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Pastimes : Deadheads -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JakeStraw who wrote (23810)	10/23/2000 10:47:53 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 49843

Lesh bounces back from transplant with his other friends denverpost.com By G. Brown Denver Post Popular Music Writer Oct. 23, 2000 - What a long, strange trip it's been ... and continues to be. Following iconic guitarist Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, the Grateful Dead disbanded. But Dead alumni - guitarist Bob Weir, drummer Mickey Hart and bassist Phil Lesh with pianist Bruce Hornsby (who toured with the band in later years) - convened to hit the road circa 1997 as the Other Ones. The group, named after an early Dead tune, didn't tour last year - Lesh suffered from hepatitis C and received a liver transplant in December 1998. By the time he had fully recovered, organizers said it was too late to play a road trip. After a two-year absence, the Other Ones revived with a new lineup that includes Weir, Hart, Hornsby and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, another longtime Dead member. But Lesh opted out of this summer's tour. He's had problems with the group's philosophies, including management of the Dead's vast archive of live tapes. As Phil Lesh & Friends, he's been on the road since Garcia's death with various Dead collaborators and members of jam-bands such as the Allman Brothers Band, the String Cheese Incident and Phish, tapping into the huge repertoire of Grateful Dead music in his continuing pursuit of improvisation. The group performs Tuesday and Wednesday at the Fillmore Auditorium. "I have issues with the Grateful Dead on every level. But that's not why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm doing what I'm doing because the music demands it. It wants to happen this way," Lesh, 60, says. Joining Lesh for the Denver shows will be guitarist Jimmy Herring (a member of Col. Bruce Hampton's Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead before replacing Dickey Betts in the Allman Brothers), guitarist Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule), keyboardist Rob Baracco (the Zen Tricksters) and drummer John Molo (Bruce Hornsby & the Range). According to Lesh, his set list has been expanded considerably. "It's truly phenomenal. These guys take it to the limit every which way possible. I never dreamed it could be this profound, this fecund, this fertile. Every tune seems to generate new little baby universes of music. "The concept is to allow the music to be interpreted by various groups of musicians. And each lineup has its own personality. This one, though, is the first one to really leap on this material and open it up. I hate to be too graphic, but I would say that these guys eviscerate these tunes and read the entrails, to find their new meaning. I'm the chief soothsayer, the rune reader, the tea-leaf shaman or whatever! "In nine days we were able to rehearse 63 songs. Even beyond that, we've been adding other stuff - there's about 100 songs that we could do. The set lists are now turning into free association sequences where I'm starting to take all the old Grateful Dead content apart and use each piece as a module in a new sequence. He noted, for example, that the Grateful Dead always played "China Cat Sunflower''/ "I Know You Rider" as a pair. "They're stapled together at the hip. But tonight we're going to do "China Cat" into "Unbroken Chain." This band has prompted me to approach this in a way I've always wanted to, to take each song as something that can connect to anything else within the constraints of key, lyric and rhythmic character." Blue Note jazz artist Greg Osby sat in with Lesh and his band in New York recently. As well as digging deep into the music of the Dead, they tapped into free-form jazz. "Wagner said that music is the art of transition - if you listen to his music, there are very few resting points. This music is a lot like that. I see the whole evening as surfing through this sea of chaos and arriving at these islands of order, which are the songs. "Some currents are stronger than others. For instance, if we have a song that ends in the key of D, and we're gong to go to a song that starts in D, that's what I call a straight run - we just jam out, because we know we don't have to go any place in particular. "But then there's the other end of the spectrum where the keys and rhythms are more distantly related. So we have to go through a series of stages - it's almost like an airlock or decompression coming up from a scuba dive, steps of getting nearer to where we're going to end up in the next song." Lesh has "different writing projects on the burner." "I want to have 50 brand new songs that I can choose from before I even think about making a record. Theodore Sturgeon, the author, said that 99 percent of everything is crap. So, you know ... I'm working on it." And Lesh's health? "I'm in great shape. My doctors are saying my recovery is a textbook example. All my numbers are exemplary, and I feel like I'm 20 years younger. "We were able to raise a quarter of a million dollars for hepatitis C research in March of this year. We're planning to do similar benefits annually. At every show I urge everyone to become an organ donor and to give blood.''

To: JakeStraw who wrote (23810)	10/23/2000 10:56:22 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 49843

Thursday October 19 11:45 PM EDT Persuasions Bring Dead To Life dailynews.yahoo.com By Contributing Editor Richard B. Simon reports SAN FRANCISCO — Veteran a cappella group the Persuasions and Celtic combo Wake the Dead treated fans to an eclectic night of gospel, doo-wop, reels and jigs, all united by one common theme — the songs of the Grateful Dead. The two groups convened at the swank Bimbo's 365 club to celebrate in performance the Oct. 10 release of two collections of Grateful Dead songs — Wake the Dead and Might As Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead. Each group had help from Joe Craven (David Grisman Quintet, Psychograss) on percussion. The Persuasions were visited by all the guest collaborators from Might As Well, including the album's producer, David Gans, San Francisco a cappella quartet Mary Schmary, bluegrass innovator Peter Rowan and ex-Grateful Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick. "This marks the beginning of an era of music that I think is the most important, wonderfullest thing to happen to Grateful Dead music since Jerry [Garcia] died," an ebullient Welnick said after the show, as musicians greeted fans in the club's lobby. "I haven't heard anything that portrays the spirit — not even coming from the Grateful Dead members — that came close to realizing the kindness of Jerry Garcia and the spirit of the Grateful Dead." Gaelic And Soulful Wake the Dead opened, using traditional Celtic folk songs to launch into Dead tunes. The seven-piece band had an earthy acoustic sound reminiscent of the David Grisman Quintet, taking the 1987 Dead hit "Touch of Grey" out into jig territory. Fiddler Kevin Carr bowed traditional melodies, while Cindy Browne plucked standup bass. Frontman Danny Carnahan sang and played octave mandolin. Carr switched to woodwinds, accompanying harpist Maureen Brennan on "Lord Inchiquin," a 300-year-old tune that segued into "Sugaree." The audience took to their feet — and stayed there — as the Persuasions took the stage in tuxedos. The group's lead singer, baritone Jerry Lawson, paced the front of the stage and led the group — Jimmy Hayes (bass), "Sweet Joe" Russell (second tenor), Raymond Sanders (first tenor, soprano) and Jayotis Washington (tenor, baritone) — through an R&B stomp, then into the Oak Ridge Boys' "Elvira." Lawson introduced the four-woman a cappella group Mary Schmary to sing backups on "Might As Well" ( RealAudio excerpt). Russell, Sanders and Washington sang tight, punchy harmonies, dancing in place while Lawson sang lead and Hayes provided the bassline. Schmary Alyn Kelley pursed her lips for a "mouth trumpet" solo. For "Ripple," the group was joined by Eric Thompson (mandolin) and Pete Grant (Dobro), as Lawson urged the crowd to sing along. Between songs, he worked the crowd like a Baptist minister, shouting out lyrics while the other Persuasions answered, "Yeah!" After a medley of '50s doo-wop, on which each Persuasions member took a turn up front, the group sang "Lazy River Road" ( RealAudio excerpt), another latter-day Dead tune. Lawson sang a few verses, then Hayes stepped up to repeat a verse in a deep, deep bass. "I'm not a Deadhead — I came for the Persuasions," Cathy Bargman, 54, of San Francisco, said. "I loved every song. I was the only person that didn't know all the words to the songs, except when they did their medley from 1952. Their interpretation is just — I loved it." In April, the Persuasions released Frankly A Cappella, an album of Frank Zappa songs. At Bimbo's they gave Zappa's ironic spiritual "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" ( RealAudio excerpt) another twist, with a true gospel rendition. Then they introduced Rowan, who added his otherworldly bluegrass yodel to the vocal mix as Gans picked guitar on an entrancing "Sugaree" ( RealAudio excerpt). The group left the stage, leaving Hayes to sing a subdued "Ship of Fools" with Welnick on baby grand piano. Then the Persuasions returned in tie-dyed T-shirts for "It Must Have Been the Roses." Craven and House Jacks "vocal percussionist" Andrew Chaykin joined for "One More Saturday Night" ( RealAudio excerpt) and "Bertha." Spiritual Connections Lawson told the audience that the Persuasions got their name from the Bible, and that, like Jesus, they would have to do a lot of persuading if they were going to sing without a band. An amused Gans looked on as Lawson then related the folktale from which the Grateful Dead got their name and explained the spiritual connection between the two groups. "I do know my name is Jerry," Lawson said, acknowledging his link in name to the late Dead guitarist. "Well — just maybe — somebody is passing the spirit along." Then the entire cast, including Wake the Dead, returned for a powerful take on the traditional "I Bid You Goodnight," a rare Dead concert favorite. Before the show, a 46-year-old fan from Santa Cruz, Calif., who identified himself only as Arrow, said he was concerned that the Persuasions' take on Dead tunes might be "schmaltzy." But when the lights came up, he was converted. "Jerry [Garcia] was in the room tonight," Arrow said. "The Ratdog tour is going to be absolutely phenomenal. It's gonna blow people's minds. They're not even ready for this. It's gonna catch them way off guard." The Persuasions open for Ratdog, ex-Dead guitarist Bob Weir's band, through early December.

To: JakeStraw who wrote (23810)	10/23/2000 10:58:56 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 49843

Monday October 23 1:30 AM ET Weir's Ratdog has familiar bark dailynews.yahoo.com Ratdog (House of Blues; 1,000 capacity; $30) By Phil Gallo HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - What kind of jam, pun intended, has Bob Weir got himself into? His 5-year-old side project, Ratdog, has issued its first studio album, loaded with wonderful tracks, and yet a show coinciding with its release feels remarkably similar to an outing from the ostensible Grateful Dead, the Other Ones. Granted, the first of two packed nights at the House of Blues more greatly reflected the band's debut Grateful Dead Records/Arista album; night two was just another blissful stroll down memory row that could have been better spent establishing Ratdog as a unique and worthwhile animal of a different color. The Other Ones, which was a pure Dead delight a month ago at the Universal Amphitheatre, fulfill their mission by delivering the goods with two guitarists filling in for the late Jerry Garcia; Ratdog, unlike other Dead side projects such as the Garcia Band and Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, plays it too close to the Dead vest to distinguish itself from the parent. Only the intense diehards will really see a difference, the greatest being the distinct dialogue that Weir and second guitarist Mark Karan have developed through the Other Ones shows. In Ratdog, the two rely less on replicating Garcia/Weir interludes and instead lend the instrumental passages a crisper give and take, the sort of jamming that defined the early Allman Brothers Band and Little Feat. For good measure, Weir even proffered some rather impressive slide guitar work. Taken on its own, though, Thursday's show was an impressive night of free-flowing jams, some intriguing excursions into 1970s Miles Davis-flavored electric jams and a bounty of classic Dead tunes. Show began with -- and used as a motif -- ''Bird Song,'' the same number that bookended the Other Ones' Universal show. Deadheads practically drowned out Weir as they sang along on a potent ``Jack Straw,'' ``New Speedway Boogie,'' ``Touch of Grey'' and the time-tested jam of ``China Cat Sunflower'' and ``I Know You Rider.'' Weir limited his Ratdog choices to three, ``Lucky Enough'' being the most impressive. A number of sets this year have included ``Odessa,'' the song that's positioned for radio airplay along with ``Lucky Enough.'' Every now and then, even the Grateful Dead has to make a commercial consideration -- isn't that why ``Touch of Grey'' seems to end every show? A capella veterans the Persuasions opened the evening with a set that included several numbers from their new disc of Grateful Dead covers. The band performs Nov. 18 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York as part of a 21-city tour. Presented inhouse. Band: Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, Jeff Chimenti, Mark Karan, Jay Lane, Dave Ellis. Opened Oct. 18, 2000, closed and reviewed Oct. 19.