Check out this cool new interview with Bobby! I could just listen to Bobby's stories endlessly...If he ever writes a book, I'm not going to read it but rather listen to the audio version. In the meanwhile, gotta hope for more podcasts like this one. http://www.culturecatch.com/podcast/bob_weir
OMG, We had the best time at the Galleria! The RAN event was part benefit, part musical event and ALL party! After checking in we were directed to the 4th floor for pre dinner cocktails made with spirits donated by Veev, the organic spirits company,Adina World Beat Beverages and Guayaki Yerba Mate Rnergy drink. plus sustainable wines and brews by Beach Chalet.. Scott immediately went for the "Bob Weir Boch" beer and I had a juniper gin & tonic. With drinkies and organic hor'doerves in hand we met up with some friends. As time went on and more people arrived we were part of nice sized group of folks. It was great to see everyone- especially the handful of tourbuds, all dressed up. Upon entering we were each given a program which had our table numbers on them.
Dinner was announced and so we migrated to our tables. We were pleased to have been seated with some of our friends . There were a few bottles of organic wine ( donated by The Organic Wine company, Frey Vineyards, Brassfield Estates) served thru the meal. The 3 course meal was local, organic and created by Back to Earth Catering. It included a baby arugula salad with persimmons, candied walnuts, shaved paremesan with champagne viniagrette, a potato, celerac and gruyere tartine and for dessert- which rocked- was Dagoba organic chocolate and cardamom mousse. The coffee served was a fair trade organic house blend by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.
During dinner the 2007 World Rainforest Award recipients Paul Hawken, Maria Gunnoe, Nina Simons, Kenny Ausubel and Stuart Townsend (It was a sweet surprise to recognize it was indeed the handsome actor-directer) were honored.
There were a handful of additional speeches including an announcement by Michael Klein about a special RAN fund being created in honor of our own Bob Weir!!!!!
more coming soon-
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Happy Birthday Bobby! May the Birthday Fairies bring you a bushel of songs & smiles today! Joy & love forever!
Tuesday October 16th will mark the 60th birthday of Mr. Robert Hall Weir. SIRIUS Satellite Radio’s Grateful Dead Channel will mark the occasion with a day of programming devoted to Bobby, including a one hour program hosted by Weir himself. The action will kick off at 3 am ET as the channel will air the celebrated Grateful Dead performance that took place on Weir's 42nd birthday, the 10/16/89 Meadowlands show that featured the second "Dark Star" in five years after the band re-introduced it during its Hampton Coliseum Warlocks show on 10/9/89. Tuesday's Weircentric offerings also will include an interview with David Gans as well as music from RatDog, Kingfish, and Bobby & The Midnights.
Head's up New Englanders-
"Tonight on My radio program The Psychedelic Oyster, I will be playing 10.16.81 in Amsterdam in honor of Bobby's B-day Tomorrow. I will also be playing some of Rat Dog fom The Gathering Of The Vibes from this year. Daed Hour at 10:30. Show starts at 9pm eastern time on womr.org or 92.1 fm womr on Cape Cod. Hope you all can tune in."
Festival tripped out before Summer of Love By Paul Liberatore MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Launched: 10/13/2007 03:04:21 AM PDT
In hippie lore, the Trips Festival is regarded as nothing less than the launching pad of the psychedelic '60s. It was so revolutionary, so freeform and creative and communal that it still resonates in the popular culture 40 years later. Before there was the Summer of Love, before there was the Haight Ashbury, long before there was Burning Man, there was the Trips Festival. I would have liked to have been there, to have experienced such a seminal event first hand. No such luck. The closest I've come to getting what it must have been like, and to really understanding its countercultural significance, was through Eric Christensen's enlightening documentary, "The Trips Festival," which will have its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival. As narrator Peter Coyote says in the documentary's opening lines: "It was the proverbial lightening bolt that hit the primordial soup. Just the right ingredients, just the right spark to create a new life form. "This one event gave birth to a new idea, and all were invited to join. A mix of music, lights and entertainment, a happening both planned and unplanned that would evolve into the way entertainment would be presented from that time forward." An offshoot of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, the Trips Festival took place on Jan. 21-23, 1966, at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco. The Grateful Dead were the house band (when they weren't too stoned to play). It could be considered the West Coast's Woodstock, only it was far ahead of that massive tribal gathering, preceding it by three years. For the then-young people who were there, who may or may not have sampled a communal tub of LSD-laced ice cream, it was probably the first time they'd been to a psychedelic rock concert, the first time they'd seen a light show, the first time they'd realized that there were other long-haired freaks just like them that they were part of a movement. "On the order of 10,000 hippies showed up and nobody, including the 10,000 hippies, knew that there were 10,000 hippies," Sausalito's Stewart Brand, the festival's mastermind, says in the film. Christensen didn't have to rely entirely on the accounts of others in re-creating the festival. He's 58 now, but he was a wide-eyed 17-year-old rock fan when he slipped in a side door for two of the three nights, never imagining he'd be making a film about it all these years later. "It was a breakthrough event in that it was the first time you paid as much attention to what was going on in the audience as you did on stage," he recalled the other day in his Mill Valley home -- a trove of rock records, posters, vintage photographs and all manner of hippie-era memorabilia. From being a whiz kid rock radio program director, Christensen went on to a long career as an arts and entertainment and sports producer for KGO-TV in San Francisco. Along the way, he was in a position to interview the counterculture VIPs who organized the festival and who went on to play key roles in creating the various alternative movements and technologies that sprang from it. In addition to Brand, who later published the Whole Earth Catalogs and co-founded the Well, Christensen spoke to festival organizers Ramon Sender and Roland Jacopetti, publicist Jerry Mander and Bill Graham, who went from the Trips Festival to producing concerts at the Fillmore on his way to becoming a major rock impresario. "These are the architects, the seed planters of the whole thing," Christensen said. "I was younger than them, so I looked up to them, and I was lucky enough to get to know some of them." He also spoke to other voices of the times -- the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Chet Helms, Sam Andrew and Peter Albin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, among others. After his recent retirement from KGO, Christensen suddenly found himself with the time to rummage through his collections, uncovering a great deal of San Francisco rock history in the process. "I started playing archaeologist in my own basement," he said. "At some point, I realized I had a project." In his hour-long film, Christensen not only documents the Trips Festival but examines the connection between the counterculture and the cyberculture as well as the festival's impact on the movements and alternative and communal lifestyles that were inspired by it. "I wanted to show the small picture and the big picture," he said. In telling the Trips story, he assembled footage and photos from the Trips Festival, the Human Be-In, the Beat scene and other historic events, including sound recordings from the Acid Tests, one of which was staged in Muir Beach. Deadheads will be disappointed to hear that, surprisingly, the festival didn't record the music by the Dead or Big Brother. On his tight budget, Christensen could afford to license a single Grateful Dead song for his soundtrack, but he got his money's worth with an eight-minute live version of Garcia's rarely heard "Creampuff War." While most of us missed the Trips Festival, we're nevertheless part of it in a larger sense. it was the beginning, after all, of something that's still going on. As Merry Prankster Ken Babbs says near the end of the film: "What we started has not reached its peak yet. It hasn't come to fruition. We're still working on it, and everyone everywhere else is still working on it. Love, peace and happiness -- that's the whole thing." Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com. Take a Trip The first Mill Valley Film Festival screening of Eric Christensen's "The Trips Festival" sold out, so a second showing has been added at 8 p.m. Sunday at Sequoia 1 Theatre in Mill Valley. The film fest ends Sunday. For more information on events and movie screenings going on today and Sunday or to buy tickets, go to http://www.mvff.com or call 877-874-6833.
Mercy me! I've been uber busy with stuff and am just settling down now! I'll have info on the birthday Bobby project -maybe next week?
On Sunday night, Scott and I made it to Mill Valley for the afterparty for the movie "Dylan Interpreted". We didnt see the movie but enjoyed the music presented at the Throcknorton Theatre event. There is a setlist at Dot org. No taping or photos were allowed but a few folks were able to get snaps (again go check it out at dot org).
We ran into a few & hung out a little bit with the few people we knew but mostly it was a film crowd who seemed pretty much into an actor/musician named John Doe. Ben Fong Torres was the emcee. He was good and actually very funny! Scotto was stoked to be speaking with him after the show. Another funny guy was there= Don Novello aka Father Guido Sarducci. A fellow involved with the film's music spoke.. He seemed familiar ...when someone said it was Radio's Jim Dunbar's kid-also named Jim, I laughed- I went thru High School on the Peninsula with Jim. Perhaps if I had looked into going to one of the reunions, I'd had an easier time recognizing him. And of course, Bobby, Jay & Wass were there and looking happy.
Great film- First step in understanding where GD music is coming from. We saw this over the Summer and it was great! Lots of Bobby commenting too.
INSPIRING JUG BAND DOCUMENTARY TO BE FEATURED AT WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL OCTOBER 13TH
Tickets Going Fast for Premiere Screening of "Chasin' Gus' Ghost"
Woodstock, New York has a deep connection with film and music. The area was featured in "Woodstock," a documentary about the best-known music festival of all time. Another famous film, "The Last Waltz," features The Band, which made Woodstock their home for many years, as did Bob Dylan, a featured performer in that Scorsese film.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Sebastian, another Woodstock resident and 1969 Woodstock festival performer, is featured in the new film "Chasin' Gus' Ghost," which will make its debut on October 13th at the Woodstock Film Festival.
In recent years, the Woodstock Film Festival has emerged as one of the country's premier festivals and has screened many music documentaries including "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" and "My Generation." The 2007 festival will feature "The Future Is Unwritten," "Living The Blues," the Bob Dylan-inspired "I'm Not There" and "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" - a film that takes us on a three-continent journey to explore the legacy of jug band music and the influence it has had on artists such as John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful), Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) and Geoff and Maria Muldaur.
What: "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" at the Woodstock Film Festival When: October 13th at 10PM Where: Bearsville Theater (291 Tinker Street) More info: The box office is located at the Woodstock Playhouse (corner of route 212 & 375). Tickets are $10.
Film trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S3kZK2EBTwE www.chasinggusghost.com www.woodstockfilmfestival.com
Thanks out to everyone participating in the great birthday present for Bobby! All books are done- just waiting on a few cover pictures and that's it- off to be printed up!
Eighteen months before the Summer of Love, a handful of San Francisco performance artists, filmmakers, musicians, entrepreneurs and futurists planted the seeds of countercultural happenings. The result: the Trips Festival, a mind-blowing three-day multimedia rock show featuring guerilla theater, light shows and music by the Grateful Dead. For many celebrants, the event—replete with LSD-spiked ice cream—proved a transformative experience that would radiate throughout the culture. Filmmaker Eric Christensen shows how the Trips Festival became the blueprint for Burning Man, raves and much more. The festival inspired its presenter, Bill Graham, to book his first rock show at the Fillmore Auditorium; its producer, Stewart Brand, would go on to create the seminal Whole Earth Catalog and pioneering online community the Well. Narrator Peter Coyote likens this hip happening to “the proverbial lightning bolt that hit the primordial soup ... just the right spark to create a new life form.” Get on the bus.... World Premiere
first 2 Bobby 60th Birthday books look great! Folks whose messages & pictures are in those 2 will receive an email of their page in the next few daze. still some room left in the last book for messages/pictures! Email me any messages or pix you would like to have added! Thanks to everyone who has sent stuff!
WLOY Auctions Autographed Guitar For Charity 2007-09-27 12:15:38.037, Story by: Michael Tedder Loyola College's WLOY is auctioning off an autographed Epiphone Les Paul to raise money for the Middle Grades Partnership. The Baltimore-based college radio station worked with music venue Ramshead Live! to obtain signatures from a variety of luminaries. Artists that put their John Hancock on the guitar include: Lindsey Buckingham, Bob Weir, Zakk Wylde, Peter Frampton, Breaking Benjamin, Joe Satriani, Michael Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies and Keb' Mo'.
The Middle Grades Partnership provides access to private school resources and teachers for promising public middle students. Last year, WLOY raised more than $10,000 in recovery aid for Xavier University in New Orleans. As part of the campus-wide Year Of The City initiative, the Loyola College student body focused on volunteer work within their own community.
"We realized that we were all fortunate to be able to attend college, but for some of Baltimore's youth, the reality is that they will never even graduate high school," says station general manager Tim McGee. "The Middle Grades Partnership was selected with the goal of helping Baltimore City youth overcome the barriers preventing them from fully embracing the educational opportunities that this community has to offer."
Bidding for the guitar will begin October 12 on eBay.
Marin musicians play a last round at Sweetwater, which might reopen at new site By Paul Liberatore Article Launched: 09/25/2007 05:30:59 PM PDT
It ended just as it began 37 years ago - with music. Only this time, music shared the evening with memories.
Monday night was the historic last show at Sweetwater, a semi-private guest list affair that was the swan song for the beloved roots music club at its landmark 153 Throckmorton Ave. address.
With its familiar maroon awning and guitar logo, Sweetwater has been a point of pride in Mill Valley, part of the little town's rock 'n' roll heritage.
As a procession of prominent Marin musicians sat in with a house band, the finale felt less like a wake for what had been and more like a celebration of the past and perhaps a promise of the future.
In any case, everyone, it seemed, had a Sweetwater story.
Folk music legend Ramblin' Jack Elliott opened the show with a rendition of "Me and Bobby McGee." Afterward, with his guitar slung in a soft case over his shoulder, he came off stage and wandered into the crowd, thinking about his late wife, Jan.
"This is where I met her," he said, making himself heard above the din, and then, pointing, as if he could still see her: "She was right over there."
Mark Fishkin, founder of the Mill Valley Film Festival, now in its 30th year, recalled memorable concerts the festival
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had hosted over the decades in the intimate, living-room-like club. "This is a sad day, but it brings back a lot of good memories," he told me. "Thirty years ago, I stood beside this stage and watched a show. Tonight, I thought, gee, this is the last time I'll ever do that."
Sitting in a place of honor in the back of the club, Sweetwater's longtime general manager, John "J.B." Baracco, gazed contentedly over the crush of dancing, heat-generating bodies, clearly enjoying a set by the blues guitarist Mike Schermer.
"This is why I've been here for the last 30 years," he said, grinning. "There's nothing like live music in a small club."
Downstairs, in Sweetwater's rickety, low-ceiling basement, its walls papered with peeling concert posters and yellowed newspaper reviews of long past shows, famous and not-so-famous musicians hung out together, waiting their turn on stage, tuning guitars, picking out songs on a battered old upright piano, reminiscing about a place they could scarcely believe would be gone when the night was over.
"When we first moved to Marin in 1970, this is the first place we ever played," remembered Chris Rowan of the Rowan Brothers, sinking into a comfortably worn couch with a sigh.
"I'm ashamed it came to this," his brother, Lorin, chimed in, referring to the club losing its lease in a less than amicable parting of the ways with its landlord. "In this town, this place is our connection to our history. It is our history."
Dan Hicks, who's been part of Mill Valley's history longer than Sweetwater has, hadn't quite come to terms with his feelings over losing a club where he recently sang jazz tunes on leisurely Sunday afternoons.
"I think the impact will hit home for me when I walk by this place and there's just nothing there," he said.
On stage upstairs, Sweetwater mainstay Heather Combs was singing a fitting song for the occasion, getting the audience to join in on the chorus, "Let's raise a glass and toast the good times."
With that, Sweetwater owners Becky and Thom Steere came up and thanked their staff and their many supporters, their voices breaking with emotion.
Paraphrasing the Grateful Dead, Thom said, "It's been a long, great trip. Sweetwater has been a piece of the fabric, the quilt of Mill Valley."
His remark was a reference to the iconic, circular mandala quilt that was conspicuously absent from its place on the right side of the stage, leaving its outline on a bare, barnwood wall. It had hung there seemingly forever, until one morning last week, when thieves broke in and stole it, taking a symbol of Sweetwater's homespun image.
Oddly, the evening's surprise performance came not from a musician, but from lawyer Doug Ferguson, the club's attorney. He announced from the stage that he and the Steeres were nearing approval on a lease for a building in downtown Mill Valley that will be the home of "a new, slightly less funky Sweetwater."
He wouldn't say where the new edition of the club would be, only to say that if you had a good arm, you could hit it with a baseball. He told the crowd that the Steeres must raise $250,000 in move-in costs, and he called for help from generous investors.
"I think we're going to have a great time making the new Sweetwater," he said. Thom Steere said he hoped to open Jan. 1, "but that depends on a lot of things."
In the meantime, not everyone was lamenting the loss of the existing building, which is stuffy, poorly ventilated and lacking in basic creature comforts, even working bathrooms. Performers and patrons alike had to use porta-potties on the sidewalk outside.
Mill Valley's Bob Weir, fingering an electric guitar as he waited to follow Sammy Hagar on stage, mentioned a gig he played at Sweetwater just last week with former Grateful Dead bandmate Donna Jean Godchaux.
"It was so hot I was close to having a heat stroke," he said. "I think I might like the new place better."
Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at liberatore@marinij.com
............ I guess the last time I checked in here was right before I headed over to Sweetwater for Donna Jean's show. a great night! More in a little while- I am in the middle of all kinds of projects right now but I'll try to bring everything up to date! ........ I was bummed Kemmie wasnt able to sprint across the Bay to see Donna Jean with me. Scott had planned a camping trip and was leaving at 3 am and stayed home to pack up. I was solo but barely out of my car when I ran into friends. A clean bright port a potty was on the sidewalk in front. Though Donna wasnt due on stage for another 1/2 hour, the place was pretty close to being totally packed. In fact, the show was sold out. Lots of folks just hung out on the sidewalk in front. . No rail or side stage for me but I found a friend in the back corner and stayed there most of the evening. Several sources were informed that there would be a Bobby sit in. All the signs were there that this was happening- most notably was the amount of old GD 'family' spotted around Mill Valley. By now, you can see pictures that Betty Cantor, Mountain Girl & JP Barlow were at the show. No matter how many times I see any of them around, I still feel like I'm bumping into familiar charactors from a book I read in my childhood. At some point in the night, my son called me to tell me he was coming to Sweetwater to pick up some baseball tickets from me. It was pretty weird to step outside and find my kid standing next to Mountain Girl & John Perry. I soooo wanted to tell him that that guy across from him wrote the lyrics to Cassidy . Jase and I were in role reversal mode.
Me; Honey, do you want to come inside and see the show ???(I had an extra) My 20 something year old kid: No Mom, NO- I have to get to bed- I don't want to be tired at work. Me: Are you sure? Jase: Goodnight Mom!!!- Don't stay out too late, please!!!
Then he gave me a kiss and off he ran. I said "Hi" to another friend and headed back inside. Just in time to squeeze back into my corner. Standing on my barstool (a little scary for a person of my age and width) there was Donna rasiant and Bobby so handsome! They played a few songs - which were beautifully played and sung and the good energy was everywhere! It was over for me after Bobby left...I wouldve enjoyed staying but I too had to work the next morning . It was lovely while it lasted, I'll miss Sweetwater on Throckmorton - seen some great shows and been to some wonderful events there too.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Buzz Editor's Column: Sirius Satellite radio writes new entry in Grateful Dead timeline By ALAN SHECKTER - Buzz Editor Article Launched: 09/20/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT
The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir is pictured recently in Sirius Satellite Radio's studios in New York... On Sept. 7, Sirius Satellite radio, which streams some 120 mostly commercial-free stations for a $12.95 monthly, began beaming its latest, the Grateful Dead Channel. Not surprisingly, given the band's massive live concert archive and its popularity —The Dead was typically among the leaders in annual concert attendance despite a dearth of hit albums — Sirius called it one of the most anticipated channel launches in its history.
Dead percussionist Mickey Hart, who is coming to Chico's Laxson Auditorium Sept. 27 with his Global Drum group, said he loves it. I trust he's getting royalties from the station, though in a phone interview he seemed unclear, and uninterested, how much that might be.
"I'm over the top with it," Hart said via phone from his Sonoma County home. "I don't sit and listen to Grateful Dead music; all I hear are the mistakes. But the other day I turned it on and started playing (drums) to it. I had two or three hours with it and was just overjoyed, and it was so good and it gave me chills."
The channel features an unending array of live material culled from 30 years of live performances —including complete live concerts each day — as well as occasional new and archival interviews.
For me personally, it's a swell development, like the day they invented something called ESPN or MTV. After attending a Grateful Dead show at the Tower Theatre near Philadelphia in 1976, I dabbled in the traveling musical carnival until it
ended with Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. I never dropped out of society or quit my job to go on the road with The Dead. For us, we were like baseball fans following our team. And with a repertoire of a couple hundred songs, and only about 15 to 20 getting played each night, every game's (or concert's) boxscore was different. Of course, while many might cringe at the thought of such an idea, a 24-hour-a-day network dedicated to the San Francisco band —"Darned hippies!" they may say — I'd like to point out how far the technology has come for those of us who've embraced Grateful Dead music.
Trading recordings of the band's live recordings can be traced back to the Free Underground Grateful Dead Tape Exchange on the early 1970s. Though it's common now for many bands' fans to record and swap shows, these audio pioneers recognized the uniqueness of each show and recorded them for posterity.
Trouble was, making copies was tedious and logistically difficult. Worse, the quality of audio cassettes, the universal medium for many years, steadily declined from copy to copy. A seventh-generation version of what was once a pristine sound board tape became a hissy mess after it had been copied from cassette to cassette.
Nowadays, folks who still trade live music material do so digitally, of course, so the sound loss has been eliminated. And sites such as www.sugarmegs.org and www.archive.org offer giant banks of audio files.
And now, when I'm in my pickup, I not only have ESPN radio, CNN radio and many cool music stations, but I have the ultimate live mix of Grateful Dead music at my fingertips.
By the way, many academic courses have been devoted to the sociology of the Grateful Dead community. And Tuesday it was announced that the University of Massachusetts in November will host the first major university conference on the enduring legacy of the Grateful Dead experience.
Buzz Editor Alan Sheckter can be reached at 896-7771 or buzz@chicoer.com.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Woo! Busy days here! Benefit season approaches and I'm elbow deep in making papery items for schwag bags! Lots of work but I love the challenge and the opportunity to make an occasion more festive. Also, I'm finishing up Bobby's birthday book. There were so many pictures & messages that there will be 4 books (volumes 1-4)!!!! Books 1 &2 are ready to be sent to be put in a hardcover. Still touching up the other 2 books. There's almost enough stuff to create a 5th book. If you want to email a picture or birthday message- you need to do ASAP!
Speaking of Berthadaze, belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Maile!!!!
And here's a few pictures of my birthday boy saying "Hello" and sadly, "Good Bye" to Mill Valley's Sweetwater Saloon & Village Music record shop.
.............................
Paul Liberatore: Whither Sweetwater?
Article Launched: 09/06/2007 08:23:39 PM PDT
You may be wondering why Sweetwater is still open. I got back from a two-week vacation and wondered the same thing.
Originally, the beloved Mill Valley club had reached an agreement with its landlord to leave at the end of August. That date was subsequently extended until the end of September.
Apparently, the owner of the building was so anxious to get Sweetwater out so he could begin remodeling and renovating that he neglected to get all the necessary permits from the city. So the club was allowed to stay open for another month.
As it stands now, Sweetwater is booked through Sept. 22, with Mother Hips playing the last scheduled show. Owners Thom and Becky Steere are planning a couple of semi-private farewell concerts on Sept. 23 and 24, and that will be it - no more extensions, no more month-to-month lease arrangements like in the past.
"A lot of people don't believe we're closing, but it's a done deal," Becky Steere said. "We have to be out by the 30th."
The Steeres will be allowed to take everything with them - the decades of rock memorabilia, the photos of Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker and Jerry Garcia and all the greats who graced the Sweetwater stage over the past 30 years.
All that
Advertisement stuff - even the bar and the barn wood on the walls - will go into storage until Sweetwater finds a new home. "We're not going to go away," Becky vows.
The Steeres are determined to reopen Sweetwater somewhere in Mill Valley, and they've been looking at a number of sites, including the former Greenwood gift shop on Miller Avenue.
Village Music's John Goddard tells me that his landlord would love to see Sweetwater move into his old space on East Blithedale after he closes at the end of the month.
The Village Music building needs some work and is hampered by a low ceiling that's not ideal acoustically, but a sound engineer for the Grateful Dead checked it out and concluded that it could work well enough for live music.
There would be something sweetly synchronous in Sweetwater replacing Village Music. And it would be nice for the club to have a sympathetic landlord. But we'll see.
One prediction is that a new Sweetwater could reopen somewhere before the end of the year, but the Steeres aren't so sure it can happen that soon.
"I highly doubt it," Becky Steere said.
In any event, this interim period gives people who want to preserve Marin's rock and pop musical heritage a chance to talk about what they'd like a new performance space to look like.
A couple of weeks ago, while my partner and I were visiting Cambridge, Mass., we spent an evening listening to music at Passim, the legendary folk club on Harvard Square.
Originally called Club 47, Passim was the epicenter of the '60s folk boom. The subterranean space nurtured the early careers of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne and a long list of others. As it approaches its 50th anniversary, it's still doing that for a new generation of musicians.
A nonprofit organization, Passim is a little brick-floored room below street level that seats only 125 people. Owner Bob Donlin says, "Music comes out of the walls in this place," and I could feel something sweetly spiritual in its cool underground atmosphere as we descended the stairs and found our seats before the show.
Passim has no bar and no booze, only a small vegetarian restaurant in the back. The wait staff doesn't serve while musicians are on stage, so you don't have to suffer through all the noise and distraction that is so annoying while you're trying to listen to music in a bar.
A couple of young singer/songwriters performed the night we were there. We could see them and hear every note and every lyric. I can't remember a more pleasant evening in a club.
"The music is our No. 1 priority," manager Matt Smith told me. "We're all about the listening experience."
I came away thinking that there is really no reason why Marin County, with all its wealth and sophistication, can't have its own version of a listening room like that.
I can't tell you how many people have e-mailed me, asking what they could do to keep Sweetwater alive. Perhaps something modeled after Passim is the answer.
As a nonprofit folk music and cultural center, it supports itself through individual and group memberships and donations, corporate sponsorships, fundraising campaigns and celebrity and legacy benefit concerts. Baez, who first sang there when she was 17, returns for a show next spring.
In addition to the folk club, Passim has an historic archive, a children's program and a music school offering classes in guitar, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica and the like.
When I mentioned the nonprofit idea to Becky Steere, she was open, even enthusiastic, to the possibility. If nothing else, it would free Sweetwater from having to have a bar in order to afford the high rents in Mill Valley.
Lucy Mercer, who's done a brilliant job with her 142 Throckmorton Theatre across the street from the soon-to-be-former Sweetwater, told me about a new nonprofit organization she's launched called Mill Valley Live Arts, formed "to preserve the cultural integrity of the arts."
"People are coming out of the woodwork, saying, 'What can I do?,'" she said. "We have to ask ourselves, 'What are our values?' As a community, we have to say that it's important to preserve what we have."
And maybe, by turning a cultural tragedy such as the closing of Sweetwater into an artistic opportunity to create something new and better, we can not only preserve what we have, but actually improve on it.
Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
How awesome is that Stereo?
I was looking through a box of old photos and here is one from my 9th birthday (12/31/1967). I had asked for & received my first vinyl-an album by the Monkees! You can see the cover on the coffee table. I'm dancing with enthusiasm for my parents. My passion for Rock & Roll was just in the beginning stages. No telling how many albums I wore out until I got into 8 track tapes and after that, discs. These days, I'm all iTunes & Sirius but once upon a time there was the thrill of vinyl.
Tomorrow, my "Baby" turns 13! This Summer he discovered Classic Rock. Scott brought home a digital turntable and Noah spent weeks spinning old vinyl records into the computer. He's thrown himself completely into music. The times we walked in SF without getting sucked into a used record store are over. Noah has been following along with interest about the fate of Village Music and so tomorrow- after a quick birthday lunch with my other son, Jason (who works in Mill Valley). Noah will take his birthday money and have at it on his one and likely only visit to Village Music!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Rumors and finally a confirmation...that the Bobstar was sitting in with Jelly & Pat Nevins in Mill Valley at Sweetwater. With total assurance from a friend known for having his "Finger on the pulse", I dashed out and made it to Sweetwater in time to snag a key spot by the stage. Within moments of settling the show began with members of Jelly & Grapefruit Ed opening up with a few Grateful Dead tunes. After just 2 songs Bobby was on stage and what a treat! I have a couple of phone pix here but wait til you see ones by the local camera kids.
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Stars will be on hand to celebrate 30th year of Mill Valley Film Festival By Paul Liberatore Article Launched: 09/11/2007 07:38:41 PM PDT
The Mill Valley Film Festival turns 30 in October, and a cluster of stars will be on hand to help celebrate this historic cinematic birthday, a Marin movie milestone.
Actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh and Laura Linney, actor Ben Affleck, Oscar-winning director Ang Lee and Irish director/writer Terry George are among the luminaries adding wattage to the 30th anniversary festival - Oct. 4 through 14.
"Of course we're looking back at our past this year, but we're also looking forward," said festival founder and executive director Mark Fishkin. "That's what the 30th is all about."
This year's lineup of 212 films from 49 countries, including 14 world premieres, 11 North American premieres and 13 U.S. premieres, was announced Tuesday at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco.
The festival presents two opening-night films: Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution," an erotic espionage thriller starring Joan Chen, and "The Savages," a family "dramedy" co-starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
For its 30th birthday, the festival brings its opening night gala back to the plaza in downtown Mill Valley, the scene of many great opening night bashes in the past.
"The Kite Runner," a big-screen adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's best-selling
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novel, closes the 11-day feast of films on Oct. 14. After the screening, the curtain comes down with a closing night party at the Mill Valley Community Center. Ang Lee, a festival fixture and one of its ardent supporters, will be honored with an Oct. 5 tribute that includes clips from his films and an on-stage conversation with him at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center. It's followed by a reception at the Mill Valley Outdoor Art Club.
The festival shines its "spotlight" on Jason Leigh with an Oct. 13 screening of "Margot at the Wedding," a sardonic family drama also starring Nicole Kidman and Jack Black, at the Rafael Film Center. An on-stage conversation with Jason Leigh follows the film.
Terry George also gets the spotlight treatment with an Oct. 10 screening of his new movie, "Reservation Road," at the Rafael, followed by a conversation with the director of such films as "Hotel Rwanda" and "Some Mother's Son." The stars of "Reservation Road," Mark Ruffalo and Mira Sorvino, have been invited to attend.
On Oct. 11 at the Rafael, a "centerpiece" screening of "Man in the Chair," starring Christopher Plummer, includes an appearance by director Michael Schroeder and a reception at Gaylord India restaurant in Sausalito.
For the first time, all the honorees will be presented with a new Mill Valley Film Festival Award, a sculpted statuette designed by Mill Valley artist Alice Corning.
Affleck is expected for the Oct. 9 showing of "Gone Baby Gone," which he wrote, produced and directed. It stars his younger brother, Casey Affleck.
The festival takes a look back at its debut year, 1978, when Marin director John Korty was honored with the first festival tribute. Thirty years later, Korty returns with a new digital master of "The Crazy Quilt," the 1966 Beat-era film he shot in West Marin.
Movies about music and live performances strike a power chord this year.
The Marin Symphony teams with the festival on Oct. 7 and 9, performing a new score by Dmitri Shostakovich for a screening of Sergei M. Eisenstein's 1925 black and white silent film classic, "Battleship Potemkin," at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
Cate Blanchett takes an adventurous star turn as a Bob Dylan-esque rebel rock star in "I'm Not There," a pseudo-biography of Dylan directed by Todd Haynes. Capping the Oct. 7 screening is an evening of Dylan music at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre with Ramblin' Jack Elliott, one of Dylan's earliest influences, plus Dan Hicks, Dylan interpreter Tom Corwin, Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman and John Doe, among other top musicians.
"Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" looks at the British punk scene through the life of Joe Strummer of the Clash. After the Oct. 12 screening at the Sequoia Theatre in Mill Valley, vintage punk rocker Pearl Harbour headlines a concert at 142 Throckmorton.
"Control" also delves into the darkness of punk rock, telling the sad story of British singer Ian Curtis of the '80s band Joy Division, a suicide at 23.
"The Trips Festival," a documentary by Marin filmmaker Eric Christensen, takes viewers back to the 1960s counterculture happening known as the Trips Festival, three days of guerilla theater, light shows and music by the Grateful Dead.
While "The Trips Festival" documents the counterculture, the politics of the New Left come into focus with "The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry," a documentary on the radical Black Panther lawyer.
As for the future, the festival looks ahead with a New Movies Lab, an extensive Children's Filmfest and a California Film Institute Education program aimed at building the next generation of filmmakers and movie audiences.
In a special pre-festival presentation, "Into the Wild," based on John Krakauer's bestseller, will be screened this Thursday evening at the Rafael Film Center.
Actor-writer-director Sean Penn and 22-year-old actor Emile Hirsch, who stars in this film about a young man's journey into the Alaskan wilderness, will discuss the movie after the screening and mingle with film-goers at a reception at San Rafael Joe's.
At Tuesday's press conference, Zoe Elton, director of programming, was asked how she feels about the 30th anniversary.
"After 30 years," she said with a smile, "maybe we've got this film festival thing down."
If you go: Tickets for the Oct. 4-14 Mill Valley Film Festival go on sale to California Film Institute members Wednesday and to the public on Sunday. For tickets, call 877-874-6833.
Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at liberatore@marinij.com
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Stars pay tribute to Mill Valley record shop owner Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic Tuesday, September 11, 2007 SF Chronicle
Bettye LaVette wept as she talked about John Goddard, owner of the Mill Valley record store, Village Music, which closes this month after more than 60 years. LaVette was a forgotten rhythm and blues vocalist with nothing going on when Goddard called her five years ago and asked her to play one of his birthday parties at the Sweetwater. She has since recorded two albums - the second, "Scene of the Crime," is due to be released next month and was produced by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers - and found a national audience for herself, success and acclaim she never knew as a younger performer. "Thanks to John," she told the Great American Music Hall audience on Sunday at a tribute concert to Goddard, "I can send my grandchildren an allowance every week for the first time in my life." LaVette, whose specialty as a vocalist is raw emotion, was only the most visibly moved of the evening's performers. With Goddard and his wife seated front row center, the entire procession of performers - from rock stars Sammy Hagar and Bob Weir to rhythm and blues pioneers Jimmy McCracklin and Sugar Pie DeSanto - played their shows directly to Goddard. The Music Hall event was the second live music extravaganza to be thrown in Goddard's honor. Bonnie Raitt, '50s rock 'n' roller Frankie Ford, John Sebastian with David Grisman and others appeared last month at Mill Valley's 142 Throckmorton Theatre and then spilled across the street to the Sweetwater, where the music continued into the early hours. Obviously, this guy did more for these musicians than give them discounts on records they bought from him. When someone as clearly crusty and wary as LaVette cries while she credits Goddard with igniting her career, it's proof positive that Goddard was more than another record store owner. The show Sunday featured many of the same performers who, over the years, graced the stage at Goddard's Sweetwater soirees. With an audience full of musicians and other with-it scenesters, McCracklin can perform his 1958 R&B hit, "The Walk," to a roomful of people who get it. Musical director and the evening's host Scott Mathews early on dubbed the house band "Village Idiots" and called the crowd "Village People." The evening began with the highly energetic DeSanto, a 72-year-old live wire who used to run around the Fillmore with Etta James when they were teenagers. Slide guitarist Roy Rogers sounded like he grew up in Mississippi, not Richmond. McCracklin led the band with exuberance and authority. Sammy Hagar doesn't play a lot of clubs and admitted to being nervous. "I have been drinking," he allowed. With his own well-oiled band behind him, playing at a volume that suited the small room, Hagar threw together a wonderful four-song set that included "Right Now," a song out of his days with Van Halen that Hagar said he'd given a "California psychedelic" arrangement. He also offered a brand new song he said the band had never performed in public. Bob Weir - like Hagar, a longtime Mill Valley resident and Village Music customer - was the evening's surprise guest, offering a long, skillful set of improvisations with bassist Rob Wasserman and drummer Jay Lane over a variety of material, from Dylan to the Dead. But it was the Collins Kids - along with the evening's final act, LaVette - who best represent the Village Music spirit. Lorrie and Larry Collins were child rockabilly stars on '50s Los Angeles TV and made a series of great records known only to a few. They live in Reno and perform only occasionally at rockabilly festivals in Europe. But they are two electrifying performers who have somehow managed to escape the attention of the music business. Lorrie Collins is a cowgirl queen with a big, booming voice and killer smile. Her brother is a fleet-fingered master of the double-necked Mosrite guitar he learned to play when he was a 10-year-old cast member of "Town Hall Party." Followed by LaVette's intensely wrought, masterful blues singing, the show returned to what Village Music is all about after the star turns by his famous clientele. E-mail Joel Selvin at jselvin@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle ......... Okay who can translate this? http://ola-i-nord.blogspot.com/2007/08/om-alembic.html
I didnt go to the Goodbye party for Village Music which happened last night at GAMH but thank goodness somebody did! And blogged about it-> click here!! Earlier in the day, Bobby & family were in Chicago, cheering on racecar driver Leilani Munter (there's a link to her website on the right). Some photos (which are beautiful) may be seen over on dot org!
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Sweetwater is proud to present:
Donna Jean And The Tricksters September 20, 2007 9:00pm $20
Artist Information for: Donna Jean And The Tricksters http://www.donnajeanandthetricksters.com/
Donna Jean Thatcher (Godchaux MacKay) was born to sing, and over the course of time she’s done so with people like Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, Boz Scaggs, and Jerry Garcia. Now she has a new band that she’s quite certain is on a creative par with anything she’s ever done. “This band is a perfect fit for me as a singer/songwriter,” she said recently, “and I hope to be doing this for a long time to come. We’re having so much fun with this music!” The Grateful Dead alumna has joined up with six members of the next musical generation – Mookie Siegel (David Nelson Band; formerly Phil & Friends, RatDog), Wendy Lanter (Hope in Time), and Jeff Mattson, Tom Circosta, Klyph Black and Dave Diamond (Zen Tricksters) to form Donna Jean and the Tricksters. Look out! Things have come full circle and anything’s possible. Oh, sure, they’re gonna jam. But the band has seven vocalists and an incredible array of songwriting talent, and DJ&tT is going to make waves in ways you’d never anticipate. Born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Donna Jean was a vocalist at both Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and Fame Studios, home of the legendary “Muscle Shoals Sound,” on records like Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman,” and Boz Scagg’s eponymous first solo album. She moved to San Francisco, married Keith Godchaux, and spent the 1970s as a vocalist in the Grateful Dead as well as the Jerry Garcia Band. After life with the Dead, she and Keith created the Heart of Gold Band with drummer Greg Anton. Following various side trips, she resumed serious focus on her singing in the ‘90s, recording a new Heart of Gold Band album, At the Table, and singing with Phil & Friends and her own Donna Jean Band. But it was at a benefit concert for the Dead’s Rex Foundation in 2006, The Black Tie-Dyed Ball, that she bonded with the Tricksters and decided that she’d found her future. The Zen Tricksters began on Long Island in the early 1980s. Lead by guitar wizard Jeff Mattson, the ZT have played for more than 20 years, establishing records at the legendary Wetlands Preserve and taking part in every Gathering of the Vibes. With Klyph Black on funky, blues-based bass and vocals (and slide and dobro), Tom Circosta on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Dave Diamond on drums, percussion, and vocals, the ZT rapidly became known as the best Dead-oriented band around – and a great deal more. After a substantial career doing session work, Wendy Lanter joined with Tom Circosta to create the band Hope in Time as a platform for their original music. She is a fabulous vocalist, adding angelic harmonies to Donna Jean’s work. Finally, Mookie Siegel (keyboards and vocals) emerged from Baltimore in the ‘80s to become a member of such bands as the David Nelson (New Riders of the Purple Sage) Band, Bob Weir’s RatDog, and Phil Lesh & Friends. Yet this band – a felicitous combination of experience and youth, with skills that cross all musical genres and defy category – is a great deal more than even the sum of its parts. Something happened when they met – and DJ&tT is now (3/07) going into the studio to show you what that was.
It's been a busy week. The kids and I are at back in school. Many thanks to those who have emailed or snailed Birthday things to me for the Bobby Book. It's getting bigger everyday but I'm going to need to put it together very soon so no more delays on sending stuff to be included! .................... Here's some news from The Rex Foundation: Dear Friends,
Take out your calendars and get on board the Rex Musical Caravan to enjoy great music and connections on the East and West coasts, all in support of the Rex Foundation. The following events bring to life another whole dimension of the Rex Community Caravan, demonstrating how the musical community of performers and fans are helping further what the Grateful Dead started 24 years ago:
Friday, September 14th, Rex Foundation Black Tie-Dye Ball with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and special guests Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay and Mookie Siegel, and opening with Boris Garcia, at The State Theatre in Falls Church, VA. Join us for the pre-concert reception with great food, including delicacies from the award winning DC restaurant Equinox, mingling with the artists and special guest Dennis McNally. Thursday, October 4th, Rex Foundation Black Tie-Dye Ball with Dark Star Orchestra at The Fillmore in San Francisco, celebrating the special Dark Star Orchestra Rex Caravan Tour, where all shows between September 26 and October 20 include $1 per ticket sold for the Rex Foundation. Join us for a pre-concert reception with the artists, great food and connection.
Thursday, October 4th, Assembly of Dust with JJ Grey & Mofro, The Roxy, Boston, MA, designating $1 per ticket sold for the Rex Foundation. October 4th through November 3rd, The Ryan Montbleau Band’s Patience on Friday CD Release Tour includes many shows with ticket sale contributions to the Rex Foundation. Saturday, November 17th, Donna the Buffalo, Ollabelle and special guest David Gans at the Highline Ballroom in New York City, where $5 per ticket sold will be contributed to the Rex Foundation. Join us for a special pre-concert reception with the performers and great concert seats.
In the Works: Saturday, December 1st, Rex Foundation Benefit, San Francisco
We look forward to celebrating with you to enjoy the music and spirit of the Rex Community Caravan.
Thank you for all of your support!
Sandy Sohcot Executive Director ...........................
Sunday, September 02, 2007
I had a bit of time and thought I'd look at some of my old videos from when I use to trade. Here's one I havent seen online yet- Bobbby & Company singing the national anthem at the last Giants game played at Candlestick Park.
I'm collecting (via email but snaily could work I guess?) birthday messages & photos from Weirophiles to be put together into a book (assembled by Apple).
It will get to Bobby by 10/16. Send pix or a message or both to Weirfreaks@mac.com
Friday, August 31, 2007
From Deadnet:
Bob Weir: Norway '07!
Completists will want to start looking for a copy of Bob Weir's latest musical appearance, as reported to us by our exclusive Norwegian correspondent, Peter Aas:
Last Saturday (8/25), Petter Olsen, billionaire philanthropist, organic farmer and Dead Head, arranged a private "Summer of Love Revisited, 40 Years After" festival at his estate just south of Oslo, Norway. Petter had invited Bob Weir over for the party as his private guest and Bob flew over right after his tour finished in NJ last Wednesday. We convinced Bobby to join the local tribute band, The Deadaheads, on stage and he finished their set with "He's Gone" > "Truckin'" > "The Other One" > "Not Fade Away" > "One More Saturday Night." The crowd had no idea that he was there and went bananas when he came on stage.
Thanks for that report, Peter! Sounds like a good time was had by all. Who knew that Oslo had a Dead tribute band? We ARE everywhere! ......
Jack Straw Friend of the Devil Eyes of the World Scarlet Begonias He's Gone-> * Truckin'-> * The Other One * Fade Away * One More Saturday Night *
(* with Bob Weir)
the whole story from the band:
OK, here is the DEADAHEADS' Bob Weir story (in a bit broken English). Anyway:
The band played a gig last December in Oslo, and via some friends Peter Olsen (the billionaire that owns the farm Ramme Gård) got a CD of our show. One of the guys in the band "warned" us that Olsen was a deadhead, and that we might get a gig at his farm this summer. In February we got a mail from the director of cultural activities at Ramme, telling us that Olsen wanted us to play. We said "cool", and in a way forgot about it for a few months.
During May it became clear that the gig would be a part of a one-night festival, called Ramme Rokke Festival ("Rokke" has a double meanding, "Rock" and the fish "Stingray"). The other bands would be "CC Cowboys", "Home Groan" and the superb Neil Young cover band "Young Neils".
During our talks with the festival manager he once said that Olsen would try to get Bobby over, something we quietly laughed at, and called wishful thinking amongst ourselves. In June we got informed that Olsen actually had dinner with Weir in New York (?), and we knew of another Norwegian, Morten (the guy that tipped dead.net off with this story), also met Weir (we got a nice picture of them, backstage in NY, June 14.). But we still thought it was too far out to believe that Bobby actually would come to our gig, and in a way we decided not to focus on it.
During the summer we finally found our keyboard player (hard to find someone for that seat), and fooled back and forth with ideas for a setlist for Ramme.
Then, a week before the gig, we got the call we did not expect. "Bobby is coming as Olsen's private guest".
This certainly made the whole thing slightly more serious, but we were of course thrilled as well. We planned (and planted) the idea that we would love it if he came up for a OMSN. We thought it was a 50/50 chance, maybe he would come up, maybe he wouldn't.
Then, after our sound check at Ramme last Saturday, we were hanging out and he came walking over to us, handshaking everybody in the band, saying: "I would love to come up and play with you guys". But he said he needed a guitar.
So we went up on the stage, gave him a guitar, and he made ONE preset on the Line 6 amp he used during the gig. He had seen our setlist from before, and said he would like to come on for He's Gone, but he was jet lagged, and needed to take a nap.
So we went on stage at 4 pm, and played Jack Straw, FOTD, Eyes and Scarlet, without seeing him anywhere. After Scarlet he all of a sudden stood backstage, looking in at us, and we realized our dream was about to come true...
The rest of the story (the sound) is hopefully available in a little while. In respect of Bobby we feel a bit obligated to make sure that it is OK to spread the soundboard recording. Allot of video was shot as well, and we hope to make that available in not to long, as well.
That is more or less the story from our point of view. The truth is that we have no idea how Olsen got him to Norway, but we know they had talks about environmental issues, and that we owe both Bob Weir and Petter Olsen everything for letting this happen.
A million (or even a billion) thanks to them both!
-- I'm collecting (via email but snaily could work I guess?) birthday messages & photos from Weirophiles to be put together into a book (assembled by Apple).
It will get to Bobby by 10/16. Send pix or a message or both to Weirfreaks@mac.com
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AFTER TRIUMPHANT SAN FRANCISCO PREMIERE, DOCUMENTARY "CHASIN' GUS' GHOST" SETS SIGHTS ON NEW YORK
JUG BAND FILM TO BE FEATURED AT WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL IN OCTOBER
"Chasin' Gus' Ghost" (www.chasingusghost.com), a documentary film tracing the history and influence of jug band music, premiered at San Francisco's historic Roxie Theatre on August 25th to rave reviews. A sold-out concert the following night at Great American Music Hall, featuring many musicians from the film including the previously announced John Sebastian, David Grisman, Geoff Muldaur, and Jim Kweskin and a surprise appearance by Maria Muldaur, wrapped up a memorable Jug Band Weekend (as declared by San Francisco's mayor) and the annual San Francisco Jug Band Festival.
The film will make its East Coast debut during the Woodstock Film Festival, to be held in Woodstock, NY from October 10-14th, 2007. The festival has played host to a number of influential feature and documentary films including Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, Spellbound, and Pieces Of April, since its inception in 1999.
"Chasin' Gus' Ghost", directed by Todd Kwait, explores the influence of jug band luminary Gus Cannon (voice narration by Taj Mahal) - a musician who helped shape American roots music and also inspired many other well-known, chart-topping artists such as Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) and John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful). All About Jazz's Samuel Chell called it "an absorbing movie capable of inspiring a whole new generation of ghost-chasers."
Find the trailer, a recent featured music pick on YouTube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3kZK2EBTwE or http://www.chasingusghost.com
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I'm collecting (via email but snaily could work I guess?) birthday messages & photos from Weirophiles to be put together into a book (assembled by Apple).
It will get to Bobby by 10/16. Send pix or a message or both to Weirfreaks@mac.com
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sirius launch Grateful Dead Channel Former members to share hosting duties By SAM THIELMAN
The Dead live again on Sirius Satellite Radio's new Grateful Dead Channel. Sirius will launch an all-Dead, all the time channel at noon on Sept. 7 with the only known recording of the band's July 21, 1974 concert at the Hollywood Bowl .
Founding member Bob Weir will host a show following the performance, with other members of the Dead doing host duties for the channel's other original shows. Additional programming will feature rarities, previously unreleased recordings and archival interviews with late frontman Jerry Garcia.
The community around the music of the Grateful Dead is both long-standing and large, a fact acknowledged by Scott Greenstein, Sirius president of sports and entertainment. "The loyalty and passion of Grateful Dead fans are the truest testament to the band's legacy," he said.
The band's touring shows were famously lengthy and much-recorded, so Sirius has set a high bar for itself by promising fans exclusive and unreleased content.
The Grateful Dead Channel joins the ranks of Sirius music channels devoted to one artist or band, including Elvis Radio and Siriusly Sinatra.
Sirius Dead- This blogger just got turned on to the GD by tuning in Click here!
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Coming Up:
Saturday09/08 In The Dark Room, Club 6 http://www.clubsix1.com/next.php Band Of Brotherz / Alphabet Soup Artists Jay Lane Kenny Brooks Jeff Chimenti Zachariah Mose Charlie Bravo (CB) "Mic" Blake Kingpin Row DJ Teeko Joshi Marshall Troy Lampkin Sam Biggers
Featuring Members Of Ratdog 4OneFunk Primus Charlie Hunter Trio Don Carlos Band Mo'Fessionals Bop City Pacific Raw Deluxe and many more...
Price $10 Time 9pm-2am Music ...
Easily, the highlight of the weekend was being at the premiere of " Chasing Gus' Ghost" ton Saturday at the Roxie in SF. It's documentary about Jugbands, Jugband musicians such as Noah Lewis & especially about Gus Cannon.
Great stories behind a few songs the Grateful Dead covered. Many fine musicians were interviewed including Bobby Weir, Grisman & one of my favorites- Maria Muldaur. in one part of the movie, the filmakers go to the Minglewood from the song New Minglewood Blues to check out what made it worth wring a song about. Bobby shares a line from the old Jugband version that I know I never heard before.
A good documentary- I feel like I just took a semester's worth of Jug Band history.
I'll be back to write more on this later today. We had a great night and really enjoyed the film. ..... A blog entry aboutThe Grateful Dead on Google at mediaspin.com/blog
Bob Weir and RatDog will play the following shows. Steve Kimock will again join the Band for this tour.
Wednesday, November 7 at the Norva, Norfolk, VA. Doors open at 6:30. Show time is 7:30. All ages welcome. This is a General Admission show. Mail order tickets are available at $36.50 per ticket. ======== Thursday, November 8 at the Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte, NC. Show time is 7:30. All ages welcome. All seats are reserved. Mail order tickets are available at $59.00 or $39.00. A small amount of taper tickets will be provided at the $39.00 level. ======== Tuesday, November 13 at the Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL. Show time is 7:30. All ages welcome. All seats are reserved. Mail order tickets are available at $43.00 per ticket. A small taper section will be provided. ======== Wednesday, November 14 at the Florida Theatre, Jacksonville, FL. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Show time is 7:30 PM. All ages welcome. All seats are reserved. Mail order tickets are available at $41.00 per ticket. A small taper section will be provided. ======== Friday, November 16 at the House of Blues, Lake Buena Vista, FL. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show time is 8:00 PM. All ages welcome. This is a General Admission show. Mail order tickets are available at $39.00 per ticket. ======== Saturday, November 17 at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre, Boca Raton, Fl. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show time is 8:00 P.M All ages welcome. This is a General Admission show. Mail order tickets are available at $39.00 per ticket ======== First post mark dates for all these shows will be from Friday, August 24 through Tuesday, August 28. Mail order will remain open beyond those dates until further notice.
The Crew of GDTSTOO 8.24.2007
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"Winter rain, now tell me why Summers fade and roses die The answer came, the wind and rain...""
Here is information for the first stage of the RatDog Fall Tour, 2007. More to come soon.
Friday and Saturday, October 26 and 27 at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, Hampton, Beach, NH. Doors open at 6:00 PM. Show time if 8:00 PM. 18 years and over only, unless accompanied by parent. This is a General Admission show. Mail order tickets are available at $34.00 per ticket. ========= Sunday, October 28 at the Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, NH. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show time is 7:30 PM. All ages welcome. All seats are reserved. A taper section will be provided. Mail order tickets are available at either $ 61.00 and $51.00 per ticket. ========= Tuesday and Wednesday, October 30 and 31 at the North Fork Theater at Westbury. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Show time is 8:00 PM. All ages welcome. All seats are reserved. Mail order tickets are available at $45.50 per ticket. A taping section will be provided. ========= Friday, November 2 at the Memorial Auditorium, Burlington, VT. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show time is 8:00 PM. All ages welcome. This is a general admission show. Mail order tickets are available at $36.50 per ticket. ========= Saturday, November 3 at the Palace Theater, Albany, NY. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show time is 8:00 PM. All ages welcome. Reserved seats only. Mail order tickets are available at $41.50 per ticket. A small taping section will be provided. ======== Sunday, November 4 at the Eisenhower Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA.... Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show time is 7:30 PM. All ages welcome. All seats are reserved. Tickets are available at $39.00 per ticket. Taping has not yet been confirmed, so stay tuned on that. ======== First post mark dates for these shows will be Friday, August 24 through Monday, August 27. Mail order will remain open beyond those days until further notice. =================================================== Small detail about the Phil and Friends tour: The tickets for the Santa Barbara show will not be released for another couple of weeks, so don't worry that you haven't received them yet. Once they arrive they will be in the mail post haste.
We are moving along with all the Phil shows, so keep an eye on your mail boxes.
The Crew of GDTSTOO 8.23.07
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"The bells are ringing, it's way unreal Trying to tell y'all about just how it feels And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, for real"
Weir/Barlow
Web Site: http://www.gdtstoo.com email: GDTSTOO@gdtstoo.com Customer Service Number: (415) 898-2364 Monday-Friday,9 am-6pm, PST. To subscribe to our email announce list, send empty email to GDTSTOO-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Black Tie-Dye Ball In Celebration of the DSO Rex Caravan Tour Thursday, October 4, 2007
The Fillmore
1805 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94115 ss Tel: (415) 346-600
5:30-7:00 p.m. Drinks, Food, & Reception with Artists and Silent Auction Opens
8:00 p.m. Concert
Reception, Food and Concert Tickets: $125.00 (All but $50 is tax deductible). To order Reception and Concert Tickets call 415-561-3135 or download the Ticket Order Form
Concert Tickets Only: $30.00 available through The Fillmore, The Fillmore Box Office or Ticketmaster.
$1.00 of every ticket benefits the Rex Foundation
For more information, call 415-561-3134
With the upcoming DSO Rex Caravan Tour, Dark Star Orchestra is creating a model to further the Grateful Dead tradition started 24 years ago: connecting the entire concert community of musicians, promoters, producers and fans to help the Rex Foundation carry out its mission. Beginning with their performance at The Showbox on Wednesday, September 26, and continuing through their entire month-long fall tour, Dark Star Orchestra will contribute $1 of each ticket sold to the Rex Foundation. Check out the DSO website for details on the tour schedule and tickets.
The October 4th Black Tie-Dye Ball is an opportunity to bring to life the Rex Community Caravan and celebrate with Dark Star Orchestra all that is made possible by such generosity, creativity and community spirit.
Thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you on October 4th.
Courtesy of the fine people involved with http://www.chasingusghost.com/ Weir Freaking has a pair of tix to the screening of Chasing Gus' Ghost this Saturday -August 25, 2007 9PM at Roxie New College Film Center, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco, CA
Our dear Bobby Weir is in this movie!
The 3rd person who can correctly name the Jugband instrument (or utensil?) that Bobby played in Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions wins! Post answer in comment! Thanks !!
............ DRIVE TIME Ticket to Ratdog was much more
By Mike Leidemann Advertiser Columnist
For some reason, I didn't want to tell the kids I had a ticket to a Ratdog concert.
There were 14 of us in all in the class — 13 twentysomethings and me — and I was having a little trouble bridging the generation gap. I figured that announcing I was going to a concert by a band that had its roots 15 years before they were born would do nothing to bring us closer. So I kept silent, even as many of them were discussing plans for a night on the town.
We were part of a summer study program in Boston. They were there to explore a career in urban design. I was there to get my head together after a tumultuous couple of years. We didn't seem to have much in common.
Somehow, though, when we were walking around South Boston that afternoon, I let it slip. What happened next blew me away, as we used to say in the '60s.
"Ratdog? You're going to Ratdog? No way! We want to come. Ratdog? Tonight? Hey, freakin' Mike — he was holding out on us. Ratdog!"
They started making plans, checking their wallets and text-messaging friends. In the end, eight or nine of us headed to the show.
The kids took me under their wings. They showed me how to buy half-priced tickets. They showed me how to crash the front-row seats. They showed me that the heart of rock 'n' roll is still beating. They showed me what I already knew: Good music has a way of breaking down generational barriers.
"How do you know all these Grateful Dead songs, anyway?" I asked one of the women during the break.
"My mom taught them all to me," she said. "She's kind of a Deadhead."
So we talked and danced and sang along with every song in the second set. A perfect night.
When Bob Weir and the guys returned for an encore and I heard the first few notes of "Brokedown Palace," I knew I was in trouble. The author Ken Kesey once said that he never understood the power of art until he heard Jerry Garcia play the solo part. It's a sad, soaring lullaby that always carries me back to the thoughts I was trying to escape by spending my summer on the Mainland.
"This song always tears me apart," I said, starting to cry even as I sang along lustily with every word:
Fare you well, fare you well
I loved you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul.
Then the beautiful young woman whose mom was a Deadhead reached out and gave me a big hug. "It's going to be all right," she said.
Once again, the music had worked its magic.
Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com. .................... Home > Entertainment A night to remember and savor from RatDog and the Allmans
By Jeff Miers NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC Updated: 08/20/07 6:52 AM
It’s such a privilege, sometimes, to go to a show such as Sunday’s and then be able to write about it. Musicians as good as those gathered on stage at Darien Lake for the Rat- Dog/Allmans gig are an absolute pleasure to watch and listen to. When they take the time to listen to each other, and let the music take an organic form, and live and breathe, the audience member feels like a lucky soul. Sometimes music can transport us to a better place. This night at Darien, with a full house along for the trip, it did that — over and over again.
What does one say about RatDog now? The band, under Bob Weir’s leadership, has become an ensemble on par with the Dead, which gave it birth. Even with guitarist Mark Karan out battling throat cancer, and newcomer Steve Kimock still “the new guy,” RatDog played one of the most moving sets of music it has ever played in our neck of the woods. That’s saying something, if you’ve seen the bands at the Town Ballroom over the last four years.
The band opened with “Here Comes Sunshine,” morphed fearlessly into Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” found a smooth segue into “Loser” and had no trouble finding a sort of psychedelic blues groove for “Money for Gasoline.”
Things got very interesting during “Loose Lucy,” as Weir made it plain that he’d come to leave some blood on the stage. His singing during this tune was both raucous and invigorated. Strapping on an acoustic for the latter-period Dead tune “Victim or the Crime,” Weir was stunning, his Keith Richardsesque rhythm guitar comping laying the foundation for a transcendent Kimock solo.
This all rolled sweetly into “Half-Step Mississippi Uptown Toodle-oo,” which the band tore into with a ravenous bite. “Samson and Delilah,” from Terrapin Station followed, and it was Reverend Gary Davis taken to the Chicago juke joint on a Saturday night. “Sugaree,” “Dark Star,” “Terrapin Flyer” and “Touch of Grey” — what more could anyone want?
Seeing the Allman Brothers Band after this first performance almost made one feel spoiled. Could it get better? Well, it’s not about better, it’s about different, and the AB Band took the blues all over the map, stopping in India, Africa, Chicago, the Mississippi Delta, and frankly, the moon a few times. It can’t get better than this, in terms of musical interchange in the broad “rock” world.
“Revival” kicked it all off, and was beautifully sung by Gregg Allman, Marc Quinoines and guitarist Warren Haynes. Haynes took the first solo, and it was fantastic, a blend of old blues and some forward-looking cross-genre stuff. Then Derek Trucks played. Words haven’t been invented yet to describe the level that this guy is playing at. Suffice it to say that he’s the greatest living electric guitar player.
The Allmans gave us “Statesboro Blues,” “Midnight Rambler,” “The Sky is Crying,” and a stunning interpretation of the Miles Davis/Joe Zawinul tune “In A Silent Way,” which morphed into “Mountain Jam,” and featured Trucks and Haynes trading choruses with RatDog’s Kimock. Again, one felt privileged to be hearing musical interaction on this level.
Concert Review
The Allman Brothers Band
With Bob Weir and RatDog on Sunday at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center.
Mid August- I'm just not ready to give up on Sweetwater Saloon! I made it over there a few nights ago and caught John Corbett's band. They are sort of country/roadhouse sounding. They put a lot of energy out there. The audience somewhat resembled a huge Bachelorette party- some lady kept yelling for John to "Take it off!". Well, they did get the cutie drummer to toss his shirt into the crowd. hmmm, I wonder if that would work with Senor Jski? After the show, John-Chris (that voice!) came out (as he had promised) and schmoozed & posed with all who waited. Anyhow- it was a fun night at Sweetwater and I truly hope it's not the last time I get see a show in that wonderful place!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
CASTING CREDITS FOR NEW MUSIC DOCUMENTARY, CHASIN' GUS' GHOST, READ LIKE A WHO'S WHO OF POPULAR HITMAKERS
What do John Sebastian, Bob Weir, Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Erik Darling (of the Rooftop Singers) and Charlie Musselwhite all have in common? Each of these musicians have appeared at the top of the Billboard charts at some point in their careers, ranking in the Top 10 of the Pop, Blues and Jazz charts over the last 40 years. But that's not the only thing that links these diverse talents. In addition to their accolades, these artists all share a deep affinity for jug band music, and sing the praises of the roots genre in the new documentary film, 'Chasin' Gus' Ghost' (http://www.chasingusghost.com). Taj Mahal, though not interviewed for the film, lends his voice to words previously spoken by the film's namesake Gus Cannon.
Filmmaker Todd Kwait said, "When I set out to trace the history of jug band music nearly 10 years ago, I was simply looking to learn what I could about those, like Gus Cannon, who were instrumental in establishing the genre. I had no idea it would lead me to such candid and fascinating interviews with some of the world's most acclaimed musicians."
Kwait continued, "Their stories not only help to illustrate the roots of this early American music, but also give some amazing insights into how it's influenced their own music. I'm honored that they've all taken the time to lend their voices - literally, in Taj Mahal's case - to talk about what jug band music means to them. While this has been a labor of love for me, I hope 'Chasin' Gus' Ghost' entertains and offers new perspectives to fans of all kinds of music."
Chasin' Gus' Ghost will debut with two screenings, at 7:00 and 9:00pm, on August 25 at the Roxie New College Film Center in San Francisco (http://www.roxie.com). The following evening, many musicians featured in the film, including John Sebastian, Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, David Grisman and Fritz Richmond's Barbecue Orchestra, will perform in concert during the "Chasin' Gus' Ghost Jug Band Extravaganza" at the Great American Music Hall (http://www.gamh.com/artist_pages/jug_band_extravaganza_082607.htm). Both events take place as part of the San Francisco Jug Band Festival (http://www.jugfest.org).
and Special Guests Donna Jean Godchaux-Mackay and Mookie Siegel Opening with Boris Garcia Friday, September 14, 2007 • The State Theatre 220 N. Washington Street, Falls Church, VA 22046 • Tel: (703) 237-0300
6:30-8:00 p.m.
Drinks, Food, & Reception with Artists and Silent Auction Opens
8:15 p.m.
Concert
Reception, Food and Concert Tickets: (All but $50 is tax deductible). To order call 415-561-3135 or download the Ticket Order Form
Congressional
$150
Presidential
$500* * for limited number of premium seats Hearty Finger Foods Include Delicacies from the Award-winning Washington, D.C. Restaurant Equinox
Concert Tickets Only: $20.00 in advance, $22 day of show available through The State Theatre Box Office or 703-237-0300
For more information, call 415-561-3134
................ Bobby on Cassady Lowell, MA.
A dot org post by "Dylanismyelvis" wrt Fenway Ratdog:
"I have to say as a lifelong Red Sox fan who now lives in Georgia, I felt very fortunate to be back in Fenway Park today, seeing Weir and the boys sing The National Anthem before The Red Sox' 3-0 victory over Tampa Bay. The band minus Bobby was hanging out behind home plate well before the pregame ceremonies commenced. They were all given Red Sox shirts and most were quick to put theirs on. Finally Weir made his way onto the field and chilled on the padded wall, first behind The Sox ondeck circle and then with his band mates behind home plate just in front of the seating area.
Weir even got a hold of a camera and snapped a few photos of his brothers in the Red Sox were given although he never donned his. Isn't he a Giants fan?? Those are the only people on the planet who think it's groovy that Barry Bonds broke The Great Hank Aaron's record, right?
Also Jay took his Sox shirt off immediately after they finished the anthem. Yankee fan??
I digress.
I thought the guys nailed it, most of The Sox fans I spoke to about it afterwards agreed excepting maybe a couple.
A great moment for me was just watching the band walk into the seated area of Fenway after they finished. Watching Bobby, a musician I've seen an embarrassing amount of times, take in this historic stadium in which I have watched so, so, so many games was pretty darn cool. Isn't it great when separate worlds come together like this??
Oh yeah, and Tim Wakefield pitched a brilliant game - didn't allow a hit in the first six innings in fact....
Was anyone else there?
Kimock chatted with me briefly through the screen and told me he was gonna wear his Sox shirt onstage soon, so you Sox fans on tour with this band better hold him to that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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