Bearly Dead at Sweetwater Music Hall

In this episode of 'Tales From the Green Room,' the hosts welcome guest co-host Paul McCaffrey ("Paulie Mac") -  formerly of the 'Murph & Mac' morning sports radio show on KNBR -  for an engaging and wide-ranging conversation with members of Boston-based band, Bearly Dead, Nick Swift, Michael "Butzy" Butler, and founder Tyler Brooks.  Recorded backstage at the iconic Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, the discussion traverses topics from the evolution of their musical journey, the influence of the Grateful Dead, and their unique approach to setlists and performance. The episode also touches on Boston sports, the local music scene, and the camaraderie within the Grateful Dead tribute band community.  Butler's reflection on the band's musical journey, touring, and relationship with its fans is met with a surprise voice from the past from their greatest influencer, adding an interesting dynamic to the discussion!

Links

https://www.bearlydeadmusic.com/

Bearly Dead - Corrina

March 23, 1975 Grateful Dead Performance and Jerry Garcia Interview - The Deadpod

Episode Transcript

dennis (00:01):
Welcome to Tales from the Green Room. Backstage
conversations from popular musicvenues around the country
curated by Mount Tam Media.Listen in as host Dennis
Truzzillo and Mount Tam Mediafounder Tammy Larson dig up
conversations with artistsbefore and after shows in the
exclusive confines of the greenroom.

tami (00:33):
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Tales From the Green
Room. We have, a great one foryou. Couple surprises, but,
you're gonna love it.

dennis (00:43):
We interviewed Barely Dead at Sweetwater Musical and
this is the episode that camefrom it and it was awesome.

tami (00:50):
It was awesome. First, you should probably mention our
incredible co host.

dennis (00:53):
We had a co host. We'd had a great cohost, Pauley Mack.
Pauley Mack is a San FranciscoBay Area radio personality. He's
been for over 20 years, and he'smostly known as a sports guy.
But the fact is, he's a musicguy at heart.

tami (01:09):
Yeah. He really is. But I mean, he had a lot of questions
and let's not forget that theyboth had their salted hats on
and, and because he's a sportsguy and because he has a lot of
Boston experience, he brought awhole new sort of, you know, the
the sports meets music and theytalk a lot about that.

dennis (01:26):
So great. And the thing is, let's just give him a plug
for his, podcast that's comingout soon with creative Tony. In
January.

tami (01:33):
Yes. And the name is Polly's Particles and that's,
Tony Rain.

dennis (01:38):
And it's gonna be sports focused but with a slant on
music. And this

pauly mac (01:41):
was a

dennis (01:41):
great warm up for it because this was music focused
with a slant on sports. Yeah.

tami (01:46):
And that all gets talked about. Now let's keep in mind, I
was, doing the video for becausewe ours our guy didn't show up
or he he couldn't and so, so I'mnot part of this but it was
really cool being on the outsidelistening and then editing
because it really was an amazinginterview. I loved it.

dennis (02:03):
I liked it and we loved those guys. Nick Swift, is the
guitar and vocals. MichaelButler, vocals and percussion,
mostly vocals. Mhmm. I mean,Michael was just awesome.

tami (02:14):
No. Vocals and dance. I I mean, he had a leather jacket
on, a scarf, and he was spinningand jumping and trying to get
the, you know, the crowd. Butshe was already excited, more
excited. I mean, he's it was alittle bit theatrical.
I liked it.

dennis (02:28):
He was. And and so that was fun. And then the founder of
the band, Tyler Brooks, thedrummer, popped in after we gave
him a recommendations for somevegan food in the area. Buku.
Listen, we recommended Buku.

tami (02:40):
For you for sponsorship.

dennis (02:41):
That's right. And, he loved he said the best food he
had on tour so far. Yeah. So Ijust gave that away.

tami (02:46):
Takes him to California.

dennis (02:47):
Yeah. So anyway, they you know, the great what we
found out about Barely Dead isthey pride themselves in
actively not being like theGrateful Dead yet honoring their
songs. Mhmm.

tami (02:58):
And they really do. I mean, when he said that, I was
like, okay. Where where are theygonna go? And no. I mean, they
definitely honor the songs butthey just they do have a they're
not too upbeat but it's it'sinteresting.
It's different.

dennis (03:09):
It's different.

tami (03:10):
And they talk about the jazz influence in their lives.
Yeah. I think there's it's allpart of it, but I don't wanna
give too much away. But theythey I mean, Michael goes into
some really cool stuff.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Yeah. I do. I did.

dennis (03:22):
Listen to the I I think I said it. Alright. There is a
sound bite for the ages, inthere. So listen to Michael
Butler talk about and let's notforget though Owen Finley who
has recently joined the band onbass and vocals. He was badass
too.
But not but and, Chris Junckeron the keyboards. Man, we didn't
get to talk to him, on theinterview. I spoke with him

(03:45):
afterwards. He said, yeah. Hehad some stuff going on.
But remember, he he was playingso hard his hand his fingers
started bleeding.

tami (03:51):
Oh, that's right.

michael butler (03:51):
Very first song.

tami (03:53):
That's right. You're just like looking for a Band Aid.
That's awesome.

dennis (03:56):
Yeah. So this was part of their Harvest the Wind tour

tami (04:00):
Mhmm.

dennis (04:00):
Which goes on until the end of October 2024. And there
are a couple of dates on thethat's in on the West Coast, and
there are a couple of dates onthe East Coast in, I think,
November, December, certainly inNovember. So check them out
online to get their tour and gosee them. We're gonna start off
with, a track from them, a bitof a track from them to get you
warmed up, Carina.

tami (04:21):
No. I think we're gonna start okay. No. We're gonna
start with

dennis (04:24):
Carina. Yes.

michael butler (04:24):
Start with Carina.

tami (04:25):
You're absolutely right. Tell them.

dennis (04:27):
I'll tell you what. Because I read, in one of the
articles I read about themgetting prepared for
interviewing them, theymentioned how Carina was a very
good example of how they puttheir own twist Mhmm.

michael butler (04:36):
On a

dennis (04:37):
Grateful Dead song. Right. So, have a listen and go
see, Barely Dead if they're inyour area and listen to them in
the meantime.

tami (04:45):
Yeah. Definitely. Okay.

dennis (07:03):
Alright. Barely dead. Welcome to Tales From the Green
Roof.

nick swift (07:08):
Thanks for having us.

dennis (07:09):
Welcome to Mill Valley. Welcome to Sweetwater. We got
all kinds of welcomes for you.And, you're actually people.
You're not barely dead.
You're individuals. Welcome,brother. Good to hear. Yeah.
Thanks for

nick swift (07:19):
having us. Yeah. Yeah.

dennis (07:20):
And, Michael Butler. That's me. Alright. We saw you
up there in

nick swift (07:22):
Soundcheck. It was awesome.

dennis (07:23):
Thank you.

nick swift (07:23):
And,

dennis (07:24):
let me introduce our cohost, special cohost tonight,
Paulie Mack, Paul McCaffrey.

pauly mac (07:34):
Cheers, boys. Good to see you both. Good to see you.
Good to have a couple of Bostonboys here in the Bay Area. Yes.
I got some Boston experiencemyself. In fact, we should let
our listeners know that, thereare hats being worn as we're
rolling tape tonight. But greatto have you guys in the bay, and
you're here actually onebasketball note. It is opening
night. Celtics are playing rightnow.

michael butler (07:53):
So when

pauly mac (07:54):
you guys are out on the road, do you can you keep up
with scores?

michael butler (07:56):
We didn't see the game, but they, were up 35
on the Knicks with, an entire4th quarter left to play. So I'm
pretty sure they're

nick swift (08:03):
Yeah. I think we had a 128 points 12 minutes ago.

pauly mac (08:06):
Because we're on the eve of the, and I know about
Boston sports fans because Ilived there in the late
eighties, early nineties, and,you know, Red Sox, Bruins,
Celtics. How do you guys feelabout this Dodgers, Yankees
thing? I mean, like You know?It's your worst nightmare to
have the Yankees in the world,but go ahead.

michael butler (08:20):
I'll I'll feel this one. I think it's,
terrific. It's the bet if youwant to inspire the Boston
market to do something abouttheir current situation Maybe.

dennis (08:29):
Maybe. Maybe finally.

michael butler (08:30):
Watch the Dodgers and Yankees have all the
fun to make all the money. It'slike and drive the fans crazy
until, like, if they weretolerating the Red Sox not being
competitive this long, like,maybe they'll stop tolerating
it.

nick swift (08:41):
It's I

pauly mac (08:42):
like what you're saying.

nick swift (08:42):
It's no coincidence. This is the best thing that
could happen. The, you know, theheight of Red Sox nation was
when the ownership cared aboutits team. Yeah. They cared about
fielding a competitive team, andit's pretty easy, formula.
So Just care, and we'll comeback.

pauly mac (08:58):
I did a boarding sports show here in San
Francisco for 18 years, and oneof our biggest questions was how
and why did you guys let MookieBetts go?

dennis (09:06):
Like, we

pauly mac (09:06):
don't it's for the liking.

michael butler (09:07):
Well, let's just dispel the myth that, like, me
and Nick had anything to do

pauly mac (09:10):
with put your hands in

dennis (09:11):
it. Right?

michael butler (09:11):
No. No. No. It was a it was a franchise, and it
was a terrible decision. Mookiehas cursed us before a different
one, you know, and now it's

dennis (09:18):
Oh, yeah. 80 6. Yeah. So it was like probably take some
bad

michael butler (09:21):
bad luck with Mookys at this point. We could

dennis (09:24):
we could probably take something from that, Pauley, to,
the as Giants fans to learn what

Speaker 4 (09:28):
it's right?

dennis (09:29):
The the Dodgers us watching the Dodgers and That's
the problem. Yeah. Thing. Yeah.No no bueno.

nick swift (09:35):
Yep. Yeah.

dennis (09:35):
Well, you

pauly mac (09:36):
know, this is how we

michael butler (09:37):
turned it around in the first place. There is
there was a point in Red Soxhistory, especially after, I
mean, it led up to us beingcompetitive when we lost in
2003, but even still Right.Along the way, we had nothing.
And the fans, like, really madea lot of noise at that point,
And that's what inspired them togo out and get Manny Ramirez and

(09:57):
go out and spend money on Pedro.It's like, if you don't want,
you know, it's like it was clearthen if you didn't spend money,
you you weren't gonna win.
So, like, it's no different now.We're back to those times.

dennis (10:06):
Our fans might be a little too passive.

pauly mac (10:08):
Well, the but yeah. No. It's a totally different
animal out here. The fans arewilling to kinda let things
unfold a lot more patiently, Iwould say, in the Bay Area
because Boston sports fans, theydon't have the patience. Yeah.
Well, give me the win.

michael butler (10:20):
Give me the a's. What's going on? The

pauly mac (10:22):
A's fan,

dennis (10:24):
but I'm

pauly mac (10:24):
really sorry to see them. We do. Because we've
watched Oakland lose everything.Everybody.

nick swift (10:29):
I have family.

Speaker 7 (10:30):
To Las Vegas.

nick swift (10:31):
I've been to the Coliseum multiple times. It's a

pauly mac (10:33):
great spot. There's a lot of history over there. Is it
the town has a lot of hearts.So, no, I think it sucks that
they're leaving.

dennis (10:39):
And we're a couple of Giants fans, and we my I hate
got days to go. I hate it. Metoo. I really do. I hate it.

pauly mac (10:44):
It's not easy to do. Like, Vegas doesn't really even
want them. Like, there's a lotof resistance coming from Las
Vegas. So it's a mess, dude.They you talk about bad
ownership.
This guy who owns the aceFisher, he's like a nightmare.

dennis (10:56):
Yeah. So And this is a good segue into, Paulie's
upcoming, sports music ish. Ilove radio.

pauly mac (11:04):
Yeah. So we're gonna launch a new show in January.
It's gonna be a and we're like asports show, but we talk a lot
of music. I'm a big deadhead. Wehave a lot of musicians on the
show.

michael butler (11:12):
I had the opposite radio show once.

nick swift (11:14):
Yeah.

dennis (11:14):
Where oh,

michael butler (11:14):
we're a bunch of musicians who talked a lot about
sports.

pauly mac (11:16):
Yeah. No. It really is. It's interesting. Like, I
was just talking about when BobWeir was on our show.
We had one of the one of theways we were able to book Bobby
was by offering him to sit rightalongside Ronnie Lott, one of
the great 49ers.

dennis (11:28):
Oh, that's nice.

michael butler (11:29):
So once

pauly mac (11:29):
we told Bobby, hey. We got Ronnie Lott coming in.
Bobby's like, I'll be there.Right?

nick swift (11:32):
Yeah. Yeah.

michael butler (11:33):
So What

nick swift (11:34):
time, y'all?

dennis (11:34):
Yeah. So

michael butler (11:35):
one of the best players on tech mobile. Alright.

dennis (11:38):
So we're kinda doing that tonight, music program with
sports. Right? Kinda like yourold thing, Michael. Right?

michael butler (11:43):
So let's show this. I love it. We're just

dennis (11:45):
shooting the breeze. We're shooting

Speaker 7 (11:46):
the breeze.

dennis (11:46):
This is not an interview. This is a a breeze
shooting session.

pauly mac (11:49):
No question.

dennis (11:50):
But I gotta say, the first thing I saw I I thought of
you guys coming here into theepicenter, the the Grateful
Dead, to the lion's den,whatever you wanna call it. Do
you feel that? I mean, what'sthe what's the emotion coming
not only to the Bay Area, MarinCounty and this nightclub here
in Sweetwater?

nick swift (12:08):
Well, as soon as you step into this sort of radius,
you definitely feel, oh, we'rehome. We're we're where this is
all from. This is the birthplaceof of everything that we do, and
we're obviously 3,000 miles awaymost of the time. So being here,
there's this reverentialelement. You're like, we're
we're not that far from thehouse on Haight Ashbury, you

(12:31):
know, in Haight Ashbury.
And all the historical venuesand landmarks that the dead grew
up playing, all the acid testsand all that sort of stuff. And
there's, you know, that elementof, like, you really wanna bring
it. You wanna show that we'vethat we're we belong, that we're
part of this family as well, andwe're someone to be paid
attention to a little bit if youwant to. And but at the same

(12:53):
time, we we know that ourapproach is quite a bit
different than most people's.Like, we're not try we actively
are trying to not sound like theGrateful Dead.
I don't have an envelope filteron my board. We've got Butsy as
a lead singer who is verydifferent from many of the the
vocalists you hear in the properGrateful Dead.

dennis (13:09):
You're no got Donna Gotcha. I mean, no. But, you
know,

michael butler (13:13):
it's only, when he needs to be.

pauly mac (13:15):
Right. Yeah. Sure. Actually,

michael butler (13:17):
you know, I I try to incite the band, like, I
mean, the the crowd, like, inplaying in the band to, like,
you know, when she does her bigscream, like, I want the crowd
to give you the best song.

nick swift (13:25):
It's a

dennis (13:26):
good idea.

pauly mac (13:26):
Let me give you the best song. Yeah.

dennis (13:28):
We were watching the sound check. We looked at each
other. Wait a second. They theygot a singer. And, the test
there's one thing that'sdifferent among others.

nick swift (13:35):
Right? Only one guitar player. Yeah. And Chris,
our keyboard player, is a funkmachine. And, you know, is he we
all bring our own flavor to it.
I think, you know, we all comelike, I I grew up listening to
Grateful Dead through my dad,but also through listening to a
ton of other stuff. And, youknow, butts and and and and
Young definitely come from,like, a funk background. And
and, Tyler, kind of a worldmusic, is our drummer. Tyler,

(13:58):
our drummer, has, like, sort ofa world music, almost and
sometimes, like, a punk rockkind of aesthetic that he he
really goes for. So everyonekinda brings this own unique
flavor to the music, and ourwhole approach is just take
these songs because they're sogood.
Yep. They're so well written.They're like, the the when you
start to break them apart andyou start to realize even the

(14:18):
simple songs aren't that simple.There's little things. And, and
the lyrically, they're, youknow, second to none.

michael butler (14:25):
Second to none.

nick swift (14:26):
Yeah. Robert Hunter, I think, is the greatest
American songwriter lyricist ofall time. Yeah. It's just
unbelievable to me. And andJerry and Poppy wrote really
great chord progressions and andand tunes.
And you can just take those anduse them as a springboard for
your own sound and your ownstyle.

pauly mac (14:44):
So as you guys are putting your own stamp on the
music, which I think is a reallygood idea because there are so
many bands now playing GratefulDead music all over the country
as you guys know. And when youhave your own approach as you
guys do, it's gonna help youkinda pop from the crowd. But a
question I have about you'retalking about how well written
the songs are, and you're right.Their catalog, it's pretty damn

(15:04):
incredible. I mean, like, whatBob Dylan is calling Robert
Hunter and saying, hey.
Help me write some songs.

nick swift (15:09):
Yeah.

pauly mac (15:09):
I think you're a pretty damn good lyricist. But
when it comes to the jams, like,what's your philosophy, feeling,
or approach when you guys sayyou're doing Scarlet Fire. Do
you have, like, a traditionaljam, or can it go anywhere?

dennis (15:21):
You can

michael butler (15:21):
just say what you wanna say.

nick swift (15:22):
That's funny you should say that.

dennis (15:24):
Yeah. Okay.

michael butler (15:24):
Well, honestly, I mean, we, posted, like, a reel
over, like, we were playingScarlet Fire, then this
happened. Do you know what Imean? It's like, we try, like,
we we as a band really believein uncharted territory.

nick swift (15:38):
Yes.

michael butler (15:38):
You know what I mean? I feel like that's how we
play in the spirit of theGrateful Dead is to try to,
like, push new ground musically,to use our improv's, to create
some sort of combination ofsounds that people go, what was
that? Yeah. You know, where didI just go? Like, places that you
might not expect.
I mean, to and to echo what hewas saying before, it's like a
songbook. You know what I mean?And plus, it includes, like, you

(16:01):
know, an equal portion of someof the greatest songs ever
written by other bands as wellis what they've opened their
book to. So it's not differentthan how a jazz artist goes
through a real book Yep. And,like, reinvents that those
tunes.
Here's the chart. Here's thetune, but make of it what you
will. Well said.

nick swift (16:19):
And and that's definitely the approach we take.
I mean, we we've got, Owen onbase with us, for this tour,
Owen Finley from Florida, andhe's been awesome. And

michael butler (16:29):
Great player. Great dude.

nick swift (16:30):
And he he came in, and we were like, don't sound
like Phil. Just sound like OwenYeah.

dennis (16:34):
To yourself. Beautiful.

nick swift (16:36):
And, you know, we we will create some cool stuff
together, and we'll see whathappens.

pauly mac (16:41):
And it's been working.

dennis (16:42):
The dead did in a a different way. You're
improvising.

nick swift (16:45):
You're you're

dennis (16:46):
running with stuff. Nothing's the same.

nick swift (16:48):
And I think that that is what excites us the most
about being in a Grateful Deadcover band. It's it's not about
trying to emulate a sound. It'sabout trying to, like, really
get the spirit of what they'regoing for and continue that
forward in whatever that meansto you.

pauly mac (17:03):
Do you, as a guitar player I mean, like, that's the
hot seat, man. That's everyone'salways gonna gravitate when
you're listening to GratefulDead. Alright. Who's on guitar?
Who's doing the Jerry stuff?
Like, how even though yourapproach is different, do you
feel somewhat, you know,obligated to honor what Jerry's
doing? Or is it more aboutcapturing, like, the essence of
what he's doing?

nick swift (17:22):
I I I think for me, it's more about capturing the
essence because I I love JerryGarcia. He's one of the guys who
taught me how to play guitar. Hedoesn't know it, but he he he
literally taught me how to playguitar. I would my my buddy
showed me some chord shapes andsome and, you know, here's a
pentatonic box. Now go.
Go. And, and I would throw onthe Grateful Dead. I'd throw in

(17:43):
Friend of the Devil. I'd throwon Bertha, whatever, and just
try to make it work and justplay along with Jerry. And so it
wasn't so I wasn't necessarilytrying to play what Jerry was
playing.
I was trying to play around whatJerry was playing. Yep. And so
that's I think a lot of my stylecomes from that, if I can talk
about my style.

dennis (17:58):
You can.

pauly mac (17:59):
You should. What else? You can

nick swift (18:00):
ask him.

pauly mac (18:00):
That's why I'm

dennis (18:01):
asking. Yeah.

nick swift (18:02):
Get to cook. But that's that's

dennis (18:04):
Good style.

nick swift (18:04):
My, my my approach I I find myself I I I love to play
around what other people aredoing. And and so I'd there's
definitely some pressure, sure,as as the only guitar player in
a in a guitar driven band. But,you know, Chris Yunker on keys,
I mean, he gives me a lifelineevery time I need it. He's so
good. And playing with him is

michael butler (18:25):
Phenomenal, truly.

nick swift (18:26):
Is so easy. And, and and also but easy, but also
difficult in the sense that he'spushing me in all sorts of new
musical ways, that I hadn't beenpushed before. And, and he can
really come in and be a starYeah. In, you know, in the song
because he can just take it toanother level. So it's it's less

(18:47):
about me being Jerry and moreabout how can

michael butler (18:50):
especially It's it's about we. It's

nick swift (18:52):
about Yeah. Yeah. And it's cool. Especially from,
like, the melody, you know, highend part of it, me and Chris.
You know, is how can we createthese sounds?
Because half the time, he'sdoing a lot of the Jerry licks
on a clavinet with with a wahpedal to kinda emulate, like,

pauly mac (19:05):
the that during sound check.

michael butler (19:06):
He was doing that.

nick swift (19:07):
Yeah. So so, you know, we that's part of our
approach too is to, you know,we'll we'll gladly rewrite a
little bit, you know, or or orre what's the word? Like,
reinstrumentize. Yeah. Like, ifI pass it around,

dennis (19:18):
you can play this nice.

michael butler (19:20):
Yeah. Right.

nick swift (19:20):
Right. Like, maybe the the bass plays this lick or
something like that. So I Idon't know.

pauly mac (19:25):
Yeah. I I bet there's

dennis (19:26):
no pressure. You guys don't you don't feel pressure,
do you, when you're up there?

nick swift (19:29):
And I You know, I mean, you

dennis (19:30):
know, if anything that you know, it is

michael butler (19:32):
like you said it before. It's a little different
to come from there and come hereand, you know, like you said,
into where it all becomes wefeel, like, humbled. It's not so
much pressure.

nick swift (19:42):
Yes.

michael butler (19:42):
But it's just very humble and very grateful to
be in this position and just,like, you know, we don't we are
trying to be pretentious aboutit. Like, we're storming in
here. We're just like, you know,totally.

nick swift (19:53):
We're just gonna we're cool.

pauly mac (19:55):
We're gonna give this up. You know what I mean?

nick swift (19:56):
You know? It's a very

dennis (19:58):
forgiving and understand forgiving might not be the right
word, but It's a good word.Okay. The forgiving audience.
And this audience

Speaker 4 (20:04):
will let you any artist that we,

dennis (20:06):
interview here, it says when they come in this room,
they feel like they could trystuff out. Yeah. You guys are
trying stuff out all the time.Yeah. Right?
And it's so it is forgiving inthat sense where this audience
is cool. Whatever you

nick swift (20:17):
that's you. Absolutely.

dennis (20:18):
It's it's a bit sophisticated in that sense.

michael butler (20:20):
I feel like that's, like, been a tradition
because, like, the Grateful Deadthemselves, like, would just go
for it.

nick swift (20:25):
Yeah.

dennis (20:26):
You know

michael butler (20:26):
what I mean? And not really care if, like, you
know, not everyone hit thebridge. You know? That's right.
You know

nick swift (20:31):
what I mean?

michael butler (20:32):
It's like, you know, we'll get through that.

nick swift (20:34):
Way is going. We're racing here at the river.
Whatever.

michael butler (20:37):
You know, like, the fans, like, feel the energy.
That's the most important thing.Yeah. And, you know, like, they
also relate to the humanity ofthe of and and, you know, the,
just whatever that is, that thehumanity. Yeah.
Like Yeah. That's true. Butthat's a good

dennis (20:53):
word of of

michael butler (20:54):
of the people, playing the music. If they, you
know, stumble over something, italmost brings the audience
closer to the band because theywere there for that. And you're
like and then they see themshake it off, and it's like

nick swift (21:04):
I'm fully excited to that. Yeah.

michael butler (21:06):
They they enjoy that.

pauly mac (21:07):
That's probably why the crowd used to always cheer
when Bobby Bob Weir would forgetlyrics on stage. The crowd would
always cheer.

nick swift (21:12):
People That's right. Yeah. To see

pauly mac (21:14):
because it's real.

nick swift (21:15):
Their hero become human for

michael butler (21:17):
a moment.

dennis (21:17):
That's what that is.

nick swift (21:18):
Yeah. That yeah. But, like, you know, people just
like it I I'm a big fish guy. Iknow I've been to a 1,000,000
fish shows, and I know that thatgenerally the biggest cheers are
when, oh, we forgot the oh, Iscrewed up.

dennis (21:27):
Oh, yeah.

michael butler (21:28):
That's what I'm trying to

dennis (21:28):
do is

nick swift (21:29):
because people are like, yes. They're human like
me.

michael butler (21:31):
They're not

nick swift (21:31):
these gods. On a stage.

dennis (21:33):
Yeah. You see Phil when Phil sort of, forgets words
sometimes Yeah. Or gets a littlea little trouble. The whole crew
just picks them up.

nick swift (21:39):
Here's a here we go. We're all together.

pauly mac (21:41):
We got you. You know? Yeah. It it's interesting
talking about, you know,audiences, Bay Area audiences,
because I think Dennis is right.Like, this the the Bay Area
audience is probably Californiaaudiences are really good
listeners.
Like, these people will listento what you're doing Yeah. And
they'll get excited. Yeah. Iremember when I lived in Boston,
you know, it's a totallydifferent kind of crowd back
there. Like, it was really firedup crowd.

(22:02):
Like, when the Grateful Deadcame back to Boston Garden in
91, they hadn't played there, Ithink, since 82. It had been a
while. They were doing a lot ofshows at Worcester, But they
came back

michael butler (22:11):
to shows. What's that? I was literally at one of
those shows.

pauly mac (22:13):
The garden shows? Yeah.

dennis (22:14):
Yeah. And

michael butler (22:14):
that's what I was.

pauly mac (22:15):
Me too. I was at 3 of those. Yeah. They were just
crazy.

michael butler (22:18):
I was young when I was like

pauly mac (22:19):
Yeah. Hornsby, it was like, you know, during the
Hornsby. Hornsby. But those

michael butler (22:23):
were really exciting. Love Hornsby.

nick swift (22:24):
We do too.

pauly mac (22:25):
I love Hornsby. So so do I. And I think Jerry did too.
When when Hornsby first joinedthe band, I think Jerry got
reinvigorated. It was likeexciting.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
You can

nick swift (22:34):
see it in the video.

michael butler (22:35):
Well, all his his side projects too. He just
loved playing with the cats.

dennis (22:38):
You know?

michael butler (22:39):
It's like when he gets the cats in on it, oh,
this guy's a killer.

pauly mac (22:41):
Like, he's bringing me

dennis (22:42):
the cats in.

pauly mac (22:42):
Boston area now. Because, like, when I was there,
it was a major hub for GratefulDead, you know, activity and
fans because you could get to avariety of towns within 2 hours.
You had Boston, Hartford,Worcester, Providence. You're
looking at all these places. Yougo down New York, see them down
there.
What's it like in the Bostonarea now and their appetite for
bales like yourselves and justGrateful Dead music? It's

(23:04):
wonderful.

nick swift (23:04):
It's strong. Yeah. I mean, Boston has always been
great to us. We we had aresidency in Somerville, weekly
Wednesday night residency for 7,8 years.

michael butler (23:13):
Which venue? We basically insist because of the
love that Boston has.

nick swift (23:17):
Yeah. You know?

michael butler (23:18):
That's why we're here.

nick swift (23:19):
This whole this whole project started purely as
a weekly residency, and and it'sit underwent a lot of lineup
changes over the the early yearsand stuff like that. And co we
were going strong up until andthrough or up until COVID, and
everything closed down as weknow. When we came back, the
residency was strong for aminute, then Delta came and

(23:42):
kinda scared everyone awayagain. And and it just never
quite could recover Right. Inthat early time.
And and we're all kinda lookingat each other like, we've been
doing this for a while, and Ithink we have something really
cool and special that we couldbring elsewhere. And we had been
doing some, you know, a littlebit of shows in New England, you

(24:02):
know, Hartford and Yep. AndBurlington and, you know, Maine
and New Hampshire, all thatstuff. But it was it was like,
what what if we really got outthere and stayed in a hotel one
night? You know?
Yeah.

pauly mac (24:14):
I'll match it. Yeah.

dennis (24:14):
I'll match it. Yeah.

nick swift (24:15):
Will we will we kill each other, or will we have fun?

pauly mac (24:17):
Let's see what happens.

nick swift (24:18):
And we found out that we have fun. And so we've
been, doing everything we can tobe on the road as much as
possible ever since, and, it'sbeen an absolute blast.

dennis (24:28):
And it's one thing to come to that realization or that
decision, but easier said thandone. I mean, touring is no easy
or inexpensive task.

michael butler (24:37):
It is

nick swift (24:37):
not. Right?

pauly mac (24:38):
And so, I

dennis (24:38):
mean, quit your day jobs, so to speak. Yep. Or
whatever it was you I

michael butler (24:42):
tend to look at being a musician as much like
being a monk. You know what Imean? It's you do not do it for
the money. You don't necessarilyexpect to get money. You're
basically, like, people donateto you through tickets and
however they support your band,to sort of keep the to keep you
on your spiritual path.

(25:03):
I they afford us the ability tosort of and then we offer them
what we do. And hopefully, inthe end, it's an even exchange.
You know? It's like, that's whatit is. It's just you're devoted
to it

Speaker 7 (25:15):
one way or the

michael butler (25:16):
other. You So what do you do? You go play
shows.

dennis (25:18):
That's Michael, I love that. That's a fucking sound
bite right there.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
Okay. This is Dennis. I'm gonna butt into my own
interview here. We we rarely dothis, but I I remember when we
were interviewing Michael atthis point, while he was talking
about likening his, journey as amusician to being a monk, I was
thinking, man, what a greatsound bite. I even said it here

(25:42):
in the interview, but I reallydid.
It's not, this is amazing, theway he's explaining this. It was
very it really touched me. Sothat's all well and dandy and
cool. But after completelyunrelated. After this interview
and episode was recorded,somebody, one of our listeners
had come to me and said, hey.

(26:03):
You gotta check out thisinterview of Jerry Garcia from
1975. It was done before thesnack Sunday concert. And I
thought, well, that's kindacool. And I think Rich Marini,
who was the listener, did thisbecause he heard I was at that
snack Sunday show. So, anyway,I'm just moseying along.
I just decided the other day tocheck out this interview with

(26:25):
Jerry Garcia. And it was doneby, Peter Simon of Rolling Stone
Magazine. And it was sort of atales from the green room style
situation where they wereinterviewing Jerry Garcia before
he went on stage. And all of asudden, they launched into this
discussion about how it was itwas really about how the dead
they had been on the hiatus andbut they had some success, and

(26:48):
they were talking about themoney they were making and how
they put it back into, the musicand into the fans. So he talked
about this whole reciprocalprocess between the fans, and
the music getting better forthem.
And I listening to that, Iimmediately thought of what
Michael was saying here, and Ireally found it to be uncanny.
These guys were 50 years apart,are speaking, about the same

(27:10):
journey. And, by the way, thatrecording was lost. The Peter
Simon interview with Jerry waslost for about 40 years. I think
it just turned up about 10 yearsago.
So perfect timing here for us toshare this with you. I wanted
Michael to hear it. It's alittle surprise for him the
first time he's listening tothis interview and for you
listeners. So check it out.

Speaker 8 (27:33):
That's really the best part about what we ever
did. I mean, in terms of, thatwas the best part. It was
certainly certainly, relating tothe people and, relating to each
other on a friendly basis andand closely in a in a family
sort of ways. It's morerewarding to approach anything
that way than it is do it, youknow, for success reasons or

(27:54):
that that sort of thing, youknow. It just is better.
It just feels better. And andand I think it produces better
music too. I mean, in terms ofcommercial success in the sense
of, making a fortune or anythinglike that, we certainly never
were that. And, our effort ishas always been to, sort of plow
back the proceeds from our gigsback in into, expanding the

(28:18):
quality level of the equipmentand that sort of thing. In an
effort to improve what we'redoing, that's what where it's
really gone in terms of theenergy and the money that we've
made rather than distribute itto individual wealth, you know,
that sort of thing.
That's just been our focus hasbeen that way all along and,
there's no I mean, that seems towork out pretty well. It also
seems to be most fair in thesense that fans who or people

(28:41):
who are coming to hear our musicare are, in a way promoting and
paying for supporting the thething of making it better, which
I think is fair, a good, youknow, reciprocal, you know.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that
was pretty awesome. And thetiming was strange too in that I
just heard about this interviewright after Michael said that.
So, hopefully, you enjoyed itbecause I did. Let's get back to
the interview.

dennis (29:09):
That was good. Let me ask

pauly mac (29:11):
you about Thunder Road for

dennis (29:12):
a second because it struck me. Is that where
neighbor, did their

michael butler (29:15):
Yes. As well

dennis (29:16):
as show there.

nick swift (29:16):
Tuesday and we were Wednesday.

michael butler (29:18):
Is that where it was?

dennis (29:18):
I thought so. Okay. Because we We're friends

nick swift (29:20):
with all those guys.

dennis (29:21):
Yeah. Yeah. And we met them a couple of years ago,
Tammy and I. We went to,Martha's Vineyard. They were
playing at the, the beach, thebeach road festival or whatever.

nick swift (29:31):
Beach road weekend. Beach road weekend.

dennis (29:32):
Beach road weekend. Beach road weekend.

Speaker 7 (29:32):
Beach road weekend. Yes.

dennis (29:33):
Didn't know him, and we go and my buddies there, oh,
man, this is your kind of band,and it was. We love neighbor.
And they ended up coming outhere, couple months later. So I
just texted, or did a DM to,Lyle. Yep.
And, sure enough, we went andinterviewed him at the the
chapel. But they they had,10,000 people at that show and

(29:53):
maybe 90 at the chapel. And Iwas like, wow. I mean, that's it
kinda struck me, you know, noteasy.

nick swift (29:58):
It's a difficult world out here.

pauly mac (29:59):
It's a difficult world.

nick swift (30:00):
You know, you sell out one night in in a town you'd
never expect, and then the nextnight where you think it's gonna
be packed, it's empty, and

dennis (30:08):
you

nick swift (30:08):
don't know quite why. And then you find out, oh,
there are 8 bands playing downthe street.

michael butler (30:12):
Right. And there's that.

dennis (30:13):
Oh, okay.

michael butler (30:14):
Also, it's a leap of faith. You know what I
mean? It's like we come out herefor the first time, you know,
and play, and then we have towait a year Yeah. Until we get a
chance to build on that.

dennis (30:23):
Do you

Speaker 7 (30:24):
see what I mean?

dennis (30:24):
So it's

michael butler (30:24):
like we hope that, like, the people we played
for a year ago are like, oh,yeah. Right? You know? And wanna
come right back, but, you know,and it creates some sort of
momentum that there's morepeople the second time. And then
the third time, there will bemore people.

dennis (30:37):
Yeah. I didn't realize you had played here last year.
So now I at least I figured itout this year, thankfully. Yeah.
But the reason I found out isbecause Bella Rain, told me that
she sat in with you guys a yearago.
I said,

nick swift (30:48):
oh, shit. Absolutely.

dennis (30:49):
So how did you guys hook up with her?

nick swift (30:51):
Bella reached out on Instagram. Ah, lovely. That.
Wow. Which, you know, shows thepower of just, you know, being
persistent and and and and goingfor what you want.
And, man, she is impressive.Gotcha.

dennis (31:03):
That wow. She'd reach out and do a DM.

nick swift (31:05):
She just was

dennis (31:06):
like, hey.

nick swift (31:06):
And and, you know, you we occasionally get a
message that, you know, someonewants to sit in or and and you
don't quite know. And, you know,it's like, I'm a I'm a 15 year
old girl from from California,and I would like to sit in. And
I'm I'm like, okay.

dennis (31:20):
I'm I'm Is this legal?

nick swift (31:21):
Like, I'm 30 we're all in our thirties, forties,
fifties at this point. You know?Like, it's it's an odd Yeah. You
know? It's just that

michael butler (31:31):
airing, but in the neighborhood.

Speaker 7 (31:32):
It's not

dennis (31:33):
It's not at odds. It's not

nick swift (31:33):
that bad. Bad word. But, like, it it

michael butler (31:35):
it's music.

dennis (31:36):
It took me by surprise.

nick swift (31:38):
And but I look for I've watched videos. I was

michael butler (31:42):
like, wow. She is good.

nick swift (31:44):
And we're like, you know what? Yeah. Let's do it. I
see her playing with all theseother Grateful Dead bands. I'm
like, okay.
Yes. Whatever. Let let's let'ssee how this goes. And she came
in. I think we played dance onthe street.
She tore it up.

michael butler (31:55):
And then I

nick swift (31:56):
was like We

dennis (31:56):
asked her tonight, what are you gonna play? She goes, I
don't know yet.

nick swift (31:59):
Yeah.

dennis (31:59):
And you may not still know.

nick swift (32:00):
Yeah. We we're

pauly mac (32:01):
still trying to figure

nick swift (32:02):
that out.

pauly mac (32:03):
On that note, actually, one of the questions I
have is set list. Because I'vebeen checking out some of your
set list online, and I noticedthat it's not a traditional kind
of crinkle that format. 2 sets,but any it seems to me like any
song could pop up at any time ineither set, which is different
from, like, a Grateful Dead kindof blueprint. So I guess what I

(32:23):
wanna know is how collaborativeare the set list, or is it one
guy who who writes them up?

michael butler (32:28):
And Yeah. How most me, it's Nick, and he'll
come up with the basis. And ifany of us have some input on the
set

nick swift (32:35):
Yeah.

michael butler (32:35):
We, at that point, will, like, offer it,
maybe shuffle a couple thingsaround, pull a song out, you
know.

pauly mac (32:41):
And for you as a singer, how do you feel about
just kinda getting a list ofsongs? Because I know how it is
singing. It's like you reallywanna know what you're gonna be
singing, when it is

nick swift (32:50):
It's meant to yeah.

michael butler (32:51):
I'm an animal.

pauly mac (32:52):
You know what I mean? Like Yeah. I look forward to I
just

michael butler (32:54):
I just I just wanna I, you know, I just I'm
like a pack fan when it comes

nick swift (32:57):
to this. There'll be a set list written, like, 6
hours ahead of time and about 5minutes before we go upstairs.
Like, so what are we playing?Oh, yeah. Well, I thought I told
you, but yeah.
Yeah. Here you go.

dennis (33:06):
Sing them. Throw them. Every now and

michael butler (33:08):
again, you know, I have a tough time with, stuck
inside of mobile because it's

dennis (33:11):
A lot of verses.

pauly mac (33:12):
9 verses. Desolation World

nick swift (33:13):
is like

michael butler (33:14):
9 verses. And they're all the same. You know?
It's like

pauly mac (33:17):
it's a

michael butler (33:18):
little tough. Do you

dennis (33:19):
guys have any help in

pauly mac (33:20):
that sense? Like, you can not have a teleprompter, do
you? I mean, like, is your wife?

michael butler (33:23):
That's my joke. No. I actually

dennis (33:24):
I I have a cheat

michael butler (33:25):
sheet, you know, for some especially for songs
like that.

dennis (33:28):
You know,

Speaker 7 (33:28):
it's like,

michael butler (33:28):
you know

nick swift (33:29):
You you it's you know, I'll have, some charts
available to me, but you findyourself looking at it, like, 3
times a show.

michael butler (33:35):
Like, my theory is is that, you know, you know,
and plus, you know, Bobby'susing them these days.

Speaker 7 (33:40):
Oh, yes. And it's like

michael butler (33:41):
if the technology was available back in
the day, I think for certainthese guys would

dennis (33:45):
have Who's not using an iPad these days? Right?

pauly mac (33:47):
Yeah. Exactly. The iPad

michael butler (33:48):
is It's

nick swift (33:49):
you don't wanna be reading. Like, you still want
the the important thing is toknow the tune and know it and be
performing and doing your thing.But, you know, for me, it's nice
to be, you know, in that momentwhere you're like, oh, god.
Mhmm. What's the next chord?
You know, crash. And I

michael butler (34:04):
honestly think there's a difference there
between, like, you know, ifyou're playing someone else's
music, you know how to get itright. Yeah.

dennis (34:11):
Do you know what I mean?

michael butler (34:12):
I do. It's your own music. It's like screw it up
if you want to, but,

Speaker 7 (34:15):
like, you know, like, let's let let me

michael butler (34:18):
like, if I'm, like, in a zone, you know, I'm
like, 3rd bar, so there's 5 100song.

nick swift (34:23):
And I'm like, there

michael butler (34:24):
it is. Yeah. I

pauly mac (34:26):
just take a peek Yeah.

michael butler (34:28):
And I see where okay. That's it. And then I'm
back. You know what I mean? It'seasy.
It's it's helpful.

dennis (34:33):
I wanna, ask you something before I forget about
playing here and the the thebevy of cover bands not only
here, Boston everywhere. Right?Sure. Dead cover bands. How well
do you know the the guys in thismarket?
The Stu Allens or the I'm justgonna throw some names out of
it. Sure. Stu Allen.

nick swift (34:51):
Certainly familiar with all of them. We I don't
think we've really had to. JoeMarcinick is from this neck of
the woods. He's he's a buddy ofours. He's sitting in tonight,
which will be awesome.
Nice. And I I'm certain as soonas you get into this scene and
you start looking out of yourown little market to try to book
things, you become well awareand familiar with all the other

(35:15):
bands that I'm playing. Because,I mean, frankly, you'll you'll
look at their schedules to seewhere there where do the clubs
that Yeah. You know, theGrateful Dead bands play out.
Oh, right.

dennis (35:22):
So you don't know them personally, but you know of them
most Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

nick swift (35:25):
I mean, but

dennis (35:26):
I love the the neighbor guys are the I used to go back
to them. Yeah. Those are justsuch great guys.

nick swift (35:30):
Yeah. Absolutely. Lyle's I've taken a number of
guitar lessons from Lyle Brewer.He's a awesome player.

michael butler (35:35):
I sang with, in one of Ricky's side bands called
Crew Orleans. He broughttogether a bunch of people to do
a tribute to New Orleans, andwe, I think Lyle was a guest
with us at that time. I workedwith, with him. They hadn't
created Neighbor yet, but

dennis (35:48):
He is a bandist. Tell that,

michael butler (35:50):
like, Ricky was trying to really work with Lyle
and was, like, bringing him in.We got we, guitarist for that
project was Johnny Trauma, who'salso very great.

nick swift (35:57):
He's a

dennis (35:58):
great Boston player. Nice Savance.

nick swift (35:59):
Yeah. And and Tyler, actually, our drummer, was the
drummer for Rick Richard James.

Speaker 7 (36:05):
Richard James. Right? Yeah. We call it Ricky.

nick swift (36:07):
Yeah. It was the Richard James band or Richard
James and the name changer.

dennis (36:11):
Richard James. Of course. Yeah.

pauly mac (36:13):
He's gonna be he's gonna be just We had,

michael butler (36:15):
he had a name. I had

dennis (36:16):
I think I was I was

michael butler (36:18):
that was I you guys were

dennis (36:19):
all young then. Right.

nick swift (36:20):
You know?

dennis (36:21):
I'm like,

michael butler (36:21):
I'm a little older.

nick swift (36:22):
I think

pauly mac (36:22):
he'll be happy.

nick swift (36:23):
I just

michael butler (36:24):
walked in this little perfect timing.

pauly mac (36:26):
We had

dennis (36:26):
pink talking fish here. Tyler and I

michael butler (36:28):
share birthday. Yes. Correct. Birthday was
yesterday.

nick swift (36:31):
Oh, yes. Birthday.

michael butler (36:31):
And I have my

pauly mac (36:32):
3 years old. Alright. Now you're gonna

dennis (36:34):
share a microphone. Here you are. Hey. Here's

michael butler (36:36):
Tyler. Silent birthday butts. Yeah.

dennis (36:40):
So they the drummer's in town. We're all in town.

michael butler (36:43):
Yeah. Right on,

dennis (36:44):
man. Nice to meet you here today.

Speaker 7 (36:45):
Nice to meet you too.

dennis (36:46):
Did you get your food?

Speaker 7 (36:47):
I just ate it was probably the best food at Torso
far.

pauly mac (36:51):
There you

dennis (36:51):
go. Where'd you go?

michael butler (36:52):
BuCu right next

dennis (36:53):
door to the

pauly mac (36:53):
Oh, no. You're the Bu guy. Yeah. The Buku guy.

dennis (36:55):
That was my recommendation.

michael butler (36:56):
Oh, well, thank you. I, I really,

dennis (37:00):
really

Speaker 7 (37:00):
best food on tour so far.

pauly mac (37:01):
Yeah. Okay. I feel

Speaker 7 (37:02):
really good about that.

dennis (37:03):
This Buku will be sponsoring this, episode. Sure.
Why shouldn't they? Yeah. Okay.
So let's just repeat all thequestions, to Tyler. What do you
think?

pauly mac (37:12):
Well, I wanna start with the for all, you'd be in
the single drummer in a bandthat's got a, you know, the
rhythm section with the GratefulDead, the 2 drummers and fill.
It's like a wall Yes. It's justmotion and groove and all that.
So how do you feel abouttackling that whole thing?

dennis (37:27):
Well, when

Speaker 7 (37:28):
we started the band, we started as, like, a 9 piece
band, and we had a percussionplayer and 2 drum set players.
Yeah. But when we startedtouring, you know, that's not
really a feasible lineup totravel with

dennis (37:42):
Right.

Speaker 7 (37:42):
For many reasons. Cool. So we decided to grow the
kit a little bit just to givethe audience a little more
drums, and then, you know, hitthe road with 1 drummer.

pauly mac (37:54):
Do you guys do any version of, like, a drum space
segment of the show? Definitely.We just

Speaker 7 (37:59):
did a, drum space with Adrian Charmentano from
Kung Fu the other day atinfinity hall. We did a drum
space with Bill Carbone at FTCalso in Connecticut.

dennis (38:09):
That's gotta

pauly mac (38:09):
be a fun section of the show. Right?

dennis (38:11):
Just let

pauly mac (38:11):
it all go, man.

Speaker 7 (38:12):
Whatever. Super fun. Yeah. We we mostly tend to do
more of that with the largerensemble. But every once in a
while, you might get a solo,Tyler.
You never know. Hey.

pauly mac (38:22):
Stick around tonight. We'll see.

tami (38:25):
I have a question.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yes. Oh, yeah. Go.

tami (38:27):
No. I mean, so a lot of the not just cover bands, but a
lot of the bands that playSweetwater jazz influenced. Do
you guys have any jazzbackground?

Speaker 7 (38:35):
And saw Elvin Jones with my drum teacher, but it
must have been freshman year ofhigh school at a tiny club, and
he knew him. And I got to sitbehind his kit and, like, tap on
the drums and see the ElvinJones experience, like, this far
away. And it was one of the mostincredible shows I've ever been

(38:57):
to. There might have been 50people there. Oh.
It was awesome.

dennis (39:00):
Yeah. Follow-up to

michael butler (39:02):
say that, for many years, I sang, the music of
Frank Sinatra as a local thingto do in Boston. There's some
great players out there, likeRonnie Ronn poster, who's the
organist for the Bruins, wassomeone I got to work with for a
while. They do really good, hisa lot of, you know, people who
do the the trio vibe. And so Igot to do, you know, real book,

(39:23):
you know, standards, like, withhim singing a classic Wow. Great
American songbook.
Sort of why I gravitate to theGrateful Dead in a way because
whereas I don't think I thinkfeel like they're both polar
extreme opposites, especiallythe way they're done. Like, the
way for not the way Sinatraapproaches the craft is almost
like the complete opposite ofthe way the Grateful Dead do.
But each band represents, like,I mean, each each act represents

(39:48):
so many songs. They've got it'sjust like a universe of music
for Sinatra as well as theGrateful Dead. Hundreds and
hundreds of songs, and thatreally excites me.
And I got to learn all of themon each side. It's just like
it's really

pauly mac (40:02):
Well, on that note, you know, one of the things I
read about you guys and justtrying to get familiar with your
story is that I believe you guyssaid something like, if the
Grateful Dead played it evenonce, we'll we'll take a run

nick swift (40:14):
at it. More than just that. It's if the Grateful
Dead touched it. So if if JerryGarcia sits in with Sammy Hagar
at at Sweetwater, they're goingdown. No.
That's cool. Going down. Youknow? That is

pauly mac (40:27):
a really interesting

nick swift (40:28):
that's that's a good idea. And it has led to some
questions about, like, well, nowwho is in Grateful Dead?

dennis (40:33):
Yeah. Yeah.

nick swift (40:34):
Because we know the core, you know, members, but
does Bruce count? Oh. Who isthis?

pauly mac (40:39):
With Clarence many, many times. Right. Clarence
Clemons. So there is a, like,set degrees of separation kinda
thing.

nick swift (40:45):
Does does, does Trey count? Because he was the guitar
player for the Grateful Dead atFairview Wells.

dennis (40:50):
Fairview Wells. Yeah. Good.

nick swift (40:52):
So we, you know, we we debate that sometimes to get
how far we wanna go with

michael butler (40:55):
it. Exactly. Well, that's kinda

pauly mac (40:57):
how we do it.

nick swift (40:57):
That's Just

michael butler (40:58):
because we

pauly mac (40:58):
fairly and are there rules at all?

michael butler (41:00):
No. There aren't. Because, like, we we
play that out because we likethat concept. But at the end of
the day, if we wanna play likeZeppelin, we'll play Zeppelin.

pauly mac (41:08):
For example, there in 88 I don't know if you guys
remember this one. They therewas a big rainforest benefit the
Grateful Dead did at MadisonSquare Garden, and they had a
shitload of special guests likeSuzanne Vega, Paul and Oates,
believe it or not, was on stagewith the Grateful Dead. And they
played some Marvin Gaye, whichwas really neat. But they had
Mick Taylor, from the RollingStones up there that night,
which leads me to the questionof, so if Mick Taylor sat in

(41:30):
with the dead, does that if anadore No. No.
No. No. No. No. No.
No. No. Or or does that have tobe what they play?

nick swift (41:36):
It's it's if you're a member of the Grateful Dead.
And so that I think that's whereit gets because in the, like, in
the nineties, there are somemembers that are there sometimes
and, you know, like, Bruce issort of the obvious example. And
I'm a massive Bruce Hornsby fan.So I'm team

michael butler (41:50):
Bruce is

nick swift (41:50):
in the band. Yeah. We play as all the other family.

michael butler (41:53):
Yeah. You know? We got Valley Road in

dennis (41:55):
the book.

nick swift (41:55):
We got Valley Road in the book. That was good too.
We got Valley Road. Yeah. We'rewe're we've been listening on
the car ride, we listened tosome of the the Hornsby tunes
that Jerry played on

Speaker 8 (42:04):
in the studio.

pauly mac (42:04):
So we're like, what

nick swift (42:05):
are their counts?

pauly mac (42:05):
Just Jerry

nick swift (42:06):
played on those books.

dennis (42:07):
Nice. So it's

nick swift (42:08):
so it's if if Mick Taylor sat in with the dead and
the dead played this specificRolling Stone song, that counts.

michael butler (42:14):
We played

nick swift (42:14):
that stone song. I'm glad

pauly mac (42:15):
I asked. This is cool.

michael butler (42:16):
And I

nick swift (42:16):
think we did play the Hall and Oates song

pauly mac (42:20):
years ago.

michael butler (42:21):
You know? But but I I don't know

dennis (42:23):
about it.

nick swift (42:23):
This is a James. This was this is

Speaker 7 (42:25):
this is on the song. 60.

nick swift (42:26):
It's it's in there. Yeah. There we did play 1 hall
in outside.

michael butler (42:30):
That's so funny.

nick swift (42:31):
You don't remember? Every time you go away.

michael butler (42:34):
Oh, they're well, they

pauly mac (42:35):
did play that, man. They did. They played that.

nick swift (42:37):
Every time they you go away. Yep.

dennis (42:39):
Wait a minute. Who wrote that?

nick swift (42:40):
The crowd kinda went away.

michael butler (42:42):
When we play that. Speaking of,

pauly mac (42:44):
you know, which is why It

nick swift (42:45):
could work for the playing it.

michael butler (42:46):
But That's good stuff.

dennis (42:49):
What, what do what do we, expect tonight? Do we, since
this won't come out, until afterthe show, what what do we expect
tonight?

nick swift (42:58):
I saw you know, I have a list of tunes of which I
can't remember any of them offthe top of my head right now.

michael butler (43:04):
And don't

dennis (43:04):
tell us the set list because I I actually don't want
one of those set list. Order.Yeah.

nick swift (43:08):
And they're probably gonna it's probably gonna change
within you know, as soon aswe're done here, I'm probably
gonna have to go rewrite the setlist. Right. Okay. But, so,
yeah, some some days I have it 33, 4 days in advance. Here you
go.
It's ready to go. Some daysit's, oh, here's the seller's.
Alright. Let's go and see. Likeso so tonight is kinda one of

(43:28):
those fly by the seat of ourpants nights, but I kinda prefer
that in a way because it justfeels more spontaneous and
interesting to me.

dennis (43:35):
I think

Speaker 7 (43:35):
we also have we also have special guests tonight. So
that Mhmm. Also will determine alittle bit about how we approach
our show.

michael butler (43:43):
Right. We

dennis (43:43):
talked about Bella before you came.

Speaker 7 (43:45):
And we also normally are, like, a 2 set band, but we
have an opener today. So we'regonna do one long set. Oh, is
that right? Okay. There's

pauly mac (43:52):
something that's expected.

Speaker 7 (43:53):
That's gonna be the vibe for today. Okay.

dennis (43:55):
That's kinda

michael butler (43:56):
what I was looking for

dennis (43:57):
as opposed to the actual

michael butler (43:58):
Yeah. As opposed to the actual, set list.

dennis (44:01):
If we had a trans well, we do have transcripts of all
our shows, but if we did a asearch, Tammy, of, how many
times the American songbook cameup, those words, it would be,
endless. That and the jazzinfluence Yeah. With everybody.
And we're not just talking aboutthe dead related bands, but
especially the dead relatedbands. The American songbook and

(44:22):
jazz and I mean it started withJay Layne, one of our first
interviews.

tami (44:25):
Berkeley School

michael butler (44:26):
of Music.

dennis (44:26):
Berkeley School. You know, and Jay Jay said he didn't
know a damn thing about theGrateful Dead, you know, when
they they pulled him in. And, itwas perfect. Right? And there's
there's so many

nick swift (44:35):
That's that's exactly what we would want.
Right? Yeah. I've always foundthe film like, if you when you
look at those post Jerry acts,the the the film and friends,
acts were always the ones Igravitated towards towards the
most because the band wasclearly made up of non Grateful
Dead musicians.

dennis (44:54):
Yeah.

nick swift (44:54):
And I I believe there's some story of Joe Russo
when he got tapped for it. Hewas, Phil, I don't even like the
dead.

pauly mac (44:59):
He was like, that's what

nick swift (45:00):
I want.

dennis (45:00):
Yeah. Hold on.

nick swift (45:02):
And I think that that makes it so much more
interesting. You know?

dennis (45:05):
Jackie Green. Jackie Green. Jackie Green. He sat
here. He goes, I know.
You know, they tapped me on theshade. They had no idea. Hey,
Phil Lesh is gonna come watchyou play at Bonnaroo. He goes,
who's he?

pauly mac (45:14):
Right. It was that kind of thing.

nick swift (45:16):
And I saw I saw that film Friends with Jackie Green.
I remember back in 2009.Something like that?

pauly mac (45:22):
They had a

nick swift (45:22):
good lingo

pauly mac (45:23):
on those 2. It was

nick swift (45:23):
a wild night for me.

pauly mac (45:24):
You know

nick swift (45:24):
what I was kinda odd

pauly mac (45:25):
one was was when Ryan Adams started gigging with Phil
10 years ago or something likethat, 2008, it was somewhere in
there.

dennis (45:33):
I I

pauly mac (45:33):
was like, wait. Speaking of odd combos, I'm
like, well, that's that's a

michael butler (45:35):
different one.

nick swift (45:36):
Nobody Girl was a tune we played for a little
while.

pauly mac (45:39):
You guys mentioned earlier today I think it was you
mentioned, an element of, like,a punk rock mentality in the
presentation of some of thestuff, you know. And I I just
wanted to ask, have you guysever heard, Lee Ronaldo from
Sonic Youth play any GratefulDead stuff? Because you should
check it out. There is a punkthing going on there.

Speaker 7 (45:57):
Yeah. It's funny that you mentioned that because
earlier today or maybe it waslast night, we were hanging out
at the house, and, Nick hadmentioned that he felt like my
playing and a recording we werelistening to was very punk rock.
The same time we were talkingabout how I love Sonic Youth. I
love Sonic Youth. They are oneof the bands I grew up with

(46:19):
listening to all the time.
Sublime, like, all sorts of,like, cool, punky,

michael butler (46:25):
gay gay

Speaker 7 (46:26):
type of stuff. And and I have never heard the Sonic
Youth Grateful Dead anything.And the fact that that exists
Oh. And I don't know

Speaker 4 (46:36):
It's really weird.

Speaker 7 (46:38):
Is upsetting.

pauly mac (46:38):
Well, here after

Speaker 7 (46:39):
the gig It's upsetting and now Nick,
experimental jet set is on thesentence. That means it's fair
game.

nick swift (46:49):
That's in.

pauly mac (46:49):
But it is like the way so they do a great version
of and it's not Sonic Youth.It's Lee Reynaldo with a bunch
of his buddies just playingGrateful Dead music, but it's
it's not your typicalpresentation of dead. There
definitely is a punk thing goingon. Yeah. Like, they do a play

Speaker 7 (47:03):
it in the band. I have to check that.

pauly mac (47:05):
You do. You do. On Spotify. Just let's leave it all
though. You 100%.

nick swift (47:08):
Absolutely. That's Tyler in a nutshell. I mean, tie
Tyler is the founding thefounder of of Bay of the Dead,
and he set the tone way back in2015 that this is high energy.
This is uptempo. Yeah.
This is approaching punk rocklevels of of thrashiness from
time to time. Yeah. And andthere are you know, it's not we

(47:28):
don't take every 2 and and, youknow, put it on amphetamines,
but We take a lot of them. Weput them on amphetamines. Every
other one.
And, and we just find We're

dennis (47:38):
getting the old Heavo, guys. Well, this is part of our
charm of Tales from the Dream.We're keeping our house on that.

nick swift (47:43):
There you go.

dennis (47:43):
Keeping it real. We got, we got the we're in the
production room here.

nick swift (47:46):
Yeah. We're gonna start playing a show.

pauly mac (47:48):
Okay. We'll let you guys go.

dennis (47:49):
And, but anyway, guys Where are we next?

pauly mac (47:51):
Goes out. Good.

Speaker 7 (47:51):
We're at Toast Alley in Santa Cruz. Tomorrow. You'll

pauly mac (47:54):
love Santa Cruz.

nick swift (47:55):
And we're at the dip in Red Air.

michael butler (47:57):
We've been there, we we've been there, for
the last few days. We had 2 offdays. Oh, good. So we've been up
in Santa Cruz. We're stayingthere for 4 days.
We've been down for this gig.Nice. We had the best off day
yesterday. Isn't it? It's just I

dennis (48:10):
don't know.

michael butler (48:10):
All of our birthdays.

pauly mac (48:11):
Yeah. Cheers boys. Well, welcome and thank you.
Thank you.

dennis (48:14):
Take care. Thanks for listening to Tales from the
Green Room, a presentation ofMount Tam Media. You can hear
more spontaneous stories fromthe secluded confines of green
rooms on our next episode. Toexperience all Mount Tam Media
productions, including the WomanAre Smarter podcast, log on to
mount tammedia.com. We'll seeyou at the next show.