Grateful Dead Covers

McQueen near Eliot, Chandler AZ

Description

I’m in my 50s and I’m most comfortable describing myself as an intermediate player - I’ve been playing off and on for over 20 years with the bulk of my improvement over the last 3 so some things sound pretty good and a lot of other things simply don’t BUT, my ear is exceptional even if I can’t express the things I learn on the fret board the way I’d like right away – I have an intermediate understanding of ‘applicable’ theory and the fret board. (just enough to get me in trouble) I love me some classic rock a little country and especially... some Grateful Dead. I’ve been excited about learning/working on this and then that and a little more of this and then some of this too but a few days ago, I pulled up an old finger picking lesson on Althea I had sitting around collecting dust in the innards of my computer and after I spent a little time familiarizing with the concepts I moved on to a live-show vid. When I sussed out the notes of the first solo and played it for the first time, I felt like I had 'come home'. You see, I recently installed some Seymour Duncan Little 59s in my Stratocaster and with the selector switch on the middle pup for the first time, I plugged it into my pedal board where the precious signal was routed thru a T-Rex Diva Drive and then a Boss DD-3 to my hungry 72 Twin Reverb that sounds like warm buttered cinnamon toast on a slice of thick homemade bread. For a week or so previous, I played around with the bridge pup on some Vince Gill stuff and then some Rick Derringer and then a little Skynyrd on a small practice amp and this was the first Grateful Dead tune I had played in a long time - I had no idea what these S.D. pups were about to do to my unsuspecting ears. ...The notes sang! No... they soared! Yes, the notes SOARED on the edge of the grit that was there if I chose to play just a little harder. I had NAILED the powerful edgy tone of Jerry's guitar and that, coupled with the haunting Mixolydian mode Jerry played almost exclusively over Althea is what nearly brought me to tears. I suddenly realized that all I really cared about was playing Grateful Dead tunes. In that instant, I let go of everything else I was trying to do - I had what I wanted most. Without knowing it, I had accidentally created a powerful little bit of Jerry in my hands and it was up to me to make those notes pop mute cry and soar the way Jerry had played them - To hear a Jerry solo live again like that, even though it was just a few humble bars, flat out broke me open. A little melodramatic?, well maybe it is but there was nothing I ever encountered as musically inspiring as a Grateful Dead show and the sound of Jerry's guitar and if you feel the same way and you’re well equipped and around my skill level, we should probably be working together. It's been years since I played with another soul so I’m more than a little worried about my shortcomings but very open to joining a non-working band or collaborating with another amateur guitar player with the goal of polishing enough quality material to play out and have some real fun whether we're gettin paid or not.