The Days Between Edition | #256
Happy Aloha Friday,
Yesterday marked the beginning of the “Days Between ;” An 8 day period between Jerry Garcia’s birthday on August 1st and the day he died, August 9th. In the later stages of his life, Garcia fell in love with Scuba Diving. For the last decade of his life, vacation meant slipping into a wet suit and going diving. And his favorite place to Scuba: Hawaii. In fact, standing on the back of a dive boat in Kona, he made a promise to fellow bandmate, Bill Kreutzmann , that when the band called it quits, they would permanently move to Kauai . Unfortunately, Garcia died before that happened, but Bill made good on his word and settled on the island of Kauai just after Garcia’s passing in 1995. Bill still calls Kauai home to this day, hosting various concerts on his sprawling property on Kauai’s North Shore.
When I moved to Kauai in 2014, I was aware of this cosmic connection, and it took just a few minutes of being on the island to understand why Garcia wanted to call it home. The island is electric, it’s Mana emanating from every inch of its verdant landscape. Over the course of five years, I always kept in the back of my mind that I would run into Bill one day. Then, kismet, a co-worker of mine, Harry, had a second gig as a captain for a charter fishing boat that Bill owned, named after Garcia, “Captain Trips.” Harry was going to make introductions and see if he could get me and my wife on the guest list for Bill’s New Year’s Eve party to ring in 2018. Due to a last minute trip back to the east coast, plans fell through. Just a few months later, I was set to relocate back to the mainland and thought that the chance encounter would never occur. ?
But, in April of 2018, weeks before I was set to depart the island, a massive storm ravished the North Shore of Kauai, setting a national record by producing 50 inches of rainfall in a 24 hour period. In response, Jack Johnson organized a benefit concert, Kokua for Kauai , and musicians from all over flocked to Kauai’s South Shore for the benefit. As the show began, I meandered closer and closer to the stage. That’s when I noticed a lower than normal metal fencing/partition between audience and backstage and thought, if I am ever gonna sneak back stage, now would be the time. Cutting corners, I hopped the fence and settled in, stage right, as inconspicuous as I could be, watching as performer after performer passed by me en route to the stage: Jack Johnson, Paula Fugua, Donovan Frankenreiter, Makana, Keppa Kruse, just to name a few. As the night was about to end, I start to plan my escape strategy and who happens to be sitting in a chair next to me, waiting to go on stage: Bill Kreutzmann. I knelt down, said hello, and then froze. Bill made some witty remark like, “go ahead and spit it out.” It was an epic fail. I managed some unintelligible words, tried to explain this story to him and left him with a thank you! The next day, I submitted an article to the Garden Island Newspaper, so if you want a full telling of the story, click here ! ?
While Jerry is most well-known for his role as lead guitarist in the Grateful Dead , Jerry was a consummate and unrelenting artist. Whether it was the Jerry Garcia Band, Old and In the Way, Legion of Mary, New Riders of the Purple Sage, or Grisman and Garcia (the list goes on), he was constantly in creation mode. Here are some tracks that show the breadth and depth of his musical prowess. Enjoy!
Grateful Dead
Intro>Help on the Way->Slipknot->Franklins Tower (One from the Vault) (check out the 6 minute mark for some inspired playing and then 8:40 for the silky smooth transition)
Jerry Garcia Band
领英推荐
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Grisman and Garcia