#the jerry garcia acoustic band

[krispyweiss]

Song Review(s): Billy Strings - “Dreadful Wind and Rain” and “Dust in a Baggie” (Live, July 29, 2023)

Settled somewhere between Crooked Still and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, Billy Strings’ arrangement of “Dreadful Wind and Rain” is just right.

Neither laggard nor celebratory, Strings’ tale of the human body that became a homemade fiddle strikes the right notes as delivered with no harmony vocals and solos from fiddler Alex Hargreaves and guitarist Strings.

The July 29 show-opener from Maine was given away alongside “Dust in a Baggie,” so those missing out could feel extra rueful about missing out.

The contrast between the songs - both in tempo and subject matter - couldn’t have been much more striking as Strings and company latched on to old-time harmonies and an arrangement befitting a number about meth for part two of the livestream sampler.

Prison has rarely sounded so euphoric.

Grade card: Billy Strings - “Dreadful Wind and Rain” and “Dust in a Baggie” (Live - 7/29/23) - A+/A

7/30/23

[beenwaytoolongatsea]

Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band - “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'”

[wounderful-chaos]

"Ripple" is a song by the Grateful Dead, released on their 1970 album "American Beauty." It is a folk-inspired ballad, celebrated for its serene and poetic lyrics written by Robert Hunter and its gentle, melodic composition by Jerry Garcia. The song features acoustic instrumentation and harmonies that convey a sense of tranquility and introspection. "Ripple" is often regarded as one of the band's most beautiful and enduring songs, resonating deeply with fans for its spiritual and philosophical..

[gratefulfrog]

ON THIS DATE (53 YEARS AGO)

June 14, 1970 – Grateful Dead: Workingman's Dead is released.

Workingman's Dead is the fourth studio album by the Grateful Dead, released on June 14, 1970. It reached #27 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's & Tapes chart. In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The title of the album comes from a comment from Jerry Garcia to lyricist Robert Hunter about how "this album was turning into the Workingman's Dead version of the band."

Garcia has said that much of the sound of the album comes both from his pairing with Hunter as well as the band's friendship with Crosby, Stills and Nash. "Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, 'We can try that. Let's work on it a little,'" commented Garcia.

Songs such as "Uncle John's Band," "High Time" and "Cumberland Blues" were brought to life with soaring harmonies and layered vocal textures that had not been a part of the band's sound until then. According to the 1992 Dead oral history, Aces Back To Back, in the summer of 1968, Stephen Stills vacationed at Mickey Hart's ranch in Novato. "Stills lived with me for three months around the time of [CSN's] first record," recalls Hart, "and he and David Crosby really turned Jerry and Bobby onto the voice as the holy instrument. You know, 'Hey, is this what a voice can do?' That turned us away from pure improvisation and more toward songs."

The Grateful Dead's first four albums reinforced their stature as a performing group, with a loose improvisational feel rooted in the blues, rock & roll, and modern jazz. But with the 1970 release of Workingman's Dead, Garcia, Weir, Lesh, McKernan, Kreutzmann, and Hart reined in their many spatial musical elements and found their true stylistic niche in the studio with an engaging blend of country, blues, and folk. Where earlier studio releases strove to recreate the kind of freeform group improvisations that won the Dead a fanatical cult following in the Bay area, Workingman's Dead drew upon a rural American vernacular that was in many ways analogous to that of the Band.

The resulting music has a rootsy, timeless quality, with tight instrumental arrangements, concise solo breaks, and a carefully wrought style of vocal harmonizing. The Dead won extensive airplay with tuneful songs like "Uncle John's Band" and "Casey Jones," while expanding their following well beyond San Francisco. Garcia's slithering pedal steel counterpoint and twangy banjo rolls make for a charismatic new style of bluegrass on "Dire Wolf" and "Cumberland Blues," while "New Speedway Boogie," featuring some of Robert Hunter's best lyrics, is a pointed personal metaphor for the tragic chaos at Altamont the summer before. This remains one of the legendary band's most concise and beautifully executed records.

__________

ORIGINAL ROLLING STONES REVIEW

It's so nice to receive a present from good friends.

Workingman's Dead is an excellent album. It's a warming album. And most importantly, the Dead have finally produced a complete studio album. The songs stand up quite nicely right on their own merits, which are considerable.

"Uncle John's Band," which opens the album, is, without question, the best recorded track done by this band. Staunch Dead freaks probably will hate this song. It's done acoustically for a starter. No Garcia leads. No smasho drumming. In fact, it's got a mariachi /calypso type feeling. Finely, warmly-lush tuned guitar work starts it off, with a statement of the beat and feeling. When Garcia comes in with the vocal, joined by a lot of tracks of everyone else's voices, possibly including his, it's really very pretty. The lyrics blend in nicely with the music. "All I want to know/How does the song go?" "Come hear Uncle John's band/playing to the tide/Come with me, or come alone/He's come to take his children home." Near the end of the song there is an a cappella section done by everyone, sounds like about 62 tracks, maybe 63. Just listen to it, and try not to smile.

The years of playing together have shown handsome dividends. "Dire Wolf" points this out. It's a country song, Garcia's steel guitar work is just right, and everyone sings along to the "Don't murder me" chorus.

The country feeling of this album just adds to the warmth of it. "Cumberland Blues" starts off as a straight electric cut, telling the story of trying to make ends meet in bad times. Slowly, imperceptibly at first, a banjo enters the song. By the end, I was back at the old Gold Rush along with everyone else. The banjo brought me there.

Even the cuts that are not directly influenced by country stylings have a country feel to them. I suspect that this is due to, the band's vocals. Living out on their ranch seems to have mellowed them all, or at least given a country tinge to their voices. "Casey Jones" is not the theme song you might remember from television. "Driving that train/High on cocaine/Casey Jones you better watch your speed." Listen closely, especially to the cymbal work. Then listen to Phil Lesh's bass mixing with Weir's guitar. Now listen to the cymbal again. Yep. They did it. I don't know who's train is better, Casey's or the Dead's. Living sound effects. Just fine.

~ Andy Zwerling (July 23, 1970)

[mywifeleftme]

92: Aquariana // Aquariana

Aquariana Aquariana 2013, Drag City (Website)

The Source Family were one of the more successful new religions (read: cults) operating in Southern California during the early 1970s. Founded by Father Yod (pronounced “Yoad”; né Jim Baker), a towering, bearded figure with a few alleged murders (via karate chop!) and bank robberies under his robes, the Source Family operated a popular health food restaurant in L.A. and cut dozens of brainstewing psych rock records that have become holy grails to men who physically resemble late period Jerry Garcia. Yod assigned one of his 13 wives (Isis Aquarian, née Charlene Peters) to document the cult’s journey over the years, resulting in an incredible trove of video recordings, some of which were used to assemble 2012’s The Source Family documentary. The footage, much of it eerie and gauzily beautiful, gives us a good idea of what day-to-day life in the Family was like, from its origins to Yod’s corporeal demise in Hawaii following a hang-gliding accident (!).

The Source Family were as close to a prototypical cult of the era as you can get: white robes, buffet approach to Eastern and Western spiritual concepts, illiberal attitudes toward “personal possessions,” semi-involuntary polygamy, institutionalized drug use, etc. If you’ve ever listened to recordings of the sermons of Jim Jones or David Berg, Baker’s hep gibberish will sound strikingly familiar, and indeed, the Source Family followed the standard trajectory—from monogamy to a form of free love that mostly allowed the leader to fuck all the hot girls; from soft notions about kindness and peace to dark mutterings about an imminent apocalypse; from vegetarianism to moral loopholes that sanctioned the killing of dangerous outsiders. The Source Family never went the way of the Peoples Temple because, when faced with a mounting crisis (the cult’s disastrous move to Hawaii), Baker decided to disclaim his godhood instead of doubling down on it. No one knows why he eventually told his followers he was only a man, but I have a hunch: he wasn’t a sawed-off little gnome, and he wasn’t crazy. Unlike his murderous peers, Baker didn’t have much to overcompensate for; he was a huge, built guy who didn’t need a cult to get laid, impose his will, or feel important (though he got off on all of the above). In the end, no one died, and so it feels a little less vulturine to nibble at this particular cult’s artistic output than it does, say, the Manson Family’s.

On that note, let’s turn to the music. Record nerds are always on the lookout for cult music because it often goes extremely hard, be it Manson’s acoustic freak folk, Scientology space jazz, or “Veteran of the Psychic Wars.” The albums the Source Family are known for (released under a variety of names like Ya Ho Wha 13 and Father Yod and the Spirit of ’76) are out-there freeform acid jams in which the cult’s more experienced musicians try to work around frontman Yod’s untrained drumming and bellowing—a member of the No-Neck Blues Band pops up on the 2012 documentary to gush about their records, and you can see why acts like NNCK and Jackie O Motherfucker would lose it for this stuff.

The album we’re looking at today, by contrast, is a solo piano recording from the mid-‘70s by Aquariana, another of Yod’s wives, that went unissued till 2013. Aquariana had a Queen Guinevere-type look, and the liners note that she would frequently spin her own long golden hair into thread to sew and embroider with. A capable pianist with a multi-octave voice, Aquariana’s music could broadly be called folky, but it feels a little more theatrical than that, influenced by show tunes and AM soft rock. Her songs are mostly about love (-ing Father Yod), bearing children (of Father Yod), and the magnificence of Father Yod. It’s midway between devotional music and the type of stuff a medieval bard would be retained to write in praise of an egotistical baron. You can practically see Baker being fed grapes in the producer’s chair while she plays. Though it’s not as overtly weird as Ya Ho Wha 13, there’s still a lot of stuff on Aquariana that no sane producer would’ve allowed, like the way she tunelessly holds and holds and holds her notes on “Oh My Love” and “One Love” until you start to think your record is skipping. That strangeness is why it exerts the particular appeal it does, and it does have a particular downbeat intensity that holds my interest, despite its rudimentary songcraft.

Chicago’s Drag City label was behind the documentary and mid-2010s series of Source Family music reissues. Unlike reissues of, say, Manson-adjacent music, the label was able to work with surviving Family members like Isis Aquarian. This meant of course that they couldn’t dress up the reissues too salaciously (see LIE: The Love & Terror Cult), but Baker’s group already had such a strongly creepy aesthetic that there wasn’t much need to. A designer would be hard-pressed to come up with a more uncanny cover than Aquariana got: the singer at the piano in her ruffled gown with an unreadable expression, the head and shoulders of her husband-father visible behind the instrument, the portrait framed in ornate white fabric. It feels like the work of an outsider trying to underline the cult’s depravity in red pen—yet the composition and cover design were by Yod himself. Make of that what you will.

92/365

[moe-so-journal]

#Nowplaying I've Been All Around This World (Live) - Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (On Broadway: Act One - October 28th, 1987 (Live))

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

IN PRAISE & REMEMBRANCE OF AN AMERICAN MASTER/LEGEND -- PIGPEN.

PIC INFO: Part 2 of 2 -- Spotlight on a portrait of now dearly departed GRATEFUL DEAD members, Jerry Garcia and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, photographed by Thomas Weir in 1969 -- Cover page to "Relix" magazine Vol. 10 #1. February, 1983.

EXTRA INFO: Portrait from the Dead's "Aoxomoxoa" period, now inarguably described as the last gasp of the band's experimental and/or psychedelic period.

JERRY GARCIA: "Pigpen was the only guy in the band who had any talent when we were starting out. He was genuinely talented. He also had no discipline, but he had reams of talent. And he had that magical thing of being able to make stuff up as he went along. He also had great stage presence. The ironic thing was that he hated it - it really meant nothing to him; it wasn't what he liked. We had to browbeat him into being a performer. His best performances were one-on-one, sitting in a room with an acoustic guitar. That's where he was really at home and at his best. "Out in front of the crowd he could work the band, and he'd really get the audience going. He always had more nerve than I could believe. He'd get the audience on his side, and he'd pick somebody out (like a heckler) and get on them... He was the guy who really sold the band, not me or Weir. Pigpen is what made the band work."

Sources: https://relix.com/articles/detail/death_dont_have_no_mercy_pigpen_ten_years_gone_relix_revisited, discogs, & Reddit.

[inner--islands]

Interview with Stag Hare (December 2015)

1. What are some recent inspirations?

Musically: Jerry Garcia Band, Basic Channel, John Serrie, the music that plays at the massage school I’ve been attending, much of which I am never able to figure out what it is but is often so dope. Often it is classical Raga type stuff, other times more new age synth sounds… other stuff: deep space nine, gods and radicals blog, andrew alba paintings.

2. How would you describe your relationship to song titles in your work? Your titles somehow give me the impression that the music is part of a greater cohesive world with characters and stories, but the details are withheld (maybe I’m just projecting or maybe it’s not necessary to know)

I love that you say this, I personally do feel that the music does relate to an interconnected world with all sorts of characters and places and stories…. the song titles to me are really important to help set a context for the music and create the most effective gateway into that world as possible. It’s definitely a trick to convey enough to get the mind thinking and the imagination running without giving away too much. Maybe that world needs all different types of listeners with their own projections and imaginations fleshing out those details collectively….

3. Most of your songs have a drone in them. How do you approach making a new drone and having it feel fresh?

This is something I am always trying to figure out. How DO I keep things sounding fresh…. I’m not so sure. Usually I try different approaches, different instrument and/or processing, different methods to try to come up with something fresh, but usually by the time the song is finished I’ll just sort of instinctively go in at some point and lay down the “right” drone which ends up being there more as a functional spine to the song then anything. So, I’m not so sure I really succeed at keeping the drones fresh, I pretty much make them the same as I always have, a mix of guitar and delay mainly.

4. Has having a child changed your perspective on your relationship with sounds? How does Sebastian engage with sound and music?

Well, its maybe sharpened my focus, brought me closer to the relationship I have always strived for, which is something that’s hard to articulate. I’m very conscious of Sebastian as a listener and as an observer now, and he’s almost like this new presence in the stag hare music world which keeps a certain integrity just through the act of observing. He makes me want to make a certain energy/sound more than ever which sometimes I think I’ve successfully achieved, and other times its sort of just taking its time rambling around the adjacent territories. But I know where the center point is.. He loves music, he loves to dance and gets really excited by anything with a good groove. He’s the best audience I’ve ever had. and he also loves to make music himself, he plays around on (literally sometimes, on top of) my acoustic guitar which I have tuned to an open tuning… he plays around on all the different hand drums I have laying around and shakers and such. Lately I’ve been playing my wooden flute to him and he loves that and does his best to play but hasn’t really figured it out yet. He also will pick up a microphone if its around and sing into it, so we jam together that way sometimes. He seems to have a pretty natural instinct towards music which blows me away and makes me feel more responsibility to give him good sounds to live in.

5. What are some of your favorite distortion sounds in 5 songs?

Not sure I can answer that without digging through tracks and getting too carried away and spending hours trying to find exactly the right songs to express my taste in distortion. Off the top of my head I’ll say My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes was one of the first songs I remember being obsessed with the distortion sound. Spectrum - Hey Man Maybe the first song with distortion is still maybe some of the best sounding distortion to me which is Marty Robbins - Don’t worry Daft Punk - Rollin and Scratchin The really fuzzy buzzy sounds used in the late 60s I like a lot but can’t think of a specific song….

6. Do you have mental images that you associate with your songs? Do these images evolve as you’re working on a song? Do they evolve after it’s finished?

If I have mental images they are like dream images in that they are multi faceted and tend to shift if you look too closely. I mean, the sounds themselves tend to create a mental image, so yes, but not something specifically tangible. One thing that I’ve been noticing is that if I revisit a song the mental impression does tend to be pretty close to how it was when I made it, but maybe with some development, so in a way they evolve, and in a way they don’t.

7. Which Grateful Dead bootleg might get the nay-sayers onto the other side of the fence?

Well, I dunno that I care too much about convincing anyone to like something they don’t feel compelled to like, it seems things work best when we can find our own special places, or at least I tend to prefer it that way. Besides, plenty of folks are pretty well camped out on this side of the fence. But that said, I’ll say I’ve been really into Jerry Garcia Band lately. Current fav: Jerry Garcia Band 11/23/77 so so good. I highly recommend that show. Otherwise, there’s just so much material and different eras, some people swear by ‘77, others '72, I’ve been super into '76 and spend a lot of time in '89 though lots of people think I’m crazy. I’d say the “drums” and “space” in the late 80’s onward is my fav, more weird samples and digital trippy drum sounds. Idk, you could do worse than to check out maybe one of the most classic shows which is 5/25/74 Campus Stadium in Santa Barbara. I’m certainly nowhere in the ballpark of being an expert though. But this person has lots to say: http://www.deadlistening.com/2011/03/1974-may-25-uc-santa-barbara.html

8. Do you have any favorite practices or rituals (using the term loosely) to set a positive tone for the day?

I don’t worry too much about setting a tone for the day, more so I work on accepting and navigating the tones I find present, which in my life tend to oscillate pretty regularly in seeming total disregard to my intentions or will. Ideally this involves having space to follow my intuition. My intuition will tell me what type of pace, activity etc and that usually leads to the most satisfaction. I feel very strongly about having that ability to follow basic intuitive practices at their proper pace and time, which for me is definitely a certain ritual. I want all of my activities to exist within or around this ritual ideally. However, this is not something that is always possible.

9. Geek question: What kind of synths have you been using the last few years?

I dont really have any synths at the moment….. I have a Korg Monotribe which you can hear more in my Ariel stuff than Stag Hare…. other than that some soft synths… Korg Wavestation Korg Polysix Korg Ms-20Korg Legacycell Arturia Minimoog V Station just borrowed an Akai Miniak this last week actually and am having fun with that. Not a lot of knobs but good sounds.

10. Words of wisdom you like to recall in times of need?

How sweet it is to be loved by yo u

Stag Hare is Willow Skye-Biggs, who released the expansive ambient collection, Tapestry, now available from the Inner Islands Bandcamp page.

[jackasspenguins]

Updated list of bands that I have seen live - August 2023

Robert Plant x7

Weezer x5

Flogging Molly x4

Fu Manchu x4

Alanis Morissette x2

Berlin x2

earthlings? x2 (first one included guests Josh Klinghoffer and Chris Goss)

Fenians x2

Garbage x2

Hot Hot Heat x2

Jerry Cantrell x2

Kings of Leon x2

Lifehouse x2

Mojave Lords (including guest Sean Wheeler) x2

Ozomatli x2

Smashing Pumpkins x2

Sean Wheeler x3 (guest appearances with Brant Bjork & Mojave Lords)

Brian Wilson x2

311

A Flock Of Seagulls

The Aggrolites

Alain Johannes

The Aquabats!

Arcade Fire

The B-52s

The Bangles

Travis Barker & DJ AM

Beck

Best Coast

(BIG)PIG

Big Scenic Nowhere

Biz Markie

Brain Vat

Brant Bjork

Blasting Concept

Blind Pilot

Blues Traveler

Bouncing Souls

The Bravery

Jeff Bridges and the Abiders

Cake

Candlebox

Circa 62

Gary Clark Jr.

The Creepy Creeps

Death Machine II

Dishwalla

The English Beat

Fatso Jetson

Fenix TX

Fishbone

FM-84

Foo Fighters

Michael Franti and Spearhead

The Freeks

Gabriella Evaro

Garbage

John Garcia (acoustic w/Ehren Groban)

John Garcia and the Band of Gold

Kyle Gass Band

Current version of The Glenn Miller Orchestra

Goldfinger

Hollywood U2 (cover band)

Israel Vibration

Jet

The Lions

Little Axe

Live

Los Lobos

Madcap

Madness

Madonna

Marcy Playground

Mammoth Thunderpower

Mates of State

Maureen and the Mercury 5

Paul McCartney

The Midnight

Missing Persons

moe.

The New Dubliners

The New Pornographers

Nobody Cares

Oasis

Nick Oliveri (Death Acoustic)

One Man Army

Ozma

Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes

Page & Plant

Petty and the Heartshakers (cover band)

Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

Ra Ra Riot

Red Hot Chili Peppers (caught Chad’s shredded drumstick after Under the Bridge)

The Rentals

The Revolution

The Romantics

Save Ferris

Smash Mouth

Current version of The Sons of the Pioneers

Ringo Starr (2 songs with Paul McCartney)

Steel Pulse

Stinky Pinky

Stöner

Three Dog Night

Thunderpussy

Transers

Tricky

U2

Violent Femmes

M. Ward

Stevie Wonder

Yawning Man

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

ZenToniC

Zwan

-Didn’t see live, but was in the vicinity or interacted-

I was at a record signing for the Pretenders at Licorice Pizza at La Cumbre Mall in Santa Barbara and met the band when I was 10 months old or so. I don’t remember it, but Chrissie said I was going to be a drummer. I guess I was banging on the table.

Should have been at the Where The Streets Have No Name video shoot, but U2 started early thanks to the LAPD and I missed it by an hour. People were still hanging out at the corner in downtown LA when I got there. Eventually got around to seeing U2.

I had an email exchange with Brian Kehew of The Moog Cookbook sometime around 1999.

I camped at the next campsite over from Gyl Bonus, guitar player for The B Foundation. I haven’t seen them live, but I hear it’s a great show.

I had a ticket to see Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes with Fu Manchu in Irvine in 2000, but Jimmy cancelled the tour. Technically, I have seen both bands, so this should not be in this section.

Was invited to the recording of the live section of the “Enemies” EP by Frank Jordan, but I had to work my shift at Kmart. I should have gone.

A friend offered to give me his ticket and could have made it to the last half of a Pearl Jam concert in Irvine, but was too lazy. I should have gone.

Back to Santa Barbara, Bob Marley & the Wailers played a concert and I was in the same city at the same time but I was 3 months old or some shit. I wish I could have gone and been capable of enjoying it.

I was in close proximity to Johnny Halliday and his wife when they arrived at LAX a few years ago. Johnny was known as the “French Elvis”. There was a good amount of paparazzi, so I may be in the background of a picture in a French tabloid.

Met the band Spacetrucker at the Sky Valley sign on their tour which included Stoned and Dusted the next day. They gave me a free copy of their first album and the whole experience was amazing and magical.

Have been the presence of Dandy Brown, Jesika Von Rabbit and Lee Joseph in Palm Springs, and Arthur Seay at the Sky Valley sign.

I am friends with the drummer of Overwhelming Colorfast, of which Weezer once opened for, and who opened for The Ramones.

I am considered family by extremely close family friends of which one was the drummer for Out Vile Jelly and Idaho, and also made some great songs under the name twodoggarage.

[americanahighways]

REVIEW: Painted Mandolin "Sweet Rain"

REVIEW: Painted Mandolin "Sweet Rain" #paintedmandolin #americanahighways #sweetrain #JohnApice #americanamusic

Painted Mandolin – Sweet Rain This Santa Cruz, CA musical debut is according to the PR inspired by the Grateful Dead as a jam grass acoustic band. The LP is being released on what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 81st birthday. The 7 tracks were produced by Joe Craven (Jerry Garcia, Stephane Grappelli, David Grisman, David Lindley & Alison Brown) on Sweet Rain (Drops Aug 1–Blender Logic…

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Davide Cedolin

Davide Cedolin is a Ligurian based artist, mostly focused nowadays on guitar-oriented music, writing and painting. His latest cassette on the Island House label collects seven serene and unruffled meditations, mostly in finger picked acoustic guitar, but augmented sometimes with threads of bowed bass, lap steel and harmonica. In her review, Jennifer Kelly wrote that these compositions “open out into a kind of wide-horizoned dreaminess, an infinity pool of sound that stretches as far as you can see. Here Cedolin lists some guitar music that inspires him. 

I wrote something about albums that somehow “clicked me” because of their great guitar works. Hope you’ll enjoy!

Sonic Youth — A Thousand Leaves (Geffen, 1998)

Maybe I could pick other albums from Sonic Youth, but this is the first one I discovered in real time when I was sixteen, bought on vinyl in a great record store named Distorsioni in Varazze (the town I’ve grown up in) that is closed now. I love this album from them for the natural blend of poppy refrains and very noisy rock elements, the mood, the track list. In my opinion it’s the most textured and rich record from SY, very open and experimental in its own way. And the first of the four times I’ve seen Sonic Youth live, it was in the period of A Thousand Leaves, so I feel very sensitive with this record. One track? “Sunday.” In general, it’s thanks to Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore that I heard for the first time about alternative tunings.

Pelt — Ayahuasca (VHF, 2001)

I took some time to “digest” the depth and the density of this one. It’s the record that introduced to me (in a very funny way, ha ha) to old time music and somehow to a different way to intend acoustic music and so guitar. I’ve also been captured by the contemplative and psychedelic aura of the whole album that later switched me on drone music as well. There’s not that much about Pelt live on YouTube from those years, but I’ve found an intense video that is really immersive. With Jack Rose, who already implemented the sound of the band with a more prominent acoustic guitar work, the transition from an electric-noise-drone skin to a new acoustic-mantra-folk structured one was completed. I’m still impressed about how borders in music are so vague and relative if there’s a real consciousness of what you are doing. And Pelt’s transition is the perfect case of the natural and organic evolution of a sound.

Grateful Dead — Workingman’s Dead (Warner, 1970)

In Europe the Dead didn’t have the same wide cultural echo as in North America. Everyone here knows The Doors, Bob Dylan or Neil Young but not as many people as in the States know the Grateful Dead. I heard of Workingman’s Dead at the end of the nineties but it took until my mid-twenties before I got interested in old records. I fell in love with the warm sound of this album, which actually has one of the most brilliant track lists ever to me. Each song is an amazing hit. There’s great guitar work all over the record from both Weir and Garcia, and it’s easy to understand why the sound of this album (and with the extension on the next, American Beauty,) has been intended to be the Americana sound by several music critics and producers. The way all the traditional country, blues and folk elements melt together is so natural and the way the guitars talk to each other is masterful. Also, I’m a huge fan of Jerry on pedal steel and in this record, there are a few of the best moments in his entire career playing that.

John Fahey — Blind Joe Death (Takoma, 1959)

I had a very nice chat with Jeff Tobias a few days ago inspired by a meme about American Primitive Guitar that at some point was ironically counterposing John Fahey lovers and haters. I totally see there’s this polarization about him, and I kind of get it. I did read How Bluegrass Destroyed My Life, watched interviews, and in my perception, his persona was seemingly contradictory and questionable on several aspects. But the guitar work itself, unquestionably, places him in a very relevant position if we think on what he triggered and how damn good he was. This album is the one I love the most and the one with which I've discovered him. I wouldn't consider Fahey as a direct and conscious influence for me but his taste for melodies and his tricks buzz in my head since the first time I heard them. Particularly “St. Louis Blues.”

Jack Rose — Kensington Blues (VHF, 2005)

Frankly, I didn’t listened to this album immediately. It took a couple of years before I knew of it thanks to a great musician from Genova and close fellow Paolo Tortora. It was some winter evening at his place, and I remember we listened to the entire record in silence, sipping rum. It warmed my intimate part, kind of healed me. And it wasn’t the rum, it was the way Jack Rose was able to convert remote feelings into some wild stream of consciousness, that to me still is, without forgoing the obvious technical skills, the best part of his playing. The way he was heartly connecting with the instrument and how he was truly one with the instrument. In this video of “Cross the North Fork,” you can see what I’m talking about.

Ryley Walker — Primerose Green (Tompkins Square, 2015)

Ryley is a terrific guitar player with a terrific voice. He’s simply perfect; when he plays and sings he has a unique voice. I love the sensitivity of his playing, his anarcho-prog-impro wilderness and his accuracy for harmonies and arrangements. This album is perhaps less eclectic compared to the recent ones but it has some of my prefered tracks from him, including this one.

Elizabeth Cotten — Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar (Folkways Records, 1958)

Same friend, another great suggestion. Paolo introduced me to Libba by sending this video link for “Freight Train,” probably around 2009. I was touched by her uniqueness. She basically built her own grammar to express her own language with such a graceful manner. This album is the first I bought by her on Discogs a few years ago, and its pure magic all over the length. I could spin this record on loop for days without either changing the side, whichever it is.

Hobart Smith — In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes (Smithsonian Folkways, 2005)

I was exploring YouTube videos of Elizabeth Cotten and I came across “Railroad Bill” with Hobart Smith on guitar. There’s an ocean of incredibly talented musicians out there, and the more I go further with this list, the more pop up in my mind. But just a very few can transport somewhere else in just a couple of seconds. His personal and fluid style of fingerpicking immediately caught me. Hobart was a master at banjo, guitar, fiddle and piano. In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes is an album of never-before-released work, taped by Fleming Brown back in the day. It’s a wonderful collection of hidden gems. My son who is eighteen months old already loves this CD.

Steve Gunn — Time Off (Paradise Of Bachelors, 2013)

Steve Gunn in 2013 was a name I’d already heard of, but it’s with this album that I got more deeper into his stuff. I’m a big fan of this period. Acoustic guitars were leading both the emotional and the structured parts of the tracks. His repetitive and hypnotic patterns mesmerized me. I love the “loop feeling” you can perceive sometimes, and I even love it more when you realize that it wasn’t a loop but a block with so many details that change around the main riff which keeps circularly going. There’s a lot of stuff from Gunn on YouTube, and this take of “Trailways Ramble,” from Live at Atlantic Sound Studios, (there are also more videos from this session) kills it. Played with a beautiful twelve string Guild in trio with Justin Tripp on bass and John Truscinski on drums, if you scan your body while listening, you can feel the rise of the theme through the flesh, in a similar way of feeling subtle sensations by the body scan during meditation practices.

Daniel Bachman — The Morning Star” (Three Lobed Recordings, 2018)

I met Daniel for the first time in 2013, so I should even name Jesus I’m A Sinner, the one I knew at first. But The Morning Star is the album that showed me other aspects of his art. This is the first recording from him where guitars slightly shift aside to give more space to the various ambient sounds and other instruments. I love how the guitar is relatively “simpler” even in the patterns somehow. It’s pensive, moody, capable to take your hand and guide you through the album; there’s an interesting sound research that matches also with the “invented” tunings. It’s brilliant how just the tuning of the instrument can influence the whole composition process. And, besides the artist that I admire and love so much, there’s even the man that is completely adorable. It’s nice to know that artists you like are sometimes great living beings as well. This set is completely acoustic. Each time I watch it, I feel as astonished by the wall of sound as the first listen.

Bola Sete — Ocean (Takoma, 1975)

This is the only nylon strings player I’ve mentioned in this list. Bola Sete was a Brazilian guitarist, mostly involved in traditional Bossa nova and samba in the early days. At some point in the 1970s, he met and eventually became friend with John Fahey and moved to the USA. In 1975 Takoma released Ocean, later repressed as Ocean Memories, which is an extraordinary journey through Brazilian folk music and the American Primitive Guitar. This album condenses his virtuoso style and his wild stream of playing at its best, opening worlds of suggestions with its wavy and sensitive flow that colors the album as a canvas.

Yasmin Williams — Urban Driftwood (Spinster, 2021)

This record has been rooting in my listening since it came out. I knew the previous album from Yasmin Williams but with this I got really into her work. There’s a beautiful virtuoso approach that melts into a world of tenderness; a sensitive style of playing that is both technical and emotional, alternating various methods and instruments such as acoustic guitar, harp guitar and kalimba. She’s graceful, making intricate compositions by apparent effortless gestures and moves. This piece is also inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Really looking forward to what will come next. I love this absolutely gorgeous video of “Juvenescence” from the New York Guitar Festival sessions.

Ledward Kaapana and Friends — Waltz Of The Wind (Dancing Cat Records, 1998)

This guy simply blew my mind. I’ve been recently introduced to Ledward Kaapana and Hawaiian slack key guitar by Daniel. He’s been doing his thing since the 1970s at least; he has a very nurtured YouTube channel from where you can also find classes! His style is unique, and he has a terrific feel for the rhythmic parts. He’s got this joyful mood that brightens the melody patterns and generally rubs off on the atmosphere. The song “Radio Hula” is probably his most popular hit and there’s this version of it on his channel that is so cool.

Daniel Bachman — Almanac Behind (Three Lobed Recordings, 2022)

Here I am with the last release from Daniel Bachman, who I already named. This album/film is something that elevates Daniel’s work on another peak. In my opinion, this is the most authentic and touching contemporary political and artistic statement of the last years. There’s an explicit vision of what the climate catastrophe is and how we already crossed the safety guard. This concept resonates in the folds of the sound, sculpting it with new elements such the digital post process (cut-and-pasted slide guitar, pitch drops, glitches), AM and FM radio and a horizontal view of the mix, which knocks you to the couch with ease. There’s something in this album that goes even far beyond music and arts. It’s a hub.

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Old & in the Gray - “Midnight Moonlight” (Live, July 21, 2001)

By the time 2001 rolled around, an Old & in the Way reunion was impossible. So guitarist Peter Rowan, mandolinist David Grisman and fiddler Vassar Clements recruited Herb Pederson (banjo) and Mike Bub (bass) to step in for Jerry Garcia and John Kahn, respectively, and got to work as Old & in the Gray.

Someone captured the reconstituted band performing “Midnight Moonlight” at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival that year. And limitations of the video notwithstanding, the just-surfaced bootlegged footage confirms this was not a wasted effort.

Older and grayer to be sure, the three principals are clearly happy to be back together. There’s a joy in Rowan’s lead vocals and the harmonies shared by all, save Clements, who is all about the playing.

After two verses, everyone - including Bub - solos. And though Rowan bookended the lengthy round-robin, instrumental passage with jazzy runs on his acoustic guitar, Clements was the busiest musician on stage, taking a minutes-long turn in the proverbial spotlight (it was a daytime gig) and sawing for nearly the entire quarter-hour runtime.

Rowan takes the final verse, the band harmonizes on the chorus and the fastest 15 minutes spent on YouTube is over almost as quickly as it began. Until the listener begins it again.

Grade card: Old & in the Gray - “Midnight Moonlight” (Live - 7/21/01) - A+

1/21/25

[tuesdaynightmusicclub]

This one is for Phil Lesh, bassist of The Grateful Dead for 30 years, and torch carrier for his departed brothers Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan, Robert Hunter, and of course, Jerry Garcia.

The Grateful Dead were an odd band, in that their reputation and success lay much less on studio albums or singles, and almost entirely on their live prowess (and merch religiously supported by their Deadhead audience). Typically performing for hours every show, mixing covers and originals into extended, alchemical improvisations, TGD played an estimated 2,300 shows over three decades. The fanbase they built holds to this day, more than another 30 years after the surviving band members ceased playing in that form. TGD have as many bootlegs as they do genuine live albums, both STILL being released. This is with good reason beyond obsession; the improvised nature of their music and set lists meant no two shows were the same, and the nigh-telepathic chemistry the members shared frequently resulted in stellar onstage jams. Many of these have been thankfully captured on disc and kept in circulation one way or another (cheers to Dick's Picks for keeping the fire burning). It's very difficult to think of any other music act with such a symbiotic audience, or one so lasting.

Naturally, my pick today has little to do with that makes The Grateful Dead famous! While not immediately noted for their studio work, TGD did actually nail it a couple of times, with their albums from the early 70s considered the peak of their non-live escapades. These are Workingman's Dead and their crown jewel, American Beauty, which 'Box of Rain' opens.

'Box of Rain' is a pure gem of a song. Written by Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter, the song serves as a farewell to Lesh's dying father, and features a rare lead vocal from the bass player. The track shimmers with bittersweet acoustic radiance and gorgeous production, laying aside their previous psychedelic horseplay in favour of strong songwriting, musicianship and vocal harmonies. American Beauty stands alongside Laurel Canyon's best, and 'Box of Rain' belongs with the folk-rock classics. Eerily enough, this was the last song played live by The Grateful Dead's original incarnation: a final encore in Chicago on the 9th of July, 1995, the last time Jerry Garcia would play with his chosen brothers. Maybe Phil has found Jerry somewhere for another jam session. Fare thee well, lads.

Tuesday Night Music Club No. 46 - 'Box of Rain' by The Grateful Dead

[rgray34]

1987

[shawnkidbaby]

Sunday morning spinning.

[classicrockblog1]

Keith Richard Godchaux (July 19, 1948 – July 23, 1980) was a musician best known for his tenure in the rock group the Grateful Dead.Keith Godchaux was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Concord, California. He met and married Donna Jean Godchaux in 1970; their son Zion, of the band BoomBox, was born in 1974.

The couple introduced themselves to Jerry Garcia at a concert in 1971. At the time, Godchaux had been appearing with Dave Mason (formerly of Traffic). He was also known to Betty Cantor-Jackson, a Grateful Dead sound engineer. His first show with the Dead was October 19, 1971 at the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota, filling in for a hospitalized Ron "Pigpen" McKernan.

After playing an upright piano on the fall 1971 tour, Godchaux primarily played full-size Yamaha & Steinway acoustic grand pianos at concerts from 1972-1974; in mid-1973, he added a Fender Rhodes electric piano that remained in his setup through mid-1977. Following the band's hiatus, he used a baby grand piano in 1976 and early 1977, switching exclusively to the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano in late 1977; the latter instrument's unwieldy tuning contributed to the shelving of the band's recordings of their 1978 engagement at the Giza Plateau. Despite brief flirtations with synthesizers (most notably a Polymoog during the band's spring 1977 tour), his stated recalcitrance against other timbres—compounded with a nascent heroin addiction and violent domestic scuffles with Donna—would ultimately hasten his departure from the band.

During his tenure with the Dead his only written contribution and lead vocal was "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away," from Wake of the Flood. It was only performed live six times, all in 1973.

Initially, Godchaux incorporated a richly melodic, fluid and boogie-woogie-influenced style that complemented the band's improvisational approach to rock music. This same style was replicated in Godchaux's work with the Jerry Garcia Band. Following the group's 1975 hiatus, Godchaux (often impaired from drug abuse) increasingly yielded to a simpler comping-based approach that melodically emulated Garcia's guitar work. Bassist Phil Lesh has retrospectively opined that by 1978, "Keith's playing had degenerated to the point that most of us were simply trying to lose him onstage... never a paragon of self-esteem, Keith's increasing drug & alcohol use had put him in an almost vegetative state. His musical timing was suffering, and he had developed some annoying habits onstage, notably slavish imitation of Jerry's lead lines, a tic that began to irritate Jerry no end."

Frayed from the vicissitudes of the rock and roll lifestyle, according to Donna Jean Godchaux, "Keith and I decided we wanted to get out and start our own group or something else - anything else. So we played that benefit concert at Oakland [2/17/79], and then a few days later there was a meeting at our house and it was brought up whether we should stay in the band anymore...and we mutually decided we'd leave." The Godchauxes were replaced by keyboardist/vocalist Brent Mydland.

Keith and Donna Godchaux issued the mostly self-written Keith and Donna album in 1975 with Jerry Garcia as a member of their band. The album was recorded at their home in Stinson Beach, where they lived in the 1970s. In turn, they performed as part of the Jerry Garcia Band. Subsequently, Godchaux co-wrote songs with Lowell George (of Little Feat) and Robert Hunter.

After Godchaux's departure from the Grateful Dead, he cleaned up and formed The Heart of Gold Band with his wife; the ensemble included a young Steve Kimock on guitar. Godchaux died in an automobile accident in Marin County, California, in July 1980, at the age of 32.