Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

> Email with cats (and dogs, for that matter) isn't nearly as satisfying as
> actual scritching!

That's for sure, and as noted in my previous post, my friends' pets are a
great surce of comfort on the road.
  

    
Patches does periodically ask about you, and tells us that you're his
very best friend.

Of course, he says that about everybody who pays attention to him!
  

    

I'm supposed to be talking about touring routines, and there's also a ques-
tion pending on pre-show rituals.  I'll reply to both, since they're related.

The common-sense rule of travel is that any slack in the scheule is to be
taken at the destination.  In other words, if you think you've got an extra
two hours and you take your time getting out of town in the morning, you are
sure to run into a total stoppage on the Interstate that will eat that time
up and then some.

I also like to get to the gig early so I've got time to resolve any issues
that arise w/ the gig, get my gear set up, hang out with the other musicians,
digest my dinner, and enjoy the show.  I try always to catch the acts that go
on before me; I like to think of my set as being part of the whole show,
rather than an isolated event - and of course, there's the matter of enjoying
the music.  Even if the opening act sucks, or is a very young and inex-
perienced performer or band, there's something to learn and/or I might be
able to offer some constructive feedback and encouragement.  And it's nice to
feel that my own set is a continuation of the ongoing story of the evening.

I like to be involved in the whole thing.  I enjoy interacting with the club
or festival staff - human contact in all its forms.  I want everyone to
remember my visit as a positive experience, and I want to have a positive
experience myself.  You don't get that by arriving late, hiding in the band
room til showtime, and then leaving as son as you've been paid.

Warming up is very important.  The ideal situation for me is when I can get
on stage and feel as though I'm _continuing_ to play, rather than starting
from scratch.  One of my favorite experiences in recent years has been play-
ing between sets of Dark Star Orchestra shows a few times; I've stood at the
side of the stage, playing and singing along, so when I get out there I'm
completely bonded with my instrument and singing at full power.
  

    

Slippage re that slut Patches.
  

    
Phil Reed writes:

Couple of questions for David.

I enjoyed your books "Playing in the Band" and "Conversations With The
Dead" and I found them to be a great insight into the world of the
Grateful Dead especially as I'm a British deadhead. Have you ever
thought of writing a book about the years after Jerry's death? I'm sure
there are lots of stories to be told.

Secondly, I really enjoy listening to the Invitational shows you did
last year at the Sweetwater Saloon, have you any plan for anymore along
this line, or even better bringing a bunch of your friends over here
to play.

Cheers Phil.
  

    


Last things first: I would LOVE to tour the UK and the Continent!  But I'm
barely visible here in the States, and unknown to all but maybe a few dozen
fans overseas.

However, my booking agent has contacts in England, and I have made
friends via the eurogans mailing list (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eurogans ).  These things take time; your
part is to turn people on to my music and help to create some interest
over there.

The Invitational was a splendid adventure and a fine musical challenge that
paid handsome dividends.  Unfortunately, neither the bar nor the box office
reported sufficiently favorable results.  As I was giving up on Sweetwater, I
got a call from a venue in San Francisco that wanted me to do a monthly gig,
so I took it there for a while. That didn't work out much better.

I made some new friends, and put together some wonderful combinations of
musicians for those shows, but it just didn't thrive.

And it goes without saying that if it's not economically feasible for me to
tour Europe as a solo act, there's no way I'm going to be able to hire any of
those fine players to go along with me.
  

    

Regarding a book about the post-Dead and the Deadhead community world: I
doubt that is in the cards for me.  It's not a pretty subject, in many
ways,and although I am still involved with the Grateful Dead and the Deadhead
community by virtue of continuing to produce the radio show, I am not
strongly compelled to pursue any sort of journalist path in that direction.

I would like to publish another volume of "Conversations with the Dead"; I
have a substantial collection of in-depth interviews that would merit
inclusion.  That, and a volume or two of non-Dead Q&A gathered during my
music-writing career, are projects I'll undertake as time permits.

I've settled into a very comfortable position with regard to the GD scene. I
have good relations with most of the band members, and I don't pursue
relationships with the others.  I've had the privilege of producing several
CDs and boxed sets of Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and related works, and I am
proud of every one of those collections.

To do a good job of documenting the post-Dead world would require more time
and energy than I'd care to invest, and it would also entail bearding various
lions in dens I'd happily avoid for the rest of my days.

The radio show concentrates on the music. When I got into journalism, and
particularly Grateful Dead journalism, I brought a musician's perspective
that earned me the respect of the players.  When Vince Welnick died on June
2, I found myself immersed in his music day and night for more than a week;
the result was a four-hour tribute that aired last Wednesday (see
http://gdhour.com/logblog/?p=146 for the playlist and a link to the podcast),
and two more hours that I will broadcast tonight from 8:00 to 10:00 pacific
time (you can hear it online via kpfa.org and kfcf.org, and I will make it
available for download ASAP; stay tuned to http://logblog.gdhour.com for the
details).

My radio work and my musical life dovetail just about perfectly right now: I
get a lot of critical listening done on those flights and long drives, and
invariably return home from tour with a couple of months' worth of music in
mind for the GD Hour.  I also hear lots of great music on the road that I
bring home to play on KPFA and the GD Hour.  And since I produce the show
myself in my home studio, I have the flexibility I need to go on the road for
two weeks at a time.  Things are in a fine balance right now; taking on a
book project, particularly one as fraught as the one you're suggesting, would
mess things up in a number of ways.
  

    
The economics of life performances can be so precarious.
  

    
Thank you for reading this interview, Phil, and for contributing as well.
  

    
And of course I posted that as as response to <156> while David's post of
<157> slipped in ahead of it.  Are your radio shows set up for 
subscription as a podcast?   Forgive me if I missed that.
  

    

No podcasts.  Too many legal/financial issues.
  

    
Gans live at the Mean Fiddler, solo w/boxes, on a Tuesday night? I
could see that. Hell, I'd RyanAir over and I *would* see that. 
  

    

What's the guarantee?
  

    
Sincerity and a good time.
  

    

That won't cover the plane ticket, alas.
  

    
There is always that!
  

    
How about the folk festival circuit? I would think your stuff would be well
received at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and at some of the Canadian
festivals.
  

    
I've been trying to get into the Philadelphia Folk Festival; not this year. I
applied for Vancouver last year.  This year I've got a booking agent and a
manager, so at long last I don't have to do all of this by myself.  It takes
a while to get the team up and running.
  

    
Listening to 'Tubular Bells' from the GDH, I heard pieces of Quarter
To Five. And I know you've been listening to a lot of Vince lately. To
what extent are you influenced by the music you're currently listening
to when you improv and/or compose?
  

    

Any resemblance between those two pieces is purely coincidence, I assure you.

Influence is unavoidable.  A fragment of melody that elicits a particular
emotional response will stick in another musician's mind just as it does in
every other listener's.  And it's hard to resist finding a way to put that
gesture to work in service of your own muse.  The trick is to do it in a way
that isn't just copying, or, uh, stealing.
  

    

I think there's a continuum from allusion to quotation to adaptation to
appropriation to plagiarism, and just about everything falls somewhere along
that line.
  

    

Two frinstances come to mind.

I have a song called "Leave Me."  (Not on any CD)

Oh, leave me where I am
I'm only sleeping
I am not weeping
For this bad news is not news


There are two songs that you could say were tributaries: Jackson Browne's
"Colors fo the Sun" (from "For Everyman"), and The Beates' "I'm Only
Sleeping" (from "Revolver").

I don't think anyone would accuse me of plagiarizing either of those
songs, nor is the line necessarily a reference to either song.  I think it's
safely over on the "allusion" end of the scale.

I'm trying to think of a place in one of my songs where I made a conscious
allusion or appropriated a notion (musical or lyrical) from another artist's
work.  I'll come up with one.

The opening track of The Waybacks' new CD, "From the Pasture to the Future,"
is a song by Stevie Coyle called "The Petrified Man."  There's a line in it
that makes me smile every time I hear it o remember it: "I put on some Bobby
Dylan so I would not feel so all alone."  That's an outright reference, and
it adds to the fun of Stveis' song by instantly evoking the exuberance of
"Rainy Day Women."  I love that.
  

    
I think #171 is a well-said statement (appropriate from a songwriter
:-) that resonates with any art form. 

There are plenty of elements in my photography that are directly
related to what I've learned from looking at other people's work; the
hope is that I've made them mine in the process.

And I love seeing or hearing things like that line from The Waybacks. 
I haven't heard the song; do they have that line scan the same way
Dylan's line does?
  

    
Dylan is an interesting case-in-point along that continuum.  There are
some of his songs that are almost collages of appropriations for
elsewhere, including old folk and blues songs and lines from movies or
novels.  Lots and lots of Love and Theft uses phrases lifted from a
translation of a Japanese novel, and even the title is taken directly
from a book on blackface minstrelsy.

It has always seemed to me, David, that a number of your own songs
evoke certain sources, even if they don't directly allude (or
appropriate).

"Blue Roses" (always, for me very evocative of a Grateful Dead
universe) being one example.  

And a much more extended connection can be found in "Who Killed Uncle
John."
  

    
Oh, and then there's "Waltzing Across Texas," which I always somehow
assumed was an explicit nod to either Ernest Tubbs' "Waltz Across
Texas" or Emmylou Harris' "Waltz Across Texas Tonight," or both.