Rich | my Steal Your Space book

Jam – 2013-01-17 – Carroll’s

17 Jan 2013 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee, Wikler

After several weeks of working on material that can bit a bit outside of our range, Deadstein embarked on a jam that was closer to its roots. With Donna in Jamaica, and the standard six-man lineup, we had nothing to think about in our song selection except what would make us happy.

Everyone but Alan got there early, he had trouble getting a cab from his new home’s location and was a little late. Nevertheless, we started a little before 8pm as we were eager to play. I was therefore thinking Garband until Alan arrived and initially suggested a How Sweet It Is opener. Kevin hemmed and hawed and said he wanted a song that was a little less feminine. A song he could be proud of when someone asks him what Deadstein opened with. With that in mind I then suggested a Jack Straw which was met with enthusiasm and Lee requested it go into a Franklins Tower. With that type of meaty buffet served Kevin and the rest of Deadstein was set for a satiating evening. It was a hot opener. We then went into a Little Red Rooster as Lee was thinking we don’t play enough of that standard Grateful Dead blues stuff anymore. During the second lead of Rooster Alan came in and bum-rushed the microphone with his harmonica. Having nice monitors these days, and not sound-checking his microphone, caused his harmonica to overwhelm the room and bring the vibe of that song to a grinding halt.

We continued on with our Grateful Dead onslaught from there on. Playing lots of fast and just lots of A1-Dead-songs; steak sauce. Ryan was our only guest and he played drums for a songs or two with us. For the second set we somehow found ourselves, attacking Live Dead performing the Dark Start, Stephen, Eleven, Death as a coherent medley of music. We capped it off with a Watchtower to close. This still gave us time for a nice Uncle John’s band based mini-set to close the evening. An excellent, back to our roots jam.

To listen to the music, go to the links below:

http://deadstein.com/audio/01-17-13

Jam – 2012-12-28 – Carroll’s

28 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Fred, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee

The end of 2012 featured the 51st jam of the year and what a year it has been in Deadstein land. For the night we had a surprise guest guitarist, Fred. He was new to all of us but Rich and he played Jerry lead for the entire night leaving me to stick with the Bob rhythm guitar. He was good and it made for a fun night of music. Additionally, Donna was there for most of the night and stayed through the 12 o’clock hour. Maybe it was the fact that we were jamming on the ultra rare Friday night. This was the result of Christmas and New years being on Tuesday nights this year messing up Carroll’s schedules. No big deal, the Friday night jam seemed like a bonus. It was a long separation between the previous Monday jam and this Friday jam, so we were all ready to play. Our guests for the night included Steve and Lindsey. It’s time to get it all going again starting off strong for 2013.

To hear what we did to close 2012 go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-28-12/

Jam – 2012-12-17 – Carroll’s

17 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee

This week, our Stagger was back but Alan was out. Donna D. once again sang a few songs during the first set and left us to our own devices for the second set. She came in sporting a new set of braided polyester extensions in her hair, kind of a surprise to all of us, and provided us a little lesson in things we know not of. We did get lots of songs in for the first set and I think we found the second set more challenging. For the night we had no guests and we were on our own to flounder as we must.

To hear some of the floundering, go to the MP3 links below:

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

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-12-13 – Carroll’s

13 Dec 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, Wikler

This night of Deadstein not only was the sixth night of Hanukkah but it was the baker’s dozen on the 12-12-12 which happened the day before. We also had Donna D. join us for most of the first set but unfortunately scheduling at this time of the year is difficult and Lee was the odd man out. Our guests included Steve, Lindsey and Ryan who sat in for Scott on drums for a song or two in the second set.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-13-12/

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-12-04 – Carroll’s

04 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee

This was a Tuesday night where we played another night with Donna D; joining us for the first set. Alan on the other hand did not join us for any sets . In addition, there were no guests in the room to experience our jam. I was psyched that I printed out Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly just before the jam because that was a lot of fun to play with her. We never did that before and it was good from second one. The Who stuff we tried was a bit more challenging. There was lots of good stuff and I can’t wait to try it all again. Playing with my new subscriptions to Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite and my new Wacom pen/tablet give me the drive to draw instead of write.

To hear what we did go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-04-12/

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-11-28 – Carroll’s

28 Nov 2012 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee, Wikler

It was a standard Wednesday night of Deadstein, with nothing much to be expected but the 6 of us. Though the Rockefeller Christmas Tree was slated to be lit right about the same time as our arrival, it didn’t seem to impact our plans. Kevin had appointments in the city earlier and when I arrived I found him sleeping on the floor. That startled me a bit. Rich thought we were playing the night before and went to Carroll’s on Tuesday night only to find no one the play with. When he arrived at this jam, he was psyched because he has been prepping Donna D. with some good listening music and she was going to be joining us later in the night.

Waking up from his stupor, Kevin wanted to play something mellow and surprising suggested that we play Breathe from Pink Floyd. We don’t do it often but it is in the supplemental portion of the book so we gave it a go. It was a lot of fun and got us off to a good start for the night. We even pulled off the Time pretty well and got back into the Breathe reprise to end this Pink Floyd endeavor. It was cool and fun while it lasted. We then headed into out Deadstein music and we were primed to play.

Staring with the slow Floyd gave me a good foundation of tone to work with for the rest of the night and I felt really comfortable within myself and the music; a great place to be. The band and I were playing well which also helped when Donna D. showed up to sing a the second part of the first set with us. She had been listening to a lot of Grateful Dead music provided by Rich. She pleasantly shocked us when she said she wanted to play Comes a Time and that she had been listening to several versions from several eras and thought she had a good handle on it. Unfortunately she did great but her mic was turned off for the first half of the son; my bad. After we fixed that, she was good to go. She kept surprising us by pulling songs out of her ass that were classics Jerry ballads and would be fun to play, such as the Morning Dew, Stella Blue and St. Stephen. Well maybe the Stephen wouldn’t be too much fun to play since we don’t do it well, but we sure gave it the Deadstein try. I on the other hand, pulled a Stephen –> Dancin’ combo out of my ass which proved to be a great choice for Donna D and the rest of us. She was able to let loose on that one.

Additionally, Donna’s Dew and Stella Blue were really well sung and phrased, and impressive feat while trying to survive the vortex that is Deadstein. The ending jam of the Dew showed the true weakness of Deadstein in our inability of seeing the big picture of a song. Not knowing what a song is about, not knowing where you are and playing a Morning Dew without any of the respect it deserves. It was a travesty to witness the lack of patience of not letting Donna D sing out the final few “guess it doesn’t matter anyway’s” in a serene blossom of tonal petals coated in dew. This would obviously be followed by the guitar lead/jam that peaks out over a couple of minutes like a Morning Dew is designed. It was just such a shame, because the rest of the Dew was so good, why fumble the ball with victory in sight? A little patience, maturity and focus is all we need. Come on people! Anyway, short of that, there was a lot of fun to be had with Donna D.

Our guests were for the night Steve and Lindsey as well as the aforementioned Donna D and a less than stellar showing of Scott Bayer. We ended the Donna D. segment with halftime for some and time for Rich and I to play a couple of Jerry acoustic type numbers with Donna D. The Amazing Grace took me half the song to click in with the 3, but once I did, it was really cool. Too bad about that lost opportunity. The Swing Low was a lot of fun also. After that everyone else left and it was back to standard Deadstein.

We were playing well and time was going slowly. The second set provided a lot of time to play and we continue to play well. We migrated to songs typically associated with the first set, but it was a nice assortment of songs. It also felt like a good second set. I guess we will have to give it a listen. Thanks to Rich for providing the recordings.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/11-28-12/

Set 1