RAINDANCE.us

I met Tobey Stein, musician extraordinaire, trading tapes of live concerts of the Grateful Dead. He's writing some of the music for the play "Raindance", and describes an experience he had with one of the songs.I wrote the words to this song in Guadalajara, Mexico and sent them to Tobey Stein, who plays guitar and pedal steel, to put music to it for the play "RAINDANCE". I received this letter from him:

"Howdy John, I finally finished writing the music to "Rainbow". I've orchestrated it and am trying to get it performed. Things happen slowly you know. Enclosed is a version of it on acoustic guitar. People have been asking me about your words. I tell them they're part fantasy and part true religion. Someone called "Rainbow" a word-picture. The other day I hitchhiked out to the country in Wakulla county where there is a very hip bunch of musicians called the Wakulla band who play a lot of Grateful Dead songs as well as their own. It started raining so I ducked under the porch of a little store in a town called Crawfordville. I started picking a few songs and I got around to playing "Rainbow". As I was playing the end and screaming "Call me in the morning of the rainbow rain" with all the rednecks in the gas station across the street wondering what the hell I was doing. I looked up and there was the biggest most beautiful rainbow I ever saw in the sky. My heart just about jumped out of my chest and took off. Somebody must have been telling me something."

"The rainbow was real."

--Paul Hoffman, Lighting Director for the Grateful Dead

According to news reports that surfaced after this rainbow occurred in Santa Clara, California on June 27, 2015 during the Grateful Dead's show, it was unbelievable to some reporters who raised speculation it was a contrived event. There was a magnificent rainbow arching over the entire stadium, with perfect timing showing up during the final song of their first set on this first night of "Fare Thee Well", and morphing into a double rainbow. Billboard.com stated it was not Divine intervention or Mother Nature's unusual weather. One report claimed the Grateful Dead spent $50,000 to stage this rainbow. An ABC News report stated it was possible. "What a great way to create a buzz, for a run of shows that have been nothing if not buzz-worthy from their very first announcement." After all, the Merry Pranksters were there. According to reports, the Grateful Dead orchestrated this rainbow by placing 600 special lights on a building two miles away. Of course they had to bring in the cloud cover, and a few raindrops fell on this crowd in a rainless drought-stricken time, and for the climax, a spectacular incredible sunset fills the sky. Billboard did a retraction by quoting a Deadhead, "This is the band that jams with God."

UNCLE JOHN

@ Caffè Lena, Saratoga Springs, New York

June 19, 2017

Experimental Theatre

for the play

RAINDANCE

BIG WIND IS A-COMING

excerpts from:

Shelter From The Storm >

(Bob Dylan)

Big Wind >

(Marleen Molle Albin, Kevin Morgenstern, Arranged by Robert Hunter & Comfort)

Duquesne Whistle >

(Robert Hunter, Bob Dylan )

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall >

(Bob Dylan)

Looks Like Rain

(John Barlow, Bob Weir)

DEAD & COMPANY

@ Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, New York

June 20, 2017

Rainbow during Dead & Company's performance of "Looks Like Rain"