Bob Weir

Bob Weir

Robert Hall "Bob" Weir (born October 16, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and his newest band Furthur, co-led by former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.[1]

During his career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang most of the band's rock-n-roll tunes (Jerry Garcia sang The Dead's more melodic tunes). He is known for his unique style of complex voiceleading, bringing unusual depth and a new approach to the role of rhythm guitar expression.

On New Year's Eve, 1963, 16-year-old Weir and another underage friend were wandering the back alleys of Palo Alto, looking for a club that would admit them, when they heard banjo music. They followed the music to its source, Dana Morgan's Music Store. Here, a young Jerry Garcia, oblivious to the date, was waiting for his students to arrive. Weir and Garcia spent the night playing music together and then decided to form a band. The Beatles significantly influenced their musical direction. "The Beatles were why we turned from a jug band into a rock 'n' roll band," said Bob Weir. "What we saw them doing was impossibly attractive. I couldn't think of anything else more worth doing." Originally called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, the band was later renamed The Warlocks and eventually the Grateful Dead.

Weir played rhythm guitar and sang a large portion of the lead vocals through all of the Dead's 30-year career. In the fall of 1968, the Dead played some concerts without Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. These shows, with the band billed as "Mickey and the Hartbeats", were intermixed with full-lineup Grateful Dead concerts. In his biography of Jerry Garcia, Blair Jackson notes, "Garcia and Lesh determined that Weir and Pigpen were not pulling their weight musically in the band . . . Most of the band fights at this time were about Bobby's guitar playing."  Late in the year, the band relented and took Weir and Pigpen back in full time.)

Website:
http://www.rat-dog.com

Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock and for live performances of long musical improvisation. "Their music," writes Lenny Kaye, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead "the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world." They were ranked 57th in the issue The Greatest Artists of all Time by Rolling Stone magazine. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and their Barton Hall Concert at Cornell University (May 8, 1977) was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. The Grateful Dead have sold more than 35 million albums worldwide.

The fans of the Grateful Dead, some of whom followed the band from concert to concert for years, are known as "Deadheads" and are known for their dedication to the band's music. Former members of the Grateful Dead, along with other musicians, toured as The Dead in 2003, 2004 and 2009 after touring as The Other Ones in 1998, 2000 and 2002. There are many contemporary incarnations of the Dead, with the most prominent touring acts being Furthur and Phil Lesh & Friends.

As the band and its sound matured over thirty years of touring, playing, and recording, each member's stylistic contribution became more defined, consistent, and identifiable. Lesh, who was originally a classically-trained trumpet player with an extensive background in music theory, did not tend to play traditional blues-based bass forms, but opted for more melodic, symphonic and complex lines, often sounding like a second lead guitar. Weir, too, was not a traditional rhythm guitarist, but tended to play jazz-influenced, unique inversions at the upper end of the Dead's sound. The two drummers, Mickey Hart and Kreutzmann, developed a unique, complex interplay, balancing Kreutzmann's steady beat with Hart's interest in percussion styles outside the rock tradition. Hart incorporated an 11-count measure to his drumming, bringing a new dimension to the band's sound that became an important part of its emerging style Garcia's lead lines were fluid, supple and spare, owing a great deal of their character to his training in fingerpicking and banjo.
Website
http://www.dead.net

Dylan and the Dead-Relased Album

Dylan and the Dead

Over the years, I held off on purchasing this disc due to the almost uniformly scathing reviews blasting it - some of the most virulent and sarcasti. However, the intriguing pairing of these two classic artists (and I'll admit like other reviews state - the beyond cool album cover) got the better of me and I bought it used as a hedge.

I've taken a listen - what do I think? a) Dylan and The Dead is not the place to start your collection of either artist; b) There are better commercially available live albums of each artist individually; and c) keeping those caveats in perspective, this is a ragged, free-wheeling, and ultimately satisfying performance that I will go back to from time to time, because I seek out this type of music for the feel and inspiration it gives me.

Contrary to what I have read, Dylan's vocals are acceptable, and they are intriguing for what he chooses to include and leave out given the generally accepted crossroads he was at in his career. The Dead's sound is unmistakable, and provides an interesting filter to standard and not so standard selections within Dylan's substantial song catalog.

Finally, I find this unique album (it will never happen again with all the same key players present) every bit as listenable as any of the countless live Dave Matthews/Phish/String Cheese Incident/You Name It albums out there that I have heard bits and pieces of but would never be motivated to purchase based on their meandering sound and lack of songcraft.

All and all, a worthy album that you will be surprised by if you are a fan of either artist, given the amount of negative reviews associated with it.

Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead. Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the group.

One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson). He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.

Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions, and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.

Garcia served as lead guitarist, as well as one of the principal vocalists and songwriters of the Grateful Dead for their entire career. Garcia composed such songs as "Dark Star", "Franklin's Tower", and "Scarlet Begonias", among many others. Robert Hunter, an ardent collaborator with the band, wrote the lyrics to all but a few of Garcia's songs.

Garcia was well-noted for his "soulful extended guitar improvisations", which would frequently feature interplay between him and his fellow band members. His fame, as well as the band's, arguably rested on their ability to never play a song the same way twice. Often, Garcia would take cues from rhythm guitarist Bob Weir on when to solo, remarking that "there are some  kinds of ideas that would really throw me if I had to create a harmonic bridge between all the things going on rhythmically with two drums and Phil [Lesh's] innovative bass playing. Weir's ability to solve that sort of problem is extraordinary. [...] Harmonically, I take a lot of my solo cues from Bob."

When asked to describe his approach to soloing, Garcia commented: "It keeps on changing. I still basically revolve around the melody and the way it’s broken up into phrases as I perceive them. With most solos, I tend to play something that phrases the way the melody does; my phrases may be more dense or have different value, but they’ll occur in the same places in the song. "

Garcia and the band toured almost constantly from their formation in 1965 until Garcia's death in 1995, a stint which gave credit to the name "endless tour". Periodically, there were breaks due to exhaustion or health problems, often due to unstable health and/or Garcia's drug use. During their three decade span, the Grateful Dead played 2,314 shows.

Dave Torbert

Dave Torbert

Dave Torbert (June 7, 1948 – December 7, 1982) was a Bay Area musician, best known for his associations with the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He played bass for the latter group, replacing Phil Lesh during the sessions for their first album.   He also played on "Box of Rain", a song from American Beauty, and on "Greatest Story Ever Told" from Bob Weir's solo album Ace. Additionally, he was a founding member, with Matthew Kelly, of the band Kingfish. Torbert died of a heart attack in 1982.

Discography

    Horses – Horses (1969)
    American Beauty – Grateful Dead (1970)
    New Riders of the Purple Sage – New Riders of the Purple Sage (1971)
    Powerglide – New Riders of the Purple Sage (1972)
    Ace – Bob Weir (1972)
    Gypsy Cowboy – New Riders of the Purple Sage (1972)
    The Adventures of Panama Red – New Riders of the Purple Sage (1973)
    Home, Home on the Road – New Riders of the Purple Sage (1974)
    Kingfish – Kingfish (1976)
    Live 'n' Kickin' – Kingfish (1977)
    Trident – Kingfish (1978)
    Kingfish – Kingfish (1985)
    Vintage NRPS – New Riders of the Purple Sage (1986)
    Kingfish in Concert: King Biscuit Flower Hour – Kingfish (1996)
    Worcester, MA, 4/4/73 – New Riders of the Purple Sage (2003)
    Boston Music Hall, 12/5/72 – New Riders of the Purple Sage (2003)
    Veneta, Oregon, 8/27/72 – New Riders of the Purple Sage (2004)
    S.U.N.Y., Stonybrook, NY, 3/17/73 – New Riders of the Purple Sage (2007)

Marmaduke Dawson

John Marmaduke Dawson

John Collins Dawson IV, nicknamed "Marmaduke" (June 16, 1945 – July 21, 2009), was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was best known as the leader and co-founder

John Dawson was born in Detroit, Michigan. The son of a Los Altos Hills, California filmmaker, he took guitar lessons from Mimi Fariña, Joan Baez's sister, before attending the Millbrook School near Millbrook, New York. While at Millbrook, he took courses in music theory & history and sang in the glee club.

After stints at Foothill College and Occidental College, Dawson's musical career began in the mid-1960s folk music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. There he met fellow guitarist David Nelson, and was part of the rotating lineup of Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a jug band that included Jerry Garcia and several other future members of the Grateful Dead.[1] Dawson was also heavily influenced by the Bakersfield sound genre of country music.

By 1969, Dawson had written a number of country rock songs, and Garcia had become interested in playing pedal steel guitar. Joined by Nelson, they formed the New Riders of the Purple Sage.[2] The New Riders became the opening act for the Grateful Dead, and their original lineup included three Grateful Dead members — Garcia on pedal steel, Phil Lesh on bass, and Mickey Hart on drums. Within a year, Dave Torbert replaced Lesh and Spencer Dryden replaced Hart in the New Riders lineup, with Garcia continuing to play in both bands. In 1970 and 1971, the New Riders and the Grateful Dead performed many concerts together.[3][4] In November 1971, Buddy Cage replaced Jerry Garcia as the New Riders' pedal steel player, allowing NRPS to tour independently of the Dead.[5]

During this same period, Dawson appeared as a guest musician on three Grateful Dead albums — Aoxomoxoa, Workingman's Dead, and American Beauty.[6] With Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, he co-wrote the song "Friend of the Devil".[7]

In the years that followed, Dawson and Nelson led a gradually evolving lineup of musicians in the New Riders of the Purple Sage, playing their psychedelic influenced brand of country rock and releasing a number of studio and live albums. In 1982, David Nelson and Buddy Cage left the band. John Dawson and the New Riders carried on without them, taking on more of a bluegrass influence with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Rusty Gauthier to the group. NRPS continued to tour intermittently and released the occasional album. Then, in 1997, Dawson retired from the music business, moved to Mexico, and became an English teacher, and the New Riders disbanded.

In 2005, David Nelson and Buddy Cage revived the New Riders of the Purple Sage, without Dawson's participation but with his agreement and moral support. Subsequently Dawson made several guest appearances at New Riders concerts.[8]

Dawson died in Mexico of stomach cancer on July 21, 2009.

John "Marmaduke" Dawson had original tunes in his pocket and a guitar in his hands in 1969 when a buddy just learning to play pedal steel guitar often joined his weekly gig at the Underground, a San Francisco Bay Area hofbrau house.

The friend was Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, and those sessions set the stage for the New Riders of the Purple Sage, a group they considered "the original psychedelic cowboy band."

Mr. Dawson, 64, died Tuesday of stomach cancer in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, said Buddy Cage, who has played pedal steel guitar with the group since Mr. Garcia left in 1971. Mr. Garcia died in 1995.

The New Riders initially gave Mr. Garcia and two other members of the Grateful Dead -- Mickey Hart on drums and Phil Lesh on bass guitar -- a way to further indulge their taste for country music. But Mr. Dawson's songwriting skills quickly helped the offshoot band develop an independent country-rock identity.

Rob Bleetstein, archivist for the New Riders, wrote in an e-mail, "Dawson's songwriting brought an incredible vision of classic Americana to light with songs like 'Glendale Train' and 'Last Lonely Eagle.' "

With that material and such other "wonderful" Dawson songs as "Garden of Eden" and "Henry," the band "simply had to become a reality," Dennis McNally, a Grateful Dead publicist, said last week on Relix magazine's Web site.

They toured with the Grateful Dead, as the psychedelic rock band's opening act from 1969 to 1971, then became successful touring on their own, Mr. Bleetstein said.

In 1974, the New Riders played a free concert for an estimated 50,000 fans in New York City's Central Park.

According to the "Encyclopedia of Popular Music" (1998), their first, self-titled release "blended country rock with hippie idealism, yet emerged as a worthy companion to the parent act's lauded 'American Beauty.' "

Dylan and the Dead

Dylan and the Dead

Dylan and The Dead is not the place to start your collection of either artist; b) There are better commercially available live albums of each artist individually; and c) keeping those caveats in perspective, this is a ragged, free-wheeling, and ultimately satisfying performance that I will go back to from time to time, because I seek out this type of music for the feel and inspiration it gives me.

Contrary to what I have read, Dylan's vocals are acceptable, and they are intriguing for what he chooses to include and leave out given the generally accepted crossroads he was at in his career. The Dead's sound is unmistakable, and provides an interesting filter to standard and not so standard selections within Dylan's substantial song catalog.

Finally, I find this unique album (it will never happen again with all the same key players present) every bit as listenable as any of the countless live Dave Matthews/Phish/String Cheese Incident/You Name It albums out there that I have heard bits and pieces of but would never be motivated to purchase based on their meandering sound and lack of songcraft.

All and all, a worthy album that you will be surprised by if you are a fan of either artist, given the amount of negative reviews associated with it. Yes it's brief, but no stoned out 60's re-work, here; by and large, well planned, rehearsed, and executed. The set has several things going for it. First, the eclectic selection is an interesting cross section of BD's compositions; second, the musicianship is solid intelligently arranged play to the strengths of both BD and the GD; third, sound quality is very good and well balanced across all the artists. As both a long standing collector of high quality, masterpiece, BD and GD material, I was way too skeptical of the overriding negative reviews; very glad I thought for myself. Vintage, but with style. Uncork and enjoy!!

Grateful Dead- American Beauty

American Beauty

There's no fillers here, as the band's collaboration with songwriter Robert Hunter yields another great collection, a selection of blues-tinged country compositions. Its easy to see why the versatile Jerry Garcia is held in such high esteem, his contribution here (as usual) is superb, an example being his acoustic guitar playing on "Friend of The Devil" which is a delight, but I'm certainly not overlooking the great contribution from the rest of the band.
Its sometimes said that the band's vocals lack power, and that may be so, but personally I don't want to be blown out of my chair with powerhouse vocals when listening to these songs. I find the vocals here to be sensitive and emotional, and blend perfectly with the often beautiful and tender music/lyrics.

My fave tracks are "Box of Rain" - the personal pain behind Phil Lesh's aching vocals add extra emotion and poignancy to this classic opening track. Then "Friend of The Devil". Also, the truly beautiful "Ripple" with it's moving lyrics and vocals. The catchy "Truckin" is an uplifting foot-tapper. A great album from a uniquely special band, an album that still sounds fresh over forty years after it's release.

Grateful Dead- Workingmans Dead

WorkingMans Dead

Any ill-informed Dead Head who bought this upon its release in June 1970, expecting more of the acid-drenched blues and psychedelia of such recent predecessors as Anthem Of The Sun and Aoxomoxoa, must have had a considerable shock when they dropped the needle into the groove, and track one, Uncle John's Band, began to play.

The hallmark guitar was augmented by mellifluous pedal steel and banjo, and in the place of all the weirdness and experimentation came beautifully-recorded, clean sounding, almost traditional, timeless songs, song after song with three-part harmonies and tunes you almost felt you knew already. The Dead had gone back to their roots, the music they grew up with, and their lyricist, Robert Hunter, had risen to the challenge with songs about miners and engineers that belonged within a rich musical tradition, largely forgotten, that was being re-invented by artists like the Band and Ry Cooder. When they entered the studios behind the Fillmore for two weeks in February 1970 they had been coached in harmony by Crosby, Stills and Nash, knew all the songs they were to record and even the order they were to appear on the album, and were completely focused on their mission. This, and its equally inspired sequel American Beauty, expel the myth that the Grateful Dead were a live band whose studio work was of secondary importance, and can stand up proudly against any other record.

This 79-minute edition, re-mastered in HDCD, doubles the length of the original album with live material and one alternative take. The live recordings, mostly from 1970, are all songs from the album plus one song that had been intended to close side two but was eventually not used (Mason's Children), and show how the Dead were both able to integrate the new material into their set and to play it so convincingly well. The earliest recording here is Dire Wolf, from Santa Rosa CA in June 1969, showing they were previewing their new direction alongside their existing set a full eight months before they entered the studios

Grateful Dead - Dicks Picks Vol. 25

Dick's Picks Vol. 25

I chose to review this particular Grateful Dead dicks picks series because, there is a lot of pedal steel guitar and they do a lot of there more country flavored songs.

The first set of the Grateful Dead's May 10 concert at New Haven is great throughout. A powerful "Jack Straw" sets the stage for a perfect beginning to a great evening. The less than five-minute version of "Cassidy" proves that a Grateful Dead song doesn't have to be ten minutes or longer to jam. The set closer of "Let it Grow" > "Deal" is what Dead Heads hunger for.

The second set of Dick's Picks Volume 25 from May 10, 1978, is the best of the four sets by far. The first songs two songs of the set end the first disc, "Bertha" > "Good Lovin'" a splendid opening indeed. However, the highlight of the set is a spring flowing "Estimated Prophet" > "Eyes of the World."

Discs 3 and 4 include most of the Grateful Dead's May 11, 1978, performance in Springfield, MA. Some highpoints of the first set include "Loser" where Garcia not on wails on his guitar, but after the instrumental he wails on the vocals with a growl, a la Tony the Tiger; a warm up for their encore. Even better is the "Friend of the Devil," that has a great instrumental that starts out slow and builds to a powerful peak. The set closer, "Lazy Lightning" > "Supplication" is another gem seeping with rhythm, melody, and power.

The second begins on the first disc with a good "Scarlet" > "Fire on the Mountain." The last disc has good versions of all the songs, but no real definitive ones. "Dancing in the Streets" hits some interesting rhythmic patterns, but they got carried away with the ending vocals dialogue that goes on too long. The "Stella Blue" is stellar with great dynamics and an outstanding closing instrumental. The "Werewolves of London" is a fun selection, featuring some cool vocal interchange between Jerry and Donna, and Weir seems to be enjoying his opportunity to play slide guitar.

Overall, Dick's Picks volume 25 has lots to offer featuring nearly two complete concerts from May 1978. It does feature alot of pedal steel guitar. Volume 15 is better