Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Meet Mountain Girl

Grabbed this from a radio trade paper known as Friday Morning Quarterback:

The University of Massachusetts already has one graduate and one undergraduate course that focus on Grateful Dead, and now the school will take it a step further with a university conference on the enduring legacy of the Dead experience.Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory will be held from November 16 to 18 at UMass Amherst and will bring together more than 50 presenters for 20 panel sessions ranging from music composition and improvisation to an examination of the band’s business model, as well as a musical performances, gallery exhibits, movie screenings and other presentations. Panelists will include “Mountain Girl” Carolyn Garcia, first wife of guitarist Jerry Garcia; David Gans, host of Grateful Dead Radio Hour for the past 20 years; Dead midi wizard Bob Bralove; and Dan Healy, who designed and built the “Wall of Sound,” famed enabler of the Dead’s improvisational style. There also will be a keynote address by Dennis McNally, longtime Dead publicist and author of Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. “The academic world is not as removed from so-called reality as people think, especially those in the academic world,” said McNally. “In the Rock & Roll world, there are pockets of meticulous intelligence and literacy, people like Jerry Garcia and (bassist) Phil Lesh.” The weekend also will include performances by American Beauty Project and Dark Star Orchestra, whose rhythm guitarist Rob Eaton and keyboardist Rob Baracco will take part in several of the panel discussions.

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