June 12, 2003
Ol' Robert Hunter is cooking these days.
Checked the
online journal of the longtime Grateful Dead songwriter, and it sounds like he's really rolling along. Doing tours, both solo and with
The Dead, and most especially, writing tons of songs, something worth noting from the guy who wrote "Trucking."
Songs coming out of my ears. Wrote one this morning called "Bakersfield Lullaby" for Sandy Rothman to set and maybe sing with Nelson one day. Weir and I have a good collaboration streak rolling with at least one high powered anthem in our sites and two others standing fair to bid. In Phil's corner, a couple of brand new ones, and a sizable handful of others he's been mulling over for awhile. Three new tunes composed with Mickey plus several he might bring over from the strong Bembe Orisha collaborations which shouldn't be left to gather mold. Half a dozen starters with Barraco, one of which I know for sure to be damned good. Talked to Bill about bringing "Iowa Soldier", which I love, over from the Trichrome pot. Looking at a good two dozen contenders here but will happily settle for half a dozen ready to rip.
Good to hear from someone who must be pushing sixty or so by now. Also read what he has to say about the technology behind the new
gdradio.com, something called Sonic Focus. Sounds like the guys are really getting going again. Hard to believe but they've got about five bands going on now. Anyway, check out Hunter sometime. He's a real cosmic curmudgeon, always worth a read. Still lots of tickets available for the summer Dead tour, if anyone's interested. They haven't announced the west coast part yet though.
