Issue 1 - Summer 2009
Grateful Dead Drummer Bill Kreutzmann tells how he defends our oceans
Pete Townshend & Rachel Fuller's ITA was special. Is the DVD?
Having fun and leaving little impact on Mother Earth is the goal
photo by On sale June 30, Bob's Back Porch tells yay or nay
Jack Gardner
The Path To Bob's Back Porch
by Bob Bowser
It is natural to spend more time reminiscing about the past as one grows older. As I have been writing “Bob’s Back Porch Reviews” for this site, I have found myself reflecting on the musical journey of my life. Hoping some of my readers might be interested in the progression of musical awakenings, here is a brief roadmap of the musical roads I have taken thus far.
Growing up in the Piedmont area of North Carolina in the 1970s, my earliest musical memories are of church. The organ, choir and the Methodist Hymnal are among the first things I remember. I was also exposed to bluegrass at a young age, and the television program Hee Haw introduced many of the artists I still cherish today including George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash. Like many of my generation, television also provided early pop heroes like The Monkees and The Partridge Family.
Indeed, it was television that provided perhaps the single incident that would prove to have the biggest impact on my subsequent musical tastes. The local PBS station aired the movie Woodstock when I was 10 or so. I sat captivated by the performances (and the audience). Watching The Who, CSN&Y, Santana and Hendrix the doors of my mind were blown wide open! A whole new world of music as well as one of beliefs and lifestyles had been unveiled.
Infatuated by the rock I had seen, I mined the local public library for any books I could find about this music. Before I ever heard a note of their work, I became familiar with artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan, and their influence on popular music and culture. The Beatles were my first love; I can vividly remember the Christmas morning I received Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A Beatlemaniac was born! I quickly absorbed all of their albums. Other influential early albums were Tommy by the Who, Morrison Hotel by the Doors, and Jimi Hendrix’s Axis: Bold as Love.
These early, formative days cemented in me an appreciation for the LP album as an art form. The track sequencing, liner notes, album cover, the best albums to me have always been more than just a collection of songs. Rather the whole is more than just a sum of its parts. One of the things that makes, for example, Abbey Road so great is the sequencing. The contrast between the abrupt, heavy end of side one and the beautiful, light beginning of side two is as important a part the work as any of the lyrics or music. With the advent of digital technology and the ability to download songs I fear this art form is dying. Even the CD, while it has some wonderful pros, is sometimes too much. I don’t often have 79 minutes to listen to all a CD can potentially hold. An album side, however, at 20-25 minutes, is a nice serving of music. Ok, off the soapbox. Forgive the finger-waggling, preachy aside (see, I told you I was getting older!)
After the Beatles, my next musical “crush” was on Led Zeppelin. I listened to their albums so many times I finally had to take a long break from Zeppelin. Only recently has their music started sounding fresh again. Any late 1960s-early 70s psychedelic music was most of my focus during my high school years. Pink Floyd, the Stones, the Who, etc led me to “Art Rock” – Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Yes; King Crimson. Then, in college, I was introduced to some artists who had heretofore been just names in one of my library books – Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and The Band. On Halloween,1985, I saw my first Grateful Dead concert (the only show the Dead ever played in South Carolina by the way) and I was, in Deadheadese, “on the bus.”
Non-Deadheads might turn up their noses at this point. But following the Grateful Dead not only provided some of the greatest adventures and music of my life, it also opened many musical doors. Just through their covers, I was exposed to artists like Canon’s Jug Stompers, Chuck Berry, and most importantly, Bob Dylan.
In 1992, for a myriad of reasons, I stopped chasing the Dead and started chasing Bob Dylan. I had all of Dylan’s albums, hundreds of bootlegged live shows, and would travel just about anywhere to see him. Dylan to me is the greatest writer and performer of our time. Dylan also pointed me backwards. I began to listen to things like Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and the Chicago Blues Anthology. I then began exploring the artists he most influenced like the Byrds, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen. Probably because of Dylan, I have always been more song-oriented than many of my friends on the jamband scene, one of the reasons I’ve never really been able to warm up to artists who are only about the jams.
My musical growth wasn’t confined to only rock and roll. About the time I started college, a hip, older cousin gave me a copy of Sonny Side Up by Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, and Sonny Stitt. I proceeded along a fairly conventional path into the world of jazz through artists like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus. I also have always listened to classical music (in small doses). Bach, Mozart and Mahler are favorites. I love Motown, Elvis Presley and Reggae. And there are many “pop” groups I like quite a bit, including U2, the Police and Prince.
Music has been more than just a pastime for me. Most of my best friends have been made through music, in one way or another. I get very passionate about a “new” discovery, and the desire to turn my friends on to good music is one of the reasons I work on this website. I look forward to continuing on my musical journey, and hope you enjoy any time we spend together on the way.
And now off to the Back Porch. What to listen to? Hmmm…hey, are you hip to the Derek Trucks Band? Check this out!
(Cue Music)
Life Thru Music - one story at a time
by Colleen McSpirit, Founder
Three years ago, over a cup of herbal tea in a New Jersey diner, the dream of creating a music webzine was born.
At that time I was mostly a stay at home mom and a local municipal reporter. I was tired of covering budgets, and too well versed in NJ land use laws for my liking. Having once owned an attachment parenting print magazine, I was eager not only to be my own editor once again, but also to cover a topic that truly reflected my inner being.
But I had a lot to do before I could even begin to think about it. I was going through a divorce and trying to get my life back. But still the seed was planted, and without even knowing it, my musical adventures picked up where I left off years before. Prior to getting married, music was a big part of my life. Not only was music constantly playing in the background, I booked local bands and attended some sort of live act five to six times a week.
After I filed for divorce, I bought tickets to The Who. I forgot how much I loved live music! I went again and again. The Deadheads in my life pointed me to Justin Kreutzmann's blog www.rockandreel.blogspot.com The son of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Justin was on the road with both The Who and In the Attic, a side project of Pete Townshend and his girlfriend, Rachel Fuller. In The Attic (ITA) was a web show with Rachel, Pete, Simon Townshend and Mikey Culbert featuring a variety of musical guests both known and some relatively unknown. When The Who were on tour in Eurpoe the show moved to a RV. http://intheattic.mevio.com/ A videographer, Justin often posted pictures, videos and tales from both The Who and In the Attic. When The Who came to America, our laws wouldn't allow filming from a hotel room so ITA went from a web show to a live show. Eight were performed from New York to Los Angeles and yes, I did attend all eight! I simply could not get enough live music! I went to Bob Weir and Ratog, Phil Lesh and Friends, Levon Helm, Global Drum Project, Les Paul Trio and on and on. Someone pointed out to me I went from 0 to 60 in a second when it came to attending shows. While it seemed to surprised those around me, it didn't surprise me at all. After all music is the soundtrack of my life.
Trite but true. I can look back at certain ages or stages and hear a song. There are the obvious songs of course. Songs like my long forgotten prom song or my wedding song, "Still The One" by Shania Twain. I sang The Beatles song, "All My Loving" and Aerosmith's "Don't Want to Close My Eyes" to my son when he was an infant. To my daughter I sang "The Way you Look Tonight " by Frank Sinatra and to this day nothing fixes a wrong for Katie like The Grateful Dead's "Ripple" or "Uncle John's Band." When I hear Johnny Mathis. I am not only instantly brought back to fond memories of my childhood but also to those of a long ago favorite ex-boyfriend and the Jersey. There are my divorce songs, "Liberty" and "Box of Rain" by The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band's "I Shall Be Released" and Rachel Fuller's "Shine." Stevie Nicks' "Landslide" reminds me of getting the news my grandmother died. Then there is Pink's "Who Knew," which will forever remind me of the loss of a good friend. I could go on and on. My musical tastes are quite varied and so is the journey.
With Life Thru Music, I invite you to come on the journey one story at a time.
