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Archives
Looking back |
Most people, if they're familiar with David Gans, know of him as the producer and host of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour radio program heard weekly on almost 90 stations. Others know him as an author or editor of such books as Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead, Conversations with the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book or Not Fade Away: The Online World Remembers Jerry Garcia. Some may know him as a founder and longtime host of the various Grateful Dead conferences on the WELL's on-line conferencing system. If Gans' most recent efforts are not in vain, the scope of his notoriety will broaden considerably. Over the years, only a handful of people have known David Gans, the musician and songwriter.
Though Gans might be loathe to lay claim to it, he's always been something of a model Deadhead, taking the music and the band just seriously enough, and always mindful to add value whenever he trod in the Dead's musical and historical vineyards. Now, two years after the death of Jerry Garcia, and the end of the Grateful Dead as a source of new material for Gans' radio show, he continues to lead by example. As the Dead assume an altered role in the lives of many Deadheads, so they have begun to shift in importance in Gans' professional life. According to Gans, signs that the Grateful Dead Hour has run its course are not yet evident. But where his focus once rested on the unfolding tours for clues to the shape upcoming broadcasts, now it's the vault, the Grateful Dead's considerable library of their live recordings, that suggests the way. No longer pressured to respond to the clamor to put some new song or revival on the air as quickly as possible, Gans now views his role as more of a historian, planning such things as a trio of shows that will highlight all 15 Bob Dylan songs the Dead performed during their history. With more long range planning possible, and with stimulation of new Grateful Dead music at an end, it's not surprising that the time is right for Gans to put his own music-making front and center. With 20 years of writing and playing with such groups as the Reptiles and Crazy Fingers under his belt, Gans began his collaboration with his current musical partner, Eric Rawlins. Rawlins began playing guitar in high school. Later in the '60s, he played bluegrass mandolin and bass in a rock band. Professionally, Rawlins is a database designer. Gans and Rawlins began performing together at series of regular musical parties called "Sing Things" organized periodically by the WELL. Rawlins sang at Gans' wedding. On one occasion, after Rawlins had joined Gans for an acoustic set at a club in Mill Valley, California, a friend suggested the two record together. She and other friends even invested in the recording project. The album Home By Morning is the result. Where the music Gans performed with the Reptiles and Crazy Fingers tended to be both eclectic and improvisational in the manner of the Grateful Dead, Home By Morning is eclectic and surprisingly formal. Steve Silberman, author of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads observes, "Gans' tunes are excellent examples of intelligent contemporary genre writing -- songs that could be folk and country classics, but Gans wrote em." Home by Morning includes seven original songs by Gans and three by Rawlins, plus two covers: Kate Wolf's "Green Eyes" and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter's "Yellow Moon." The duo and their producer John Lumsdaine harvest a musical feast from a mix of fine Bay Area talent and known pros like David Grisman and Commander Cody alums Bobby Black and Lance Dickerson. Among the best tracks on the album are the western swing "Crazy, Crazy, Crazy," the lone exploratory rocker "Hooker River," Rawlin's "Salisbury Plain," and Hunter's "Yellow Moon." The best thing about this record is that it exists. Gans and the wiser Deadheads, appear to understand that while one may always remain a Deadhead, the time for the Grateful Dead to dominate the center of ones cultural consciousness is transitory. In the post-Grateful Dead world, a lot of people will find creative renewal in the freeing-up of psychic, temporal and financial resources that's begun to take place. The accumulated human energy that for thirty years was devoted to the pursuit of the Grateful Dead -- the touring, the acquisition and study of tapes and the near religious zealotry, is staggering. The Dead were a profound cultural influence on millions. The re-allocation of some of the energy spent pursuing the Grateful Dead will surely bear fresh fruit. Home By Morning is evidence of this. You can learn more by visiting the Home By Morning page. Michael Newman writes music reviews for the Topeka Capital-Journal.
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