It was an accident, really.
But at some point long ago, somewhere in San Francisco, we were joking, (at least I thought we were). Dave said heβd been offered a standing gig in a club there,like one Monday a month. And that if I was game, heβd call me and weβd put together a set. β¦And we had to play Grateful Deadβs βTruckinβββ¦.Dave had covered Garciaβs βLoser,β and I spent a few years playing it with Cracker, so I wasnβt sure if it was a joke. Musicians are poker players and storytellers anyway,and weβre all, at best, unreliable narrators.
I left Dave that night thinking, βYeah, I could play some Grateful Dead with Alvinβ¦βBut I was probably drunk, maybe high, maybe bothβ¦ I think it was during a kind of weird part of my life when this conversation occurred, and in the blur of the evening I was slightly confused if it really happened at all.
That said, in 2018, I wound up back in southern California. I ran into Dave somewhere in LA and he asked what I was up to. I said I was going off to a free improv gig, and Dave said, βyeah, we should get together and improv sometime.β I think that part is accurate, although maybe itβs not?
So I thought, OK, well fuck it. Iβm calling the best players I know for this kind of thing.Iβm calling Immy (David Immergluck), who Iβve been in bands with for 30 years. The guy who scared John Hiatt with a delay pedal. The guy who tries to sneakin Michael Karoli licks into Counting Crows gigs. The guy who Iβve recorded a 15-minute one note song with in Monks of Doom. The guy whoβs been trying to sell me on the Grateful Dead live β77 tour since 1986β¦
β Victor Krummenacher