Bob Weir, Phil Lesh keeping the Dead alive
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/1459983.html
02.04.10
BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY
The undying spirit of the Grateful Dead alights Friday night in
downtown Miami when Furthur, with founding Dead members Bob Weir and
Phil Lesh, kicks off the latest leg of its tour at Bayfront Park.
Since Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, Weir -- who
wrote the classics Sugar Magnolia, One More Saturday Night and I Need
a Miracle -- has thrilled Deadheads with various incarnations of the
legendary jam band. He talked to The Miami Herald about to expect.
Q: Furthur ended the year in San Francisco with two epic shows
featuring Dead classics such as Truckin', Uncle John's Band,
Shakedown Street, St. Stephen, Fire on the Mountain, Playin' in the
Band and Sugar Magnolia. Will we see something as spectacular in Miami?
A: Well, we're not gonna have a New Year's parade or anything like
that [laughs] . . . but musically, it'll be pretty much on par. . . .
Whatever we play, we're gonna kick it around just like we did up
there, and it'll be energetic because everybody's gonna be pretty fresh.
Q: Why Miami to kick off this leg of the tour?
A: For routing purposes, it made sense. Three of us are coming from
Jamaica, where I'm playing this week, and for the rest of us, you
have to start somewhere. It made sense to start further south as the
weather dictates. When the winter starts to wither, we advance north.
Q: What do you think of Miami?
A: I've never actually gotten a chance to hang there. . . . I got
kind of a taste of it in the late '60s; we spent a little time there.
But that was a long time ago.
Q: Do you prefer performing at an outdoor venue?
A: If the weather's good, you can't beat it. . . . And the sound is
good where we're playing, from what I understand, so I'm looking forward to it.
Q: What inspired the name Furthur, and the odd spelling of it?
A: I think it was a misspell. But it was the name of the [Merry
Pranksters'] bus back in the mid '60s that I left home on. I was 17
when I hopped on that bus, and the Grateful Dead first hit the road
on it. And it fits so prominently in our world, our mythology. When I
go to Oregon, I often make a special trip to see the old girl. It's
parked out in a field now.
Q: What ties together all the groups you've been a part of,
post-Grateful Dead, including RatDog, the Other Ones and now Furthur?
A: Adventure in music. All my groups have approached music with an
adventurous bent.
Q: You've said that listening to The Beatles inspired you to turn
your band toward rock 'n' roll. What, if anything, from The Beatles'
sound and style did you bring to the Grateful Dead?
A: Just the joy, more than anything else. I could go into numerous
specifics, about how they handle a melody, or harmonic progression,
or stuff like that. . . . But just the joy that they had in making
music really turned my head.
Q: Was the Dead heavily improvisational from the beginning?
A: We started drifting that way pretty early on, and about five
months into playing together, we were already at that point where we
were extending our songs. And then it became the all-consuming thing,
what we were all about. In the late '60s and early '70s, when we
started concentrating on songwriting, we actually became somewhat
more conservative in our approach, for a little while.
Q: It's been said that no two concerts by the Grateful Dead were the
same. Do you plan your sets in advance these days?
A: Yeah, we do. We always did to some degree -- we at least figured
out what we were gonna start and end the set with. But oftentimes it
didn't work out like we had planned. These days, while the new
players are getting up to speed on the new tunes and the new
arrangements and stuff like that, it's handy to be able to tell the
guys what we're gonna be playing to give them a little time so they
can brush up on the tunes. Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future,
we'll be able to go back to the whatever-feels-right-at-the-moment
mode of song selection.
Q: Do you ever feel Jerry's presence onstage?
A: Always. Always. He's always over my shoulder somewhere. I can hear
his sense of harmonic direction, if you will, and I can feel him
saying, ``Yeah, go there, don't go there.'' And I listen, or I don't,
depending on how I'm feeling at the time, just like always. But I'll
take this opportunity to say this: For me, he's not gone.
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Contacting The Dead:
Bob Weir talks about going Furthur with Phil Lesh
February 14, 2010
by John J. Moser
Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia's 1995 death not only brought an
end to the band, but threatened the friendship of original members
guitarist Bob Weir and bassist Phil Lesh as they wrangled over their future.
But getting together for another tour as The Dead last year, the two
now have formed Furthur the spelling is from the destination on
1960s LSD guru Ken Kesey's bus with member of Weir's band Ratdog
and the singer from a Dead tribute band.
On Monday the group plays Bethlehem's Stabler Arena, where The
Grateful Dead set a then-record Stabler attendance of 6,500 in 1981
and where Lesh attracted 5,000 for a solo show in 2002.
Weir spoke about the group in a recent telephone call from his bus in
Asheville, N.C. Here's a transcript:
Give me a quick rundown on how Furthur came together. How did you
guys decide to do a band in this way?
"Well, after last year's Dead tour, Phil and I sort of rediscovered
our relationship, and wanted to continue on in a somewhat new
direction. And so we talked it and decided, 'OK, the way to do that
would be to start a band, but, you know. We wanted to look into some
new players just to show what that would be like. And so that's what we did."
When you say rediscovered your relationship was there a point when
you were not close after Jerry's death?
"Yeah, you know, we fought like cats and dogs for a while. Had
different notions about how things should proceed. But during The
Dead tour, we discovered that our musical relationship superseded that."
And what do you find with Further that you didn't find with The
Dead? Or what is the difference?
"Well, basically, a fresh approach. And it's a cleaner slate. The
idea is to take this stuff you know, once we find the center of
this band, which is happening, the idea is to take this stuff, this
music, in directions that old habits would otherwise deny us. You
get two guys with those old habits, surrounded by four other guys who
don't have those old habits, and the chances of finding new
approaches to the songs and stuff like that just get better."
I looked online and saw some set lists for the first couple of
shows you've done on this most recent leg, and it just astounds me at
how broad-ranged they are, and how you guys play entirely different
sets. I was wondering how you figure out what you're going to play each night?
"Um, any conceivable way right now. The Dead had sort of a I don't
want to say a formula, 'causes that's, you know … but yeah, it was a
formula. We had a basic taper to our shows that Jerry and I worked
out over the years. And for the time being, for the most part, we're
not doing that now. That's what we're not doing. What we are doing, I
can't really tell you."
I was going to ask out of the millions of songs that you guys know
collectively, how do you figure out what ones you're going to play?
"The ones you're most passionate for."
Really?
"We play what we want to play."
So how do you come up with a set list? Do you just sit down and say,
'We're going to play this tonight.' Have you rehearsed like 200 songs
and just decide 'These are the ones for the night'?
"Well, we rehearsed most of 210, and, yeah, whatever seems right.
Whatever falls together. Whatever makes sense."
I see you guys play a good amount of Dylan songs and I see you do
it with Ratdog, too. I was wondering what your level of interest or
influence is from Dylan? What do you have so many of his songs in
your repertoire?
"Um, well, you know, Jerry and I both used to do lots of Dylan songs
because we loved them that's that. [Laughs] Not much mystery there."
Let me ask a little bit more about the band itself. So how did you
pick John Kadlecik from the Grateful Dead cover band Darkstar
Orchestra to sing in Further?
"We went through the various options and listened to a lot of guys,
and John seemed like a good idea on a number of levels. First off, he
knew most of the material. And so it would require a whole lot less
of the back-breaking rehearsals that it takes to teach somebody a
whole book. I don't know if Phil or I have that in us to do again.
But, fortunately, there are a number of players who know our stuff,
know our book. And of those folks, given that we play with a number
of them, it was time to check out a couple more. And we started
playing with John and it just, it clicked the guy's great."
I imagine you're fairly familiar with Dark Star Orchestra, right?
"Kinda, yeah, I played with them a couple of times."
How long do you expect Furthur to go on? And let me also ask what
this means for Ratdog and Phil Lesh & Friends & The Dead? Are all
those configurations gone? Will they re-appear?
"Well, Furthur's going to be around for a while, I expect. It's
working well. And so all those other configurations are going to be
fighting for time, 'cause right now, this is our hot hand. Ratdog for
me, I just got done doing a couple weeks in Jamaica with Ratdog. And
that's cooking, but I can bring that out whenever, and I will. But
right now this is what I'm doing, so this is where my interests and
intent are."
I read a quote and I honestly don't know how old this is but I
think it was very early on, when Further was coming together, you
made some mention of being on stage, and jus the whole vibe, that you
could almost feel Jerry there. Is that still the way it feels to you?
"Yeah, absolutely."
And you expect that, if he were looking down on this in some way
that he would think that this is a good thing?
"I would expect so, yeah."
Hey, I have to ask this: How is Phil's health these days?
"He looks fine to me. There are some times he's a little slower --
some days he's a little slower than others. But he's doing pretty well."
And haven't you lost weight over the last year or so?
"Yeah, I made an effort to do that. Comes a time in your life where
you either have to decide to just let it go or shape up, and I chose
the latter."
Is there ever a part of you that does not want to do the Dead gig,
or the Dead material anymore?
"Well, you know, I reasonably had a notion that I'm going to do a
country record. And when I get home, I'm going to get started putting
that together. It may take a year or so, but I've always wanted to do
it, and I just got to get around to it. And that's what I'm going to do."
Are there any contemporary jam bands that you think have the stuff
that The Grateful Dead had? Is there anybody that you see out there
that you admire?
"Yeah, I'm a big fan of Wilco's, for instance. I don't so much care
for their records as I love what they do live. Having played on the
same bill with them a couple of times, I was dazzled. Aside from
that, really, I don't listen to a lot of current, contemporary music.
And so I'm not the one to ask."
I have to ask this: You guys, in different forms, have played a
venue called Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. I wonder
whether you have an affinity for the venue, or it is a convenient stop?
"Well, it's a great-sounding room. A band can't fail to have a good
night there."
Those are the questions I had prepared. Is there anything I didn't
ask you that you'd want to see in my story?
"Personally, I can say this I don't say it from on stage, but since
we're talking If you're not registered to vote, you should. And
once having done that, you should hold politicians' feet to the fire.
Don't let them drift."
You reminded me of a question. In 2008, members of The Dead played
two "Deadheads for Obama" and "Change Rocks" concerts, and on Jan.
20, 2009, you played two sets in Washington, D.C., at the
Mid-Atlantic Inaugural ball for President Barack Obama. How surreal
is it for you to actually have played a show on the president's
behalf? Rather than be the counter-culture, you now are the culture.
Or maybe the counter-culture is the culture now.
"You know, nothing surprises me anymore. It just seemed kind of
natural after awhile. People for whatever reason have been taking us
seriously for a while now, and Washington seems to have caught that
drift. Whether or not they should be is another story. [Laughs] But
nonetheless, as I say, nothing surprises me anymore."
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