Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    <scribbled by tnf Thu 29 Jan 04 23:24>
  

    


 You are cordially invited to a very special evening
 of music and merriment...

 David Gans

    + Seconds on End (acoustic)

 at the Nameless Theater & Cafe

 Friday, January 30th 2004
 7:30 doors, 8 pm showtime
 $8

 for David Gans information and upcoming dates etc...

 <http://www.dgans.com>

 for Seconds on End information and upcoming dates...

 <http://www.secondsonend.com>

 for Nameless information, upcoming events etc..

 <http://www.thenameless.org>

 The Nameless is at 3910 Martin Luther King Jr (not apparently 3906 as shown
 in today's SF Chronicle Datebook).  This is at 40th St near MacArthur BART.
 510 595 8778 for more information.

 Thanks for listening!
  

    


 I am gonna pay the price for this, but I had a great time today playing at
 the Farmers' Market down the hill from our house.  I brought a sore throat
 home from tour, and it's gotten worse over the last couple of days.  But I
 was out there in the chilly, damp morning playing at the Market, and it was
 great fun.  Lots of kids, lots of people who had no idea who I am enjoying
 the music.  I played a lot of cheesy old covers that I never do in my "real"
 show, and I also got plenty of good reactions to my own songs.

 My tips included ones, fives, strawberries, and oranges.

 I have to power-nap now, because I have another gig this evening in Fairfax.
 Fortunately, that's just a half-hour opening set and I can come right home
 after.
  

    
That's great to give back to the neighborhood!
  

    
I love the idea of getting/giving strawberries as a tip.
  

    
Mmmm... strawberries.

Feel better very soon, Dave!
  

    

Graham's Restaurant and Memeworks Presents is very proud to announce
that David Gans will be in Glacier, WA to perform solo electric on
April 26th at 8:30pm. This event will be 21 and over and there is a
$5.00 cover charge.

Glacier is about 45 minutes from Bellingham, WA. on the beautiful Mt.
Baker HWY. Monday night is usually Grateful Dead night at Graham's and
in honor of the end of a record snow year, the exodus of the tourist
hordes and just plain old spring fever we're holding a night of fun,
great music and family celebration.

For those of you who have never been here, Graham's is an eclectic
little gem of a place tucked into a tiny little town surrounded by
natural beauty. They serve a varied and tasty menu, reasonably priced.
The beer is a few regulars for the lighter beer person and for the
aficionado several taps that rotate regularly. There is no way to
predict what will be served.  They always have a tasty IPA, and then a
seasonal and oh yea, they have Guinness on tap and serve it the correct
way and also have a rotating tap for Lindeman's (SP?) specialty
Lambic's.

I encourage you to check out their website at:
http://www.grahamsrestaurant.com

If any of have any questions about the area, lodging and/or camping,
the show, etc. Feel free to email me off list. Any questions about the
venue, the food, beverages served there should contact Graham's
directly

Peace
Robert

Graham's Restaurant
9989 Mt. Baker HWY
Glacier, WA 98244
360-599-1964
  

    
Mmm, Gans and lambic...
  

    


• Friday, March 5, 10pm: David Gans & Friends, opening for Dub Is a Weapon at
Martyrs', Chicago.  This is a pre-party for Dark Star Orchestra's Rex
Foundation benefit, the Black Tie Dye Ball, March 6.  Special guests are
expected, including DSO members and Donna Jean Godchaux-Mackay.
•        
• Wednesday, March 24: DG and The Planet Riders at Eddie's Attic, Decatur GA
• March 25-28: Suwannee SpringFest, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Live
Oak FL
• Tuesday, March 30: The Soapbox Laundro-Lounge, Wilmington NC
• Friday, April 2, 10pm: Phil's Grill, Virginia Beach VA
• Saturday, April 3: Tate Street Coffee House, Greensboro NC
• Sunday, April 4, 8 pm: De La Luz at Temple Ball, Carrboro, NC
•        
• Saturday, April 17, 10:30 am to 1:30 pm: Grand Lake farmers' market,
Oakland CA
• Sunday, April 18, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm: San Rafael farmers' market, San
Rafael CA
•
• Wednesday, April 21: Ashland Creek Bar and Grill, Ashland OR. Details TBA
• Thursday, April 22, 7-9:30pm: John Henry's, Eugene OR
• Friday, April 23, 7:30pm: house concert in Portland. Call 503-232-4098 for
reservations
• Saturday, April 24, 8pm: Bishop's Cafe, Vashon WA
• Sunday, April 25: house concert in Olympia WA. Email
patrick.lee@comcast.net for reservations.
• Monday, April 26, 8:30pm: Graham's Restaurant, Glacier WA


Details at http://www.dgans.com/gigs.html
  

    
Woo-hoo; made it to the East Coast.
  

    

 Charlie Miller just asked me some questions for the ganstrading list:


 1) What is your favorite David Gans song and why??

 Oh, that changes from day to day, tour to tour.  Sometimes an old song gets
 a new life; sometimes the lyric of a song seems particularly relevant or
 urgent -- right now "An American Family" is at the top of my Hit Parade,
 because I think it's got something to say about life under Bush.



 2) What inspired An American Family? (I know it's sounds like a stupid ques-
 tion, but I was wondering if there is a specific politician or economical
 incident that brought it on)

 I swear, I hadn't read this question when I answered the previous one!

 "An American Family" began as an exercise in point of view.  I felt that I'd
 been in a bit of a rut, writing personal stuff, so I decided to write some-
 thing that was a work of pure fiction.  I began it as a sketch of a par-
 ticular person I had known, but the song had ideas of its own -- as they so
 often do -- and so I followed it where it wanted to go.



 3) What's your favorite venue to play and why?

 My favorite venue to play is any place where I can really connect with the
 audience and do me best work.  That can be a coffee house, a bar or an out-
 door festival, depending on any number of variables.



 4) Other than Jerry, who are your musical influences?

 My songwriting influences include Jackson Browne, John Prine, Robbie
 Robertson, Elton John, Billy Joel, the Beatles, Jim Page, Jeb Puryear --
 just about anyone I've heard who knows how to paint a picture in the lis-
 tener's mind, really.



 5) If you can sit in with any band (past or present), who would it be?

 I'd love to play with Donna the Buffalo, just for a chance to ride in their
 big beautiful family groove.  I love sitting in with the David Nelson Band,
 'cause they're just about the best "jam band" on wheels.



 6) If you could pick any musician to sit in with you (Past or present), who
 would it be?

 Oh, I've got a little list here.

 If I had the budget, I'd do a record with a band that consisted of: Klyph
 Black of en tricksters on bass; Barry Sless of the David Nelson Band on
 guitar and pedal steel; Scott Larned of Dark Star Orchestra on keyboards;
 Luke Smith of Strangefolk or Vinnie Amico of moe. on drums.  And then I'd
 start in on the special guests...




 7) Pick any Gans tune and a band that you would to see cover it....

 I'm going to try to get The Waybacks to cover "Crazy Crazy Crazy."  I would
 love to hear Railroad Earth do any song of mine they like.  I could go on
 for days.
  

    


Nice review of my Carrboro show on jambands.com:

http://www.jambands.com/ShowReviews/content_2004_04_19.00.phtml
  

    

 I'm sure everyone here knows about the Live Music Archive, at
 www.archive.org, supported by etree.  I've added some of DG's shows there,
 but it's a little awkward to post a link since there isn't a Gans-Specific
 URL to go to.  This link, though, takes you to a page where you can select
 his shows by year:
 http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?cat=David%20Gans

 There are currently 17 DG (or DG et al) shows up there.
  

    
Sweeet.  Just the thing to carry me through my afternoon.
  

    
I hope you like what you hear.  I, of course, tend to think the more recent
stuff is better -- but if it's up there, 5/9/02 in Minneapolis is one of the
best shows I ever played anywhere.
  

    

eeks.  Cabooze show isn't happy on my laptop.  I have a picky cd-reader
there.    (that's the 5/9/02 show).  I'll see what I can do about that, DG.

2/14/04 at Stella Blue is a great show, too, if someone's looking for recent
stuff.
  

    

Live Gans music online:

http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-
searchresults.php?search=David%20Gans&total=26&start=0&limit=100&sort=date&sub
mit=yes&collection=etree&searchBand=1
  

    

Since the Vashon Island show was added to finish out the whole Pacific NW
tour, the total is up to 28.  Recent additions:  5/8/03 w/ the usual
suspects in Atlanta; 9/6/02 opening for Stew at the Oakland Metro; 11/10/02
in Portland OR which is one of my all time favorite shows; and 12/02/03 at
Sweetwater.

10/18/02 MagFest with Andy G and Tim C of Railroad Earth is about to go
public, and just David's part of 1/25/04 Connecticut Yankee is being
uploaded now.

Link is still 
http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?cat=David%20Gans

to browse the shows.

click often because it counts, and enjoy.
  

    

I've been recording in Berkeley with Jim LeBrecht, whose day job is film
sound ( http://berkeleysoundartists.com/ ).  It's been huge fun!  Most of the
sound on this song is my guitar, some of it processed in ways that make it
sound like other instruments.  Jim invited his friend Jim Helman in for some
percussion, and my friends Cynsa Bonorris and Alyn Kelley (
http://www.lemonjuju.com ) addded some delicious vocals.

This is the more-or-less final mix of our first completed song, "Blue Roses."
We have to knock off for a while to do our day jobs, but we've scheduled more
days to work in the next few weeks.  We're oing to live wiht this mix and
revisit if necessary.

Anyway, check it out.  I'm pretty happy!

http://www.well.com/user/tnf/blueroses.final.mp3
  

    
It's good stuff.  Give it a listen.
  

    
That's nice!
  

    
Excellent David! I love the addition of the 2 female singers. This song 
has really changed a lot!
  

    
Yes, I have learned a lot about this song from the recording process.
  

    


Last night I was felled by a cheap PA system with an undocumented (to me)
feature.

I'm the entertainment following an evening of dialogue with Norman Solomon
and Medea Benjamin.  Sebastopol Community Center.  I love Sebastopol.  Great
Green town.  I think of it as the place where the hippies went to settle down
and start families.  I've played a lot of gigs, parties and benefits up
there, and always had a fine time.

So the Norm 'n' Medea show ends.  Two young women get up there and do a short
presentation of half-sung poetry -- hiphop without the turntablist -- and
then it's my turn.  Most of the crowd has taken off by this time, but there
are still some folks in the chairs awaiting my performance.

I start with "An American Family," thematically appropriate.

As I start singing, the guitar goes away.  What the fu -- ?  I stop.  Mumble
something to the audience.  I try again, with an instrumental, "Echolalia."
No problem there.  Audience responds nicely.

While I have my fingerpicks on, I go into "Down to Eugene."  Again, when I
start singing the guitar goes away.

It's not the way it goes away when the batteries in the guitar die -- that
happened to me a few months ago at another benefit, in Jenner.  And although
I have never experienced battery death in my direct box, it doesn't seem like
the way that thing would fail, either.

It sounds to me like the sound guy is playing with the levels.  But he isn't!
He does come over and try to stick a microphone in front of my guitar --
which is pointless, since it's an electric guitar.

Frustrated, I bypass the pedal board and plug the guitar right into the DI.
"Return of the Grievous Angel" -- and as soon as I start to sing, the guitar
goes dim.

Now the woman in the red shirt is onstage with us, and she decides to play a
few notes on the electric piano while I change the batteries in the guitar.

Meanwhile, the young guy who is (supposed to be) running the PA has decided
I'm a dick and since he's not being paid for this gig, he's not going to take
any shit from me.

I'm sweating, fuming, totally humiliated.  There are three or four people
standing around this new PA, standing on its side with all it's fancy plastic
knobs.  I can hardly figure out what's what.  Someone says we should plug the
guitar into a different channel and see if that helps.

Voila.  Guitar and vocal at the same time, hooray!

I said something to the (scant) audience about never having worked with a
sound system that was smarter than the people using it.

Now I can focus on the fact that the whole thing sounds muffled.  I get
through a song -- I think I went back to "An American Family," but its kinda
lost in the adrenalin -- and I go back to adjust the balance because the PA
operator is long gone.  I never saw him again.

By now, the few dozen people remaining in the building are all over by the
silent auction items, chatting.  There are three or four people in seats
playing attention to my performance; <tex> is in the back, sending me all the
love he can, and there are a couple of people back by the snack table listen-
ing and applauding.

Two or three more songs, and then there are people quietly taking chairs down
and folding them up over by the wall.  Guess it's time to wrap it up.

"I can see they're taking the building apart, so I guess I'll do one more
song.  Thank you for being here tonight," etc.  As I sang my last song, the
chair-takers grew in number and became a good deal less careful about being
quiet.

Okay, fine.  I did my job.

As I'm putitng my pedal board away, the woman in the red shirt accosts me.
"We are peaceful people," she begins.  "Having you up on the stage using the
F-word [this may not be an exact quote, but you get the gist] was not ap-
propriate."

I don't remember the exact sequence of things.  Somewhere in there, it was
revealed that the PA system was the property of the woman in the red shirt.
And she said something like, "I guess the VIP switch was on" -- the feature
that automatically turns down the other channels when there is signal in
channel 1.

Imagine a panel in a MAD Magazine cartoon, with me standing there looking at
this little hippie woman while in a thought balloon I am WRINGING HER NECK
and her eyes are squeeezing out of her little head.  YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS FEA-
TURE WHILE THE DOOFUS OPERATOR WAS TELLING ME MY STUFF WAS BROKEN AND I WAS
CHANGING ALL THE FUCKING BATTERIES IN MY RIG WHILE THE AUDIENCE MELTED AWAY?

That part must have happened before the woman in the red shirt scolded me,
because I response to her was along the lines of, "You know, shaming me like
a 6-year-old doesn't really help things, either."

A queasy truce ensued.

The building manager, my old friend John Werner, came up to me and gave me a
big sympathetic hug, encouraged me to forget about it -- which I will, now
that I've gotten it out of my system.
  

    

oh man....  credit to you for not choking her!!