Grateful Dead Experience Comes Alive at UMass Amherst

Scholars, fans, artists, performers and members of the extended Grateful Dead family will gather at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in November for the first major university conference on the enduring legacy of the Dead experience.

Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory, being held November 16-18 at UMass Amherst, will bring together more than 50 presenters for 20 panel sessions ranging from music composition and improvisation to an examination of the band’s business model – as well as a musical performances, gallery exhibits, and presentations. Unbroken Chain is being presented in conjunction with a semester-long graduate History seminar entitled American Beauty: Music, Culture and Society, 1945-95; and an undergraduate course entitled How Does the Song Go: The Grateful Dead as a Window into American Culture.

Among the Unbroken Chain panelists are “Mountain Girl” Carolyn Garcia, first wife of guitarist Jerry Garcia and a central figure among the Merry Pranksters who populated the early Grateful Dead scene; David Gans, host of the Grateful Dead Radio Hour for the past 20 years; Grateful Dead midi wizard Bob Bralove; and Dan Healy, who designed and built the “Wall of Sound,” famed enabler of the Dead’s improvisational style.

Plenary addresses will include a keynote by Dennis McNally, longtime Dead publicist and author of Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.  McNally earned a doctorate in History at UMass Amherst in 1978.

Among the other scholars taking part are Rebecca Adams, author of Deadhead Social Science: You Ain’t Gonna Learn What You Don’t Wanna Know; David Dodd, editor of The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics;  UMass English professor Nicholas Bromell, author of Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics in the 60s; and UMass Professor of Comparative Literature David Lenson, author of On Drugs.

Gallery sessions and discussions will feature the work of photographers Herb Greene, Susanna Millman and Lloyd Wolf, as well as poster and album cover artists Mikio Kennedy and Mike Dubois. In addition, original prints of Jerry Garcia’s artwork will be displayed and available for purchase. Among the films being screened will be Deadheads: An American Subculture and a digitally re-mastered Sunshine Daydream, an until-now unreleased documentary on the August  27, 1972 benefit concert at Ken Kesey’s farm in Oregon.

The weekend will include performances by the American Beauty Project ensemble, doing the music of acclaimed Dead albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, and Dark Star Orchestra, whose rhythm guitarist Rob Eaton and keyboardist Rob Baracco will take part in several of the panel discussions. The Dark Star performance at the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center on Saturday evening will feature special guests and the work of Peak Experience Productions.

* maximum of 375 registrations for Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory are now being accepted.

* Information on registration and accommodations is available at www.umassconnections.com/unbrokenchain .

*  Tickets, sold separately, for performances by the American Beauty Project and Dark Star Orchestra are available at http://umafacweb.admin.umass.edu/Online .

A full program, background and additional contacts are attached, and are available at http://www.umassconnections.com/unbrokenchain .

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