Played Saturday night at the V in Marshall, Illinois. Had a good crowd, and one guy after the gig asked if that was an Alembic I was playing from the sound board (brother/soundguy had other commitments that night). We introduced each other and I let him play the Alembic for 10 minutes or so. He fell in love...
There was another guy at the gig who I talked with quite a bit between sets (no potty break for me!). He was extremely nice, and looked like the cliche'd cowboy junkie with a strongly-dishevelled persona. At any rate, we got to talking about the Alembic and the GD connection, at which point he asked me if I knew any of those guys. I of course told him I didn't, but that the people at Alembic did. The discourse progressed and come to find out this guy used to jam with Jerry Garcia and a guy we called Pig Pen back in SF in the early '60's. The last he had seen or been in contact with any of them was around '65, and he knew them as members of The Warlocks at that time. He moved to San Diego that year and lost touch. He said that once he heard Buck Owens, country was all he ever was interested in playing after that...
Whether any of it is true or not, I don't know. It was interesting to talk with the guy about music, and I am inclined to believe his story..
John