June 23, 2003
Mickey Hart blogs the Dead tour.
As I mentioned before, the
Grateful Dead are back on tour, and Mickey Hart is keeping an
online tripdiary of it. Here's a selection from
June 17th describing the latest technological innovations, the merging/melding of light and sound.
A new beginning...a sonic miracle...
Someday, we always believed, we would not only vibrate together in sound but also in the visual domain. That day is becoming a reality, that day is today. This is the first time that the sound and lights will be pulsating together in a shared rhythm, interactive as they say. What we play the lights say. It is so exciting to join these two mediums. One pulsating throbbing gristle. We have joined these worlds in the "midi" domain. Midi means musical instrument digital interface. The lights and the images are now triggered from the stage as opposed to someone in the arena directing the flow. The Rhythm Devils now will have a flow and rhythm that is directly related to what is being played from the stage, from Bill and I. The Brotherhood of Light, Peter "Liquid Pete" Rabinowitz and Chris Samardizch, is making this happen for us.
They're playing with some great folks on
this tour.
Steve Winwood, then
Willie Nelson, then
Bob Dylan. With lots of surprises and friends along the way. Joan Osborne is also along to add some sweet vocals.
Tonight Steve Winwood joins the band. He is one amazing guy. He plays B3 organ, guitar, mandolin and sings like an angel. I have known him since 1968 when Garcia, Jack Cassidy, Steve and I played on a flatbed truck in front of the old KSAN studios. After the show we wound up at Lake Tahoe and spent four days together playing ping-pong, exchanging stories, climbing snowy mountains and just enjoying great hang time. He was 20 years old and playing this smart, loud music with his voice shimmering with Traffic. In those days English bands didn't play extended songs, but Traffic did. He is a jammer at heart with a strong feeling for jazz. Garcia loved Traffic as we all did. His band is sparkling. Beautiful percussion and a very Traffic-like feel. His new CD is amazing and it hits the streets today. It's called "About Time". It is truly an honor to share the same stage with him and his band: Walfredo Reyes Jr., Joe Neto, Randall Bramblett and Edison A DaSilva. When he started "Higher Love" the hair on my arms stood straight up. His voice is an original masterpiece, one of a kind.
Tonight Steve joined us for a spirited rendition of Loose Lucy. Joan sang soulful versions of Built to Last and It Must Have Been the Roses. I felt Jerry's sweet vibe hovering above the band. "Just the beard and the glasses, and a smile on empty space".
Warning though. This is the poorest blog design I've ever seen, although he doesn't really call it a blog, so maybe that's a bad criticism. But it's Flash-based (always a bad design decision, IMHO), and hard to access. But worth it if you can get through.
I don't really understand his repeated claims that American democracy is a great thing, occasioned by shows in Virginia and Maryland and visits from folks in Washington, DC, but who am I to quibble? Mickey's probably the most optimistic man in America, relentlessly so, which is great, but not if it blinds him to the truth. I guess I am glad to hear that there are quite a few politicians in DC who are Dead fans though. That's certainly encouraging. Here's a quote from the
June 18th entry on that.
Senator Barbara Boxer and James Billington, Librarian of Congress, were our guests backstage tonight. Also, Jonathan Adelstein, one of five on the Federal Communications Commission. Jonathan was the man who first convinced Bob, Jerry and I to go to the Senate to testify about the threat to the world's rainforests. Since his appointment to the FCC, he has been fighting the good fight against the evil ones who want to monopolize the world's media. Of course, Barbara Boxer is a friend from the old days and one of the last true liberals. She fights every day for the environment, health care for everyone, and for basic human rights. It's a tough time for her now in Washington, so I know it was great for her to get away and enjoy the music. Today she took Caryl, Reya and Phil's kids Grahame and Brian on a tour of the Capitol and for a visit to the Senate. I think it means a lot to the kids to see democracy in action.
One more note. If you can't make any of the shows, you can buy CD sets of each one almost as soon as they're finished playing. Go
here for those. They keep adding shows too, so
stay posted. And if you want to listen right now, there's
gdradio.com.
There's a band out on the highway,
They're high-stepping into town.
It's a rainbow full of sounds,
With flowers, calliopes and clowns.
And everybody's dancing...
The music never stops with these guys. I'm so glad they're back. :)
