Further Festival Considers Long, Strange Trip

Further Festival Considers Long, Strange Trip
By Gary Graff
Reuters
June 26, 1997

DETROIT (Reuter) - If last year's Furthur Festival was a celebration of the Grateful Dead's legacy, this year's edition is its first step towards the future.

"That's a natural thing -- it has its own identity, and it will gain its own identity as time goes on," says former Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

It was Hart, who, along with guitarist Bob Weir, put together the Furthur Festival to commune with the band's fans in the wake of the death of guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1995 and the Dead's subsequent decision to disband.

"The memory of the Grateful Dead stays vivid in the minds of the people that were touched by it -- including myself," Hart explains. "The Furthur Festival is not the Grateful Dead, but there are certain spirits that are associated with it, definitely."

Last year's Furthur Festival featured Hart and Weir with their bands -- Planet Drum and Ratdog, respectively -- along with one-time Dead keyboardist Bruce Hornsby, Los Lobos and Hot Tuna. It played 30 shows to about 390,000 people.

Ratdog, Planet Drum and Hornsby remain on this year's 29-date tour, which kicked off June 20 in West Palm Beach, Fla., and will roll into early August.

The Black Crowes are headlining the festival, and the lineup also includes Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen with Michael Falzarano, troubadours Moe and Sherri Jackson, and Arlo Guthrie, who is serving as emcee.

Hart and Hornsby say that the first Furthur Festival served its purpose -- to allow the Deadheads, the group's fervently dedicated fan base, to gather again in order to celebrate Garcia's life and the career of the Dead, a consistent top draw on the road, though it had only had one Top 10 hit ("Touch of Grey" in 1987)
during its 30 years together.

"It gave Bob and myself a chance to see the audience again. That was emotional," says Hart, 47. "It was a sign of hope; we were trying to say 'Hey, it's life, gotta get on with it. And the best way to do that is with music."

Hornsby, 42, who toured with the band during 1991-92 and turned down invitations from several jazz festivals in order to be part of this year's trek, says, "Musically it's
different from a Dead show, but I felt that the feeling from the crowd, that sort of festive, party atmosphere, was similar ... I'd be surprised if there were too many people at the Furthur Festival who hadn't been at a Dead show before."

Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson is a more recent convert to the Dead,
however. His older brother, Chris, the Crowes' singer, is a big fan, but the younger Robinson's first significant exposure came when the Crowes opened for the Dead in Tampa, Fla.

And like Hornsby, he was impressed with the crowd. "It was literally one of the coolest audiences that we ever played for," Robinson, 28, remembers. You
looked out in the audience, and everyone was having fun.

"Then I stayed on the stage to watch the Dead. Everyone was having just the
best time. It was like one huge, living organism -- everything, including the Dead and the fans. It was really cohesive."

The Furthur participants hope to achieve that feeling again this summer. The Crowes certainly bring a hotter, more electric vibe to the proceedings -- a heavy rock element to balance Hornsby's jazzy bent, Hart's world music explorations and Ratdog's easy-going blues shuffles.

There should be plenty of fresh music on the tour as well: the Crowes, Hornsby and Ratdog are all working on new albums, while Hart recently collaborated on "American Warriors" -- a collection of Native American war and patriotic songs -- and is developing new music for Planet Drum.

Hornsby says there's also talk about developing some sort of regular acoustic jam session as the festival progresses. And he expects to see the musicians joining each other's sets throughout the show, in addition to the traditional show-closing jam.

There's an aspect of the Furthur Festival -- particularly the value it places on organic, improvisational music-making -- that overlaps with another popular touring festival, the H.O.R.D.E. That could be a concern as Furthur looks towards its future, but Hart says it's not something that bothers him.

"I'm certainly not in competition with them, musically or any way," he says. "There's enough music, enough people out there, for everyone to co-exist. I think they should live long and prosper, and they should play their asses off, 'cause that's what it's all about."

But he hedges on whether the Furthur Festival is designed for the same longevity.

"I don't know," he says. "That's hard to say. Next year's a long way off. I'm not into planning that far ahead, to be honest with you. Nor did I plan this year last year.

"I mean, we didn't say 'Hey, let's do this Furthur Festival forever. But right now, it feels right. The idea is to get out and play for people, so that's what we're doing this year, again. I enjoyed it last year, and I'm going to enjoy it this year as well, I'm sure."