By Lonny Strum
On February 22nd, "I saw Dead people." 5000 of them at the Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware. I was one of them. And I was thrilled to be there. It was a Furthur concert, the Bob Weir/Phil Lesh band. Doesn't get much more Dead than that. OK, no Hart or Kreutzman, but no biggee. And the band's lead guitarist is Jerry reincarnated.
The show was great. I've seen the Grateful Dead, Other Ones, Garcia Band, Kingfish, Rat Dog, Furthur, et al maybe 40-50 times. On the Dead Head scale that makes me a novice, but still puts me into the lower tier of serious fan. They make me feel good. Always did. Always will.
For you Dead Heads the set list was first rate:
Set 1: Here Comes Sunshine, I Need a Miracle, Estimated Prophet Candyman, Maggie's Farm Alabama Getaway, Black Peter Cosmic Charlie
Set 2: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), Jack Straw, Cold Rain And Snow, Peaceful Valley, Sugaree Revolution, Terrapin Station, Throwing Stones
E: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Ripple
Alabama Getaway in the first set and Ripple as the encore were the show highlights.
But the Dead are far from just brilliant musicians. The Dead are, have been, and will continue to be brilliant marketers. They have understood "social media" long before PCs, blogs and twitter. The have always believed in building a community, sharing, the influence of others, and the power of belonging to something bigger than oneself. If want to appreciate and understand the brilliance of Dead marketing I encourage you to read Joshua Green's: Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead in the March 2010 Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/grateful-dead-archives
It's an incredibly insightful, well written article. I learned a ton.
I leave every Dead concert smiling, but yearning for the songs they didn't play that evening. I will never be fully satisfied and therefore never have enough. This August it'll be 15 years since Jerry's passing, the same week as Mickey Mantle's death-a really bad week for my boyhood idols. Though Jerry's been gone almost 15 years, the music of the Dead lives. Nothing better than that.
Lonny Strum is Managing Director of the Strum Consulting Group which provides strategic business marketing and business consulting to professional services firms and companies seeking an independent audit of their marketing activities. Lonny has a 30 year background in marketing and has been CEO of two of the largest Philadelphia area communications agencies and had been part of the managment team of BBDO/New York, one of the nation's largest ad agencies.
For more information on Strum Consulting Group visit http://www.strumconsulting.com. Lonny Strum can be reached at 856-770-1154 or lonstrum@strumconsulting.com. Feel free to visit the Strum Consulting blog at http://www.strumconsulting.com/category/strumings/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lonny_Strum
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Dead-Live,-Gratefully&id=3829415
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Eric Clapton - Keeping 'Crossroads' to a Maximum
by Brent Warnken
He has hit many crossroads in his life - from drug addiction to father figure, celebrated musician to cheating husband - but all of these have made the slinging guitar man Eric Clapton a favorite amongst '70s hipsters and classic rock fans, as he continues to find audiences all over the world. A survivor in many senses of the word, Clapton has returned to his aptly named festival Crossroads with an outstanding lineup and hefty set of musician friends to join him for the 2010 show.
The Crossroads Guitar Festival has named Buddy Guy, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers Band and even John Mayer amongst the list of musicians to join the slow hand man, though Eric Clapton tickets are bound to be the biggest sellers online as he remains the most legendary guitar man of them all.
Clapton's history has often been categorized with heartbreak and disaster, but that has not stopped him from remaining one of the most brilliant guitar slingers in history. He has maintained a successful career in the music industry, repeatedly bringing new sounds and moves into his genre. Now the stage is set for the June performance at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.
"The Crossroads Festival is the realization of a dream for me," Clapton said in a press release, "to gather a group of amazingly talented musicians to perform on one stage. The Crossroads performers are all musicians I admire and respect." The event will benefit Clapton's own Crossroads Centre, a substance abuse clinic that was founded in 1998. Located in Antigua, the venue is a relaxing and peaceful environment that helps get addicts back on track.
Clapton will be all warmed up for the sixth annual event as he continues to add performance dates with another Crossroads act: Jeff Beck. The two Yardbirds alum have been slinging their pieces recently as their North American jaunt closed late February. Each musician praised the other's work throughout the five-date tour, the first time the two worked extensively with one another (though both Yardbirds alum, Beck actually replaced Clapton when he left the rock outfit in 1965).
The two will once again be paired up during the June show, sponsored by Clapton's new T-Mobile "My Touch." The event is sure to be a moment for many addicts to remember, as Clapton has been well known to be in the throes of similar turmoil. As part of the dedication, he writes, "My vision was to create a centre of the highest caliber to treat people of the Caribbean and throughout the world ... Crossroads is like no other Treatment Centre. It is the perfect place to begin the road of recovery ..."
Clapton has long awaited the arrival of this rehabilitation center and movement, in such a way that he continues to support the program. Besides hosting the Crossroads Guitar Festival, Clapton has hosted several other concert festivals including one at New York City's Madison Square Garden, which was later sold as a DVD. Additionally, the first Crossroad Guitar Festival, held in Dallas, was likewise filmed and sold as a DVD to earn profits for the Crossroad Centre.
This article is sponsored by StubHub. StubHub.com is a leader in the business of selling http://www.stubhub.com/eric-clapton-tickets/, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.
Distributed by http://www.ContentCrooner.com
He has hit many crossroads in his life - from drug addiction to father figure, celebrated musician to cheating husband - but all of these have made the slinging guitar man Eric Clapton a favorite amongst '70s hipsters and classic rock fans, as he continues to find audiences all over the world. A survivor in many senses of the word, Clapton has returned to his aptly named festival Crossroads with an outstanding lineup and hefty set of musician friends to join him for the 2010 show.
The Crossroads Guitar Festival has named Buddy Guy, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers Band and even John Mayer amongst the list of musicians to join the slow hand man, though Eric Clapton tickets are bound to be the biggest sellers online as he remains the most legendary guitar man of them all.
Clapton's history has often been categorized with heartbreak and disaster, but that has not stopped him from remaining one of the most brilliant guitar slingers in history. He has maintained a successful career in the music industry, repeatedly bringing new sounds and moves into his genre. Now the stage is set for the June performance at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.
"The Crossroads Festival is the realization of a dream for me," Clapton said in a press release, "to gather a group of amazingly talented musicians to perform on one stage. The Crossroads performers are all musicians I admire and respect." The event will benefit Clapton's own Crossroads Centre, a substance abuse clinic that was founded in 1998. Located in Antigua, the venue is a relaxing and peaceful environment that helps get addicts back on track.
Clapton will be all warmed up for the sixth annual event as he continues to add performance dates with another Crossroads act: Jeff Beck. The two Yardbirds alum have been slinging their pieces recently as their North American jaunt closed late February. Each musician praised the other's work throughout the five-date tour, the first time the two worked extensively with one another (though both Yardbirds alum, Beck actually replaced Clapton when he left the rock outfit in 1965).
The two will once again be paired up during the June show, sponsored by Clapton's new T-Mobile "My Touch." The event is sure to be a moment for many addicts to remember, as Clapton has been well known to be in the throes of similar turmoil. As part of the dedication, he writes, "My vision was to create a centre of the highest caliber to treat people of the Caribbean and throughout the world ... Crossroads is like no other Treatment Centre. It is the perfect place to begin the road of recovery ..."
Clapton has long awaited the arrival of this rehabilitation center and movement, in such a way that he continues to support the program. Besides hosting the Crossroads Guitar Festival, Clapton has hosted several other concert festivals including one at New York City's Madison Square Garden, which was later sold as a DVD. Additionally, the first Crossroad Guitar Festival, held in Dallas, was likewise filmed and sold as a DVD to earn profits for the Crossroad Centre.
This article is sponsored by StubHub. StubHub.com is a leader in the business of selling http://www.stubhub.com/eric-clapton-tickets/, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.
Distributed by http://www.ContentCrooner.com
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