Grateful Dead

Torrentially Terrance StampHob-nobbin' 'round the ranch Can't catch a fishin' stream Had to hitch a ride from an old museum hunch-backs in the back of an old timey hatch-back Watch that man show leave the honkers blow below their belts we form a positive premonition Can't catch a stream Can't beat a dream

head on over to Deadheads of Europe and meet your neighbors!

Hi, im Jeff, I got out of the military a few years ago, and finaly settled doune here in Offenbach Germany. Ive ben a G.D. fan sence around 1975 when I was interduced to Jerrys fantastic gift thru a New Riders of the Purple Sage album.

I started working at BAM a few years after you made your appearance. Sorry I missed you! Glad you're here now!

I have a 6 1/2 year old son, Bennie, who keeps me young. Phil Wilson: Where the hell are you? :)

When I left Dunedin, NZ, as a very green 20-year-old I had already been a raving music nut for many years and had been writing reviews (blues, country, rock) for a local underground freebie rag since I was 16 or so. Arriving in San Francisco, my first stop was the offices of BAM (Bay Area Music), a magazine then in its infancy. I suspect I was their only overseas subscriber - and certainly the only Kiwi! So the staff - including Blair Jackson - treated me real swell, facilitating my tix and backstage pass to my only Dead show - June 8, 1977. Talk about green. Coming from the relatively sober and straight South Island, I had never smoked industrial strength Colombian grass like the kind I had scored off a drag queen in a Haight St gay bar. Blimey. I remember, among many shows, seeing Stoneground at Keystone Berkley and then going around and around theb same block completely lost. In any case, throughout the rest of that memorable journey (through Texas and on to Virginia), a couple of years in London and then Wellington, Gisborne (surfing) and - for the past 20 years in Melbourne - music has been front and center, although it's only in the past 3-4 years the GD has come back to the fore. Along the way I made serial and lengthy visits to New Orleans/South Louisiana in the '80s and '90s to get my fill of good food, crawfish, R&B, blues, cajun, zydeco, gospel, rock and Radiators and Iguanas. For more than 18 years I have run a weekly radio show here in Melbourne on PBS-FM 106.7 that has evolved.changed with my music tastes - from monster grunge through to soul and country and jazz and western swing and plenty more. Currently the Pearls is about 1/3 each of country/wetern swing, GD and jazz grooves. It's good to be here. Up till now my forum activity - including quite often GD talk - has been on jazz boards such Jazz Corner and organissimo

A few weeks ago in a forum the question was posed to all if the Dead was still relevant here in the 21st century. I, as one of many it seems, still find the music to be my gateway to the other realms, where lies hope, peace, creativity, love. The pure joy, the opening of this great flow of heart energy, is right there. This energy activates & motivates me. And the cool thing is there's still so much new to be heard. Now this isn't escapism(maybe a little), but instead a state of being that shows me what's still possible. In the midst of continuing global uproar, which seems to keep ratcheting higher & higher, the music of the Dead is a great source of grounding for me. That specialness we experienced at the shows, usually high on acid, was a non-ordinary reality that superceded for me the 3-dimensional world that lay outside those gates. Reality seems to be an objective viewpoint but my vote would always be for the world we found in that swirling vortex of music, love, & respect, the place where we co-created a universe of our own. The Dead helps me continue to carry that universe inside my heart, is a part of my soul, which I then in my own way take and spread around to everything I touch. I'm continuing my own healing, which then helps me heal the world, and the Dead is my soundtrack for this grand experiment. I became a grandpa-BabaSteve-for the 2nd time this past Father's Day. A few weeks later my ex-wife Colleen was up and we're hanging out in the back yard enjoying the weather & the company, passing little Brandon around. In honor of his parents-mostly me I think-my son had some live Dead on the box as we grilled. As I strolled around with baby falling asleep in my arms-I always loved that-Colleen remarked to our son Ryan that it looks like there'll be another generation that the Dead will lullaby to sleep. And it suddenly hit me how strong the bond of the music was not just for me, but for my entire family. It's always been a part of my life, and then I passed it on to my wife, then my children. And what I find remarkable is that since Jerry's passing I'm feeling the music is even more relevant than ever, an undying ember of connectedness to the universe that continues to expand for me. They are indeed a part of my soul, and the Dead are Alive & Well...

first show on floor: Atlanta Omni '90last show: Boston Garden '93 acquired my first two tapes in mid-80s: Englishtown '77, Richmond 11/1/85 the rest is history :-) some favorite post-Jerry show i've attended: Phil & Friends, Berkeley Greek with a Doin' That Rag and three Viola Lee visitations; Ratdog, Gathering of the Vibes 2000 in CT with Les Claypool as guest bassist on "The Other One" (Bobby introduced him as "Paul McCartney, if I remember correctly), "The Dead" at SPAC, Jerry's b'day, 2004 (?) with an Angel Band encore: wow. "The Dead" shortly afterwards, same year, at what was then called The Meadows in Hartford (what's up with all these corporate buyouts, man - The Knick is what, The Pepsi now? gimme a break, why can't we go back to wampum or something): my best memories of the Hartford "The Dead" show including hearing Mickey sing, hearing my first-ever Alligator, first-ever Mr. Charlie, and a gorgeous full-on WRPrelude>WRS>Let it Grow; also: if the woman from Easthampton who lent me her guitar during setbreak at that show ever reads this, get in touch! man sat down and he cried too, it ain't me...the river so wide...with the sunshine over our head(s) (Ten years ago, I walked these streets...) Enjoy the 40th ann of the summer o' love everyone. and leave it on. ERW

I just posted a bunch of pictures from 6.11.91 Charlotte Coliseum along with some of my ticket stubs. Check them out and leave me some comments!