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bio
He�s
been called the bastard child of Bing Crosby and Iris DeMent by some,
and the bastard child of Hank Williams, Jackson Browne and Robert Fripp
by others.
In
recent years, Bay Area singer-songwriter-storyteller DAVID
GANS has reintegrated his electric and acoustic guitar personalities
as a self-styled �Honky-Tonk Hippie.� The Oakland-based Renaissance
Man has mastered the art of accompanying himself on stage, greatly
expanding his ability for self-expression by using an electronic looping
device that allows him to digitally stack up his guitar parts. As
important as looping has become to his performances, it will never
dominate the DAVID GANS sound. First and foremost, he is on stage �in
service of the song,� subtly unfurling his guitar trickery to allow
himself enough space to open up and jam. More than ever, his onstage
persona invokes the influences of longtime musical heroes Gram Parsons,
Peter Rowan, �O Brother, Where Art Thou?� producer T Bone Burnett and
Emmylou Harris.
For
most people, succeeding at one thing is a monumental accomplishment. But
for DAVID GANS, succeeding in many fields is, well, business as usual.
Case
in point: David�s 2001 live solo debut, SOLO ACOUSTIC
(Perfectible Recordings), which adds more luster to an already
sterling resume. SOLO ACOUSTIC
earned a 4� star review from All
Music Guide and made the WRNR-FM (Annapolis, MD) �Roadtrippin�
Best of 2001 list. SOLO ACOUSTIC
was also praised by a number of national magazines, including Dirty
Linen, Sing Out! and Relix,
while David�s troubadour forays were received warmly by writers from the
L.A. Weekly to Wired.
By
the end of 2002, David will be releasing the live concert DVD Honky-Tonk
Hippie, on the PowerVision label.
Honky-Tonk Hippie captures the essence of his current solo trip in an
afternoon performance recorded Sept. 15, 2002 at the Power House Brewing
Company in Sebastopol, California.
To
anyone even mildly interested in the music and stories of the Grateful
Dead, David�s is already a familiar name. In addition to being the host
of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour radio show, he is the author of Conversations
with the Dead (reissued in April 2002 by Da Capo Press), co-author
(with Peter Simon) of Playing in the
Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead, and editor of Not Fade Away: The Online
World Remembers Jerry Garcia. His resume also includes co-producing Might
as Well: The Persuasions Sing the Grateful Dead and the Gold
Record-winning Grateful Dead boxed set, So
Many Roads (1965-1995); and producing the compilations Stolen
Roses: Songs of the Grateful Dead, Postcards of the Hanging: Grateful Dead
Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan (3� stars in
Rolling Stone), and The
Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead.
But
those activities are only a small part of the DAVID GANS story. Performing
music has always been the
most important part of his incredibly creative life. Long before he �got
lucky� and became part of the Grateful Dead�s creative family, DAVID
GANS was playing guitar and singing, both on his own and with various
bands. �I was a musician and songwriter before I'd ever heard of the
Grateful Dead,� he explains. �My sensibility was already formed when I
first encountered that weird and wonderful music. Of course the Dead's
music is detectable in mine, but there's so much more to music, and so
much more to me, than just that.
�The
place where my solo show and the Grateful Dead�s music intersect is in
the ballads,� he adds. �There aren't a lot of jam bands out there
playing �Lazy River Road� or �Brokedown Palace,� but I really love
those songs so I sing them often.�
As
for other influences, David cites an eclectic list that includes The
Beatles, Western swing, traditional country, and a host of
singer-songwriters including John Prine, Neil Young and Jackson Browne.
His guitar style was heavily influenced by Tom Johnston and Patrick
Simmons of the Doobie Brothers, who David knew before they became
superstars.
In
the mid-1990s, after more than 20 years of earning a living as a
journalist and radio producer, David decided it was �time to put my own
music back on the front burner where it belongs.� In
1997, he and Eric Rawlins released the CD, Home
By Morning, which featured instrumental support by the likes of
influential mandolin maestro David Grisman and pedal steel guitarist Bobby
Black.
DAVID
GANS� reputation as a musician has enabled him to sit in with many
highly regarded national acts, including moe. (with whom he gigged at
three sold-out 1997 shows in San Francisco), the String Cheese Incident,
Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements, Merl Saunders, Railroad Earth, the Mickey
Hart Band, Blueground Undergrass, Donna the Buffalo and many others.
David
spent most of 1997 working weekly with a rotating cast of players he
collectively presented as The Broken Angels. On January 31, 1998, the band
performed a sold-out benefit show with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and
keyboardist Vince Welnick at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San
Francisco.
The
Broken Angels� biggest splash came when they recorded David�s topical
hit, �Monica Lewinsky.� The CD single, which brilliantly lampooned the
right-wing harrasment of President Clinton, quickly became a Bay Area
favorite, and greatly increased David�s musical profile. �Monica
Lewinsky� also served to emphasize David�s sense of humor, which
continues to manifest itself on SOLO ACOUSTIC, both in �Down to Eugene� (co-written with Seattle
singer-songwriter Jim Page), which pokes affectionate fun at the vast
legion of Deadheads, and a cover of �Normal,� Martin Mull�s
devastatingly accurate send-up of suburban married life among the formerly
hip.
Since
1998, DAVID GANS has played the role of troubadour, regularly hitting the
road to bring his unique musical vision to an ever-growing legion of fans.
SOLO ACOUSTIC stands as a
document of his musical life of the past few years, and, perhaps more
importantly, as a tantalizing hint at what lies ahead for this most gifted
musician.
website
www.dgans.com
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