Jam – 2013-07-30 – Carroll’s

30 Jul 2013 2 Comments

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

ds130730This week’s Tuesday jam felt as if it fell on the heals of last week’s Thursday jam. When I arrived at Studio 2 with Rich and Scott, we walked into the room to find Kevin and the same exact equipment we left last Thursday. It looks as if nothing moved or changed. I’m not ever sure if Kevin went home or if he spent the last several days in the studio. In any case, when we arrived, there was little to do, setup and tweak.

The PA, the monitors, the drums and all they amps were just like we left them last Thursday night. In some respects this bummed me out because I was looking forward to a new setup since we had a bunch of gremlins present last week. Kevin therefore switched out his buzzing Mesa Boogie rectifier amp for a Fuch’s Twin Reverb and used that for the night. The PA actually sounded strong this week despite last week’s issues. The Fender Silverface Twin Reverb I had last week, which I wasn’t thrilled with, was still my amp of choice for this week until the end of the first when I noticed it beginning to fall apart. For the second set I switched to the Mesa Boogie amp that Kevin abandoned and gave that a chance. While I was setting up that amp, Donna scatted through a New Speedway Boogie while I was getting my own Boogie established. Once ready with my amp, Donna began to singe verses.

For the night we had no guests, only a repeat of the seven of us with the exception that Donna only hung around for the first few songs of the second set. Before starting the first set we were relishing the fact that Jerry’s freakin’ holy week was upon us, with his birthday and commemoration of his death coming to us at the start of August. We therefore had the idea that we should dedicate this jam session to Jerry Garcia and his music.

We opened with a simple Jerry Garcia Band number, And It Stoned Me and that got us going in that direction. Thinking of a Jerry song that I sing where Donna would have a significant role lead me to select Brothers and Sisters as the next song. Before we knew it, someone was suggesting that since we played a song that began with “A”, then one that began with “B” we might as well keep the alphabet going and work towards a song that began with “C”, then “D” then “E”, etc. This kept us going ordinally through the end of the first set where a Might As Well followed the Loose Lucy. I also provided some stranger song/set juxtapositions including a first set Eyes of the World, He’s Gone followed by If I had the World to give. Even the midset Deal was played in early 1970’s style to signify its set location as the 4th song. Our only stretches to the concept were the first two songs which were JGB songs, yet not written by Jerry. At the time we were doing these two songs, the alphabetical Jerry concept wasn’t realized and it was only the happenstance of the Brothers and Sisters that dictated our destiny. When we got to “K” we had no Jerry songs so we cheated a played the Knocking on Heaven’s door as an honorary Jerry song. Likewise, we had to stretch a bit on “J” as Jack Straw had to fit the bill. Good thing we played it because it was one of the better moments of the first set.

We had potential to keep the alphabetical setlist going for the second set but I wasn’t quick enough to think of the Other One as an “O” song as it was naturally being segued into out of the New Speedway Boogie. It was a bonehead maneuver on my part that brought this whole theme to a crashing halt. That got us to the “S” song Donna was looking forward to all night, Stagger Lee which she took the lead vocals on.

a-z-uploadableAs a side note, on the Friday night following this jam I opened up a half-case of wine I picked up on my way to the jam at the Wine Library. Unbelievably and coincidentally, the wine is called A to Z. Oh my G-d.  Is that subliminal or what?   I had no idea the name of the wine I had just picked up, I don’t pay attention to that.  What a cool thing it was to find this out as a pulled a bottle out of the case.  This is actually 3 days after I wrote the posting and made the weekly setlist poster.  The box, as show in the picture was staring me in the face all the time.

With Donna gone for the final hour and the alphabet blown out of the water, we still wanted to stick to a Jerry Garcia theme and did some interesting stuff like trying to pull off a China Cat –> Doin that Rag. That didn’t quite work as we didn’t have the Doin that Rag introduction in our heads when it was time to play it. That brought this transition to a screeching halt. The Mission in the Rain and the Cats Down Under the Stars were serious Garcia efforts on our part. The Ripple represented the nice positive closer foe the night’s Jerry theme. Since we tried the Jerry theme before the actual freaky holy week began, we can still pay tribute to Jerry when we jam again next week. Until that time, Freak Out!

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/07-30-13

Jam – 2013-07-25 – Carroll’s

25 Jul 2013 1 Comment

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

ds130725We had our core group with us this Thursday at Deadstein.  Donna was there for our first set, sans the Here Comes Sunshine.  It seemed destined to go into a Viola Lee Blues, but with Donna ready to go, I veered the band to a Bertha instead.  I think it was a good decision and got us into a good flow from a set list perspective that followed though the end of the night.  We had a few guest including Steve and Lindsey and Scott’s friend Julian.  It was nice how he picked up on the Richmond 11/1/85 vibe I tossed into the second set with the Sailor/Saint, She Belongs to Me followed by the Gloria closer.

Funny, Julian told Scott that he wanted to hear him sing the Box of Rain, so when looking for that encore type of song just before midnight we were thinking Box of Rain.  A chant of “We want Scott” started and wouldn’t you know, in comes Scott Bayer.  This wasn’t what we were looking for, but we got the Box of Rain closer nevertheless.  It was a good feeling version and left us on a good note.  It was such a good note that we agreed to call it a night with 5 minutes left on the night.  Probably a good decision.

This week’s recordings are from a single MP3 recorded slung from the back wall of Studio 2.  I did all I could to get some okay sound out of it.  No need to freak out, so I will Freak out.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/07-25-13

Jam – 2013-07-18 – Carroll’s

18 Jul 2013 3 Comments

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

ds130718In the middle of an extended heat wave, Deadstein was able to able to survive with a big band in Studio 2 at Carroll’s. Musical guests for the night included long time friend Bill Siegel, who came with his little organ to accompany us on our tunes. Also joining us for the first set was Donna who graced us with singing lead on a mellow Candyman and who also knock our socks off when she whaled through a Sugaree earlier in the set.

It was almost 100 degree outside while we were playing and with 8 people in the band , most toting amplifiers, the air conditioning was having trouble getting out of the upper 70’s. The lead to a hot, sweaty jam.

Initially we had a bunch of trouble with the PA system, not really able to get the Piano sounded adequate for the room. Additionally, I had trouble finding how to pickup the piano by itself in the PA recorder, so who knows how the recording for the night will work? I also had some technical difficulties during the first song of Shakedown when I discovered a gremlin in either my Fuchs Twin Reverb or my pedal board, so I switch out the amp and used a Silverface for the rest of the night, which had its tonal challenges in and of itself. Too bad, because this caused some struggles for me for the first part of the night , not really finding my comfort zone until late into the jam.

While shaky, the Shakedown Street at least got us started and we were able to hear the benefit of the funkiness Bill’s keyboard brought us. Trying to think of a good 2nd song that drew Donna into the mix, I selected the Sugar Magnolia and out of the jam we went into a Suagree where Donna was able to provide us some of her Orca-esque bellowing. This is to say that she whaled during that song. We never did get back to the Sunshine Daydream, but that is not a big deal.

The Masterpiece that followed was a better than usual one for us and we were tight and concise on it feeling and sounding good. The cautionary tale, as Rich put it, of the Duprees was a good time and the Cassidy that followed had Donna and I working well together on the vocals. Having Bill there, I thought it would be best to challenge him and take advantage of some of his sounds and play the Sailor Saint. Once again, this keeps getting better and better as we hone our skills and get more comfortable with the changes in the songs. When you finally finish the combo and let that final A chord ring out, you really do get a sense of accomplishment wash over your being. This was Bill’s swan song as he left us after the Sailor Saint and we took a quick short break, earlier than usual.

We slowly worked our way into the Candyman, with Donna singing, initially with just Rich, Lee and I accompanying her, but everyone joined in by the end. I think that was the last song for Donna leaving Deadstein to its core constituency for the rest of the night.

Following another short break, it was damn hot in the studio, we embarked on the next segment of the night which was the pre-drum type of second set. This started with a pretty reasonable feeling Terrapin out of no where into a Woman Are Smarter. Both songs felt pretty good. We then played the rarely played To Lay Me Down with the patience for the most part such a subtly sophisticated songs demands. I thought this was a really good version for us. For some reason I associate a second set To Lay Me Down with a second set Let it Grow, so I decided to head right into the Let It Grow out of the To Lay Me Down. I decided to try to play and sing the Let It Grow from memory without turning to the music in the book, which worked for me on this occasion. I was able to focus more on playing than reading which free up my mind a bit, even though I had constant anxiety as to whether or not the quickly approaching next part of the song would come to me in time to play it. This Let It Grow felt good and even experienced a relatively competent ending to the jams portions of the song.

After another small break we ended playing all over the place. A little Wish You Were Here and Little I’m Free from Tommy which fell apart when it was time to leave the lyrical portion of the song. With Kevin using the tile floor as a heat exchange to get some cooling into his body, I figured I might as well play a little Good Night Irene which seemed to wake him up and get him back into the game. The Midnight Moonlight to close ended at 12:01, just past midnight and sent us packing into the 90 plus degree temperatures that greeted us when we opened the door on 55th Street. Usually getting out of the hot, sticky elevator with all six of us crammed into it and opening the door on West 55th Street, with the river just to our west, is a cool and refreshing experience, but this night the outside was just as hot as in the inside of the building. This works for us as Deadstein is always seeking both a hotter and cooler experience, so not matter which way the winds blow we end up on top, so until we freak again, Freak Out.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/07-18-13

Jam – 2013-07-08 – Carroll’s

08 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

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

ds070813Our guest surprise for the night was Andy Trister,  who would of thunk it?  Rich kept this one close to his vest and we were able to enjoy the tones and the notes of Andy through the first set. In addition to the song you see, we also played the following songs; Love in the Afternoon, Cumberland Blues and Standing on the Moon. Unfortunately, Rich’s tape full recorder system only worked through the end of the first set.   We totally missed those 3 songs and beginning with the Abbey Road Medley we were only able to capture the stereo room recording.  Nevertheless, the first set recording was great and what else we did captured was good to get.  Who knows what we’ll get in the future.  Freak Out.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/07-08-13

Jam – 2013-06-20 – Carroll’s

20 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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

ds130620

The whole band, including Donna, was able to get its act together this week for a night of Deadstein music. Getting there was half the trick, surviving the night is the other half. For the most part, the majority of us survived the experience, but only by a slim majority. Donna left for home after the first set and our only guest of the night, Bill Sloan, picked up the sticks for a song while Scott took stepped out for a breather.

While Scott went out to take a breather, it ended up being a full-blown nap as I don’t think we saw him for the second half of the night. When Kevin went to check up on him toward the end of the evening he ended up succumbing to the same malady Scott had and seemed to be out for the count only leaving 4 our use to hold up the fort. I found the cure for Kevin’s woes which was picking up his bass a playing it. This woke Kevin up and got him back into the jam, but playing my guitar instead of his bass. We finished up the night with me on bass and Kevin on guitar working our way in and out of a free-form jam based on Dark Star and Other motifs. It is always fun to partake in that type of activity. For me surviving and thriving during the last jam in my 40s was a good way to end this decade of my life, I just hope the others in the band learn to endure the long nights of Deadstein.

Not only were physical difficulties hampering the experience, we were also having our share of technical problems. Kevin’s sensor-round bass shook the solder out of the top Fender Bassman amp on his rig requiring a mid-jam amp replacement. As far as the recording goes, only the soundboard recorder worked so the MP3s are missing the room microphone leaving a very disturbing recording made up of mostly open vocal mics, the piano mics and muffled room sounds as picked up through the vocal microphones. As such, listening to these MP3s is suggested for the truly hardcore Deadstein fans and freaks.

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/06-20-13

Jam – 2013-06-13 – Carroll’s

13 Jun 2013 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

ds130613This was a tough week to get everyone together but we managed to get a version of a Core-4 jam with Lee on drums and Alan on guitar. This has a whole bunch of implications on the evening including no guests and a much smaller and tighter experience. Not only is it one less drum kit in the air, but it also limits the number of live microphones to two, leaving the ambient air relatively free of reverberating feedback generated by all the open microphones.

Kevin’s iPod was playing a 74 Eyes of the World while we were gathering for the night and being that we skipped out on the Eyes last week, I thought it would be a good idea to open with the Eyes to get us going into a good big jammy direction for the night. Figuring we would try to take it all the way out in the final jam like they did in 1973-1974. Maybe this decision showed why we typically start off slow and easy, because this opening 23-minute Eyes of the World sprint at the opening of the night left Kevin gasping for air before we reached Deadstein 12-midnight finish line. Nevertheless, it was a epic adventure. I know Kevin will blame his downfall on the Apricot Newtons, but I will blame it on this giant Eyes of the World to open and all the big music to follow. Starting off as we did in Core-4 format with such a large and enduring jam is quite a mental and physical task and it does take its toll.

I found myself struggling from the first moment on and was doing my best to tot move ahead, thinking sooner or later it would click for me and get comfortable. It never really did and I wasn’t too comfortable with my hand/mind/guitar/tonal combination all evening long. This was too bad and as I always think, a lost opportunity since I was close and the rest of the band was playing well. I hardly played at all in the preceding days leading up to the jam and just wasn’t really on my game, mentally or physically. Time to practice, it makes things much more comfortable and easy during the jam.

From the Eyes, Lee suggested going right into a Greatest Story Ever Told. In an of itself and at that time, also a challenge, but we embarked on it and at least and it provided an ultimate stopping point with its abrupt ending. I was having split personality syndrome (Jerry/Bob) and was losing my focus but at times it had it moment. So 30 minutes into the night’s music, we got our first break to tune up, make and few adjustments and get a sip of water.

You would think the Althea and Little Red Rooster would get us into an easy gate which we could use to trot to the finish line and for the most part these songs accomplished that task. It didn’t help my comfort level any but at least it was song then stop, song then stop. Maybe it was the Jack-A-Roe which we did next. Lee kicked it into high gear and we were able to sustain that frantic sprint through the entire song. It felt good and right at that speed and I was amazed we could sustain it. Well done on our part. From there I thought it was a good time to throw some meat on the fire and play the Sailor Saint. Always a favorite of Kevin’s and it was due. Could have been better but it had it moments.

Thinking a nice relaxing, easy GarBand song could help us out so we did the Gomorrah, and it was nice and relaxing and put us in a better mindset. With this in mind I decided to try the Morning Dew to close the set. Not a favorite of Kevin’s but he can’t avoid it forever. With the small format we had fewer stray elements to lead us astray and we were able the maintain focus and integrity of the song leading to building the momentum throughout the verses, coming down after the first lead and then building up the final lead in a deliberate manner. T’was probably Deadstein’s best effort in this respect of the song.

After a small break we did a couple of Beatles songs I had been working on. The I Me Mine we played twice and the recording in the setlist is the 2nd version. We took one more small break and tried to do a Deadstein classic, one which Kevin always likes, Help Slip Estimated. The transition was not to be as I messed up some of the foundations of the end of Slipknot! leading Lee astray resulting in a crash and burn at the end of the Slipknot. It was my fault as I was playing the before Slipknot double Am scales at the end of the Slipknot when they required single Am scales alternating with drumming fills. I mended the recording together and we did go into the Estimated Prophet which was also well executed by all. What the heck, we were playing big so I decided to do the Core-4 Terrapin, which we were also able to pull off and we ended this long combination of songs with the Terrapin. This combo was also draining and took its toll.

Once again I turned to Garband to get us back in stride and hopefully to the finish line and the Run For the Roses was the elixir the doctor ordered and we seemed good. The Queen Jane was also another nice little shot in the arm getting us successfully back in stride aiming for the finish line. To break things up a bit with a little variety to get our minds off of the extent of the playing we had already done we did the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed followed by Dylan’s Slow Train Coming. Seemed like no biggie but Kevin needed a breather with only a few more songs to go to the finish. We gave him that breather as I noodled on the piano and like a champion he got up off the mat to play a final number to get us over the finish line. I decided that song should be Feel Like a Stranger which is ingrained in Kevin’s mind, one he could play in his sleep. I guess I was right because the Stranger woke Kevin up enough so we could conclude the Core-4 evening with a gentile Brokedown Palace. Woo!

The audio files are provided in the following folder:
http://deadstein.com/audio/06-13-13

Until we freak again.

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