Syracuse Post-Standard
April 12, 2005
by Mark Bialczak
When Dennis McNally hears that Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard will play in the big arena at Turning Stone Resort and Casino April 20, it doesn't take him a second to come up with a couple of stories. "I was the doorman, if you will, at Jerry's funeral," says the longtime publicist for The Grateful Dead, recalling when guitarist-singer Jerry Garcia left this world in 1995. "I got to decide who got in and who didn't."
Dylan got in, despite what McNally calls a cold handshake.
"It was ingratiating that Bob came to pay tribute to Jerry," McNally says.
And Haggard?
"I went to see a tribute concert for (Western swing country legend) Bob Wills in San Francisco, and Merle comes out and does his regular set," McNally says. "That was so disappointing."
Jerry and Bob and Merle.
McNally's a guywho was on a first-name basis with legends even before Garcia invited him to become the Grateful Dead's biographer in 1980. In 1979, Random House published McNally's biography, "Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and America." In 2002, he chronicled the Dead with his book "A Long Strange Trip."
Now, McNally is on a break from researching his next book. He's driving the length of the Mississippi River to soak up the cultural relationship of blues and jazz, T.S. Eliot and Tennessee Williams in that part of America.
But on this first Thursday night of April, McNally's snaking through the backstage area of the Turning Stone's Showroom to tout the talents of RatDog.
The band, led by Dead guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir, is preparing for the first part of a two-night stand in Verona, and the veteran publicist bounces through the hallways. Looking scholarly in wire-rimmed glasses, and hip with slightly mussed hair, McNally acts as host. He introduces strangers, points out food trays, pulls chairs to great viewing spots on the wings of the stage.
RatDog's beenaround since Weir and bassist Rob Wasserman started it as a jazzy jam vehicle in 1996. Despite his long-standing relationship with Weir, McNally didn't decide to leave his wife and new grandchild home in San Francisco to join the band on the road as its publicist until this tour.
"Why now? There are very specific reasons," McNally says from stage right as glasses-and-sandals-wearing Weir leads guitarist Mark Karan, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, saxophonist Kenny Brooks, bassist Robin Sylvester and drummer Jay Lane through a sound check.
"I was alwaysfond of RatDog. But what happened was, many saw them as they started in 1996 and they think it's still that band," McNally says. "That was a four-piece with no lead guitar. It was sedate. The refusal for having a lead guitar was Bobby's grieving for Jerry, if you want my nickel psychologist's view.
"But they've evolved year by year," McNally says. "Now you have a rock 'n' roll band with a jazz trio inside. Jay, Jeff and Kenny, they're absolutely first-rate. And a year and a half ago, Rob Wasserman went off on a Woody Guthrie project, and we got Robin Sylvester. Robin plays straight-ahead with a big groove. With that, all of a sudden Mark took off and Jeff took off with their playing.
"I caught a show in Newark. I grabbed John Scher, the co-manager, and Bobby, and I said, 'I want in.' Now, all those Deadheads, if I have to go to their houses one by one and tell them, I want them to know. I think this is the best jam band alive," McNally says.
Count London native Sylvester as a fan of the comfortable vibe as well as the newest band member.
"I've become more of a family member now," Sylvester says sitting in the dressing room everybody but Weir shares. "Musically speaking, we focus on the grooves instead of funk. Now there's a freedom that's growing. We're becoming tighter and looser at the same time."
The band'sroad family seems loose and tight in the hospitality room, comfortably whiling away the 21/2 hours until showtime.
Weir drops by from his personal dressing room to join a chat that jumps from Internet downloading to advanced recording technology before he retires to the tour bus for an hour nap. Chimenti tries to watch the Masters golf tournament on TV while crew, wives and children dart in and out. Sylvester strums on his unplugged electric bass, a vintage 1960 model he bought in the mid-70s.
And once the onstage party starts, the Deadhead family immediately joins the fun. Weir, without his glasses but still in his sandals, leads the band in Grateful Dead favorite "Shakedown Street." Tie-dye wearing fans transform the usually sit-down Showroom into a three-hour-plus festival of dancing and grooving.
If you asked the capacity crowd of 800 one-by-one, they'd say that RatDog has joined The Dead at the top of the jam-band world.