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

[Adjuster]

Great news. I have been on the bus since 77 up and including the Obama Rally at State College. While I miss Jerry a great deal, I will still clear a date or two, as they are still "a band beyond description"!

[CatfishJohn]

....a lot of this tours musical appeal or disappointment will depend on whether they go in the direction of weir's more fun and frolic r&b /rock and roll sound or choose phil lesh's soporofic jazzy meanderings into dull-dom...warren haynes cannot recreate jerry's sound- no one can or ever will again make the axe sound so pristine , sweetly evocative and a conduit to aural rapture - but haynes can "drive that train" adequately enough to let the rhythm do most of the work.... i'll be up front in d.c. with my daughter...if we get a "morning dew "or "stella blue" out of the night, i'll be a joyful puddle as in days of yore...

[wagadog]

A band beyond description, indeed.

Like Jehovah's favorite choir.

Saw them first at Binghamton in 78, so you're one up on me, Adjuster...

It's so beautiful that the Obama Rally show helped them work out their personal and artistic differences.

Yes We Can. Wonder if Bruce Hornsby or Branford Marsalis will join them...

[Ramirez]

This is good news.

[leeman79]

I still consider them one of the most influential American bands of all time, I don't care what anybody else says. A grateful dead concert was an experience, not a show. I'd love to see them again. Definitely, the coolest crowds.

[jick]

The people who claim in vain that they "don't get it," and those who dismiss the band altogether are doing so because they feel, and have always felt, rejected from a club.

And guitar hero debates aside, people don't realize that we like the Dead because we simply like the music. It hits fans the way other music doesn't. It's rootsy and funky and rambunctious and raw, and that's what's great about it. The best part? We don't have to listen to the same overproduced studio album over and over to get our fix of favorite tunes. The Dead played them over and over, sometimes to perfection and sometimes to complete disaster, but we get to choose which versions we like best, based on solos, tempos, and yes, audience enthusiasm, instead of being stuck with the same five minute iTunes track played on loop forever.

With 6,000+ recordings to explore, it's not surprising that we don't get sick of the Dead the way we've tired of the same oldies that bring us nothing new every time we hear the local DJ play them.

[chinacatsunflower]

"The people who claim in vain that they "don't get it," and those who dismiss the band altogether are doing so because they feel, and have always felt, rejected from a club. "

and the funny thing about that is ..... we welcomed anybody and everybody into the "club" we knew as family....

[dakotaharp]

I don`t get the Dead. Never have,and please tune those guitars.

[RobinLandseadel]

I'll give Robert Hunter---Jerry Garcia's songwriting collaborator---full faith and credit, he's a wonderful lyricist. He also happened to create a wonderfully psychedelic translation of Rilke's Duino Elgies:

http://www.hunterarchive.com/fileS/Poetry/Elegies/Duino_Elegies.html

[cheforacle]

Agreed, he wasn't Dylan, but following in Dylan's footsteps, he wrote lyrics that were meaningful and also often reflected an earlier time in American culture which many Deadheads could tap in to.

[MysteryTrain]

Observations, Part 2:

I always liked Jerry;s voice, in the studio, anyway, when he wasn't wasted from smoking that Persian. On the road, his vocals could sometimes seem a bit thin, but in the studio -- man, he had such a yearning, bittersweet, plaintive vocal quality that was very unique. And, as someone else mentioned, his guitar sound was equally unique -- he had a lyrical quality that not many others could match except for maybe Dickey Betts or Santana. He played "notes", not "riffs."

I saw them a number of times in the late 90s / early 2000s, after Jerry died, and they had a guitarist, Steve Kimock, whose style was very similar to Jerry's. Too bad he's not on board for this instead of Haynes, who tends to be a bluesier, rougher player

I am disappointed they are not taking Joan Osborne out on the road with them for this tour. She sang with them in 04 or 05, and with Lesh's band in '06, and really improved their vocal versatility. Weir isn't much of a singer, but I suspect he will unfortunately still do the bulk of the singing like he did in 05. Haynes is a decent bluesy singer -- he sings in Govt Mule and the Allman Brothers, but adding Osborne would have really boltered the vocals

[Fredcritter]

I've always through that Jerry's observation about 'Trane applied to him as well: most musicians think and play in sentences; that cat played in _paragraphs_!

[BushBites]

Interesting you say that.

I never liked the Dead until I got into jazz, then I sort of understood what they were doing.

Still don't feel like it would be worth much without Garcia, tho.

[BushBites]

Also reminds me of Miles Davis's response when Coltrane told him that sometimes he keeps soloing because he doesn't know how to end the solo:

"Take the horn out of your mouth."

[cheforacle]

I agree. Coltrane and he played different riffs but, in terms of organizing or envisioning a jam, they had a similar approach. And they each both believed that you can play a hundred notes before you get to the one that really counts.

[PlanetKansas]

There's more Coltrane in the GD than most fans realize. Bob Wier took his rhythm comping straight from McCoy Tyner's left hand.

[Kittifer]

Jerry was an accomplished musician, but as he might have said himself (about someone else): "Not all that great." His playing was chordal, moving up, down and around the scales of chords as they progressed... yes, a lot like Dickie Betts... good ear, good training, nothing special. I would say definitely not in "paragraphs", unless you compare his style of noodling to that of Kerouac's loquacious style. The Dead's best work was in the studio when they were forced to conform to the strict conformities of 3-to-7 minute popular song structures.

[chinacatsunflower]

wow, i have to respectfully disagree - bobby is one hell of a singer - many many shows he held the whole thing together. "the thin man spits!" LOL

[zippywpinhead]

Bill the cat...

[MysteryTrain]

A couple of observations. Part One:

People who don't like the Dead generally are those who like music that is either more slick "pop" music, or more aggressive modern-rock. They tend not to appreciate how influential the Dead have been in terms of the improvisational aspects. The Dead, as well as the Allman Brothers and a few others, continued to bring the jazz-imprivsation ethic to rock and roll at a time, during the 80s and 90s, when a lot of rock n roll was either buttoned-down or pre-packaged or just willfully cacophonous and violent (punk, rap, etc)

The person who compared it to banging a bunch of pots together just revealed his own ignorance, which we all know is not in short supply in this post-literate world. The Dead were very versatile -- they could do the organic, roots-music thing, like they did on American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, or they could do the high-flying improvisational thing, like they often did in concert, or they could do blues and R&B, spurred on by Pigpen and Weir in that regard

Their improvisations showed a spirit of adventurousness that has not been rivaled in rock history, although many younger bands have been inspired by them in that regard -- Phish, Dave Matthews, moe, Blues Traveler, etc.

[RobinLandseadel]

Bobby Weir once said [I'm probably paraphrasing, but here goes]: "We are the cloak and scepter of a religion we had no intention of creating." And it's still true.

Don't get me wrong---I'm not opposed to the Grateful Dead, but as a onetime follower of the Dead I've noticed that the "Cult" gets a bit defensive if you point out that sometimes [really like most of the time], the band was a shambolic mess, usually spared by some of Jerry's solos.. Lots of folks said it was all over by the time Pigpen died [frankly, Brent Mydland was quite a gifted musican and as much of a loss as Pigpen], but once Jerry split for good it was all over.

[the964kid]

Time to gets paid.

[KillgoreTrout43]

They don't really need the money.

[poorotis]

Was anyone at the New Year's Eve show in San Francisco Wednesday nite?
Bob Weir seemed less than satisfied with Jackie Greene's tempo during "Wharf Rat", and even stopped playing his guitar, sat down on a preamp in front of the drum riser, scratched his head and looked off into the distance somewhat distractedly (I thought) before walking off stage entirely and missing out on "Sugaree" completely. Bob Weir always looks like he just woke up from a nap on the couch-dresses like a couch potato now. What's up with him?

[hellinabucket]

We heard them on GD radio & LOVED IT-OMG-OMG! Didn't hear one bad note. Saw them in Oxford,ME was it in 88 or 89? Went up there from PA w/this guy & no tickets but thanks to this wonderful fellow who helped me sneak in & I saw the show! Wow! I will go see them, can't wait!

[cheforacle]

I went to both shows. They converted that old race track area into a good-sized town. Very good shows right before 4th of July.

[oceanjoe]

The only thing worse than a prima dona is an aging prima dona...especially one with an attitude...never forgetting Bobby pulling the plug on Liveaudio.org...or forgive...and the beard!! Yeah, I'm being too negative, sorry, none of that surprises me though.

[preemptivelove]

he just woke up from a nap? hysterical.

yeah, i wonder that myself. he's looking pretty old and frail--not the%2

[preemptivelove]

my comment got botched. what i said is that bobby is not the virile guy he was a few years ago, mountain biking and playing football. also, i don't get the whole monopoly man look with the bear. weird.

[auramac]

The Dead are dead. Show some respect.

[srhMayheM]

thats not the grateful dead

[directfitz]

2009 is already better. 1st email I opened in 2009 was from dead.net.
The good old Grateful Dead always know when to get this party started.
The Dead were always about innovation. This is phase next.
If you've never been to a Dead show you've never been to heaven.

[bhyman]

Q: "What does a dead-head say when the drugs wear off?"

A: "Man.... this band sucks!"

[chinacatsunflower]

uh, actually they said "see ya tomorrow night!"

[3dtrix]

Funny - and true...

[rukiddingmerightnow]

Yup :)