This past June was the 50th anniversary of the seminal Grateful Dead album Workingsman’s Dead. This was my introduction to the Dead. My brother and I had spent the summer at a bungalow colony up in the Catskill Mountains of…
Blog Archives
“Playing To The Tide” . . . : The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast Deep Dive Into Workingman’s Dead
Tagged with: Grateful Dead, The Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, Workingman's Dead
Posted in Classic Rock, Country/Bluegrass, Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Country/Bluegrass, Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Bring Out Your Dead” . . : Resources For The Quarantined Deadhead
Welcome my friends to crazy times here in NYC. Unless you literally live in a cave you’ve heard of the fun times we’re having here with Covid-19. Personally, I haven’t felt much of a change in my daily routine. Being…
Tagged with: Grateful Dead, Quarantined Deadhead
Posted in Grateful Dead, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“If You Get Confused Just Listen To The Music Play” . . : A Video Asks, “Was Jerry Garcia a Jazz Improviser?”
As a musician and as a Deadhead, I have had on more than one occasion a conversation with non-Deadhead musicians who dismiss Jerry Garcia as someone who just plays scales up and down, someone who “noodles”. This pisses off Deadhead…
Tagged with: Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jazz Theory, Jerry Garcia, Jerry Garcia and Ruben Blades
Posted in Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
Posted in Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
“Don’t You Let That Deal Go Down” . . . : Learn Jerry Garcia’s Solo From Deal (7/4/89 Buffalo)
I had lunch the other day with my old friend Errol. Errol is an excellent guitarist and we have been in bands together on and off for about forty years. Errol is currently in an excellent Jam band based in…
Tagged with: 'Grateful Dead Guitar Lesson', Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia
Posted in Classic Rock, Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
Posted in Classic Rock, Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
“Will The Circle Be Unbroken” : Banjo, Steel Guitar And A Word About Robert Hunter
The last couple of weeks I have been watching the Ken Burns documentary “Country Music” on PBS (go here to stream all eight episodes – https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music/). Tracing it’s beginnings from the 1920’s through to 1996, it’s an excellent introduction to…
Tagged with: Banjo, Country Music, Grateful Dead, PBS, Pedal Steel Guitar, Robert Hunter
Posted in Classic Rock, Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“The Bus Came By And I Got On” . . . : The Rhythm Guitar Of Bob Weir
When I was in college, I roomed for a year with the rhythm guitarist in the Grateful Dead clone band that I was in. It was during many hours of jamming together (yeah, not my best scholastic performance that year)…
Tagged with: Bob Weir, Grateful Dead, Rhythm Guitar
Posted in Classic Rock, Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“How Will The Wolf Survive” . . : Jerry Garcia’s Wolf Guitar Comes Out To Play
This is a call back to a previous post (https://roymusicusa.com/2019/05/25/pictures-from-an-exhibition-the-instruments-of-rock-roll-at-the-met-part-iii/) where I talked about the custom made guitars of Jerry Garcia. Just recently while Dead & Company were playing here in NYC at Citi Field, John Mayer played Jerry Garcia’s…
Tagged with: "Play It Loud", Dead & Company, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, John Mayer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wolf Guitar
Posted in Equipment, Grateful Dead, Jam Band
Posted in Equipment, Grateful Dead, Jam Band
“Pictures From An Exhibition . . : The Instruments Of Rock & Roll At The Met Part III
Continuing my posts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll”, I think another name for this post could be “Jerry’s Kids”. The guitar pics that I’m featuring in this post were played…
Tagged with: Doug Irwin, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tiger Guitar, Wolf Guitar
Posted in Classic Rock, Equipment, Grateful Dead
Posted in Classic Rock, Equipment, Grateful Dead
Stick Theory: Dark Star (Grateful Dead Cover) on the Chapman Stick Guitar
I want to announce the start of a new YouTube playlist on the RoyMusicUSA YouTube channel called Stick Theory (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLogHrynqXOvSmeQXOw_SAW0etIHHKV8mX). The playlist will feature solo Chapman Stick Guitar videos performed at the ManRoy studios here at Casa de RoyMusicUSA (okay,…
Tagged with: Chapman Stick Guitar, Dark Star, Grateful Dead, Live Dead, SG-12
Posted in Chapman Stick, Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band
Posted in Chapman Stick, Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band
Dawg Music : The Bluegrass Jazz of Dave Grisman and Friends
From the bluegrass/Dead nexus of the previous post, I noe move on to a sub genre of music as singular as it’s name, Dawg Music. The term is what mandolin player Dave Grisman called the music on his 1977 album…
Tagged with: bluegrass, Darol Anger, David Grisman, Jazz, Tony Rice
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
