Too Funny! Leave it to Deadnet Central's BearlyAnne to find this-> I need one!

Need something to do?
Try this with your Dead tee shirts!

If you can't wait for that - Here's a tutorial on how to create a child's dress using your old tour shirt! http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2007/06/adult-tee-to-childs-dress-recon.html

Nothing like a show- fun read

Are you Grateful for these albums?

and Molly's updated Tour Journal
here!

Meet Ony Bear!


His people have fallen on hard times and knew we would love him as we do our Lilah & Buster!
He's my very own Ratdog.
As you can see, he fits right in!



Not to be outshone, here is Buster being his true cool self! Lilah still too camera shy to join in.

Molly's Dead Tour Journal may be read @ The Purply Grotto

From this morning's Leah Garchik-

"
Leah Garchik

* Out with tulips, in with carrots 04.17.09
* Keeping lid on the dope question 04.16.09
* No holding those babies at Cal 04.15.09
* Sunday in the park with J.C. 04.14.09

More Leah Garchik »

Meanwhile, Dead musicians Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (plus Jeff Chimenti and Warren Haynes), who were playing in Washington on Tuesday, visited the president in the White House on Monday evening.

"He's a real human being," said Hart on Thursday, "so warm and open and gracious. It's like he just opened the door to his house and said, 'Come on in. This is a good place to talk.' "

Hart brought his wife, Caryl, and 15-year-old daughter, Reya. As they approached the front gate, a stern-faced guard on the other side of the fence said, " 'Mr. Hart? Mickey Hart? I'm sorry, Mr. Hart, it's about your priors. You've got priors.'

" 'Priors? I got a parking ticket 22 years ago. What do you mean, priors? You've got to be kidding.' ... 'Yeah,' said the guard. 'Welcome to the White House.' "

The show was Tuesday, and drummer Tipper Gore sat in on "Sugar Magnolia." "We were playing really beautifully," said Hart, "the band sounding like a million bucks. And Obama is the reason we were together. We got together over the benefits we put on for him. So in a way, he's become part of our destiny now."

I reminded him that Elvis had met with Nixon. "You gotta remember how bad it could be," said Hart. "But this one is how good it could be."

Dead fans revel in community!


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The Boston Globe
Dead, fans revel in community
The Dead's Phil Lesh says the band draws energy from its devoted fans. The Dead's Phil Lesh says the band draws energy from its devoted fans. (bryan bedder/getty images)
By Joan Anderman
Globe Staff / April 17, 2009

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Jerry is long gone. It's been five years since the band's last tour. All the remaining members have their hands in other musical projects. But for the Dead, it still begins where it always did.
Discuss
COMMENTS (0)

THE DEAD At the Worcester DCU Center tomorrow and Sunday. Tickets are $63.75-$95 at 617-931-2000 or www.ticketmaster.com

Nowhere.

"We just finished up two weeks of rehearsals," says bassist Phil Lesh, "and on the last day we played for 90 minutes straight, and it was intense, thick, all kinds of events happening. In the middle of that we played three songs, but the idea was to start right out looking for the magic. From bar one, we were picking up the music out of nothing."

Forty-four years after the Grateful Dead formed, original members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, and Lesh, who have performed as the Dead since Jerry Garcia died in 1995, are still - wait for it - truckin'. It's an apt pun, considering that the 2009 tour (which stops at Worcester's DCU Center tomorrow and Sunday) is devoted largely to the Grateful Dead classics, and that the band, fleshed out to a six-piece with the addition of Allman Brothers/Gov't Mule guitarist Warren Haynes and Ratdog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, has been holed up in a studio working up a mind-boggling 160 songs.

To the uninitiated, such an undertaking seems like cosmic overkill. For Deadheads, it sounds like a few killer set lists. As far as Lesh is concerned, it's church.

"We don't think of ourselves as religious people or gurus, but church is a place where people go to find something larger than themselves, and to that end we made a decision never to play the same set," Lesh says.

Lesh won't extend the comparison, but the Dead and the church have quite a few things in common, like throngs of devotees who make regular pilgrimages to worship at the altar, events that most describe as religious, and the power to generate among its followers an extraordinary sense of kinship. That, more than any trippy solo, is what accounts for the Dead's longevity, says Rob Weir, a history professor at UMass-Amherst who shares a name but no blood with the band's guitarist.

"I don't think it's radical to say that they weren't the greatest band in rock, but there's a whole culture that goes with the Grateful Dead and it keeps being renewed," says Weir, who teaches a course called "How Does the Song Go? The Grateful Dead as a Window Into American Culture." "Americans are longing for community, studies tell us, and Deadheads really are a community."

What feeds the fans sustains the band, as well. "A basic level of love and trust that's absolutely unchanging" is how Lesh describes the Dead's musical chemistry, although he says that the members are so divided when it comes to business matters they won't attend meetings together, for fear of total system failure. So the Dead farms out the pesky parts to a team of handlers and hones in on the happy bits - what Lesh likes to call the stream.

"It's out there, and when we're really on and all the stars are in alignment we can tap into that stream, and bring it down so it's audible here on earth," says Lesh.

That's the kind of comment that gets believers testifying and skeptics rolling their eyes. The Dead has long endured scorn from those who argue that the band's musicianship pales in comparison to its capacity for excellent vibes. Asked if he feels his band is misunderstood, Lesh laughs.

"Let me tell you an anecdote. My older son, who is 22, was listening to one of his favorite bands, who shall remain nameless, and I couldn't stand it anymore. I said, 'Grahame, this stuff is awful crap.' And he said, 'It must sound that way to the untrained ear, Dad.' "

Yet the list of credible musicians who line up year after year to perform in various Dead spinoff projects - Phil Lesh and Friends, Bob Weir's Ratdog, Mickey Hart's Global Drum Project - is evidence that there's more to these guys than epic jams.

Jazz guitarist John Scofield plays frequently with Lesh. "The jazz community doesn't take them too seriously, and I've got to admit that for a long time I didn't know much about the Dead's music," says Scofield. "I'll tell you that on all counts, as songwriters and as improvisers, they're not taken as seriously as they should be."

Lesh can't say the same for the jam bands whose ranks have swelled in the Grateful Dead's wake. He says he's happy to have opened the door for budding musicians, but that the scene is overrun with impostors, and that the Grateful Dead's true heirs can be found in unlikely places.

"A lot of the so-called jam bands are a lot more arranged than you would think, but there are other artists carrying on this tradition that you wouldn't think of as a jam band. Somebody like Ryan Adams is taking the most profound and meaningful elements of what the Grateful Dead did and applying them his own way," Lesh says. "He's noodling all the time."
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

View all San Francisco events on Eventful

The bloggers at Buntology are blogging Don't Forget The Dead



It's good to be Dead - a little article featuring Bill Kreutzmannnnn
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/apr/16/0416_jukebox/


Review of last night by David LeMieux
http://www.dead.net/4-15-john-paul-jones-arena

TWO RATDOG Shows added to the Ratdog Summer tour
Good news for the Colorado Crew!
Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder, CO Sunday, August 30
and
Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, CO Monday, August 31

already a REVIEW!
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/DEADGAT16_20090415-231813/257571/


By Melissa Ruggieri

Published: April 15, 2009



CHARLOTTESVILLE — It began in typical shambolic fashion — the disheveled-looking band ambled onstage, noodled around with instruments for a few minutes as if at sound check and then, with a few foot taps from Phil Lesh, launched into the first song of a three-hour night.

But what was atypical about tonight’s show from The Dead at John Paul Jones Arena — only the third stop on a 22-date tour — were some of the song selections and arrangements.

Obviously, once The Dead stopped being Grateful after the 1995 death of leader Jerry Garcia, the rest of the band — guitarist Bob Weir, drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, bassist Lesh and newer recruits, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and guitarist Warren Haynes, on loan again from the Allman Brothers — would always have to distance themselves from Garcia’s iconic memory.

That meant a rare appearance of “New Speedway Boogie,” which featured Hart hammering away at his tom-toms like Gepetto in his workshop, leaving Kreutzmann to hold down the steady beat.

Likewise the Lesh-heavy “Mason’s Children,” which introduced the first sprawling jam of the concert and included some outstanding bass work from Lesh, whose instrument glowed from a blue-lighted fret board.

Haynes’ fluid guitar playing still sings — and stings — and his vocals, which are similar to Garcia’s in tone and range, also anchored many songs.

But when Weir handled lead duties, his voice was often overpowered by the live instrumentation, a hiccup that hardly mattered much to the 12,000-plus assembled, many of them older folks wrapped in tie-dye, but also plenty of Deadheads: The Next Generation.

Any generational gaps were insignificant, especially during the first notes of the peppy “Bertha,” which spurred grown men and teens to start skipping in place, play air guitar and stretch their hands skyward, as if trying to summon the spirit of Garcia.

Considering that this incarnation of The Dead hasn’t toured in more than five years, their musical instincts were impressively sharp even if the sound was spotty.

Eye contact among the members was rarely made during the extensive interludes, from Haynes’ fiery slide solo on the bluesy “Big Boss Man” (another one pulled deep from the archives) to the winding rootsy-rock-jazz epic, “Playing the Band,” which initiated the second set, yet everything melded perfectly.

After nearly an hour intermission, The Dead returned in a more classic mindset, performing songs commonly found on their much-swapped bootlegs.

The cool-at-first, unbearable-after-15-minutes “Drums” literally shook the rafters with Hart’s thunderous percussion that was really more noise than anything groove intensive.

That Dead show staple eventually segued into its usual companion, “Space,” with Haynes endlessly tinkering and the rest of the band quietly plinking in with sound fills.

But the rousing “St. Stephen” and a rollicking sing-a-long of “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo” shifted the mood of the show from mellow experimentation to familiar nostalgia.

It’s a different Dead, to be sure, but one that hasn’t lost its mellow edge.

Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or mruggieri@timesdispatch.com

Take me with you if you win!

The private concert- I am already set for the Shoreline shows (yay!)!


Listen to KFOG next week (April 20-24) between 8am-8pm. When you hear a Grateful Dead song, be caller #10 to 1-800-300-KFOG and we'll set you up with a pair of lawn tickets to The Dead's show at Shoreline on Thursday, May 14.

But wait, there's more. You'll also win a pair of passes to a very special Private Concert / Live Broadcast with The Dead (Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Warren Haynes) in the KFOG PlaySpace.
kfog

Some awesome pictures from last night's show!
http://www.hamptonphish2009.com/the-dead-0414-washington-dcbr-pics-from-jay-blakesberg


I already liked the Washigton Post because my sister's husband's uncle was the longtime editor, gentleman and all round great guy ((Ben Bradlee)). But now I've found a whole new reason to like the post- The extensive coverage of the Dead in DC- Here goes:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2009/04/the_dead_in_dc_a_stirrin


The Dead in D.C., a Stirring, Smoky Bipartisan Show



Musician Bob Weir performs during "An Evening With The Dead" on April 12, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

Updated, 2:22 p.m.

Last night's Dead show in Washington was like hanging out with a long lost, dear friend after many years. We just picked up where we left off.

Clearly Tipper Gore felt the same way. She boogied down on stage, just off Warren Haynes's left shoulder, to "Sugar Magnolia," "Uncle John's Band," and the rousing closer, "Ripple."

The teeming masses of nostalgic (and newbie) Deadheads obliged when bassist Phil Lesh shouted, "Give a big hand for Tipper Gore!" (Lesh, a liver transplant survivor, also urged his fans to become organ donors.)

The former vice president's wife, who was not accompanied by Al, wasn't the only political celebrity digging the four-hour long reunion concert, the second of the band's Spring 2009 tour.

Also there were Obama senior aides David Axelrod, Pete Rouse and Jim Messina, who met with all the surviving members of the Grateful Dead - plus Haynes and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti - at the White House on Monday evening after President Obama hosted the band for a private meeting in the Oval Office.

Last night's crowd was predictably loaded with lefty "Deadheads for Obama" as well as the usual pot-smoking and tripping Deadheads of no political persuasion whatsoever, other than the Party of Jerry. (And yes, plenty - we dare say lots - of people were smoking some sort of sweet green stuff inside the Verizon Center. Note to editors: the Sleuth was horrified.)

But we also spotted plenty of conservatives digging the show. Hardcore conservatives.

As Tipper was on stage swaying her hips, on the other side of the stage, in a suite just off Bob Weir's right shoulder, was Barry Jackson, the longtime deputy to Karl Rove who worked all eight years, right up to the bitter end, in the Bush White House.

Barry was boogeying like nobody's business - through the hour-long rendition of "Dark Star" into the encore.

There were other conservatives there, too, including two senior aides to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor: the whip's chief of staff, Rob Collins. and Matt Lira, director of new media. (Their boss wasn't there; the congressman much prefers Britney Spears to The Dead.)

Last night was nostalgic, and some moments were magical. The opener, "Cassidy," was terrific and a bit of a tearjerker given that it was the first time any of us had seen the entire band together in over a decade.

Aside from covering the fundraisers that Bobby and Mickey Hart have played over the past several years for Congress' preeminent Deadhead, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the Sleuth hadn't seen a real Dead show since 1995 at RFK stadium, the last time Jerry Garcia performed in Washington.

It was great catching up with our old friends again. Hopefully, you will get a chance, too, during the rest of their '09 tour.

UPDATE: We'd like to respond to one of our less friendly commenters, who wrote: "Umm I dont know what show you were at last night, Ms. Slueth, but Tipper Gore actually tried to play the drums during the last song before the encore, Sugar Magnolia, hence why Phil Lesh introduced her prior to his organ donar rap. Mickey Hart also tried to announce, Mrs. Gore but he was too loud in his attempt and his wrods sounded garbled. How you could have missed, Mrs. Gore playing the drums I do not know, as she occasionally had the rhythm but appeared a bit lost most of the time."

Here's why we missed it, and why we're so glad we did: The Sleuth left her seat during space and drums (which, frankly, dragged on too long) to walk around and chat with friends and sources outside and buy a t-shirt. (Dancing bears for the Sleuth, the Dead 2009 t-shirt for Mr. Sleuth.) When we heard the encore we rushed back inside, and found a great spot near the stage. Mrs. Gore had already had her thrill on the drums, which, according to people around me and others with whom I spoke today, wasn't as good as her dancing. While some cheered the former second lady's attempt to jam with the Dead, others booed. We applaud her for her chutzpah.

By Mary Ann Akers | April 15, 2009; 9:51 AM ET
Previous: Obama Meets Privately With the Dead |

Tipper Gore on drums!http://www.dead.net/4-14-verizon-center?page=1 Not the first time Tipper's drummed for Bobby though-http://www.rockument.com/fobbs/dead/gore1.html

Live Dead setlist updates at http://twitter.com/grateful__dead



Obama meets privately with The Dead!

The surviving (and formerly feuding) members of the Grateful Dead had a secret impromptu meeting Monday evening with the man they credit with reuniting them: President Obama.

The president welcomed all the members of The Dead, who are performing tonight at the Verizon Center in Washington, to the Oval Office just before dinner last night. They didn't talk music as much as they did history - history about the Oval Office, and the president's desk.

Apparently the band was quite taken with how tidy the president keeps his desk. And how down-to-earth he seemed, according a source who was there.

"The president was so gracious. Really, really nice and so welcoming. It hit you: you're in the Oval Office, but it was so normal," the source told us.

The entourage included the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead - Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann - plus keyboardist Jeff Chimenti (from Weir's Ratdog) and Warren Haynes, who is joining the Dead on their 2009 spring tour as lead vocalist and guitarist. Some of them had their wives in tow.

As if chatting with the president in the Oval Office weren't cool enough, something remarkable happened on their way out. Just outside the Oval Office, Phil and his wife, Jill Lesh, spotted a vase full of Scarlet Begonias sitting on a table.

For the uninitiated, "Scarlet Begonias" is one of the late Grateful Dead band leader Jerry Garcia's most famous songs. (Check out a youthful looking Jerry Garcia singing "Scarlet Begonias" in this 1977 video, and be sure you have a tissue.)

After admiring the Scarlet Begonias, the band went next door to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to meet with the most prominent Deadheads in the Obama White House: senior advisors David Axelrod and Pete Rouse, and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina. All three are planning to go to tonight's one and only Dead show in Washington, we're told.

After leaving the White House, the members of the Dead - none of whom, surprisingly, wore tie-dyed t-shirts to the Oval Office - walked over to their favorite Washington restaurant, the Old Ebbitt Grill, for dinner.

Given that the Dead sparked the "Deadheads for Obama" movement when they reunited during the 2008 presidential campaign to play a fundraiser for Obama, we expect to see plenty of happy Deadheads at the show. We'll give you a full update, so check back.








The Dead: A valid reincarnation
http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/04/14/article/the_dead_a_valid_reincarnation
TUESDAY, APRIL 14 ( updated 12:15 pm)
By PARKE PUTERBAUGH

Concert Review

GREENSBORO — It’s Easter Sunday, and the Dead have risen.

Yes, the cultural institution known as the Grateful Dead — and now simply “The Dead” — kicked off their first tour in five years at the Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday night. It was a virtual sellout, with every corner of the arena filled with dancing, delirious Deadheads. A total of 17,500 tickets were sold, making this the 13th-largest concert crowd in the coliseum’s history.

The Dead’s lineup includes four original members — bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart — along with longtime confederates Jeff Chimenti and Warren Haynes on keyboards and guitar, respectively.

Although Jerry Garcia, the group’s late guitarist and the broader counterculture’s reluctant guru, is fundamentally irreplaceable, The Dead is a valid reincarnation. They played for close to four hours and seemed intent on re-establishing the experimental side of the group’s legacy.

They began with “The Music Never Stopped” — a choice that made a subtly implicit point about endurance.

Later in the first set, they performed “He’s Gone” and “Touch of Grey” back-to-back, again alluding to their own history — both Garcia’s death (“Nothing’s gonna bring him back”) and their own will to persevere (“We will survive”).

Throughout the evening, the songs themselves were well-played, although the jams that ended or connected them sometimes lacked focus and coherence. “I Need a Miracle” and “Truckin’ ” were rousing and tight, but the tricky, reggae-accented 7/4 time of “Estimated Prophet” seemed to throw the band into disarray. A cover of “All Along the Watchtower” — Jimi Hendrix by way of Bob Dylan — elicited a fiery reading from Haynes.

Phil Lesh played a nifty bass with glowing blue LEDs embossed into the neck. The graying, laconic Bob Weir stood front and center, and though he appeared expressionless, he seemed to relish the opportunity to step out more than usual on guitar. Weir and Haynes didn’t mesh particularly well as guitarists, but perhaps their chemistry will evolve as the tour progresses.

Haynes brought a gritty, bluesy energy to the band, but he also nailed Garcia’s lighter touch in places, especially the unique duck-quack tone Garcia got from the wah-wah pedal.

On the other hand, Haynes isn’t Garcia, and he’s ultimately better-suited to the earthier Allman Brothers Band, which he joined back in 1989, than the Dead.

That’s no knock on Haynes’ fabulous musicianship but an acknowledgement that the era-specific nuances of vintage psychedelia and the ability to play in a free-form “outside” style are not his strong suit.

This was especially clear in a second-set segue from a techno-style long jam that followed “Caution: Do Not Stop on Tracks” into a painfully long “Drums”-“Space” interlude. The whole sequence had a meandering, amorphous quality, and it chewed up a huge amount of time.

Once the Dead exited that train wreck, they redeemed themselves by exhuming the trippy oldies “Cosmic Charlie” and “Born Cross Eyed,” to the delight of hard-core Deadheads.

They ended the second set with a spirited “Help Is On the Way,” ”Slipknot!” and “Franklin’s Tower” trifecta, highlighted by tight parallel climbs from Lesh on bass and Haynes on guitar.

The deafening screams and applause that greeted the Dead when they returned for an encore was enthusiastic and heartfelt, and this outpouring didn’t go unnoticed by Lesh.

“It’s good to be back with you folks,” he said. “The hair is standing on the back of my neck.”

Parke Puterbaugh is a freelance contributor.

Be sure to check out Alan Hess's new blog
http://alanhessphotography.com/blog/

Media freaking!

http://ravinwire.com/2009/04/13/bring-out-your-dead-by-ben-tatliffthe-new-york-times.aspx?ref=rss
http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?StoryID=17533http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/YeasandNays/Truckin-The-Dead-arrive-early-42880827.html

Postcard from the Road
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/YeasandNays/Truckin-The-Dead-arrive-early-42880827.html

Postcard from the Road

Play Fantasy Dead at http://otherones.net/fantasy/.
Better hurry and sign up- Deadline is upon us!

Fun Dead stuff at BLURB

cool!
more coolness!
newly cool!
and is this cool?
How Green are your Birkenstocks?
and the most coolclick me!

Woohoo!
Dead will broadcast some shows via Sirius!
http://www.sirius.com/gratefuldead
New Dead video
((Bobby in da shul!))
See here!

Hippy Pesach!

Very cool envelopes -Check em out!

On your marks, Get set!
Booking for 2010 Ratdog Daze in Jamaica is opening up!!
LOOKY HERE!!

Scott and I can't think of a negative thing to say about our experience at Ratdog Daze 2009.
The resort was laid back, everyone was there for Ratdog..food and drink were available at all hours.
I spent most of my time in water- sea (warm) pool (clean) jacuzzi (hot!) and the HUGE tub (with jets!).

Here's a mini account of how we spent the first half of our time there-

Monday- Red eye to Miami, met an acquaintance-also RD Daze bound in the check in line.
Tuesday- Arrived in Miami, met about 4 fellow travellers on the way to RD daze at that airport!
Arrive in Montego, there's even more friends-fellow fans picking up baggage and checking into the Lido Lounge.
Our bus to the resort arrives and we are all giddily on our way to Negril. The scenic ride passes thru a few small towns.
Many colorful huts and goats are spotted along the way.
About 2/3rds of the way the bus pulls into a bar-cafe. Fellow riders enjoy a 10 minute break to get a drink and refreshen up. I head straight to the grill and try out the much dreamt of Jerk Chicken. It is hot, spicy and everyone gets a taste.
Back on the bus and soon we are @ the Lido. We walk by swimsuit clad friends who have been at Lido for several days attending the LittleFeat festival. Ellen tells me my hair has already begun to curl up due to the humidity.
Checked in and then follow a bell boy to our lovely beach front room. We quickly change out of our travel threads into beachwear, then off to tour the premises. We don't get far til we run into friends and at that point it's sort of a pub crawl around to the resort's various bars.
There is a huge main bar (the grand palazzo) which also serves as a dance venue and dining area for the breakfast & lunch buffets. In the back there are slot machines, a disc and a computer rental place. On a different level of this area are a few of the resort's restaurants. Scott and I decide on the Italian place. As soon as we are seated, a friend comes by and joins us, then another and then a couple we know comes in and hangs out as well. And so it goes with friends coming and going and boy, it sure was fun! I think everyone was extra happy that all the food and drink was already paid for in the all inclusive price of the resort. Pricy but completely worth it!
The rest of the evening was spent drinking (dirty Bananas), schmoozing and dancing to house band in the Grand Palazzo.
Wednesday
Woke early and scampered to the Palazzo to get some coffee. Enjoy the breakfast buffet (huge) and people watch the folks leaving from the Little Feat fest as more folks arrive for the Ratdog Daze.
I cash in on my included manicure and pedicure. I find the spa offices and am brought to the beauty salon where I meet some new people and run into a friend or 2 as well! My feet looking pretty, I have a few corn rows put on each side of my head to keep my crazy frizzing hair from mushrooming out. Festive and manageable.
Return to the suite to get in to a swim suit and go to the beach for most of the day.
Throughout the day info drifts my way that begin with a rumor that MK will be playing the Opening Jam...with every person I run into, the rumors expand to include various band members also sitting in for the jam. Day turns into night, and everyone ( only 420 guests plus about another 50 from the overflow resorts )is assembled in the Grand Palazzo. The Opening Jam features Mark (he sang with a voice so strong it's hard to believe he just whipped throat caner last year!). Various Ratdog band mates join in, each having a shining solo spot thru assorted songs and melodies..and then there's Bobby! The crowd is just a sea of smiling, dancing people- some of whom have just arrived at the resort suitcases in hand.(snowy conditions caused major transportation snafus for many ). It's a big fun opening jam!!!
Thursday
My routine is established, I wake before Scotto, head to breakfast with my netbook in hopes of skyping my kids.
The internet was a bit sketchy but I was able to chat with my kids, my friend Kemmie and my oldest son who was (still is) working in Jerusalem. Over breakfast, I am able to share video taken the night before with a variety of friends and passer byers. Everyone is friendly. Eventually, Scotto joins me.
Back to the room to get ready for the beach & pool.
Swimming and floating and thinking pleasant thoughts is my newest favorite vacation activity. After hours of this, I regroup with Scott & our new best buddy, Steve. We take a walk down Bong Alley to find the poolside grill- located on the nude side of the resort. There are some naked people around but not so many at the grill. The best chops and jerk is here. Also, they have french fries!! Poolside Grill is now our favorite lunchy-snack stop. The guys vow to wear sunglasses so if they forget to stop staring, no one will notice.
I'm back in the sea before sound check starts. Did I ever dream I'd be watching Bobby sing AND be floating in the Caribbean simultaneously??? It was awesome!
After soundcheck, I hung with friends and as it was getting late, ran back to change into dinner & show attire.
The show was on the beach, not much trumps dancing barefoot in the sand to my favorite musicians!
The post show scene was at the Far Bar- there was a feast of grilled yummies there. Everyone and that includes most of the band, crew and significant Ratdog others came out (no Bobby-he & his family were staying off the resort somewhere I imagine more child friendly)and it was a warm relaxed and heady time.
Friday
Again, early to rise and off with a bag of electronica to the Palazzo! I never tired of coffee in the Grand Palazzo. The openess and the friendly feel of it , folks breakfasting with friends reminded me of the Student Union in college .
On the entry level of the Palazzo, by the front desk was a whiteboard where the daily events were noted.
Friday was a stand out day as there was a Golf Tourney hosted by AJ and Jeff Chimenti. Later in the evening there was a Poker Tourney hosted by Charucki. I was sorry to miss a visit (arranged by Heather/Evening Moods) to a local school. I had wanted to go but hadnt been sure of the time to meet up and so missed out. There had been a school supply drive for RD fans. I had enjoyed packing a bag full of items but again missed the pick up time for the bags. I gave my bag to the front desk and they promptly lost track of it. Next year, I'll be more careful about the school items and visit as it seems very important that the kids in Jamaica receive as much as they can in terms of school supplies.
Dinner was awesome at the Reggae Grill . We moseyed around some and discovered the disco!!! The disco was very small but the music was quite loud. It was deserted until we realized that a Live Warrior game was on a flat screen TV in there! Scott and his buddies settled right in ....

Another Dead review at http://www.musicnewsnet.com/2009/04/the-dead-make-the-nyc-club-rounds-in-secret-shows.html


Ready or not here comes baseball again!
I like that this http://30daysout.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/play-ball-2/ blog has listed a good old baseball song with playing by Jerry Garcia aqnd Bobby Weir in it!

Win a trip to see The Dead - and take me along!!!
Check this out!
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=Contest&cid=1236653201464

Have you checked out Ratdog on My Space?
Appears thete are some Summer Tour dates up there!
Check it out!
http://www.myspace.com/theofficialratdogpage

From Rolling Stone



"It’s just like playing a three-hour show,” said the Dead’s Bob Weir, backstage at New York’s Angel Orensanz theater, “but it’s broken up by cab rides.” Weir wasn’t joking. To unofficially kick off their spring reunion tour, the Dead had grand plans to play a free concert in a large outdoor venue in New York City, possibly Battery Park. When both the weather and city paperwork scotched that idea, the band did the next best thing. On March 30th, the Dead played three free, back-to-back shows in the city like Prince did in L.A. Saturday night; the roughly 4,100 free tickets were distributed to fans by Internet lottery.

And what a long, intermittently strange day it was, beginning with Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and touring guitarist Warren Hynes playing “Friend of the Devil” on The View. (The band is longtime friends with co-host Whoopi Goldberg.) At 5 p.m. the men did a rare acoustic-trio set at the intimate Angel Orensanz, a former synagogue on the Lower East Side. The show focused on American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead classics like “Dire Wolf,” “Cumberland Blues” and “Casey Jones,” but the highlight was a largely instrumental, 20-minute version of “Bird Song,” the three men weaving guitar lines in and around each other.

At 8 p.m., Lesh, Weir and Haynes were joined by drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti at the Gramercy Theatre, where the full band played an hour of nonstop electric music. Nearly half the set was taken up by an introductory jam and “Playing in the Band,” followed by beefy renditions of “Good Lovin,’” “The Wheel” and “Franklin’s Tower” that revealed how tight the reformed band has become after lengthy rehearsals in February. (Dropped from the set list due to the one-hour time limit were planned versions of “Viola Lee Blues” and “Built to Last.”)

At 11 p.m., the day of the living Dead wound up at the largest of the three venues, the 3,000-capacity Roseland. Still in electric mode, the Dead awed an enraptured, dancing crowd with nearly two more hours of music, starting with “Althea” (on which Haynes sang Garcia’s parts, as he often did), followed by “Cassidy,” “Eyes of the World” and a typically improvisational “St. Stephen.” The set ended with a celebratory, guitar-jammy “Sugar Magnolia,” Haynes throwing in Chuck Berry riffs. “This band is interesting,” said Hart afterward, slipping into Forest Gump voice. “It’s like a box of chocolate: You never know what you’re gonna get.”

The shows served as a warm-up for the Dead’s full tour, which starts April 12th in Greensboro, North Carolina, and continues through mid-May. (The band has worked up nearly 100 songs, including rarely performed oddities like “King’s Solomon’s Marbles.”) What did the band think of the music they made on their Manhattan “cab tour”? “It still needs some work,” Weir said after the Roseland set. “We have to stratify our parts more. But hope is on the horizon.”

For much more from the Dead’s triple-gig marathon in New York, keep your eyes peeled for a full story in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone.