Yet again, for the second successive Saturday night, tucked
away in the recesses of the Verna springs, a group of fine musicians are
getting ready to pay tribute to one of the world’s all time great rock bands in
their fiftieth anniversary year – The Grateful Dead. This is also the twentieth
anniversary of the Dead’s lead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s passing. Garcia, ranked
13th in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” cover
story and the “Dead” kept many of alive to the presence of Rock in
our growing up years. And each of us of that generation that loved the
Woodstock festival, the Rolling Stones and The Beatles have a little bit of
“Dead” in us.
And by the time you read this, many of you would have spent
your Saturday night at Verna springs hearing Grammy winner Seth Panduranga
Blumberg – Vox/Lead Guitar, Shayne Ballantyne – Lead Guitar, Mark Fernandes –
Bass and Bosco Dsouza – Drums and Sanket Sharma – Vox/Acoustic Guitar. They
would have hopefully played the Dead’s 1980 classics “Althea”, and
others such as Touch of Grey, Sugar Magnolia and Ripple.
Before the show, Daryll and Vinesh, the Art Escape duo who
have organised all this, excitedly shared an email they received from Jerry
Garcia’s daughter Keelin and ex wife Manasha, which this “Dead”
lover, writer, would like to share. Here goes:
Hi Daryll and Vinesh, Namaste,
Thank you so much for your email. We are happy to support
you in this wonderful tribute to Jerry and the music! 🙂
In July, we forwarded your message to Bob Weir, who sits on
our Advisory Board, here at The Jerry Garcia Foundation. Hopefully you heard a
response from a representative of Redlight Management. We work closely with
them and Grateful Dead Productions. Best Regards, Keelin and Manasha Garcia,
The Jerry Garcia Foundation.
The uniqueness of these events in Goa cannot be stressed
enough. We haven’t really heard of such a wonderful tribute being paid to one
of the planet’s all time greats, from any other Indian city, which goes on to
emphasise Goa’s capacity, enthusiasm and potential to become one of the truly
great music destinations of this country. This potential has seldom been tapped
by those who promote tourism in Goa. This wonderful mission to preserve the
memory of such performers coupled with keeping the age ole’ tradition of live
music, ‘alive’ has never caught the fancy of tourism babus who travel the world
over to attract tourists to Goa. There has been no connection, no conversation
and no communication with movements such as this, which actually take Goa back
to the time when it was pure, a time when pristine Goa was about happy
tourists, clean beaches and wonderful music.
And most importantly, these initiatives are in sync with
what is happening internationally. For instance to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the Grateful Dead, blues singer John Mayer will team up
with three of the Dead’s players,
guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, on guitar. The
first concert as “Dead & Company” will be on Halloween night, Oct
31, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where Garcia and the Grateful Dead had
played more than 50 times since 1965. In a way, this partnership with John
Mayer is fine since Dead’s music was not devoid of the strains of the Blues.
With the fan following that Garcia and Dead have in India
and indeed in Goa, can’t we dream big and plan a Grateful Dead resurrection
concert with John Mayer and the Grateful Dead members right here in Goa? Look
at the numbers who turn up and let’s see if there is space for some real music
beyond EDM festivals.
