A couple of weeks ago I was home on a Saturday night with no specific plans when I got a call from my old friend Errol, someone who I have been in bands with on & off for over thirty years. He had an extra ticket to see David Bromberg at the Beacon that night and was I interested? I had not seen Bromberg in concert since sometime in the early Eighties but I knew that he always put on a good show so of course I said yes. It wasn’t till I got to the Beacon that I found out that this would be his final show with his big band and that he was retiring from touring. David Bromberg started out d ..read more

On May 8th, 1977, the Grateful Dead played what many consider, one of their best shows ever. It’s certainly is one of their most famous, that being their show at Barton Hall at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Why the big whoop about this particular show. Well the band was in one of their peak playing periods. They were coming off recording their new album, Terrapin Station for new label Arista. Label president Clive Davis wanted the band to deliver a strong ‘hit’ record and brought in producer Keith Olson. Olsen had the band practice parts until they were nailed and as a result, the Dead were ..read more

This should of interest to all my fellow Deadheads out there. It’s obvious appeal is the musicians among you but I believe this would be illuminating to any fan of the music. It’s a new feature on the official Grateful Dead website (www.dead.net). Called Playing In The Band, it provides the listener with the individual tracks of each instrument for four songs (five if you count the China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider medley as two distinct songs) from the Dead’s classic show from Veneta, Oregon on 8/27/72. The other songs, besides the aforementioned China/Rider are Bertha, Playing In The Band ..read more

As a music nerd I always got a kick when a musician you love and admire plays with another one of your musical heroes. It’s especially cool when it actually sounds as good as you hoped it would. Such is the case with the videos below. Below are excerpts from a performance on August 2nd, 1989, a day after Garcia’s 47th birthday and was filmed as part of a benefit for the National Hispanic Arts Education Media Institute which aired on SHOWTIME. The first video has Garcia join Santana on a funky instrumental called “Get Uppa”. After a brief solo from Santana, Jerry comes in for his first solo a ..read more

We Bid You Goodnight A Song A Deadhead Knows Well Happy Holidays Wire Wood & Steel · We Bid You Goodnight ..read more

This is not the first time I’ve talked about the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast (see https://roymusicusa.com/2020/10/12/playing-to-the-tide-the-good-ol-grateful-deadcast-deep-dive-into-workingmans-dead/ and https://roymusicusa.com/2021/06/13/skull-roses-the-grateful-dead-as-we-know-them-today/) but the two recent episodes below hit a particularly special note with me (pun intended). They talk about the Grateful Dead as a genre unto itself and the bands that play it. Yes, we’re talking about the world of Dead cover bands, something I know personally. I went to college on Long Island in the Seventie ..read more

I have written previously about The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, the official Grateful Dead podcast (see https://roymusicusa.com/2020/10/12/playing-to-the-tide-the-good-ol-grateful-deadcast-deep-dive-into-workingmans-dead/). The first two seasons went into deep dives of the classic Grateful Dead albums, Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty respectively. For season three, the podcast continues chronologically with the Dead’s next record, the live album officially called The Grateful Dead but for is all intents and purposes known as Skull & Roses. Skull & Roses for the first time present ..read more

Happy Holidays everyone, we made it through a year in hell. Weeping Willow Guitar Lessons is an excellent YouTube channel for Deadhead/ABB fan guitarists (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSqUU4fjNPVq6NvKtNIWKOQ). He’s been putting out some serious high quality content: solo transcriptions, breakdown of guitar parts and backing tracks. This year he did something really cool. Everyday for 25 days, he put out a video with a short Jerry Garcia solo transcribed in both music notation and guitar tablature. The transcription scrolls along the bottom of the screen while the solo is played so you can ..read more

This past June was the 50th anniversary of the seminal Grateful Dead album Workingsman’s Dead. This was my introduction to the Dead. My brother and I had spent the summer at a bungalow colony up in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York so when we got back to the city we bought a bunch of records that had come out during the summer. I don’t remember how exactly my brother wound up buying Workingman’s Dead but in hindsight it turned out to be a pivotal moment in both our lives. The first song of side one: Uncle John’s Band (remember when there was actual sides to records? Remember records ..read more

Welcome my friends to crazy times here in NYC. Unless you literally live in a cave you’ve heard of the fun times we’re having here with Covid-19. Personally, I haven’t felt much of a change in my daily routine. Being the anti-social troll that I am, I have been self isolating and social distancing for years now but my old friend Stevo was quarantined (thankfully now finished) and was going a little stir crazy. Back in our college days, Stevo and I went to many a Dead show together so I thought it would be cool to let my fellow Deadheads know of a couple of Youtube channels to help pass the tim ..read more