march musings

i have been listening to some new music, but not as much lately. the winter has been pretty brutal here this year, and i have spent a lot of time hibernating in the redeyegin man cave and devouring some books. my last post on books was well received and i was given quite a few suggestions – most of which i read and are included below. so here they are, again in no particular order:

‘sound man’ – glyn johns

his fifty year career as either an engineer or producer of some of the most iconic albums of all time is legendary. this is his story of working with groups and artists such as the rolling stones, beatles, the who, led zeppelin, csn, steve miller, emmylou harris. i could go on and on. he does a very good job of staying away from the sex and drugs parts and focuses on the rock and roll. very enjoyable read. really couldn’t put it down.

‘petty’ – warren zanes

authorized biography of the artist. tom reached out to him after reading some of warren’s writings (zanes also did the book that the recent springsteen movie was based on. he was also a founding member of the del fuegos in the eighties). honest and thorough. a lot of history here, and you get a real sense of tom and the heartbreakers long road to eventual stardom, and then the toll that the road took on all of them. you will learn a lot.

‘southern man’ – alan walden

i had never heard of this guy until reading this book. but he and his brother phil were big music producers out of macon, georgia and had a huge influence on the music that made its way out of the south. they challenged the system and were two white guys promoting some of the bigger r&b names like otis redding, percy sledge, sam and dave and many, many others. more than just promoters though, alan and otis were best of friends and alan was usually on tour with him. alan was also instrumental in getting lynyrd skynyrd and boz scaggs to market. chock full of great stories, tales of heartbreak, and occasional success. thanks, peter.

‘cruel to be kind’ – will birch

i was reading a short novel on the making of elvis costello’s masterpiece ‘armed forces’ (more on this later), and the author kept referencing nick lowe. now, i am somewhat familiar with his work over the years, but i had no idea how prolific he was – as a musician, yes – but the amount of bands he was involved with as a producer and promoter was astounding. if you are in any way a fan of seventies and eighties english rock (and even if you are not), this book is full of inside baseball on that whole scene – both good and bad. it is jokingly referred to as a somewhat authorized biography in the book. but will birch and nick are long time pals going back some forty years.

‘the uncool’ – cameron crowe

you may know cameron from one or two ways. if you were a regular reader of rolling stone in the seventies, he was one of their more famous writers – either doing interviews with artists or reviewing new releases. he is also a pretty famous movie producer and is best known for his work on ‘almost famous’, ‘jerry maguire’, and ‘fast times at ridgemont high’. he wrote the screenplay for ‘almost famous’, for which he won an oscar. it is a fictionalized but somewhat autobiographical account of his early life breaking into the music journalism business. ‘uncool’ is his actual autobiography, basically intertwining his career from the beginning with the tale of his family and upbringing. you will hear stories about legendary tours he was asked to join like the allman brothers and led zeppelin in their heyday, to other close relationships he had with bowie, csny, the eagles, fleetwood mac and so many others. most of this before he turned 22. his family life was a bit of a mess, but he is open on how it helped him and shaped him. one of the better books in the music genre i have read in a long time. my friend dave c. recommended this to me and said at one point – part of why it is good is because it is really well written, which you would come to expect from someone who writes for a living.

‘a life in the wings’ – david spero

another recommendation from dave c., because he knows like him i grew up in cleveland in the seventies. spero is not a household name, but he is very well known in the music industry with a career that goes back to the early sixties. he started his career in local media and eventually became one of the dj’s at a local fm station here – wmms. they were a local powerhouse with a very innovative approach to breaking in artists struggling to make it nationally – bruce springsteen and rush are two examples. they were voted best fm station nationally by rolling stone 7 years in a row. david then went into managing artists and has had significant relationships with artists such as joe walsh, ringo starr, the eagles, cat stevens, michael stanley, and dozens of others. he still lives here in town and works in various capacities at the rock hall of fame. again, lots of stories, but maybe too long. it is a big book, and written in a bit of a quirky style that could have used some editing.

‘insomnia’ – robbie robertson

i am almost done with this one, but i have seen enough already to include it here. this autobiography is obviously posthumous, as it just came out, but focuses on the period after the band broke up and he started a lifelong relationship with the director martin scorsese. i am almost 75% into it and so far we are only about two years into their friendship and professional dealings. scorsese directed their masterpiece ‘ the last waltz’. robbie had recently been divorced and at some point he moves in with martin in his hollywood home and the party begins. the two are working in post production and getting it to market, which was not easy. and martin is starting to see things in robbie that would lead them to be tied at the hip for much of martin’s film career over the next forty years. this is likely one of the more troubling periods in robbie’s life, and he is brutally honest with himself and the reader. can’t wait to get back to it.

‘exile on main street’ – bill janovitz

kevin m. recommended the previously mentioned book on springsteen that i reviewed along with the film in an earlier post. he had also mentioned a small novel zanes had written about dusty springfield’s ‘dusty in memphis’. the latter is in a series of books i was soon to discover from a series referred to as ’33 1/3′. they are all small books – maybe about a 100 pages each, that act as liner notes on steroids for some of the more iconic albums of all time. i really started going down that rabbit hole (there are i think over 150 of them). the ones i have got and read so far are the aforementioned ‘dusty in memphis’, ‘murmur’, ‘pet sounds’, ‘armed forces’, ‘music from big pink’, ‘harvest’, and ‘exile on main street’. i have taken a break from this rabbit hole for now because i have found that some are better than others, and some are just weird. but this is one of the best – a true dedication to one of the greatest rock albums ever made, and why that is. if you like this one, get ‘pet sounds’ next. do not get ‘big pink’.

next up on my reading list:

‘hardcore troubadour, the life and near death of steve earle’ – lauren st. john, ‘what do you do when you’re lonesome, the authorized biography of justin townes earle’ – jonathan bernstein, ‘tonight in jungleland, the making of born to run’ – peter ames carlin

chaser: paul mccartney’s new documentary came out on amazon prime last week. mrs. redeyegin and i screened it last night in the redeyegin studio. it focuses on the period right after the beatles break up and his solo career up until and including ‘band on the run’. learned a lot, and will likely watch again.

robert hall weir 1947-2026

well, i had good intentions on being more productive on this site for 2026, but this was really not the way i wanted to get things started. i was finishing up cleaning up after dinner saturday night when i started getting texts from friends and readers sharing that bob weir had passed away. now, a few months ago i also had a few texts sent my way that he had suffered a stroke overseas, but after a few internet searches that turned out to be a false flag.

unfortunately, this time was different. unbeknownst to me he had been diagnosed with lung cancer last summer. reports say that he had ‘beaten’ that, but apparently the cause of death was from complications from that process which had affected his lungs. so, it was a bit of a shock last night when i got the news.

now, there is already a ton of ink being spilled on tributes, rightly so, to this amazing man and his career. i already know all of that (i have over a dozen books on the grateful dead in my music library downstairs), and you can do your own searches for those tributes.

instead i am going to share my personal thoughts on the grateful dead and bob – a look into the past and then some thoughts on where we go from here.

for over forty years i have been a fan of not only the grateful dead, but the various members over the years, and the post jerry iterations that have come and gone since 1995. they have been a large influence in my life in regards to my musical interests. it is easy to say that a person might be a ‘deadhead’ if they are big fans of the band. but i think that once you get inside that world there are different factions. one stereotype is the 60/70’s hippy stage where many went on tour relentlessly and with much devotion, and living the lifestyle of being on the road with them. that lasted about 6 weeks for me when i was in college – and i learned quickly that i was not cut out for that. i started to lose interest in the band overall in the early nineties when i felt that their live shows were not as consistently good any more, and i turned my focus on to other rabbit holes – early jazz, bluegrass, etc.

for some reason – and i cannot tell you what brought me back into the fold – i started getting back into the dead. if i had to guess it was about 25 years ago when i first started seeing either the bootlegs of shows or the early ‘dick’s picks’ releases in a music store i frequented at the time. i had a limited collection of live shows on cassette that i had put together over time. but the ones i began finding were on cd and much better quality than what i had. i know the first bootleg cd version i got was the barton hall/cornell show from may of 77. between the advent of the internet and the fact that the band had hired an archivist to begin selectively and strategically releasing high quality recording of their vast catalogue – i started collecting again. and i have not stopped since.

if people ask me who my favorite artist or band is, i don’t really have a definitive answer. but i think it is fair to say that the grateful dead would easily be in the top ten. but if i keeled over today and a person valuing my estate would look at my music collection, they might look at how many different recordings i own overall and surmise that they were far and away my favorite band – just on the sheer volume of what i have added over the years.

the grateful dead were unique in many ways – but two things that stand out are that they recorded nearly all of their live shows, and they never played the same show twice. there are different estimates, but by most accounts it is thought that they played upwards of 2500 shows in their thirty year career. it is also estimated that they have recordings – or at least partial versions – of around 2200. that makes them very collectible, if that is your thing. i currently have 328 of those shows on my hard drive, so over 10% of all their shows. so, if one of those versions of being a ‘deadhead’ is just the sheer love of their live shows and my willingness to keep wanting to hear more – than that is me.

the current archivist puts out four new shows each year, and one box set. so i expect that part of my journey will continue.

as far as any live shows being played moving forward by any living members, i think that is a phenomenon that may be going away soon. it is only the drummers now. i think bobby was a key lifeforce in keeping the torch going, especially with dead and company recently. my personal opinion is that if that band were to decide to keep going without him, they should change the name. not much ‘dead’ left, and all company.

‘that’s otis’

in regards to bobby, i will admit that for a long while i had a mixed opinion about him. a very good singer if he stayed within the rails, but often he would push the envelope and scream and yell and make you cringe a bit. plus he was a bit of a showman compared to the others on stage.

but he also penned some of the more iconic songs that they are known for. and if you look at setlists over time it was fairly normal that – outside of the covers they did – he and jerry would trade off doing their songs.

but one aspect of his career is one that i do not think he got enough credit for in the history of rock and roll. he is easily one of the best rhythm guitarists that ever lived. there are endless lists over time as to the ‘best guitarists’, but that is always a ranking of lead guitarists – like jerry. bobby understood the power that rhythm guitar could add to the overall sound, especially in an improvisational setting like the dead were often in. he was a big fan of 50/60’s jazz, and listened to not only the preeminent guitarists in that genre, but also the keyboard players. all of the band were fans of mccoy tyner, and bobby has said that he was often trying to emulate what mccoy did with his left hand on the piano, as opposed to the lead part on his right hand.

i grew more fond of bobby over the years as i began to appreciate that part of him more, and he also seemed to be the surviving member that cared the most about their legacy and keeping that flame burning. another turning point was watching a documentary about him from ten years ago – ‘the other one’. the name comes from a song he wrote early on that was a staple of their live shows, but also the fact that he was always the number two guy behind jerry.

i watched it again last night, and if you are looking to invest about 90 minutes of your time, it will show you much of what you should know about him.

there is a big hole in the dead world today. he will be missed.

* if you listen to ‘ripple’ on their ‘reckoning’ album, jerry says ‘that’s otis’. bob’s dog had walked on stage. i named my first dog after him.

marcus king band – ‘darling blue’

as i have probably mentioned before, my process for vetting new music is thus: once i have found something i think i may like and have burned it to my collection, i will listen to it all the way through at least once, usually in my drive to and from work. one round trip usually takes care of the length of most new releases these days. if it intrigues me (or if i am too lazy to find something else), i usually give most a second chance. i then start to ponder whether this is something i want to write about and share. i would say less than 20% ever make it to a full post.

but every once in a while there will be a new offering that i just find damn near impossible to get out of the rotation and out of my head.

this is one of them.

so if you are a regular reader of mine then we likely move in the same musical circles and i feel confident that it may have the same effect on you. just get it.

now, a fair warning is due. if you are familiar with marcus, then you are probably thinking this will be a blues guitar dominated collection, with meaty guitar licks throughout. but you really don’t get that here.

what you do get is a tremendous variety of genres and vocal styles, and some really catchy lyrics and harmonies. all fourteen songs are completely different. i can’t say i have a favorite, but i can tell you that there isn’t one that i can point to and say maybe that should have been left off.

he has a few friends help out, including jamey johnson, kaitlin butts, billy strings and noah cyrus.

for a little background, he has conquered some demons that had threatened his life and career, and there are numerous references to that throughout. he has also found a new true love and several songs seem to be inspired by that. ‘darling blue’ refers to the blue ridge mountains where he is from, and so that is also a common theme.

i have added a few sample videos below, just to give you a flavor of the variety.

this next one reminds me a bit of jason isbell.

mrs. redeyegin also loves this album, and we both like the motown sounding ‘carolina honey’. that video is well done but maybe not suitable for a family audience. just sayin’.

‘deliver me from nowhere’ – warren zanes

this is the book that the current movie by the same name showing in theaters around the country is based on. the movie looked interesting and my friend who suggested the book to me only a week or two before the movie was debuting assured me that it was a pretty quick but very good read. he was right on both accounts.

the premise of the book is to do a deep dive into the making of his album ‘nebraska’. it doesn’t spend a great deal of ink on the rest of his career – there are plenty of other books that can help you there. the author is of the impression that this is his most important work in many ways, and makes a very good case throughout the book. bruce had just had his biggest commercial success so far in 1980 with ‘the river’, and was under some pressure after the tour promoting the album to follow up with another release.

but as the book and the movie make clear, bruce was exhausted from the tour, and on top of that was beginning to deal with some inner demons. he rented a place in a small town in new jersey with the idea that he would buckle down and start writing some songs. his roadie set him up with a fairly new tape machine that could add four track recording onto a standard cassette tape you could buy in a drug store at the time.

the solitude led to an outpouring of creativity but also a wellspring of emotions revolving around his troubled childhood in freehold, new jersey, which was just down the road. i will let the book and the movie flesh out more of the details here, but the songs that he was writing here were starting to break down into two categories – a handful of tunes that were more on the possible commercial side (and many would eventually show up on the the ‘born in the u.s.a’ album), but then at least a dozen that were much darker in material and characters.

it is this latter batch of songs that would eventually be the basis for the ‘nebraska’ album. and the album would eventually use the tracks he made on that cassette tape in the bedroom of that rental, crude as they were. against great market pressure, bruce was adamant to release it as is with no marketing, tour, or press.

i am not the biggest bruce fan around – i was into him quite a bit early on, but started to lose interest in the late eighties. but i do think that ‘nebraska’ is certainly one of my favorites, and so the story was very compelling to me.

i finished the book this morning, and went to see the movie in the local theater this afternoon. i was glad i read the book first, but also glad to see the movie. i think that it also helped that i relistened to the album all the way through about three times while reading the book. the book helped to prepare me for a lot of the material and topics in the movie. i think that the movie was well done – emotional and well acted. obviously there is a lot in the book that did not make it to the big screen, and there are parts in the movie that are not in the book (probably the biggest one being a focus on his relationship to a local waitress at a diner in town). i don’t think you need to read the book to appreciate the movie. but if you enjoy the latter, maybe you might be interested enough to circle back on the book.

hat tip to kevin for the suggestion.

donna jean godchaux 1947-2025

the grateful dead family lost another one yesterday, as donna lost a long battle with cancer in nashville. she was one of the vocalists in the band during some of their peak times. her husband keith joined the band in late 1971, and she started singing with them right before their famous european tour in 1972. so her tenure included that tour, their high musical peak of 1973 (in my opinion), the wall of sound year of 1974, the monster year of 1977 and then early 1978. donna and keith both got caught up in the hard core living on the road, and by late 1978 the wheels started to come off. they left by mutual decision with the band in very early 1979.

she got her start in the music business as an in demand session singer in muscle shoals, alabama. during the sixties she sang on many well known records with famous artists. she contributed to percy sledge’s ‘when a man loves a woman’ as well as elvis’ ‘ suspicious minds’ and ‘in the ghetto’. other artists she worked for included duane allman, cher, neil diamond, and boz scaggs.

in 1970 her and keith headed out west and settled in california, specifically san francisco. they became fans of the dead after seeing them a few times. the story goes that they went to see a jerry garcia band show as well, where she approached jerry and said “this is your new keyboardist” (current keyboardist pigpen’s health had been failing). jerry seemed intrigued and gave her his number. soon he gave keith tapes of recent shows for him to take home so he could learn them for an eventual tryout. and the rest is history.

after leaving the grateful dead her and keith released an album together, and were making more plans when keith died in a car accident in 1980. she remarried and kept her musical career going well into her sixties with various bands and guest appearances on various side projects with members of the grateful dead.

there are those who felt that her vocal style in live shows sometimes went off the rails (and i don’t necessarily disagree with that notion). but my take is that she was essentially a studio musician whose pipes were not really meant for loud live music. she had to compete with a band that had a propensity to ratchet it up, and her range wasn’t really suited for that.

but overall i think she did great duets with bobby and especially jerry. if you want to hear her at her best with them, i would have you go and listen to the shows they did in the summer of 1976, after they came off their nearly two year hiatus. her voice sounds fresh and comfortable with the surroundings.