the dead on tour again. ---two questions:

Hot Tuna's first album, Live at the Berkley House has been in rotation here since it first came out many many years ago. I have gone through endless copies and it was this album that truly inspired my guitar playing ambitions. New Song for the Morning, Hesitation Blues and particularly Mann's Fate with Jack Cassidy's bass playing going where no electric bass playing had gone before. Jack was the Starship Enterprise of bass players. It was this album that sent me to my one and only trip to the Fillmore East. It was January 1971 and I was just a kid but what a trip for just a kid. I still have the handbill. To me it is easily in the top 10 if not the top 5 of the must have records ever made.

I'm going to the Madison Square Garden Show April 25.

The Dead were here in NYC on Monday 3/30 and they played three free shows (tickets were distributed via a lottery--I recommend anyone interested in The Grateful Dead get on the GDTS-TOO mailing list, and the Dead.net mailing list). By the accounts I've read, these warm-up performances were not perfect, but still a great success, exceeding expectations, and has whetted our appetites for this soon-to-commence tour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLryAkIS3U0

Going to see them in the Gorge next weekend with Allman and Doobie Bros. Should be fun.