From dot org:

3/30/2006 Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, NY
I: Jam > Here Comes Sunshine > The Music Never Stopped > Queen Jane Approximately, Shade of Grey, Picasso Moon, Tuesday Blues > Iko Iko
II: Jack-A-Row@4, Masters of War@, Victim or the Crime@, Dark Star*, Little Red Rooster* > All Along the Watchtower* > Stuff*, Black Peter > Dark Star*, Two Djinn
E: Johnny B. Goode*
-w/ Al Schnier; Stuff - Jeff/Jay/Robin/Mark/Kenny(+Al) Previous "Tuesday Blues" 2002-10-14
................
Happy Anniversary to Caffe Trieste!

I don't know if I ever put this pic of Mr Gravy and I on here before?
It was taken on Columbus Street in SF...right by one of my favorite Italian Pastry places.1994 or 1995?- I'm guessing based on my favorite maternity dress. After having spent the whole day going across SF -visiting all the different Ben & Jerry's with my friend RG- in hopes of a Bobby sighting (it was Celebrity Scoop day!), Scott, & Neal (RG's husband) met up with us for dinner in North Beach.
After pasta, we bought espresso & pastries and were sitting down at an outdoor table just as Wavy was drifting down the street. How about that timing? He mightve been coming from the Ben and Jerry's that no longer exists on Columbus..I don't remember but he was beautifully dressed and on his way to meet Jahanara - the rose he was holding was for her.
He wasnt in a hurry and hung with us for a little while. We shared some of our pastry with him and he posed with us for a few photos.

woofin!

RatDog, STS9, Cake and Spearhead Confirmed for Harmony Festival


For the first time in its 28 year history, Santa Rosa, CA’s Harmony Festival will offer camping this spring. Taking place from June 9-11, the multi-day gathering will feature performances from RatDog, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Cake, Michael Franti and Spearhead, New Monsoon, Ozomalti, Hot Buttered Rum and Aphrodesia, among others. In addition, the Harmony Festival will feature a variety of speakers, an eco-village and a selection of local wines and microbrews (this is wine country after all).
.............
Very excited for the Seva thing!
I'm donating a couple of handcrafted (silent auction) items and looking forward to enjoying Bobstar and the Doggies in the wonderful BCT!
Thinking of Wavy triggered the "Did we sign Sash up for camp yet?" reflex..Now she's all signed up for 4 weeks @ Winnarainbow. Couldnt get Noah to go but he did consent to a week away at computer camp (go figure?) . He is (as we used to say) stoked! Now, it's just hoping that nome of the camp dates interfere with possible Bobbydog summer events!
Okay, why did I come in here?
Oh yes- Thinking of Mr Gravy-Here is an excerpt from today's Leah Garchik column:

Culture vulture Hugh Romney, who went to see the Alexander Calder show at SFMOMA the other day, was bothered that the mobiles "didn't mobe.'' So Romney, who sometimes uses a walking stick to ease his own mobility, waited until a guard's back was turned, then thrust his cane upward in order to nudge one of the works. And mobe it did.
The guard, however, "seemed to have eyes in the back of her head,'' Romney told me, and quickly approached, muttering into her walkie-talkie. Four or five more guards closed in, and then a supervisor descended upon him, too. He gave them his name, and meekly promised not to do it again, at which point they let him continue his visit.

He didn't want to offer his membership card, Romney told me, because that has his other name on it: Wavy Gravy. He was in mufti that day -- no clown shoes, his nose in his pocket -- because he was on his way to the Elvis Costello show.

Gravy marks turning 70 with a fundraiser for his beloved SEVA at the Berkeley Community Theater on May 20. The roster of performers includes Linda Tillery, Mickey Hart, Gillian Welch, RatDog and Bob Weir.

We are delighted to announce Wavy Gravy's 70th Birthday Show,
in support of the SEVA Foundation.

Saturday, May 20 at the Berkeley Community Theatre.
Doors open at 6:00 PM. Show time is 7:00 PM.

Performers: Bob Weir and Ratdog, Mickey Hart and Friends,
Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, David Lindley,
Linda Tillery and Nina Gerber, John Trudell, Hamza el Din,
the Prescott Circus, Wavy Gravy and surprise guests.

Mail order tickets are available at $53.00 for the main
orchestra and the lower section in the balcony, and $38.00
for the rear orchestra and the upper sections of the
balcony.

We will consider both Thursday and Friday, March 30
and 31 as first postmark mail.

As per usual the SEVA Foundation will offer various
special receptions. To find out about those, please
visit SEVA's special Events webpage or call them at
510-845-7382, ext. 332 as of Thursday, March 30.

the Crew of GDTSTOO
3.29.2006
--

"It goes to show you don't ever know
Watch each card you play
and play it slow....."

Robert Hunter


Web Site: http://www.gdtstoo.com
email: GDTSTOO@dead.net
Customer Service Number: (415) 898-2364
Monday-Friday, 11am-5pm, PST.
Tour information and mail order telephone hotline: 415-457-6388
To subscribe to our email announce list, send empty email to
GDTSTOO-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

3/28/2006 Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
I: Jam > Cold Rain and Snow > Playin in the Band > Big Boss Man > Bury Me Standing > Last Time, Weather Report Suite Prelude/Part 1 > Let It Grow > Big Railroad Blues
II: Twilight Time@bw-mk-rs-jc>6 > Desolation Row@4>5 > Playin in the Band (reprise) > Mississippi Half-Step > The Other One > Stuff > Knockin on Heaven's Door > Throwing Stones > Not Fade Away
E: Brokedown Palace

Monday, March 27, 2006
Weir and RatDog keep on playin'
Band to perform at civic center


By John W. Barry
Poughkeepsie Journal


Showering throngs in ecstasy, confusing many more and leaving others simply irritated, the Grateful Dead and its offshoot side projects for more than four decades have been touring the country, returning to cities each year like one of the four seasons while pushing a musical, cultural, societal and tribal envelope.

The Grateful Dead have been labeled counterculture icons, psychedelic gurus and beacons for hippies who don't always obey the law or tread lightly while on tour with the band. But anyone who enjoys the music of this San Francisco-based ensemble will likely tell you that 11 years after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia preceded the breakup of the band, the Grateful Dead and its legacy continue to defy description.

Thousands cut from this cloth — those who have spent thousands of dollars over decades on tickets to see the Dead and traveled hundreds of miles for one night of music — are set to assemble once again Tuesday when former Dead guitarist Bob Weir brings his band RatDog to the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie.

"It's the greatest ritual I've ever participated in in my life," Christopher Pritchard of Poughkeepsie, who saw the first of his 148 Grateful Dead concerts in 1980 at Radio City Music Hall, said of attending a Dead-related concert. "Spending time with Bob Weir and listening to him play music — I couldn't think of anything I like to do more than that."

Karen Michel, a visiting professor of media arts at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, lived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the 1960s, when Janis Joplin and the Dead were local bands. She has seen the Dead perform many times, in tiny clubs and football stadiums.

'Place of allowing'

"In the increasingly repressive society in which we live," Michel said, a Grateful Dead event "was a place of allowing you to be. ... I think there is a real nostalgia among people, who could be my kids, for a time that they think was and doesn't appear to be coming up ... the Dead, it was a place of allowing and we don't have much of that anymore."

After more than 650 shows with RatDog and thousands of concerts with the Grateful Dead, Weir seems to maintain a crisp curiosity and eager enthusiasm for working his craft, night after night, city after city.

"I love to play, come on," he said during a recent interview with the Journal.

He added, "There are parts of it that are like work." But that is far outweighed by what he called "the payoff."

"Tickling the muse," he said, when asked to describe the payoff. "Coaxing out the joy."

RatDog, a sextet featuring a horn player, draws heavily from the Grateful Dead song repertoire. But Weir offers different takes on standards performed by his old band and indulges his longtime love of the cowboy songs he heard on the radio as a child and played often with his former band — "Big River" by Johnny Cash and "El Paso" by Marty Robbins among them.

Coating much of the RatDog set list is a sheen of jazz, but a take on this genre fueled by the front man who is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and helped shape the evolution of rock 'n' roll.

"I would call it halfway between rock 'n' roll and jazz," Weir said, when asked to describe RatDog. "I'm reluctant to use the word fusion. That comes with baggage. It might not be fusion. I haven't examined it closely. Fusion to me, at least, conveys a harmonic sensibility that was endemic to the era that fusion jazz was popular, an aesthetic that was divine. We don't go there."

Many know Weir for his on-stage persona, pulling pranks on his fellow band members in front of thousands of fans, embracing a song beyond its vocals and guitar parts, gesturing as though in a Shakespeare play and revealing a propensity for lyrics infused with biblical themes. But when interacting away from the spotlights with his two daughters, ages 4 and 8, Weir seems just as satisfied.

On learning from them, Weir said, "it comes thick and fast" and "several times a day."

Learned from his kids

"I learn about myself. There are major insights and minor ones," he said. "I can't bring any to mind right now. But a large percentage of what I go through with my kids teaches me a bit about myself. Just seeing the similarities in their approaches and in some cases, seeing them break that mold."

When Weir was a kid, he took piano lessons, but his parents had the instrument carted away after he learned a left-hand boogie-woogie riff and played it incessantly. He moved on to the trumpet and was banished by mom and dad to playing outside, but following the complaints of neighbors, Weir said, "that disappeared."

"That's right about when the guitar started looking good," he said. "It was portable and it didn't make a racket that people objected to."

Wherever Weir plays, whether performing with modern music's mega-stars, like the Dave Matthews Band, or cranking out hits he's played hundreds of times, to fans who have heard these songs a hundred times, he looks for new twists and turns each time he returns to familiar territory.

"That's our job," Weir said. "If we're not doing that, we're not doing our job."

John W. Barry can be reached at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com

Happy Berthaday to Scotto!

Check out Jay's new website!

<--with our gray eyed child-taken this morning.

My favorite Ratdog fan in the whole world!


Nice photos of yesterday
Clicky here

For Buck Owens, Bobby & Ratdog played "A-11" at tonight's show in Philly-
Lyrics are:
I don't know you from Adam
But if you're gonna play the jukebox
Please don't play A - Eleven.

I just came in here from force of habit
I don't intend to spend too much time in here
But I heard you *matchin' for the music
And if you play A- Eleven - there'll be tears.

I don't know you from Adam
But if you're gonna play the jukebox
Please don't play A - Eleven.
This used to be our favorite spot
And when she was here it was heaven
It was here she told me that she loved me
And she always played A - Eleven.

I don't know you from Adam
But if you're gonna play the jukebox
Please don't play A - Eleven...
.....................

Country music icon Buck Owens dies
(Reuters)

26 March 2006


SAN FRANCISCO - Honky-tonk star Buck Owens, who sold more than 16 million albums and popularized country entertainment on television as host of “Hee Haw,” died on Saturday at age 76.


Owens, who helped spread the twangy “Bakersfield sound” as an antidote to Nashville’s slick country music, died of heart failure at his home, said his keyboard player Jim Shaw. The night before, he had performed his usual twice-weekly concert at his entertainment complex, Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace.

“He was one of the true innovators,” Shaw said. “He did it his own way, an outside gunslinger type who used his own band and made music in Hollywood rather than Nashville. That free spirit made him important to a lot of people.”

Owens honed his craft in the rowdy bars of Bakersfield, a gritty oil and farming town about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. He played it loud and kept it simple, performing tunes that were more escapist than the hard-life tales of Bakersfield colleague Merle Haggard.

Haggard worked as Owens’ bass player in 1962 and came up with the name “The Buckaroos” for Owens’ band.

“We’ve been in many battles together (always on the same side),” Haggard said in a statement. “Over the last few years, we’d become closer than we ever realized ... We were outlaws together.”

Owens’ first top-10 hit was “Under Your Spell Again” in 1960. Between 1963 and 1967, when mainstream country music was flirting with complex arrangements, Owens enjoyed 15 No. 1 hits, including “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail,” ”My Heart Skips a Beat” and “Together Again.”

“In Nashville, they were producing things with softer, more syrupy sounds,” Owens told biographer Nicholas Dawidoff in the book “In the Country of Country. “I’m one of those turn-on-the-damn-thing-and-here-we-go folks.”

Bakersfield sound

The “Bakersfield sound,” a hard-hitting rhythm highlighted by prominent vocals, loud drums and twangy steel-guitar solos, influenced artists in a wide range of genres.

A song Owens made a hit, “Act Naturally,” was recorded by the Beatles with Ringo Starr on vocals in 1965, the same year that Ray Charles enjoyed a top-10 pop hit with a cover of Owens’ “Cryin’ Time.”

Creedence Clearwater Revival mentioned Owens in the song ”Looking Out My Back Door” and the Grateful Dead cited him as a major influence. Country traditionalist Dwight Yoakam teamed with Owens in the late ’80s for a duet on a hit remake of ”Streets of Bakersfield.”

“We’re going to miss ol’ Buck but we’re going to bring him back tonight,” said Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. He said he would he would play a tribute to Owens in a Philadelphia show on Saturday by the Dead spinoff band Ratdog.

In 1968, Owens made an unusual career detour by signing to host the country comedy television show “Hee Haw,” a move he knew would hurt his career since it would typecast him as a hillbilly clown. But the money was worth it. He recalled taping a year’s worth of shows in two one-week stints, and being paid $200,000 at the end of each stint.

Owens was a shrewd businessman who invested in newspapers, radio and TV stations and real estate.

Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born near Sherman, Texas, in 1929. His family moved west in the early 1930s as part of the great Dust Bowl migration, settling in Mesa, Arizona. They lived in dire poverty and moved constantly in search of work in the fields.

Owens recalled christening himself “Buck” when he was 3 or 4 but could not remember if he had named himself after a horse or a mule. He left school at 13 and played steel guitar in Mesa honky-tonk bars, to the consternation of his God-fearing parents.


Print this article

Don't miss it!
Hangin with Bob Weir
............
New to me website containing some Bobby & Ratdog photos
Clickity here


Mickey Hart & Planet Drum on KQED tonight-or- early Sunday morniing at 1:30 AM...

..........
From dot org:

3/24/2006 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
I: Jam > Bertha > Jack Straw > Bird Song > Easy to Slip > Supplication, Lazy River Road, Odessa, Bury Me Standing > West L.A. Fadeaway
II: K.C. Moan@3, Me and My Uncle@, When I Paint My Masterpiece@, Jus' Like Mama Said, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Stuff > Sugaree > Bird Song > Two Djinn
E: Ripple
Stuff - Jeff/Jay/Mark/Kenny > Jeff/Jay/Mark/Kenny/Robin

March 24, 2006
Web exclusive quotes from Bob Weir

By Bob Margolis
For the Times Herald-Record

The Grateful Dead was always ripe for metaphor.

The obsessed sports fan dealing with arcane statistics and collecting all sorts of memorabilia is not unlike your garden variety Deadhead. So it isn't that surprising that Bob Weir likens his old band and his longtime "other band"-turned-primary-project Ratdog to football.

"Everybody has a neat and precise role or assignment," says Weir from his Bay Area home. "Then the ball is snapped, and it's pandemonium."

Tuesday on the Mid-Hudson Civic Center stage, Weir and his band mates will unfurl three hours of Dead-flavored tuneage as intricately designed as the vaunted West Coast offense linked to Weir's beloved San Francisco 49ers, and as in-the-moment as a broken play.

Make no mistake about it, Weir is the quarterback who encourages his band mates to bring a fresh perspective to classic Dead nuggets and makes sure they are aware of the original versions.

"I find myself listening to the Grateful Dead usually when there is something I want to describe to the band. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?" Weir says. "Usually I will bring Ratdog versions of a song with the purpose of imparting a feeling the old band used to nail. Just last week, I took a notion to do the Dead's version of 'Stagger Lee.'

"So I slapped on two tapes, one fast and one slow. We all opted for the fast one. It turns out a few guys had never the heard the song. Might have been more sporting to give them a chord sheet and send them on their own. But what I've tried to get the band to do is to state one time, usually in rehearsal, how the Dead left the song - that feeling - and then never go back there."

Weir, who at 59 now sports a full beard in the fashion of Jerry Garcia, has also been performing tunes sung by the late icon, including "Help on the Way," "Dark Star" and "Tennessee Jed" - a move he considers natural.

"Those Garcia/Hunter pieces are good tunes and made to be sung. Any singer would want to sing those tunes. Remember, I was there when all those songs were born," he says. "I had a lot to do with how they came into the world. Until I had my own family, they were like my own children. Do you think I'm going to turn my back on them just because Jerry checked out?"

Still, even within the familiar, Ratdog rarely makes the same gesture twice.

"It's really the old jazz modus operandi dating back I guess to Buddy Bolden," says Weir. "Somebody in the band will state a theme. Everyone will have a little something to say about it, take it for a stroll in the woods and then come back, hopefully. You rely heavily on improvisation and intuition."

Those two factors have been hallmarks of the Garcia/Weir relationship ever since they first crossed paths more than four decades ago. At 17, Weir became enamored with John Coltrane and his pianist McCoy Tyner. Like the latter, Weir's distinctive style of playing provided color contrast and context for Garcia's spiraling lines.

"I tried to intuit where Jerry was going and to be there with the right chord, with the right leading voice that would tilt him in this direction or that, to be either complementary or contrapuntal," he says. "And I'd try to have a little surprise for him when he got there."

Ratdog - made up of lead guitarist Mark Karan, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, sax player Kenny Brooks and bassist Robin Sylvester - provides that unpredictable spark that keeps Weir happy to be on the road almost as much as his old band was at its peak.

"This band now is spitting fire," he says. "The more you play, the better you get."

If you Go! ...

What: Ratdog

Where: Mid-Hudson Civic Center, 14 Civic Center Plaza, Poughkeepsie

When: 6:30 p.m. March 28

Tickets: $29.50

Call: 454-5800

Visit: www.midhudsonciviccenter.com

...............
3/23/2006 Calvin Theatre, Northampton, MA [Photos]
I: Jam > Shakedown Street > Easy Answers > Baby Blue, Loser > Loose Lucy, This Time Forever > Shade of Grey, Hell in a Bucket
II: Me and Bobby McGee@4, Victim or the Crime@, Even So > October Queen > The Deep End > Uncle John's Band > Stuff > Come Together > Sugar Magnolia
E: Brokedown Palace
Stuff - Jeff > Jeff/Kenny/Robin/Jay > Jay > all

This is great!

VH1 Hangin' With: Bob Weir
Bob Weir and RatDog are on the road, and they stopped by the Classic studios to chill with Amy and deliver an awesome live performance!
Premieres Saturday, March 25.


Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo will be screened at the following locations:
Tiburon Film Festival - March 15th at 7:30 pm
Portland Longbaugh Film Festival - April 6th at 9:00 pm
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival - June 17th (Movie Tent)


I don't know if I posted this link to an article on Bobby composing setlists? but there it is!

Damn SWEET!

3/21/2006 Premier Music Hall, Danbury, CT

I: Jam > Here Comes Sunshine > Minglewood Blues > Senor, Fever > Lucky Enough > Salt Lake City > Cold Rain and Snow > Wrong Way Feelin' > Might as Well

II: Mexicali Blues@3>4, Corrina@, Last Time > Ashes and Glass > Stuff > Ship of Fools > St. Stephen > William Tell Bridge > The Eleven
E: Black Muddy River

Stuff - Mark/Kenny/Jeff/Jay/Robin > all
Previous "Salt Lake City" 2005-04-15 [73 shows]; Previous "Fever" 2005-04-29 [63 shows]

New Song!

video of the new song is here

The lyrics posted by Jammin John
Wish I knew who wrote it? :

Just Like Mama Said

ust like mama said
better not lose your head
better off dyin'
dyin' in bed
jesus smokin' sage
girl told me try to act my age
look at me now
in my golden cage
oh the rain
aint no good but it does seem right
looks like i'll be chewin' on this all night
band plays anyway
no matter what they say
lights all flashin' red
just like mama said
feathers in her hair
alien sends a flare
over his charms
take you there
take you there
have a care
sun is sinkin' like a rock down a well
laughin' or screamin' i just can't tell
band can keep playin'
no matter what they say
sunset fades to red
just like mama said
faces start to blur
nobody is who they were
??moon?? shadow ghost (no sure of first word)
how can i be sure
how can i be sure
aint no cure
just like mama said*
better not lose your head

Hola Amigos!
I've been busy getting together an art area for myself - you can read about it on my other blog- the link is among the links on the side there->
It's the "Messing Around" blog. I decided to keep this one more Bobby & Ratdog "pure".
All my other stuff is going over there.
Speaking of Arts & Crafts (well, kinda)
Crafty Weir Freaks may like to check this out!

................
Ratdog Posters for sale!



for more info please contact : cubecutter@cubecutter.com

3/18/2006 The NorVa, Norfolk, VA
I: Jam > Cassidy > All Along the Watchtower, Little Red Rooster, Dark Star > Odessa, Lazy River Road > The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion > Big Railroad Blues
II: Blackbird@5, El Paso@4, Black-Throated Wind@ > Tomorrow Never Knows > Mississippi Half-Step > The Other One > Stuff > Dark Star > Dear Prudence > Cassidy > One More Saturday Night
E: Attics of My Life
Stuff - Jeff/Jay/MK/Robin/Kenny
First "Attics of My Life"

Nuther article Weir's World

3/17/2006 House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC

Help on the Way > Slipknot! > It's All Over Now > She Says > Liberty, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall@*, Friend of the Devil@4*, Looks Like Rain@ > Bury Me Standing@ > Fly Away, Silvio > Tequila > Silvio > Tequila > Silvio > Althea > Stuff > Sugaree+ > Two Djinn > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower#

E: Maggie's Farm#, Touch of Grey#

*-w/ Bela Fleck (banjo); +-w/Jeff Coffin (sax); #-w/ Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Bela, Jeff Coffin, Victor Wooten [bass], and FutureMan [percussion]); Stuff - Jeff/Jay/Robin/Kenny

(Bela Fleck & the Flecktones opened)

3/16/2006 Centre Stage at the Plex, North Charleston, SC [Photos]
I: Jam > The Music Never Stopped > Big River > Queen Jane Approximately > Easy Answers, Mission in the Rain > Take Me to the River, Lucky Enough > Josephine > Truckin > Josephine
II: The Weight@ > Victim or the Crime@ > When I Paint My Masterpiece@1>6, Jam > Good Morning Little Schoolgirl > Ashes and Glass > Stuff > Wharf Rat > Throwing Stones
E: Foolish Heart
new stage setup, from left: Mark, Jay, Robin, Bobby, Kenny, Jeff

Chez found a nice Ratdoggy article
Clickity here

Have a GREAT TOUR!!

The adventure begins tonight for all who are going!
For us, at home, we look forward to hearing the details and adding up our fantasy points!
We poke thru google and the message boards in hope of articles & interviews
Every night on tour is one night closer to the band coming back here!
We then keep our eyes and ears open to find out which member is playing locally.
We use the $$ we didnt spend on tour to buy better benefit seats, we can use that expenditure (or not) as a tax deduction.
And then the wait begins to see when the next tour begins and where we might be able to travel to.
It's a variation of a cycle but its pleasing!

From Rolling Stone:
Biography: JERRY GARCIA, an episode profiling the prolific life of the late GRATEFUL DEAD guitarist, premieres March 21st on the Biography Channel. The special features interviews with bandmates BOB WEIR, MICKEY HART and lyricist JOHN BARLOW, among others. The network will also re-air its profiles of ERIC CLAPTON, JIMI HENDRIX and NEIL YOUNG throughout that week.

Despite rumors of closing, Ratdog will be playing in the Danbury venue.

Hola!
I've been a busy bee!
But not too busy to sign up for Ratdog Fantasy Setlist!
I sat out the Fall tour but not this time, I dove in there. For a change, I put what it seems they might actually play vs what I would like to hear.
Hurry up and cast your setlist tour starts on Thursday!
Safe travels to all going on tour!

For those of us not going on tour
There's TV!
A few days ago, I stumbled on Ratdog getting a plug for the upcoming tour on VH1.
Yesterday, Jason (had a day off, was home to pack some stuff to take to his place) & Sasha yelled for me to quick come see the same plug (replayed on VH1)
Tonight, it was El Scotto doing the channel surf- right into Bobby belting out OMSN!
It's very cool! But it's too bad they didnt film a few songs to push this along with.
I'm not complaining- happy for everyone involved!
........................
Coming up:
Episode Schedule: Janis Joplin: Southern Discomfort

A DAY RUNS FROM 6 AM TO 5:59 AM. ALL TIMES ARE EST.

DATE/TIME Fri. 03.17

NETWORK-A&E

SHOW-Biography

FEATURED ARTISTS-Janis Joplin , Bob Weir

INFO

09:00 PM ET


Biography:
Janis Joplin: Southern Discomfort


....................
I love music so much.

Ratdog on The Majesty of The Sea ship (02-05-06) is FINALLY available for downloading. I wasted no time adding this one to my iTunes.
Kemmie and I were very excited to return to KPFA this week to watch and listen to The Waybacks as they were recording for David Gans GD Hour. It's always interesting and fun to see how David creates these shows. The Waybacks are wonderful. The newest member, Warren Hood has a beautiful voice . I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's double header at Freight & Salvage- David Gans and The Waybacks together!
And YES! Scotto & I have already purchased our tickets for The Bobby & The Waybacks show in April at The Great American Music Hall!

..................
From GDTSTOO:
Bob Weir and RatDog:

All orders for Washington, DC; Poughkeepsie, NY
and Boston, MA will be mailed out by this coming
Monday.

Last call for Northampton and Philadelphia.

Tickets are available for all shows beyond March 21.
That includes the Beacon, NY for 4.6 and 4.7.
Beacon 4.8: Upper Balcony only at the lower price
of $41.75

Information for all shows at our web site:
www.gdtstoo.com

The Crew of GDTSTOO
3.10.2006

More on Electric Apricot

Here
and there!

from MIJ:

Ode to the jam band
Rick Polito



The Electric Apricot, featuring Les Claypool (right) gathers for applause after a performance at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley in a scene from Claypool's movie, 'Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo. Provided by Jay Blakesberg

When "Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo" premieres next week at the Tiburon Film Festival, a bit of Marin might recognize itself on the screen.
And not just locations like Sweetwater Saloon in Mill Valley and Fairfax's 19 Broadway. There is many a hippie, aging and neo, who will laugh at the jokes and himself in what might be called an affectionate mockumentary.

Les Claypool hopes they do. The former bass player and face to the legendary Primus alterna-funk band, Claypool knows his cinematic riff on the "jam band scene" is dead on. He should know. He's lived a lot of it.

"There are a lot of inside jokes," says the Sebastopol dad who has evolved into a kind of media renaissance man with a new record, a novel and now a film coming out in the same year.

"Electric Apricot" follows the journey of a tie-dye-clad, organic, chai-swilling jam band on the road to Festeroo, an amalgam of every musical be-in since Woodstock. The 93-minute film is purported to be a documentary made by a graduate student, a ruse that Claypool says "amplified our handicaps.

"That's the look of it because that's what we could afford," Claypool says.

Locals might recognize Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir and Phish's bass player, Mike Gordon. They'll certainly recognize Sweetwater. "The Sweetwater is prominent," Claypool says.

And they might just recognize themselves.

We talked to Les Claypool last week about the jam band phenomenon and the mockumentary genre.

Q: Give us a definition of jam band.

A: Jam band or jam music is more of a state of mind than it is an actual style of music. It's more of keeping the parameters open than it is having a specific sound.

Q: Can the jam band community laugh at itself?

A: I think it has to. I think any community that cannot laugh at itself is doomed.

Q: Do you own a didgeridoo?

A: Would my kids count? My kids have one that a friend of mine gave us. Nobody knows how to play it. It just kind of sits there and looks interesting.

Q: "Electric Apricot" is inevitably going to be compared to "This is Spinal Tap." Are you prepared for that?

A: Oh, yes. Look how many baseball fans there are out there. It's been 20 years. It's about time. I watched "Spinal Tap" about half way through the production just to see if we were stepping on any toes. Looking at it now, it seems much more in your face, much more over the top. Was it ("Electric Apricot") inspired by "Spinal Tap"? I think it was more inspired by Christopher Guest in general.

Q: You were a huge part of Lollapalooza. How much of Festeroo is Lollapalooza?

A: I think Festeroo is a culmination of all the festivals, all the coming together of all the tribes in the nation. You got your Lollapalooza, your Bonnaroos - Festeroo is the potpourri of them all.

Q: Why premiere in Tiburon?

A: Tiburon means the shark. Our company name is BAIT, Bay Area Independent Theatrics.

Q: Describe your last drum circle experience.

A: We shot some of this film up at the High Sierra Festival. I was camping with my family in my little pop-up camper. The kids were already asleep, and all of a sudden this drum circle started. It seemed like (it was) right by my head. The drum circle went on until long after



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dawn. My kids slept right through it.

Q: Is there room for a next big thing in music?

A: There's always room for a next big thing. It just depends on what the industry decides it's going to be. There's always a next big thing. I know it's not going to be me and I've know that since I was a kid. I tend not to think in those terms. It usually doesn't have anything to do with me.

Q: What would it take to kill jam bands?

A: It could be this film (laughs). I have a feeling that it's like anything else. It's such a huge thing and it seems to be growing. But it also seems to be evolving. The boundaries that separate it from other things are going to become so diluted that you won't be able to tell what is and what isn't (a jam band). You have bands like Ween and The Flaming Lips and me playing festivals that in the old days would have had the Grateful Dead.

Q: What would be an appropriate occasion to wear tie-dye?

A: Is there an appropriate occasion to wear tie-dye? I wore tie-dye in making this film, that was appropriate. I had a girlfriend who gave me a pair of tie-dye long johns. I used to wear them under cargo shorts when Primus was playing the Omni. Remember when everybody did that? It was a fashion statement.

Q: How much of this film comes from your own experience.

A: A lot of this film comes from my experience or experiences I've heard from others. And some of it is just actual experiences we had making the film. It's loosely scripted. It's all improv based. It's about getting into a situation and reacting to it.

Q: "Electric Apricot" has a song called "Hey, Are You Going to Burning Man?" When did Burning Man become a joke anyway?

A: Is it a joke? I think for my guys in this film, Burning Man is like Mecca. Haight Ashbury is full of tourists now. You have to go to Burning Man to really experience your free love.

Q: Who's your next target?

A: I don't know if I really have a target. I'm not sure if this is really a targeting thing. It's more about the individuals than it is about the scene. It's just that it's the environment these guys are in. The target is more the pretentious nature of these types of individuals. There are posers no matter what scene you're in.

IF YOU GO

"Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo" screens at 7 p.m. March 15 at the Tiburon Playhouse as part of the Fifth Tiburon International Film Festival, which opens Thursday and runs through March 17 with 234 films from Australia to Yugoslovia. Tickets for individual screenings are $7 to $10. An "all access" pass is available for $750. The festival kicks off with an opening night gala Thursday after the 7 p.m. screening of "The Breakup Artist." To find out more and see the full schedule, go to www.tiburonfilmfestival.com.


oh YES you'll want to listen to this!

I'm not exactly sure what it means but Bob Weir and Ratdog are listed on Vh1 Classic "featured tours" page

I was vegging out -at last away from the mac and enjoying a Pink Floyd (Money is indeed a hit) thing on VH1 Classic (We have a few vh1s on our cable) and before I knew what was going on, the Vee Jay (are they still called that?) started talking about the Ratdog tour , promoted the Weir Here cds and then WOOF! There were the guys doing omsn. I saw the program they had with song & interview a few months back but didnt know they were showing the video any more? I guess that's how they feature their featured tour bands.

No I'm completely sober and straight..

and someone called Shibbyboyka pointed out that if you scroll down on the main VH1 page, that you can find A photo gallery with some shots of Ratdog in it.

Ruby Tuesday & Happy Bertha Gemmie!

Ahhh, the lull before the Ratdog tour storm of setlists and reviews begin!!
And, has it really been a month since that cruuuise??
I'm being very very patient, waiting for the Majesty show to be released for downloading
on Disc Logic...
Yessiree Bobby, we do have our Weir/Waybacks tix and are happy that will be coming right up in mid April!
Til then, well, it looks like vicarious thrills via East Coast friends for us.
Looking forward to finding out where Summer will take everyone. I only know one thing and that is I'll be ready, willing and able to travel for music once school gets out!

Still feeling all warm & fuzzy from Wednesday!
Little Bobby mention in this article

Kemmie took GREAT pictures!!
I am loving these!



Before I high ho off to work, must give HUGE THANKS and GIANT YAY!! to David Gans for
a wonderful time @ KPFA last night!
Everyone getting ready to hit the shows in a few weeks, well, I'm So too jealous of you!
After work, I look forward to listening to streaming audio of the show!
Can't wait!!!
..........
Home again and listening to the stream...here's a setlist

3/1/2006 * KPFA Studios, Berkeley, CA *
I: Jam > Jack Straw > Dark Star > Lazy River Road > Dark Star Jam > Silvio > Tequila > Silvio > Tequila > Silvio > Althea
II: Help on the Way > Slipknot! > She Says > Two Djinn > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower
RatDog took phone calls at halftime
.......
I'm just hearing the interview portion now- too funny- it was quite a squeeze for all the Ratdogs to fit in the smaller studio.
This is hilarious stuff! We could watch them through the window but heard them through speakers- lots of laughing and chattering going on at the time- I wasnt able to concentrate on listening at the time so now I'm hearing it and lol!
.......

And if you click on David's logblog link which should be some where -----------over there---->>>
You can see a few photos- Scotto & Kemmie are visible in the studio ones.
Sue Weiand and Kemmie took some photos as did a few others who were there.

Quite a few folks came out this time for the show. Last time there were just a few.
It was great fun...Jeff no longer is bandaged and still well in command of his keyboard. All the guys and crew looked fresh and ready for tour. I'm excited for those of ya who are gonna see some of the upcoming Spring tour!
............

LOL- that man behind the curtains is Scotto!
A funny way to have one's picture taken with the band!
Thanks Kemmie!

March Madness Begins at KPFA!

RATDOG TONIGHT !!!
LIVE ON KPFA!!!