Michael Weiss on the GSW Reunion

We'd like to welcome longtime GSW stage manager, lighting director and close friend of both the band and HT, Michael Weiss, to share his thoughts on the upcoming God Street Wine shows at the Gramercy Theatre on July 9 and 10. As we discussed earlier, these shows will benefit a cause near and dear to Michael's heart - the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

[Michael in his familiar position side-stage at a GSW gig]

When I was a kid, I remember all the hype surrounding The ARMS (Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis) Concert for Ronnie Lane. I had no idea what the concert was for, or why it meant so much. I just knew that the music, with Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, John Paul Jones, and more, was great, and that was enough for me. Now, 27 years later, and having been living with Multiple Sclerosis for six years, I understand how much it must have meant to Ronnie to have some of his closest friends come together to benefit, and raise awareness for people living with Multiple Sclerosis. In 1989, six years after the ARMS concert, and after two years of solid, post-high school Grateful Dead tour, I met Ed Looram at Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. That meeting opened the door to a ton of new music for me. Ed introduced me to hip-hop via De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, the alter-ego, psychedelic-pop stylings of XTC via The Dukes of Stratosphere, and what would be the life changing family of God Street Wine via a back yard throw down at Ed's childhood home in Ridgewood, NJ. For the next 2+ years, if I wasn’t on Dead tour, I would travel from Dover as often as I could to see GSW at what was the home of the early '90s NYC jam scene: The Nightingale Bar, The Wetlands, and 712 Club, as well as venues outside of the city like the jam-historic Rhinecliff Hotel and 7 Willow Street. Those trips, and that time with the band, Ed and the rest of the original “Winos”, along with the interaction with the other bands, and crews on the scene, would prove to be the things that lifelong friendships and family are made of. READ ON for more from Michael on GSW's reunion...