Jam-2012-02-22 – Carroll’s

23 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Deadstein Forums, Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

It was another very interesting night of Deadstein. There were several cool features of the night that made it one of the more memorable evenings of Deadstein. We had the whole band back together for the first time in a while. Then we also had the use of the new Jerry Garcia Song Book, version 8, for the first time as a normal part of the evening.

Lastly, I have to mention the presence of Howie Weiner. Howie is the person who wrote the new book Tangled Up In Tunes, which I just read and recommend highly to everyone, but in addition, he’s an old friend that I went to several Dead shows with. I know Howie because he was Doug Schmell’s friend growing up in his high school days while turning into a Jerry-head as explained in the book. I haven’t seen Howie probably since 1985 or so and due to the Facebook and the publicity associate with his book, we got to talking. He lives in the city what do you know? Ying-Yoink, next thing I know is Howie is at a Deadstein jam.

Alan came in with the notion of doing the Swing Auditorium Grateful Dead show from February 26, 1977 and it was funny how he suggested it and Howie kenw the Swing from the feb. 26 date. Nevertheless the jam’s date was actually February 22 and the Swing Auditorium show was February 26 and therefore, I had no real connection to doing that set list. This was probably to be disappointment of Alan and the detriment of the evening. Coming off of the jam that we just followed a set list, the February 17 show from last week, I wasn’t too anxious to do another set list for some reason. For the most part for the first set we let Howie pick the songs and he lead us through a typical normal sounding Grateful Dead set list that was cool, as if I was going selecting the songs myself, pretty funny I thought.

For the first set, we played well, we played hard, and we played with purpose getting us some good music. I thought our Cumberland Blues was one of our better efforts for that song.
Howie stayed for the first set and left after the Playing –> Let It Grow –> Playing, which ended the first set. It was great to see Howie and I’m sure we will see him soon.

We took a half time break at that point. It was a pretty long one which obviously was a mistake. It led to a second set that was played with a lot less zeal then the first. Scott was zoning and was in no mood to do anything too long and spacey which at that point would definitely knock him off his throne. Therefore we found our way into doing many a Beatles song. Scott requested the Abbey Road medley and somehow we did it. I mean we had a stumble or two but nothing that a nice Rich Brotman cut and paste couldn’t resolve. It was a good, fun effort on our part.

Besides the new book, which is exciting and you hear me blogging about it quite a bit at this point, I also was very excited to unveil the new Deadstein.com website to everyone at the jam. Deadstein.com has been down for probably two or three years now ever since I kind of crashed the server. I finally got it resolved not too long ago and over the weekend made the effort to get the website back up and running. In essence I resurrected it from its death and I’m looking forward to having a little fun with it at this point. I’m sure Kevin’s going to be liking it. I’m probably going to post its own blog post related to the resurgence of Deadstein.com so look for that somewhere later on but it’s a nice portal through all or Deadstein social networks for whatever that means to anyone, which probably isn’t much, but it’s gonna be fun anyway to look back on the past into using Deadsteam.com as a conduit back to the past as well to helping us play during our jams.

In closing on this jam, I have to mention the other guest, Scott Bayer with his bongos. He was about to start playing on doing the Abbey Road medley and I definitely had to call him on it and tell him to not play during it. The Don’t Let Me Down that we tried was pretty disastrous, amazing like that song has to be so difficult and much of the second set was not our best effort. As so often is the case.

You’ll be able to listen to the songs on MP3 once Rich posts them, so look forward to that. I’ll get them up there as soon as I can. Please take a look at the new website and start interacting on one of the multitude of social networks that I am giving us all access to. I especially have some hope with respect to using Google+ with its hangout features where we can actually potentially go over songs vis-à-vis video conference call and get some practice done at home what he think about guys?

Well, until next week, Freak out!

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-22-12/

Jam – 2012-02-17 – Carroll’s

19 Feb 2012 5 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

In the rarest of occurrences, Deadstein had to play on a Friday night. Schedules dictated that we had to play this Friday night and we made the best of it. Rich broke out the candles Scott broke out the tequila we said a little prayer and we were on our way.

This being February 17 we decided to tackle the infamous Oswego, New York Jerry Garcia band show. February 1980 has always been one of my favorite Jerry Garcia months in his history. And that show on February 17 may have been the best of the tour. It taught me the greatness of a Money Honey and Positively Fourth Street and the other versions of the songs are just filled with immense energy and excitement. So, 2-17-80 was our mission for the night.

Without Alan around for the night, it was going to be Core-4, which was appropriate for doing the Jerry Garcia Band music, but Rich had a surprise for all of us.

Just as we were about to finish the first set of the JGB show incomes Mini T surprising us all with her presence. Who would’ve expected her? Not me and it was a tremendous surprise.

We quickly finished up the first set when she arrived, throwing down that Positively Fourth Street with some of the respect it was due and then we embarked upon a full Terez set of classic Terez numbers.

I think the Come Together into Hey Pocky Way really got us going and put us on the path of finishing up many a good song with Terez. The fact that we were on a predominantly Jerry Garcia Band evening I think got us warmed up and tuned up to do many of those good Jerry Garcia Band types of songs. And the Tore Up got us going in that direction. This coupled with That’s What Love Will Make You Do really gave us some good material to enjoy for the future I am sure. One of the nicer moments was the Oh darling which we actually did two times and gave us an opportunity to really get it down and I think we got some pretty good music out of that one.

Finally with respect to the to new book stuff, stuff let’s not forget some of the fun we have. We did an attempted a very fun and cool Pinball Wizard a Deadstein first and I think we did a really good job of it was a lot of fun. And then we closed with the classic Carpenters song Sing which we did with Terez many many years ago and it was great to do it again and I think we also did that some good justice so that’s going to be one for the ages. In closing on Terez, it was great to see your a lot of fun to play with her and hopefully you do it again real soon.

As far as guests we had the couple of Meg Ryan, or something like that, came in the room hung out for a few songs enjoyed us and requested that He’s Gone that we did and they were on their merry way, that’s an understatement. Then we had the ever so annoying Scott Bayer joined the room with his bongos, that I will hit him over the head with one day so that’s another guest of some ill repute, and that is an understatement.

In finishing up the 2-17-80 show we were able to get most of it done because Sitting Here in Limbo and After Midnight, or both songs, we have done with Terez. so we were able to incorporate her with finishing up this classic show which was a lot of fun. Actually, we weren’t able to finish it up but came pretty darn close. As choppy as the After Midnight Ellen Rigby After Midnight was, it was still quite a journey and a nice adventure to undertake and to come out the other side on.

In closing, the new book version 8 had a very precarious opening introduction to the band. Since we were playing this show I’ll Take a Melody was to open it and as we started playing I had a brand-new write up of the song that is new to the new book. As we were playing it I just noticed several errors in it that were comical in the fact that they were so present in the new write up. Fortunately for the most, part we know how to play that song and no one followed the errands symbols in the book but nevertheless, as I was playing it was killing me to see such blatant mistakes in the book. Additionally, That’s Alright Mama is scheduled to be played in the second set and it’s a song that is not in my book. It’s is a simple song E-A-D and I knew the lyrics anyway but we would’ve gotten through it without any issue. For night that I expected my book to shine and be highlighted, it was really a night dominated by February 17, 1980 and the return of Terez, both being exceptional moments in our path of playing all this music weekend and week out. The Friday jam was fun, even with the terrible traffic on the way in, the freedom afforded by playing on Friday versus during the week has something to be said for it. Till we do it again, Freak Out.

For those that want to listen to the happenings, check out the MP3 links below.  Thanks as always to Rich for doing the recordings.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-17-12/

Jam – 2012-02-08 – Carroll’s

12 Feb 2012 7 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

Back in Carroll’s this week with the entire band back in tow.  It seems more difficult than usual to get our schedules in synch, but this Wednesday we were in such synchronicity.  With this jam on the eve of the release of the Jerry Garcia Song Book, version 8 we were being pulled by its influence throughout the night.

The Money Honey was a repeat from last week and felt even better with Rich helping out of the piano.  Though it wasn’t recorded, the Far From Me is in the new book and Rich, Scott and I worked our way through it for a first in Deadstein history.  It’s hard but the write up works and should be a fun song to play. Additionally, the King Bee as a coherent, entire song was also a Deadstein’s first.  The Eminence Front, also a first, and the He Ain’t Give You None was played with the same type of coherency that accompanies the release of a new book.  By the way, the books have arrived at my house and are big and beautiful.  Can’t wait to distribute them.

There were some good parts of normal songs including the Stranger to open and a Jack-A-Roe that felt really good.  We had problems with other songs, such as the Let It Grow which I tried to interject a little Tommy Captain Walker jamming in when it seem to fall apart.  It just made everything worse.

Overall, it was a pretty good night, playing my Strat I felt comfortable in my touch on the guitar and having one of Carroll’s Fuch’s Black-Face treatment of the Fender Reverb really makes the guitar sound good.  Kevin wasn’t so fortunate as his main power amp kept blowing fuses as it overheated. He switched amps out and was good to go for the closing of the night.

In the world, my successful run of posting on Sundays did lead the Giants to their 4th franchise Superbowl, so maybe I will have to keep up the Sunday postings until they lose their next game.  As we are having trouble trying the schedule the next jam’s, “Houston, we have a problem” has been the subject of the email chain.  Coincidentally, Houston really did have a problem as Whitney died this week, from causes we will soon find out about.

In other news,I just started reading Howard Weiner’s (Doug Schmell’s high-school friend) book, Tangled Up in Tunes, the story of his road trips and life of following Jerry and Dylan.  Much of it mimics my life and is filled with my very own experiences.  I suggest you check it out.  If you just want to check us out from this week, do so below at your own risk.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-08-12/

Jam – 2012-01-25 – Carroll’s

29 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

With the Giants beating San Francisco last week in overtime and heading to the Superbowl last week, I decided to keep up the superstitious tradition of writing the weekly Deadstein  jam posting on Sunday morning.  It has worked for the last several weeks and I hoping it bring me the Lombardi Trophy home next Sunday.

For this week at Deadstein, Alan was once again not available so Larry Brent decided t0o join us and play the Jerry parts, leaving me with Bob for the night.  It was a fun positive night filled with good and bad moments.  I think we half-assed ourselves into several songs, which didn’t help anything along.  I think we need to focus on playing a song  with gusto and purpose when we play it and not rely so much on the non-existent vibe to propel us forward.  We all have to remember that vibe live within us and with paying it’s due respect to the vibe, it’s no going to help you.

I don’t recall any guests in the room for the night, so it was just us 5 chickens but once again, it was good to play with LLB.  In the world, I have been trying really hard to get the new version of the book done.  As of last night, I think I finalized the song list, adding 3 new songs yesterday. 2 by request and 1 by maturity.  I added King Bee, Money Honey and Far From Me as the last 3 songs of the book, so these new songs combined with the other new songs added, combined with the the sections of music added (end of Eyes, Terrapin, etc.), combined with improvement in many songs’ tablature, combined with  size increases where possible in font size, combined with improved look by print and copy publishing (thanks to Kevin and his HP 5L), combined with greatness of the existing book, combined with new online individual PDFs of each song (coming soon), will all make Jerry Garcia Songbook, Version 8 the best yet.  Look at the online whole PDF here: (Song Page)

If you just want the songs, which isn’t the best yet, you can find them below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-24-12/

Jam – 2011-01-18 – Carroll’s

22 Jan 2012 4 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

For the 3rd or 4th week in a row, I find myself on Sunday morning blogging about the week’s Deadstein jam with the Giants on my mind making their way to and through the post season.  Today we tackle the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC Championship.

In the previous weeks, I had postponed the jam posting for one reason or another, this week I was ready to post early in the week, but I thought I would try to take some of the Sunday morning postng luck and apply it to this week.  By 9:30 tonight, we should know if it works.  What I do know did work this week was Deadstein.  With Alan rehearsing with someone else, Trister filled in my shoes and I filled in Alan’s and we had some of that old school Deadstein for the night.

While it was old-school, it felt more polished than old-school Deadstein.  I thought our tempos, melodies and tones were nice and comfortable.  Playing Bobby guitar seems so easy and effortless, compared to what I had been playing especially with Andy serving up some real sweet Jerry runs.

Andy was with us for half the night through the Brokedown then it was up to the Core-4 to run the table.  One thing we don’t have is unlimited energy and we began to fade through the second set.  Some how the Things We Said Today to close the night was lively and funky which gave us a nice boost going into the elevator to say good-bye once again to Carroll’s

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-18-12/

Jam – 2012-01-11 – Carroll’s

15 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

For another week, I find myself here on a Sunday morning reflecting and writing about the Deadstein jam that occurred a few days ago.  Like the previous two weeks, I sit here writing with the Giants and playoff football on my mind.  Today, they are up in Green Bay for a very difficult challenge against the Packers at their home field, but after beating the Falcons last week at home, the Giants have with a little bit of hope.  I need a miracle; we will see at 4:30.

If there is ever hope it is with the Giants and Deadstein.  Last week, we were mired in our suckiness.  This week we pulled ourselves out of that morass, put on those rusty strings one more time, and we made them shine. Yeah!.

Earlier in the week Alan suggested playing the anniversary show for the night from Nassau Coliseum, 1979.  It was the night after the infamous 1-10-79 show with the Dark Star et. al. and 1-11-79 is often forgotten, but with its stella Jack Straw, it must be reckoned with.  It is one of the greatest Jack Straws I know of.  Check out the show on Live Music Archives

With that inspiration before us we tackled the set list.  For the record, we did skip For the Heart of Me.  Pretty much from the first few songs, we knew we weren’t going to suck as much as the previous week.   Things felt pretty good.  I was focusing on my 15% volume limitation and it sounds about right I think on the recording.  Didn’t matter from an amp perspective as by the end of the night my amp was tired and electrically crackling.  We finished the long first set by 10 and were in fine shape to finish the entire show.

With the second set, we relaxed a bit then dove right into it with the Miracle.  That gets you going.  The Ship of Fools done in a authentic yet less familiar key, had use confused and twisted a bit, but we got by.  I joined Scott for the drums, pounding the bass drum and even though Kevin said that whole thing stunk, it gave us the mid seat break that keeps it all interesting and moving.  I wasn’t feeling to good about the space, Truckin’ Other One jams, maybe my hands didn’t recover from the drumming, but I found I was battling those as I played them.  Fortunately, Scott was pretty focused for most of the night and kept us going strong.  I am not familiar with the 1-11-79 Stella Blue, but Alan endorsed it so we tried to make that sweet.  At this moment, without hearing it, I have no recollection of it.  I guess I have to listen to both the Deadstein and Grateful Dead versions and compare them.  Finally were crossed the finish line a few minutes early with a nice Casey Jones and we played a Brokedown and a Hard to Handle as extras.  It was a big night with no guests which gave us a little bit of confidence to think that we don’t totally suck.  Now it’s time for the Giants to have the same revelation and beat the Packers.  Go Giants.

To hear what we did, access the MP3s at the links below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-11-12/

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries