Grateful Dead Hour no. 1012

By David Gans

Week of February 11, 2008

UPDATE: Chasin' Gus' Ghost was released on DVD in the spring of 2010. Well worth a look! - DG

This week's archival Grateful Dead Hour post is a salute to the film Chasin' Gus' Ghost by Todd Kwait. From the movie's web site:

Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost is a documentary film on the history of Jug Band Music. It traces the roots of American music beginning with Gus Cannon and Cannon’s Jug Stompers, The Memphis Jug Band and the Dixieland Jug Blowers from the 1920’s, and weaves a tapestry through interviews, live performances, archival footage, and photographs showing their influence on the ever-popular folk and rock movements of the 1960’s.

The Grateful Dead began as a jug band. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (who appears in the film), and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were members of Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. The exact name and spelling seemed to change from gig to gig, but that's the name of the band that was recorded by Pete Wanger and Wayne Ott in July of 1964; that tape was released in 1998 by Grateful Dead Records but is now out of print.

As you'll learn in this program the Anthology of American Folk Music, aka the Harry Smith Anthology, was a hugely important source of inspiration and material for the Dead and many of their contemporaries.

The music:

Grateful Dead 7/30/66 Vancouver BC
STEALIN'

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
THE RUB (AIN'T IT CRAZY)
BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE

Grateful Dead 7/16/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco
NEW NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES
VIOLA LEE BLUES

Blind Lemon Jefferson, from Anthology of American Folk Music
SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS KEPT CLEAN

Grateful Dead 7/29/66 Vancouver BC
ONE KIND FAVOR

Williamson Bros and Curry, from Anthology of American Folk Music
GONNA DIE WITH MY HAMMER IN MY HAND

John Sebastian and David Grisman, Satisfied
JOHN HENRY

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
THE MONKEY AND THE ENGINEER

(P.S. There's a wonderful illustrated children's book of "The Monkey and the Engineer," including a biography of the songwriter, Jesse "Lone Cat" Fuller. Check it out.)

Enjoy!

Every Wednesday, we post a program from the Grateful Dead Hour archives for your enjoyment and enlightenment. You can browse or search the playlists at gdhour.com or on the GD Hour Search page, and let me know what program(s) you'd like to hear by emailing me at gdhour@dead.net.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans

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