In 1970 the police raided the house of Owsley Stanley - famed financial backer of Blue Cheer, architect of the dread "Wall of Sound" and LSD producer of renown.  It was the third bust of note. The first, in December of 1967 found him with millions of dollars of acid. He was released on bail. Three years later, in Jnnuary, 1970, he was arrested along with the Grateful Dead in New Orleans - as related in " Truckin ".  This last arrest resulted in the revocation of his bail and he spent the next two years in prison. On his release, Stanley returns to the Dead - a band that he initially bankrolled - to run sound for them again, but all is not the same. He's no longer the player he was. The road crew has emerged as a power center. He builds the Wall of Sound but the band goes on hiatus in 1974. The Wall is dismantled and Owsley never works with them again. The whole arc of his time with the Dead inspired Steely Dan's " Kid Charlemagne " - working in his...

When Robert Hunter died - one year ago today, I looked at some of his collaborations with artists other than Jerry Garcia.  He wrote over an album's worth of material with Bob Dylan. He contributed to two albums by Bill the Drummer, including the 7 Walkers, a song for Bruce Hornsby, and the lion's share of the material on recent Little Feat and New Riders of the Purple Sage albums.  By far, his major collaborator was Jim Lauderdale. They wrote four full albums and over an albums worth of other songs covering country, alt-country, bluegrass, roots rock - just what you'd expect. When I learned of his death, I had been enthralled with the first part of the Terrapin Station Suite - the Lady With the Fan. I'm not sure what led me there. I think I had heard he was doing poorly. I remember being struck by the line about the storyteller and about how we'd soon "not hear his voice".  Maybe that's why I lingered. Below are the songs that strike me as being, um,...

In June 1967 Moby Grape issued their debut album. It is one of the best albums you've never heard. They were a San Francisco band, usually discussed in conjunction with the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane. If you like "Golden Road" or "Cream Puff War" from the Dead's first album, you'll probably like this one. Why haven't you heard it? It's complicated. The band began when Jefferson Airplane dismissed their manager and drummer, Skip Spence. The pair found Bob Mosley from a San Diego outfit called the Misfits to play bass, Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson from Seatle band, the Frantics, on lead guitar and drums, Peter Lewis, a Hollywood kid and guitarist for the Cornells  was recruited and Spence moved over to guitar. All five members sang and wrote. The band was a hit in San Fransisco and got a good record deal, but then things went wrong. For starters, 10 of the album's 13 songs were simultaneously issued as the A and B-sides of ...

On this day in 1972, the Grateful Dead were between shows (the Hamburg and Paris) on their European tour, the tour that would produce the Europe '72 album. The band had a lot of new Garcia-Hunter compositions to record. The plan was for the resulting live album to pay for the tour...at least that's what they told their record company. It was my introduction to the band and remains my favorite Dead album because of the songs and the stories they tell rather than the jams. What does that make me? A fan? Certainly. A Deadhead? Who knows? Most of the songs on the original were altered in some way. Some had the tempo altered. Others received vocal or instrumental overdubs to cover blown notes or stray harmonies. Steven Seachrist researched and documented the alterations and overdubs done to prepare it and its sequel,  Europe '72 Vol. 2 ,  and you can read about them  here . This week's concert is not really a concert. Rather, it is the source songs that make up the a...