I ventured north this past weekend to San Francisco to celebrate Phil Lesh's 70th birthday at the Bill Graham Civic Center. Just in case you're not clear, Phil Lesh is the iconic bass player and core part of the original Grateful Dead. This show was brought to us by Furthur & Unbroken Chain Foundation to benefit the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Created in the spring of 1997 by Phil Lesh and friends, the Unbroken Chain Foundation is a nonprofit organization which seeks to perpetuate the long-standing tradition of community service that has been the hallmark of the remarkable three-decade relationship between the Grateful Dead and its audience.
Joined by Bob Weir, Jackie Greene and Chris Robinson among others, this was an incredible show with all the birthday bells and whistles including an over the top, psychedelic parade followed by go-go dancers, a special treat for Phil as I have never seen dancing girls like that at a show before. Check out some photos from JDM Photography of the show!I was thrilled to hear both Lazy River Road, one of the "newer" old Jerry tunes that I love to cover in my sets as well as New Speedway Boogie that I recorded it on my most recent album Patience Pays. I had a wonderful, high time in the city without the burden of my school-bus, although I always love a good bus trip, I was relieved to not have to deal with the city in my 35 foot bundle of Patience ;) As my friends Chad and Krishna rode up with me in my 98 Explorer.
The best part of the trip was the chance to spend some time with my friends who are deaf and watch the show from up on the interpreter's platform with them. I was so excited to meet Vicki, Chad& Krishna's favorite interpreter who was doing the show, and her friend Carol, both from St. Louis. Vicki is hearing but has been active in the deaf culture and working as an interpreter for 3 years. "Little" Rachel was able to meet her before and had told me about her already and how incredible it was to see her interprete the show. I could easily see why she was so loved among my friends. I was mesmerized, watching her interpret the music with her hands and facial expressions and realizing that it is a performance and just as demanding as that of a performing musician, very similar as far as the energy and emotion that goes into it. After 20 years and over 150 Dead shows , not to mention scores of music festivals and concerts, I never paid much attention to the interpreter before. I was amazed to find that this it was a whole new way to enjoy the music I have been listening to for most of my life. What an eye opener!
I've been studying up a bit on line and sure enough, little by little, I am picking it up. I am proud to say I picked up lots of signs and may have bugged my friends a bit with all my questions. Learning signs in groups like countries, numbers, flavors and feelings, I added to my vocabulary and always can fall back on finger spelling if I need to. Getting faster at that too! Traveling with two deaf people made it necessary to try and they were patience and kind with me as I learned. There's lots of resources on line like Dr.Bill's ASL dictionary and ASL Pro both with video dictionaries and other info on deaf culture.
We ended the trip with a quick break at the Chumash Casino where I amazed my friends by turning 5 dollars into 70 dollars injust over an hour! I bought dinner when we finally got home. ;) So, that was my weekend, what a long, strange trip it's been!
Joined by Bob Weir, Jackie Greene and Chris Robinson among others, this was an incredible show with all the birthday bells and whistles including an over the top, psychedelic parade followed by go-go dancers, a special treat for Phil as I have never seen dancing girls like that at a show before. Check out some photos from JDM Photography of the show!I was thrilled to hear both Lazy River Road, one of the "newer" old Jerry tunes that I love to cover in my sets as well as New Speedway Boogie that I recorded it on my most recent album Patience Pays. I had a wonderful, high time in the city without the burden of my school-bus, although I always love a good bus trip, I was relieved to not have to deal with the city in my 35 foot bundle of Patience ;) As my friends Chad and Krishna rode up with me in my 98 Explorer.
The best part of the trip was the chance to spend some time with my friends who are deaf and watch the show from up on the interpreter's platform with them. I was so excited to meet Vicki, Chad& Krishna's favorite interpreter who was doing the show, and her friend Carol, both from St. Louis. Vicki is hearing but has been active in the deaf culture and working as an interpreter for 3 years. "Little" Rachel was able to meet her before and had told me about her already and how incredible it was to see her interprete the show. I could easily see why she was so loved among my friends. I was mesmerized, watching her interpret the music with her hands and facial expressions and realizing that it is a performance and just as demanding as that of a performing musician, very similar as far as the energy and emotion that goes into it. After 20 years and over 150 Dead shows , not to mention scores of music festivals and concerts, I never paid much attention to the interpreter before. I was amazed to find that this it was a whole new way to enjoy the music I have been listening to for most of my life. What an eye opener!
I've been studying up a bit on line and sure enough, little by little, I am picking it up. I am proud to say I picked up lots of signs and may have bugged my friends a bit with all my questions. Learning signs in groups like countries, numbers, flavors and feelings, I added to my vocabulary and always can fall back on finger spelling if I need to. Getting faster at that too! Traveling with two deaf people made it necessary to try and they were patience and kind with me as I learned. There's lots of resources on line like Dr.Bill's ASL dictionary and ASL Pro both with video dictionaries and other info on deaf culture.
We ended the trip with a quick break at the Chumash Casino where I amazed my friends by turning 5 dollars into 70 dollars injust over an hour! I bought dinner when we finally got home. ;) So, that was my weekend, what a long, strange trip it's been!