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Yarn: Grateful Dead played by Yarn

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    Friend Of The Devil
    Lovelight
    Stella Blue
    Deal
    Touch of Grey
    Scarlet Begoninias
    Fire On The Mountain
    One More Saturday Night

    Wondering if there's any wider audience thought to a deadset in the recent shows or if they're playing 'em just for kicks. Sure is a good way to widen the audience though since fans of Jerry and the Dead 1) appreciate the type of music Yarn plays with it's heartfelt singing, an interplay of strings and swinging dynamics that explore a little psychedelia 2) they attend and listen to live music and 3) once hooked, ya got 'em for life. Look at me; poor Blake has seen me more often than some of his family members!

    It's easy for an old deadhead to be jilted by the very poor legacy of the Dead dudes post Jerry. I spent too much effort trying to catch something that was gone. Today my excitement for Yarn and other new music overshadows any nostalgia I may have for the 15 years that I saw Jerry.

    So this thread’s all about pondering the Dead thing because it’s so coincidental for me. My buddy invited me to go see Yarn and at the first show I saw, they didn’t play any Dead songs. In fact, when I first heard Rod rip up a Friend Of The Devil, I was like, cool. Nice to hear Dead music from a band who’s stylings and talent I enjoy. Still, I certainly didn’t have any wish to hear Dead while I was absorbing so many great Yarn songs and had already written off Lesh and Weir.

    When I recently read of the influx of Dead material, I was surprised. It was great to give it a listen streaming today and it’s very well played. I also got to hear a Stella Live last month and I dig the Touch Of Grey with Electric Rick. I keep ribbing them to play a St Stephen but shit, at this point, it really ain’t a bad idea. Of course, I don’t know how much work it is to learn. I do remember Weir saying that the Grateful Dead stopped playing it many years ago because “it’s a damned difficult song to play.” I remember thinking yeah, and Jack Nicklaus can’t hit a 7iron but maybe it’s true. You certainly don’t see many/any bands play it. I think it’s one of the greatest songs ever written and it has all sorts of components for Andrew, Rod and Rick to play. Further, any deadhead who sees a killer live version of that song will convert on the spot!

    I know Lorax and Dawgsong are of the faith and my buddy highway but I don’t remember ever asking tous about the Dead...you ever see ‘em tous? Jgoods? You Southern folks?

    Tell your Dead tour tales here~
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      CommentAuthortous
    • CommentTimeJan 12th 2011 edited
     
    Not a deadhead by any stretch. Own one album (Steal Your Face) and the last time I played it, my bell bottoms were fashionable.

    I enjoy the occasional cover song by the boys. Fun to play, gets some people's attention at the bar and it mixes things up a bit. Note for note covers don't do much for me. Midnight Rider is a good example of a song they made they're own. (RC: yeah, yeah, I know!)

    Full set of Dead (or any other band, for that matter) for me leaves me wanting to hear a Yarn song. There's just too many damned good ones.

    BUT...I can attest to the reaction they got in Matunuck during that set. Smiles all around and plenty of dancing. I may have even seen a few people selling grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot.
    • CommentAuthorsuemck2
    • CommentTimeJan 12th 2011
     
    As a deadhead (50+ shows and many shows of various post-Jerry incarnations of the band) I think the boys are doing it for kicks and it'll pass. I, for one, would rather hear Yarn tunes at a Yarn show. I think there's a crossover between the audiences for sure ... same with when they'd play The Band covers ... I dig St. Stephen but I think it's technically too much for them to do a good job - but I'm hard to please. Furthur's been doing a nice job with St Stephen - especially at the MSG shows I caught before I moved to Switzerland. With that said I was disappointed to miss Scarlet > Fire in my hometown on NYE ... ;) Think Yarn'll make it to Switzerland any time soon?
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      CommentAuthorhoppedup
    • CommentTimeJan 12th 2011 edited
     
    My dad was a deadhead. He went to shows all up and down the East Coast. When they came here to Greensboro in the spring of '89, he got stuck working out of town and gave his tickets to my brother and I. I was 16 and had a vague notion of what the whole GD scene was. I knew my dad had a lot of tie dye and smoked a lot of weed. The lot was crazy. I had already tried weed and alcohol at this point. I partook of both at this show. I was with a bunch of my dad's friends. My brother sold his ticket for $40 in the lot. I don't remember what face value was, but I told him I didn't think his markup was cool. The girl who bought it was maybe 18 or 19. Said she hadn't gotten in to a show since Berkeley. She actually offered 40 bucks, 40 doses and a blow job for the ticket. My brother declined the latter two because he was pretty straight and the chick looked like she hadn't bathed since Berkeley either.

    I remember seeing what I now know is the Taper's Section and wondering what the hell those guys were doing. I remember seeing lots of joints passing up and down the aisle. I remember lots of people spinning and lots of spun wooks and what I know now were probably "Touch Heads". I was not among that set. I dug the music before "In the Dark", but I liked it , too. But GD wasn't then and isn't now my favorite band. I just lucked into tickets and ended up enjoying myself immensely. I remember there were lots of counterfeit tickets. Ours were mail order and were legit. They had the dancing bears on them. I was not saving stubs at the time (dammit).

    <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/gd89-03-31.schoeps-fob.childer.3826.sbeok.shnf">
    http://www.archive.org/details/gd89-03-31.schoeps-fob.childer.3826.sbeok.shnf



    I went again in '91. Oddly enough, two years to the day from my first show. Something happened with my dad again and he couldn't make it. I had the extra ticket this time and sold it for face to a very happy gentleman. The police decided to turn the lot into a no-fun zone. No selling, no camping. People were getting busted all over the place. Still a great show. Bruce Hornsby was on keys for this one. I remember a bunch of guys that looked like an NFL offensive line walking around openly waving tickets and yelling out ridiculous scalper prices. Wouldn't matter if these guys busted or not 'cause they were not getting any customers and they were being booed pretty heavily by the crowd.

    <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/gd91-03-31.sbd.perkins.9451.sbeok.shnf">
    http://www.archive.org/details/gd91-03-31.sbd.perkins.9451.sbeok.shnf

    I went to the opening night of The Dead in 2009. The music was great, the ticket was free, but I had one drunk asshole on one side loudly trying to announce all the tunes as soon as the first note played and then correcting himself several times until he figured it out. On the other side I had a couple practically screwing and the guy was trashed. The guy kept stepping on my sandaled foot. After a few polite requests to stop, I told him, "If you step on my foot one more time, we're both leaving here in vehicles with lights on them. Mine will have blue lights. Yours will have red." I guess I harshed their mellow because they left and didn't come back. The local LE did allow a Shakedown Street and I believe everything was chill for the most part.

    <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/thedead2009-04-12">
    http://www.archive.org/details/thedead2009-04-12


    I love live Dead and I think Workingman's is my favorite studio release. I kinda liked the idea of a NYE dead set. Wouldn't want to see more than one or two covers in most shows, though. The original material is what Yarn does best.
    • CommentAuthorearlbny
    • CommentTimeJan 13th 2011
     
    My first encounter with the Dead started back in 74 or was it 04. lol Actually I wish I was around in the 70’s but I was not born yet. When I was back in High School I really started to get into music. I was going through different phases every week. I just kind of found the Dead on my own. There were kids in High School that were into the Dead and Phish. While I was not a full on Dead head like some of the other kids in my high School I dug some of the music. Then I was really introduced to the Dead by an old family friend. He gave me a copy of the RFK show and the Cornel show and said spend the weekend with these 2 shows and let me know what you think. From that moment on I was hooked. My friend David first saw the Dead back in 65. He went to Woodstock and has seen about 300 Dead shows. By the time I got hooked Jerry was long gone. When the Dead went on the road without Jerry in the summer of 04 I believe I jumped on board. Then back in 07 a friend of mine moved from New Mexico to Harlem NY. While discovering all the things NYC has to offer she found her self at some Brooklyn Music Festival. She heard this amazing sound coming from some stage at the festival. She walked over to see who it was. She asked the woman standing next to here who they were listening to. The woman told it was Yarn. Long story short my friend was having a conversation with Andrew’s wife Nikki. My friend was hooked from the minute she entered the festival. Anyway she went and saw Yarn when they would play a gig in NYC once a week. She dragged me to a show and the rest is history. My friend David has now seen Yarn twice and is also hooked. However he can only do a show if he can sit down because he had both hips replaced.

    When I saw my first Yarn show Rod was not an official member of the band. I did not know a single Yarn song. So the only songs I could sing along to were the covers. One of the covers they did that night was I know You Rider. Which as I am sure you all know has been done by the Dead more times then I can count. So you can add that song to the above list.

    I think the cover songs can help the band grow. Anyone that checked out the cover wars contest or is a fan of the Dead or Phish or ryan Adams may see that Yarn has covered there songs or played with a member of that band. In turn they may check out Yarn.
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    Cool stories you guys. FWIW, I would be fine with Yarn never doing another cover. If it's gonna be a Dead cover though, that would be my pick~
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    Funny, I was listening through the Schenectady recording and during the Dead Set there was some cat in the crowd yelling repeatedly for ST STEPHEN!!!!

    ...it was'nt me.....just sayin'
    • CommentAuthorsuemck2
    • CommentTimeJan 21st 2011
     
    We Left Candyman off the List of songs played.
    • CommentAuthorDawg Song
    • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2011
     
    I miss Jerry, and gawd dammit I miss YARN.

    Been a busy as fuk few months for me down here in da Promise Land.

    I do stop in here at least once a week for a quick peek....thanks to all you cats
    for taping, sharing the stories and tossing out the setlists.

    I have a few more weeks to keep hunkering down here with the bidnez so I can hit the
    road for FESTIVAL SEASON.

    iKO, pEACE CHILRENS
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    Yo Dawg, nice to see ya pokin' around again~

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