Jam – 2013-04-23 – Carroll’s

23 Apr 2013 2 Comments

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

ds130423Deadstein found itself having to play on a Tuesday night and we couldn’t synchronize our schedules to get everyone to the jam. This week’s odd-man out was Rich and for a rare time, we played a full jam without any keyboards at all.

Without Rich at the jam, we found ourselves without any guests for the night. It was just the music there for us to enjoy. Alan commented on how he thought that there seemed to be a wet blanket over us for the night, preventing us from letting our hair down and enjoy the music we created. He could exactly put his finger on it, if it was a lack of piano, or a lack of the additional reverberation and feedback the piano microphones provides or if it was a lack of feedback we receive from the guests in the room that tend to come in on Rich’s freakin’ coat-tails.
In an effort to fight this potential feeling, Donna came in requesting that we fill the set with a bunch of peppy songs. That led us to a overly peppy opening of a Cumberland Blues. While not a typical opener, it did get us going and on a peppy directly leading us to another peppy follower, the Passenger. Despite Donna’s wishes, you can’t stay peppy all night, so by the 3rd song, the Ramble on Rose, we had a bit of a reprieve. Without Rich in the Studio to sing most of the Jerry numbers, it was up to me to fill in on some of those songs. Ramble on Rose was one such songs that was a fun time for me to sing. The Bobby McGee that followed lacked some of the desired pep but it was a nice song for me and Donna to sing together.

At home earlier in the week, I had worked on some of the Music Never Stopped riffs that I had yet to try to learn ever since I began playing Jerry Garcia guitar a few years ago. It was nice to finally have some direction with respect to playing that song and now I look forward to getting better and better at it as time marches on. Likewise, hopefully Donna can get some of those classic late 70’s Music Never Stopped Donna belts under her belt. There is a lot on redundancy in that sentence.

Since Rich wasn’t there we didn’t have his MP3 recorder to capture the night’s music. I used my iPhone to record whatever I could until I ran out of battery power and then Alan continued with his iPhone. It doesn’t make the best sounding recordings, but you can tell what happened by listening, so it is worth keeping for posterity’s sake.

It needs to be mentioned that this week in Deadstein saw the passing of Richie Havens. Richie had a profound impact on the early history of Deadstein and as such, we are joined at the beard with Richie and wish him nothing but the best as he begins serenading heaven with his classic version of Freedom. In memory of Richie’s passing, we did play a moving He’s Gone out of the New Speedway Boogie. Finally, to close the jam, we played a It’s All Over Now Baby Blue. Not only are the words fitting in this situation, but this is one of the few songs Richie sang with Deadstein back in the early 1990’s. The Times They are a Changin’ was the other song we played with Richie.

For the second set, I wanted to get back to playing a If I Had the World to Give so we started with that, and the song transitioned into a nice Estimated Eyes which seem to have some nice momentum associated with it. We did toy around with the Stir It Up so hopefully everyone becomes a little more familiar with that song, including Donna, who has a big role in it. I also introduced Donna to the I’ll Be With Thee concept during our half time break. We played through that a bit, also in hopes that one day we can pull that off as a whole band. Wouldn’t that be something?

To view a playlist of the boring video shots of the first 8 songs see below:

 

Freekdom! RIP Richie

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/04-23-13

Jam – 2013-04-16 – Carroll’s

16 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

ds130416T-Woos-day night in the middle of April and Deadstein is marching through its spring season. This week we marched without Alan, who called in sick, and played with just one guitarist. This gave me an opportunity to play a bit more Jerry Garcia Band than we would have typically played if Alan was there. Rather than having a surprise guitarist, the night’s surprise was a surprise drummer, in the form of Bill Sloan. He came to hang with us and worked on the PA system throughout the night. Additionally, he did a bit of the round-robin with both Scott and Lee, playing drums with us on several of our songs.

Shortly after 11pm, Bill left with Donna leaving the rest of us to close out the night. Scott Bayer, was our only other guest arriving late in the night only the have Carol listen to a song or two before the 12-midnight time hit us.

Trying to think of an opener at the time was a challenge and I snuck in the Slow Train Coming to get us going. I thought it was pretty good and definitely got us moving down the line. We all expected Rich to call for the Next Time You See Me Next, but we were surprised when the You Win Again Came out of his mouth. We began a Love in the Afternoon to get on the Garcia Band roll and that is about when Donna entered. From then on we performed lots of Jerry songs including a That’s Alright Mama which Rich brought in the lyrics for. That had a nice feel to it although I lack the necessary dexterity to pull that one off too well.

I think the It’s No Use had a real nice groovy feel to it, I know Donna and I don’t necessarily agree to the definition of groovy, but I think this song may have approached it. Truckin’ was Donna’s last song with us as she left at the beginning of the end of the Truckin’ jam and we explored that for a while after she left, taking it into the Other One. We didn’t have too much time left at that point but we made the best of it with the Catfish and the Taxman in honor of April 15 which just passed us by. To close I happened to open right to the Good Night Irene and it was an omen. A good one at that as I really enjoyed that song.

For this week’s music, Rich forwarded me the raw MP3 files from his 2 recorders and I did my best to mix them together. Hopefully I’ll get back to some previous week’s music that he gave me at the last jam. Till then, Freak in not out.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/04-16-13

Jam – 2013-04-10 – Carroll’s

10 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

ds130410Though it was April 10, 2013, there was a feeling deep inside Kevin’s gut that was yearning for it to be April 12, 1983. Who could blame his gut? That night at Binghamton was pretty magical for all of us who were there, not just Kevin who enjoyed his first show that night. With all these thoughts in our minds, there was a small desire to relive and play some of the great moments from that show. Since it was a couple of nights off from the actual anniversary, I didn’t feel compelled to give it the honor of Deadstein celebrating the night that it probably deserved, but the presence of the Broome County Arena was never far from my mind as the night progressed.

We all arrived early and ready to play, psyched everyone was health and accounted for. We decided to play the opening of the 4/12/83 show including the Getaway–> Greatest Story followed by a Birdsong. Much like 1983, the 2013 version was a strong opening and a positive omen with respect to things to come for the night.

From this strong opening, we decided to stray a bit but kept our eye on Binghamton as the night progressed. This resulted in the mid-set Let It Grow With Donna singing with us for the first set we selected a few songs that catered to her style such as the I Shall Be release, which we had been avoiding for the past several weeks. We ended the first set with a nice Might As Well, which when executed, is a nice exciting way to end a set.

With Donna only available for a portion of the beginning of set 2, we decided to throw a Playing in the Band at her as a way for her to bid us a fond-farewell as we transitioned into a spacey Playing in the Band jam. We eventually found our way to a China Doll and back into the Playing in the Band. I think that was a good little segment of music.

To close the night we were reach a bit and I suggested playing the last Beatles song in the book, The Word. That was pretty good. We continued in the Beatles “W” section and played “With a Little Help From Your Friends” and closed the night with a While My Guitar Gently Weeps. That was a very satisfying way to close out the night. Providing the initiative to come back and freak-out with Deadstein one more time.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/04-10-13

Jam – 2013-04-02 – Carroll’s

02 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

ds130402It was Tuesday night and all of Deadstein, including Donna D, were scheduled to jam for the night.  A major departure from all the guests we had the previous week.  Kevin was back from vacation and ready to go after missing a week.  Alan on the other hand, was scheduled to play but had to cancel at the last moment.  This left Rich to his own devices to try to find a replacement for Alan, come hell or high water.  Trister almost was able to make it, but in the end couldn’t join us.  This left Fred to fill in for Alan, or me, or both, who knows.  Fred showed up by the 3rd or 4th song and played with us for the rest of the night.  Our only other guest was Steve who enjoyed most of the jam with us.

Carroll’s had the studio set up for a session and they needed to perform a quick turn around on for the morning, so the PA was set up in a strange way and squealed throughout the evening, never giving us a strong reliable PA system.

At the beginning of the night there were only five of us there but I decided to go with a traditional Feel Like a Stranger Grateful Dead opening.  I think it felt a bit hollow to begin with but by the end of the song it felt good and comfortable.  I tried adjust the PA a bit during the beginning of the second song and for the most part missed out on the opening segments of the Loser, only getting back in position to play the lead.  We played a mellow C.C. Rider as the 3rd song trying to keep the legitimacy of the setlist and that is when Donna joined us ready for a fun night of music.

Donna was there for only a song or two until Fred sauntered in with his rig while we were completing the Cats Down Under the Stars.  While Rich desired to wait for Fred to play that song, I jumped in and grabbed the Cats Down by the horns and rocked it.  It was a good time to do that song while we still had only 1 guitar player.  I was looking to work on classic Donna songs, but she insisted on testing her by introducing new songs that she didn’t know.  We obliged her and kept her on her toes with a wide variety of new songs.

I recall an Estimated that was good and some ever improving Looks Like Rains and Passengers.  Tough to remember too much a week after the melee especially without the aid of the MP3s.  Until we can listen to them, all we can do is play and freak out.

Jam – 2013-03-27 – Carroll’s

27 Mar 2013 1 Comment

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

ds130327With Kevin out of town celebrating his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, we called upon Bill Sloan to fill his shoes. Bill was totally expected and I was looking forward to playing with him, keeping the SUNY Albany spirit alive. While I knew Bill was playing bass, Carroll’s evidently didn’t know, so I got Jules to change out Kevin’s normal monster bass rig for a standard Hatke amp and cab setup. I’m sure Bill appreciated the switch, although Jules was offering to get the necessary splitter box Bill would have needed. Bill was set for the night and rolled with the flow, thinking he was loud, but to us a respite from the pounding we usually get from Kevin’s rig.

While we had no guest spectators for the night, the band’s lineup was filled with them. I was the there first and then in walks Mark. He was a friend of Rich’s, as well as other’s, who was a surprise sit-in guitarist for the night. He plays with Rich and Coffee-Boy in Brooklyn and was making his Deadstein debut.

Trying to make it easy, open and jammy for the Bill and Mark combo at the beginning of the night I decided to open with an 18-minute Eyes of the World, reminiscent of the 6-17-91 Giant’s Stadium show. From that we did the whole 1974 Eyes of the World jam at the end which left us in Dm leading me to a bold decision to play Morning Dew when I noticed Donna had entered the studio by the end of the Eyes. Donna’s good a Morning Dew and got her into the flow right away. A good decision and the intro to the night was a great springboard for things to come.

Donna was making her return after her week off eager just be like one of the boys. Alan got there earlier than expected and was raring to go. Lee was psyched as always as a night of Deadstein is better than virtually anything else. Then, Scott and Rich rolled in with news that Terez was going to be our second big, or should I say “Mini”, surprise of the night.

All of this was surprising good news, too bad Kevy was there to join in on the fun. We got going pretty much on time and from the first few moment I at least felt good. I think the band had a nice aura to it. We got Alan from Carroll’s to tweak the board a bit after Donna’s first song and after that, the PA sounded better than usual for the rest of the night. That helped us as Terez arrived a little later, and for a Deadstein first, we had a true set of Jerryettes to sing with us. How exciting is that?

With our Jerryettes in tow, we focused on a lot of Garcia Band music , to take advantage of the situation. Terez and Donna worked through singing backup harmonies for us and at times was inspiring to think we had a Jerryette thing going on. Some was good like the Harder They Come and I think Rich choked on the Night They Drove ‘ol Dixie Down as he was a tad anxious.

Eventually, Deadstein’s sad reality set in when we had indecision about the time signature in Comes A Time. Though we started the song with trepidation and a lack of confidence, it actually felt pretty good in the end. Tot bad due to Deadstein’s own internal issues we kind of robbed Donna from enjoying singing Comes a Time.

Mini T’s time ended too quickly at 11pm, but it was great while it lasted. I had a lot of fun trying to conduct the Jerryettes and it was lots of fun playing with this lineup. I really hope we have additional opportunities to do it again. With Donna singing solo we did play a nice New Speedway Boogie which took advantage of our two harmonica players (Mark and Alan) whose harp solos sandwiched by guitar lead. This is probably the only song with two harmonica solos in it and I guess we took advantage of it.

We played the Good Lovin through midnight and everyone yet clambering for more. That’s how you know you like a night of music. Time to try it again and thanks to everyone involved.

To listen tosome of the music, go to the links below
http://deadstein.com/audio/03-27-13

Jam – 2013-03-21 – Carroll’s

21 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

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

ds130321After the extended span of a Monday to the following Thursday, Deadstein was ready for action. It was Kevin’s birthday and you wouldn’t have know it. At least I didn’t, so happy birthday Kevin.

I just got back from my RV trip to South Carolina and back and still had the feelings of the Virginia Mountains and driving down south occupying my mind. We were again lucky enough to have the six of us there to play but found out Donna was sick so she wasn’t going to join us. This coupled with my trip, thanks for asking, influenced the song selection a bit. Saving some songs for when Donna gets better while selecting some that are good to get done because they don’t have any harmonies and don’t involve her for the most part.

The resulting setlists had a real first set/second set feel to them; exhibiting flow, dynamics and surprises. In the end, Alan proclaimed it to be his best jam to date while playing with Deadstein. That was quite a lofty statement and I am glad for him from his perspective, but I would go quite that far. Nevertheless, it was a real solid night of playing that was quite satisfying to the soul.

As far as guests, Steve was there and we congratulate him and Lindsay on their baby. Maggie and Ryan were also there and he sat in for a song or two. Scott had the kick drum that played itself and Kevin had some ultra-low sonic stuff going on. I don’t think I had anything special going on.

Rich has a backlog of recording to get through, so check back for the MP3s to come.  Nope, it looks like Rich handed them off to me and I uploaded them on 4/21/13.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/03-21-13

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