Cloud Surfing

Week of November 26, 2007

Part 1 28:20
Grateful Dead 6/30/74 Civic Center, Springfield MA
DON’T EASE ME IN
BLACK-THROATED WIND
FENNARIO
JACK STRAW
LOSER

Part 2 27:35
Interview: Blair Jackson
Grateful Dead, Road Trips vol. 1 no. 1
SHAKEDOWN STREET
PASSENGER

Road Trips is a new series of releases that seems pretty promising to me! The first one is a compilation of highlights from the fall of 1979; future issues will include complete shows, for those who thin that’s the most important thing. I’m a big fan of the fall 1979 tour – Brent Mydland had found his footing as the band’s keyboardist after 6 months, and the Dead were opening songs up in unexpected places for nice, expansive jams.

Blair Jackson and David Lemieux are the producers.

Support for the Grateful Dead hour this week comes from:

Grateful Dead Productions, announcing the first of a new series of Grateful Dead live concert releases titled Road Trips. Each CD set will include a historical essay and rare photos along with carefully remastered music from the original recordings. Volume 1 number 1 spotlights the Dead’s fall 1979 tour of the east coast, with highlights from half a dozen shows plus a limited-edition bonus disc. Information, cover art, reviews and message board are online at dead.net

The Jam in the Dam music festival in Amsterdam, Holland March 16 thru 19 at the legendary Melkweg music hall, where the Grateful Dead played in 1981. Dark Star Orchestra, Umphrey’s McGee, the Disco Biscuits, Tea Leaf Green, Perpetual Groove, and Lotus. It’s an intimate festival in one of the great cities of the world. Information, video clips, reviews, message board and tickets are available at jaminthedam.com

eDeadshop.com, an online store offering t-shirts, hats, stickers, tye dyes, gifts and other rock and roll holiday gifts from such acts as the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Santana, & Pink Floyd. More information and complete product catalog can be found at eDeadshop.com.

Posted with permission, of course:

I just discovered the GD Hour site after some recent digging. Brought back quite a few great memories of ‘88-’90 (high school), covertly taping the GD Hour off of 102.7 WNEW, covering the LED lights on the stereo with cardboard to bypass parental patrols, dialing in the station by feel to avoid static. Great to see those GD Hour show lists and, yes, actually still have some highly prized TDK and Memorex tapes safely tucked away in “the vault” here in 2007!

David, thanks for all of the hard work, the great music and, most importantly, the education the GD Hour gave to the listeners. The highlight was never the carefully picked GD shows, although they were always great – it was the ’30’s and ’40’s original versions of Americana the Dead covered, the Leadbelly, the country, the folk, the Delaney and Bonnie, the Dylan, the cuts you found that made up The Music Never Stopped, the original American tunes that the Dead were keeping alive that you tracked down and put on. Being a competitive teenager, my successful “the Dead are better than Zeppelin” arguments were always founded upon the wealth of raw, American historical music the Dead kept alive, all styles, all genres – folk/ country/ ragtime/ blues/ jazz/ western. As a big reader (and student) of history, I believe the Dead will go down as the band that kept American music, and the storytelling tradition, alive before recording technology, the oral/ singing tradition that was passed down through generations. That was the best part of the GD Hour – that every week, this young listener was taught American musical history, as well as being entertained. Thanks again for the great work.

Stephen C. Pinzino
Manhasset, New York

I kvell. Thank you, Stephen!

Reposted from the GD Hour mailing list with permission – Jon Winer’s review of GD Hour #1000:

When Phil Lesh came to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a couple years ago he said that the Grateful Dead’s most interesting period, from his standpoint, was their experimental era of the late 60’s. In David Gans’ recent interview of Mickey Hart, aired on Grateful Dead Hour No. 1000, it is apparent that Mickey shares Phil’s fondness for this glorious era, in which the band reached a crescendo in terms of musical creativity.

Although Mr. Gans’ interview of Mickey Hart begins with conversation about, and musical exerpts from, Diga Rhythm Band, Mystery Box and the beginnings of “World Music,” David’s question about the Grateful Dead’s vocal “bols,” heard occasionally in the Drumz segment of a late-60’s show, creates a segue taking Mickey back to the era in which the band rehearsed day after day to develop “group mind,” while Robert Hunter “composed like James Joyce.” Mickey describes the members of the late-60’s Grateful Dead as “circumnavigators,” rather than performers. He explains that when the audiences and the paychecks got bigger, the band grew more cautious, just as the most popular “jam bands” of today are somewhat risk-averse.

Mickey recalls that Bob Weir was once severely criticized by a fellow band member for forgetting a part. The experience made the entire band realize that their strength was not in memorizing notes. Their essence was improvisation, in the tradition of jazz. The “failure rate” was high, at first, but lessened over time, as they developed group mind.

David mentions that it was Mickey who first referred to the Grateful Dead as the band that was not afraid to be wrong. Although David Gans may be likewise unafraid to be wrong, I have to say that his interview with Mickey Hart, recalling this glorious period in the band’s history, was a right choice for GDH 1000.

David, 1000 thanks for doing what you do!

Week of November 19, 2007

Part 1 33:34
Interview: Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart’s Mystery Box
DOWN THE ROAD

Diga Rhythm Band, Diga
HAPPINESS IS DRUMMING
SWEET SIXTEENS
Interview: Mickey Hart
Grateful Dead, Fillmore West 1969
DRUMS (Excerpt)
Interview: Mickey Hart
Grateful Dead, 1968
THE ELEVEN (Rehearsal)
Interview: Mickey Hart

Part 2 21:19
Interview: Mickey Hart
Grateful Dead 1/27/68 Eagle’s Auditorium, Seattle WA
SPANISH JAM

Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:

eDeadshop.com, an online store offering t-shirts, hats, stickers, tye dyes, gifts and other rock and roll holiday gifts from such acts as the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Santana, & Pink Floyd. More information and complete product catalog can be found at eDeadshop.com.

Island Girl Records, presenting the release of “Postcards from the Road Volume 1,” a new live album by keyboardist, guitarist and singer/songwriter Aaron Ferguson. Recorded live in Philadelphia, this 7 track CD features Aaron’s traditional acoustic songwriting and includes several extended experimental jams. More information is available at aaronferguson.com.