[lbpesq]

Would have been 84 today. Thanks for all the wonderful music!

Bill, tgo

[Jon S.]

"Garcia played to relieve people of pain. That melodic innocence must have something to do with bringing so many people to their “happy place.” He wasn’t pulling notes from an anguished place within, he was catching them with a butterfly net as they went flitting by overhead. On a tactile level, he held the guitar with grace. It wasn’t a weapon, it was a vehicle. He took it easy. He may have played fast, but he was thinking slow. And that makes us listen with a smile."

John Mayer

[phpbb]

This year is bit heavier with the loss of Bobby overlaid with the Dead 60 anniversary.

[Jon S.]

Today (August 2) is also the anniversary of the death in 2012 of one of my closest childhood friends, Ray Penney, a great musician and even greater person. That's Ray, in the 1974 pic below with the blond hair to the left of Brian Setzer, in front of our high school (Massapequa High School on Long Island, New York). Ray, among other accomplishments, was the lead/slide guitarist for Great Caesar's Ghost and released two albums of classical music for children, Goodnight Guitar, and Goodmorning Guitar.

[Some Old Nobody]

Still, just so sad. He brought so much joy to my life and got my mental gears grinding so often. What struck me so much about the way Jerry played in the way he sang was the emotional connection. He would agree he was not the most skilled guitarist out there, and I think any fair listener of music would likewise agree. But the emotion that bled through what he saying and what he played hooked me like few others.

I remember listening to an interview that was conducted towards the end of his life, and you could just hear the labored breathing. Years of cigarette smoking, obesity, and uncontrolled diabetes. The haters loved to claim that drugs are what did him in, but that was not true. He will always be with us, but in a less complete and less fulfilled way. And with Bobby's passing several months back, . . . That leaves only the drummers from the original lineup. Interesting.