The Grateful Dead are widely considered the first “jam band.” Within the world of rock and roll, jam bands are noted for their extended improvisations and even experimental departures from traditional song structure (think Dark Star, Drumz & Space, and of course, Seastones). Many jam band fans, however, are unaware that the Grateful Dead--and therefore the whole jam scene--had roots in the much larger world of experimental music. A new musical project, Waywords and Meansigns: Recreating Finnegans Wake [in its whole wholume], re-reveals some of the overlap between jam bands, experimental music, and avant jazz.

Waywords and Meansigns is a global collaborative project, setting James Joyce’s book Finnegans Wake to music, unabridged. Finnegans Wake is a highly unusual book written by James Joyce. It is the literary equivalent of an extended Playin’ in the Band; there is an extreme departure from traditional narrative with seemingly nonsensical words and puns in dozens of languages.

Each musician who participated in the Waywords and Meansigns project was assigned their own chapter to set to music and record. The only requirements were that the words be unabridged, audible, and more or less in their original order.

Tim Carbone, the fiddler from Railroad Earth, took on a chapter, which he described as "one of the most challenging projects I've ever undertaken. The language alone is incredibly hard to grasp and the amount of music needed to be created (an hour plus) on top of it all has been frightening and amazing at the same time." Tim’s chapter also features Railroad Earth bandmate Andy Goessling playing zither.

Project director Derek Pyle is no stranger to jam bands either; he grew up seeing members of the Grateful Dead perform. “I actually got interested in experimental music through listening to the Dead,” he explained. “If you just trace the Dead’s influences, there’s a lot of really out there stuff. Phil [Lesh] especially was inspired by some wild music.”

In fact, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh began his musical career studying experimental music composition at Mills College in Oakland, California, studying with renowned composer Luciano Berio. Berio was also interested in Finnegans Wake, and in 1959 Phil Lesh wrote and conducted a big band piece called “Finnegan’s Awake.” David Nelson and Phil Lesh actually met because in 1962 David approached Phil about a book the latter was reading: Finnegans Wake.

The Waywords and Meansigns project also features keyboard player Parker McQueeny, an up-and-coming musician who has one foot in experimental music and the other foot in the jam band scene.

Waywords and Meansigns: Recreating Finnegans Wake [in its whole wholume] will debut May 4, 2015. All audio will be freely distributed via waywordsandmeansigns.com. Excerpts selections are currently available.

Press contact: Derek Pyle, [email protected]

The psychedelic jam band world owes a debt to James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The bizarre 1939 book appears to many as total gibberish, written in a made up language with words like “riverrun” and “bababadalghatakammronnkonnbrovarrhounskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk”.

But to many in the 1960s counterculture, the book was an inspiration. Terence McKenna referred to Finnegans Wake as the literary equivalent to LSD, and Timothy Leary said Joyce’s writing “prepared me to enter psychedelic space.”

As Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead's primary lyricist, explained to Steve Silberman in a 1992 interview: "Before I was writing songs, I was a stoned James Joyce head, Finnegans Wake head. I can still recite the first page and last couple of pages of that thing. There was something in the way those words socketed together, and the wonderful feel of reciting them, that very, very deeply influenced me."

In 2015 a project called Waywords and Meansigns set Finnegans Wake to music, unabridged. One goal of the project was to make Joyce’s book more accessible to the average listener. To help facilitate this, all audio from the project is distributed freely online. “I grew up listening to Dead shows on archive.org,” explains project director Derek Pyle, “so the idea of giving away music, letting music just circulate online, just made sense.”

Continuing the thread of psychedelic jam bands involve with the text, in 2015 Waywords and Meansigns featured original readings and music from Tim Carbone and Andy Goessling of the band Railroad Earth, as well as up-and-coming face-melter Parker McQueeney. On February 2, 2016 Waywords and Meansigns will release a second edition of the project, which will include original readings and music from psychedelic jammers Mr. Smolin and Double Naught Spy Car creating what Deadhead journalist Jesse Jarnow dubbed “hallucinogenic passageways and unexpected jazz corners”.

Mr. Smolin is best known to Deadheads as the radio host of “The Music Never Stopped” and “Head Room” on KPFK; “The Music Never Stops” won the Jammy Award for “Best Radio Show” in 2000. Double Naught Spy Car are genre-bending face melting surf-jazz group of Los Angeles session players.

For the Waywords and Meansigns project, Mr. Smolin and Double Naught Spy Car set the first chapter of Finnegans Wake to music, unabridged. Miles Mosley, who played bass for Kamasi Washington's 2015 album The Epic, spoke highly of the piece: “Smolin’s knack for space travel seems better suited in this context than any he’s ever explored before. His passion for this text has unleashed outstanding compositions that feel free-form in what they conjure yet detailed in their intention and execution.”

Composer Chris Rael, leader of the Indo-Pop band Church of Betty, also spoke highly of Mr. Smolin and Double Naught Spy Car’s contribution:

Waywords and Meanings is one of the most meaty and brazen musical responses to a piece of literature I know of, in part for its vast scope but more so for the gravity of its subject: Joyce's epically inscrutable Finnegans Wake. It is no accident that Mr. Smolin sets the tone for this collective opus with his spoken-word-and-musical reaction to chapter one of the book. Ever soulful and brimming with intelligence, Smolin is that rare artist with the smarts to tackle and the chops to interpret such a daunting text. He enlists one of LA's most intrepid outfits, Double Naught Spy Car, to supplement his piano soundtrack for his reading of the chapter. The reading is more than an hour long; Smolin and the Car manage to keep it sonically compelling throughout. Smolin tickles the ivories with authority and his reading is absolutely musical. More so than most others, this novel needs to be heard rather than read. It offers a poetry of sound. An unabashed Joycean myself, I lay no claim to comprehending the text. What I know is Mr Smolin makes it feel like music, sometimes jazz, sometimes atonal theatrical backdrop, sometimes moody soundtrack. The music and the narration breathe dynamically with the relentlessly abstract text. This is a remarkable achievement.

Waywords and Meansigns: Recreating Finnegans Wake [in its whole wholume] will debut February 2, 2016. All audio will be freely distributed via the project’s website, www.waywordsandmeansigns.com

Tim Carbone keeps a busy schedule. In addition to touring constantly with Railroad Earth and recording new material with The Contribution, Carbone has produced many up-and-coming as well as veteran artists in the jamband and new grass scene, from Gipsy Moon to Hot Buttered Rum.

Carbone’s latest creation is a collaboration with Lewis & Clarke’s Lou Rogai, performing James Joyce’s famously strange book Finnegans Wake. Billing their duo as Cedar Sparks, Carbone and Rogai’s recording is part of Waywords and Meansigns, an ongoing international project setting Finnegans Wake to music.

Finnegans Wake was celebrated by Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson as a tool for consciousness expansion and the book has inspired countless musicians, including members of the Grateful Dead. As Robert Hunter told Steve Silberman in a 1992 interview, “Before I was writing songs, I was a stoned James Joyce head, Finnegans Wake head.”

This is Tim Carbone’s second time contributing to Waywords and Meansigns, having recorded an entire chapter of Finnegans Wake in 2015. Carbone’s 2015 recording also featured Railroad Earth’s Andy Goessling on zither, and piano from The Contribution bandmate Phil Ferlino. Carbone described that recording process as “one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever undertaken. The language alone is incredibly hard to grasp and the amount of music needed to be created (an hour plus) on top of it all [was] frightening and amazing at the same time.”

With the 2017 release of Waywords and Meansigns upcoming on May 4th, we have selected a playlist of tracks to premiere with Grateful Web readers. The first is from Tim Carbone and Lou Rogai as Cedar Sparks.

The second track is from musician Mr. Smolin, former host of the Jammy award-winning radio show The Music Never Stops and current host of KPFK’s Head Room. Mr. Smolin previously contributed to the 2016 release of Waywords and Meansigns, recording an entire chapter of the book, fronting the surf noir, jazz on acid band Double Naught Spy Car.

The third track is from Steve Fly. Steve Fly is a DJ heavily influenced by Robert Anton Wilson, recently creating RAW-inspired tune packs for Ninja Jamm. Fly is currently working to establish the John Sinclair Foundation in Amsterdam, to celebrate the legacy of activist, poet and MC5 manager John Sinclair. Steve Fly appears on two Garaj Mahal albums, Mondo Garaj and Blueberry Cave, as DJ Fly Agaric 23. Steve Fly previously recorded an entire chapter for the 2015 release of Waywords and Meansigns.

The final track is from Joe Fee. Joe Fee was the drummer for the New Jersey jamband Scarecrow Collection. In recent years Fee has dedicated himself to composing, with an emphasis on text and dance as well as microtonal music. Joe Fee received a 2017 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

All audio from the 2017 release of Waywords and Meansigns will be distributed freely via the project’s website on May 4th. Additional musicians involved in the upcoming release include punk icon Mike Watt, Mercury Rev veteran Jason Russo, “krautrock” pioneer Jean-Hervé Péron of faUSt, and many more. Waywords and Meansigns invites listeners to record their own passage of Finnegans Wake for future release, so get involved!