Oteil Burbridge: Well, that was Jason Crosby. Live For Live Music: One of the things I immediately loved about the “Stella Blue” single was how new but familiar it felt, especially the string arrangements. And then after I decided I was going to do the record, I spent even more time at the piano just messing around, and as I was learning the songs, little changes would happen either through serendipity or maybe I would hear something, and so I would add it to the song to put my own stamp on it. But I had an acoustic piano, so I started trying to learn the tunes on piano so I could sing and play a piano, which would make a lot more sense to me as a listener as far as what I wanted to hear.Īfter the pandemic was over, I had learned a bunch of songs and I thought, “Wow, at some point I should probably record kind of like this, just mostly piano-centered and vocals.” Then fast forward to when I decided to do a whole record, and I had to pick eight songs because we wanted to do it on vinyl, so that was going to limit the length. During the pandemic, nobody could gig live, so everybody was doing streams and people kept asking me, “Can you play something solo?” And I was like, “No, I can’t,” because I didn’t want to play bass and sing and have no other instruments-which I couldn’t have because no one was allowed to be with each other-and I wanted an instrument where the chords would be there. One was that I started singing these Garcia Hunter ballads with Dead & Company, and the other factor that played into it was the pandemic. Oteil Burbridge: Well, it was really very organic. Live For Live Music: How did this album get started? Did you know you wanted to do a Grateful Dead project? You can also order your vinyl copy of the album here. Lovely View of Heaven is now available to stream on all major platforms. Read a transcript of the interview below, edited for length and clarity. Live For Live Music had the pleasure of speaking with Oteil ahead of the album’s release. Recorded at Flóki Studios in Iceland with a rotating lineup comprised of Jason Crosby (piano, organ, strings), Tom Guarna (guitar), Pete Lavezzoli (drums), Steve Kimock (guitar), John Kimock (drums), and Adam Tenenbaum (guitar sounds), the album marks Oteil’s first time singing lead vocals on a studio record-though he got a little practice with Dead & Company-and includes a bonus track featuring a recording of Kofi Burbridge’s sole performance of a Grateful Dead song. The album offers an incredibly intimate view of a deep and tender soul struggling through real emotions, colored by the lens of Hunter’s powerful poetry and new, potent arrangements of Garcia’s music. On his new solo album, Lovely View Of Heaven, he uses the ballads of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter to confront and work through the grief of losing some of the most important people in his life-his father his brother, Kofi Burbridge his musical mentor, Col. Bruce Hampton‘s Aquarium Rescue Unit to playing with the Allman Brothers Band to moving stadium crowds with Dead & Company, Oteil Burbridge has had his hand in many successful projects, but it hasn’t been all roses for the 59-year-old bassist. From his role as a founding member of Col.
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