Rock and Roll Dreams Come True at the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp™

From eCoustics:

Rock and Roll Dreams Come True at the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp™, Presented by JBL

All-Star Roster of Participants Includes Roger Daltrey (The Who), All the Members of Cheap Trick, Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead), Neal Schon (Journey) and Many More -

WOODBURY, NY - Everybody's a star at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, where rock and roll dreams come true for fans who want to make their musical fantasies become reality. Presented by JBL, the leading manufacturer of professional and consumer loudspeakers, and produced by David Fishof Presents, the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp will be the biggest and best ever. For 2006, a remarkable lineup of all-star rock legends - including Roger Daltrey (The Who), all the members of Cheap Trick (Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos), Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead), Dickey Betts (The Allman Brothers, Dickey Betts and Great Southern), Neal Schon (Journey), Mickey Thomas (Starship), and many more -- will be participating.

The camp will take place in Los Angeles, CA, from February 16 - 20, 2006. Over the course of five days and nights, participants will have the opportunity to learn from, practice, jam and hang out with some of the world's greatest rock musicians and songwriters. They'll be able to live their rock dreams, up-close-and-personal with the stars. No experience is necessary, and all musical levels are welcome.

Attendees will receive daily small-group instruction from the celebrity musician camp band, led by Camp Director Jack Blades (Night Ranger) and featuring Teddy Zig Zag Andreadis (Guns N' Roses, Alice Cooper), Gary Burr (Carole King), Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad), Doug Fieger (The Knack), Sandy Gennaro (The Monkees, Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper), Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Simon Kirke (Bad Company), Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Michael Lardie (Great White), Jerry Renino (The Monkees), Mark Slaughter (Slaughter) and Kip Winger (Winger).

Paul Bente, president of JBL Consumer Products, noted: “JBL is extremely proud to present the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. JBL and rock and roll have always gone together. More professional musicians, recording engineers and touring sound companies rely on JBL loudspeakers than any other brand to convey music the way it was meant to be heard - with extraordinary clarity, power and realism, in concert halls, in the recording studio, and for listeners at home and in the car.”

Bente continued, “We would like to thank all the additional sponsors and the artists for supporting the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, which will offer participants a unique opportunity to experience all the musical intensity and excitement of rock and roll. It should be an unforgettable experience for everyone!”

Enthusiasts who sign up for the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp will participate in jam sessions and play songs with the celebrity musicians at a world-class professional recording studio and rehearsal space. Campers may attend seminars with musicians and top music industry executives, have meals and socialize with the stars, and participate in a Battle of the Bands. For five intense days and nights, participants will enjoy the recording, touring and fantasy life of a rock legend - all leading up to playing live onstage with their idols in a special performance at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Along with presenting the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, JBL will be giving away $50,000 worth of prizes. In addition, Gibson Guitar, the world's leading manufacturer of musical instruments, will bring to the camp its collection of world-class Gibson and Epiphone guitars and basses, which may be used by the campers, giving them the chance to play the instruments used by the stars. The guitars will be signed by the artists and auctioned for charity.

Adding to the excitement, The Learning Channel (TLC®) will air a two-hour TV special about the 2006 Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp on February 22, 2006, from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Eastern time). Hosted by Evan Farmer of The Learning Channel's hit TV show “While You Were Out,” the special will follow the stories of selected campers as they live out the thrill of a lifetime.

Additional sponsors of the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp include VH1 Classic™, the classic-rock TV network; CMP Entertainment Media, Inc. (publishers of Guitar Player®, Keyboard Magazine®, Bass Player® and EQ™ magazines); DW® (Drum Workshop, Inc.); Empire Kosher® Poultry Inc.; KORG®; VOX®; Marshall® Amplification plc; Modern Drummer® magazine; Musician's Friend; Pro-Mark® Drumsticks; The Wall Street Journal; and The Avedis Zildjian® Company.

The Harman Consumer Group (HCG) is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of a wide range of high-fidelity loudspeakers, audio and video components, and multimedia systems for use in homes and automobiles, and with computers. The group's brands include JBL, Infinity, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, Revel, Audioaccess and Lexicon.

HCG is a division of Harman International Industries, Incorporated. Harman International (http://www.harman.com/) is a leading manufacturer of high-quality, high-fidelity audio products and electronic systems for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. The company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “HAR.”

# # # For additional information, contact: Frank Doris FM Group Public Relations 631-385-1304 ext. 402 frank.doris@fm-group.net

JBL and Harman International are registered trademarks of Harman International Industries, Incorporated. Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp is a trademark of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, Inc. VH-1 Classic is a trademark of MTV Networks. Gibson and Epiphone are registered trademarks of Gibson Guitar Corp. Guitar Player, Keyboard Magazine, Bass Player and EQ are registered trademarks of CMP Entertainment Media Inc. DW is a registered trademark of Drum Workshop, Inc. Empire Kosher is a registered trademark of Empire Kosher Poultry Inc. KORG is a registered trademark of KORG Inc. VOX is a registered trademark of VOX Amplification Ltd. Marshall is a registered trademark of Marshall Amplification plc. Modern Drummer is a registered trademark of Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. Pro-Mark is a registered trademark of Pro-Mark Corporation. Zildjian is a registered trademark of The Avedis Zildjian Company. TLC is a registered trademark of Discovery Communications Inc

J. Garcia Artisan Teas

From Napa Valley Register:

Coming to market from Republic of Tea on March 1 is a limited edition series of J. Garcia Artisan Teas -- 50 bags per tin with a distinctive label featuring Jerry Garcia's original artwork. Offerings include Morning Brew, Jerry Cherry, Shady Grown, Magic Herb Blend and Spirit of Sage. Retail is $9 per tin.

Read the rest here

Alvarez Releases The Original Bob Weir Yairi Signature Guitar

From Harmony Central:

Alvarez Releases The Original Bob Weir Yairi Signature Guitar

Alvarez has introduced the Bob Weir Yairi Signature WY1BW guitar, an exact replica of the original prototype Alvarez Bob Weir Yairi Signature guitar first released in 1991.

As a member of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir was deeply involved in the development of the original Alvarez Bob Weir Yairi WY1 guitar—crafted to exact specifications for Bob's eclectic playing style. Due to its popularity, the original WY1 model has evolved into an expanded range of Alvarez Yairi WY1 guitars, incorporating different woods, cosmetics, colors, and other specification changes.

The new Alvarez Bob Weir Yairi WY1BW guitar is based on the specifications of Bob's original prototype. The WY1BW cutaway folk guitar features figured coral rosewood back and sides, a solid hand scalloped cedar top, ebony fingerboard, natural satin finish, abalone sound hole rosette, and maple/herringbone binding. In addition, the new WY1BW is enhanced with a distinctive 12th fret "lightning bolt" inlay, gold die-cast tuners, and a Direct Coupled rosewood bridge.

An exciting new feature for the WY1BW is a custom designed electronic system that was developed to emulate Bob's rack-mounted stage system. The electronics combine a piezo transducer and internally mounted condenser microphone which can both be routed through a custom crossover, allowing the condenser mic to reproduce high frequencies and the piezo to reproduce low frequencies, all with little or no overlap. Three modes of output offer discreet full range outputs, discreet crossed over outputs, and the crossed over transducer summed to mono.

The Alvarez Bob Weir Yairi WY1BW will be available in April 2006 and has a manufacturers suggested retail price of $2799.

For more information, visit their web site at http://www.alvarezgtr.com/.

DSO Carries Torch

From Kentucky.com:

DARK STAR CARRIES TORCH
Grateful Dead music 'alive and well' with tribute band
By Walter Tunis
CONTRIBUTING MUSIC WRITER

Establishing a reputation as a cover band is nothing new. Lots of acts have done it. Members gather out of collective admiration for a singular artist, perhaps play the bar circuit, and hopefully have a fun time along the way.

Dark Star Orchestra, however, has taken the premise to an almost unimaginable level. As torchbearers of music created by the quintessential jam band, the Grateful Dead, the DSO has played not just bars but also sold-out theaters and formal concert halls.

And when it comes to repertoire, it doesn't simply dish out cover tunes. It stages re-creations of entire performance set lists, song by song, from the Dead's 30-year career.

"It's not a note-for-note thing," said DSO drummer Dino English. "That would be pointless. But it is arrangement for arrangement. We know the early '70s arrangements are going to be faster and more upbeat than ones from the late '70s. Similarly, there was a cleaner guitar sound in the '70s shows, where the '80s saw a little more distortion ... you know, something a little dirtier."
Just how credible has the DSO's take on Dead music been? Credible enough that surviving members of the Dead -- including guitarist-vocalist Bob Weir and drummer Bill Kreutzmann -- have been eager to sit in at some shows.

"Playing with Bob was the highlight of my musical career," English said. "It's not so much what he said. It was his look. Coming offstage, he had 'really good time' written all over his face. Playing with Bill was a pleasure, too. In that instance, I just stepped off the drum kit and let him play. He got a real kick out of it."

Chicago-based DSO has been bringing the Dead musically back to life for over eight years. But recent times have been tough. The Dead split up more than a decade ago, shortly after the death of cornerstone guitarist Jerry Garcia. While the remaining members occasionally regroup, the legacy of the Dead understandably fades with each passing year. That has pushed DSO back into smaller halls and clubs.

"The music is still alive and well," English said. "Granted, it's on a bit of a smaller scale these days. But the same kind of vibe takes place. It just takes place in smaller venues."
The hardest kick came last spring. In April, DSO co-founder, keyboardist and vocalist Scott Larned died of a heart attack at age 35. Suddenly, the band had to face a slimming fan base of Deadheads without a key architect of what The Washington Post described as "the hottest Grateful Dead tribute band going."

"All things considered, we're in a good state," English said. "We've had some challenging times with Scott's passing. But we've all stepped up to the plate, taken on more responsibilities -- just day-to-day stuff, mostly -- and have continued to get things accomplished. That's because there's very much a family dynamic at work here. We're a family that spends a lot of time together."

DSO continues to tour with keyboard help from Dan Klepinger and, on occasion, Rob Barraco (who regularly performs with Dead bassist Phil Lesh).

In between tours, English has assembled a studio side project called Shimmy Shack, which he hopes to soon launch as a part-time performance entity called the Vortex Brothers. But it will still be the legacy of the Dead that fuels his music in and out of DSO. It is a legacy Larned saw a need to keep alive after the Dead itself was gone.

"It never occurred to any of us that Dark Star would go this far," Larned said before a DSO concert at the Kentucky Theatre in February 2002. "We were all in a mourning period, I guess you could say, for a while. I stopped listening to the Dead, after Jerry died, for a long time.

"So there was no way to guess how people were going to take what we doing with Dark Star. We thought we'd be lucky to get a good bar gig out of it. To be able to take it to this level is just spectacular."

Dark Star Orchestra
When: 8 p.m. Tue.
Where: The Dame, 156 W. Main St.
Tickets: $20.
Call: (859) 226-9005.

Broto Roy

From DNA India:

Mix and match
Subuhi Jiwani

I would classify Hindustani classical music in gastronomical terms — as being the highest development of, let’s say, fish,” says Virginia-based blues-jazz-raga fusion tabla player and composer Broto Roy. Jazz (“less evolved but more diverse”) is more like an assortment of salads, meats and desserts.

Roy began playing the tabla at six, training under Bidyut Banerjee of the Punjab gharana. Besides learning music the traditional way, he also has a bachelor’s degree in music from Virgini’s William and Mary College.

The gharana’s parampara never restricted Roy; rather, it provided food for his music. His debut tabla album, ‘American Raga’, draws out the inherent similarity of Hindustani classical ragas and jazz: improvisation. “I wrote the sketches and we improvised the Indian way,” says Roy.
He has used ‘tehai’ or the playing of the final segment of a melody three times, on this raga-jazz album, outside of its classical Indian context. After it has been played for the third time, begins the rhythmic cycle of the tabla — a clash at first, then slowly arriving at a resolution. The Washington Post had this to say: “Unlike trendy experiments, nothing seems half-baked on American Raga. The performances of Roy and his collaborators flow naturally, like conversations between old friends.”

“What I really am is a universalist composer,” says Roy. In fact, he is currently working on an album called Dundee Darbari, an attempt to fuse Raga Darbari with a Scottish Dundee melody.
Besides playing with his own Broto Roy Ensemble, he has collaborated with Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and guitarist Sanjay Mishra for the album The Crossing. He also set up an ensemble called Ganga, which has performed Bengali folk music in Europe and America.

Terrell's tune-up: Sticking it to the music industrial complex

From Free New Mexican:

Terrell's tune-up: Sticking it to the music industrial complex

Steve Terrell The New Mexican

The robber barons of the music industry are weeping again. In 2005 album sales hit the skids, declining about 7 percent from the previous year.

As usual, bigwigs of the major record companies are blaming illegal downloading for many of the industry's problems. (And, as usual, guys like me will blame bad radio, overpricing, extravagant pampering of a handful of pop "royalty," and most of all, crappy music.)

Personally, I like to see the Music Industrial Complex squirm. What better way to shake it up than a way to download free music that's not illegal -- or even immoral?

Get yourself acquainted with the Live Music Archive (www.archive.org/audio), a Web site that states a goal "to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy."

Nearly 30,000 free concerts are available for downloading from more than 1,700 "trade-friendly" artists -- that is, musicians who allow the taping of their shows and the noncommercial distribution of those recordings. (So actually it's the commercial bootleggers who are hurt by this more than the music industry.) The vast majority of musicians represented in the Live Music Archive are pretty obscure. But there are a surprising number of well-known artists, either big in indiedom or cast aside by big labels.

The concept of the trade-friendly musician was pioneered by the good old Grateful Dead. Thus it's not surprising that the Dead is the biggest presence on the Live Music Archive, with more than 3,000 shows ready to download. (This isn't including spawn of the Dead like Phil Lesh & Friends, Ratdog, New Riders of the Purple Sage, etc.)

I'm no audiophile, but in general the sound quality on these shows is inferior to regular commercial CDs. In fact, some are pretty bad. I recently downloaded the Oct. 12, 1989, Camper Van Beethoven show in St. Louis, which was recorded, broadcast over the radio a couple of months later, and captured on some boombox before it made it onto the Internet.

Luckily, much of the spirit of the show remains -- including covers of the Rolling Stones' "Sweet Virginia" and Jerry Garcia's "Loser" -- more than making up for some loss of sound fidelity. In fact my biggest complaint is that Camper didn't perform "Jack Ruby" from their then-current album Key Lime Pie.

Truth is, ever since I got DSL for my home computer, I've been like a kid in the proverbial candy store. While checking the band roster a couple of minutes ago, I just noticed that the Drive By Truckers were on it. I downloaded and am enjoying a live May 2005 version of "Where the Devil Don't Stay" as I write, and it's rocking!

Here are some of my other discoveries on the Live Music Archive:

*Mekons Live at the Echo Lounge, March 16, 2004: They don't have as many shows here as the Grateful Dead, but the Mekons indeed are trader-friendly. They have 28 shows listed, going all the way back to 1980. You can also find a bunch of shows by Mekons offshoot the Waco Brothers and "solo" outings by Mekons singer Jon Langford.

Much of the repertoire from this show is from the Mekons album Punk Rock, which consisted of remakes of some of their earliest songs. There's also a righteous cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" and a high-charged version of "Millionaire," one of my favorite Sally Timms tunes, which unlike the studio version has no synths. Unfortunately, Sally's voice sometimes gets overwhelmed in this mix.

One of my favorite nonmusical parts of this show is when Sally wonders aloud why the overwhelming majority of the Mekons' audience these days is male: "I want to know what happened to all the women who used to come to our shows."

*Robyn Hitchcock Live at Maxwell's, March 26, 2005: This is an acoustic solo show Hitchcock recorded at a Hoboken, N.J., nightclub last year. Starting out with Dylan's "The Gates of Eden" (and later covering "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"), Hitchcock also plays a couple of Syd Barrett tunes ("Dominoes" and "It Is Obvious"). But it's his own strange tunes, which meander between whimsical and mysterious, that are the main attractions here. Too bad he muffs the ending of "Madonna of the Wasps."

*Butthole Surfers Live at Emo's, July 20, 2002: Gibby Haynes and the boys are on their home turf here in this Austin, Texas, show. The song list features tunes spanning their long career, from the near-folk rock of "Dessert" to the crazy chaos of "Lady Sniff." (For reasons not explained, there are two takes on this song, one right after the other.)

* Warren Zevon Live at Parker's Casino, Feb. 11, 1992: The late Zevon delivers faithful versions of crowd-pleasing rockers such as "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" as well as killer takes on "Boom Boom Mancini" and "Detox Mansion." But my favorite part of this Seattle show is after his synthy ballad "Searching for a Heart," when he gets defensive about the song, which was included in the soundtrack of the forgotten '90s film Grand Canyon."

Is this the new, subdued, adult-contemporary kind of response I'm to expect from now on?" Zevon chided the crowd after the song. "Listen, you realize if this song was to actually be successful, it'll, you know, enable me to be financially secure enough to actually go back and write those songs about sex, terrorism, and voodoo. ... Think of it as sort of like Dr. Hunter S. Thompson writing a few episodes of Knots Landing ..."

*Danny Barnes Live at the Tractor Tavern, Dec. 22, 2005: Here's the most recent show I've come across, recorded right before Christmas. Barnes, former singer with the pioneering punk bluegrass outfit the Bad Livers, plays with a good, rocking band. It's basically country rock, though he does a creditable take on the R&B classic "The Haunted House." There's some solo banjo here, as well as a medley from the Livers' final album Blood & Mood -- avant twang that Barnes describes as "music that killed my career."

Blog Roundup

Born Again Deadhead
10 Questions for... 1/26/06
This time it's Andrew who stepped up to the plate

Box of Rain
If I knew the way, I would take you home 1/24/06
More wisdom from Helen

Crazy Fingers
The World Trade Center, the PATH, and a chance encounter with Tilak 1/24/06
Larry ran into a friend on the subway

Grateful Web
SPIRIT IS EVERYTHING IN ZAMBILAND! 1/26/06
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit Concert Review

Knockin' On the Golden Door
What Irreparable Harm? 1/26/06
Make sure to check out his post on the Kosher computer

Librarian In Tie-Dye
Quick update 1/26/06
The latest from the real librarian, David Dodd

Playback
Image of the month 1/26/06
I don't know, I might vote for the previous image

Rock & Reel
Lady With a Fan 1/24/06
Cool art

Uncle John's Blog
It's a family affair 1/24/06
About Discovery Channel/TLC's search for Deadhead families

Weir Freaking
Here's a familiar Face 1/26/06
A bunch of interesting stuff

Lompico Headwaters

From Santa Cruz Sentinal:

Lompico headwaters may be spared from loggers
By Brian Seals
Sentinel staff writer

LOMPICO — The ghost of Jerry Garcia, as well as those who get their water from Lompico Creek, may have reason to rest easier.

The Sempervirens Fund announced Wednesday it has secured an option to buy 425 forested acres, known as the Lompico Headwaters or Islandia, from Roger Burch, owner of San Jose timber company Redwood Empire.

The property, part of a watershed that provides water for 1,500 residents and once the stomping ground for the Grateful Dead's front man, was being considered for logging. Purchase by the Los Altos-based land trust would head off an environmental controversy; Redwood Empire filed plans late last year to log the land, just as it tried to do in 2001.

Part of the $5.6 million deal would include the purchase of about 200 acres known as the Malosky Creek Forest near Boulder Creek.

In 2001, Redwood Empire sought to log the Lompico Headwaters. Over a roar of community opposition, the plan garnered approval of state regulators but was later shot down by the California Board of Forestry after the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors appealed.
Residents were concerned logging on the steep terrain would potentially harm the creek, which provides water for the Lompico Water District.

"This is important because of the water that comes from this property," said Brian Steen, Sempervirens Fund executive director.

The land also fits with the organization's 106-year-old protection mission.

"It's redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains — saving this land has been our charter for over 100 years," Steen said.

Opponents of the logging plan were pleased with the announcement.

"I'm hoping it's a realization of the landowner that it's not an appropriate place for logging," said 5th District county Supervisor Mark Stone, who represents the area. "I'm just thrilled we're going to be able to protect this piece of land."

Burch was out of town and unavailable to comment.

Aside from providing water for the Lompico Water District and providing steelhead habitat, the land is said to have been frequented during the 1960s by people such as the late guitarist Garcia and singer Janis Joplin.

Groups like the Lompico Watershed Conservancy have for years tried to buy the land from logging companies.

"It was always the solution we sought for the predicament over that property," said Kevin Collins, president of the Lompico Watershed Conservancy. "The conservancy has spent years trying to hold off logging of this land, so we would certainly put all our efforts into helping Sempervirens raise those funds."

Time, however, could be a hurdle to the deal coming to fruition. The Sempervirens Fund has a June 30 deadline to raise the money. The first $100,000 will come from the group's Opportunity Fund.

"This will be the most aggressive fundraising campaign in the fund's history," Steen said.
Still, he called the goal "do-able."

The logging plan was still winding its way through the regulatory process, said forester Dave Van Lennep at Redwood Empire's Capitola office. The plan would have produced more than 14 million board feet of redwood and Douglas fir trees, according to the Sempervirens Fund.

The Malosky Creek property is also vital to the area's water supply. It sits between two parcels owned by the San Lorenzo Valley Water District.

The Sempervirens Fund has worked to preserve forests since 1900, when it bought what became Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

In more recent times, Sempervirens raised $10.8 million to add the San Lorenzo Redwoods forest to Castle Rock State Park.

While the group transfers the lands it has secured to public agencies, Steen said no determination has been made at this point as to who would oversee the property if the deal is completed.

For information about the fundraising campaign, log on to http://www.sempervirens.org/ or call 650 968-4509.

Contact Brian Seals at mailto:bseals@santacruzsentinel.com?subject=Lompico.

From Mercury News:

Watershed redwoods saved from logging
CONSERVANCY MUST RAISE $5.5 MILLION
By Ken McLaughlin
Mercury News

The Sempervirens Fund, the venerable Los Altos-based conservancy, has apparently ended the most contentious logging dispute in recent Santa Cruz County history by securing an option to buy two redwood-studded properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains for $5.6 million.

The properties are the Lompico Headwaters and the Malosky Creek Forest. Once an inspiration to rock musicians Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin, who frequented the area in the '60s, the Lompico Headwaters is the primary water source to 1,500 residents of the tiny mountain community.

The fund's last-minute intervention prevented the logging of hundreds of redwood and Douglas fir trees on the 425-acre Lompico property. The logging plan was submitted by San Jose-based Redwood Empire, owned by Morgan Hill resident Roger Burch.

Brian Steen, executive director of the Sempervirens Fund, said Wednesday that Burch donated some of the land value to complete the transaction. Burch could not be reached for comment.
``It's an excellent development,'' said Jodi Frediani, director of Boulder Creek-based Citizens for Responsible Forest Management. ``It's about time we recognize the importance of protecting watersheds that provide drinking water to the communities.''

Kevin Collins, board president of the Lompico Watershed Conservancy, said members of the volunteer group were not aware of the negotiations until Saturday.

``We're very, very pleased,'' he said, noting that the group had unsuccessfully tried to buy the Lompico property, ``but we don't have the same resources or reputation as Sempervirens.''
The battle over the Lompico property began in 2001 after Redwood Empire submitted a timber-harvest plan, which was then approved by the California Department of Forestry. The county of Santa Cruz successfully appealed the decision to the Board of Forestry, but a newly submitted harvest plan was pending approval.

Logging opponents cited concerns about environmental impacts to fisheries, wildlife habitat and water quality. Redwood Empire said the plan was carefully designed to protect the drinking supply.

The Malosky Creek Forest is a redwood and Douglas fir forest near Boulder Creek. The 200-acre property supplies water to the mountain town and is in between parcels owned by the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, which serves 17,500 water customers.

Steen said the group will use $100,000 to secure the purchase. The deadline to raise the remaining $5.5 million is June 30.

Acoustic freedom

From Mercury News:

Acoustic freedom
DAVID GRISMAN'S QUINTET TOOK THE STAGE IN 1976, AND STRINGED MUSIC HASN'T BEEN THE SAME SINCE
By Mark Whittington
Mercury News

The revolution began quietly. No shouting. Just two mandolins, a fiddle, a guitar, a double bass. No singing. Then, wild applause.

Music would never be quite the same.

The start of this ``new acoustic revolution'' was Jan. 31, 1976 at the community center in tiny coastal town of Bolinas in Marin County, when the David Grisman Quintet took the stage for the first time. Thirty years later, Grisman continues the revolution with a new version of the quintet, his own record company and as a guest artist, as with the Gypsy Caravan on Sunday in Santa Cruz and Wednesday in San Francisco.

``It was a bunch of visionaries,'' says Grisman, 60, looking back. ``They didn't care about money. They came here to do something different.''

That first quintet featured Grisman and Todd Phillips on mandolins, Tony Rice on guitar, Darol Anger on violin and Joe Carroll on bass. They forged a new form of instrumental music that paid no attention to genres. It freed the fingers -- and souls -- of generations of stringed musicians that followed.

And the audience loved it from the start. The Bolinas hall holds 200, maybe. Some sat cross-legged on the bare floor, others lined the walls. Some folks had brought their kids.

``Sold out, packed,'' Grisman says. ``It was acoustic, without any microphones. It was hardest for the guitar player; Tony Rice would step forward, and we would keep quiet behind him.''
``That audience was absolutely crazy. And I knew they would be,'' Rice says. ``There had never been anything like that. It was absolutely crazy. They couldn't get enough of that.''
``I knew that it was special. That feeling was in the air, maybe it was just in our heads,'' says Phillips, who was playing a mandolin he'd built that he'd strung up for the first time that day. Later in the quintet, he switched back to bass, the instrument he'd learned to play as a child in San Jose. ``From the first song, the crowd just went ape shit.''

In a separate interview, Anger's recollection is identical. ``I don't think it ever occurred to us that people wouldn't go ape shit,'' he says, ``which they did from the very first tune.''
There were a couple more gigs -- a church in Berkeley and a rec center in Mill Valley. Then the quintet toured Japan, even playing a live radio show for 3 million listeners. They returned to record their first record, titled simply ``The David Grisman Quintet.'' It contained such gems as Grisman's ``Opus 57'' and ``Dawg's Rag,'' Rice's ``Swing 51.'' and the Reinhardt-Grappelli classic ``Minor Swing.''

``That record changed everything,'' Phillips recalls. ``I don't know how aware of that we were at the time. I guess later we realized that.''

``I listened to the first David Grisman Quintet record so many times I couldn't even begin to count them. I can't imagine what my music would be like if David hadn't invented Dawg music,'' innovative banjo player Alison Brown, who is on tour in Europe, says by e-mail. ``David and all those great players, Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Tony Rice and Todd Phillips really opened up the box for those of us who started off in bluegrass music but were interested in getting into other things. Jazz was always kind of intimidating to me as a teenager, but David's music gave me a window through which to peer into the jazz world.''

It broke down the doors and in rushed fine musicians such as Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer. That flood continues today with the likes of Nickel Creek, Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident and the Waybacks.

``You can use your imagination from what came after that music,'' Rice says. ``You could start a tree of offshoots that have come out of that music. It would be a huge tree.'' ``We're seeing all this hybrid music,'' says Anger, who's broken down a few more doors with Psychograss, Turtle Island String Quartet and Fiddlers 4. ``People don't accept any limitations any more.''

``It was something that was waiting to happen,'' Grisman says. ``The instrumental virtuosity side of bluegrass had grown to a place that it could handle it's own thing. But it had to go outside of bluegrass to do that. Once it did that, there were people from outside of bluegrass who got interested. They found a place to do something different.''

The quintet, affectionately known as DGQ, became an incubator for the new music. Even when the original members moved on to blaze their own trails, they were replaced by innovators such as Mike Marshall, Mark O'Connor, Rob Wasserman, Joe Craven, Svend Asmussen, Bill Amatneek, Dimitri Vandellos, Andy Statman. Grisman's musical family also adopted plenty of already famous musicians, such as Stephane Grappelli, Jerry Garcia, Vassar Clements, Jethro Burns, Norton Buffalo and even the Kronos Quartet.

``I've had great musicians come in and out,'' says Grisman, who's appearing as a guest artist at the Gypsy Caravan shows in Santa Cruz and San Francisco.

For him, it's all ``dawg music'' -- ``Dawg'' was Garcia's nickname for Grisman.

``I've always felt that what I do is my personal music,'' Grisman says. ``I didn't want people to show up expecting to hear bluegrass. I was trying to distance myself from bluegrass. I have a high regard for styles, particularly bluegrass. It's about 50 percent vocal, and it's got to have a 5-string banjo played in that (Earl) Scruggs style. We'd eliminated about 60-75 percent right off the top.

``I figured if it had a name, I wouldn't have to keep explaining it. Whatever I do, it's `dawg music.' It's instrumental acoustic music with varying influences -- bluegrass, gypsy, swing, funk . . . '' His voice trails off before he completes the list of influences. Latin, klezmer, pop, jazz. You name it, the self-confessed ``music junkie'' listens to it and it finds its way into his music.
As with all musical success stories, ``overnight'' wasn't quite.

Over the phone from his Petaluma home, Grisman traced the history of his quintet.
``I never really planned to have a career at having my own band. John Hartford was the first guy who told me that I would do that. I wasn't something that I thought was in the realm of possibility,'' he says. ``Nobody in bluegrass wrote instrumentals and had an act that did them. It just wasn't done. I played in bluegrass bands and probably played one instrumental a night.''
But Grisman always wrote instrumentals.

``Bill Monroe wrote tunes. Frank Wakefield wrote tunes. They were my heroes,'' he says. ``I wasn't trying to force myself to write tunes. I just had a list of tunes. Tune in B-flat. Tune in A. I didn't even have names for them.''

Even back at New York University, Grisman would play these tunes with his friend, Artie Rose. Banjo player Bill Keith worked up some of Grisman's tunes, including the now classic ``Opus 57,'' which showed up on the ``Muleskinner'' album.

Grisman traces the roots of his quintet to a 1974 visit by fiddler Richard Greene, who was playing a gig with jazz singer Anita O'Day and staying at Grisman's home in Mill Valley. Grisman's memory is appropriately hazy about details. ``One of us got a call for a gig, hired the other and hired a singer for a gig at McCabe's. Then I got a gig at Great American Music Hall playing opposite Vassar Clements. We said, `Maybe we should do this instrumental.' ''

Clements was being backed by a group of kids called Skunk Cabbage. After a live radio show promoting the show, the members of Skunk Cabbage told Grisman and Greene, ``You know, Vassar belongs with you.'' Those San Francisco shows became legendary.

``I consider those shows the birth of `dawg music.' Jerry Garcia was in there one night, Taj Mahal played bass one night. It was kind of a happening,'' Grisman says. ``We called the band the Great American Fiddle Band. It was kind of exhilarating.''

Anger, who was attending UC-Santa Cruz and playing bluegrass in a Milpitas pizza parlor, was at those shows. ``It was the closest thing to a religious conversion that I have ever had,'' he says. ``They had this symphonic approach, sort of Beatlesque with jazz influences. It was so far beyond any string band music at the time.''

The band became the Great American Music Band and toured as the opening act for Maria Muldaur. ``As soon as I had a vehicle for these tunes, they started pouring out. You couldn't just play hoedowns for 60 minutes,'' Grisman says. ``We were adding some Django Reinhardt and Duke Ellington.''

Then Greene joined Loggins and Messina.

``I was left with some tunes and a concept,'' Grisman says. But no band.

Grisman was playing duets with one of his students -- Phillips, who was trading him mandolin bridges for lessons. ``I liked the way two mandolins sounded in harmony,'' Grisman says of the sound that was at the core of the early quintet.

``We never even talked about that we were going to be a band,'' says Phillips, who envisioned a cross-country quest to learn from all his mandolin heroes. ``David was the first person I went to see and that was the end of my trip. I got to play with everyone right there in his living room. The immersion was so deep, so fast. Suddenly, I was dogpaddling on mandolin.''

Phillips brought in Anger from the South Bay bluegrass-pizza parlor scene. Grisman brought in Carroll, who'd played with the Great American Music Band.

``Pretty soon I had a mandolin player, a bass player and a fiddle player showing up on my back porch to rehearse,'' he says.

That left one missing piece.

Grisman flew to Washington, D.C., to record with banjo player Keith. Rice was playing guitar on the record. They knew about each other but had never met. Rice heard a tape of Grisman's tunes playing in the background after an all-night session. ``I'd give my left nut to play that music,'' Rice told Grisman.

``I heard this music. And I thought, `This is it,' '' Rice says. ``This is a sound that I had in my head and that I had in my DNA for a hundred of years.''

Rice was already a flatpicking legend. He was playing with J.D. Crowe and the New South, a band that included Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas and that remains a touchstone for today's bluegrass bands.

``They were playing in the Holiday Inn in Lexington, Ky., and he made me change my plane ticket and hang out with them,'' Grisman says. ``There were maybe 12 people there. It was kind of depressing seeing this great band with nobody there.''

But during the day, Rice and Grisman would play the mandolinist's tunes. Rice recalls telling Grisman, ``I just don't have the ability to play this music. He told me, `Man, you're crazy. You can do this.' ''

``He may have been playing in the world's greatest bluegrass band but what he was listening to during the day was the Oscar Peterson Trio,'' Grisman says. ``Basically dawg music was what he was waiting for.''

When Grisman returned to California, Rice would call periodically and ask when the gig was. Finally, Rice stopped in Marin County on the way to Japan for a tour with New South.
``One night at 3 in the morning, the phone rang and it was Tony Rice,'' Grisman says. ``I could tell he'd had a couple under his belt, and he said he'd given J.D. his notice. I didn't ask him to do that.

``They all volunteered.''

It was Rice's commitment that knocked the others out. He uprooted his life, packed everything he owned into his car and drove across country to Marin County.

``I knew it was special enough to leave everything I had in Kentucky,'' says Rice, who has moved back to the South but still belongs to the musicians union in San Jose. ``Not only would I do it again, I would do it precisely the same way. I already had this new music in my blood. The whole process of doing that was innate leap into some other music form. I didn't have a choice.''
The quintet rehearsed six or seven days a week, twice a day for almost a year without playing a gig.

``Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. By the time we started playing we were clinically insane,'' Anger recalls. ``We were like musical Moonies.''

``A little bit nuts, a little too intense,'' says Phillips, who says he continues to bring that same feeling to every project.

They had to invent a way to talk about this new music. They had to bridge cultural gulfs -- Carroll was a jazz musician who had played in Vegas pit bands;, Rice came from an extremely disciplined bluegrass tradition. Anger and Phillips were from the scruffy West Coast hippie wing of bluegrass. Grisman had a bluegrass background and had played with the Grateful Dead on ``American Beauty'' and in bands like Earth Opera and Old & In the Way.

``Each of us had to find a role to play,'' Phillips says. ``That's what evolved out of the hours and hours of hard work. We designed a way to have a five-way conversation. It was a lot of hard work but it all came kind of naturally.''

``Each member had an unmistakable instrumental voice, and every band member had a crucial role,'' says Anger, who admits being a little intimated by Rice's background and by Grisman's cast of guest fiddle players such as Greene, Clements and Grappelli.
They all say they that it was the music they were born to play.

``It was an extremely wide concept of what a string band could be. It was very clear that the group was two or three steps beyond what other people were doing,'' Anger says. ``We were incorporating styles -- pop, classical, bluegrass, swing, more advanced jazz. It was thrown into these dramatic arrangements, and it was completely instrumental. We were using very sophisticated arrangement concepts.

``In bluegrass and string band music, everyone would play all the time. You'd never have everyone drop out so that just one instrument was playing. You wouldn't have an 11-minute song with seven musical sections. You'd never have two parts playing the lead in harmony and two parts playing harmony in serious counterpoint.''

Grisman got discouraged because he didn't know if the music would find an audience, Rice recalls. So he encouraged him: ``I really think we're sitting on a gold mine. There is a sound and a spirit that's coming out of this music that's unbelievable.''

Carroll died in 1983, but other members of the original quintet still are immersed in the genre-bending music. Over 30 years, they have built musical resumes that are pages long. During these interviews, Grisman was rehearsing with European swing musicians for the Gypsy Caravan tour; Phillips was in his Mendocino studio, producing a Hazel Dickens tribute disc; Anger was in an airport, heading to an East Coast gig with his Republic of Strings. Rice, who now longer flies, was driving to a series of shows in the northeast with a quartet that features Peter Rowan.

As always, Grisman is busy, playing music and running his record company, Acoustic Disc. His current current quintet features bassist Jim Kerwin, who's been with the band for 20 years; flutist Matt Eakle, 15 years; guitarist Enrique Coria, 11 years; and drummer, George Marsh, who's back with the band after playing with it for four years in the '80s. The group is recording an album and has a few dates scheduled for the spring.

Grisman looks back with pride at all the doors he's opened.

``I think I've kicked down a whole shitload of them. They were there, and they needed to be opened,'' Grisman says. ``Now, there are some great players who are really taking this thing to a new level. It's very exciting.''

David Grisman with the Gypsy Caravan
Where Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz
When 8 p.m. Sunday
Tickets $30-$36; (831) 423-8209, (831) 421-9200, http://www.ticketleap.com/
Also 8 p.m. Wednesday; Bimbo's 365 Club, 1025 Columbus Ave., San Francisco; $38; (415) 474-0365, http://www.bimbos365club.com/

Keller Williams

From Baltimore Sun:

Going organic
Guitarist Keller Williams takes the bluegrass trail for his newest album
By Sam Sessa
Sun Reporter

For some shows during his current tour, guitarist Keller Williams will strip down his usual sound.Williams usually performs as a one-man, multi-instrument act, wrapped in layers of loops. He'll start on the acoustic guitar, play a chord sequence a couple of times, record it onto an effects pedal, and have the pedal play it back on loop. Then he'll pick up a bass guitar, loop a riff, beat box on top of it, toss that into the mix and keep adding until he's coated in snippets of sounds. He takes the same approach in the studio, except with overdubs instead of loops.
Williams' sold-out show at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., tomorrow will be more naked. He'll play a straightforward set with bluegrass musicians Larry and Jenny Keel - no pedals or crazy effects. Williams' Saturday concert at Rams Head Live will be back to his usual solo show.Though he loves loops, Williams said they're not all-important."My show is totally rooted in guitar and vocals," he said. "That's the base of my show - singing and playing. I like to think that the loops are just the added spice in the whole recipe of what I'm doing."For some time, Williams, 35, has wanted to cut his version of a bluegrass record. He was going to invite the Keels to play a track on his forthcoming collaboration album but decided to record a separate record called Grass instead. The trio recorded the main vocals and instruments in studio."This record was mainly a document of three people sitting in a room making music together," Williams said. "It wasn't about perfection; it wasn't about making an artistic statement. It was about three friends sitting in a room playing fun music that we all love to play at the same time with microphones in front of us. What a concept."The 10 songs on Grass were nothing new - Williams said he has occasionally played them in his solo shows for a while. But he said recording them as all-out bluegrass numbers was something fresh."Bluegrass is such a cool genre," Williams said. "New songs can be learned pretty quickly, too. It's really easy to take a classic rock song and turn it into a great bluegrass song."On Grass, the trio covers both parts of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall," Beck's "Loser" and a Tom Petty medley. The trio has about four sets' worth of material they cycle through live, Williams said.Besides the Grass tour dates, there have been several times in the past few years when Williams performed with nothing but a guitar and a microphone. During a string of concerts in the Northeast last month, Williams flew out of Boston in the middle of a snowstorm. Flights were changed at the last minute, and all his special-effects gear got left behind. Williams didn't mind all that much."It's good to get back to the organic roots," he said. "That's really where it started."It began in the mid-'90s, when Williams used to play pizza bars and coffeehouses.Back then, Williams could have passed for (and quite possibly was) a backwoods hippie. He often performed barefoot, with crazy long hair sometimes pulled back into a ponytail and occasionally hanging in knots and tangles. A few of his fans still miss the locks, and wonder why he lopped them off. Williams has two stories.There's the real one:"It was ready to go," Williams said. "I found that I guess my idea was to grow my hair until it reached natural length. It just stopped growing. It got to this one point, and it just stopped growing, so I found myself being annoyed on stage with little pieces going into my mouth and things like that. I was constantly pulling it back and getting it out of my way. It was just time."And the better one:"It was really good timing, too, because it actually got cut off in a freak motorcycle ... uhh ... err ... uhh ... lawnmower accident," he said. "I was cutting the lawn and ... um ... I went down to try to clean out some grass that had gotten bunched up by the ... uhh ... by the opening there - which is something you really shouldn't do when the lawnmower's moving. My hair got sucked up in there and got all cut off."Williams also promotes organic and independent artists on his radio show, Keller's Cellar. About two dozen stations broadcast the show (you can catch it locally on WTMD-FM 89.7 at 9 Wednesday nights), which is also continuously streamed on his Web site, kellerwilliams.net.In the coming months, Williams said, he plans to finish his next studio album. It's a collaborative effort, on which he put no deadline (that's a main reason it's taken three years, he admits). As of now, he's about 85 percent to 90 percent finished, he said. Guest musicians include Martin Sexton, the String Cheese Incident, Steve Kimock, Bob Weir and Charlie Hunter.Williams named the album Youth, which adds to his catalog of single-syllable album titles. He's named past records Stage, Sight, Laugh, Home, Loop, Spun and Breathe. Looking back, Williams said he should have planned better."I kind of wished, when I started doing it when I was 24, that I'd put some verbs and nouns into it and kind of had a thought about it so by the time I'm 50 I'd have a nice long sentence," Williams said. "But it didn't work out like that."

From Fredericksburg.com:

Williams mixes things up
Keller Williams is branching out
By EMILY GILMORE

AUDIO: Listen to Sounds editor Emily Gilmore's interview with Keller Williams.

Keller Williams learned a long time ago that he can't please everyone all the time, so now he's just trying to please himself.

He's still committed to the one-man jam-band act that has earned him a dedicated following across the country, but he's branched out into other endeavors.

Williams has teamed up with flatpicker Larry Keel and Larry's wife, Jenny, who plays bass, to record a bluegrass album called "GRASS." The trio also has performed a few shows together, including a set at last year's Haymaker Music Festival in Spotsylvania County.

Keller and the Keels will reprise that performance during a sold-out show at Alexandria's Birchmere tomorrow night.

But not to worry--those not quick enough to have gotten a ticket for tomorrow's performance can still hear Williams solo at the Rams Head in Baltimore on Saturday.

The James Monroe High School graduate and Stafford County resident is happy to perform closer to home and to be able to play two different kinds of shows.

The Birchmere is rare in that it's an actual listening room where the audience really pays attention to the music onstage, "so that's a real treat for us to be able to play where people are totally honing in on your every note and breath," Williams said in a phone interview this week.
The Rams Head, on the other hand, has the atmosphere of a "seatless rock 'n' roll party type of club."

Williams is more used to places like the Rams Head, but he doesn't express a preference for one or the other.

"I think having a little bit of each makes the other one so much cooler, you know?" he said. "Having all of one might be a little stale, but having a little bit of both I think really helps me out."

Williams estimates he and the Keels have played fewer than 10 shows together, so unless you're willing to travel to Connecticut or New York next month, chances are you won't get to see them together again for a while.

All three musicians have their own projects, so they are able to keep their partnership fresh by not performing together so much, Williams said.

But the 10 tracks on "Grass" offer a tidy helping of the Keller-Keels experience. The disc is available at Williams' and Larry Keel's shows, online through kellerwil liams.net or for download on iTunes or at disclog ic.com.

Peppered among original tracks are covers of such songs as Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" and a combo of Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and "Breakdown." It's surprising how well these songs lend themselves to bluegrassification.

"The bluegrass thing has never really been about original music," Williams said. "It's just been about playing bluegrass, and sometimes it's just classic-rock tunes done bluegrass."

Williams is a fan of the genre, but instead of listening to the traditional music, he's more inclined to convert songs he knows into bluegrass numbers, he said.

He and the Keels "are not trying to make a point of any kind," Williams said. "We're just trying to have fun and play music together."

He met Larry Keel in Fredericksburg at the Irish Brigade "in the really super-early '90s," and they have shared various bills over the years.

Williams asked both Larry and Jenny to perform on a couple of songs for a new studio album he's been working on, and Williams loved playing with the Keels so much, he said, that they decided to do a whole separate album.

"I've been wanting to do this bluegrass record for a long time, and after all kinds of ideas of different configurations and kind of putting it off for a while, I finally just got together with Larry and Jenny and made it happen," Williams said.

He performs on his own most of the time, but he enjoys playing with other people, as well, he said. Shifting his focus from time to time helps him approach his solo act with a fresh perspective.

Williams has another collaboration in the works--this time, Keith Moseley from The String Cheese Incident and Jeff Austin from Yonder Mountain String Band will join Williams during a show in Denver in April, and they will probably play a set of bluegrass-style Grateful Dead songs, which Wiliams calls Grateful Grass.

Williams admits to having "an unhealthy fascination with the Grateful Dead," and he said he's always wanted to play those songs with other musicians who share his love for the band's music.
For those who can't get out to Denver for that show, Williams said he's working on bringing Grateful Grass to the annual Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash at Sunshine Daydream Music Park in West Virginia.

Depending on how high the demand is for the trio, Williams might take Grateful Grass to different festivals, perhaps with a rotating group of musicians.

This is another project Williams is approaching "with just total fun in mind," he said.
He would never play a surprise Grateful Grass show, he said, because he knows that not everyone likes the Dead, "but the people that do and are into bluegrass I think are gonna eat it up."
Hear the interview with Keller Williams online at fredericksburg.com

To reach EMILY GILMORE:540/374-5426
Email: egilmore@freelancestar.com
Read her blog at fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id^BENT^3D^EENT^3

WHAT: Keller Williams will perform
WHERE: Rams Head Tavern, 20 Market Place, Baltimore
WHEN: Saturday, doors open at 8:30 p.m., show starts at 10 p.m.
COST: $17.50 in advance, $19.50 day of show
INFO: 410/244-1131
WEB: ramsheadlive.com, kellerwilliams.net
TICKETS: Available online at ticketing .ramsheadlive.com
FYI: The show is for ages 18 and over. Those under 21 will be charged an additional $3 at the door.

1970s Dead Studio Sets Refurbished

From Billobard:

1970s Dead Studio Sets Refurbished

Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.
The mid-1970s represented a particularly busy studio period for the Grateful Dead, and on March 7, Rhino will continue its Dead reissue program with the release of five studio titles from this period, each remastered and expanded with outtakes and/or concert recordings.

The trip down memory lane begins with 1973's "Wake of the Flood," the first album released on the band's then newly established Grateful Dead Records label. It was also the first album to feature Keith Godchaux on keyboards. Making the new version a little more special is a previously unreleased live take of the album's "Eyes of the World," an acoustic demo of "Weather Report Suite" and studio outtakes of "Prelude/Part I/Part II" and "China Doll," a song that would appear on the band's next release.

The next year's "From the Mars Hotel" is considered one of the better Dead studio sets. Its notable tracks include "China Doll," as well as "U.S. Blues" and "Scarlet Begonias." A live version of the latter is added to the reissue, along with concert takes of "Money Money," "Wave That Flag" and "Let It Rock." A studio outtake of "Loose Lucy" and acoustic demos of "Pride of Cucamonga" and "Unbroken Chain" also appear.

The 1975 album "Blues for Allah" appeared amidst long break from the road, and the dividends were evident in the recordings. Joining such favorites as "Franklin's Tower" and "Crazy Fingers" are a half-dozen instrumentals captured during the studio sessions.

A return to touring left little time for the studio, so it wasn't until 1977 that "Terrapin Station," the Dead's first album for Arista, appeared. It was the first album since 1968's "Anthem of the Sun" to find the band working with an outside producer, in this case Keith Olsen, who had worked with the Byrds and Fleetwood Mac.

The album included Bob Weir's venerable "Estimated Prophet" and a version of the Motown staple "Dancin' in the Streets." In its reissued form, "Terrapin" pairs instrumental outtakes of "Peggy-O" and "The Ascent" with studio outtakes of "Catfish John," "Equinox" and "Fire on the Mountain," as well as a live recording of "Dancin' in the Streets."

Completing this volley is 1978's "Shakedown Street," which was produced by Little Feat's Lowell George at the Dead's own studio, located in San Rafael, Calif. Rarities added to the original lineup include an outtake cover of the Olympics' "Good Lovin'," a staple of the Dead's live set through the years. Also added are live versions of "Ollin Arageed," "Fire on the Mountain," "Stagger Lee" and "All New Minglewood Blues."

There's been no word if the surviving members of the Dead will mount any sort of tour in 2006. At deadline, the only thing on the books is a run of Phil Lesh & Friends shows that the Dead bassist will stage in New York (Feb. 10-12, 14-15, 17-19), Providence, R.I. (Feb. 21-22) and Philadelphia (Feb. 24-26).

Weir's Ratdog is expected to tour in the spring, and it's possible more will be heard from SerialPod, the group drummer Bill Kreutzmann formed with former Phish members Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon. The trio played a few late 2005 shows and Kreutzmann's Web site says only to stay tuned for more info.

‘One-man jam band’

From DiamondbackOnline:

‘One-man jam band’

Guitarist Keller Williams talks about his unique style and latest album, Grass, featuring artists such as Martin Sexton, The String Cheese Incident and Victor Wooten.
By Marc Shapiro

Keller Williams is not just another guitar player. He creates an entire song on the spot, layering several instruments on top of each other using looping technology. Throw in his skills on the bass, keyboard, Theremin, vibraphone, percussion and beat box, and you’ll know why he has rightfully earned the title “the one-man jam band.”

But back in the studio, Williams has decided to take the opposite route and lose the “one man.” He has been working on the new studio record for the past few years with an all-star roster of guest musicians.

“I’m working with folks all around the country,” Williams says about going from New York City to record with Charlie Hunter to cruising out west to California to record with Bob Weir.
Other musicians who have contributed to Williams’ project are Steve Kimock, Martin Sexton, Victor Wooten, Modereko and The String Cheese Incident but it was Williams’s sessions with flat-picking guitarist Larry Keel and his upright bass-playing wife, Jenny, who helped the project go beyond initial plans and become an entirely different album.

“I originally just wanted to include them on like one or two songs on this new record I’ve been working on,” Williams says. “Instead of doing a couple of songs, we did 10.” The result is Grass, released earlier this month. This atypical bluegrass album features Williams on the mini 12-string.

“It’s kind of like putting a capo on the seventh fret of a regular guitar,” he says. “I took [the top] four strings off to make it more mandolinesque.” That’s right — mandolinesque.
Of the 10 songs on Grass, only three are originals. The seven covers on the album include Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” The Grateful Dead’s “Loser” and “Dupree’s Diamond Blues,” and even a fusion of two Tom Petty songs, “Mary Jane’s Last Breakdown.”

Williams and The Keels even interpret a song called “New Horizons” originally done by good friends of Williams, the Yonder Mountain String Band. Larry Keel shows his flat-picking chops on the song in a lightning-fast guitar solo.

The three original songs add the perfect amount of Williams’ flavor to Grass. “Goof Balls,” the album opener, is a humorous tale of late-night drives “hepped up on goof balls” complete with outlandish lyrics such as “rockin’ it and never stoppin’ it/just Captain Kirk and Spockin’ it” and “Alfalfa and Spanky all dressed up lookin’ swanky/hallucinating on the back of a diesel mac.”
“I like to stay on the more lighter side of things,” Williams says about his lyrics.

“Crater in the Backyard” is an upbeat song that finds Williams contemplating what to do about the “big-ass hole in the backyard” — build a pool, bar or gas station, or pave it for skating.
A bluegrass album was something Williams wanted to do for a while, but he says he’s going to concentrate more energy on his other record now that Grass has been released. The songs he has recorded so far have already become concert staples and fan favorites.

“I don’t really have the patience to have a song I’ve written and not play it live,” Williams says. The recorded songs include new songs such as “Slow-Mo Balloon” and “Ninja,” plus old live classics including “Celebrate Your Youth” and “Kiwi and the Apricot.” Williams says he hopes to have the album out by this fall.

Another idea brewing in Williams’s brain is Grateful Grass, a Grateful Dead bluegrass project he’s been thinking about for a long time. Williams mentioned “Attics of My Life” and “Terrapin Station” when asked what particular Dead songs he wants to play. “There’s millions,” he says. Williams expects Grateful Grass to resurface at festivals where all three musicians will be playing.

Williams plays at Ram’s Head Live! in Baltimore at 10 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $17.50 in advance and $19.50 the day of the show, plus $3 if you’re under 21.
Contact reporter Marc Shapiro at shapirodbk@gmail.com.

Lesh Food Drive

From JamBase:

LESH FOOD DRIVES IN FEB

Phil Lesh and the Conscious Alliance (www.ConsciousAlliance.org) are proud to announce a very special series of food drives for the City Harvest Food Bank of New York City (www.CityHarvest.org) during Phil Lesh & Friends' upcoming Beacon Theatre and Hammerstein Ballroom shows. With hunger in the U.S. and New York City at an all time high, let's accept our "Response-Ability" as a community to do something about it.

At all eight NYC concerts Conscious Alliance will be offering one panel of the limited-edition 8-panel poster series by famed rock artist, Stanley Mouse (www.MouseStudios.com), to each of the first 500 patrons that donate ten non-perishable food items. Donate ten items for each panel, or 80 for the entire set to receive all eight panels, at any show along the run.

Donation bins will be located outside of the main entrance to the Beacon Theater and Hammerstein Ballroom, where a Conscious Alliance volunteer will be on hand to exchange one poster redemption voucher for every ten non-perishable food items donated. The vouchers can be redeemed at the Conscious Alliance table inside each venue at any time during or after the shows. Signed and numbered posters will also be available at the Conscious Alliance table for designated monetary donations.

In summer 2004 the Conscious Alliance collected nearly 20,000 pounds of food donations for America's Second Harvest Food Share Affiliates (www.secondharvest.com) while hosting 37 food drives along the Dead's 2004 Summer Tour. Conscious Alliance's collection goal along this NYC run is 10,000 pounds over the eight shows.

Conscious Alliance strongly encourages all non-perishables food to be low-sodium, health food oriented products. Please note that they cannot accept RAMEN NOODLES.
Thank you for your continued support in feeding the hungry everywhere the music plays! http://www.consciousalliance.org/

TEC Awards Music and Sound Auction Raises $22k

From MixOnline:

TEC Awards Music and Sound Auction Raises $22k

The Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio has announced that the 2005 TEC Awards Music and Sound Auction raised more than $22,000 for hearing health awareness programs. Auction proceeds will be distributed to H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers) and the Sound Partners program of the House Ear Institute. Both nonprofit organizations educate sound and music professionals, as well as music listeners, about the causes and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss.

Held with the 21st Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Awards, the eBay auction ran from October 3, 2005, through October 26, 2005, and featured donated audio gear and musical instruments from more than 40 leading manufacturers; studio time and services from top audio facilities; and art, photos and tour memorabilia from celebrated musicians. Among the hot-ticket items were a Gibson Les Paul Guitar autographed by Les Paul; an Alvarez acoustic guitar signed by Bob Weir; software from Mackie, MOTU and Cycling ’74; Meyer Sound UPA-1P monitors signed by John Meyer; speaker systems from Genelec, JBL, KRK, Loud Technologies and Renkus-Heinz; microphones from AKG, Audio-Technica, Audix, Neumann, Sennheiser and Shure; artwork by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh; and a CD collection signed by Melissa Etheridge. More than 200 items in all were sold.

“For the second year in a row, the TEC Awards Music and Sound Auction was a resounding success,” says Mix Foundation president Hillel Resner. “We’re grateful for the generosity of the pro audio companies who donated equipment and software, and also to all the bidders who helped us raise substantial funds for the cause of hearing health.”

According to auction manager and H.E.A.R. co-founder Kathy Peck. “We were given so much amazing gear and high-value items for devoted rock fans that it blew everyone away.”
The 2006 TEC Awards Music and Sound Auction is planned to coincide with the 22nd Annual TEC Awards, cheduled to take place October 7, 2006, at the Hilton San Francisco. Additional auction details will be announced at a later date.

For more information about H.E.A.R., please visit http://www.hearnet.com/. To learn about the TEC Awards and other programs supported by the Mix Foundation, visit http://www.mixfoundation.org/. Information about the House Ear Institute and its Sound Partnersprogram can be found at http://www.hei.org/.

Grateful Dead Marathon

From the Grateful Dead Hour:

Annual KPFA Grateful Dead marathon! - Saturday, January 28, 2006, 9 am to 1 am Pacific time - sixteen hours of fun! Webcast via nugs.net, kpfa.org, and kfcf.org.

As reported earlier, the anual KPFA GD marathon is scheduled for Saturday, January 28, 9 am to 1 am PST.
We’ll have live performances from the Papermill Creek Rounders (David Nelson, Banana, and friends) in the afternoon and Bob Weir and Ratdog in the evening.
I’ve got some uncirculated GD concerts to play in their entirety, and a lot of very special treats that I’m sure you’ve never heard before. Here are some clues:

A tuba solo
Jerry playing “Sweet Georgia Brown”
Brent Mydland solo
Phil Lesh talking about “The Ivesian Stretch” (Okay, this is a rerun from
1992)
A studio recording of “Man Smart, Woman Smarter.”

The event will be webcast via nugs.net, kpfa.org, and kfcf.org

Marc Evans will moderate a chat room, as he has for the last several years, and I will post on this blog as the day progresses.

We’re still in the process of lining up thank-you gifts for contributors. We’re expecting a nice array of CDs, books, t-shirts, and who knows what else. I have a copy of the 10-CD Fillmore West 1969 boxed set that we’ll be auctioning - not sure yet how that’ll work. I might set it up on eBay with a closing date of January 28.


I have gotten word that Bob Weir and Ratdog will be unable to appear on the KPFA marathon due to an injury suffered by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. I’ll leave it to the Ratdog organization to reveal the details of Jeff’s situation.
We still have the Papermill Creek Rounders (David Nelson, Banana, and their friends) playing live during the broadcast, and we’ll have some Ratdog recordings from their fall tour.

Last year's:

From KPFA.org:The Grateful Dead Marathon Broadcast Saturday, February 19th, 9am to 1am SundayOn Saturday, February 19th 2005 KPFA and Dead to the World presented our annual Grateful Dead Marathon, as part of KPFA's Winter Fund Drive. Complete Archive is here

Phil Leshing, the TV character

From Pop Matters:

LOVE MONKEY
Regular airtime: Tuesdays 10pm ET (CBS)
Cast: Tom Cavanaugh, Jason Priestley, Larenz Tate, Christopher Wiehl, Judy Greer, Ivana Milicevic, Eric Bogosian

A hip, sophisticated look at the music business and the love lives of four 30-something New York guys is not what you expect from CBS. But Love Monkey is an anomaly, an intelligent, well-written dramedy for adults about adults, even if some of the chords it hits are in a minor key.
Any worries that this series would be a High Fidelity knock-off were quickly put to rest in the first episode. Love Monkey plays like a smooth jazz record. The music business setting alone makes it fascinating: I can't think of a show that loved music this much since WKRP in Cincinnati. Still, with a plot based on four longtime friends who analyze their personal lives and maneuver through the singles scene invites comparisons to Sex and the City.

Based loosely on Kyle Smith's 2004 best-selling "guy-lit" novel, Love Monkey focuses on very nice guy Tom (Tom Cavanaugh), who seeks perfect music, perfect love, perfect friendships. In the midst of his quests, he lives the type of idealized Manhattan life that's found only on TV and in movies. And he's full of contradictions. A successful A&R rep for a "giant, chart-topping label" called Goliath, he pronounces in voiceover that "money should not be the goal" of his business. He's dating a vain, pretentious singer whose music he despises. Is it any wonder he can't commit?

Still, Tom's on a roll when we first meet him. He has signed 12 bands in a row and has his sights on an up-and-coming singer/songwriter named Wayne (Teddy Geiger), a John Mayer clone whom Tom believes is the next big thing. But during a staff meeting, Tom inexplicably has a Jerry Maquire-style meltdown, ranting that "money shouldn't be our goal" in front of the CEO. He's promptly fired, after which his girlfriend dumps him, and he learns that Goliath is close to signing Wayne.

Tom's realization that he just may be a self-centered jerk is the central problem to this otherwise thoughtful show. It's hard to believe that a guy this decent could maneuver through the shark-infested waters of the music business and still be successful, particularly when everyone else is a moneygrubber. This is particularly true of Tom's boss at Goliath, named Phil Leshing in an obvious homage to Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh (and sharply played by Eric Bogosian in a too brief appearance).

Cavanaugh brings the same aw-shucks, self-deprecating appeal he showed in Ed, which means Tom is more like the guy who'd share a joint with you at a concert than the exec angling to sign the band. Less convincingly, his niceness pays off: at the end of the first episode, after losing his job at Goliath, Tom finds a new one at the significantly named True Vinyl Records, where the team values music before money (and who steals Wayne away from Goliath). Here he also meets Julia (Ivana Milicevic), a free spirit who loves music as much as Tom.

The characterizations of Tom's friends are also formulaic. In the pilot, Tom says they "serve to remind me of all the things I've yet to accomplish." Yet, aside from their lack of achievement, we learn little about them. Mike (Jason Priestley) is married to Tom's sister and has a baby on the way; Jake (Christopher Wiehl) is a former pro baseball player turned sportswriter, and Scooter (Larenz Tate) is "a man about town." They're Tom's support group, constantly reminding him what a great guy he is.

Only Bran (Judy Greer) has the gumption to tell him to grow up. She obviously has deeper feelings for Tom, but makes up a story about a boyfriend rather than reveal them. Greer, so funny on Arrested Development, is underused here, but brings intelligence and vulnerability to a role that could easily slip into cliché. Potentially more interesting, Jake has a secret. When he's hit on by a former female conquest, he declines her advances, stating that he's not ready to date. But he speaks to her from behind a chain-link fence, giving him a look like he's in prison. It's not hard to figure what he's hiding, and it promises that the show will expand beyond Tom's world into the lives of his friends.

Busted! Please Put the Dog Down, Sir, and Step Away

From the New York Times:

Busted! Please Put the Dog Down, Sir, and Step Away
Frequent Flier Sammy Hagar
As told to Christopher Elliott

OUR rat terrier, Winchell, used to travel with us everywhere we went - on family vacations, business trips, even on tour with Van Halen. When we moved to Maui, we didn't think twice about taking him along. The problem was the six-month quarantine for animals entering Hawaii. We couldn't imagine being separated from him for that long, so we devised a plan to smuggle him into the islands.

My wife, Kari, consulted with several veterinarians to determine how to tranquilize Winchell. We needed to give him just enough doggie-downers to sedate him for the five-hour flight without killing him. After feeding Winchell the pills, we slipped him into a little carrier and he fell fast asleep. Then we boarded our flight.

Halfway through the flight, we also took a nap. I woke up to the sound of Bill Cosby saying, "What a cute little dog."

It wasn't the inflight entertainment system. Bill Cosby was on the plane - and Winchell wasn't in his carrier. The dog had woken up, clawed his way out of the carrier, staggered down the aisle, and made Mr. Cosby's acquaintance.

I looked around to see if anyone else had met Winchell. The flight attendants were nowhere to be seen, so I scooped him up and returned him to his carrier. For the next few hours, Winchell didn't make a sound - he was still dazed - and we hoped no one would say anything about our illegal dog. I was stressed out. I imagined being met by authorities at the airport and paying a huge fine or even being sent to jail for breaking quarantine laws.

Just after landing, we learned our fate. A flight attendant made an announcement: "Whoever let the dog on board, please ring your call button." We knew Winchell had been busted.

Fortunately, Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead happened to be on the plane with his wife, Carol, who is a lawyer. The couple stayed with us and offered to help. Eventually, a flight attendant took pity on us and made arrangements to ship Winchell back to the mainland, where friends picked him up at the airport.

Mr. Cosby, for his part, couldn't resist turning our doggie-dilemma into a joke. As he exited the plane, he slapped his carry-on bag, repeatedly ordering an imaginary dog hiding inside: "Down, Fido, down!"

As told to Christopher Elliott.

The "Gratest" tribute of all

From DawgNetNews:

The "Gratest" tribute of all
By Ellen Kizik Dawgnet Assistant Features Editor

Dark Star Orchestra has become recognized over the years for their uncanny ability to recreate the Grateful Dead experience. They will rock out tonight at the Music Mill for $20. Show starts at 8:30pm.

DSO, hailing from Chicago, began when John Kadlecik and Scott Larned had an idea for a different kind of Grateful Dead cover band in 1997. Shortly after, the two gathered like-minded Deadhead musicians and grew into a seven-piece group with each member playing a specific role: John Kadlecik as Jerry Garcia, Rob Eaton as Bob Weir, Kevin Rosen as Phil Lesh, Scott Larned playing the role of all five keyboardists, Dino English as Mickey Hart, Rob Koritz as Bill Kreutzmann and Lisa Mackey as Donna Godchaux.

Ironically, with the responsibility of immortalizing the Grateful Dead comes their curse, the loss of three keyboardists during their long career. DSO suffered their first loss of keyboardist and co-founding member Scott Larned last April. Since then, Rob Barraco and Dan Klepinger have helped DSO make the hard transition, with Klepinger taking over the position.

Kadlecik explained that, "The idea was to get a band together where each musician would play a particular band member. We quickly realized that it was easier to play an entire set as one musician."

The majority of the members of Dark Star Orchestra have played in Dead-tribute bands in the past; however, none stuck like this one. In total, the DSO band members have seen over 1,000 original Dead shows. The band’s knowledge of the Grateful Dead is undeniable and their tribute is something much greater. "It is a great privilege and honor, as well as a huge responsibility," said English. "We feel fortunate to be doing what we are doing and appreciate the response we have gotten. We know when we are doing it right from the way the audience responds to us. It’s all quite amazing."

The difference between DSO and other cover bands is that they do not just perform a few Grateful Dead songs; they actually play an entire set chosen from the 2,500 that the Dead performed over their 30-year career. Their sets typically reach up to 3 or 4 hours.

Kadlecik and English explained that DSO selects which set-list to play depending on what has been performed in that particular city before; for example, if they played a late 80’s show the last time they were in town, they may choose a set list from the mid 70’s. Both emphasized the importance of variety, which explains why the band interprets a different Dead show every concert they do. The only catch is that the audience has to wait until the end of DSO’s performance to find out the date and venue of the where the original show just covered took place.

The historic accuracy with which DSO crafts its shows is remarkable. Aside from choosing between complete Grateful Dead show selections, the Jerry Garcia Band set-lists or original set lists of DSO’s choosing that they will perform in a particular city, the band’s stage layout is based on the year of the Grateful Dead show they are performing. DSO even adapts their phrasing, voice arrangements, and specific musical equipment for the correct era in which they perform. This kind of attention to detail really gives the audience a true to life experience of a Grateful Dead show.

According to English, "We want to take music to a new place while respecting the history of where it came from … homage to the past while playing tribute to the future. And even though the songs may sound a little cliché now, they still ring true."

For more information visit: Dark Star Orchestra.

ResonanZ – The Drums For Peace Concert

From Al Bawaba:

ResonanZ – The Drums For Peace Concert

Classical, Jazz & Fusion music lovers will have the opportunity to watch some of the world’s best Percussionists perform live at a major International concert in Dubai that will bring together a line-up of exceptionally talented artistes led by tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain of India.
Conceived by the Dubai-based Transworld Group, a leading shipping / logistics company that has been at the forefront of promoting classical art and entertainment in the UAE, the event is presented in Dubai by ING Asia Private Bank, one of the top private banks in the region.
The unique ensemble of percussionists titled “ResonanZ – The Drums for Peace Concert” will be held on Saturday, 18 February, 2006 at the Madinat Jumeirah. It is organized by Arte Compass, a leading Event Management Agency in the country and also the Events & Marketing arm of the Transworld Group which has operations that girdle the globe.

Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, Zakir Hussain is acclaimed worldwide as a genius in his field. Son of the legendary tabla master Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, Zakir’s contribution to world music features many historic collaborations including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar; the Diga Rhythm Band; Planet Drum with Mickey Hart; and recordings and performances with artists as diverse as George Harrison, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Airto Moreira, Giovanni Hidalgo, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Cobham and Charles Lloyd.

In addition to Zakir Hussain, the star cast at the concert of rhythm and melody in Dubai will also feature other renowned percussionists including drummer extraordinaire Terry Bozzio, who has worked closely, and for several years with the rock legend Frank Zappa, Ustad Sultan Khan, India’s celebrated sarangi player, the awesomely talented Giovanni Hidalgo from Puerto Rico on the Congo drums, Abbos Kosimov, Uzbekistan’s flamboyant tambournist and the irrepressible and vibrant Fazal Qureshi, a strong favourite with Dubai audiences. India’s Kala Ramnath, an accomplished violinist who has worked on several prestigious world music and fusion projects, Salim Merchant, acclaimed Bollywood music director and musical genius on the keyboard and Vijay Chauhan, a famed exponent of the dholak, the Indian double-sided drum, lending earthy ethnic tones to an exquisite world music event.

A group of Uzbeki drummers will add dramatically to the Arabic appeal. Clearly, a once in a lifetime concert, a coming-together of the rich, vibrant and colorful rhythms at a world-class music event.

Commenting on the concert in Dubai, Ramesh Ramakrishnan, Chairman of the Transworld Group, which owns and manages a range of immensely successful businesses, said: "Music is intrinsic to the cultural and social fabric of the society in which we live, and the Transworld Group is happy to present this unique entertainment extravaganza, as part of our on-going efforts towards propagating the arts in the UAE, and encouraging people of different nationalities to enjoy, appreciate and celebrate various arts and cultures. The Transworld Group acknowledges the support extended by leading private / public sector establishments, especially ING Asia Private Bank to ensure the success of this rare gathering of well-known percussionists. They are all doyens in their field and are extremely creative with the ability to improvise live on stage. Ustad Zakir Hussain has conceptualized the whole show and will lead the masters of percussion on this enthralling night of pure music”.

He added: “The diverse backgrounds of these artistes hugely influenced our selection of the best from the East and West, in line with our aim of putting together an event that would help promote peace, solidarity and harmony among different cultures and communities.
“Dubai which is home to a myriad of cultures is no doubt the perfect place where these top artistes can simultaneously showcase their magical talents to a wide international audience. We welcome residents and visitors to the UAE to join us in celebrating the beautiful rhythm and melodies from around the world, and provide even greater inspiration to the artistes who have given us their whole-hearted support”.

Y. N Nagendra, Managing Director, Global Head of India Marketing, ING Asia Private Bank said: ” We are looking forward to presenting this prestigious event. Dubai is a vibrant city, and we are proud to be a part of its business and cultural landscape. “ResonanZ - The Drums For Peace Concert” featuring artistes from all over the world truly symbolizes the energy and spirit of this fascinating city”

The ING Group is a global financial services company of Dutch origin with 150 years of experience, providing a wide array of banking, insurance and asset management services in over 50 countries and ranks among the largest financial services companies in Europe in terms of market capitalization. ING Asia Private Bank is ranked as one of the top private banks in the region. By consistently delivering superior performance and service to its clients, ING Asia Private Bank has more than doubled its asset base in the past 5 years to USD 10 billion. The ING mission statement “to set the standard in helping our customers manage their financial future” is at the heart of their presence in the UAE and the participation in this prestigious event, “ResonanZ – The Drums for Peace Concert” reflects their commitment to community, art and culture that is an integral part of their exclusive client base.

From its international headquarters at Jebel Ali Free Zone in the United Arab Emirates, the Transworld Group is engaged in a diverse range of businesses including ship ownership, freight forwarding, logistics, ship management and ship agency. The Jebel Ali office building is a major attraction, as it is the first commercial building to be established on the southern side of the Free Zone. Transworld Group, employs over 1,500 people worldwide, and has offices in Dubai, India, Singapore and Malaysia, with joint ventures in Kuwait, Oman (Muscat), the UK (London) and the USA (New York). The Transworld Group has supported a number of community and social events in the UAE, India and Singapore, and hosted gala events featuring famous film and music celebrities through its events management company, Arte Compass.

Check out video of Zakir Hussain here