Someone turned over a large rock and roll subculture over the past three night run at "The Beacon Theater", as "Deadheads", "hippies", and "throwbacks", have resurfaced to see "Bob Weir and Ratdog".  No other band in bluegrass, blues, country, folk, reggae, or rock and roll history, has woven such a distinct counterculture and sense of community, other than "The Grateful Dead", and the bands offshoots.  Known to "Deadheads" as "The Dead", the band's inception began in 1965 in San Francisco, California, from a jugband known as "The Warlocks".

There is something to be said about the marriage of experience and youth. It usually results in wisdom–or at the least a sort of magic. And magic is what seems to be coming from the new band, Donna Jean & the Tricksters. The experience comes from Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, known best for her harmony voice in the Grateful Dead, and keyboardist Mookie Siegel, who has played with the David Nelson Band, Phil & Friends, and RatDog.

San Diego-based rock band Dirty Sweet has been heavily touring the US and Europe, turning audiences onto their latest release, Of Monarchs and Beggars.  The five-piece blues-infused rock band offers original lyrics, intricate guitar riffs, and melodies that somehow have a familiar feel to them. Not a tribute band that tries to recreate a classic rock band's feel and nuances or even a cover band, Dirty Sweet comes by their retro sound quite honestly.

Background and Influences

I left Appalachia's Country Music Hwy., (via Flatpick KY), for Rt. 66. It was Labor Day Weekend and I was going to Asbury Park, NJ, a town made famous by Bruce Springsteen and others. I was going to see Soozie Tyrell, of the E-Street band, along with 9 other bands play over the weekend. There were even knowledgeable whispers, before an inconvenient hurricane hit at a most critical moment that Springsteen might make one of his periodic appearances there that Saturday. 

As burlesque bumps, grinds and laughs its way back in vogue, the art of its' golden eras, from Nouveau to the 50s, shimmies in alongside it. Montmarte had Lautrec, (or, perhaps more appropriately, his now lesser known but then more famous mistress, model and contemporary, (though not necessarily in that order), Suzanne Valdon.). The Neo-Burlesque world has Molly Crabapple, artist, subject and muse. Not surprisingly, she's  made several 'Top New Yorkers' lists.

My Grandmother, Edith Bissette, grew up in a musical family in rural Virginia and North Carolina in the 30s and 40s as the changes Mike Seeger describes were taking place. She expands on what Mike describes above as she tells us not only what the advent of radio was like in the rural South, but what life and music were like as well.

Mike Seeger has helped bring the music of the rural South to popular attention. He did this as a folk musician in the 60s, bringing traditional musicians not yet well known to the forefront of popular attention and continues to do so through performances and archive work today.  It is in part through his influence on his own generation that we have the folk-based songs of Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

Recently, Ivan Neville commented, "Derek Trucks is a happening deal. He's the best guitar player I've heard in years." And, he's absolutely right. It is praise such as that, coming from his musician peers, that has followed Derek Trucks' entire life.

Grateful Web recently caught up with Ivan Neville while he was in Maryland. The phone interview had to be postponed for two hours while Neville enjoyed some crab cakes, reputed to be the best in the country. "I'm in Baltimore " he said. "You've got to have crab cakes, and I want to give them my full attention." While his meal was digesting, he spoke about his new band, Dumpstaphunk......

British-born keys player Jon Cleary now makes New Orleans his home where he has immersed himself in a social structure that lives and breathes music. He offers a unique perspective on the cultures that produced New Orleans popular music.

"In New Orleans, music is such an important part of the culture here," says Cleary. It is what first attracts people, not only to visit, but to live there as he has done. "They fall in love with it because they love the culture," he says.  "Music is the soundtrack of your social life in New Orleans."