Grateful Dead

....Happy Anniversary to the '83 Santa Fe shows. And Happy 24th wedding anniversary to Mrs VGuy and Me!
It was the band, not the drink btw.

In my early GD years I was solidly on Mickey's side. It took me a long time to appreciate Billy for what he was/is; the pillar of strength and foundation of GD music. But my soft spot for Mickey remains.

I did come to the table with a bias, however.. I liked The Beast, The Beam and all the toys he used to bring to the table, Mickey provided the special sauce. The father of one of my high school friends founded the Institute for Ethnomusicology in UCLA in 1960 and later established the ethnomusicology program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus. He was into world music and had the chops and credentials to prove it. Somehow he met Mickey and the two kept in touch. When the GD played at Merriweather Mickey used to come over to their house for dinners the days before or after when schedules permitted. My buddy was a head too, so it was kind of cool hearing him talk about Mickey and his father playing with toys and hanging out in between shows. I'm not sure how involved he was in the goings on or not, but he had some cool stories. My memory is every time the GD came through town he would stop by, which from my involvement were the Merriweather years in the mid 80's.

So I guess I have a small bias. Anyway.. a very interesting guy, a great musician and I always appreciated his passion and deadication to music. We are lucky to have him and so was the GD. Happy Birthday Mickey.

To the Mickster!
Keep on keepin on to the number one groove Meister!

And no disrespect, but that looked like a fumble ; )
Ha, let the games begin lol

....I just discovered White Zombie. Be right back.
Dolphins won btw. Best game of the day.

Grew up in the Chicago area and saw him several times, but never in a small club setting, alas. One of my more memorable club shows was at his original Checkerboard Club on the South Side ca. summer '82. Had an under age college friend show up in town and I figured that he wouldn't get carded down there. Magic Slim and the Teardrops played. Kicked ass.

7/2/88 needs to be released for sure. I saw first 6 shows in Summer '88 tour. Remember a friend returning from Oxford (to Oxford) with a sweet audience of 7/2 and, oh man, was I wishing I'd been there.

Oh wait, that was the Salt Lake Valley.

This is Park City, a mountain idyll.

Awesome fun show. Absolute picture perfect late summer mountain weather. Chillest scene of any show I've ever been to. This was part of a music and wellness festival. Among other events, Jay Blakesberg had curated an exhibit of photos (his and others) documenting the history of the GD, set out on a grassy plaza and when I arrived he was giving an informal walking tour through it, maybe 30 - 40 people. Spoke passionately of the Sacred Contract some of us have with the band and their music.

Along with my brother, with a close friend and colleague (SLC native who saw '87 GD Park West show among others) and his wife. Our word for the venue was "intimate". Temporary stage in Canyon Village (old Park West) opening on a relatively small patch of steeply sloping cool grass. Blankets and lawn chairs and plenty of room. Maybe 3000 people(?). Venue footprint was not that of the '83 and '87 shows - '87 show maybe within a couple hundred meters but memories were fuzzy. One long set, 2-1/2 hrs: single set seems to be the way for the festival appearances.

Does bluecrow like horns? Check, check, check!
Fiddle and cello? Check, check!
Pedal steel? Check!

Weir, Chimenti, Lane, Was, the Wolfpack. What a treat to hear that band.

Sweet Cassidy opener. Super special Utah two-fer with Salt Lake City and Friend of the Devil. Oh man. Queen Jane a return to show days in 1987. Weather Report Suite was a personal highlight. Horns ala 1973 plus those strings and steel. So cool.

The 3 guest artists were like a special mid-set interlude. Living legend Rambling Jack Elliot on Baby Tonight?? 92 years old, crusty as you might imagine, and just exactly perfect in that way. Didn't seem to want to leave the stage after just one song - as my brother said, "The biscuit was hot!" The Looks Like Rain duet with Brittany Spencer was stunningly beautiful. And then JD Souther and Heartache Tonight ("Nice to hear this song with the horns. Wow!" - JD Souther.) It was nice for sure!

And then back to the regularly scheduled programming. Greatest Story, New Speedway > Other One (V1 and V2) > Wharf Rat > Terrapin Station Suite, Ripple.

Loved it all (the vibe of New Speedway has been really resonating with me for a good while.) There were points in Wharf Rat that felt like being in Cowboy Church, not down by the wharf. Pre-show I had thought a Terrapin was in the air, Ripple too, but when they segued into At a Siding it was no freaking way - Full Suite Ahead!! Yeah, V-guy, Terrapin Flyer!!

As always, Ripple was a jewel.

Special after show treat was riding the Cabriolet, a small, open bucket, gondola lift that runs from a lower parking lot up to the village. By 10:50 pm quiet dark cool night, just the low hum of the cable, as you pass over the a network of streets. Very very cool. My brother and I stayed in the village, so we rode it down with friends who were headed back to SLC and then back up again.

A sweet special night night for the memory books. Special thanks to Top Hat Crew for taping : )

DMCVT reminded me of The Ice Pick (and also called the Master of the Telecaster), Albert Collins.
That was far enough back he didn't have a cordless rig so he had like a 100 ft. cord and would duck walk and dance his way slowly down the main aisle and in the small venue I saw him in he actually went through the double doors and into the pool hall part of the bar. Much to the displeasure of the rednecks playing pool who were not there to see him it seemed. Hilarious and unexpected. What a showman!
Cheers

Hey PT - I saw Buddy Guy at Wolftrap in June. It was a really good show, but man is he old and it shows. I can tell you that he had a very large supporting cast and overall I give it a B+. The gal he has singing with him is tremendous, you won't regret it, just don't go in thinking you're going to see Buddy shred all night.

30 Trips

But, as usual, they didn't ask me.