June 26, 2006

Gans at the Happy Dog in Cleveland 6/29

060629davgans.jpg

An Evening with DAVID GANS

Thursday, June 29, 2006
9:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.

The Happy Dog
5801 Detroit Ave., Cleveland OH
216-651-9474

No cover charge!

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June 25, 2006

Gans on tour this summer

Hello, friends - happy SUMMER!!

I’m in the middle of an online interview at www.well.com/inkwell - talking with Gary Burnett and other interlocutors about my adventures in the music bizniz, the mysteries of creativity, and various other subjects. You can contribute to the dialogue by sending email to inkwell@well.com

There are some samples of my new recording work at www.dgans.com/private-tunes.html . The new CD will be called Cloud Surfing; I had hoped to have it ready in time for Grateful Fest, but these things take time, and it’s better not to rush. I have been working with two brilliant sound designers - Jeremy Goody and Jim LeBrecht - and I’m just delighted with the work we’ve been doing.

This month has been a tough one on a personal and professional level. My dear friend Tina Loney, who was the “best man” at my wedding and was my close friend and most trusted counselor for twenty years, lost her long battle with lung cancer on June 8. You’ll find a picture of her and a few words at gdhour.com/logblog/?p=126

And before we lost Tina, on June 2, Vince Welnick took his own life. Vince was a member of The Tubes for 20 years and the Grateful Dead for five; in the decade following the end of the Dead, I had many opportunities to play music with him, each of which was a great pleasure and a learning experience to boot. I also worked with Vince on Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead, which I co-produced with Jerry Lawson. Vince and Jerry hit it off during those sessions and remained friends from then on. You’ll find a lot of music, and numerous tributes to Vince’s soulful nature and musical brilliance, all over this site.

I stayed home for most of the month of May in order to spend time with Tina, and I experienced a great burst of creative energy that I’m sure was fallout from the powerful emotions surrounding her passing and Vince’s. The music I play this summer will reflect the energy that came through our lives through these experiences.

—

Here’s what I know about the summer as of now:

—

More dates will be added for July, August, and September. Stay tuned.

More information, web links, etc., at www.dgans.com/gigs.html

Posted by gans at 9:47 AM | TrackBack

June 22, 2006

DG's musical adventures: this weekend and beyond

Hello, friends - happy SUMMER!!

I’ve got three Bay Area gigs this weekend, and I hit the road next week for my first festival of the season.

The in-between gigs are still being confirmed; please see http://www.dgans.com/gigs.html for the latest.

I’m in the middle of an online interview at www.well.com/inkwell - talking with Gary Burnett and other interlocutors about my adventures in the music bizniz, the mysteries of creativity, and various other subjects. You can contribute to the dialogue by sending email to inkwell@well.com

There are some samples of my new recording work at www.dgans.com/private-tunes.html . The new CD will be called Cloud Surfing; I had hoped to have it ready in time for Grateful Fest, but these things take time, and it’s better not to rush. I have been working with two brilliant sound designers - Jeremy Goody and Jim LeBrecht - and I’m just delighted with the work we’ve been doing.

This month has been a tough one on a personal and professional level. My dear friend Tina Loney, who was the “best man” at my wedding and was my close friend and most trusted counselor for twenty years, lost her long battle with lung cancer on June 8. You’ll find a picture of her and a few words at gdhour.com/logblog/?p=126

And before we lost Tina, on June 2, Vince Welnick took his own life. Vince was a member of The Tubes for 20 years and the Grateful Dead for five; in the decade following the end of the Dead, I had many opportunities to play music with him, each of which was a great pleasure and a learning experience to boot. I also worked with Vince on Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead, which I co-produced with Jerry Lawson. Vince and Jerry hit it off during those sessions and remained friends from then on. You’ll find a lot of music, and numerous tributes to Vince’s soulful nature and musical brilliance, on the logblog

I stayed home for most of the month of May in order to spend time with Tina, and I experienced a great burst of creative energy that I’m sure was fallout from the powerful emotions surrounding her passing and Vince’s. The music I play this summer will reflect the energy that came through our lives through these experiences.

—

Here’s what I know about the summer as of now:

—

More dates will be added for July, August, and September. Stay tuned.

More information, web links, etc., at www.dgans.com/gigs.html

Posted by gans at 9:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 17, 2006

Cheap-shotting Paul McCartney

I really need to have someone explain to me the San Francisco Chronicle’s reason for publishing Aidin Vaziri’s piece on Paul McCartney’s “When I’m 64” as Macca turns 64 himself. From where I sit, at age 52, it struck me as content-free, a poinltess attack on an obsolete coltural icon. Offending geezers is fine if you’re giving value to younger folks, but I’m hard pressed to see what anyone younger would get from this steaming heap.

Will we still need him, will we still feed him after tomorrow? That’s when Sir Paul McCartney fulfills the destiny of the worst song — “When I’m 64” — from the Beatles’ best album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
8. George Harrison died of throat cancer at 58.

Deep, ain’t it?

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May 14, 2006

Blue Roses?

I wrote the song “Blue Roses” in 1974. The goddamn Grateful Dead (i.e. Kelley and Mouse) created a Blue Rose poster for their 12/31/7 Winterland show.

Now, courtesy of Bob Delaney, I have news of an actual blue rose.

But: it looks pretty damn PURPLE to me.

Posted by gans at 10:26 AM | TrackBack

Rubber Souldiers 5/13 - audio

Unedited MP3s of the Rubber Souldiers set at the Larkspur Cafe Theater Saturday, May 13. You’ll also find links to two particular highlights: “Baby’s in Black” and “Girl-> Things We Said Today.”

The set list: Across the Universe * Nowhere Man * Baby’s in Black * If I Fell * I Should Have Known Better * Girl->Things We Said Today * You’re Gonna Lose That Girl * I’ll Be Back * No Reply * Dr. Robert * The Word

Lorin Rowan, guitar and vocals; Chris Rowan, guitar and vocals; David Gans, guitar and vocals; David Phillips, pedal steel guitar; Josh Kaye, piano; Joshua Zucker, bass; Jimmy Sanchez, drums

Our debut performance, and we had a blast! I opened with a solo set and brought Josh, Josh, David and Jimmy on for the last few songs. Rubber Souldiers played after the break, and the Rowan Brothers closed the show.

Also posted, from last night’s show at the Larkspur Theater Cafe: Shove in the Right Direction, from my opening set.

Rubber Souldiers will be back soon, and there’s another band about to form, too: Honky Tonk Hippies!

Posted by gans at 3:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 13, 2006

New loop work

Recorded yesterday: a new studio performance of “Quarter to Five.”

I recently bought some new gear, and now I am able to run two independent loops. My first application of this facility is to create what I call “lenticular clouds”: using an overdrive to create a rich, sustained tone, and a volume pedal, and working in a loop of arbitrary duration, I create multiple layers of notes that fade in and out, overlapping at random times and in random combinations of harmonious and dissonant intervals.

Having created a cloud layer, I switched to the other looper and started a piece called “Quarter to Five” and developed two or three distinct sections, using different guitar tones and effects.

I recorded the entire mess into the Microtrack and then loaded it into the Sonic Solutions digital editing system, where I was able to edit out the boring/sloppy/distorted parts and then build the final composition by crossfading between the two main sections of “Quarter to Five” (one simpler, with more discernable “acoustic” guitar and the other fuller, with several layers of legato guitar melody). I also made multiple copies of the cloud bed and arranged them on four tracks, out of sync, creating new areas of dissonance and complexity.

Now I’m trying to decide if I’m going to schlep all this gear over to the Larkspur Cafe for tonight’s show - which has to do with whether I feel I’m ready to use it in public after only one day of rehearsal at home.

Here’s an example of the “lenticular clouds” form, recorded earlier in yesterday’s session.

And here’s another piece, created yesterday using the same double-loop setup: Looking Into the Next World

Posted by gans at 10:44 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 11, 2006

Rubber Souldiers to perform May 13 in Larkspur CA

The last two days have been blissful because of Rubber Souldiers rehearsals with Chris and Lorin Rowan! Yesterday it was just the three of us, finalizing the set list and working out the vocals, and today we rehearsed with the full band. We’ll have David Phillips on pedal steel, Josh Kaye on keyboards, Josh Zucker on bass, and Jimmy Sanchez on drums.

Saturday, May 13, 8:30pm at the Larkspur Cafe Theater, 500 Magnolia Avenue, Larkspur CA. 415-924-6107

I’ll open the show, and then it’ll be Rubber Souldiers, and the Rowan Brothers will close with a set of their own wonderful music.


Rubber Souldiers photo by Barry Toranto.

Posted by gans at 4:53 PM | TrackBack

May 3, 2006

DG appears on Grateful Fest compilation

Bob Matthews’ ArSeaEm Recording has released a 4-CD set recorded Augut 19, 2005 the first day of Grateful Fest 6 at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in northeastern Ohio. gratefulfest6.jpg I’m featured on Disc 1, sitting in w/ Cornmeal on “Catfish John” and “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad” and playing “Dawn’s Early Light-> For Everyman” and “That’s Real Love” solo. The other three discs are Dark Star Orchestra re-creating 8/6/74 with special guest Donna Jean Godchaux MacKay.

Mixed by Bob and Betty, a production team that looms large in Grateful Dead legend.

This year’s event, Grateful Fest 7, takes place June 30-July 4, with DSO, Cornmeal, my badself, Hot Tuna, NRPS, Keller Williams, Rusted Root, and lots more.

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April 29, 2006

Rubber Souldiers to perform May 13 in Larkspur CA


Rubber Souldiers, originally uploaded by dgans.

That’s me on the left, Lorin Rowan in the middle, and Chris Rowan on the right.

On May 13th, we’re all going to perform at the Larkspur Cafe Theater in Larkspur, California. I’ll open, the Rowans will close, and in between we’re going to play as Rubber Souldiers, performing a set of Beatle favorites. Showtime is 8:30.

We’re sharing a band - David Phillips on pedal steel, Josh Kaye on keyboards, Josh Zucker on bass, and Jimmy Sanchez on drums.

Photo by Barry Toranto.

Posted by gans at 7:37 AM | TrackBack

April 28, 2006

andDave covers DGans!

andDave covers two of my songs in soundfiles posted on his web site!

Visit his Listening Lab page and you’ll hear “Shut Up and Listen” and “Down to Eugene.”

Thanks, Dave!

Posted by gans at 8:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 26, 2006

Vote for me, please!

My name is on a poll at jambands.com, asking the question

“Which of these artists do you believe most consistently fails to receive the critical praise it warrants?”

I’d appreciate it if you’d click on me! Here’s a link tothe poll.

As of this moment, I am at the TOP of the poll. That won’t last, of course, but it’s fun to be king for a moment.

Posted by gans at 1:07 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 11, 2006

New loop piece: "Up Late"

I’m off the road for a few weeks, and one of my tasks - along with learning how to use Dreamweaver so I can get my web pages out of the plain-text doldrums - is to get my home recording setup working once and for all. I’ve had a Pro Tools rig for a while but only recently started learning how to use it, and I have some new performance gear that I am integrating into a road case, as well as some other signal processors that I’m hauling out of the closet for use in the home studio.

Last night I got it all hooked up and started playing around, and came up with a loop jam that I recorded and then edited into something somewhat presentable that I call “Up Late.” It’s about ten minutes long.

Posted by gans at 4:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 5, 2006

Jammin' in Jamaica (2)

More from Jamm in Jamaica:

eKoostik Hookah had a personnel shakeup recently, with Ed McGee departing and founding member John Mullins returning. The Hookah fans at Jamm in Jamaica were very happy with the music they heard, and so was I. Here’s Steve Sweeney:

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When they launched into “Cumberland Blues,” I jumped onstage to sing along, and then they invited me to stick around for another song (using Vince Herman’s acoustic guitar); Mullins and I sang “Wooden Ships.”

Friday, March 31, was the full-day festival with all the acts. I opened that day with Andy Goessling of Railroad Earth playing soprano sax. Andy plays a zillion instruments in RRE - Dobro, banjo, guitar, mandolin, soprano/alto/tenor sax, flute, etc. When we play together, I always want him to play soprano; I know lots of mandolinists and guitarists, but I don’t get many opportunities to play string-band music with a woodwind guy, and he’s so good at it. He stayed with me for my entire set.

My wife, Rita Hurault, took this picture of Andy and me onstage in Negril:
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jambands.com has a short item about the festivities today.

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April 4, 2006

Jammin' in Jamaica (1)

DG-DTB.3511-500.jpg (photo by Rita Hurault)

The music business is a great way to not make a living, but what adventures!

Just got back from Jamm in Jamaica, a week in Negril with several of my favorites: Donna the Buffalo, Railroad Earth, Hot Buttered Rum, the new/revived edition of eKoostik Hookah, The Big Wu, Matt Butler’s Everyone Orchestra, and Vince Herman. This wasn’t a frenetic festival with multiple stages - there were several sets each day, with every act having days off in between performances until the final day, when we all performed in one long and splendid show. Each band brought fans from their region and elsewhere, so we all got to hang out on the beach with old and new friends, and we all got to play for each other’s audiences. There was plenty of time for hanging out and jamming, too.

I had the pleasure of sitting in with Donna the Buffalo (see photo above), Railroad Earth, Hot Buttered Rum, and Hookah, and in my sets I was joined by members of all those bands as well. And I played in the Everyone Orchestra, too - a highlight was singing “That’s the way uh-huh uh-huh I like it” with Jeb Puryear of DTB.

And when Tara Nevins of DTB had a problem with her acoustic guitar, I happily lent her mine: tara-renaissance-500.gif

More photos on my flickr page: Blue Sunset, Tim Carbone Plays the Drums, and more to come.

Big thanks to Jeff Spencer and his partners for inviting me to this excellent event, and I hope we get to do it again next year!

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March 16, 2006

Michael Peter Smith

The following is distilled from several WELL posts by my friend and musical buddy Rik Elswit (and posted here with his permission, of course). It concerns a house concert by Michael Smith that we both attended on February 26:

Listened to Michael Smith, a wonderful veteran singer-songwriter from Chicago, at a house party yesterday. The party was a gift to our friend Drew from [his partner Jen], and a bunch of us chipped in in secret to get Smith, Drew’s favorite singer-songwriter, for it - but it wound up being a gift to us all. It was an absolutely superb afternoon of music and story, and it was a pleasure watching a man who has spent his life mastering his craft.

I’ve known of the guy by word of mouth for over 30 years, but this was the first time I’d actually heard him, and I was just floored by the quality of his songs and his low-key, deceptively simple, delivery. The songs are rich, complex, melodic, and dripping with great lines, with an incredibly diverse set of references. You have to bring some awareness and a college education to the party to catch them all. In fact, I felt flattered that he assumed I’d done the required reading. He has a novelist’s ear for character and nuance, and all of it is backed up by a very subtle, simple-sounding, but actually quite complex guitar style rooted in swing, blues, and urban folk.

Mike Smith, like his pals John Prine and the late Steve Goodman, comes from a school of early-’70s singer-songwriter craft that was a huge influence on me. One of its most important features is the ability go go from hilarious to poignant to stunningly sweet all in the space of three songs. Not a speck of cereal in that show.

It’s rare to be as captivated as I was by that performance. But I shouldn’t be surprised: Mike Smith, Steve Goodman, John Prine et al. pretty much established the paradigm of singer-songwriterdom for me when I was a pup in he early ’70s, although Smith did so indirectly via Goodman (who recorded “The Dutchman” and “Spoon River,” and played other Smith songs in concert). But I hear a lot of Goodman in his sound and manner, which is to say there was a lot of Smith in Steve, too.

Noting that Smith used nothing but the standard guitar tuning in the performance we saw, Rik added: “I learned a lot watching him. He had this great way of moving up the neck using open E, A, and D strings as pedal tones to hold it together. I do this a lot in E and A. He taught me how to do it in G, using A and D as pedal tones when he’d be playing V chord (D) forms up the neck on the high strings.

I bought both of the CDs Smith had for sale, and I guess Rik did, too:

The more you listen to it, the more you hear. At first I was lulled by the apparent simplicity and it took me a bit of time to hear the musical, lyrical, and rhythmic complexity and the stylistic variety. My current fave (they change with the time of day) is “The Ballad of Elizabeth Dark” which sounds to me like what you’d get if Springsteen went to college in the late ’50s-early ’50s. And my language maven wife just loves his wordplay.

Listening to that album after having seen the show underlines, for me, the level of craft involved. Michael Smith has a well-honed act based on a character he’s invented and inhabited, also named Michael Smith. It’s like watching Leo Kottke. The first time I saw him I just enjoyed the show. But after having seen him several times I could see the structure of what he was doing and I developed a new appreciation of just how much work was involved in crafting the artifice. And I liked him even more.

It’s nice, getting a present for somebody else’s birthday.

The two CDs I bought have some overlapping content, but both are entirely worthwhile. I guess if you’re only going to get one, I’d start with Live at Dark-Thirty. But Such Things Are Finely Done is well worth the money, too.

Here’s a sample of the lyrics of “Zippy” (which is on both CDs):

Sun zips up sun zips down
Zippy little clouds zipping over Zippytown
Palm pilots pagers beepers
Faxes and such
Folks in Zippytown are down with
Keeping in touch
Barreling in their SUVs passing on the right
Zipping through the zippy day
Zipping through the night
Zippety-zip they get the jobs and money
Zip they have the kids
Zip they in the coffin
Folks is zipping up the lids
And speaking of lids man

Life gets pretty zippy
When you quit doing weed

Posted by gans at 10:44 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

March 15, 2006

More musical adventures!

Last week was really great fun, all of it. Started with the Waybacks recording session at KPFA (to be broadcast April 19 on KPFA), then continued through the Hotel Utah gig w/ Henry Kaiser et al., and then two nights at the Freight w/ the Waybacks. And just to put a cherry on top, on my drive home from the Freight Saturday night I finally solved a problem I’ve been cogitating on for months: a couple of lines in “Shove” have been bothering me, and I sorta knew what I wanted to do but hadn’t come up with the right replacement til now.

Original:

So many things I’m glad to know
Are contained within those pages
All our bonds are self-imposed
It’s the wisdom of the ages

Changed to:

So many things I’m glad to know
Are contained within that text
If you deal with what you’ve been through
You can deal with what comes next

My opening sets at the Freight were ludicrously short: the house manager told me I could have 15 minutes - 18 tops. So I did three songs on the first night, and managed to squeeze four in on the second. I also sat in with the Waybacks - “That’s Real Love” (Stevie Coyle loves this song!) on Friday, “Jackaroe” on Saturday. Got a great reaction to my solo sets and my sit-ins, sold more than $100 worth of CDs, got two pages of new names for the mailing list.

The Utah sets were underrehearsed, but everyone had a fine time anyway. And all these players - Josh Zucker (bass), Josh Kaye (keys), and David Phillips (pedal steel) - are interested in playing more gigs together. I’m hoping to keep Adam Perry in the loop on drums, but he’s committed to The Love X Nowhere and may not be able to make the time. I love Adam’s playing, but I’m starting to like the idea of having a band that plays around here regularly and that might entail having a drummer who isn’t so tightly bound to another project (and let’s assume things are going to get busier and better for Adam’s main squeeze). He’s my first-call drummer until he says otherwise.

There’s a new club in Oakland called The Uptown. Dan McGonagle is working there, and he wants me to play. Might do another night with Henry there in April.

I’ve also confirmed May 13 at the Larkspur Theatre Cafe, with the Rowan Brothers. We’ll share a band - Josh, Josh, and David, plus Jimmy Sanchez on drums - and we’ll all be together in the middle for a Rubber Souldiers set of Beatle songs. We’re going to make a big deal out of this, pushing for coverage in the Chron etc., so I hope some of you will come out and help make it a success.

Last night I went to Kathi’s All-Star Jam at the El Rio in San Francisco. David Phillips is in the band, Train Wreck. The rest of the band are not people I’ve heard before, but they hold it together pretty well behind a parade of mostly amateur musicians. Ben Fong-Torres was there, singing two parody songs he wrote for the occasion (I gather he does new ones every month). I followed Ben, and I took maximum advantage of the band and my own skills by choosing the very familiar “Willin’” and “Pancho and Lefty” - both of which I have made my own over the years. I got a lot of good feedback after my performance, and I wound up singing harmony and playing acoustic guitar behind several other players, too. Kathi has a great posse of regulars, and she runs a very welcoming jam.

Also of note this week: I, along with Angie Coiro and her producer Lisa Lindelef, took a Pro Tools lesson from Gregg McVicar on Monday. Thus inspired, I finally got my Pro Tools system updated and configured, and I started playing with it in my studio. I’ve recently rearranged things in the house so I can rehearse, compose and record in the office, and now I need to do some more rearranging so I can connect the Pro Tools rig, the guitar rack, and the studio monitors and all the outboard gear I’ve got in the closet.

Posted by gans at 10:20 AM | TrackBack

March 8, 2006

Many musical adventures

Interesting times! Monday night I rehearsed at Henry Kaiser’s house for our show at the Hotel Utah Thursday. Also in the band is David Phillips, a terrific pedal steel player with whom I have wanted to work for years and years. I ran into David a couple of weeks ago at a benefit - he was in Lorin Rowan’s band, and I sat in and we had a fine time. We both agreed we want to work together, so I invited him to join us at this Hotel Utah gig. (Also with us will be drummer Jeff Blair, keyboardist Josh Kaye, and bassist Josh Zucker. Drummer Adam Perry had to withdraw due to a commitment with his main gig, The Love X Nowhere.)

Yesterday I confirmed a show with Lorin and Chris Rowan - adding them to a date I had already reserved at the Larkspur Cafe Theatre: May 13. We’ll do our “Rubber Souldiers” Beatle set in between my set and the Rowan Brothers’ set, and we’re going to share a band that includes Phillips, Josh Zucker on bass, and possibly Jimmy Sanchez on drums. This is exciting!

Yesterday I participated in a recording session in Novato with Ned Lagin and the great guitarist Terry Haggerty! Ned is a keyboardist who hasn’t played in public in 30 years - he was a computer music geek at MIT in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and he made very adventurous record called Seastones with Phil Lesh (and played electronic music with Phil between GD sets) in the mid-’70s. He’s been developing some new works and also reworking Seastones for a while now, and I am very happy to see him moving forward with all of this.

The session with Ned and Terry was great fun. We just plugged in and played for about three hours. Turns out Ned was imposing some structure, but I just went with the flow - and apparently I passed the audition.

The two of them have been getting together once a week for the last six weeks or so, and bringing me in was the next step in the evolution of what Ned expects will be a live performing ensemble. We’ll do this again soon, and Ned wants to move it to a recording studio and bring in a rhythm section.

After Terry went home, Ned and I played some more.

I was very happy with my playing in this free-form context, both with and without the loops. This was a great circumstance in which to use loops w/ other players - both Ned and Terry were very good at locking in w/ the loop, and I was in turn wise about when to drop the loop and let the live musicians evolve the jam.

AND I have an idea for future solo loop performances that I am very excited about: using both the old Loop Station and the new Echoplex! The Echoplex can be programmed to have multiple loops, and to automatically go into RECORD when you stop on the “next loop” button and the next loop is empty. I’ve done some experiments at home with this - I can cycle through two or three sections and add new material to each jam at will. That’s one great new capability - but what I can do with the other, separate loop device is something I have done in live situations a couple of times before (includng that thrilling jam out of “Psycho Killer” a couple of Invitationals ago) is make a loop that is not synchronized - record some swelling, sustained overdrive sounds for an arbitrary period, then add more swelling notes to create a sort of cloud of sustained sounds w/ shifting harmonic content. In a solo show, I start with that and then begin a more conventional loop jam in the Echoplex.

The trick w/ that will be getting out of the cloud loop. To do it properly will require a mixer, and tapping into my signal path in a couple of places. That way, I can fade the cloud jam out manually while the other loop continues.

Also this week: I am opening for The Waybacks at the Freight and Salvage Friday and Saturday nights. (Tonight we’re recording a Waybacks set at KPFA for broadcast in April, when their new CD comes out.)

Posted by gans at 10:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 3, 2006

The Invitational w/ Henry Kaiser 3/9/06

invitational.060309.jpg

Henry Kaiser, guitar
Jeff Blair, drums
David Gans, guitar and vocals
Josh Kaye, keyboards
Joshua Zucker, bass
Adam Perry, drums

Thursday, March 9, 9:00 pm
The Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 Fourth Street, San Francisco
415-546-6300

Posted by gans at 9:12 AM | TrackBack

February 23, 2006

DG to play Grand Lake Farmers' Market 2/25

fmkt-feb06.400.jpg

Posted by gans at 2:51 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 21, 2006

More photos from the southwest

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I’m safe at home after a delightful two week tour/vacation in my favorite part of the universe. I attended the Southwest Popular Culture Association meeting with a gang of Deadhead academics; gave performances in venues ranging from a beautiful adobe house to a rowdy bar; and spent four days at the Grand Canyon with my wife, Rita.

Thursday, February 16, was an eventful day in many ways: Rita and I hiked 4.6 miles down the Bright Angel Trail to Indian Gardens, and then of course we had to hike back up. An hour or so after completing that 7-hour adventure, I was onstage in the bar at the Bright Angel Lodge, singing for an audience of tourists, cowboys, and Xanterra employees. Along the way my digital camera and my iPod stopped working (I’m assuming this was related to the near-freezing temperatures, but I’m surprised and annoyed by both problems) and I thought I lost my cell phone. I was afraid to even utter the words “powerbook,” “laptop,” or “computer,” lest that essential device also go bye-bye. But the phone turned up in the back of the Subaru that night, and the computer continues to function perfectly.

The Forester started making a rubbing noise on the drive home Sunday. I just learned that the bearings on both rear wheels need replacement. Sigh.

Here are some photos (by Rita and by me) from our Grand Canyon sojourn. There are more images from this trip and other visits to the region in the “southwest” gallery on my flickr page.

Extra special thanks to Rosie McGee for making our Grand Canyon visit such a pleasure.

Posted by gans at 1:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 6, 2006

Mystic Hot Springs

mystic-tubs.gif

I’m performing tonight at Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe, Utah. These bathtubs are on a ledge above the old resort, with hot water running through them and a grand view of the Sevier Valley. Monroe is a few miles north of where I-70 meets I-15. Well worth a stop for a soak if you’re passing through the area, and they have campsites, too.

I’ll be playing on the indoor stage tonight, and Mike and his crew will do a three-camera video shoot. In the summer, they have concerts on the outdoor stage.

Here’s a picture of my wife, Rita, in another of the hillside tubs.

Posted by gans at 4:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 2, 2006

Jamm in Jamaica update

Jamm in Jamaica News for January 2006

The artists: Donna the Buffalo, Vince Herman, Railroad Earth, Under Full Sail, David Gans, Everyone Orchestra conducted by Matt Butler, The Big Wu, Hot Buttered Rum String Band

Brrr!!! It’s freezing where we are and we can’t wait to get down to the tropics in LESS THAN TWO MONTHS! Current conditions in Negril: 85 degrees and sunny :)

A few updates…

Travel Documents

You do NOT need a passport to travel to Jamaica yet, but it does make going through immigration a little faster. If you do not have a passport you DO need a government issued photo ID (a driver’s license), and your birth certificate. The birth certificate can be a copy but it must be a copy issued by the state or town or county you were born in. It cannot be a Xerox copy, a hospital souvenir certificate, it must be government issued. You can not board the plane without these items. (Need a copy of your birth certificate? See vitalchek.com

If you are traveling on our air/hotel/shows/transfers package, you will also need to fill out a Tour Particpant Form. That’s available at http://www.jamminjamaica.com/forms/TourParticipant_Jamm.pdf or at Sunsplash’s site.

Single Band Laminates

The lineup for Jamm In Jamaica 2006 was designed to have something for just about everybody. We have had a large number of people sign up for this great trip through our package deals, and quite a few people purchased all access festival laminates as well. There have been a growing number of emails regarding questions about single band only laminates. Given that all of the bands on this trip would love to see as many people as they can at all of their shows, we initially decided not to provide single band laminates.

However, Jamm in Jamaica recognizes that for many people, this will be their first opportunity to visit this magical island and might want to use some of their time there to do some exploring and other activities in addition to seeing great music. We also realize that some people are bringing their families along, and scheduling a babysitter or nanny for 20 shows is a lot to ask, and so would need to pick and choose the shows they go to. All laminates are non transferable. A photo ID will be absolutely necessary to attend all events.

Single band laminates will be available for Donna The Buffalo, Railroad Earth, and Under Full Sail. Each laminate will be different, and the single band laminates will be good only for the band represented on the laminate and the end of the week festival.

The price of the single band laminate is $225.00 which can be paid by cashier’s check or money order, or by using our credit card service. We suggest you simply send a U.S. Post Office money order because the service charge for the credit card is a bit pricey.

Paying by Credit Card

We didn’t offer credit card laminate sales earlier because the service charge is so high, but with all of the emails about it, we decided to let the consumer decide what he or she wants to do. To order your laminate(s) by credit card head to: http://jamminjamaica.baselineticketing.com

All concert laminates will be distributed in Negril, we’ll let you know when and where. You will need to bring your photo ID to pick up your laminate.

Remember our air/hotel/transfers/shows package includes an all-access laminate and is still the best price out there!

If you purchased an all-access laminate and want to exchange it for a single band laminate, contact info@proactivemgt.com

Visit www.jamminjamaica.com for photos, prices and purchase of all show packages. See you in Jamaica!!!

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January 28, 2006

Marquees from the January tour


Marquees, originally uploaded by dgans.

On the road with Ralph Roddenbery and Mark van Allen.

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January 24, 2006

End of the tour

mva-dg-rr.gif

Mark Van Allen, David Gans and Ralph Roddenbery at the end of our first tour together. We’re gonna do it again in April - stay tuned!

Photo by Alex Beaudry

UPDATE: Robert Reid has a slide show from the Charleston SC gig.

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January 22, 2006

An end and a beginning

I just got to Mark Van Allen’s house outside Atlanta after a 500+-mile drive from Clearwater FL. Just finished a two-weekend tour with Mark and our pal Ralph Roddenbery, and on the way home we decided to do it again in April.

More details, and recordings, to come. Right now alI have is this blog entry w/ photos from macon.com, courtesy of John Griffin.

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January 17, 2006

Snapshot from the road

After our show in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, we headed down to Spartanburg to spend the night in the home of my friend Maclyn Humphrey. There we were introduced to her pet llama, Osama.

DG and the llama

And that’s not even the weirdest thing that’s happened on this tour!

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December 29, 2005

I'm an Earworm!

Matthew Price in Albuquerque linked to my “Earworms of the Year” post, and then posted his own list of earworms - which included my song “Who Will Save Us from the Saved?”!

You can hear the song in its entirety on the tunes page.

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December 26, 2005

Gans, Craven, RRE, et al. at MagFest '05

This just in from Jim Roe:

Hi All,

I have finally had some time to get the audio of the show finished and uploaded to the Archive. The recording came out pretty good. This is a great set with tons of talent- just look at the friends! Enjoy and Have a great New Year!

DVD to be done soon if all goes as planned!

www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=32089

Band/Artist: David Gans and Friends
Date: October 21st, 2005
Venue: Magfest, Music Hall
Location: Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Live Oak FL

Source: Audience Recording
Lineage: AT822>Sony DCR-HC85>Premiere Pro 1.5>SoundForge 8.0>dBPowerAMP

1. Going Down the Road Feeling Bad
2. Wild Horses
3. Sound Check Groove
4. Bubbles in My Beer
5. Catfish John
6. Midnight Moonlight
7. Mr Tambourine Man
8. Sultans of Swing

Featuring:
David Gans - Guitar Lead Vocals
Tim Carbone- Violin (Railroad Earth)
Joe Craven- Fiddle (DGQ, Joe Craven Trio)
Alan Dalton- Banjo
Andy Goessling- Soprano Sax (Railroad Earth)
Johnny Grubb- Stand-up Bass (Railroad Earth)
Josh Skehan- Mandolin (Railroad Earth)
Arvid Smith- Dobro, guitar (Tammerlin)
Annie Wenz- Percussion

Not for Sale

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December 25, 2005

Earworms of the Year

A random listing of some songs I couldn’t get out of my head this year:

Chinito Chinito from Ry Cooder’s amazing CD Chavez Ravine.

Deal - Buddy Miller live at MagnoliaFest Midwest in Bean Blossom, Indiana, July 2005. Not on any CD that I know of, but I’ve scored a fine live recording of the Hunter-Garcia classic for the January 28 KPFA marathon.

Willie Taylor from Uncle Earl’s CD She Waits for Night.

This Land Is Your Land - Jim Page’s updated version from the Spirit of Guthrie tour (w/ Vince Herman and Rob Wasserman), documented on the CD In the Trees. I don’t think the CD is available in stores (yet?), but you can get it by contacting Jim Page directly.

That’s Gonna Leave a Mark - Ralph Roddenbery Band, Let it In. I’ve shared a stage with Ralph a few times in recent years, and I like what he does more every time. We’re doing a few dates together in January, which I’m really looking forward to.

Waiting for Jaden - from ALO’s most recent CD, Fly Between Falls

Rocking Horse - Donna the Buffalo, Life’s a Ride. DTB is just about my favorite band these days: great groove, great vibe at the shows, a spiritually positive (and decidedly non-hippie-dippy) message, and - most important of all - two great songwriters, Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear. Jeb has an utterly unique and (to me) irresistible style; he’s one of those songwriters who creates a universe of his own right next to ours and sends these messages back to Earth for the good of us all. What I want from a band - jamband or otherwise - is music that speaks to the head, the heart, the soul, the gonads, and the butt. DTB does that. When I’m in the audience at a Donna the Buffalo show, there is no place else I’d rather be.

Warhead Boogie by Railroad Earth. I heard ‘em do it live a couple of times and found out it was an old song of Todd Sheaffer’s (from the From Good Homes days?). I was pleased to learn that it will be on their new live double CD, Elko, that’s coming out in January.

The Road - Russell Smith, from The End Is Not in Sight. I was a big fan of The Amazing Rhythm Aces back in the day, and I was thrilled to be on a bill with them at the Master Musicians Festival in Somerset, Kentucky last July. Russell Smith hasn’t lost anything off his wicked curveball over the years - he’s still one of the best songwriters out there.

Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan, of course. I interviewed Greil Marcus about his book Like a Rolling stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads. Greil’s take on things is always interesting, and I think he’s absolutely right that this particular song kicked a door open for all of us and changed the world for the better.

Just about anything by George Harrison. I got the Concert for George DVD a while back and was in tears just reading the booklet; the concert itself was profound, not just for the beauty of the music but for the power of the love for George expressed by each individual and by the magic they made onstage. Then in the fall, The Concert for Bangla Desh came out on DVD, and it was all George All the Time for another couple of weeks. I saw the film in the theater when it came out, and owned a low-fi VHS of it for a many years, but seeing it restored and hearing it w/ good sound, and watching the bonus material on the DVD (most notably a rehearsal of “If Not for You” w/ Bob Dylan and George, and recollections by the participants that were recorded recently for the DVD) was an awesome experience.

Grateful Dead, Live at the Fillmore 1969. Ten-CD set of a four-night run from the GD era that gave us Live Dead. The groupmind at one of its early peaks. Lovingly and brilliantly remixed by Jeffrey Norman, the boxed set was offered as a limited edition and the fools at GD grossly underestimated demand. But there’s a three-disc compilation from Rhino that you can get, and it’s well worth it. Coupled with the remastered Live Dead, you can get a good taste of what the Grateful Dead were all about before they started back in the country-folk direction w/ Workingman’s Dead. (Jeffrey Norman posted on DeadNet Central that he prefers the original Bob matthews mix of the 2/27/69 Dark Star: “…for the best mix of DS 2-27, go listen to your Live/Dead. It sounds great… I’m not being modest here. It has a certain smoothness and flow that I couldn’t recreate.”)

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December 24, 2005

DG at the Kodiak 9/22 on archive.org

This recording has just been made available for download or streaming in various formats on archive.org. It’s one of my favorite solo shows of the year - well worth checking out.

David Gans
Thursday, September 22, 2005
The Kodiak, Rutherfordton NC

Opening jam-> Return of the Grievous Angel, Lazy River Road, Falling Star, Jam-> Jackaroe, Our Lady of the Well-> When I Paint My Masterpiece, Like a Dog-> Terrapin-> San Rafael Swell-> Watching the Detectives-> Ship of Fools-> In Another World-> Kodiak jam

Surely You Jest, Pancho and Lefty-> P&L jam, Shove in the Right Direction, Who Will Save Us from the Saved?, Elvis Imitators, Sin City-> Dear Mr Fantasy-> Blue Roses-> Brokedown Palace, Loser, Down to Eugene, Rubin and Cherise-> The Minstrel

Sugaree

It was my first time at this venue, just a couple of miles from Spindale (where WNCW is based). There was a misunderstanding about the sound system, but the owner of the club got on the phone and the next thing I knew, speakers and amplifiers and cables were coming in from all over.

Smallish audience, but they really got into it and as a result, so did I.

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December 16, 2005

The Invitational 12/15/05

David Gans & Friends
Thursday, December 15, 2005
The Invitational at the Hotel Utah, San Francisco

Personnel: DG & Chris Rowan, guitar and vocals; Josh Zucker, bass and vocals; Josh Kaye, keyboards; Adam Perry, drums.

Surprise guests: Tony Perez, sax (all of main set); James Nash (the Waybacks), mandolin (Yellow Submarine to end of main set)

P&L Jam (without Chris)
I Should Have Known Better
I’ll Be Back->
Things We Said Today
She Loves You
Here, There, and Everywhere
No Reply
In My Life
Yellow Submarine
A Hard Day’s Night
Travelin’ Man
Jackaroe
Mr Tambourine Man
Far Away
Shove in the Right Direction
~
Psycho Killer->
Jam (DG, Josh, Josh, and Adam)

Chris Rowan and I have bonded over Beatle songs, and that repertoire was the centerpiece of this show. But this band that fell together almost by accident turned out to be a formidable improvisational ensemble.

I’ve been working with bassist Josh Zucker for several months, after I heard him backing the Rowan Brothers at Sweetwater earlier this year. Adam was the drummer on the Guilty Pleasures tour last May. I’ve known him online for a few years but had never heard him play; he delivered the goods handsomely with G.P., and he demonstrated his big ears and sensitive touch last night. Josh Z. brought Josh K. to the September 29 Invitational (also with Chris Rowan), and he fit right in with no rehearsal at all. And this time, Josh Z. invited his friend Tony Perez to play sax with us. I thought we’d have him in for some of the rockin’ stuff and a jam, but it felt so good with him on the opening jam that I asked him to stay for the rest of the set.

This was a good night for me as a guitarist. I’ve been growing steadily more competent and confident over the last few years, but this year I’ve taken it to the next leval as solo player and as an ensemble player.

The loop is hard to use in ensemble situtations, because music played by multiple humans is elastic in both micro and macro ways. (At the last Invitational, I did a couple of loop jams with Kurt Ribak on bass; we had a little trouble locking in because the sound on stage wasn’t very well-adjusted, but once we got that figured out we did pretty well playing with the machine.)

The opening jam began with me alone, using a theme I have developed coming out of “Pancho and Lefty” over the last couple of years (hence the title “P&L Jam”). The other players drifted onstage and joined the party one by one, each locking in w/ the loop. Once we had it going on, I turned the loop off and we continued playing live.

I used the loop in a whole new way in the post-Psycho Killer jam last night: I got a fat overdrive sound and used the volume pedal to create extended, swelling tones, and looped a more or less random period of that work; then with the loop playing back, I overdubbed more upswelling notes, some overlapping and some more or less in sync, some in harmony and some in close dissonance. All the while the live musicians were jamming along in the groove we had made together. After a while I bent over and faded the loop out while the band continued, and I rejoined them on live guitar for the rest of the jam.

Adam posted a comment in the WELL this morning: “Josh Zucker had never even heard ‘Psycho Killer” before, so the actual song was pretty much a delightful mess, but the jam (probably 20 minutes of weirdness) was something I seriously need to hear again. Truly spacey but only boring for maybe two minutes of the twenty.” It was a joy to play with Adam again. I want to get that quartet together again ASAP - Josh, Josh, Adam, and me - and get James Nash in, too, if he’s available.

A friend of Bob Cogswell (Todd - I don’t know his last name) came with a PZM and made a recording from the balcony. The sound system at the Utah isn’t so great, but the recording will give us the gist of it. I’ll get it mastered after my busy weekend of gigs.

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December 14, 2005

Bob Dylan: XM Satellite Radio DJ

XM Satellite Radio carries my radio show, the Grateful Dead Hour on “Deep Tracks” Channel 40.

Today I read that they’ve signed up a new DJ: Bob Dylan! His show debuts in March.

Worst radio voice ever, quite possibly, but I predict he’ll have a kick-ass playlist.

So what if Sirius has Howard Stern? I’m thrilled to be on the same channel as Bob!

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December 12, 2005

Bay Area gigs December 15-18

invitational-12-15-05-400.jpg

Coming events: I’m on tour in the Bay Area this weekend, and the ticket prices are way affordable (i.e. $0) at three of these gigs!

Thursday, December 15, 9:00 pm: The Invitational, with David Gans, Chris Rowan, Joshua Zucker, Josh Kaye, and Adam Perry. Hotel Utah, 500 Fourth Street (at Bryant), San Francisco. $7. 415-546-6300. Chris’ big brother Peter has promised to drop in, too!

Friday, December 16, 7:30-9:30pm: DG, Mario DeSio, and Jeff Pehrson at the Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. (at 65th St.), Oakland CA. Free, but you have to buy something!

Saturday, December 17, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm: Grand Lake Farmers’ Market, at Lake Park and Grand Avenues (across from the Grand Lake Theater) in Oakland. Free!

Sunday, December 18, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm: Marin Farmers’ Market, at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael CA. Free!

My performance schedule is always up to date at dgans.com/gigs.html

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December 8, 2005

Greil Marcus-Jon Carroll interview (1997)

When Greil Marcus’ book Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes (later reissued as The Old, Weird America) came out in 1997, I invited the author to appear on Dead to the World to talk and play records. Our mutual friend, San Francisco columnist Jon Carroll, got his advance copy and emailed me just to say he thought the book was wonderful. The light bulb went off over my head and I asked Jon if he would like to interview Greil for DTTW. Both men liked the idea, and the resulting conversation - recorded on May 3, 1997 in my living room and broadcast on KPFA on May 7 - was magnificent. The musical examples are terrific, too.

Prompted by a conversation in the WELL, I ripped the interview and posted it. You can download the 22 segments (totaling an hour and 56 minutes) here.

(If someone can teach me how to set it up so the files will stream in order, please email me and I’ll make it so.)

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November 13, 2005

"Less-than-perfect voices..."

My friend and colleague Steve Silberman - we hang out together in The Well, a seminal online community that still chugs along in a plain-text meeting of the minds, sheltered from the roar of the broadband universe - just posted the first piece of journalism he ever published. It was a review of the Jefferson Airplane reunion in Golden Gate Park, published October 15, 1989 in the San Francisco Chronicle.

This statement jumped out at me. It describes one aspect of the special magic that animated the San Francisco Sound, and as Steve went on to say in his piece, it also characterizes other cultural movements we've witnessed and/or joined in the intervening years.

It wasn't only what they were saying, but how they sounded, their soaring alloy of less-than-perfect voices a metaphor for a community that welcomed anyone courageous enough to want to be part of it.

Jerry Garcia, Paul Kantner and others have talked about this: the '60s San Francisco ballroom scene was a neighborhood phenomenon, and the bands were playing for their peers. It was a DIY movement, the same sort of thing we later saw w/ punk, hiphop, etc.

Here's what Kantner told Steve Silberman in a September 2005 interview that I broadcast on KPFA:

We weren’t spokesmen for a generation; we were just reflecting the people who came to the Fillmore. Often in the Fillmore in those days the audience was much more interesting, I always say, than the people on stage. And the reason I went to the Fillmore was because of the people in the audience. Now and again there would be some really good shit on stage too, and that was a plus.

That neighbhood became world-famous, and the bands went on the road to spread their message of love and brotherhood and a sustainable way of life (Phil Lesh talks about this in his surprisingly excellent autobiography, Searching for the Sound). And the ballrooms brought in musicians from other worlds to enrich the local scene. Kantner again:

B.B. King had a great elevating moment – he cried when he went on stage at the Fillmore because people were so respectful of the beauty that he produced.... The great fact here is that the naïve San Mateo white children found that they could be moved. And coming out of the ‘50s…it was not a very moving decade, and people were very tight-assed. And if you got moved, there must be something wrong with you. So for us to come into the ‘60s - God bless the ‘60s - and to be moved by such things as B.B. King and any number of other players who came there and showed us things that we did not have a clue about, Bill Graham, and Chet Helms as well, have to be lauded for bringing this kind of shit to the basic populace.

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October 8, 2005

Richard Thompson in Portland 10/7/05

I've been a fan of Richard Thompson for years, but never saw him live until last night at the Aladdin Theater in Portland.

A bit of good luck got us in the door ahead of most of the crowd, so we had seats about three rows back. It was just Richard w/ Danny Thompson on bass. Before the show I stepped up to see what pedals he was using. one was a Line 6 delay modeler, and since I stupidly failed to write down what I saw I've already forgotten the name of second effects box. The third item appeared to be a tube preamp.

For some songs, he had a lovely warbling effect, thicker than a Leslie speaker. But for the most part, it was just pure guitar, played with awesome power, subtlety, and expression. And of course, I can say exactly the same for his singing and the songwriting. The set included "Vincent Black Lightning" and "When the Spell Is Broken"; I would like to have heard "Keep Your Distance," but that song wouldn't have been as spectacular in this setting as all the stuff he did play, so I am in no way disappointed by its absence.

I'm in the cult now, folks.

The opener was Griffin House, from Cincinnati. Not terribly impressive at first, but during the third song he kicked into gear and showed what he could do. Nothing particularly thrilling in the guitar department, but he had some fine songs and sang them very well. I bought both his CDs.

P.S. Henry Kaiser directed this adorable video for "Let It Blow" (from the new CD Front Parlour Ballads), which was also performed at the show.

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September 2, 2005

Radio Memeworks' "artist of the month": David Gans

From Robert Tacker:

To celebrate David's fine new release, Solo Electric, Radio Memeworks has made David our September artist of the month. We have all of David's commercial releases, lots of live material both solo and with various friends and some Guilty Pleasures, and they will be in heavy rotation all month long.

If you have broadband/DSL or a better connection to the net, join us as we celebrate a fine American, a great guitar player, one of my favorite tunesmiths and the sharer of all that fine Dead related material these twenty years now.

Robert Tacker


Listen to Radio Memeworks

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August 31, 2005

GLIDE Magazine article about DG

Very nice piece about me by Chad Berndtson in the online magazine Glide. It's titled "David Gans: Dialed In." Two excerpts from a long piece:

It’s safe to say that David Gans knows his Grateful Dead: the radio show he hosts, the beloved "Grateful Dead Hour" - still broadcasted on KPFA 94.1 in Berkeley, California and syndicated nationwide - is twenty years old in 2005.

But what makes Gans especially compelling, even after twenty years charting the thrilling and oft-murky waters of this unique music, is that the show itself is but the tip of the iceberg in his own music-oriented career. Gans acknowledged in a recent interview the ongoing importance and prestige of the Grateful Dead Hour, but made clear that it will, in the end, be only part of his multifarious legacy --a superb musician in his own right, making music will always be his first and truest love, even if he’s lost none for the music of the Dead, which still continues to excite him.

Another excerpt...

Through everything, the format of the "Grateful Dead Hour" hasn't much changed. The wonders of digital technology and the internet have made it easier than ever to access Dead material (archive.org hosts more than 2500 freely downloadable shows, for example), but don’t seem to affect the future or mission of the show itself.

"I’ve never programmed the show for the hardcore collectors," Gans says. "That the music is so widely available is a great thing, and I feel like I’m hear to add something. I'm a scholar and a historian of this music, and the choices I make and the value that I add in producing this show is of zero interest to lots of people, but it's of sufficient interest to sufficient numbers of people."

One thing Gans has always consciously avoided is the notion that his position in Grateful Dead history - however unique relative to the fan side of things - at all makes him some sort of exalted, end-all-be-all Grateful Dead expert or number one fan.

"One of the things I’ve known for as long as I’ve been doing these shows is that there are a lot of people who could do it. It drives me fucking batty when I read headlines of magazine articles and stuff where they proclaim me, like, the premier Deadhead," he says. "Obviously, I know what I’m talking about and bring something to the gig that the 'average' Deadhead might not have, but by no stretch of the imagination do I see myself as the premier Deadhead."

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August 28, 2005

Photos from August festivals


Herbie and Bobby, originally uploaded by dgans.

I played the Gathering of the Vibes in Mariaville NY August 12-14, and GratefulFest at Nelson Ledges OH August 19-21.

I posted some photos on flickr.

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August 26, 2005

A gift from the coffee lady

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I got the sweetest note from Jen, the proprietor of the Dark Star Coffee Company - one of my favorite vendors at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, where I played two festivals this summer:

I grew up on folk music & feel that I learned more American history from music than school. When I listen to your lyrics, I feel like a kid again. You are the folk singer of the Deadheads. You tell stories and keep it alive for our children. Thank you story teller. - Jen 'The Coffee Girl'

Now, I struggle daily to establish a musical identity for myself that's separate from my identity as the Grateful Dead radio guy, but it is an undeniable fact that much of my original music arises from and talks about my Grateful Dead experience and my music-festival experience. There are songs that deal directly with my adventures on the road (e.g. "River and Drown"); there are songs that deal directly with the Deadhead experience (e.g. "Who Killed Uncle John?"); and there are songs that deal obliquely with my experiences in the belly of the beast (I'm not telling). Jen's kind note is a very satyisfying acknowledgement of my success at telling that story.

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August 9, 2005

DG interview @ jambands.com

Nice interview by Randy Ray on jambands.com

From the intro:

After the demise of Garcia in August 1995 and the subsequent collapse of the Grateful Dead, I continued to listen to Gans on a weekly basis but I became more interested in Gans himself, instead of his program. Ironically, it would be this ten-year period&emdash;from 1995 to 2005&emdash;that would see the artist become much more than a radio personality. I finally decided to ask him for some discussion time after almost 20 years of listening to his voice, reading his books, groovin' to the albums he worked on as a producer and his own amazing recordings with lyrics that aren't afraid to dig deep into an issue to reveal raw truth. To my delight, Gans did not hesitate. He asked if we were going to cover Dead activities post-1995 or his career and I quickly replied: "Yours."

An exchange from the interview:

RR: You have grown as a musician as you have branched out in the last ten years. What are your studio and live highlights as a songwriter, musician and producer?

DG: Co-producing Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead with Persuasions leader Jerry Lawson was a most precious and life-changing experience. Being present, and being able to assist, while they learned those songs and made them into Persuasions songs, taught me a great deal about how music is made, and shed new light on a group of songs that have been dear to my heart for years.

As for my own performances, I have had more high times than I can enumerate. I've been writing songs and performing, solo and in bands, for more than thirty years; since I started touring in 1997 I've been on stages and in living rooms (and back yards), in front of audiences ranging in size from the low one digit to upwards of five thousand, alone and