Mardi Gras and stuff like that. It just took on a life of its own.”

 

What he created was a powerhouse band that is strong on lyrics but also has the best funk players around. The band is unique because it has two bass players, Nick Daniels and Tony Hall. Though they are much older than young Neville, who is the son of Aaron Neville, one of the founding Neville Brothers, these bassists add the flair and the grounding Ivan Neville wanted in this band. “They played with Nevilles and many other artists,” Neville said. “Tony also plays guitar. We’ve got a lot of stuff where we use two basses and on a lot of songs where Tony switches over to guitar.” This lets the bassists play off each other and fill in the licks that the other isn’t doing. “It makes the funk a little deeper in the dumpster."

 

Other band members are Raymond Weber on drums and Ian Neville, Ivan’s cousin, plays guitar. Ivan Neville plays

Hammond

organ and the V6 Clavinet. “Between all these guys and myself, we’ve played with Trey Anastasio, Dave Mathews, Rolling Stones, Keith Richards and the Expensive Winos, Funky Meters, Etta James, and Harry Connick, Jr.”

 

In addition, everybody in the band sings. In most bands, the bass player or the drummer is mum. In Dumpstaphunk, everybody contributes vocally. And, these are sweet, sweet voices with the energy of Sly Stone and folks of his era that inspired a whole generation. “We’re heavily influenced by Sly and the Family Stone,” admited Neville, “and also the Meters. That’s my uncle, our guitar player’s dad, Art Neville, who was one of the founding members of the Meters.”

 

Neville added, “We do some cover stuff, songs that we like to play.” But mostly, the whole band writes. When they do, there is something more than just a good time feel. “If you can say something, why not say something. That’s pretty much it. It’s not intentional. It’s not like we just sit around and write songs that may be called social commentary. But a lot of it is in subtle ways. We try to say a little something when we can. I like being able to do that.” That’s clearly evident in their live shows and their new five-song EP called, Listen Hear, which will be available online soon and at all of their live shows. “A lot of it’s fun music to move your body to, but if you listen to the words, it might get you to thinking a little bit.”

 

To help create that warm vintage sound, Neville lugs around a

Hammond

organ and aV6 Clavinet. “There’s something about those instruments, about the way they feel playing them and they way they sound. It’s large, pure,” Neville says. “I like synthesizers and stuff like that, but I try to stay away from the digital sounds. I just fits what we do--the organ and the clavinet. It just stays true to what we’re doing, to the type of music that we’re trying to put out there. It’s obviously influenced by a lot of old school funk music, rock, and soul....That music lends itself to more vintage sound, especially in the keyboard area.”

 

In order to keep his vintage keys in top form, Neville brings along Trevor Brooks, a keyboard tech extraordinaire. “He builds and restores

Hammond

organs. He can fix anything that needs to be fixed, especially in the keyboard or organ area or clavinet area or even amplifiers. He can pretty much fix anything. He’s absolutely invaluable to our crew.” Brooks is critical when they tour. “Those instruments are very temperamental, especially when you’re traveling on the road,” Neville said. “Something’s always going to need a little fixing. When the venue or the promoters provide back line equipment for you to play on, sometimes they’re not always in perfect shape. It’s great to have somebody who can go in and know what’s wrong with something by just a first glance or hearing.” And, Brooks is also a great keys player himself!

 

All of the technical tweaking and the band’s incredible talent has helped create a whole new thing, coming out of

New Orleans

. “The response has been very good,” Neville said. “People who come out and see this band, they get it. It’s somewhat familiar in a way, but it’s a whole ‘nother level of funk....But when they hear this band, they say, ‘Oh, that’s what funk supposed to sound like!’”

 

You can catch the deep funkiness of Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in

Detroit Lakes

,

MN

. “We’re playing at the same time a friend of ours, Derek Trucks, is playing. I would love to see him. He’s got a great band,” said Neville. “Derek Trucks is a happening deal. He’s the best guitar player I’ve heard in years.” Dumpstaphunk takes the stage on Saturday night, July 21, 2007, at 11:45 pm at the Barn Stage.

 

Janie Franz,

The Grateful Web

Jon Cleary On New Orleans Music: Part Two

Interviews

Jon Cleary On New Orleans Music: Part Two

Published on 7/14/2007 4:23:08 PM

photo(s) ©2007 Rick Olivier

[Jon Cleary will be making a rare appearance in the

Midwest

next week. He and his band the Absolute Monster Gentlemen will take the Barn Stage at 11:30 on Wednesday July 18, the opening night of the 10,000 Lakes Festival at the

Soo

Pass

Ranch in

Detroit Lakes

,

MN

. He will then rush off to

Minneapolis

to play two nights at the Dakota Restaurant and Jazz Club..... Here is Part One of a Two-Part Series on Jon Cleary and

New Orleans

Music.]

British-born keys player Jon Cleary now makes

New Orleans

his home where he has immersed himself in a social structure that lives and breathes music. He offers a unique perspective on the cultures that produced

New Orleans

popular music.

“In

New Orleans

, music is such an important part of the culture here,” says Cleary. It is what first attracts people, not only to visit, but to live there as he has done. “They fall in love with it because they love the culture,” he says. “Music is the soundtrack of your social life in

New Orleans

.”

Keeping the roots musical fire going and using it to fuel creativity is essential for a healthy music scene. “The challenge is always for the music to keep developing, not to stagnate and become museum pieces, suffocated or resuscitated artificially,” Cleary says.

However, keeping

New Orleans

music viable is complex. “There are lots of elements that go into making up a healthy music scene,” says Cleary. “The most important, I think, is the consumer. It’s essential for musicians to be able to go and play a gig and get enough people in so that club owner is happy and generates enough income for the band to get paid. The primary driving force, I think, in

New Orleans

for musicians has almost been more economical than artistic. Musicians will take up an instrument much more regularly if they think they can go out and do some gigs and make some money at it to the pay bills and put gas in the car like everybody else. Really, you have to have a large concert-going audience.”

That has been a major problem since Hurricane Katrina. “As well as being a problem with the musicians being displaced, you also have concert goers who have been displaced, too,” Cleary says. “The important thing is for people to be here because there is a certain critical mass that has to be maintained.

New Orleans

is a small city with lots and lots of musicians. Without those people [the concert goers], the health of the music scene is in peril. You have to have an audience to play to.”

Musicians in

New Orleans

have a different struggle to make a living than those in other cities. There never was a push to make a record deal and be a star. There was always the need to just pay the bills. “What I’ve found upsetting is that the older generation of musicians whose names I was familiar with from history books and record sleeves were still here and were still playing, but they were always struggling, struggling to keep a band together, struggling to generate enough income from regular gigs to have those things in place that are necessary in order to create good music.

New Orleans

musicians play with several bands to make a living.”

This is also something that Cleary himself does. No musician can survive with a three-night weekend run at a local bar, especially if the musician is a member of a large band. The money is just spread through the band members too thinly. Gone is the myth of doing a gig at night, having a few drinks afterwards, and spending the day lazing around, writing music.  “Most

New Orleans

musicians are independent guns for hire. They go where the work is and play what is required of them as part of the job,” says Cleary. “For the last five or six years, I’ve been touring with Bonnie Raitt. It’s been absolutely wonderful, but the price I pay for it is I haven’t really been able to stay home and work on my craft.”

Cleary has played on a ton of albums, including those for Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal,

Keb

Mo

, Ryan Adams, and B.B. King. He has only three CDs and an EP of his own. His debut albums, Alligator Lips & Dirty Rice (1994) and Moonburn (1999), are more traditionally based. Then, in 2002, he released the self titled, Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, which was more R&B and soul. Currently, he has a little solo number called, Do Not Disturb, that was recorded in May of this year. It’s the result of a lot of late nights with portable recording equipment and a lot of instruments. The four songs, two traditional tunes and two Cleary originals, are backed by Cleary himself, playing everything.

“The EP is basically what I was doing on tour with a laptop computer,” he admits. “I played all the instruments on the EP.... I called it Do Not Disturb because it’s all recorded in hotel rooms and backstage at gigs and in dressing rooms, catching little bits to work on music. I kind of put it out as a bootleg really. It’s very flawed.”

However, Cleary’s step into twenty-first century technology is taking traditional roots music a big step forward. “Every generation has its new tools,” he says. “The Fender bass, when that came in, changed the way music sounded. When sequencers came in, it changed the way music sounded. Electric guitars were an enormous revolution in the way popular music sounds. Nowadays, they have the recording technology that allows us to do all sorts of things.” Cleary took the plunge and started experimenting. “In the process, you take a risk. Some ideas work and some don’t. When I listen to my records, I often cringe at the ideas that didn’t work. The easy option would be to play it safe and just do what everybody else does and be more traditional. I’m on the perennial quest to make one record, to make one piece of music I can listen to without cringing.”

Yet, Cleary is the first to admit that though technology may allow more people to make music and put it into more hands, there is a definite risk to the fabric of the music scene. “There is a whole generation who have never been exposed to live music. There was a time not long ago in my parent’s generation, if you really wanted to hear music, you had to be in the same room as a musician. There was no cable TV with videos. There were no iPods that you could carry around with a pair of headphones. There were radio and records. But really if you wanted to enjoy the benefits of what music can do, you had to see a band and be in the same room as a bunch of musicians. Today, music is delivered by so many different media.”

Cleary is aware that he is walking a thin line between technology and the live experience. "It's very different from ten years ago when, on the one hand, you have what would seem to be a piece of organic music, just people playing live in a room, and then on the other hand, the high degrees of production which you hear from all sides of the radio dial. The challenge is to take the best of both of them....All these machines tend to lend themselves into very stiff robotic production techniques. The challenge is to use them and try and get the loose feel that

New Orleans

is famous for. It’s very hard.” And, to experiment with that, Cleary needs time to create, which is difficult when he makes a living playing live.

Still, Cleary preaches the creed of live music, not just because it helps him put food on the table and buy the technology to create with, but because of what happens in the live experience. There is something that happens when you are in the same room with musicians who are spontaneously improvising and creating. Those of us who lived through the folk era when everyone when out and bought a guitar or an autoharp saw live music spring up in living rooms all across the country. Today, if you aren’t a musician yourself, the only place you are going to see the dynamics between live musicians is to go to a concert or club, and the more intimate the better.

“The science of music states you make a vibration with your instrument, and it moves columns of air which jiggle your ear drums around,” Cleary explains, but adds when you hear the music live, “It does something to you. It’s an entirely different thing. Digesting music through any other medium is a little bit prophylactic really. If you want the real thing, you have to be in the same room.”

Cleary has found that there is a huge uptapped audience out there. “ There are a lot of people who just don’t go out and hear music....The challenge, really the mission, is to get as many people to come out, not just to hear New Orleans music, but any kind of music....It’s the real deal. You see guys who can actually play without pyrotechnics who have eight fingers and two thumbs and who can generate an atmosphere. There’s good medicine in that....The world would be a better place if everyone went out to see more live music.”

Cleary emphasizes, “If a band is from New Orleans and they’re playing in your town, the chances are they’re going to be pretty, bloody good!...When they walk out with a smile on their faces, they generate a party experience no matter if it’s in Minnesota or San Francisco or Detroit or Denmark or London.” Cleary also urges people to see bands they don’t know. “People will come to see established acts they’re familiar with,” he says. The new or unfamiliar band, however, may fast become your favorite.

However, seeing live music requires a bit more effort than just getting to the gig. “Any musician will tell you that if you have a really good audience that is reactive and boisterous and shows their appreciation, it makes the musicians play better. So the audience has an enormous responsibility, too,” Cleary says. “If you want to go out and see a band and have the best time you can possibly have, then it’s up to you as an audience member to do your bit as well. It’s not simply a spectator sport. You have to participate."

So, come check out Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen whenever they are in your town. The band is Jon Cleary on keys/vocals, Eddie Christmas on drums, Cornell Williams on bass, and Big D on guitar. “They’re all from

New Orleans

….There’s a certain chemistry that evolved over a certain period of time. When you’re playing with the same guys, you find your common strengths and tastes and you build on those. These guys are phenomenal players....They all bring with them a musical heritage that sort of is absorbed through the pores of your skin when you grow up in

New Orleans

. Like all

New Orleans

bands, they put on a great show. They’re a great live gig.”

Go see some live music.

Janie Franz,

The Grateful Web

Bob Weir, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mr. Blotto, & Festival Philosophy

Interviews

Bob Weir, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mr. Blotto, & Festival Philosophy

Published on 7/8/2007 7:51:37 PM :: comments

Bobby Weir

In a rare Grateful Dead booking configuration, this year’s 10,000 Lakes Festival will feature not only found Dead member Bob Weir and his band Ratdog, but also

Chicago

’s Mr. Blotto and New Riders of the Purple Sage. Mr. Blotto is touring in support of their latest album, Barlow Shanghai, a collaboration with gifted Dead songwriter, John Barlow.

 

New Riders of the Purple Sage as fans may or may not know was the brainchild of Jerry Garcia, the late founder of the Dead. He brought together Dead players Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh with David Nelson of Janis Joplin’s Big Brother and the Holding Company and songwriter John Dawson. Eventually, the Dead had to take care of the demands of their own band and New Riders brought in Buddy Cage to fill in for Garcia’s pedal steel and others to cover bass and drums. Today, Cage and Nelson lead the band with Michael Alizarin (guitar/vocals) from Hot Tuna and Johnny Murkowski (drums/vocals) and Ronnie Penque (bass/vocals) from Stir Fried. Recently, New Riders of the Purple Sage received a lifetime achievement award from High Times Magazine.

 

Originally, all three bands were to perform on Thursday on different stages at different times, with Weir and Ratdog closing out the Main Stage. When Trey cancelled earlier this spring, Weir was moved up to the headlining spot on the Main Stage on Saturday night. Having him headline the festival is a move that Weir is most deserving of but is a spotlight he often shuns. “I’m not real concerned with grabbing people’s attention,” he says. “I never have been. I want to make music. As a matter of fact if I can make music that just grabs people without grabbing their attention, then that’s better as far as I’m concerned.”

 

Though it still is Weir’s signature voice that rings throughout Ratdog’s repertoire, the band has its own unique sound and choice of music. That mostly is due to the fine musicians that Weir has gathered around him over the years. Originally, the band was a small trio with bassist Rob Wasserman and a drummer and Weir on rhythm guitar. When they expanded to a quartet, they began calling themselves Ratdog. Currently, the band is composed of Jeff Chimenti who was a member of Dave Ellis’s Jazz Quartet before playing keys for Ratdog, bassist Robin Sylvester who recorded with Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys and played live with Billy Preston, and drummer

Jay Lane

who played with the Charlie Hunter Trio, Primus, and Les Claypool’s touring band. Mark Karan plays lead guitar and Kenny Brooks plays sax. (Editor's Note:  Steve Kimock is playing in lieu of Mark Karan during Ratdog's July tour. Mark is not feeling well and we wish him a speedy recovery).

 

“They are all good players. It took a while to find them all,” Weir says. “Now that we’re all together and been together for a while, everything that they say about chemistry is all true. We’ve learned to work with each other. We’ve learned to intuit each other. It’s paying off for us handsomely.”

 

Though Ratdog started as “a musical vacation from the Grateful Dead,” Weir and the band have crafted a steady gig with their sound. Band members also play in other bands when not touring or working with Ratdog. “I still play with Rob [Wasserman] often enough in small ensembles,” Weir admits. “What he does works spectacularly well in small ensembles. When you get into larger ensembles, a lot of it gets lost. He can’t be the bass player that he is in a larger ensemble. There isn’t room for that.”

 

Still, the band enjoys working out of

San Francisco

where they and the Grateful Dead began. For Weir, using local musicians was crucial to his having a side project. Bringing in band members from around the country or around the world was always problematic, though many wanted to play with them and did whenever they happened to be in town.

 

Ratdog over the years then gathered a large repertoire to work with, including Dead material and tunes from Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon, and Bob Dylan. “Whatever fluffs our mullet. We like to keep things in a fairly loose rotation. And so we need a lot of material to do that so we have a lot of songs worked up. It keeps things fresh,” Weir says.

 

He and band members are always writing new material. “I write with all the guys in the band,” Weir says. “Sometimes by myself, sometimes with a couple of them, sometimes with all of them.”

 

With festivals like 10,000 Lakes and his band‘s website, Weir is sure to have a receptive audience for the CD s the band produces. Weir and Ratdog are currently touring with Keller Williams, who played at 10,000 Lakes Festival last year to audiences as packed tightly as like turkeys started by a crop duster.

 

Weir attests that kind of response to one of the most improvisational improvisers as Keller Williams is as real hope for our culture. “If you really want to trace the roots of American improvisational music, I think you go back to Louis Boland in the early days of

New Orleans

music,” Weir says. That was before music was ever recorded. “It’s undergone a great deal of development over the years. We had a hand in electrifying it in the 60s and 70s. What we developed was really already tried and true. The mode of operation was you learn a song, you state the theme, you take it for a little walk in the woods and everybody has a crack at it. That’s been the jazz MO for a long time. It was always the Grateful Dead’s MO and is Ratdog’s MO.”

 

That kind of improvisation took root in the jam genre, though some bands still shy from that name because of the misconceptions of many about what jam really is and that it really is akin to jazz improvisation. “It’s become a popular way to do things,” Weir adds. “I’m real glad that that’s happened because music is more open-ended and more adventurous. I think it’s good for a culture in general. Art should provide adventure for people. I think that the less adventure there is in art the less of a culture it’s going to be, and the less depth.”

 

Weir has seen the jam festival scene grow from its early roots in the late 60s as a festival of rock or popular music. “It’s pretty much the same except for the people who to a degree have refined their abilities to pull these festivals off. I think by and large they’re getting better and better. They run smoother and smoother. That said, it can still rain to beat hell and all those kinds of things can happen. Festivals are fun gatherings just in general just to begin with.” 

 

Music, he says, is a great vehicle for bringing people together in a large venue. “Once everybody’s together, the festival takes on its own life. The people who come bring a life to it. Not just the bands-- everybody. It’s a purist communal experience. Over the years, it’s become a fundamental fixture in the American cultural scene…The people who come to these kinds of festivals to hear improvisational intuitive music are the kind of people who understand that without cooperation, and a great deal of cooperation, this kind of bird won’t fly. They intuitively, innately understand this and work like that.”

 

Weir likens the cooperation among festival goers and those who run festivals to working out a jam in a band. “No amount of brute force is going to get a jam off the ground….The people who are playing have to listen to each other, and then coax it out, coax out the thread. The kind of approach that a person takes to music or to life in general is the kind of people who are looking for something that they obviously haven’t yet found. In every improvisational flight that we take, we try to find something new; we try to do something in a new way. It takes a whole lot of cooperation. It’s a total team effort. The people who appreciate this kind of music are kindred spirits so they are going to work together to make the festival work on other levels just as patrons.” 

 

Bob Weir, who has dedicated his life to music since he was eight and could turn a radio dial, sees the festival as a metaphor for life. It is all one great artful improvisation, one that no one should just cover note for note from someone else’s song, but one that should be written anew each day, coaxed out with the day’s doing, and with bold adventure once in awhile.

Janie Franz,

The Grateful Web

Jake Cinninger of Umphrey's McGee

Interviews

The Grateful Web Interview with Jake Cinninger

Published on 6/15/2007 4:58:40 PM

Jake

Of all the great artists making the rounds this year, none have been more ambitious than Umphrey's McGee. They released the follow-up album to Safety in Numbers called The Bottom Half; a risky two-disc endeavor of leftover studio gems and insightful audio fragments. The band has also since embarked on a national tour that will take them all across the nation, including stops at such top festivals as Summercamp, 10,000 Lakes, Camp Bisco, Mountain Jam, and more.

 

As if that schedule were not daunting enough, the band has partnered with friends The Disco Biscuits to co-headline two inaugural events called the Trancegression Festival at

Copper

Mountain

in

Colorado

this July and Caribbean Holidaze in

Jamaica

this winter.

 

One wonders how the band finds any time to breathe when the bowl is clearly overflowing. Luckily, the Grateful Web had a chance to catch up with guitarist Jake Cinninger between gigs to talk about their busy year, and shed some light on their present and future projects. 

 

GW: Hey Jake, how are things going today?

 

JC: It’s going great! We had a little time off after Summercamp to sort of cool the jets, and woke up in

Buffalo

,

New York

to kick off their Concert in the Park series. 

 

GW: Excellent, so you are in

New York

this weekend?

 

JC: Yeah, we are in

Buffalo

tonight and Philly tomorrow. Then we are doing the Mountain Top Jam, the sort of Grateful Dead fest.

 

GW: That sounds like a fun week!

 

JC: Yeah, a little in and out as we like to call it. A three day week is pretty cheese.

 

GW: Right, nice. So hey, it has been two months since you released the Bottom Half. What have fans been telling you about the album, and are you still comfortable with that project?

 

JC: Yeah, it was really nice to get it off our chests and really get it out in the mix. It’s a project that has been on the shelf for three or four years, since the beginning of Safety in Numbers. It is finally nice to birth all of these songs. You know, songs sitting on the shelf too long can have expiration dates on them. 

 

GW: Sure, I understand.

 

JC: And as far as fan feedback has been, well the packaging and the reason why it was a double disc was kind of for the fans, especially our hardcore fans. It dives into how we construct our songs and how they manifest out of nowhere. It is kind of cool to just have the tape machines on all the time and sort of capture that, and if they happen to sound good enough to where we say, “This sounds great”, it is then the first glimpse into these songs. And this release shows a sample of that right there. 

 

GW: Yeah, I thought the second disc was a pretty transparent window into your recording process. 

 

JC: Cool, right. The first disc was strictly the songs that we had done in the studio that we did not feel were really appropriate for Safety in Numbers. And the second disc is kind of like our freebee, our “before it happened” thing.

 

GW: Excellent. So now that the release is behind you, the band is hitting the road hard again, and you guys have sort of become BFF with the Disco Biscuits boys. Tell me how this D.U.M.B tour came to light.

 

JC: It really came out of a year’s worth of talk underground. You have to do this kind of business behind the fans’ backs, and then surprise them with it I guess. It takes a year or so for something like that to sort of unfurl. But we have always thought it would be fun, because they have some really good momentum going on, and we have some momentum going too in the live field. So we figured we might as well team up together and make something like this work. It is kind of our first venture out in a festival atmosphere where we are just as responsible as they are. It is a first for us. It’s got our name on it, and there name on it. It really feels good to be taking a bigger step into the summer festival season. 

 

GW: What is it that you like about their sound?

 

JC: What’s really nice about it is they sound completely different from what we are doing. We wouldn’t want two bands that have that sort of progressive, aggressive jam-rock thing that we have going. With them being the originators of the electronica, real-time rock I think it is a nice mesh. They have this very danceable, pulsating thing going on throughout the night and we have this sort of jagged, progressive rock with a little jam-metal in there.

 

GW: Yeah, it’s a good mix.

 

JC: It’s a good balance. It’s got high energy rock throughout the whole night and makes you want to come out and have a good ole time.

 

GW: Speaking of a good time, I heard you guys have a high stakes poker game planned near the end of the tour to see who will close out the performances.

 

JC: I think it is actually a one-hand deal. I think the best thing to do will be to take (Ryan) Stasik and “Barber” (Jon Gutwillig) and just deal the cards to see who will win in one hand. What’s the use of drawing it out; let’s save that for behind the scenes.

 

GW: Are there some card sharks in the band?

 

JC: Oh yeah, there are some definite card sharks in the band. The thing is I can’t tell you who because that will wreck everyone’s fantasy.

 

GW: That’s true! Do you think you stand a chance of winning the game?

 

JC: I’m a pacifist, so I “yes” and “no”.

 

GW: Tell me more about the Trancegression Festival this summer. Where did the idea come to have this festival at

Copper

Mountain

in

Colorado

?

 

JC: We thought we would take a risk by doing this out in

Colorado

. It seems to be pretty much in the middle of the nation, which would be a perfect spot to have this sort of thing. And I am really excited for it. I can’t wait to be a part of it.

 

GW: Did you have much involvement in choosing who would be the accompanying acts at this festival?

 

JC: Yeah, we kind of all put our heads together and collectively tried to feel out who was going to work for this, and what would work the best. And of course who was going to be available, which is always a big issue. We then just kind of put our two cents in saying, “well I like this band”, or “I like this band”. Then we molded it into a package to see who would bite.

 

GW: This week you guys also just announced the Riverview Music Festival in

Chicago

. What can fans expect from that weekend?

 

JC: Well, earlier in the day there will be a lot of local, Chicago-based acts. Then towards the evening we will be bringing in a little bit of the nationals artists. 

Chicago

has so much great underground music to offer. Being in the heartland, it is sort of a melting pot for all of these styles. To me,

Chicago

in the last ten years has had the greatest underground rock scene. So this Riverview Festival is going feature some of those up-and-coming

Chicago

area acts. I am definitely looking forward to it, plus it is in town. It is nice to play in

Chicago

because you can practically throw a stone and hit your house.

 

GW: It gives you a short break from travelling, huh? 

 

JC: What we do is travel, so when there are those shows that don’t include travelling it is kind of like a freebee.

 

GW: I understand this festival will be benefiting the Chicago Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club. What do you guys get out of doing benefit shows?

 

JC: The older we get and the more we start to travel, the more things start to happen. After awhile you want to start to give back, otherwise it starts to seem selfish.

 

GW: You guys have yet another festival in the works this winter called Caribbean Holidaze. Was this just an excuse to spend a week in

Jamaica

? It hardly seems like work to me.

 

JC: Well we wanted to something a little different than Jam Cruise this year, since we have been doing that since its conception. Every New Years we had to play our asses off and then jump on a boat. So why don’t we try something else in December? It just happened to work out; we had some friends down there that just got something going and presented us with a package. And it really seemed to work out for both bands, so we said let’s do it! I am really gassed to do it because I get to spend my birthday down there. I have never been able to be off shore and enjoy a birthday party, so I am going to have a blast.

 

GW: You will! I spent a month in

Jamaica

during my senior year of college. I was taking a class called the History of Caribbean Music. It was so great being there.

 

JC: Oh wow!

 

GW: Yeah, I wouldn’t really have called it studying much. Our homework almost every night was to go see a local reggae band and write a paper on it. It is such an amazing place; it was great to just absorb the culture. And it was so cool to learn about reggae music; we pretty much saw Bob Marley’s life from beginning to end. It was truly inspirational for me!

 

JC: Man, I bet it was!

 

GW: Would you consider yourself a reggae fan?

 

JC: Oh, of course. I mean even my grandmother’s favorite artist is Bob Marley…go figure. She is always putting that stuff on. But that beat, that vibe…even in blue collar

Michigan

that stuff hits home.

 

GW: I understand that folks who are going to these

Jamaica

concerts will have the opportunity to stay at their choice of resort: Hedonism or Breezes Resort. If you had a choice, at which one would you stay?

 

JC: Oh definitely Hedonism. It’s the name of it, right. I would think if you are eighteen to thirty-five, Hedonism is your joint. Thirty-five plus might be better off at Breezes. The whole idea that you can swim up to your room, or swim up to the bars, is just….yeah!

 

GW: Yeah is right! It sounds fucking cool. Well getting back to festivals this summer, how did Summercamp go for you guys?

 

JC: Summercamp is always a great spot. It is good to be in a festival that has sort of worked out their bugs. After six or seven years it is kind of a well-oiled machine. It is really one of the best festivals out there. The area, the land, and the geography are just perfect. There are great camping spots and lots of shade; it has all the amenities. And it is really a festival that has room to grow. There is just a ton of land out there. They could turn it into a Bonnaroo-sized festival.

 

GW: You guys have a lot more festivals lined up this year like 10,000 Lakes and

Camp

Bisco

, for example.

 

JC: Yes…10,000 Lakes is going to be a big one. I am really gassed to play the main stage. It is kind of humbling over the years because I don’t think any of us have really changed much since we started. We still look the same, act the same, and still play the same. It is just weird because five years ago we were saying, “I really hope people come out and see us”, or “I hope we have enough gas to get home”. It has really come full circle to now walk into these types of shows and be co-headlining with some of our favorite acts. 

 

GW: Well the sound of the band is really derived from many different styles of music, which is why I think you stay so fresh. What kinds of music or artists are you into now that might be shaping some of your songwriting?

 

JC: As far as newer stuff goes, maybe bands like Modest Mouse. But really I don’t get into a lot of newer stuff; I’m a vinyl collector. I pretty much hit the dusty record bins and find all this stuff that no one has ever heard of, or probably thought was extinct. For example, last week I bought one hundred fifty albums. I will go through them and pull out what I think is gem, which could be twenty-five or thirty. And these are risky albums, I am talking about Bing Crosby live from 1963 or Elvis (Presley) live in ’72. You know, whatever, just go through the gamut of history. I will buy a bunch of crap and find a few gems in it. There is so much music that has been left behind; I feel like it is my duty as a musician to go back and find the things that have been left behind. 

 

GW: I have heard rumors that the band might be working on a new album, and possibly even a live release.

 

JC: Yes, both are true. We actually just finished recording at the Egyptian Room in

Indianapolis

. We brought in all the right recording gear for the weekend, and really captured the essence of what we are trying to do. We all went into this with our game faces on, and really tried to make a live record. But we wanted to make it sound natural, and not try to make a live record. A lot of talk and psychological preparation can go into making a live album, because everyone knows in the back of their heads that the recording light is on. It can kind of spook a lot of musicians.

 

GW: Right, it is not as organic as just listening to tapes and picking a good night out. 

 

JC: Yeah, when everyone is loose as a goose. Ideally that is what you want to capture. 

 

GW: Exactly!

 

JC: But as far as the studio stuff goes, we just did four weeks in February and two weeks recently in

Chicago

, and we have another thirteen brand new songs on the plate. We are getting back to more of the Anchor Drops kind of sound. It is pretty progressive, a little more hard-edged. We are just kind of reassessing what we are doing. Some of these songs have taken a year-and-a-half of writing. You know, just making sure some of the sections back up to one another perfectly. It is like the idea of dissolving what you create and then rebuilding it. Dissolving and rebuilding, dissolving and rebuilding. That to me is what makes a good progressive rock album: always going back to the drawing board. 

 

GW: Speaking with fans after some of your shows this year many seem to agree that your singing has significantly improved. Have you been using any specific techniques or coaching to improve your vocals?

 

JC: No I haven’t. My big issue is that I haven’t been a really confident singer. I think over the last year or so I have been trying to become more confident. It is really a nightmare for me to be a good guitar player and an OK singer. While (Brendan) Bayliss, on the other hand, is like the better singer and the OK guitar player. I think it is a nice balance. But sometimes I will step up vocally, and he will step up with the guitar playing. We are human and we are just trying to balance out the things that we are uncomfortable with and try to make them better.

 

GW: You know I recently had the opportunity to interview Ron Johnson from New Monsoon, and while speaking with him he mentioned to me that he thought you were one of the best drummers he had ever played with. 

 

JC: I love Ron, that is awesome!

 

GW: I had no idea you were into drums. What do you like about drumming?

 

JC: Drums were my first instrument that I picked up when I was three. And my parents were nice enough to let me play along with their record collection. I was instantly able to keep time at four years old. By the time I was six through thirteen I was into hard-core jazz and drums. On some points I am probably a better drummer than I am a guitar player because of more education. I can kind of mimic drummers pretty well. When I was playing with Ron at the USTORM benefit, we were kind of swapping around and playing merry-go-round drummers. I had a Rolling Stones tune to play, and a Talking Heads tune to play. So I wanted to emulate these drummers as closely as possible. And Ron just couldn’t help the fact that I could play Charlie Watts to a tee. After listening to these guys all these years, I can pretty much emulate their style. So as far as drums go, that is like the core of my being. I sort of play the guitar like a drummer. So when you hear that sort of percussive “di-di-di-di-di-a”…those consecutive sixteenth notes, that is kind of my drummer mentality popping out. 

 

GW: Why haven’t you gotten behind the set at more of your shows?

 

JC: Because Kris is too damn good!

 

GW: You are right, he is too damn good. Jake, thanks for the time today man and good luck with the rest of the tour!

 

JC: Anytime buddy, thanks.

 

Tim Hurley,

The Grateful Web

Not Missing a Step: An Interview with The New Riders of the Purple Sage

Interviews

Not Missing a Step: An Interview with The New Riders of the Purple Sage

Published on 4/18/2007 4:45:31 PM :: comments

photos by Sanjay Suchak

There is a new trend in the music industry today, bands which have been broken up for decades reforming suddenly in order to cash in on the pocketbooks and prosperity of their baby-boomer generation fans. Groups like The Police, Cream, and Pink Floyd have all appeared on stage together recently after years of absence, often times charging outrageous ticket prices for one-off concerts which have been disappointing performance wise.

 

While the New Riders of the Purple Sage had never quite enjoyed the success of the above bands, they are no strangers to the rock spectacle, having played to large audiences (including a 1974 Central Park concert for over 50,000 people) as well as having a long and successful career. It would have been easy for them to come back and cash in on all the successful Dead Heads and baby boomers for just a few concerts; however they have done something much more impressive. David Nelson and Buddy Cage have managed to reform the band with an outstanding lineup, continually giving excellent performances, and maintaining a touring schedule which would make many younger bands’ heads spin. Their lineup of original members David Nelson and Buddy Cage, joined by Michael Falzarano on guitar, Ronnie Penque on bass guitar, and Johnny Markowski on drums are some of the finest veteran musicians.  As a result of this their skill and comfort levels with each other and the music is clearly nothing short of superb. On this particular evening they were joined by keyboardist Mookie Siegel, a veteran of the David Nelson Band, Phil and Friends, as well as a top notch performer in his own right.

 

In between sets of their recent stop at the State Theater in Falls Church, VA, a suburb of Washington D.C. I had the chance to sit down with the band and talk candidly about the past, the present, the future, politics, and of course Panama Red.

 

Grateful Web: What inspired you to release a new live album and live

DVD

after not being together and not releasing anything for three decades?

David Nelson: Well it’s because we weren’t together for 30 years. <laughing> That’s the basic answer, but this most recent thing is really great because Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor offered to come out and brought the remote and bus and set the whole thing up and recorded the whole thing, and it was just great! The whole three nights…. Two nights? How many nights did we play?

Michael Falzarano: But if you count the 4 sets we played until

4:30

in the morning

Buddy Cage: You played about 3, but 6 sets in two nights. 

David Nelson: Yeah, it was great, by that 4^th set only a select few stayed there and we were like, yeah this is great, there’s only a few people. Then tried to translate that but I don’t know if it made it… This is what we want. This is for YOU, we don’t normally do this. This is why we played Reggae Ripple.

 

Grateful Web: So I’ve got to ask, is there any hope of a new studio record now that you’ve got both a live CD and

DVD

under your belts?

David Nelson: Oh, now you’re talking some real dough. Oh we’d love to do that, if anyone has some benevolent benefactors that would like to sponsor us.

Michael Falzarano: All I can say is that it won’t happen this year, because we’re booked out until the end of this year. 

Buddy Cage: I do a show called Jam-On on Sirius, and let me tell you man, they don’t want to hear a whole bunch of studio stuff. They want to hear mostly live stuff, so who the hell wants to make a studio album these days.

David Nelson: I think I’d love to make a studio record, but then sometimes when you get back into the studio you think. Ah now I remember…. and forget it, forget it. It’s a labor of love and a lot of work. There’s a lot of pressure on you when you’re in the studio. And you always end up staying there all night to fix what you did. It just goes on and on…It’s crazy.

 

Mookie Seigel: Now you ask him a question!

David Nelson: Okay, How tall is

Mount Fuji

<laughter.

Grateful Web: Tall, real tall.

David Nelson: That’s the right answer,

REAL

TALL. Bingo!

 

Grateful Web: Do you guys ever get copies of audience recordings from tapers, and if so do you listen to them?

David Nelson: We try to make our own live tapes. But once in awhile something gets back to us, but if its months and months later. Or a long time later, it sounds pretty good! But if it’s the next night it sounds gahhhhh because all you can hear is the struggle you’re involved in trying to accomplish something and it only half made it. All you can hear is that, just bleeding bias because its still loud in your mind. But if you go for a long time then you hear it with a fair position and viewpoint and it sounds ok.

Mookie Seigel: But then I remind you what you did wrong!

David Nelson: Yes, then there’s Mookie to remind you what you did wrong, he just sits there making my life a living hell. 

 

Grateful Web: If you guys could put a band together with any living musician besides yourselves, who would you choose to play with?

Mookie Seigel: Pick me! Pick me!

Michael Falzarano: Somebody different every night, take your pick.

David Nelson: We did jam with Pinetop Perkins in

Texas

. 

Michael Falzarano: That’s right 93 years old, two years after being hit by a train. 

David Nelson: It was just great. It was cool though.

Michael Falzarano: Yeah he’d be in the band

David Nelson: Say something for the audience Pinetop? “Wanna buy a cd?”

NRPS: <laughter>

 

Grateful Web: How about the obligatory political question? Being that we are in the Nation’s capital, if you had a moment with President Bush what would you say to him?

David Nelson: I’d say, get out! OUT!

Buddy Cage: He doesn’t want to get that close to me to hear what I have to say to him…

David Nelson: You know that’s funny, because that reminds me of in the 60’s in the backroom with the Dead we thought about that exact same topic. We said what if we could actually talk to the President, what would we say? And Phil I think it was said: “Now listen here asshole….” And that was when Presidents were good! 

 

Grateful Web: Johnny, so I hear you’re writing a Children’s book, what can you tell us about this?

Johnny Markowski: its name is Stan the Can, it teaches kids about recycling. He goes out on all these adventures, each time he goes out to the recycling plant he’ll come out as something new like a rim of a NASCAR, or an aluminum baseball bat that wins the little league world series. So it teaches kids that it’s not garbage, that this guy’s got another job to do and to send him to the right place. 

Michael Falzarano: He could be the rims on Mookie’s glasses on stage! 

Mookie Seigel: That’s a happy ending right?

Johnny Markowski: He could be the neck on your steel Buddy. 

David Nelson: I could be playing Stan the

Can.

Grateful Web: We could go on and on with that one.

 

Grateful Web: Now I have to ask due to popular demand, have you guys seen Panama Red lately?

Michael Falzarano: A lot of people as that question and we see him regularly...

David Nelson: About 10 seconds ago.

Toast: I don’t run into Red that often but I see his friend Henry all the time.

 

Grateful Web: That’s all guys; it’s been an honor and a privilege, thank you so much.

 

The Show: 

As the show began, the band took a few minutes to get into the groove, and the crowd was not far behind them. The opened with one of my personal favorites Sliding Delta Blues. The crowd took a bit to warm to the music, perhaps because they were finishing up their dinner still. This all changed though as soon as the New Riders busted into “I Don’t Know You” the crowd was up on its feet and fully enjoying the evening. The New Riders were rolling ahead full speed. With Mookie on the keyboards it added and interesting and wonderful dynamic to the New Riders that served their playing style very well. The highlights of the rest of the set was “What you Gonna Do,” “Truck Trivin Man,” and “15 Days under the Hood.” 

 

After a most enjoyable set break, the band re-emerged and plunged right into a great rendition of Last Lonely Eagle with Mookie trading his keyboard for an accordion. Keeping the crowds attention throughout, they showed that they weren’t at all rusty despite this being the first show in five weeks. Later they rounded out the set with a nice Garden of Eden into The Last time and back into Garden of Eden. They finished out the second set with everyone’s favorite Panama Red. For the encore, NRPS came out and did a fantastic cover of the Rolling Stone’s Let it Bleed that left the crowd asking for more. Unfortunately it was now past 1 am and the New Riders bid us goodnight.

Anyone who might be questioning whether the New Riders are a still a relevant band should put that question far in the back of their minds and go see them for themselves. They put on a fantastic show and with their non-stop touring schedule chances are that they are coming to a town near you. I’m sure that you’ll leave smiling and wanting more, the crowd that night in Falls Church did.

 

Be sure to check out their upcoming tourdates at TheNewRiders.com and listen to Buddy’s show on Sirius, “Jam On.” This Friday he will be discussing the origins and meanings of 4-20 beyond that of what popular culture tells us. He’s assured us that it will be very interesting, and we have no doubt that it will be.  Also, you can find the New Riders new CD at:  www.nrpslive.com

The Setlist:

Set 1: Sliding Delta Blues, Instant Armadillo Blues, Contract, I Don't Know You, What You Gonna Do, Dirty Business, Sutter's Mill, 15 Days Under The Hood, Truck Drivin' Man,

Set 2: Last Lonely Eagle*, Henry*, Absolutely Sweet Marie, Garden of Eden >The Last Time >Garden Of Eden, Sing Me a Rainbow, Higher, Any Naked Eye, Take a Letter Maria, Panama Red, E:Let it Bleed,

Comment: Whole Show w/Mookie Siegel on Keyboards & Accordion on Last Lonely Eagle & Henry

Sanjay Suchak,

The Grateful Web

Flatpick Kentucky Part I: An Interview With Mike O'Neill

Interviews

Flatpick Kentucky Part I: An Interview With Mike O'Neill

Published on 11/20/2006 6:24:07 PM

Michael ONeill w/ Bobby

This is the beginning. You are about to read Part I of a 3 part series about a quest for true Americana, true outlaws, true America. In case you haven’t noticed, the somewhat over genricized music industry is breeding a dozen cowpokes per corral. And America is it recognizable to you?

So yours truly, a determined, attractive (yes a little vain but I’m cute, be nice), slightly crazy lone journalist, crazes herself further and displays questionable judgment repeatedly as she travels from Rt. 66 to the Country Music Hwy. I will tell you tales of battling hurricanes, family feuds, rock stars, would be rock stars, their managers and even the occasional producer, sound-guy or bartender. I even heard some music while I was at it.

So, stay tuned for Part II, Asbury Park and Part II, a tiny Appalachian town I’ve lovingly dubbed, “Flatpick Kentucky”, (names’ not too far off). But here is #1. It somehow, through a long string of coincidence and karma, ended with this interview.

From Public Outlaw #1, Michael O’Neill, I learn about his new CD, his extensive work with Bob Weir and other legends, and, (watch out, this is even more interesting), something about what an outlaw is made of. Be your hero’s cowboys, philosophers, musicians or medicine men, you’ll see something of each in him. 

Allow me to introduce you, in case you don’t know him yet. If you don’t, my guess is you’re either too young to hear him in the early days and/or when he became a real outlaw, (much in the press, no need to go into it here), and then took some time to resurrect, as all good heroes do. Not only is he back, with 2 new CDs and well-deserved cult status but he’s as real as the deal gets if you’re looking for truth in genre.

In his music, Rt. 66 and the Country Music Hwy. converge in a sound that reflects both deep-dug roots and rock that rolls. Italetellersd you a little of Cash and other tall, (or perhaps not so tall), taletellers. And he gives it to you with an attitude. I’d say he’s best described as one man with elements of each of the Highwaymen.

He’ll tell you more about himself than I can…

Liz: I have to warn you, I’ve had no sleep and I tend to go on tangents.

 

O’Neill: Well that can be a good thing with writing…

 

I see we’re coming from the same place, laugh in agreement but warn him again. He asks me about what else I’m writing.

 

“A quest for Outlaws and you’re the Fisher King” I say jokingly, but not entirely.

 

I mention NJ, where I saw a Seeger Sessions/E-Street Band member and Appalachia, where I’d been researching/learning from his most recent opening band, Jeff Walburn with Kentucky Memories.

“It’s a sort of like, here are the Seeger Sessions, here’s why Seeger and old-time music were important to Springsteen and why it’s all important, both Jersey Sound and Appalachia, as part of American music.”

 

O’Neill: I feel I fit in with all of that. Both types of music really influenced me. I was exposed to and love Springsteen and Seeger. Of course I love the Seeger Sessions. I had an older brother bringing Dylan, Seeger, Baez, the whole folk rock era of music home. It was my Bible, the grammar school books that influenced my songwriting. 

 

Liz: That came from Appalachian music to a large extent, but the music itself?

 

O’Neill: Appalachian music is pure, grassroots music. I’m a true Americana songwriter, so I bring it into my melting pot of styles. When perform or tour in Appalachia John Perry, the fiddler who also plays with Goose Creek plays with me. It’s an easy blend because musicians in that area play the same music so much of the music mine is based on came from. Jeff (Walburn), anyone like him, can walk in cold and take any direction they want to go and it sounds great.

 

Liz: How, looking back and looking at yourself now, do you feel about yourself as an artist?

 

O’Neill: I’m comfortable with who I am as an artist. When people look at me, my work, I think that is going to be most important thing because people really connect when you're honest about who you are. No matter how bad you fuck everything else up, consciously make that choice that you're going to be true.

 

It takes a real leap off a cliff to do it. But look at Weir, Springsteen, they made that choice. And when they made that choice nothing else really mattered. They were totally respected for it. It’s ok to be a struggling artist, to be tortured but the tortured artist is the artist that doesn't lay claim that he is an artist. Those are the people who always knew they were, just didn't know how to go about it. The doubters.

 

I’ve doubted. I’ve doubted everything in the world surrounding me; all the negative, all the stand up sort of things too. I realized, through exercise of doing and putting out my real self… I had an epiphany really. You see, we are really just mirrors for each other. So ... so when someone you're with is sad, or happy, its’ not just them but you. It changes when you’re off by yourself.

 

Liz: That’s what a shaman I interviewed said. Then the self is mirror of self. So how did you become yourself, the outlaw Mike O’Neill? Did something suddenly happen, right place at right time, a lot of work, all of the above?

 

O’Neill: Well, being in the Pacific Northwest and starting out musically there I had to really want it, first off. But I did, I wanted and needed to express myself musically. Song gave voice to whatever was moving me. Guess I ended up shouting loud enough so I got attention.

 

I did a college tour in ’79. At the end of it I was picked up by large concert booking company who happened to have U2, they were just starting. By the end of ’80, I’d been seen by the right people. When I ended the tour in LA I first signed on major record deal. I was 24. I was working with Kenny from Little Feat, John Shanks, producer of Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks; I thought it was the picture of rest of life. I did the train ride movie with the Dead across Canada…

 

Liz: So, what landed you there, with the Dead?

 

O’Neill: Well, Kenny was introduced to Bob Weir. Andy Leonard, president of Grateful Dead Records. Kenny and I had a gig every Tuesday night at a place called the Viper Room. All sorts of people would show up to, Rickie Lee Jones, whoever was in town that night would come out. They’d play with us and solo, lots of good friends of Bobs’. 

Anyway, Andy, also managing Bob at the time, approached us and we put a band together. I remember the first time I saw and met the Grateful Dead, in Oakland.

 

Liz: What was that like?

 

O’Neill: Well…don’t remember much…

 

We laughed as I said, “Small by comparison but that’s part of my problem with the first time I went to the Stone Pony.“

 

O’Neill: So, I ended up in Cherokee Recording Studios doing the America record with Bobby & the Midnights. Bobby was Eddie Cochran’s’ nephew. We had Skunk Baxter from the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan. Yes, I thought that was going to be the rest of my life. Little did I know, there was more to it, more to come…

 

Right then, at a point when I was watching the band record while sitting in the control room, I notice this guy walking around talking to everybody. He comes in and talks to me and I tell him that I’d been asked by Dave Edmonds, (who was producing a new record for the Everly Brothers at the time) to submit a song. I’d written it but I wanted to run it by him if I could, it just wasn’t done. He said sure, come on over. So I ended up hanging out with him for a few days.

 

I didn’t realize it until I got to his house, but I soon discovered I was writing with Seve Cropper, the guy who’d written “Knock on Wood”, “Midnight Hour”, stuff for the Blues Brothers, and more. Needless to say, the song turned out awesome. We’ve stayed close friends for 35 years, continued to write together. 

 

Liz: So you too walk in a bizarre coincidence-vector.

 

O’Neill: Yes, yes I do.

 

Liz: What became of you & Weir?

 

O’Neill: Bobby & the Midnights ended when the Dead picked back up and went real hard again for another 10 years until the death of Garcia in ’95. Through that period I continued to tour with Weir. I’d open his show with Kenny and also Sam Clayton from Little Feat, with John Shanks on Guitar and Bony James on keyboard and sax. We’d all mix together and play with Weirs’ band too. A song he and I wrote together in the Hotel Shangri-la in Santa Monica was released on my ’99 album.

 

Liz: And…

 

O’Neill: I continued band with a few changes. Grabney went back with Little Feat, Robin Lamble from Spencer Davis' band, (writer of “Gimme Some Lovin’”), the drummer from Poco came…

 

Liz: Man, (I’ve at this point promised him I’ll try to control myself from ‘cool’ my perpetual interjection when ½ sleepless), how do you manage such an impressive, seemingly perpetual line-up?

 

O’Neill: Well, I used to say, “Flies are drawn to good shit have and this is some good shit.” 

 

Liz: (Again laughing and debating the advisability of printing that) …O.K. you’ve written fantastic songs, both alone and with others. Do you like doing one better than the other? I mean, do you always choose who you collaborate with or are you sometimes teamed up with someone? I’d think that could be chaotic.

 

O’Neill: I’m both both put with and asked or choose to collaborate on projects. The deal is, if I write with somebody and it's really not the way I would go with the song, I let them go their way. I support their way of creating even if it’s something I would never have created. It’s cool simply because it's a song created. Because it came from wherever it came from. I honor that muse more than walk away from or just leave it. It’s more exciting that way. 

 

Liz: So, when does the outlaw step in?

 

O’Neill laughingly asked hadn’t I heard? I said no, and he put it this way, (I suggest ignore, as I did, what you may have heard previously and go with this),

 

O’Neill: Well, as the band changed and morphed I got married, had 3 daughters, towards the end of 80s into 90s my marriage was falling apart, I had personal stuff to go through. Decided in ‘91 I needed to retreat from the music business to gain perspective and work on my family. I did well on perspective part…

 

I moved out of LA to my home in the Pacific Northwest in ‘91/’92 but couldn’t move away from music. I started an independent record label in ‘93 because, no matter what was going on, I still had to play. Songs were still coming out of me during that period. Called it ‘Sleeping Trout Music”.

 

Liz: Why “Sleeping Trout”?

 

O’Neill: Well, we know that trout do not sleep but I'm a sleeping trout because I’m on the flip side. I didn’t entirely make it up. There’s a theory called long tale in the industry. The way the business is run, it’s a very niche marketing boutique biz. I can touch so many more people that way because in that type of market, people look for you.

 

In main-strain media, which is short end of tale, you have a peak, a highest point. In a small window you have to sell hundreds of thousands in the smallest window. Longtale is the biggest window, it goes on for life.

 

Liz: So, some can ride the long tale. 

 

And again with the laughing as I said, “I did not say that”, and “I warned you, no sleep and the mouth has a mind of it’s own.” And yes, again, “I did not say that.”

 

We somehow got back on track…

 

O’Neill: In the mid-90s, Evan Rubecker, who owned cake records approached me to record a record called “From the Beginning”. Originally I went to him and said, “I don't know if I can do another record under my name because I don't know who I am today.” So I gave myself the name Fromme Younger (From-me-Younger).

 

Liz: Ah, and another outlaw named Younger.

 

O’Neill: (laughing again, sonorously as usual) Yes. Finished record, Fromme the Beginning. But then my attorney caught wind of it and said, “This is you” and advised me to release it as me. Man, I had written up whole story about Fromme Younger, had press releases ready go – oh well. Springsteen and Garth Brooks did it, but guess I’ll have to wait. The liner notes on beginning of the album thank younger though.

 

Liz: When you look back at your songs from when you were 24, until now, how do they strike you?

 

O’Neill: That’s an interesting question. I look at songs that still stand up today I wrote 20 years ago, I’ll still pull some of them out and play them in a live show. I have more years and knowledge now, more emotion goes into song, but the song itself, the idea stands up really well from way back. I’ve had the same subject matter from beginning, a common thread since 24.

Liz: What kept you going through that time when things were so bleak? Many people wouldn’t have emerged from that sort of ‘long dark night of the soul’ or whatever.

 

O’Neill: Really, love of the muse and connecting to her throughout life. Music is who I am no matter what all goes on this world. I’m here for a purpose and I know what I'm here to do.

 

Liz: How do you keep from being distracted when things get overwhelming, like they seem to have at one point? 

 

O’Neill: I’m totally distracted all the time. I take notes on it. Then when I sit down to write or record or make new body of work, I go to the notes to re-create the feeling.

 

Liz: So what now?

 

O’Neill: Well, the new record I released is produced by Joe Cerrelli, who produced U2 and Fionna Apple among others. It came out in July and made it to top 40 on Radio Americana, America Roots Music Chart reports it at 18, it’s even #60 on New Music Weekly. Crosses different genres…

 

Liz: Outlaws do cross…

 

O’Neill: Yea, there’s the Outlaw. I got a radio call from a guy in Florida who said, “You’ve broken all the rules. Until now no one has been played on all these different charts.”

 

Liz: What are you going to do next?

 

O’Neill: Well, I leave tomorrow for San Antonio and Austin, it’s a whole ‘nother world, a country separate to itself when you go to Texas. I’m committed…

 

Liz: Not yet…

 

O’Neill: To do another record…I think I’ll do it in Austin.

 

Liz: What do you see yourself doing in the next 5 years?

 

O’Neill: It’s funny you say that because 5 years ago I said I’d have 5 records in 5 years on own label, looks like 5 in 7 now but I’m putting out enough body of work. I’ve already seen the momentum. I’m already in flow, know I’m doing right thing. So I’m

 going to be able to touch a lot of people. 

 

It’s Evolutional. Revoloutional.

 

As is Mr. O’Neill. Check out his cd’s, old and especially new. My quest for true Outlaw Americana ended here, with a Younger no less. How did I get here? We must travel back in time for that, to two hurricanes, two fiddlers, oh the ‘dreadful wind and rain’. To Be Continued…

 

Elizabeth Bissette

 

The Grateful Web

Phil Lesh Legacy

Interviews

Phil Lesh Legacy

Published on 7/14/2006 5:00:43 AM :: comments

Phil in Boston - photo courtesy of Robert Chapman

 

Phil Lesh like his Grateful Dead bandmates are the force behind the jam festival culture today. Lesh is continuing to tour this summer, along with some topnotch young jam musicians. Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon, formerly from Phish, are both jam legends in their own right, having learned that the grassroots is where music activism is alive and well. They are lending their creative chops to Lesh’s summer tour along with the jazz-laced Benevento-Russo Duo. And, some venues, like the 10,000 Lakes Festival, which is the last stop on Lesh’s five-week summer tour, will also see G.R.A.B., the combined creativity of Gordon, Russo, Anastasio, and

Benevento

.

But it is Lesh himself who is venturing out to major jam festivals this summer in search of the vibe and some answers. He’s looking to explore why the jam scene keeps going and what it all means. As part of a long-term oral history project, Lesh has started formally dialoging with people of his generation and young people today about the 60s, what some have thought was a Golden Age of enlightenment and music or a time of unachievable idealism and unrest. 

 

“It’s something that’s been on my mind for awhile,” Lesh said in a recent interview. “Time is passing and, we’ve lost a lot of important people from that period already. I want to start talking to people, not only those who lived through it like I did, but young people who are coming to the community now and I want to find out what it is that’s drawing them. What is it about the values of the 60s that resonates with you? How do exemplify those values in this new sphere of consciousness in your life? What did we do wrong? How could we have done it better? How can we change things now? These are things I want to ask people about. I have all these questions.”

 

He’s also asking questions about war (

Vietnam

and the current Iraq War), about whether those of his generation failed or are blazing a trail that the young are following, and whether any of those 60s values have been inherited. He’s also wondering if the Boomers of his generation have laid aside those values or continued on with the good fight.

 

He is aware that something positive is happening. The jam festival has become a reflection of something larger. “In a way, it’s combining the needs that we have today with some of the values of the 60s, some of the ideals that grew out of that,” he says. “I can only view it as an extremely positive development. I want to see more.”

 

And, there are signs. Festivals like the 10,000 Lakes Festival, in probably one of the more conservative areas of the heartland of this country, has become a carbon emission neutral event, powering their festival through the purchase of wind certificates. That means that everything powering the event from vendor and stage lights to the sound systems will be powered by renewable energy. Places like Telluride have been powering their events by a wind generator on the site and they even have their vendors use utensils made from corn so that they can be composted. But, that kind of environmental awareness and rapid change is expected in places like

Colorado

or

California

. What happens in the heartland are slow changes.

 

“That’s the one thing that we could never reconcile with back in the day,” says Lesh, “was the pace of change. It’s always glacial. Forty years on, we see that and acknowledge that. It’s still very impressive.”

 

Like many jam festivals throughout the country, the 10,000 Lakes Festival has a broader concern than just ticket sales. They are reaching out to the wider communities that are touched by the music. These festivals collect food, monetary donations, and raise environmental and social issues through charity partners like the Conscious Alliance, Rock the Earth, and the Rex Foundation. And, these aren’t just for causes the local festival-goer will never see. At the 10,000 Lakes Festival, for example, the Conscious Alliance has been building a food bank in the White Earth Reservation and one at Pine Ridge in

North Dakota

and

South Dakota

. Food that they receive at the festival will go directly to these food banks. Even the Becker County Humane Society will be on-site to help find loving homes for abandoned pets.

 

“We’ve been working with the Conscious Alliance everywhere we can,” Lesh says. “There are food drives at our shows in the big cities through Conscious Alliance. I’ve very happy about that.”

 

This year, Lesh will be encouraging festival attendees to get out and vote as part of the HeadCount campaign, which registered 50,000 voters in 2004. Their current campaign is “Midterms Do Count.”

 

And, at every show that Lesh does, he encourages folks to become organ donors. “I tell everybody about it every night,” he says. “It’s the simplest thing in the world. All you have to do is say to your family, ‘If anything ever happens to me, I want to be an organ donor.’ That’s all you have to do. You don’t have to go to DVM and be stamped, spindled, or folded. It will be your family’s right to make that awesome decision.”

 

Lesh sees hope in the music and in the jam culture. “This is our version of the camp meeting where people put their lives aside, and they come together as a community,” he says “to pursue a higher journey where they’re living on a more spiritual plane. They’re there to participate in an artistic endeavor.” They aren’t voyeurs, watchers of art being made. “Audiences engaging with it is what drives the whole creative process. It’s almost as if everyone agreed to put their lives aside and focus on art and more inward experiences, but in a collective way, so that they’re not as detached from one another as they would be in their normal lives.”

 

So, for those of us who follow jam, the festival is the ultimate community as people come together to share music and create their own experience through dance, drum circles, midnight acoustic jams, or tossing beach balls in the air in front of the main stage and seeing how long a group of strangers can keep the balls in the air. All of it is a collective participation in jam.

For Lesh, those early Dead years touring the country all summer and seeing a caravan of familiar faces at each event was the beginning of community. “There are still people who follow us on tour,” Lesh admits. “It was like we running away from home and finding yourself as part of it. That was and still is a magical experience.”

 

If you can get a chance, capture that real magical experience with Phil Lesh, one of the musicians who started this whole phenomenon. Catch his last hurrah this summer at the 10,000 Lakes Festival July 19-22. Or, check out the Dead years in Lesh’s memoir, “Searching for the Sound: My Life in the Grateful Dead.” Coming this Halloween is a Phil Lesh & Friends DVD called "Phil Lesh & Friends - Live at The Warfield Theater" that was filmed in May in

San Francisco

. Jazz legend Jon Scofield from the Miles Davis band offers his musical support to the DVD.

 

Janie Franz

 

The Grateful Web