Grateful Dead Alum To Tour

LOS ANGELES — It looks like the old Dead are gettin' on.

Surviving members of the Grateful Dead say they'll regroup for a 19-city tour, their first since 2004, beginning April 12 in Greensboro, N.C.

The group, which now just calls itself The Dead, announced its plans Thursday.

Original band members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann have toured sporadically since the 1995 death of guitarist Jerry Garcia, but struggled to get along personally and artistically. They told Rolling Stone in November that they've worked out their differences, aided by a successful October benefit concert in Pennsylvania for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Warren Haynes joins the Dead on lead guitar, and Jeff Chimenti will play keyboards.

Comments

[StillMadMatt]

Boring music for boring people. Yawn.

[MysteryBuddha]

Deadheads for Obama shirts and more....
Vendors welcome
Http://www.mysterybuddha.com

[mightbesane]

There's a great compilation entitled Deadicated on which artists from Suzanne Vega to Elvis Costello to Burning Spear to Lyle Lovett perform Dead tunes and write about their take on the Dead. I'll take their opinions over the dreary snark on this thread any day.

[Jeff1958]

I've used Deadicated to turn a few people on to the Dead. Hornsby's Jack Straw is good, Los Lobos' Bertha smokes and the Indigo Girls did a good job with Uncle John's Band.

[MysteryTrain]

Yeah, I think I like Lobos' version of Bertha better than the Dead's! That IS a great record. Dwight Yoakam doing "Truckin," of all things. I would love to hear a few more Dead tribute albums of that quality.

The Allman Brothers have been doing Dead covers for the last several years, in concert.
Dylan also does a few Dead covers in his repertoire, like Friend of the Devil and a couple of others

I'd also like to hear the likes of Neil Young, the Band and the Who do some Dead covers

[wanderingsalmon]

Saw my first Dead show back in '78, Donna Godchaux was still with the band, and saw many, many shows while Jerry was alive. I have a great story about taking a Checkslovakian Attorney to a show in Long Beach. She showed up wearing a black evening gown and carrying a Check-English dictionary that looked like a bible from ten feet away. She was not impressed with my helicopter rotor ball-cap, tie-dyed shirt, shorts, and flip flops...nor was she impressed with the whole scene. I had a great time despite her vociferous complaining about all the hippie larvae (kids) running around amongst all the herb smoking. I told her they sure a heck weren't getting any of mine...which she did not find to be funny at all. Ahh Jerry...I sure miss you.

[trollsbwild]

To Dubious- no one will pay you to see them. If you do not get it, fine. However, your need to attack those who do enjoy the band may be a subliminal display of an inferiority complex. . To quote a lyric from Black Throated Wind- "ya ain't gonna learn what you don't want to know".
BTW, dubious- they are going to have Warren Haynes with them. He was rated as #23 on the top guitar players of all time. He plays with the Allman Brothers Band, his own band (Government Mule) and has played with Dave Matthews and Garth Brooks, among others.

I will be in Philly for both nights- can't wait. The wave that flag tour in 2004 almost had the same lineup- 2009 will be without Jimmy Herring. Warren played a mean Stella Blue that night.

[MoreLove]

I just saw a very good Dead tribute band play a couple of sets -- very impressive in the way of musicianship and ensemble singing. It really showed how great the original band was, in terms of sheer musicianship.

Also, about the Grateful Dead's songs have about the best lyrics around.

The Dead were always adored and undervalued in equal numbers. Nothing new there.

[MalMNN]

we can't wait, here's the full itineray of The Dead Spring '09 tour -
http://www.musicnewsnet.com/2009/01/the-dead-returning-to-the-road-in-09-.html

[wwja]

Loved the tour with Joan Osborne. Definitely looking forward to this.

[sugarmagnolia731]

wow they are a bunch of mean comments on here! why are you reading an article about the Dead's new tour if you're just going to comment about how you don't like them?? Don't you have anything better to do than insult other people's interests?


Personally I cant wait! its gonna be awesome =)
im gettin tickets as soon as they're on sale

[silly1]

the grateful dead were an awesome band.... and though it's not the same without jerry... he wasn't the whole band... he was just one guy!!! every one played a part in the "whole" of the music... grateful dead songs are some of the best songs in the world why should they stop playing them just because jerry died?

[MysteryTrain]

The Dead Primer, Continued.....

And then there are their improvisational talents / instincts, which far exceed those almost any other big-name band of the last 40 years. Here, best exemplified by their signature improvisational excursion, "Dark Star"

4) Dark Star, from "Live Dead":

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIb9NQVRT7w

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ViiDpPwmE&feature=related

Finally, the Dead also had a great command over roots music traditions like folk, bluegrass, gospel and blues. Here are two examples of what a great ear Garcia had for a beautiful, seductive melodies, inspired by the folk tradition:

5) "Ripple" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbK_sGcz4_I

6) "Uncle John's Band" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dp7Z7Q_B28

[sugarmagnolia731]

you tell em! everyone who posted those stupid comments are just pathetic losers with nothing better to do anyway...

[Pastprologue]

The GD were like The Band.

Ya tend to love them or hate them. But both bands filled each track with many instruments listeners had rarely heard or experienced before in R&R.

Great mix of rockabilly, folk, jazz, country and R&R.

If you were a R&R purist, you were not drawn to either band.

[palealien]

And for whoever said Garcia was overrated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM18HENqNbk&eurl=

[MysteryTrain]

Those who demonstrate their ignorance with infantile, snide cracks like "watching the paint dry" are like most taunting juveniles -- they are shooting their mouths off based on ignorance: Most of them have never even listened to more than one or two Dead songs.

So here is a primer. For those who say "The Dead can't rock," I offer up these first two, which rock like hell:

1) Alabama Getaway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDaTorkRQvQ

2) US Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA6pC3mugIQ

3) And, here' s "Help on the Way / Slipknot / Franklin's Tower" -- This is a great medley that really showcases the lyrical, melodic side of Jerry's playing, and the plaintive, yearning quality of his vocals. and how talented they were at constructing a seductive groove.

"Help on the Way / Slipknot": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtTuCbFicIc

"Franklin's Tower": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SrcAKtyFY8

[samanthemofthesun]

My My, many are the people who are mean, mean, mean. Why comment on this if you don't like it?

They were awesome, and I consider myself LUCKY to have had the opportunity to share in the experience.

But I just don't understand all the MEAN comments.

[MysteryTrain]

Sam, some people are just such snide, petulant, miserable pricks that they just cannot resist the urge to piss all over anything that is too complex, or too subtle, or too intelligent, for them to understand

[DubiousAtBest]

Having lived two blocks from the corner of Haight and Ashbury I can tell you that the words
"complex", "subtle" or "intelligent" have NOTHING to do with Deadheads.

[Bitsko]

The Phil Zone lives.

[greybeard09]

Actually watching paint dry (while dosed) is pretty fun.

[RobinLandseadel]

[. . . not really wanting to get too snarky here, but as the Dead have such long standing and mythical association with all things Lysergic, the distain that the un-dosed are expressing in these posts makes a whole lot of sense.]

[DubiousAtBest]

Ladies and Gents....a "deadhead".

If you gotta be dosed to find something interesting, well.... nuff said.