TALES FROM THE GOLDEN ROAD
with David Gans & Gary Lambert
Every Sunday 1-3 Pacific time
S
iriusXM 23.jpg)
JOHN MAYER
Sirius Xm 4 Sundays 6-8pm (PST)
THE LATE LATE SHOW 2015
JOHN MAYER GUEST HOST
ON THE SAME DAY
HE MET BOB WEIR
MIDNIGHT NORTH
.jpg)
Mikaela Davis
GRACELAND WAY
Mikaela Davis
11:11
(LookinG Through) Rose colored glasses
mizmoon
WILD FLOWER
&
MORER
elease April 24
GRATEFUL SHRED
Tour Dates
Apr 17, 2026
The Sound at Del Mar
Del Mar, CA
Apr 18, 2026
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA
Apr 19, 2026
Arcata Theatre Lounge
Arcata, CA
An Intimate Connection with
THE GRATEFUL DEAD
by Uncle John
"What I want to know
Where does the time go?"
(Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia)
"Lord, the band kept us so busy, we forgot about the time."
(John Perry Barlow/ Bob Weir)
This work is a contemporary narrative with a musical motif, narrated by the author with personal testimony, and dialogue with artists, authors, musicians, dancers, singers, poets, songwriters, and stars. This journalistic odyssey observes the world's most interesting band, whose brilliant creative performances, and individual intellectual insight, provide us with this historical literary account. On the road & at home with The Grateful Dead and their family of bands and musical company, this book records a distinctive recital of spiritual events, revealing a new orchestrated portrait, a sculptured arrangement of golden memories. There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert! It is a unique and unconventional experience.
"Find a need and fill it."
--Robert hunter
HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE
by Uncle John
It is the night the songwriter Robert Hunter, with his Band Comfort, opens for musician Jerry Garcia and his Band at The Keystone in Berkeley. They are a song composing team for the Grateful Dead. It is the beginning of winter on a stormy night in the middle of the week, and a patient crowd waits a long time in a long line in the rain. Robert Hunter opens the show with an old spiritual Christmas standard ¨It Came Upon A Midnight Clear¨, and lifts the spirit of the season from the sullened climate of the night.
The Jerry Garcia Band, with Keith & Donna Godchaux, Maria Muldaur and John Kahn, play five songs including a stunning "Mission In The Rain" while Hunter watches from the balcony.
Hours after this show, after midnight, the sky clears under a full moon. It is the day before the dawn of Christmas eve. Yesterday I found a four leaf clover in Golden Gate Park with Mikaela, Treya´s five year old daughter. I am driving down a narrow alley in Berkeley, with Treya, and Kim McCarthy, and encounter a car with its hood up. A girl appears and asks us if we have any battery cables, and if we can give her a jump-start. ¨Sorry,¨ I say, ¨but I don´t have any cables¨. Suddenly, a man steps out of the shadows and stands under a lamppost. He´s wearing a long Irish coat and holding battery cables. It´s Robert Hunter! He walks over and gives them to the girl, and says,
¨Here, take a hit off of him.¨
"Got any booze?" he asks us.
HEAVEN HELP THE FOOL
b
y Uncle JohnI
attended my first live Bob Dylan show at the Oakland Coliseum. I had contacted the Chief of Security who escorted me backstage after the show. Bob Dylan was nowhere in sight, but I did meet Bill Graham, the concert promoter. Bill put me in contact with Bob Dylan´s publicist, Paul Wasserman, and I flew to Los Angeles to talk to him about meeting Bob Dylan. Dylan, however, had left the agency. I found out there that The Bob Weir Band was playing at The Roxy Theatre that night. I attended the show, and Bob Weir said something interesting between songs. "Just because I need a miracle every day, doesn´t mean I get one!" Later that year the Grateful Dead released a new song "I Need A Miracle" written by John Barlow and Bob Weir, and played it for the first time at Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Colorado. It introduced the word "Miracle" to the Deadhead culture, inspiring hope, faith and charity. Someone made a sign that says "I Need A Miracle" and held up the sign and a finger because they needed a ticket to a sold-out show. Many Deadheads followed and it grew to be an integral part of The Terrapin community. Those who couldn´t afford the show or couldn´t get in, would wait and ask for a miracle, and many of them were gifted tickets by people who had extras and could help.
After the show I went backstage. Bobby Cochran was sitting on the couch and Brent Mydland was there, though I did not know who he is because it is before he joined the Grateful Dead, but was providing keyboards for the Bob Weir Band. Weir comes in and walks up to me and says "You know I hardly have time to do my laundry." I say that his picture and new album "Heaven Help The Fool" covers the windows and walls in all the local record stores. "Just where is heaven?" I ask him and he replies, "Ask Barlow!", and pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket, and writes down John Barlow´s contact information. I thank him.
The following year I went to New York to get my step-children, Robert, almost nine, and Mikaela, seven, who were visiting their grandmother, and we travel across country to return to their mother in California. I call John Perry Barlow and tell him we will be passing through Wyoming and ask if we can we come visit him. He says yes. We arrive and I notice there are no gas stations or stores on the road and see he has his own gas pump on The Ranch. As soon as we arrive, Mikaela asks him if he´s the one who wrote "I Need A Miracle". "Yes, I am" he says. The kids go with his kids to play. Barlow shares with me some stories about some of their songs including "I Need A Miracle", "Estimated Prophet" "The Music Never Stopped", "Black Throated Wind", and how and where they wrote the songs to "Heaven Help The Fool". He talks about poets and songwriting, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bob Dylan. He had some suprising things to say too, and those conversations and revelations will be in the book. We´re sitting on his porch and he invites me into his house to see his pyramid. The Pyramid Room has an energy I never felt before, an amazing overwhelming feeling.
When I ask him the question I asked Bob about Heaven, he answers
"If you want to go for a ride, I'll show you as close as we can get."
Robert and Mikaela get in the back seat of John Barlow’s Cadillac and I ride up front with John. We
take a tour of the ranch. John brings us riders onto the old horse trails sharing his many thoughts. We ride up and around a mountain with these magnanimous views of the ranch he grew up on. The views overlooking the Wind River Mountain range are spectacular and John points out we’re seeing about 7000 acres, less than half of Bar Cross Ranch. We’re in a remote paradise in the northern wilderness of Wyoming. “It’s a state”, John points out “last in the alphabet, and a lot of things, where you’ll find the last of the old west and best of the new.”We talk about “Terrapin, the space between the dark of night and the dawn of day”.
We’re in thick cloudy fog now. John asks me if I have read any of William Blake’s poetry. I said yes, I know some of his poems. John Perry talks about the visionary and pastoral poet. He stops the car. We’re here in the fog, and when we get out of the car we’re able to stick our heads above the clouds. It reminds me of the time it was raining on one side of the street and dry on the other. He takes us to the river bluff, overlooking the Green River. It is different, peaceful, like the most beautiful place I’ve seen on earth it seems to feel at this moment. We're in the heavenly space where the music never stops in our lives, like the wind on the river, it whistles through the pines, an eternal sound, an immortal wind, forever writing in our hearts the memories that take hold, the run of light in the darkness of space, beyond where the great ones gather.
John asks if I want to come with him to the only store, the local liquor barn, and he pulls in to the takeout window there. "Black Jack!" he says with a smile.
GREEN RIVER, Cora, Wyoming
OOMF.fyi
Talkin´Money Tree
SongPoem by Robert Hunter/ Story by Uncle John
Late last night layin´in bed
I found an answer to all my ills
A great big tree growing green and free
Full of ten thousand dollar bills
Well, I went downtown to buy some wheels
Bought every car in town
Bought all the gas and all the oil
So we could all drive around
I bought every big department store
And everything inside
You could back up your truck and fill it up
The doors were open wide
It was company policy
We did it all the time
I bought the park and hired a band
To play every day for free
I bought the bars and the trolley cars
And the telephone company
You could call all day, say "How's it going?"
And never have to pay
Send telegrams to your wife and friends
Saying "You don't have to work today"
But after a while I got so bored
I just gave the whole thing back
All I kept was a bar and grill
By the northbound railroad track
You can come by here any time of night
Or any time of day
The second cup of coffee's free
But the first one, you got to pay
It is the Fourth of July weekend 2015, at Soldier´s Field in Chicago. On the Fourth, as I was entering for the show, one of the Deadheads asks me, "What are they going to play tonight?" I reply, "The first time I met Robert Hunter backstage, he sticks out his hand and says "Shake the hand that shook the hand..." He associates the gesture with the Grateful Dead´s "U.S. Blues". It is the final performances of the Grateful Dead, with Trey Anastasio playing lead guitar in Jerry Garcia´s role, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the band.
Leaving Soldier´s Field with 70,000+ Deadheads, at the last of three shows, we are shoulder to shoulder trying to move to the exit. As soon as we reach the way out, I pull away from the tight crowd and climb a very wet slippery hill with my slip-resistant shoes and I am alone on a street above on a breezy day. I notice this tree, recalling how I could clearly hear Jerry Garcia´s voice, who helped me to not take drugs this weekend, a real test, and I notice what looks like a leaf, fall to the ground, but a closer look reveals it is no leaf. It is a one million dollar Federal Reserve Note with Jerry Garcia´s portrait on the bill.
CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER
by Uncle John
I saw this documentary, “California Typewriter”. There´s an excellent segment with musician John Mayer that clicks with me. John Mayer eloquently shares with us that it´s not the same trying to write on a computer. John Mayer explains this about his songs, how he has many hard drives with his lyrics and work, and yet he´s never going to go back and look at that. Something typed comes from a different mind process, the song flowing from the typing. You can hold it, touch it, see it, roll and scroll it.
I corresponded with the Grateful Dead office in California. I went to the Lincoln Avenue office in San Rafael and Annette invites me in and has me sit at a desk in an office by myself to wait for a phone call from a band member. The whole place is like a musical wonderland of ideas. What I notice in this room is the Selectric typewriter and its balls of different fonts. When I was in New York, I wrote to the Office asking for the lyrics to about eight of the Grateful Dead songs. They mailed them to me, typed, with a script font from an IBM Selectric typewriter. One of those songs is “Scarlet Begonias” and I´m thinking of this song singing to myself:
Once in a while, you get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it
right
Look at it write, look at it write
John Mayer shares a clip with us from the documentary “Don´t Look Back” that shows Bob Dylan playing the typewriter typing. It´s just like another musical instrument for him, like the guitar and harmonica, John Mayer shares. He is in his own world. I see Bob Dylan writing a song tapping the keyboards on the typewriter and the keys he´s tapping are dancing to his words.
John Mayer was inspired to buy a typewriter to see what it´s all about.
"I realize the reason that I was able to come alive on a typewriter where I wasn´t using a computer, or even a pen, was that you´re at sort of a safe distance where you can express yourself openly without having to edit yourself at the same time. And so it became sort of like a confessional for me where I would sit and just type, and the reason I was able to go deeper into an idea was because I wasn´t stopped anywhere in that writing by a red squiggly line. And what is spell check or grammar check if all you´re really try to do is sort of dig into this sort of mercurial sort of world of what your ideas are."
John Mayer is holding a stack of typed lyrics. "If these were in Microsoft Word I´d never see these again, all these typed out lyrics, some of which made the records, most of which didn´t. " He sings "Queen of California" as we watch him read the typed pages. "It´s almost what thoughts look like."
.jpg)
.jpg)
Willie tours with the Baby Boomers 2026
POETRY SLAM
MUSES by Uncle John
P
oetry & Stories.jpg)
1 - You Could Be The One
2 - ROSA AZUL
3 - When The Moment Shines
4 - FAMILY STAR
5 - GABRIEL´
6 - Wolf Moon
7 - Guadalupe RIVER
8 - Your Eyes
9 - Reflections In The Mirror
10 - Café Eyes
11 - Face Of Light
12 - House Of Stars
13 - Featheree
14 - Thunder & Rain
15 - River of Time16 - Mountain Top
17 - heart Dance
18 - River Of Sound
19 - River Of Light
20 - Transformation
21 - Metamorphosis
22 - poems for roses
23 - WONDERLAND
24 - Muses
GABRIEL´
WOLF MOON
LUNA DE LOBO
by Uncle John
La luna de lobo en el aire invernal
Nos muestra que no debemos ser perezosos ni desesperados
Escucha los aullidos misteriosos con ojos nocturnos
Haz tiempo para entrenar y hacer ejercicio
It is winter, January, the night of the Full Wolf Moon,
and according to Bob Weir,
"Welcoming in the Wolf Moon, it´s said to be the luckiest
and most prosperous day of the year,
marking new and bright beginnings."
I´m awake at 2 am when I hear this loud whining sound that seems to come from inside the house, then another sound that is like a growling animal sound, loud, but I am focused on the darkness inside, searching for the sound. Sofia is in the house and is awakened and recognizes the whining cry of the wolf. I realize it is coming from outside, and I open the blinds to look out the front window, and I see a wolf standing at the edge of the sidewalk in front of the door, his long snout angled up, howling at the moon. Wolves use a variety of sounds to communicate. When the pack howls together they create a chorus, similar to humans. They overlay their voices, characterized by rapid pitch changes and wavering howls. Wolves are rare in California, and it´s incredibly fortunate to meet one. I had my deck of cards, looking at the Moon, wondering about the dire wolf that returns to our generation, and as soon as I open the door...
We don´t think like the wolf as a brother,
loyal, lover, protector, or mother.
They are strong with sharp teeth,
but humans are not the enemy of the wolf
, and will not attack unless provoked or threatened.
The spirit of the dire wolf speaks
Prioritize self-care
Stay intuitive sensitive & aware
Nurture emotional well-being
Listen to the inner voice there
Is it foul or is it fair
The answer lands with the air
She gives a hoot like an owl
Follows the wolf moon howl
To see the sight
In the dark and light
The noisy quiet
Without a fight
Smell you hear you see your abs are tight
These wolves come to play,
prancing with their fingers, happily,
and causing others to dance merrily,
rump in the air and bushy tail wagging.
.jpg)
MIDNIGHT NORTH
.jpg)
There´s Always A Story
Uncle John & Phil Lesh
At breakfast in San Francisco with musician Phil Lesh, someone at our table asks him,
"Do you ever listen to the Grateful Dead on the radio?"
"No, never," answers Phil. "When I want to listen to the Grateful Dead,"
he says gesturing with his hands, "I play".
He says that when he listens to the radio, it´s a country music station.
.jpg)
Rooted in the spirit of Pete and Toshi Seeger
Grahame Lesh & Friends
TERRAPIN ROADSHOW 2026
I lived in the Sunset neighborhood of Golden Gate Park
when I took my stepdaughter Mikaela for a walk and we are at the Polo Field.
I suggest to Kaela that we run in the open space here.
When we stop, we sit in the grass and I notice a four leaf clover.
It´s the only one, and I tell Mikaela I don´t want to pick it.
I wish there was a way to get it out of the ground and bring home to repot it.
Mikaela runs into the bushes and she comes out wih a digging tool,
and I carefully cut it out of the ground, bring it home and put it in a flower pot.
Mikaela says, "We should give this to Donna".
She is five years old and saw her first Grateful Dead concert
in the Spring on the road with us at The Fox Theater in Atlanta earlier that year.
We were in the front row and when I look up at the start of the show, I see
Mikaela is sitting on stage on the side of the band in front of the Wall Of Sound.
She stays there for the entire first set.
She says when she looked up all she could see were these giant sky soundscrapers.
At a show on the West Coast in the Summer, she disappears in her independent way,
and returns with stories about being in the ladies´dressing room with Donna and Maria.
A few days after we found the four leaf clover, on the dawn of Christmas eve,
I go backstage after a show, with the flowerpot in hand looking for Donna Jean.
It´s a special show with Robert Hunter and his band opening for Jerry Garcia Band.
Donna Jean joins Robert Hunter to sing "It Must Have Been The Roses".
"Did you hear 'Roses'? Robert Hunter asks Jerry Garcia,
and breaks into the song before he can answer.
"....She had ribbons, ribbons, ribbons in her long brown hair..."
He repeats his question to Garcia and continues the song a cappella...
"I don't know, maybe it was the roses, All I know is I could not leave her there....."
Donna Jean sang this song on stage with Hunter and his band tonight, a very special moment, and Hunter's voice rings through the room with sweet clarity.
"You got any smokes, man?" Hunter asks me. He signals me he's looking for a cigarette and I give him a hand rolled one, marijuana but no tobacco. "It's the best of this year's crop" I tell him. He looks at it like an alien would, holds it, studies it, lights it. "This stuff, heh! The funny stuff." He exhales and takes another toke, and says "OK" and passes it to Garcia who mimics Hunter, and they're both hilarious. Garcia tokes, "Goofitus!" and another "Smoketitus!" laughing and passes the joint along to Donna Jean.
She is in the corner surrounded by people talking to her. When Jerry Garcia passes the joint to her, she holds it a long time without taking a toke. I wait, and capture a glance of her, and she hands me the roach, and I give her the four leaf clover in the flowerpot I’m holding, and share with her Kaela's story. "On the eve of the winter solstice I'm with Kaela in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco when I find a four leaf clover. Five year old Mikaela goes into the bushes and comes out with a digging tool. We cut it out of the ground and repot it at home. Kaela asks me to give the four leaf clover to you Donna". "Were you looking for it when you found it?" asks singer Maria Muldaur. "I found one when I was ten years old, and searched for years after that, but running in The Park this week I stumbled upon this one". "I been looking for one for a long time" Maria says. A few decades later, I found a patch of four leaf clovers on Mt. Burdell in Novato. I brought one to Maria Muldaur after a show at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley one night, reminding her of the one I brought to Donna Jean."
https://www.dead.net/deadcast/donna-jean
Donna Jean
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
TheNeverEndingPool.org
- following Bob Dylan´s Never-Ending TourUncle John: Details for the 2025 - Return To Europe In The Fall When The Frost Is On The Wine
Team: Shakespeare's Attic| 25.11.25 - Dublin | |
| I'll Be Your Baby Tonight | 2 |
| It Ain't Me, Babe | 2 |
| I Contain Multitudes | 3 |
| False Prophet | 3 |
| When I Paint My Masterpiece | 5 |
| Black Rider | 5 |
| My Own Version of You | 3 |
| To Be Alone with You | 4 |
| Crossing the Rubicon | 2 |
| Desolation Row | 2 |
| Key West (Philosopher Pirate) | 3 |
| Watching the River Flow | 2 |
| It's All Over Now, Baby Blue | 4 |
| I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You | 5 |
| Mother of Muses | 3 |
| Goodbye Jimmy Reed | 5 |
| Every Grain of Sand | 5 |
| A Rainy Night In Soho | 3 |
| Concert Total: | 49 (#1) |
| Tour Total (up to this concert): | 1324 (#1) |
Uncle John: Details for the 2026 - Rough and Rowdy Ways Can Never Stop Us - Spring U.S. Tour
Team: shakespeare's attic
Scores for
|
21.03.26 - Omaha |
|
|
Songs by BOB DYLAN (electric keyboard, harp & vocals) I'll Be Your Baby Tonight |
|
|
Man in the Long Black Coat |
|
|
All Along the Watchtower |
|
|
I Contain Multitudes |
|
|
False Prophet |
|
|
Black Rider |
|
|
Love Sick |
|
|
Key West (Philosopher Pirate) |
|
|
I Can Tell (Song by Samuel Smith) |
|
|
I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You |
|
|
Crossing the Rubicon |
|
|
When I Paint My Masterpiece |
|
|
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right |
|
|
Soon After Midnight |
|
|
Nervous Breakdown (Song by Eddie Cochran) |
|
|
Every Grain of Sand |
|
TEACH YOUR CHILDREN
Review by Uncle John
posting soon
Mikaela Davis
New Single
(Official Visualizer)"drifts in with the unhurried grace of a dream...
Part fantasy, part memory, part myth,
11:11 feels both timeless and immediate.
A singular, beautiful mirage where
sound and emotion bleed into one." -MD
MIKAELA DAVIS @ Cafe Du Nord,
San Francisco July 8, 2025
Review by Uncle John
GRATEFUL SHRED
Photo by Uncle John
BILL WALTON & MICKEY HART
In the crawl space behind the scoreboard @SF GIANTS Oracle Park
I remember Bill Walton as Father Time on New Year´s Eve.
Elliott Peck,
Bill Walton & Jason Crosby.jpg)
OUMUAMUA
"A messenger from afar arriving
first"The first confirmed object from another star
to visit our solar system
