Music

[Don Huebert]

Once I complete my DIY35, the first music I will listen to will be something by Diana Krall. In my estimation, a woman's voice, a double bass either plucked or bowed and a piano will tell you everything you need to know about your stereo. I wonder what you are listening to, how about letting me in on your favorites?

[Shannon Parks]

I must admit I've grown to really love recorded 'live' music over the past year. And why not? Though the mixes may be rough, the energy is unadulterated. I feel tubes really give the presence that makes it feel like you are there, especially when you close your eyes - so how cool is that?
OK, so I've become a Klipsh owner due to their incredible efficiency. And apparently many of the Klipsch owners love the Grateful Dead. So I picked up Workingman's Dead and American Beauty - whoa! I'm blown away. The vocals are right there. A few weeks ago, I found www.gdlive.com which has a ton of live recordings for free. You may remember the Dead bootleg tapes from years ago, but many of these recordings are straight from the soundboard, mixed by Lesh and given to the public domain. They're stored as a SHN file, which is a lossless, compressed WAV - ie 40% smaller and no compression loss (hence, lossless). If you have a high speed connection and CDR, you can download a 3CD concert from 1970 in <no> time. Pretty sweet, eh?
So what am I listening to right now? Grateful Dead, 3-1-69 at the Fillmore West (complete with Bill Graham's intro). 90 days before my aunt was there to see Iron Butterfly. What a trip.

Shannon

[EWBrown]

My one time seeing the Dead Live, was back in December 1969, in Boston, at the (now gone) Boston Tea Party. I was home on leave from the Army, so needless to say, I didn't look like a real "deadhead".
A couple of friends of mine were going, brought me along - I had never really heard of them before, and this was truly a memorable experience.

The place was all "standing room" some seats anad tables along the outer walls, the usual projected light show on the back wall.

Their sound gear was literally a "wall of sound" with speakers of all kinds - many home built - at the back of the stage. Their PA amps were a rack full of McIntosh tubers, and their sound, though loud, was very clean and undistorted. I speent most of my time just gazing at the gear. Back then, my Dad had a small audio shop, we sold Dynaco and Dynakits, McIntosh, AR and Bozak speakers, some of the newly merging gear from Japan, so I had a pretty good familiarity with what was then current and top of the line.

During one of their breaks, I remember this long haired and bearded fellow came down from the stage, extended his hand and said "Hi, I'm Jerry" (Garcia). Old dummy me really didn't know who he was at the time, or his status amongst deadheads. and we had a short and friendly conversation about guitar playing and McIntosh amplifiers, then he slowly blended into the crowd, along with his other bandmembers. I also alked with the drummer briefly (Pig Pen?). They really seemed like down to earth "real" folks, and were not at all pretentious like so many of todays "stars".

Even though I had the military crew cut, a bit of a southern drawl, and was basically clueless about who the Dead were at the time, I never felt out of place or "strange" at all while I was there.

/ed brown in NH

[Shannon Parks]

Excellent memory, Ed.
Amazingly, it seems that all three of the Tea Party shows have been 'archived'. Dec 29,30 & 31 of 1969. Would you want me to see if I can get the concert on CDs?

Shannon

[dhuebert]

I know someone who almost saw Janis Joplin once.

[Shannon Parks]

:D
You are crackin' me up!

Shannon