Grateful Dead Acoustic

Knocking On Heavens Door- The Grateful Dead

I’m always amazed at the sheer amount of people that I run into that were/are “Dead Heads”… you know, fans of the Grateful Dead.

I have personally never been to a “Dead” concert…

I have however heard a lot of stories about things that went on during them though…

Being mainly an acoustic lover, you can only imagine how happy I was to find this particular “acoustic dead vid.”  But 76,000 views… doesn’t seem like a lot in retrospect since this is the Dead.. (maybe the acoustic thing scared off the masses!)

Quick story about Jerry Garcia and me…  yea, that’s right… me..

Are you familiar with “Old And In The Way” ??

Well that was a bluegrass band that featured Jerry Garcia on banjo, David Grisman on mandolin, Peter Rowan on lead vocal and acoustic guitar, Vassar Clements on fiddle, and John Kahn on bass. The group wasn’t around for that long but did tour and happened to record all or most of the live concerts. The subsequent album that was released featured the “best of the tour”    … well it ended up being on of the greatest selling albums in bluegrass music, and started a trend that brought a lot of “Dead Head” into the world of bluegrass music. We can of course thank Jerry for that big time.

To make the long story a little longer, Vassar Clements whom I was playing with in his band at the time, asked me if I would play guitar for a reunion tour with them. I of course said yes! But before the tour plans could even manifest itself, Jerry had passed away.

Since then I’ve grown to appreciate Jerry’s talents by watching some of his videos with David Grisman. Jerry had a very cool and unique approach to the acoustic and in my opinion, more than most electric players that switch over to acoustic.

If you are a fan, go ahead and share this video with your friends.