Greg from Chestertown

I’ll stop by and get you on the way!

Black muddy River and push/shove got debuted during the New Years run that year. I’m guessing they were still finding a home for it which turned out to be the encore slot. Yea, that Spectrum show gave me little red rooster and the wheel firsts for me. Bobby broke a string and left the stage for the beginning of the wheel so Jerry did some extended noodling, worth a listen!

I thought Bill put it in perspective when he said you keep going to shows to catch a evening like this one.

I remember in high school, (graduated ‘79) one of my teachers would just tell stories, barely taught. He told us of being in Alabama, the football fans would have a box of Tide laundry detergent in the back window of their car with a roll of toilet paper on either side of the box of Tide. Roll, Tide, Roll.

Yea, my Dead friend and I were going to catch Better Off Dead at the 8x10 In Baltimore on Saturday night but bagged it simply because of the mask requirement. I miss the good old days. Hope they come back.

I caught splintered sunlight once. 1987, Stone Ballon, Newark, De. I really have no recollection of how they played, etc. they play the Ardmore music hall a lot. Gotta catch a show.

I saw that article this morning. My thought was that you need an unknown to play Jerry. That’s the only way it works, I think.

I had a bad reaction to horse meds once. I Realized that I couldn’t drive while I was driving.

Lisa MIA?

Original show had cold rain and snow opener because it was blowing cold and snowing right before show start. Killer shakedown. Baby blue encore ranks near the top according to headyversion, I doobie leave.

Because I wasn’t there last night.

Son of a bitch. I was at the original show. Fuck.

Count me out . I have a day job. Literally heartbroken over not making it. ….this darkness got to give….

I was pressed for time this morning, went straight to Dark Star of that show. Got my day started on the right foot! Nice jam there.

It’s going to be a last minute call for me but if I can pull it off, I’m going to squeeze the trigger on it. Not sold out. Yet.

Interesting. Another estimated, he’s gone. I was checking out 11/04/79 this morning. Got an estimated, he’s gone there too. I was blown away by the beginning of he’s gone. Like I’ve never heard before. Thought they might be fighting over what to play, gotta listen again. Tune clocks in at 21:47.

Don’t forget Stagger Lee, Peggy-O. Back to back Jerry tunes. They broke rhythm there. I’m always intrigued by the Spectrum set lists from before I started being a regular attendee there. I think of what I was doing then, before I discovered the Grateful Dead. Thanks, Bill.

So, I work two days a week on an organic farm for a guy who used to be a trauma surgeon in the ER at San Francisco General Hospital, from 1965-1992. We go Out to lunch a lot during the slower times of the year. Over lunch, he has Some incredible stories from his past. About six months ago, we were talking about the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club. He told of a benefit they did every year at the Hospital. He told me a story of one member, Chocolate George, who got in a bad motorcycle accident. He had irreversible head injuries, ended up in a coma and eventually dying. While he was in the hospital, he was an attraction to all of the nurses because his body was covered with pornographic tattoos. Fast Forward to the other morning, I’m reading one of the books a local deadhead woman gave me, the Grateful Dead Family album. (See my post above, it’s a long story) I get to page 61, and there’s a picture of chocolate George! Blew my mind! I took the book into work and showed Frank, he got a laugh out of it., said Chocolate George came to a hard end. You had to be there. It was pretty cool.

Just got a clip of shakedown going to commercial on the football game tonight.

I got blown away by my first and only Comes a Time also. Unfortunately, I was too wasted on beer, pot, blotter, and opium to begin to comprehend what I was witnessing but it was great nonetheless. That alone motivated me to buy more Grateful Dead tickets and to ask what was actually in the pipe that was just handed to me, from that point forward.

So, I pull into the laundromat a few years ago and this woman is sitting on a bench out front. As I walk away from my truck and towards her and the laundromat, she starts singing Box of Rain to me. (She saw my license plate, BOXRAIN) we became friends, needless to say. She’s a wildlife artist, has Done some things with Native American themes also. She had a son who committed suicide at 24 years of age. She told me they played Ripple at his funeral. I hadn’t run into her in town for a few years but got a call from her recently. She’s moving to Ohio to live with her daughter, getting too old to live alone. (Gotta be in her eighties). They’re going through the house, sorting through a lifetime of accumulating stuff. She called to let me know she had a stack of books about the Grateful Dead and wanted to know if I would like to have them. I stopped by this afternoon and picked them up. We hugged and she told me it’ll nice to have known you. I said yes, it’ll nice to have known you too. Pretty cool, strangers until the realization that we have the Grateful Dead in common. Then, it’s good friends.

Caught the high and wides at the Garfield theatre in Chestertown last night. Local group playing bluegrass for about twenty years plus. Originals plus other tunes. One nice highlight was when the guitarist broke a string. Banjo player turned to the fiddle player and said its up to us. They chatted about what to play and broke into a nice jam. Pretty cool. They had a guitarist from El Salvador open up for them, played a handful of tunes, stayed with them for their first tune which was reminiscent of Eyes of the World but in Spanish. Interested music, tight band. They play Baltimore/DC area too. Check ‘em out if you get the chance.,High and Wides, formerly Chester River Runoff.

Yea, I had a couple of immediate thoughts. First, Stella Blue. That might be because that was the first Jerry Ballad that I got into, through the album not a performance at one of my first shows. I think, I can’t remember. The other thought I had was that they all had a turn. The storyteller makes no choice… I think he gets into a tune and then revisits it, polishing it a little more even time. It’s like asking a grandpa what’s his favorite story to tell. They’re all good. With Jerry, I think it depends on the era in his history, when you got in to him. Which song he was spending time with at that time. They’re all good. With the internet, lately, I seek out the dark stars. That’s for his noodling on the guitar, not the soulful singing. Passionate singing, lyrics that fit him, gotta go with Stella. Visions of Johanna fits him well in his last year. Yea, great conversation.

Memories turn into scattered thoughts. We fill in the blanks. That’s how legends are born. I have little in the way of memories any more. More like a feeling about it. I tend to live in the moment and look forward. … the past is just a goodbye….

Caught little feat at the Grand Opera house in Wilminton, De. Walked in and saw posters advertising DSO playing there in the near future. First DSO show at the Grand. Hardly remember lil’ Feat cuz I was so pumped that Dark Star was coming to my home town. Got my Dark Star tickets at that Little feat show, front and center on the balcony. Took my son, twelve at the time. Yea, the highlight of my last little Feat show was getting Dark Star Orchestra tickets.