This song is about the Frendly Gathering in Vermont, although it could be about any gathering of people who share your culture. 

I wasn’t able to go to the Frendly Gathering one summer, so instead I stayed home and wrote this.   I hadn’t planned to make the song about the Frendly Gathering, but I was thinking about how cool it would be if I had been able to go, and when I was done, I realized it was about the gathering.

Evel Knievel

I was watching a TV documentary about Evel and they said that when he was asked by reporters why he did what he does, Evel responded “Because we were meant to live, not just survive.”

I thought that was a very cool idea, and I had my guitar in my lap already, so I wound up writing this song while watching clips of Evel living his life.  

Doldrums

Doldrums is a term for a place where no wind blows at all. Sailors deplore the doldrums.

I really like it that this song has a piano solo by Ryan. Few songs have piano solos and I love the way it sounds here. Ryan once told me that he wished he had written this song. I can think of no higher compliment.

It’s Okay

This is just me and two guitars. In the right channel is my 1987 Schoenberg Soloist. In the left channel is my 1931 Martin OM-28, which the Schoenberg is roughly designed to imitate.

Nazareth

I’m not really sure what this song is about, so please don’t ask me.

Some people have gotten something really heavy out of this, and that’s cool, if it speaks to you in some deep personal way – I’m pleased by that – but I can’t confirm whatever bigger message you are getting, cause I don’t really know.

Zdenek’s bass sets the whole groove on this tune and captures the impending mood of the lyrics really well – and his solo beautifully sums it all up.

I do, however, believe deeply in evolution – occurring right before our eyes. I think that’s what the song is really about.

Gemstone

I wrote this in a slot canyon deep in Utah wilderness on a baby taylor all mahogany guitar – the natural reverb in the canyon was like swimming in sound and I found myself singing this song while pondering.

Perfect Moment

I really love the wah-effect that Zdenek creates at the beginning of this song and carries through – a single big bass note that swells like a rising cloud.  Play this tune loud to really experience it.

I would love to hear Zdenek play this in a nice sized arena on a big PA with a lot of horsepower. I think the bass effect of this wah pedal would be awesome, as people could feel it in their bodies.  Maybe that day will someday arrive.

Each verse represents a different level of consciousness, from which the idea of a perfect moment is a relative matter.

Mountains Of The Moon

I’ve always liked everyone who has found this tune on their own, because they all cherish it in the same way I do: its obscurity makes it even more personal. The Grateful Dead only performed in live 12 times in 1969, usually as the invocation for a Dark Star that followed. On Live Dead, you can hear the last notes of Mountains of the Moon fading away as Phil begins playing the introduction to Dark Star.

Robert Hunter’s lyrics were written on the spot in the studio, when Aoxomoxoa was recorded. He later wrote that he wished he could have recorded the lyrics that he edited later, but the Grateful Dead never did it. I am singing the edited lyrics, but alas, in other spots I have changed the words to what I prefer.

This is my 1987 Schoenberg Soloist OM on this track. Made of Brazilian rosewood, Appalachian spruce, ebony truss rod, and bar frets, it is an immensely responsive design that mimics the original vintage Martins of the 1930s. It comes from the first batch of Schoenberg’s ever made.