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    Grateful Dead Hour no. 1012

    Week of February 11, 2008

    UPDATE: Chasin' Gus' Ghost was released on DVD in the spring of 2010. Well worth a look! - DG

    This week's archival Grateful Dead Hour post is a salute to the film Chasin' Gus' Ghost by Todd Kwait. From the movie's web site:

    Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost is a documentary film on the history of Jug Band Music. It traces the roots of American music beginning with Gus Cannon and Cannon’s Jug Stompers, The Memphis Jug Band and the Dixieland Jug Blowers from the 1920’s, and weaves a tapestry through interviews, live performances, archival footage, and photographs showing their influence on the ever-popular folk and rock movements of the 1960’s.

    The Grateful Dead began as a jug band. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (who appears in the film), and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were members of Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. The exact name and spelling seemed to change from gig to gig, but that's the name of the band that was recorded by Pete Wanger and Wayne Ott in July of 1964; that tape was released in 1998 by Grateful Dead Records but is now out of print.

    As you'll learn in this program the Anthology of American Folk Music, aka the Harry Smith Anthology, was a hugely important source of inspiration and material for the Dead and many of their contemporaries.

    The music:

    Grateful Dead 7/30/66 Vancouver BC
    STEALIN'

    Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
    ON THE ROAD AGAIN
    THE RUB (AIN'T IT CRAZY)
    BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE

    Grateful Dead 7/16/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco
    NEW NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES
    VIOLA LEE BLUES

    Blind Lemon Jefferson, from Anthology of American Folk Music
    SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS KEPT CLEAN

    Grateful Dead 7/29/66 Vancouver BC
    ONE KIND FAVOR

    Williamson Bros and Curry, from Anthology of American Folk Music
    GONNA DIE WITH MY HAMMER IN MY HAND

    John Sebastian and David Grisman, Satisfied
    JOHN HENRY

    Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
    THE MONKEY AND THE ENGINEER

    (P.S. There's a wonderful illustrated children's book of "The Monkey and the Engineer," including a biography of the songwriter, Jesse "Lone Cat" Fuller. Check it out.)

    Enjoy!

    Every Wednesday, we post a program from the Grateful Dead Hour archives for your enjoyment and enlightenment. You can browse or search the playlists at gdhour.com or on the GD Hour Search page, and let me know what program(s) you'd like to hear by emailing me at gdhour@dead.net.

    Thanks for listening!
    David Gans

    Listen Now

    14232

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    dgans
    15 years 9 months ago
    Thank you, Jaime.
    Nice post, man! Thanks. Gans/GD Hour blog
    GD Hour station list
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    Jaime
    15 years 9 months ago
    great folk stuff
    I think inlcuding such classic , and important ( influential music on ocassion in a space like this one / can be essential ) I ve learned much from many of D Gans' programs . And i think this week is no exception . It has renewed as well my liking of many folk or country compositions that . After a reflective program like this one , you begin to appreciate More . Orange blossom special f ex is a great song by Charlie daniels , that Widespread panic plays superbly ; usually with fiddle included Folk music captures the soul of many a human being in latter day times I live in Chile , and we have our very rich - also - ' folklore ' . The definition of Folklore is the viewing of a community's behavior in relation to the many aspects of life and life ; from the weather , to people . to the terrain , the gastronomy - foods , The clothing , linguistic dialects etc etc . Usually folklore is depicted adequately through literature . Literature permits the description of this human behaviour in percise detail , and depth . If man's purpose in life partly is peak experience , then we could debate that that can be achieved in more ways than one . Or lets mention two of the many ways > music and literature ; that could maybe find its way into a future discussion here . All in all , if one can realize that it's all the pursuit of peak experience , then we are on the right track Thanks
  • Default Avatar
    Jaime
    15 years 9 months ago
    great
    Will try and comment on the content later this week , but it looks great . Thanks for bringing such a rich program ; again = ] This will make me read the 1st chapter of GD gear again , as it describes that whole eras - behind the scenes __ ( if someone doesnt have that book , i recommend it strongly .. ] The anthology of american folk music looks like an absolute GEM . I learn so much with this space in dead.net . Thanks host
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17 years 7 months
Submitted by ccasal on

Week of February 11, 2008

UPDATE: Chasin' Gus' Ghost was released on DVD in the spring of 2010. Well worth a look! - DG

This week's archival Grateful Dead Hour post is a salute to the film Chasin' Gus' Ghost by Todd Kwait. From the movie's web site:

Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost is a documentary film on the history of Jug Band Music. It traces the roots of American music beginning with Gus Cannon and Cannon’s Jug Stompers, The Memphis Jug Band and the Dixieland Jug Blowers from the 1920’s, and weaves a tapestry through interviews, live performances, archival footage, and photographs showing their influence on the ever-popular folk and rock movements of the 1960’s.

The Grateful Dead began as a jug band. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (who appears in the film), and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were members of Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. The exact name and spelling seemed to change from gig to gig, but that's the name of the band that was recorded by Pete Wanger and Wayne Ott in July of 1964; that tape was released in 1998 by Grateful Dead Records but is now out of print.

As you'll learn in this program the Anthology of American Folk Music, aka the Harry Smith Anthology, was a hugely important source of inspiration and material for the Dead and many of their contemporaries.

The music:

Grateful Dead 7/30/66 Vancouver BC
STEALIN'

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
THE RUB (AIN'T IT CRAZY)
BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE

Grateful Dead 7/16/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco
NEW NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES
VIOLA LEE BLUES

Blind Lemon Jefferson, from Anthology of American Folk Music
SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS KEPT CLEAN

Grateful Dead 7/29/66 Vancouver BC
ONE KIND FAVOR

Williamson Bros and Curry, from Anthology of American Folk Music
GONNA DIE WITH MY HAMMER IN MY HAND

John Sebastian and David Grisman, Satisfied
JOHN HENRY

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
THE MONKEY AND THE ENGINEER

(P.S. There's a wonderful illustrated children's book of "The Monkey and the Engineer," including a biography of the songwriter, Jesse "Lone Cat" Fuller. Check it out.)

Enjoy!

Every Wednesday, we post a program from the Grateful Dead Hour archives for your enjoyment and enlightenment. You can browse or search the playlists at gdhour.com or on the GD Hour Search page, and let me know what program(s) you'd like to hear by emailing me at gdhour@dead.net.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans

Listen Now

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Submitted by Jaime on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 10:44

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Will try and comment on the content later this week , but it looks great . Thanks for bringing such a rich program ; again = ] This will make me read the 1st chapter of GD gear again , as it describes that whole eras - behind the scenes __ ( if someone doesnt have that book , i recommend it strongly .. ] The anthology of american folk music looks like an absolute GEM . I learn so much with this space in dead.net . Thanks host
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years 3 months

Submitted by Jaime on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 18:53

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I think inlcuding such classic , and important ( influential music on ocassion in a space like this one / can be essential ) I ve learned much from many of D Gans' programs . And i think this week is no exception . It has renewed as well my liking of many folk or country compositions that . After a reflective program like this one , you begin to appreciate More . Orange blossom special f ex is a great song by Charlie daniels , that Widespread panic plays superbly ; usually with fiddle included Folk music captures the soul of many a human being in latter day times I live in Chile , and we have our very rich - also - ' folklore ' . The definition of Folklore is the viewing of a community's behavior in relation to the many aspects of life and life ; from the weather , to people . to the terrain , the gastronomy - foods , The clothing , linguistic dialects etc etc . Usually folklore is depicted adequately through literature . Literature permits the description of this human behaviour in percise detail , and depth . If man's purpose in life partly is peak experience , then we could debate that that can be achieved in more ways than one . Or lets mention two of the many ways > music and literature ; that could maybe find its way into a future discussion here . All in all , if one can realize that it's all the pursuit of peak experience , then we are on the right track Thanks