Some of you may have heard about the Slow Food movement, which is basically about eating locally (in the reverse of fast food) and with sustainable environmental principles in mind... There was a big conference on the subject in San Francisco recently, with an accompanying concert, and Brother Karan sat in with Phil and Friends; Bob Minkin captured the moment.

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This month's profile is of our stage manager and some-time Uncle Sam, "Hippie" Bill Garbe.

After every RatDog show, a tall man with a long beard, “Hippie” Bill Garbe, hands out set lists to fans pressed up against the stage.  It’s not casual – you’ve got to ask nicely and present a positive vibe – and it’s revealing in a number of ways.  It shows Bill’s – the whole band and crew’s -  caring for DogHeads, and the quality of the scene’s internal dynamic.  The small gesture of a gift of a piece of paper documents what Bill and the rest of the RatDog tour mean – that making music and bonding with your audience are what it’s all about.
    Which makes it perfectly sensible that it was Bill’s idea. 
    Bill’s father was a California League baseball player, and Bill’s early years involved following him to teams up and down the Central Valley.  The family settled in Bakersfield, and in the summer of 1967 Bill went looking for a richer brand of rock and roll than sneaking in to local Paul Revere and the Raiders shows could provide.  Like young people all over the country, he went to San Francisco, and saw Cream at the Fillmore.  Now he works there when the Dog is off the road.
    In the late ‘60s, he attended U.C. Berkeley in “Reading, Writing, and Revolution,” his college years marked by the People’s Park struggles there, and lived in Berkeley for a decade after that before moving to Marin.  It was what he called an “uncommitted” kind of life.  One day a neighbor asked him for help in building a deck, and he obliged, which eventually lead him to a brief career as a general contractor building fancy houses.  It didn’t feel good, and he took a year off.
    In 1993, a friend suggested he volunteer at the Haight Street Fair, and he ended up volunteering with the Unity Foundation.  Soon he was an usher at the Warfield Theater – his first night featured Jerry Garcia and David Grisman – and then a worker at the Maritime Hall, a fond San Francisco musical memory.
    Eventually, RatDog’s future production manager, Charucki (he of only one name), spotted him and groomed Bill as a stagehand, and in 2001 he began driving a truck for RatDog’s tours.  But Bill puts more into his job than just a minimum.  “I didn’t like being just a trucker, dropping off gear, so I made myself useful.  I’d help set up the stage, get a little rest, and then afterward roll up the microphone cables.  The first night, somebody asked for a set list.  I’d never been on a stage where it was ‘my’ band, so I’d never done it before.  But this felt OK.”
    As RatDog grew up to need a full-size 18 wheeler, Bill became stage manager, getting a little more sleep and another job:  Uncle Sam.  On September 23, 2001, just after the tragedy at the World Trade Center, RatDog broke out “U.S. Blues” and Bill got handed the flag – “a revolutionary flag, to me” – and he’s been doing it ever since.  It felt good, he says, to add the peace flag to the moment.
    He’s also had an impact on many of the places RatDog plays as a recycler, encouraging more and more clubs to pay attention to their backstage trash.
    Rock and roll is his life, he says.  “My recreation is my job.  It’s taken me to places all over the U.S. that I never imagined seeing, and the great thing is the welcome.  I never felt fear driving the truck – actually, most of the truckers look pretty much like me – but we are everywhere, and there’s a welcome for us everywhere.”
    And RatDog, “it’s a family.  Band, crew, audience.”
    So when you get your setlist – and remember, he calls it, at times, “a list of lies” because Bobby can freely administer mid-air course corrections and change everything instantly – treat it right, because it comes from the heart.

Stop by the HeadCount table at any of the upcoming shows and enter a raffle to win a guitar signed by Bobby and members of RatDog +. The raffle is FREE. All you have to do is "Pledge to Vote" to enter. While you are there, register to vote, change your address or party affiliation, or sign up to volunteer. For more information go to www.HeadCount.org.

As you may have noticed, we usually post a new tour profile on the first of the month.  We’re going to skip it today, because we’re getting toward the end of a website upgrade that will let us send you – starting September 1st – a monthly newsletter of all things RatDog – profiles, tour dates, pictures, news and so forth.  So watch the skies or your computer screen, enjoy the summer, look for the Dog in Maine on August 10th and after, and Sign Up Now for the Newsletter by Giving Us Your Email Address!

Happy Birthday, Jerry, wherever you are.

   If you’ve ever been in line waiting to pick up your fresh copy of that night’s RatDog show and seen a short, bearded dude sprinting like a crazed halfback from backstage to the merch booth, you’ve seen Peter “the Gnome” Ammerall, our live recordist.  Peter’s the Dead Head taper who (along with Dick Latvala and then David Lemieux) has managed to turn his musical obsession into the dream job.
    After graduating high school in upstate New York in 1988, he attended Emory Riddle Aeronautic University in aircraft engineering.  He was a serious, devoted hard science major raised by hard working conservatives – “I was supposed to go work for NASA” - and some friends thought he needed a little loosening up, and took him to the 10/15/88 show in St. Petersburg, Florida…little did they know. 
    Actually, he’d tried to go to the show at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) near his home that summer and hadn’t gotten in, but had come away impressed with the quality of the scene.  It was easier in Florida, and he was a classic Dead Head, hooked on the first show.  In fact, it occurred to him that night that “I’d better go back to college now, or I may never do it.” 
    Pretty soon he was a liberal arts major who went to more and more shows – more than 100 by the time he was done.  And pretty quickly he found his corner of the world in the taper section, where his tech skills came in handy.  Florida got to be a drag, and soon he found himself living in Boulder and then Eugene (Santa Cruz was too expensive!), where he got involved with landscape gardening and environmental issues, becoming a strict organic-eating and cooking vegetarian, which he’s continued to the present.
    His last G.D. show was at Highgate, Vermont, in 1995, and he was at musical loose ends when he attended his first RatDog show in Los Angeles in December of that year.  By 1999, he was a regular on the tour, and with early Dogheads Andrew Grimm (a taper) and Neal Smith (who had a fan appreciation website pre-ratdog.org called The Rat Trap), he began to plug into the board and record shows.   
    When Phish and the Dead began to sell instant-live shows, it opened the door for RatDog, and by the fall of 2003, he went out on the tour to learn Pro-Tools and the ins and outs of real time mastering.  As of today, he’s helped RatDog Live record 284 shows. 
    Selling shows on the same night as the performance isn’t something RatDog – or Peter – does for the money.  As Peter said, “Hearing those old (G.D.) bootlegs changed my life, and that’s why I do this.  It’s important for people to be able to hold that music and be able to pass it on.  It’s a gift, and I help people be able to share it.”
    “I’m trying to replicate what I hear.  We don’t put out a straight soundboard, we want folks to have a real souvenir.  Our mix brings sound from many points to one, to replicate the live experience.”
    It’s all part of the RatDog ethos.  As Peter noted, “Bob really loves that people can go home with the show.”
    Three days before spring tour Peter and his partner Amanda recently had their first child, Neal, named after Peter’s father.  It was no coincidence that his middle name had to start with an F (Franklin), so little N.F.A. is officially on the Dog’s bus from birth.

The Dog’s dance across the American West with Government Mule came to a close last night in San Jose with a molten “Morning Dew,” Mark and sitting-in Warren H. trading licks.  Of course, if the show had taken place as scheduled (renovations weren’t complete) at the Mountain Winery, it would have been hotter – like 105 degrees.  Lots of good vibes and sitting-ins between the two bands, with Kenny Brooks spending a lot of time with the Mule, and Mr. Haynes with the Dog.
    Time for a little rest and relaxation, and see you all again August 10th in Maine, followed by a run with the Allman Brothers Band.

Dear Bay Area DogHeads: We’re very sorry, but apparently ongoing renovations at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, have hit a snag and won’t be done in time for our shows (also some Boston – the band - shows this week, too). The shows will now be-on the same days- 16 miles down the road at the San Jose Performing Arts Center, 255 Almaden Boulevard, San Jose, at 7 pm. The tickets will be exchanged at the SJPAC box office for comparable seat locations. The SJPAC box office will open at 5 pm Refunds will be available at the place of purchase.

Sunday was a lovely day in the S.F. Bay Area, and so the Chief didn’t have to suffer too much – see pictures – to contribute to a benefit designed to fight aerial spraying in the region…the event was a sellout. 
For more info on the issue, go to http://www.stopthespraymarin.org.

For  Bobby talking to our friends at WDST (Woodstock, NY), just before the recent Mountain Jam show.

Dear Dogheads:  

Alton Kelley was one of the world's truly sweet guys.  He was a perfect reference point to the Haight-Ashbury, not merely because he had a good time there - "Hey, I was at the party," he once said - but because he used that freedom to make terrific art.  He moved us all, in more ways than you might even know.  (Go look at the back cover of "American Beauty" - that's his bedside table.) 


He died after a painful - and expensive - illness.  If you can help out in any way, you'd be creating a blessing for yourself, as well as his family.
Send some $ to  Margaret Trousdale, Washington Mutual Bank, 101 Western Ave., Petaluma CA 94952. Tel 707-763-4148.   An account has been set up in the name of Marguerite Trousdale (account #3952762942) for wires (routing #322271627).