THE MUSIC AND PRESTON BLACK Dave Matthews Band, October 08, 1994, The Avalon Ballroom, Boston, MA

From THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK:

    Jamie shrugged his shoulders. "Your turn." He rubbed his eyes and set his fiddle in his case on the table. He shut his recorder off.
    "I'd just as soon turn in to bed hungry and get going as early as possible." I said it loud enough for Ernie to hear, but not loud enough that Jamie'd figure out I'd said it loud enough for Ernie to hear.
    Jamie poured us each another finger or two of whiskey.
    I saluted him and threw it down. I whooped, and Ernie came over and said he didn't want us getting too far ahead of him, so we all drank another.
    "Requests?" I asked Jamie.
    "Play what you feel, son," he said.
    "What I feel? That's a tough one. Let me try this on for size." I strummed a slow D and played the opening to "Grace is Gone."
    Jamie nodded, eyes closed. After I finished the first chorus he accompanied me with his fiddle, playing just like Boyd Tinsley. When we finished he said, "That's a very nice song."
    "Dave Matthews Band. Haven't played that in a long time."
    "Give us another, maybe something I can sing along with."

Buy the book on Amazon.

This show is a crystal-clear soundboard from an early (pre-Crash) Dave Matthews Band show. I know there are a lot of Dave haters out there, and you know what I say? F*ck them. Dave is awesome. Check out the teases in Recently, or stick around for the Halloween at the end. Dave can do it all--melody, heavy, jibberish. That's why he's huge. Because he can write songs.

Download the show at Sugarmegs.

Dave Matthews Band
October 08, 1994
The Avalon Ballroom
Boston, MA

Taper: Unknown
Source: DSBD

DAT>CD: Jon Ice (jond_ice@hotmail.com)
Equip: Tascam DA-30 > Digi Coax > Midiman DIO2448

Resamp: 48kHz > 44.1kHz via Samplitude
SHN: MKW Audio Compression Tool

Disc 1
1: Intro 00:58
2: Seek Up 12:50
3: Dancing Nancies 08:23
4: Best of What's Around 06:55
5: Song That Jane Likes 04:43
6: Satellite 05:25
7: Jimi Thing 10:57
8: Dave Speak 01:15
9: Say Goodbye 07:10
10: Get In Line* 07:31
Total 66:07

Disc 2
1: Tripping Billies 05:02
2: Rhyme and Reason 05:27
3: What Would You Say 05:00
4: Recently$ 11:04
5: Encore Break 01:00
-Encore-
6: Drums-> 01:29
7: Halloween 04:55
Total 33:57

* First time played
$ Pretty, Pretty Girl, Take Me to the River, On Broadway
compiled by Jon Ice (1.26.01)

READERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN SALES.

Amazing deduction, right? So why did it take me 3 months to arrive at this conclusion.

Fear, probably, is the biggest reason. ePub is all ready looked at as being less legit than 'legacy publishing' so why devalue my writing even more? $2.99 isn't $17.99, but it sure as heck isn't a giveaway. $2.99 is J.A. Konrath's magic number, and if that's good enough for him it's good enough for me.

At some point between Monday morning and last night it occurred to me that I wasn't writing to make money. Maybe it had something to do with summer idealism and the ability to write in a stress-free environment for the next few months. Most likely the angle of the sun and the smell of honeysuckle in the evening reminded me of all the good things that come with summer. Playing my guitar in our porch swing. Fireflys. Getting muddy on some of West Virginia's finest singletrack.

Dave Matthews Band.

What?

Yup. Going back to 1994 or 1995, Dave Matthews Band had been my official summer soundtrack, and even if I don't listen to them nearly as much as I used to, something about this time of year makes me want to hear stuff from the first 2 or 3 CDs again.

I didn't get into Dave until CRASH came out, and by then he was certainly mainstream. But I knew that tapes of his early live shows existed, and tried to get my hands on some of the more legendary ones. DMB's early manager, Coran Capshaw, had toured extensively with the Grateful Dead and knew the importance letting tapers record and distribute, through one-to-one trades, Dave Matthews Band's early shows. Students from Charlottesville and Richmond came to their first concerts knowing the words to most or all of Dave's songs. Students from Richmond and UVA would pass out tapes to friends at other universities so when the band showed up for the first time at a city they'd never played in, they played to full houses of fans who knew all the words.

DMB gave their music away, because they knew the importance of building those relationships, something I'd forgotten until the sounds of the summer city waking up through an open window shook me back into reason.

So I'm dropping the price of THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK to $0.99 on Amazon and Smashwords (because Amazon won't let you give the book away, and Heidi says it should have some value) for the next few weeks. All I ask is that, if you like the book, tell somebody about it by leaving a review or sharing it with somebody who'll read it. If you're on Goodreads write a brief review or talk about it on a message board. If you bought it on Amazon leave a few words saying what you liked, or didn't. Doesn't have to be a doctoral dissertation. Just a few lines.

As a thank you I'm going to start posting my next book, HELLBENDER, chapter by chapter here on the blog. Look for the tab at the top of the page by the end of the day.

And to everybody who has read the book and has said kind things to me or to others about the book-thank you! These interactions are the reason I'm dropping the price. Down the road these will have more value than any money I would've gotten from sales.

THE MUSIC AND PRESTON BLACK Pink Floyd, Boston Gardens, Boston,Massachusetts June 27th 1977

From THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK:

    It was either July or August. One of those nights when an open window and a box fan only made things worse. I sat on my roof, crying or something. Probably crying. I had Pink Floyd Animals playing over and over. A full moon crept up over the mountains, shining a dense blue light bright enough to make nighttime shadows appear. Without wind I could hear every cricket for a thousand miles. A couple of hound dogs had a raccoon treed down by Deckers Creek.     And, for a moment, I felt like the only person on earth. Like all the loneliness manifested itself in the sudden disappearance of everything I'd ever known. The world, with just me in it, suddenly had felt like a very cold place.
    At some point the tape had flipped back to side one. "Dogs" came on, even if I didn't really notice it. And the humid air, an amplifier for all those non-human sounds, brought the crickets and the hound dogs right up to my roof. The moon came over the treetops, washing out the city lights below me. And the dogs—either the ones from the tape or real ones—got closer. The dogs were like a bridge between the tape and real life, and it became hard to tell which was which. Suddenly being alone really scared me. I don't really remember what happened after that.
    Even though that phase of my life ended that night, the details will always stick with me. The way the moon and the city looked. Individual trees, and the leaves just scattering the moonlight like a chrome bumper scatters brake lights. The feel of the shingles and the slope of the roof on my bare feet. I didn't know if it was the most dream-like experience I'd ever had, or the most life-like dream, but last night, up in Dani's apartment, felt just like that night on my roof.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Here's a show that captures a little of that feeling. It's hot here in Uniontown. But no moon. Otherwise, tonight is a lot like the night I described in my book.

Download the show at Sugarmegs.com

"Have A Cigar"
CA-2004015/16 Cannonball
Matrix Disc 1: CA - 2004015
Matrix Disc 2: CA - 2004016
(P) 2004 Made in Japan
Promotional Use Only - Not For Sale

SQ Scale (G+ VG- VG VG+ EX- EX EX+ SUP- SUP)
SQ Rating: EX+/SUP-

Pink Floyd
Boston Gardens
Boston,Massachusetts
June 27th 1977

Lineage: "Have A Cigar" My Silver > CDWave > Flac5

Disc 1: 50:38
1. Sheep 10:57
2. Pigs On The Wing Pt1 1:21
3. Dogs 17:47
4. Pigs On The Wing Pt2 2:20
5. Pigs 19:11

Disc 2: 70:29
1. Shine On Your Crazy Diamond Pt1-5 13:13
2. Welcome To The Machine 8:08
3. Have A Cigar 5:02
4. Wish You Where Here 6:49
5. Shine On Your Crazy Diamond Pt6-9 17:11
6. Money 12:09
7. Us And Them 7:53

Total Time: 121:07


http://www.boot-review.com/

Have A Cigar (Cannonball CA-240015/16)

Boston Garden, Boston, MA - June 27th, 1977

Disc 1: Sheep, Pigs On The Wing (part 1), Dogs, Pigs On The Wing (part 2), Pigs (three different ones)

Disc 2: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts 1-5), Welcome To The Machine, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts 6-9), Money, Us & Them

There have been many releases coming out of the east documenting tapes from Pink Floyd's In The Flesh tour, this being the fourth release in the past month (Pigs Fly Over America, Welcome To The Machine and Racial Violence being the other three). It is indeed a classic tour and the last time that the band truly toured the United States and Have A Cigar represents the final Boston concert with Roger Waters in the band. This is a superb sounding stereo audience recording made by the same one who made the second tape source of the 1975 show at the same venue.

Previous releases of this show include The Perfect Day on Ayanami, but this comes from the complete and unprocessed master that has recently been circulating. It is better sounding and longer than any other and is the definitive version of a spectacular show that is definitely worth having. This is Pink Floyd after touring for several months, so they are extremely tight, but before their frustrations began to surface in the New York concerts the following week. Waters shouts out "48" during "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" and comments at the end "The perfect end to a perfect day".

PUTTING THE BOOK TO BED

Note: this post is saturated with the author's emotional self-reflective dribble. Any attempts to get anything meaningful from this essay will be laughed at. Or ignored.

I've written, and finished three novels, but this is the first time I've ever put one to bed. This is the first time since I began writing that I've ever been able to truly write 'the end.'

Publishing limbo has always made it impossible for me to ever see a book as finished. With each rejection letter came another attempt to make the book better, to tweak the plot, to look for typos. So for me, the publication process has involved finishing three novels simultaneously for the last ten years.

Friday night I got a call from Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee about my book cover. I'd been in touch with them off and on since January, but money problems kept me from being able to totally commit to the project. The income tax check went for new brakes. The contract I was supposed to sign never materialized. Checks for little jobs here and there always found their way to necessities rather than luxuries. So when Brad from Hatch called and said my project was next in the cue I freaked out a little. I'd forgotten that I had committed to the cover about six weeks ago. Just like jumping off a bridge.

So this week the posters will arrive. My book cover, as printed by one of the premier print shops in the United States. Hatch has been in business for over a hundred years. They've printed posters for Wilco, The Beastie Boys, Dwight D. Eisenhower, B.B. King, Elvis, Johnny Cash. And now Jason Jack Miller. With this cover, THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK is done. There will be no more tweaking, the typos that are in there stay in there.

Is the book perfect?

Now it is. This book is the result of ten years writing and a master's degree. This book, from the first word, conforms to my ideas about what a book should be better than anything else I've ever written. I've never been more proud of anything I've ever done with my life.

The writing process, and the publication process and defending the publication process have made this a very special time for me. This is the book that made me a writer because I learned what it means to truly be passionate about something--to live it and breath it, to rewrite in my head as I drift off to sleep.

I've written to contract. Professional or not, that's not writing to me. Writing is about YOUR plot and YOUR characters and YOUR values and pursuing YOUR passion. It will always be, for me.

This book is a part of me. It is all mine, to share with readers and the writers who have helped me along the way.

Now I'm on to the next one. Literally, right now.

Take a look at more of Brad's work: http://bradvetterdesign.carbonmade.com/

THE MUSIC AND PRESTON BLACK The Beatles, River Rhine Tapes 1969

From THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK:

    To his credit, he let it go. Maybe he was right, and maybe I knew it, but now wasn't the time. So we did my third song, which I called "Twickenham." The mediocre mid-tempo riff sounded too much like Social D. I wrote it about George Harrison after seeing the abuse he put up with while recording Get Back.
    I considered doing the Preston Black song as a fourth cut, but by the time I changed my mind Jamie started transferring files and fiddling with levels and all that, so I figured we were done. He burned me a disc, then said we'd leave in a bit, and that Katy would meet us later.

"Nobody ever loved me like she does..." Don't Let Me Down, John Lennon.

For some reason I'm very partial to LET IT BE. I think it was because everybody else went for ABBEY ROAD or SGT. PEPPER. Little did I know when I picked the disc up I was catching a glimpse of a band in free fall. Yoko attached herself to John's hip and George had quit the band a few times. Paul's attempts to rebuild the band through live performances had the exact opposite effect--the others began to resent him for his pursuit of perfection.

The RIVER RHINE TAPES are a very clean set of outtakes from the LET IT BE rehearsals. If you're somebody who has overlooked this album because it's not ABBEY ROAD or the WHITE ALBUM, this is your chance to see what you've been missing. Highlights for me include Dig a Pony, Don't Let Me Down, the I, Me, Mine Waltz, and Across the Universe. It's a nice look at what could've been.


Download the show at Sugarmegs.com

The Beatles, River Rhine Tapes 1969

SOURCE- SILVER CD - FLAC (level4)
Quality - EX+

01.Two of Us [03:39]
02.I Dig A Pony [03:55]
03.I Got A Feeling [03:53]
04.Dont Let Me Down [03:36]
05.I Me Mine Waltz [01:26]
06.Let it Be [03:37]
07.For You Blue [02:52]
08.One After 909 [03:19]
09.Long and Winding Road [03:47]
10.Get Back [03:48]
11.Oh Darling [02:42]
12.Across the Universe [03:22]
13.Dig it [02:17]
14.(Track Deletet) [01:51]
15.Good Rockin Tonite [01:43]
16.20 Flight Rock [02:09]
17.Her Majesty [01:43]
18.Maxwells Silver Hammer by John [01:10]
19.Maxwells Silver Hammer by Paul [03:39]
20.Suzy Parker [02:00]
21.Bad Finger Boogie [01:17]
22.Mean Mr Mustard [01:21]
23.All Things Must Pass [03:09]
24.The Walk [03:54]
25.River Rhine [04:20]
26.Billybeatle Boogie [05:18]

SHARE FREELY, AND ENJOY. 75:47 min