One of the many things I enjoy about being on the road is catching up on my listening! So many CDs to review, so many shows to evaluate for my various radio gigs, and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of my own performances. I’ll spare you the report on my own sets, but here is a list (in no particular order) of some of the music I have heard since driving out of Oakland Monday morning:
Archive for February, 2009
Road listening report (part 1?)
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009March 3 in Las Vegas
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Just confirmed that elusive Vegas gig, with thanks to Greg Serensits, Erik Kabik, George Lyons, and the Las Vegas Jam Band Society:
Tuesday, March 3, 9:00pm: Sawbucks Bar, 3246 East Desert Inn Road (@ Mojave), Las Vegas. Following the Las Vegas Jam Band Society monthly meeting. No cover charge! CDs will be for sale and the hat will be passed.
Buddy Miller
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Second-hand info but I know it’s reliable:
Following his show in Baltimore last Thursday evening, Buddy Miller was not feeling well. After consulting doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, tests revealed some heart blockage. It was determined that surgery was needed right away. He is now resting and recovering and expected to be released from hospital shortly. Buddy and his family would like to thank all for their well wishes and prayers. If you’d like to send wishes to Buddy you can send them to: PO Box 120479, Nashville, TN 37212
Gans on tour: southwest and beyond
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Still trying to fill in a Las Vegas play for Tuesday, March 3. Stay tuned…
Friday, Feb 27, 7pm: House concert in Placitas NM. Email for details & reservations
Sunday, March 1, 7pm MST: “House” concert at KZMU in Moab, Utah. Live performance at the radio station (1734 Rocky Road, Moab) and streaming online at kzmu.org. It’s the Kokopelli Coffee House with host Backofbeyondananda. Suggested donation $10 and some food to share.
Monday, March 2, 6:30pm: House concert in Salt Lake City. Suggested donation $10 and some food to share. Email wickenden@gmail.com for more info.
Wednesday, March 4, 9:00 pm: Flagstaff Brewing Company, 16 E. Route 66, Flagstaff AZ. No cover!
Saturday, March 7, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm: Grand Lake Farmers’ Market at Splash Pad Park (across from the Grand Lake Theater) in Oakland CA. Free! Great produce, crafts, and prepared foods.
Saturday, March 7, 6pm: Rubber Souldiers and Batacha play a benefit and auction for the Nonesuch School. Masonic Center, 373 N. Main, Sebastopol CA. $20, or $15 if you bring 3 cans of food for the food bank. 707-696-6800.
Saturday, March 14, 3-5pm: Saturday Casual & Cozy winter time Music Series at Iron Springs Pub and Brewery, 765 Center Blvd., Fairfax, CA. No cover!
March 26-29: Suwannee SpringFest, at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak FL (just across the Georgia line). DG plays solo and with Rubber Souldiers! Plus Donna the Buffalo, Emmitt Nershi Band, The Duhks, The Lee Boys, Darrell Scott, Darol Anger & Mike Marshall with Väsen, Blueground Undergrass, Dread Clampitt, more TBA.
April 17-18: SpringJam 5 at Camp Zoe, Salem MO. The Schwag, NRPS, Donna Jean Gochaux, Moonalice, DG, and more.
Sunday, May 17: Rubber Souldiers, the Raveups, and others perform “’60s British Explosion Unplugged!” at the Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison Street, Berkeley
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My CD The Ones That Look the Weirdest Taste the Best is getting airplay all over the country. If you aren’t hearing it on your local AAA, Americana, or jamband station/show, please help the cause by requesting it! And of course, buying a copy. Lots of info, audio samples, and several ways to buy it, either all at once or individual tracks – see the Weirdest page.
Grateful Dead Hour no. 1066
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Week of February 23, 2009
Part 1 24:16
Grateful Dead 10/25/69 Winterland, San Francisco
DARK STAR
Part 2 32:39
Feature: LEE JOHNSON, Composer of DEAD SYMPHONY
Lee Johnson’s Dead Symphony no. 6 had its west coast debut on January 25 and 27, performed by the California Symphony in Walnut Creek under the direction of Barry Jekowsky. The composer was in attendance, and after each performance there was a panel discussion with Johnson, Jekowsky, GD historian Dennis McNally and me. I enjoyed the performance very much, and both the performances and panel discussions were very well-received by California Symphony regulars and casual attendees alike. I saw a lot of familiar faces in the audience.
I interviewed Jekowsky, founder and musical director of the California Symphony, before the January 27 performance. You’ll hear that talk in next week’s program. It was not possible to broadcast recordings of these shows, so the Johnson and Jekowsky interviews are illustrated with excerpts from the original recording of Dead Symphony no. 6 by the Russian National Orchestra under Johnson’s direction.
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:
Relix Magazine, featuring an exclusive cover story on THE DEAD with band members interview by some of the musicians they influenced: Phil Lesh interviewed by David Schools of Widespread Panic, Bob Weir by Keller Williams and Mickey and Billy by Billy Martin from MMW. Relix is on newsstands online at relix.com.
The Suwannee SpringFest, a festival of American roots music March 26th through 29th at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, just across the Georgia line. Donna the Buffalo, the Emmitt Nershi Band, The Duhks, The Lee Boys, Darrell Scott, Darol Anger & Mike Marshall, The Gourds, David Gans, and many many more. Information is available at 904-249-7990 and magmusic.com, where you will also find information on Music Farmers, a documentary about MagnoliaFest and the Suwannee SpringFest, now available on DVD.
Viva Railroad Earth
Thursday, February 19th, 2009I’ve been meaning to post something about Railroad Earth since I listened to their three-night New Year’s run a couple of weeks ago. Today I posted this on a mailing list of European Deadheads:
The reason I think Railroad Earth is the best band of the current era is that they have many of the same attributes you enumerate here ["heart and soul," "fantastic songs," "variety," "inventiveness," and "evolution."]. Todd Sheaffer’s songs are complex and deep; like the Grateful Dead, he is not afraid to go to dark places and deal with adult themes. And the musicians who surround Sheaffer are brilliant storytellers in their own right: like the Dead, they know their job is to support the song, not to display their instrumental prowess.
A Grateful Dead show had a narrative quality – the collection of songs describing a place and a set of characters and conflicts, loose enough for each of us to imagine our way into that world and powerful enough to charge the atmosphere with provocative, evocative energy. I feel the same way about a Railroad Earth performance – maybe not quite as intensely as the Dead at their best, but this band very definitely shares that literary quality with the Dead.
By contrast, last night I hosted Andy Gadiel for a two-hour salute to Phish on the occasion of their return to performing. Lots of intense music and great playing, but they are the “Seinfeld” of improvisational music: most of their songs are quite deliberately about nothing.
The Railroad Earth New Year’s run is available from livedownloads – 12/29/08, 12/30/08, and 12/31/08 at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon. I am planning to play some of New Year’s Eve on the GD Hour and on Dead to the World. There’s a sweet rendition of “Sisters and Brothers” (familiar to fans of the Jerry Garcia Band), and “Warhead Boogie” from that show goes into some deliciously weird places. Other highlights include “The Forecast” (my favorite song on their most recent studio CD, Amen Corner) and “Railroad Earth” from their first CD, The Black Bear Sessions.
Dead to the World 2/18/09
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009Guest co-host: Andy Gadiel, founder of jambase and Andy Gadiel’s Phish Page
Slave to the Traffic Light – Phish (aka The White Tape)
Lizards – Phish 12/31/95 Madison Square Garden, New York City
Halley’s Comet – Phish 3/14/93 Western State College Gym, Gunnison CO
Daniel Saw the Stone – Phish 8/14/93 World Music Theater, Tinley Park IL
Tweezer – Phish 8/6/96 Red Rocks, Morrison CO
Tube – Phish 8/13/96 Deer Creek, Noblesville IN
Terrapin Station – Phish 8/9/98 Virginia Beach VA
Bathtub Gin – Phish 8/17/97 The Great Went, Limestone ME
David Bowie – Phish 6/18/94 UIC Pavilion, Chicago IL
Down with Disease – Phish 12/6/96 Aladdin Theater, Las Vegas NV
Andy Gadiel’s Phish tribute on DTTW this week
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009Andy Gadiel, founder of JamBase.com and Andy Gadiel’s Phish Page, will be guest DJing a very special Phish Reunion Tribute on KPFA’s Dead to the World with David Gans this Wednesday, February 18th from 8-10pm PST.
Join us as we’ll be digging deep into the Phish catalog of live and recorded material spanning their entire career and honoring their return to the stage on March 6, 7 & 8 in Hampton, VA.
Tune in to the broadcast at KPFA 94.1 FM in the Bay Area or kpfa.org online everywhere.
Grateful Dead Hour no. 1065
Sunday, February 15th, 2009Part 1 32:13
New Year’s Eve Band 12/31/08 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA
DARK STAR->
NOT FADE AWAY
Part 2 24:12
New Year’s Eve Band 12/31/08 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA
US BLUES
RIPPLE
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Not for Kids Only
TEDDDY BEARS’ PICNIC
The Bobs Perform the Songs of…
THE GOLDEN ROAD (To Unlimited Devotion)
New Year Eve’s Band: Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Jeff Chimenti, Steve Molitz, Kenny Brooks, John Molo, Jay Lane, Mark Karan, Jackie Greene, Barry Sless
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:
Relix Magazine, featuring an exclusive cover story on THE DEAD with band members interview by some of the musicians they influenced: Phil Lesh interviewed by David Schools of Widespread Panic, Bob Weir by Keller Williams and Mickey and Billy by Billy Martin from MMW. Relix is on newsstands online at relix.com.
The Suwannee SpringFest, a festival of American roots music March 26th through 29th at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, just across the Georgia line. Donna the Buffalo, the Emmitt Nershi Band, The Duhks, The Lee Boys, Darrell Scott, Darol Anger & Mike Marshall, The Gourds, David Gans, and many many more. Information is available at 904-249-7990 and magmusic.com, where you will also find information on Music Farmers, a documentary about MagnoliaFest and the Suwannee SpringFest, now available on DVD.
Best “Weirdest” review yet!
Thursday, February 12th, 2009Dennis Cook reviews The Ones That Look the Weirdest Taste the Best in jamabase:
Though the title suggests Captain Beefheartian oddity, this is in fact a very lovely, fairly pure folk-rock album, and perhaps David Gans finest recorded hour to date…. Gans has quietly grown & grown as a singer-songwriter in his own right, and his latest collection elevates him to the stature of John Gorka, David Wilcox and Greg Brown in the modern folk pantheon.
Read the whole review, please!