When I was back there in seminary school…wait, my bad, wrong band. When I was back there in Collegetown, there was a band it seemed most everyone loved…everyone but me, that is. From my closest of companions to my most casual of acquaintances, people’s devotion to and enthusiasm for this musical circus was virtually boundless. I’m talking about the Grateful Dead, of course…They and their musical cult of influence/lifestyle was inescapeable. I couldn’t walk from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, go to a party, nor even hang out in my friends’ living rooms without being saturated with the music, art, and lore of these iconic hippies…

As a working musician, I was oft lectured, petitioned, sermonized, and engaged in all matters of the Grateful Dead’s musical merits, which I took all in good stride and held my tongue, respectful of the infinitely personal nature of music and the very real potential of hurting someone’s feelings by insulting their music. Sure there were private yuk-yuks amongst a few like-minded fringe; I even co-wrote a song celebrating a mutual friend’s return to Bowling Green from Boston; a song containing the line, “Well the hour is getting late…Bob puts on another Dead tape…”.

My band actually shared some evident common influence (at least in the art department) and our whole scene kindly micro-mirrored their mighty caravan, to the point that we may’ve well called ourselves the Evil Dead, with rare hat-tips of acknowlegement to our fanbase’s Deadhead faction by covering “Birdsong” and “Friend Of The Devil”. Somewhere on this ‘long, strange trip’, I procured from Pac-Rat’s a cassette of their magnus opus, “Terrapin Station”, which I liked to play while cleaning my College Street appartment, as if to expediate the process, subconciously coming to terms with and cataloging a substantial list of their songs I didn’t hate.

With so many of my friends and peers being Deadheads, there was, of course, a constant barrage of invites, urgings, and arm-twisting to go to shows, as the Grateful Dead seemed to be constantly on tour. Being a terminal homebody, and off in my own little world, and knowing full well I’d be enjoying souvenirs from the parking lot, these pleas were generally met with some variant of “I’ll go next time..I’ll go next time…I’ll go next time”; And like that, there was no “next time”.

Flash forward fifteen years: A benefit to raise money for the Son Rhea Foundation (providing musical instruments and arts opportunities to youth in South Central Kentucky www.sonrhea.org )…The first annual “Grateful Gathering” in 2010 and I am invited to participate…”I’ll go next time…Wait! NO! Well, actually I have a scheduling conflict with Arts On Main, but I’ll see to it that I’m free for the next one.”. The next one now upon us, I am steeped in preparation of learning, arranging, adapting, and charting an hour’s worth of Grateful Dead covers (with a dash of Zappa/Beatles/McCartney/Pink Floyd/Steve Hillage…all which hold a maximum of one degree of separation from the festival’s theme), or as best conveyed by a power trio (Sean Rice, Aaron Holder, and meself). Hear me now: A great deal of this material is extremely difficult to play…

That’s right; the Dead are masters of time-trickery…Such flow that the listener would never suspect the multiple time signature mutations within a single song. Hard-wired for 4/4 and 6/8, I waded into “Terrapin Station” and “Estimated Prophet” and quickly found myself derailed as if trying to snap and clap a la Steve Martin in “The Jerk”. This challenge, compounded with lyric memorization and solos over such thin netting, had me to realize…we need keyboards to pull this off proper. But who? So many of my capable students are in the throes of ACHS Patriot Marching Band rehearsals…I don’t even know if their parents would consent to such an undertaking in time and material.

Enter Stephen Britt: an extremely shy, sixth grade student of mine, with a little over three quarters of year of playing piano under his belt, and no public performance experience…yeah, maybe I could get him to play keys for us at Grateful Gathering; Did I mention that Stephen has this astounding gift of hearing? I can play most any chord on the guitar (i.e. BbMaj.9) and within an instant he’ll look at me with this deadpan serious expression as he says, “It’s BbMaj.9” and turns to immediately play it on the piano…(“How are you doing that?!?! Do it again! Do it Again!!”)…So you can see how the idea to put all the afformentioned aside and consider him capable of making this gig happen on such short notice…But would he be willing? Would his parents consent? I approached his mother at the end of a lesson a few weeks ago and made my pitch, based on Stephen’s talent, my need, and the extraordinary cause it would benefit…a cause so worthwhile that within a few days I had my answer; The Britts were willing to have Stephen play a set of MEGADETH for his first public performance…and much to my relief, clarification of the band whose music we were playing was no deal-breaker.

So there we stand, hurtling toward an exciting challenge of honoring the dead at the 2011 Grateful Gathering (www.gratefulgathering.com) in just three short weeks away, before switching tracks and cars to rise to the challenges of the other gigs looming during this my summer/fall tour…Nashville/Louisville/Bowling Green (how-I-love-you-how-I-love-you-how-I-love-you-how-I-love-you-BG!). At the time of this post, a rough outline of our August 6 setlist is as follows…

• Who Needs The Peace Corps?
• Bird Song
• Let Me Roll It To You
• Brokedown Palace
• Eyes Of The World
• Terrapin Station I/Estimated Prophet/Terrapin II/Drums/Space/Blues For Allah (Reprise)
• Shine On You Crazy Diamond
• Because
• Octave Doctors/Not Fade Away
• Shakedown Street

My newfound respect for the Dead aside, I initially was peripherally jazzed about this gig as it would allow me to unleash a collection of Grateful wordsmithery for consideration in deciding a band name for this event. Please vote for your favorite from the following selections…

• Steal Your Facebook
• Surfin’ Bird Song
• Grateful Deb / Little Deadie – Dark Star Crunch
• Braidful Dread
• Grateful Deaf
• Batesfull Dead / Batesville Dead
• Friend Request Of The Devil
• Built To Last A Decade Of Steely Dan
• Splenda Magnolia
• Red China Cat Sunflower
• Despise Of The World
• Crawlspaces Of My Life
• Blues For Allahbama
• Guesstimated Profit
• Terror P.I.N.
• Uncle Tom’s Band
• Shakerag Street
• Haightful Dead
• Brokedown Impala
• Has-been & Jerry
• Hear The Beard
• Incensitive
• Hippie Hierarchy
• I Don’t Care Bears / Careless Bears / Grateful Dead Can-Can Dancing Bears
• Lambda Sigma Delta
• Pi Omega Tau
• Gamma Delta
• Grateful Megadeth
• Lazy Gravy