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Bob Weir Interview With Blair Jackson


Ed Holub

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From DeadNetCentral

blair jackson - Sep 20, 2010

When I went up to Bob's a few weeks back to interview him for a piece I wrote the program of the now-delayed Marin Symphony thing, we got into a few other areas of conversation (which I may put up on dead.net minus the symphony stuff)... Anyway, here's one little tidbit that's semi-germane to some of the talk around here:

Q: Have you had any qualms about playing with John in terms of the tonal similarity to Garcia? I

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From DeadNetCentral

blair jackson - Sep 20, 2010

When I went up to Bob's a few weeks back to interview him for a piece I wrote the program of the now-delayed Marin Symphony thing, we got into a few other areas of conversation (which I may put up on dead.net minus the symphony stuff)... Anyway, here's one little tidbit that's semi-germane to some of the talk around here:

Q: Have you had any qualms about playing with John in terms of the tonal similarity to Garcia? I'm sure you're aware there's a raging debate with some people wondering why they have "the Jerry guy" in there?

A: I can go with it now. The more I hear of him being him, the more I'm going to like it. It'd be a lot to ask or expect him to lose all the Jerry stuff right now when it's been what he's working at for the last 15 years or whatever. He's quite an accomplished guy and the sooner he finds himself being comfortable being the guy he is... and I don't mean to put all that stuff aside, but maybe use it less and less, so when it pops out its more meaningful.

Q: Do you find that because he can play so close to Jerry in terms of timbre and rhythm and just knowing the licks, that what you play in reaction to him is closer to what you might have played with the Grateful Dead than it might have been if you were playing with, say Warren Haynes in The Dead?

A: Not really. Because I've developed a long way in the last 15 years. I play way more single line stuff--I play more like Jerry used to play to some degree.

Q: Is it any less appropriate to play that single line stuff with John, since he's doing it too?

A: No. I should have been doing it way back when, because it makes the traffic situation a whole lot simpler and also the combination tones between John's single-line stuff and my single-line stuff offer simpler choices to extrapolate on. Often the sum of Jeff's left hand or his leading tone and what Phil's playing and what John's playing and what I'm playing if we're doing single-line stuff is four parts and they're often four different notes. If there are four notes in a certain chord, one of them is a leading tone and that's fun to play with. I wish I'd done that more years ago.

Q: Now that you've played with Phil on a bunch of consecutive tours, is your musical relationship with him changing at all?

It's refining itself basically. We discovered on The Dead tour that we were moving stuff a lot. We were moving the harmonic development between him and me forward a lot, and that was a lot of fun. Hence, we decided to pursue it. We rediscovered an old conversation that had been going on for a long time, and without Jerry there, the focus became a fair bit clearer. We discovered that we had been real busy when Jerry was with us, doing stuff that Jerry was reacting to, and that we could provide that for anybody. So we said, 'OK, who are we going to look to who's got the kind of wings that can go to the places that could take them, if they can hear that?' And that's where John came into the picture.

Q: Could Warren?

A: Sometimes. Warren's more a blues guy. He's real good at that, but I don't know how much background he has in modern classical music or jazz and really, you need that background to be able to hear what Phil and I are getting at. And apparently John does, because he definitely seems to get it.

If Jk goes away from Jerry's Tonal similarities, so will all the fans..and poof, out goes Furthur....just sayin.

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If Jk goes away from Jerry's Tonal similarities, so will all the fans..and poof, out goes Furthur....just sayin.

Tonal similarities or not. Bobby knows best...Furthur Heads are deadheads. They will thrive with furthur.....To the rest of the kids passing through....Say your peace and get out...

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Good interview. Thanks for posting. I think John sounds like John and that is just fine with me. We have the best of both worlds right now and the playbooks for both bands have really opened up. Enjoy the ride!

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Anyone up for Shakedown Street in the garage next to @ US Bank on 11/14? Seems like Bobby is keeping his head upon his neck even though the winds of change have blown across his back

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I will say that I saw my first Furthur show last night in Vegas.... and wow they were good.... real good...

huge following of Furthurheads..they packed the Hard Rock Joint .... not much room for dancing etc.. and with bigger crowds you get more shaddy people and more drugs.... I know they are everywhere but last night had the hippies that beg for money ,beg for free drinks etc etc...

Bill Walton was having a blast... and so was I

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Has anyone else heard of this raging debate why they have the Jerry Guy in there? Really? No you di'nt! Who wouldnt want a Jerry Guy in there. Jerry Rocks

There was a huge raging debate last year before everyone heard how good JK really is and how much better the music is with a Jerry Guy than with a Non Jerry Guy.

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There was a huge raging debate last year before everyone heard how good JK really is and how much better the music is with a Jerry Guy than with a Non Jerry Guy.

You're right...the raging debate has long been over...too bad BJ isn't aware of that.

However, I think the point in my mind is that with these guys it seems to work with John as their lead guitarist.

Who knows what it would be like with someone else who uses Garcia as their musical mentor.

Maybe they'd be happy and maybe not but I think it's certainly not just the tab "Jerry Guy" that makes it work.

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