{"id":20447,"date":"2024-04-23T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=20447"},"modified":"2024-04-22T18:13:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T17:13:55","slug":"grateful-dead-influencing-the-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2024\/04\/23\/grateful-dead-influencing-the-living\/","title":{"rendered":"GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Norman Warwick learns from Paste mail-in:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember the sound of his laugh and the mixture of smoke and whatever aftershave,\u201d says Sam Grisman, recalling Jerry Garcia in his living room. \u201cHe was the only one my parents would let smoke cigarettes in our house.\u201d The Sam Grisman Project, a band inaugurated in 2022\u2014with Sam on upright bass\u2014revives the music of Garcia and venerable bluegrass player David Grisman, or \u201cDawg,\u201d Sam\u2019s father. Snug acoustic tracks on the likes of Jerry Garcia\/David Grisman<\/em> and The Pizza Tapes<\/em> were recorded in the Grisman home studio in Mill Valley, California, the former released in the early 1990s. The two had met in the 1960s as fellow travelers. Later, David would appear on the Grateful Dead album American Beauty<\/em>, adding mandolin to shimmering perennials \u201cFriend of the Devil\u201d and \u201cRipple.\u201d \u201cI want to offer something to folks that would remind them of the music my dad and Jerry made together,\u201d Sam continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Grateful Dead<\/a> (right)<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0formed in 1965 and the rest is legendary, offering a mode of fandom not far from vocation. Like so many obsessions of the soul, it\u2019s guided by a mysterious private power. An example? The weird, warm heartache which arrived when a show began, because you knew it would end. The setlist changed every night, each version of a song novel from its last. Interpreting the music of the Dead and its members\u2014two guitars, two drum kits, bass, piano and vocals\u2014remains an ongoing pursuit. While founding members continue to tour in impressive iterations, there\u2019s also many other musicians keeping a long, strange flame alive in their own style. There\u2019s Joe Russo\u2019s Almost Dead. There\u2019s Grateful Shred and Mars Hotel. There\u2019s a group in Brooklyn infusing Dead themes with disco stylings. There\u2019s one from Denver doing mash-ups with Steely Dan songs. Basketball great and tie-dye virtuoso Bill Walton has appeared as a percussionist in the Electric Waste Band out of San Diego. There\u2019s an annual Skull & Roses festival on the Ventura County Fairgrounds, off Highway 101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Melvin Seals first entered the warehouse where the Dead rehearsed, he didn\u2019t know what to make of it. \u201cThere\u2019s backdrops of skeletons all over the place, I was a little scared of these people,\u201d he says. He\u2019d first played the organ in church, then in a Broadway production, then with blues rocker Elvin Bishop of \u201cFooled Around and Fell in Love\u201d fame. There was a night on tour where his path crossed with Garcia\u2019s and, in 1980, Seals joined the Jerry Garcia Band and its dreamy mix of rock, soul and springy renditions of songs like Smokey Robinson\u2019s \u201cI Second that Emotion\u201d and Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cTangled Up in Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jerry Garcia (left)<\/em><\/strong> deemed Seals the \u201cmaster of the universe.\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t know what that meant,\u201d Seals laughs. Possibly: placing each element where it belongs, the star-crossed ballads and romps alike. He vocalizes the opening of \u201cThe Harder They Come,\u201d the Jimmy Cliff classic punctuating Garcia Band sets. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand how it could be so loose,\u201d he says. He\u2019d been accustomed to a certain precision. \u201cI had to learn it wasn\u2019t about how tight it was. It was the heart, the soul. It was something else Deadheads felt from the music they liked,\u201d he continues. \u201cWhat leaves the heart reaches the heart. Maybe we made all kinds of mistakes, but there was a heartfelt thing they loved.\u201d Seals says Dead-tinged music is a calling. \u201cIt\u2019s still growing. They\u2019re the only band I know that has cover bands all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sam Grisman (right)<\/em><\/strong> began playing by age four. \u201c\u2018Bass\u2019 was actually my first word,\u201d he says. He explains it\u2019s a bluegrass counterpart to mandolin, that his strings-wielding father might have hoped he\u2019d gravitate to it for that reason. They\u2019d practice songs with only one chord change, simple but not. \u201cMy dad was trying to emphasize playing in time,\u201d Sam says. \u201cHe knew I wouldn\u2019t be able to make the steps beyond if I didn\u2019t secure rhythm from the inception.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cut south of the Finger Lakes, Sam Grisman Project\u2019s LP Temple Cabin Sessions Volume 1<\/em> jumps with empathic exchange. The group is Grisman, Ric Robertson, Chris \u201cHollywood\u201d English and Aaron Lipp. Grisman and Robertson first met as teenagers and, in 2023, the band visited about 24 states. 2024 continues apace. \u201cWe\u2019ve been touring in our personal vehicles,\u201d says Grisman. \u201cIt\u2019s what we\u2019ve been able to afford.\u201d He drives a Subaru Ascent with over 122,000 miles on it. \u201cIt feels like these songs need to be played and it feels like people need to hear them.\u201d Some in the audience are familiar with the catalog of Garcia and Grisman or the Dead, some aren\u2019t. \u201cOur approach is centered around the musical ethos of my dad and Jerry, which was about diving into the material they felt like exploring with their own voices,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe just have to love the tune. That\u2019s the only rule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joni Bottari is lead guitarist in Brown Eyed Women, an all-women ensemble from multiple states and a reference to the sun-bursting Dead song introduced on the\u00a0Europe \u201872<\/em>\u00a0album. \u201cMy first Grateful Dead show was the Beacon Theater in 1976,\u201d Bottari shares, noting that she would have been about 15 years old at the time. \u201cThey\u2019d been playing arenas but now they were playing theaters. It was complete mayhem. I walked in and my mind was completely blown.\u201d She grew up on the Jersey Shore as the youngest in the family. Her older brother was in a band that split a bill with Springsteen.\u00a0Workingman\u2019s Dead<\/em>\u00a0hit shelves in June 1970 and he brought it home,\u00a0American Beauty<\/em>\u00a0soon after. \u201cAt the same time I was learning to play. In middle school Joni joined her first band, playing eighth grade dances. In the early 1980s she joined a band called Spellbound, playing in Manhattan at CBGB. But then she suffered stage fright. \u201cI never thought I would play again,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was paralyzing.\u201d She didn\u2019t play live again for north of 20 years, but has since performed in several stage bands specializing in the music of the Dead. \u201cUnless you get it, you don\u2019t get it. But once you get it, it becomes part of your DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Workingman\u2019s Dead\u00a0 (left<\/em><\/strong>) also spoke to Rob Barraco, representing a roots rock entry in the Grateful Dead story following psychedelic blowouts like\u00a0Aoxomoxa.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m sitting at an atmospheric river by a hotel in Menlo Park,\u201d he says, on the road with Dark Star Orchestra, the journeying outfit of a quarter century dipping into Dead eras. A keyboardist from Long Island sporting a trademark bandana, Barraco appears to pull chords out of the wind. \u201cThe crazy thing about it, and what I like the most, is how much it takes to do what we do in a tiny amount of time. It can be maddening to wait all day to play three hours of music.\u201d For Barraco, it was the final track off\u00a0Workingman\u2019s Dead<\/em>\u00a0that hooked him first, \u201cCasey Jones.\u201d His first Dead show was March 28, 1972 at Academy of Music in New York. \u201cBeing turned onto a kind of music I didn\u2019t know existed was a beautiful thing,\u201d he continues. Then he saw many shows in 1973, 1974\u2014improvisatory concert design departing from the studio: \u201cI knew in my heart, that\u2019s what I wanted to do. You can abandon all your fears and be in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Play the guitar,\u201d Bottari continues. \u201cI became obsessed, especially \u2018Box of Rain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of it is very hard to execute,\u201d says Nashville songwriter Melody Walker, a member of BERTHA, an all-in-drag Grateful Dead project formed in 2023 in the wake of anti-drag legislation proposed in Tennessee. \u201cBut perfection isn\u2019t the point,\u201d Walker continues. \u201cThere is so much more to music than playing the right notes.\u201d \u201cBy the time I started listening in high school, the Dead\u2019s music felt like something I was finally \u2018allowed\u2019 to listen to,\u201d adds BERTHA guitarist Mike Wheeler. \u201cIt was freeing, rebellious in its own wholesome way, and suddenly I felt like I was part of a community I\u2019d long been intrigued by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry died in August 1995. Clinton was president, Forrest Gump<\/em> won Best Picture and Michael Jordan came out of retirement and returned to the Chicago Bulls. \u201cThey were actually planning a tour where they were going to play Red Rocks and maybe the East Coast,\u201d Grisman says of his father and Jerry. \u201cI think the only gig they played on the East Coast was on Letterman<\/em>.\u201d He explains that, as a toddler, he accompanied his family to most of the acoustic shows. \u201cBut I had no concept that Jerry was an icon,\u201d Grisman continues. \u201cThat was my first time dealing with mortality. I assumed when somebody died, it\u2019s on the news. I had no concept of how much he meant to our community.\u201d Garcia\u2019s death triggered an outpouring of attention and that twang of grief appearing to those whose favorite artists have reached them. \u201cI started kindergarten and every teacher I had offered their condolences,\u201d Grisman explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one can account for why certain people have super powers in certain areas,\u201d Burbridge says. \u201cThose same people are very weak and human in other areas but have this incredible difference about them. They themselves don\u2019t even know how or why. That\u2019s the magic part. Then fate brings a certain group of people together that have this amazing chemistry. I do not believe this is random in any way. That\u2019s the grace part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Detroit saxophonist and Blue Note artist Dave McMurray also recently debuted jazz versions of the Grateful Dead catalog (Grateful Deadication<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Grateful Deadication 2<\/em>). McMurray has done sessions with The Rolling Stones and The B-52\u2019s. \u201cGrowing up in Detroit, I listened to all kinds of music\u2014blues, jazz, avant garde,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s how Detroit was. You could find every kind of music. When I listen I would go, how would I fit into that? What would I do? If it was a country song, what would I do to not disrupt the situation?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dead member Bob Weir recently toured Detroit, McMurray appeared as a guest. \u201cThey\u2019re soloing and they\u2019re improvising, but in a certain way. You think it\u2019s going to go here, but it goes somewhere else. It\u2019s hypnotizing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of the melody, the lyrics, the sincerity. I think people hear the sincerity.\u201d He diagnoses strict jazz audiences compared to Deadheads. Jazz clubs are typically seated affairs, but Deadheads still come to their feet. \u201cWhen people say \u2018Jerry Garcia,\u2019 it means so much so fast that I can\u2019t grab anything,\u201d says Seals. He recalls Garcia\u2019s resolve when pondering the future, lifetimes ahead: the music should go on, bigger than one person. If anyone felt Dead music died with Jerry? \u201cThat\u2019s not what Jerry wanted, or what he said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a young man they meant one thing. As an older man they mean something else to me,\u201d Barraco says. \u201cThis is the life I\u2019ve grown to love.\u201d The Grateful name itself trades on immortality. At their best, it\u2019s infinity on command. The rolling thunder of \u201cSt. Stephen\u201d and the bloom of \u201cScarlet Begonias.\u201d It\u2019s rising from the dead, or a mission in the rain. Hundreds of songs over several thousand shows while the Jerry Garcia Band also motored for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam points to a VHS tape his family unearthed: Garcia rehearsing in the Mill Valley living room. \u201cI\u2019m watching my dad and Jerry playing,\u201d Grisman narrates. \u201cAt one point, I\u2019m sort of digging in Jerry\u2019s banjo case and they\u2019re running through what I think was \u2018When First Unto This Country\u2019 for the first time,\u201d a folk number part of a greater songbook immemorial. \u201cI\u2019m strumming the open banjo strings and Jerry\u2019s like, \u2018Hey buster, no atonal music.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam pauses to regard the family-friendly Garcia-Grisman album, Not for Kids Only<\/em>, on which \u201cWhen First Unto This Country\u201d appears\u2014conceived in part as a smiling nod to Garcia\u2019s presiding role for Deadheads. \u201cMy dad and mom were able to get him to see the good in it,\u201d Sam says. He pauses for a moment before he resumes narrating: \u201cA few tunes go by and I emerge back on the scene with a toy whistle. I go right up to my dad and sit at his feet. Jerry looks down at me and goes, \u2018Oh, tuck in buddy.\u2019 I\u2019m looking right at Jerry with this whistle and he goes, \u2018Are you ready? We\u2019ve been waiting for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norman Warwick learns from Paste mail-in: GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living \u201cI remember the sound of his laugh and the mixture of smoke and whatever aftershave,\u201d says Sam Grisman, recalling Jerry Garcia in his living room. \u201cHe was the only one my parents would let smoke cigarettes in our house.\u201d The Sam Grisman Project, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-sidetracks-and-detours"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20636,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20447\/revisions\/20636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Founding Grateful Dead members have gone under disparate banners, with potent concoctions of musicians: The Other Ones, RatDog, Furthur, Dead & Company recently completed years of touring baseball parks and amphitheaters, events of summer. Arranged in 2015 as a core of Dead founders flanked by deft players, including post-Born and Raised<\/em>\u00a0John Mayer and joyous bassist Oteil Burbridge. \u201cWhen you think of all the Deadheads that saw the band since the early days it makes you feel very good to have their stamp of approval,\u201d says Burbridge. In 2023, he also premiered\u00a0Lovely View of Heaven<\/em>, ethereal versions of ballads by Garcia and boundless lyricist\u00a0Robert Hunter<\/a>. Songs like \u201cStanding on the Moon\u201d still connect through what Burbridge deems a trifecta of magic, fate and grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n