I love the Harmony Festival! I’ve been to many, it’s always a great time.
It’s right in the middle of Santa Rosa, which isn’t my home, but feels like it – my mother lived here in her latter years, and I took her to Harmony a few times. (that’s her hooping in the picture, from 2007)
Harmony has a 33 year history of new ideas and diverse musical entertainment, attracting people of all ages and flavors.
Harmony always presents new ideas for life with greater Health and Happiness and Harmony for us all.
And… there is always a “Grateful” vibe there, and usually something special for the Sonoma Deadheads to groove on.
In past years they have had Melvin Seals & JGB , Bob Weir and Ratdog, Mickey Hart and Planet Drum, Bill Kreutzmann and 7 Walkers, as well as Zero, Steve Kimock and Friends, Moonalice, and many other musical friends of the deadheads have played at this festival.
This year, in what is being called a “NOD TO ITS ROOTS”, the festival is hosting a special combined tribute to our brothers who’ve gone… Bear and Jerry.
Owsley “Bear” Stanley, famed chemist, audio innovator, was always a proponent of new ways of thinking and being. Sadly, after beating cancer, he lost his life this year in an automobile accident. Goes to show, you don’t ever know. One thing Bear was well known for was his work as an innovative audio technician – and his contribution to the awesome live sound of the Dead.
While Grateful Dead guitar player and singer Jerry Garcia has been gone for nearly 16 years now, the spirit of his music lives on in the hearts of those of us who bent our ears to hear his tune… and the music of Jerry Garcia is frequently heard at the Harmony Festival, the influence of the music of the Grateful Dead is pervasive.
Much of what Bear did was to help us hear Jerry better. The two friends had a deep influence on each other, and on so many of us. With their inspiration, many of us decided to pursue life in new ways, seeking fun and higher wisdom. And music!
Harmony Festival 2011 presents a musical and visual tribute to these two visionary legends as part of their Late Night/Harmony After Dark festivities!
“A Tribute to the Life of Owsley “Bear” Stanley and the Musical Spirit of Jerry Garcia”
featuring performers Steve Kimock, the David Nelson Band, Jesse McReynolds, members of Railroad Earth, and Moonalice. The show will be held Friday, June 10 in Harmony Hall on the festival grounds at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California.
In the Harmony Festival tradition, the visual arts grab just as much spotlight as the sonic, and Harmony Hall will overflow with Rock Art by TRPS; live art and installations by Tribe 13 featuring original art by Jerry Garcia, Owsley Stanley, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, The Merry Pranksters, Alex Gray, Mati Klarwein, Martina Hoffman, and more; a collection of Original Blotter Art curated by Shady Backflash and Rick McCloud; live painting by Stanley Mouse and Mark Henson; visuals by Jonathan Singer; and ambience and interactive experientials by Johnny Dwork and Peak Experience Productions.
Access to this very special Late Night attraction is included with a Harmony Festival Three Day Plus, Whole Festival or VIP ticket OR a separate Friday Night Ticket ($45 online in advance), which includes all of the other Late Night concerts and after hours attractions.
BEAR’s CHOICE – RECREATED LIVE!
In addition to being the legendary chemist behind the psychedelic adventures of mid-60s San Francisco, Owsley Stanley, became the Grateful Dead’s soundman, and in 1973 produced the Dead’s last album with Warner Bros., Bear’s Choice. Kimock, Nelson, McReynolds and their friends will re-create the album, a long-time Dead Head favorite. This unique resurrection will cap an evening of performances by musicians who were part of Jerry Garcia’s legendary playing career and extended musical family, including:
Steve Kimock, unquestionabl
y one of the pre-eminent guitarists in the jam-band explosion that emerged after the Grateful Dead stopped touring, so it’s appropriate that in the early ‘80s Garcia himself identified Kimock as his “favorite lesser-known guitarist.”
David Nelson, whose first professional show at the San Francisco State Folk Festival of 1962, was in a band called the Hart Valley Drifters led by Jerry Garcia. David went on to fame as a founder of the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
Jesse McReynolds, an icon of bluegrass, a peer of Bill Monroe’s and a personal hero of Jerry Garcia’s, recently released a tribute album to Garcia and his lyricist Robert Hunter called Songs of the Grateful Dead.
Railroad Earth, one of the leading jam bands on the current scene, and members from the band will be playing.
Moonalice, which features the considerable talents of Roger McNamee (Flying Other Brothers), Ann McNamee (Ann Atomic), Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna), Barry Sless (Phil Lesh & Friends, Kingfish), and John Molo (Bruce Hornsby & the Range, John Fogerty, the Other Ones).
In short, musicians from all facets of Jerry Garcia’s musical life will converge on the stage at Harmony Hall to make music in the tradition of all traditions. In anticipation of the considerable attention this line-up will garner, music industry heavyweight Guitar Player magazine has joined forces with Harmony Festival to sponsor this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Celebrating 33 years of “Unity in Community”, Harmony Festival is a proud, repeat winner of The Bohemian’s Best Festival and Best Music Festival Sonoma annual reader awards.
HARMONY FESTIVAL Five stages, three days, two nights…one unforgettable experience!
I first met Bob Weir at Charlie’s Dalai Lama Party. I was screening some raw stock of The Festival Tapes in one of the cabins while recording various performances and events at the party. (see the Dalai Tapes) On one of my rounds through the cabin, I found Bob camped out in front of the video screen. "Did you record this?" he asked. "If we played Telluride, would you record us?" And so, the concert was scheduled. Uncle Bobo (Bill Graham) had some other ideas about the video. It was agreed that the audience was, in fact, the real show at a Dead Concert. Here the camera focus is on that experience, concluding with some extraordinary footage of the Band. As with all the postings here, the magic is in the details. Thomas Lofstrom / ECS Cinematography: Thomas Lofstrom
this is some very rare footage – nearly 2 hours worth! Enjoy!
~
Fan art poster for the show:
— Did you know you can STILL buy tickets for the Grateful Dead in Telluride? You must supply your own time machine.
The Glee cast has done it again, and also defied the expectations of their fans – except a small subset of their fans, Grateful GLEEk’s. After the huge success of their star themed shows, including Madonna, Elton John and Lady Gaga, the cast of Glee will be singing an episode that is chock full of songs written by the songwriting duo of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter – songs that have primarily been performed by the legendary psychedelic San Francisco band, the Grateful Dead. The episode is slated for the 2011-2012 season.
Glee executive producer of music Adam Anders said that the entire production is really excited about this short strange trip into uncharted space. “We wanted to do something different, go a little further than we’ve gone before” said Anders in an exclusive phone call with DHL, “And the answer was around the corner just waiting to meet us. A fan group wrote a letter, and Viola! We we’re searching for a sound. It feels like a stranger… but Glee will survive!”
Anders explained that there is a group of Glee fans called the Grateful GleeKs, and they even have their own Facebook group where they track the “set lists” of each episode of the show.
The group was started by Lindsay Weir, who is not related to Grateful Dead rhythm guitar player Bob Weir. Weir is a single mom who works as an ER Nurse, and she is also a self proclaimed Deadhead and GleeK.
“I discovered the music of the Grateful Dead in high school,” shared Weir, “I even ran off on Dead tour one summer in a Volkswagen bus, though my parents thought I was going to scholars camp or something like that! I was turned onto the Dead by my guidance counselor of all people – he was an old hippie, kind of a geek, but cool, and a good influence on me. I love how on Glee, music is shared between the teachers and students, everyone get into the act, and explore different genre’s of popular music. It reminds me of my high school years, except we listened to more hard rock. At least my friends did, though I think we were kind of the freaks of our school.”
Lindsay says the Deadhead style of keeping track of the set lists was her inspiration to start her Grateful Gleek’s page, and while most of the fans of the page are not Deadheads like her, they share her enthusiasm for knowing what songs were played each night Glee is on. Deadheads for many years have written down and shared set lists of the music their favorite band played. With every Grateful Dead concert being a different set list than before, these set lists were each unique, and Deadheads would actively want to know “what the boys played last night”.
“I started keeping set lists, because it is something to do, I almost always have a pen and a little notepad handy. I write down set lists for everything, any music I see, and even song lists from movies and TV shows.” While she admits to this being a little obsessive, Weir giggled that the habit helps her “get her space together to enjoy the show.”
Glee is a phenomena similar to the Grateful Dead – in that there are obsessive fans, called GleeK’s, who love everything the show and it’s cast does. Lindsay started watching the show with her young daughter Monet, but admits it immediately became her favorite show. “I think I wrote out the set list for the first episode, and I realized there was a simple profundity to it; the order of the songs meant something. After a few weeks, I started my Facebook group to share the set lists with other Grateful GleeK’s.
“When they started doing episode’s based on individual artists, I so wanted them to do some Garcia/Hunter tunes. There are so many good songs, and I couldn’t wait to hear Finn do ‘Sugaree’ or Rachel do ‘It Must’ve Been The Roses’. I really want to see Puck do ‘Black Peter’ too. I started a petition, “Please do an episode of Glee featuring the songs of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter”, and then it started to snowball like 900,000 tons of steel coming down the track! Well we didn’t get that many signatures, but I knew one way or another… I knew it had to give. Sure didn’t know what I was going for… maybe going on a feeling.” Weir stated that she much prefers the songs of Garcia and Hunter to those of her namesake, Bob Weir, who wrote songs with John Barlow for the Grateful Dead.
While most of the cast is not familiar with the songs, cast member Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester on the show) has actually been to a few Grateful Dead concerts in the past. When asked what her favorite Garcia/Hunter tune was she replied “ “Scarlet Begonia’s"” of course!” She thinks the song “Foolish Heart” could also be a great one, perhaps sung by her character to Will Schuster (played by Mathew Morrison).
Mark Salling, who plays “Puck” the mohawked football player turned Glee Club singer, says that he is not a big fan of the Grateful Dead. But he hope’s this will open a door to some other music. “I love Widespread Panic. I hope they let us do some Panic at some point. ‘Love Tractor’ is a great song. And I really like to watch Dave Schools play bass; he has the coolest hair too!”
Asked how Deadheads might respond to this episode, producer Anders was certain that the episode will honor the spirit of the Grateful Dead, and that he hopes the fans start to watch his show. “If the Deadheads get into it, we hope the Glee cast tours can go on and on, and the fans of the band can follow us”.
When asked if it was hard to make the deal go down, Anders said that while there was no easy answer, the Estate of Jerry Garcia was waiting for a deal like this to come around. “I can’t tell the future, just looked at what was in my hand.”
I love the Harmony Festival! I’ve been to many, it’s always a great time. 
While Grateful Dead guitar player and singer Jerry Garcia has been gone for nearly 16 years now, the spirit of his music lives on in the hearts of those of us who bent our ears to hear his tune… and the music of Jerry Garcia is frequently heard at the Harmony Festival, the influence of the music of the Grateful Dead is pervasive.
teve Kimock, unquestionabl
David Nelson, whose first professional show at the San Francisco State Folk Festival of 1962, was in a band called the Hart Valley Drifters led by Jerry Garcia. David went on to fame as a founder of the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
Moonalice, which features the considerable talents of Roger McNamee (Flying Other Brothers), Ann McNamee (Ann Atomic), Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna), Barry Sless (Phil Lesh & Friends, Kingfish), and John Molo (Bruce Hornsby & the Range, John Fogerty, the Other Ones).
one summer
