Category Archives: Grateful Dead

Trey

Announcements coming out of everywhere regarding who’s playing at Lockn in September are starting to raise a lot of eyebrows. I don’t know where folks get their info but I’d have to imagine they have some high level connections. Me, I don’t know anybody…(Total lie at this point) You’d think by now I’d get some inside information but I don’t get a damn thing. Since I’m still smarter than most however, I learned from “The Great One” that I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where it’s going. I used the few folks I know to get me in touch with Trey. After digging him out of a pile of women in Texas, he came to the phone and I asked Trey if he had any plans for the weekend of September 10th-13th and he just said, “I don’t have jack shit going on that weekend”. I tried to ask him a few more questions but he said as kindly as one could say it, “I don’t have any idea who the fuck you are” and hung up. I think he really likes me. This caused me to start thinking… What’s developing over there in the middle of absolutely nowhere Virginia? Virginia has been home to some of life’s best Grateful Dead experiences. I wonder if they’ll have Hologram Chimenti again… You can see him but you sure as hell can’t hear him!

Rumors have been circulating around New York City that Peter Shapiro has been taking Tambourine lessons from none other than Stevie Nicks and plans to join several configurations of artists throughout the weekend of his event. While his dancing lessons from Snoop Dog never really “took” I’ve heard from inside sources that on Tambourine that brother is just like the one winged dove! Look for his debut as a performer at Lockn! Get ya Popcorn ready!!!

I went to see the Golden Gate Wingmen last night at The Watermark in NYC. I won some tickets through that contest they had. Apparently, I’m a pretty good promoter myself… I highly recommend that venue to any locals. It’s right on the East River with beautiful views of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. A great time was had by all in attendance.

The life of a musician can be an interesting one. My cousin, Bobby Messano, is in the Blues Hall of Fame. Sounds pretty impressive and it really is. He’s had some great gigs throughout the years. The lick that was a Hallmark of MTV for decades was his. We all heard that a million times growing up. He did several tours as Steve Winwood’s guitarist, was one of the guitarists for the Blues Brothers, played with Clapton… He’s had some great gigs. Nowadays, he’ll play a Blues Festival in the Midwest for 30,000 people on a Saturday and then play an Elks Lodge the next week. Crazy how that goes…

I thought about Jeff Chimenti the same way last night. A few weeks ago he was part of the biggest stage of the Summer and here he was barely a month later on a stage that was about the size of his keyboard platform at Levi’s and Soldier Field. What a dramatic difference playing for 70,000 last month and less than 700 now. That’s about the population of Arrington, VA, home of Lockn.

Regardless, the mind and make of a musician can find those moments of magic anywhere. The opportunity to connect to the music and people you’re making it with is available regardless of the size of the stage or audience. A group of people making music can come across the key that unlocks parts of the Soul previously undiscovered without any audience at all. I’ve watched my cousin create some incredible moments in church basements that have never before and will never again experience his level of talent. It’s all about connecting and that can happen anywhere, any time and any place.

The show was a lot of fun and I had a blast. Jeff and Reed both seem to have an undeniable X Factor. There’s a little more of that extra something within them. I have a tip however for anyone that plays Grateful Dead Music. Even if you think it’s a good idea to play something other than Franklin’s after Help On The Way and Slipknot, it just about never is. The jams that drove Help and Slip were great and provided this absolutely raging musical hard on that is always prepared for the first notes of Franklin’s like a breeding stud is prepared for his mare. Then all of a sudden… Touch of Grey instead… Total blue balls moment. Touch is a great tune but I’d wager to say that pretty much nobody was hoping to hear it in that space…

Regardless, I recommend you check out The Golden Gate Wingmen. They’re a great time and the tunes were excellent. While you’re at it, go check out Phish on their Summer Tour. Trey is in unbelievable form and is obviously having the Summer of his life. I may have to start an Official Home of Unofficial Phish News site to cover them because the coverage I find elsewhere is pretty awful. If somebody had some sense, they’d bring me on board to provide some material that isn’t boring as shit. Somebody that looks and listens to the music like a lot of US do. I might even be willing to stop swearing.

The next couple of weeks will obviously be devoted to the memory of the Teller of Tales and Singer of Song that no human as ever come close to… The ONCE in a lifetime artist that changed US forever…

Dead To The Core,

Dean

CrazyFingers

We’re at the end of this hellacious Victim jam…. I probably shouldn’t have taken that second palm sized puddle at the end of the first set… I think I was trying to show off… Bad idea… Victim has creeped the living shit out of me and I’ve seen at least three people, obviously feeling just like me, walk away briskly with that too high and terrorized face… Like they just saw a ghost or somethin’… That same demon was trying to get me to leave this place too… I wonder if people that aren’t junkies are equally as freaked out by this tune… If the Boogey Man owned a Country, Victim would be the National Anthem… It’s like the Chariots of Fire for early freaked out runs towards the exits… I’m just glad it’s ending and I was able to stay put… For now at least… The introductory notes of Crazy Fingers begin and they sound to me like the four fingered Hand of Hope is winding the crank of a gigantic Music Box to full tension… The pressure builds and builds and builds and once it’s released this incredibly slow moving piece seems to unwind at a snail’s pace against the incredible tension that was wound into it’s initial ascent… Crazy Fingers was definitely not one of my top choices for the moment but tonight it feels like an entirely new experience… Tonight it feels like a Life Raft that was sent to me from Garcia… It feels as though I’m looking through a psychedelic high school yearbook… Incredible imagery throughout with Deep and Redeeming quotes that seem to infuse New Life into every segment of the experience… The Victim left me in this state of mental and spiritual depravity and despair as I self analyzed my current condition… Victim is like a magnifying glass that enables you to look through the crowd and spot every junkie quickly and easily… Crazy Fingers is completely restoring the small idea deep within me that I may get out of this mess one day… There is some Hope… Initially the hope is a bit muted…. Life May Be Sweeeeeter for this I don’t know… Seeeeeeeeee how it feels in the end… In my state of absolute LSD induced psychosis I realize that if they were ever gonna make a documentary film on the mating rituals of a slug, Crazy Fingers could by all means be the intercourse music… I begin to discover the absolute beauty of it all in an instant… While I struggle to make sense of the lyrics I look to Garcia’s face and he’s singing it as a Father would sing a lullaby to a newborn baby girl… The depth of his expression and apparent emotion tell me that I should be looking far deeper into it all… Billy is in deep meditation… Wouldn’t be surprised if he got some sleep during this one… Mickey has had the evil face on since Victim and seems as if he may be somewhat responsible for pushing the whole thing just fast enough that it doesn’t stop completely… It constantly seems like the rest of the band won’t make it to the beat yet regardless of how far they lag back they seem able to take the last step or two to the beat as rapidly as is required to arrive on time… I’m beginning to appreciate this tune like I never have before… As Jerry solos it’s as if his notes run out ahead of the band before finding a place to rest as the procession catches up… It’s a musical game of tag and I don’t think I ever heard it that way until this very moment… As Garcia goes reaching for The Gold Ring…. And he tries… Phil begins to absolutely pummel my mind with an amazing series of notes that seem to be winding up the Music Box all over again… The tension is ratcheted up to full capacity… The space between the notes seem to say as much as the notes themselves… I can clearly see the various forms of Something New just waiting… To be born… There is a quality to the jam that causes me to feel as though the things of life that have been awaiting me are in the birth canal of the universe and currently struggling through a long and challenging labor… I’m starting to feel like the second puddle was definitely the right thing to do… The hope goes from a once muted thought to a confident proclamation…. Feeeeeeeeeeels like it might be alright!!!

May Lady Lullaby sing plainly for you soft, strong, sweet and true…

Dean Sottile (pronounced So Tilly)

I’m really looking forward to getting to Chicago! Frank Zappa gets almost as much play at my house as The Dead so a band I’m definitely going to see while I’m there is Roister! Not only do they have one of the best Show Posters I’ve seen for Chicago but they have some serious talent including two veterans of Zappa’s touring band, guitarist/vocalist Ray White and bassist Tom Fowler, Ike Willis not to mention Brian “Honky Fubu” Swizlo on keys! There’s a host of other musicians that will be showing up from Zappa’s bands and I’ll meet you there for sure!!! Show starts at 10 but they’ll be playing until the wee morning hours I believe. Tickets are a steal at $20 and it’s at The Abbey Pub.

Roister