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Topic: Jerry Garcia |
Alain-Yves Pigeon
From:
Quebec, Canada
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 11:13 am |
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Hi, just happened to see a film called Festival Express relating a superstars tour of Canada in 1970 and among the bands there was the Gratefull Dead with Jerry Garcia. We saw him play a rehearsal with members of the Flying Burito Brothers in which he played pedal steel guitar but I had never noticed before the way he picked his intrument. At first, I thought he was playing with a flat pick between his thumb and first finger and finger picks in his second and third fingers a la Dick Meiss or Sid McGinnis (Letterman band). But no, apparently he had a thumb pick and a finger pick in his first and third fingers, at least from what I could see he did not use his second finger. Anyway, the least I can say, it did not bother him this much as he was more than capable and he picked rather fast in the small excerpt we got to see. Sneaky Pete was also present in this movie but he was very low profile as we did not see nor heard him much in the film. Everybody seemed to be high or drunk in the train that carried the crew through 3 cities of Canada then, including Janis Joplin and Buddy Guy.
BTW this movie is aired from time to time on PBS and on A&E in Canada.
ayp
Last edited by Alain-Yves Pigeon on 6 Nov 2010 3:02 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Ben Jones
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 11:33 am
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| Buddy Cage is in the movie too for a few seconds. |
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J. Michael Robbins
From:
Dayton, OH now in Hickory, NC
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 11:59 am
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I bought it several years ago. It is still available for purchase in DVD format, and it can also be rented from Netflix and others.
_________________
1970 Marlen D-10, 1971 Professional, 1973 Pro II, 1977 Marlen D-10, 1978 Marlen D-10, 1980 Marlen D-10 |
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 12:40 pm Re: Jerry Garcia
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| Alain-Yves Pigeon wrote: |
| he did not use his second finger. Anyway, the least I can say, it did not bother him this much as he was more than capable and he picked rather fast in the small excerpt we got to see. |
Jerry don't need no stinkin' second finger!
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John Cadeau
From:
Surrey,B.C. Canada
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 1:51 pm Jerry Garcia
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I believe it was on this tour that Jerry first met and heard Buddy Cage play, and that inspired him to suggest to the NRPS that they should consider adding him to their band as Jerry was too busy with The Greatful Dead to continue on with the New Riders.
John |
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Alain-Yves Pigeon
From:
Quebec, Canada
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 1:52 pm
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Thanks Cliff for the picture, it explains everything. It's not this obvious when he plays guitar but you can't miss it when picks his PSG. I think that with the Farina brothers, he was among the most influencial steel players (in a non country environment, at least he got me in this instrument).
BTW, speaking of the Farina brothers, it seems to me that there has been another steel guitar instrumental tune (maybe by them but other than Sleepwalk) that got to be a hit in pop charts in the early 60's but I can't remember the title. Sometimes the air comes back to me (it also has an harmonics lick) but I've never been able to recall it sufficently to write it down. Anybody has an idea?
ayp
_________________
Steel working to play it right!
Last edited by Alain-Yves Pigeon on 6 Nov 2010 3:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 6 Nov 2010 2:49 pm
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Here's Jerry playing a RangExpander:
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 7 Nov 2010 8:46 am
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...it seemed to improve Django Reinhardt's picking.  |
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Bob Grado
From:
Holmdel, New Jersey
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 7 Nov 2010 12:22 pm Ahhh, brothers...
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...with an axe!
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Garry Vanderlinde
From:
CA
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Posted 10 Nov 2010 9:14 pm
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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia's guitar-picking hand with a missing portion of his middle finger has been enshrined with a bronze sculpture at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
The sculpture is part of the newly named Jerry Garcia Glen at the wooded entry bowl renovations paid with a $1 million gift from the Brittingham Family Foundation
 oops...my bad,wrong hand
I've got the correct picture here somewhere, I just have to rememeber where I filed it  |
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Dave Hopping
From:
Aurora, Colorado
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Posted 10 Nov 2010 10:45 pm
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| Alain-Yves Pigeon wrote: |
Thanks Cliff for the picture, it explains everything. It's not this obvious when he plays guitar but you can't miss it when picks his PSG. I think that with the Farina brothers, he was among the most influencial steel players (in a non country environment, at least he got me in this instrument).
BTW, speaking of the Farina brothers, it seems to me that there has been another steel guitar instrumental tune (maybe by them but other than Sleepwalk) that got to be a hit in pop charts in the early 60's but I can't remember the title. Sometimes the air comes back to me (it also has an harmonics lick) but I've never been able to recall it sufficently to write it down. Anybody has an idea?
ayp |
IIRC(and that's a big I)S&J had a song called "Teardrop" a little while after "Sleep Walk".I don't remember anything about it except it was really pretty.The B side of "Sleep Walk" was called "All Night Diner"-kind of bebop-sounding.
Hijack terminated.We now return you to JG. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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JB Arnold
From:
Longmont,Co,USA (deceased)
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Posted 15 Nov 2010 7:19 pm
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Cage spent most of the trip set up next to Garcia on the train and yes that's where Garcia got the idea to bring him in to the New Riders. The offer came shortly after the tour ended. At the time Cage was playing with Ian and Sylvia in the band Great Speckled Bird and appearing on their TV show. I believe he's in that movie more than you think.
JB
_________________
2 Fulawka D-10's 9&5
Sho-Bud Pro 2 8&5
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
"Your FIRST mistake was listening to your wife instead of your steel instructor." (H.Steiner) |
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Danny Hall
From:
Nevada, USA
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Posted 16 Nov 2010 6:36 pm
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Phil Keaggy never has found the lack of a full set all that difficult either. Funny though, I'm of that Grateful Dead generation and didn't know or didn't remember that Jerry was missing a finger. Just never paid attention I guess. In fact I suppose you might say I was generally somewhat drifty back then. Still, when you get right down to it, a lot of guitarists could easily have gotten by with just a thumb on the right hand. Except for Lefties of course.
_________________
The Last of the World's Great Human Beings. Ok, well maybe one of the last. Oh alright then, a perfectly ordinary slacker. |
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