The Annotated Grateful Dead Discography: Guest Appearances An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead ... and "Desert Players". As he entered the ’90s, Hornsby began to push the boundaries of his music and his piano playing, delving into jazz and folk traditions and bluegrass and playing with the Grateful Dead. Welnick died Friday, said Dennis McNally, who would not release the cause. Constanten worked with McKernan in the late 1960s, and Hornsby and Welnick played alongside one another for 18 months in the early 1990s. Bob Weir (left), Donna Jean Godchaux and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead perform at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J., in November 1978. Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead’s last keyboard player and a veteran of other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died, the Grateful Dead’s longtime publicist said Saturday. “Our Grateful Dead prayer for the repose of his spirit: May the four winds blow him safely home.”. Not that he was the most technical keyboard player or that he didn't have baaaaad nights, but he had a great ear for what type of sound went into the right place. Welnick had replaced Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose in 1990. Guest Flute Players with The Grateful Dead: June 13, August 3 and August 21, 1969 I recently wrote about the Grateful Dead's performance at the Aqua Theater in Seattle, WA on August 21, 1969 . Dead Grateful Dead Keyboard Players Volume 3: Vince Welnick All of the many Grateful Dead keyboard player deaths are full-scale tragedies, but easily the saddest and most haunting would be that of the Dead’s final keys man, the Hawaiian-shirt-rocking former Tube Vince Welnick. The Grateful Dead has always been a focus of synchronicity -- of magic "coincidences" happening at just the right time. And Godchaux had replaced the band’s original keyboard player, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who died at 27 in 1973. In early fall 1971, the Dead really faced up to the fact that they needed a keyboard player. Bruce Hornsby also supplemented Welnick on grand piano for over 100 shows in Welnick's first years in the Dead. Mydland had succeeded Keith Godchaux, who died in a car crash shortly after leaving the band. Hart recalled Welnick as not only a “nimble” keyboard player but also a fine background singer whose vocals added much to the group’s songs. Guesting with the band more than any other sax player and captured for immortality on the shimmering, definitive 16+ minute version of "Eyes of the World" on Without A Net. Brent Mydland was an American keyboardist, vocalist, and songwriter. He's fairly clear in the 2-18 show (also during Wharf Rat & Candyman), but is barely audible on 4-8. He was a member of The Grateful Dead from 1979 to 1990, a longer tenure than any other keyboardist in the band. Ned Lagin joined the Dead for Dark Star on 2-18-71 (clavichord) and 4-8-71 (electric piano). CEI/Cymekob Garcia plays on the first ... (bass) and Garcia (pedal steel and piano) on "I Used To Be A King" and Garcia (pedal steel) on "Man In The Mirror". To me Brent was an electric piano player/organist who, very occasionally, played the synthesizer in much the same way that Keith was primarily a pianist. Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland was born on this date in 1952. The Grateful Dead had ideal program billing (midway Sunday night) but partially blew it by playing too long. Our music is different.”. Two other Grateful Dead keyboardists, Bruce Hornsby and Tom Constanten, survived the supposed curse just fine. But Tom left in 1970 and the Dead were in need of another piano man. 2/22/69, Dream Bowl, Vallejo, Calif. The band lineups for the Grateful Dead were:[1], History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice), Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead, Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72, Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings, Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings, Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 4/18/70, 30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965–1995, Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA 11/10/1967, July 29 1966, P.N.E. Publication date 1989-12-27 (check for other copies) Topics Live concert. McNally said Welnick was 51. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The Dead are among the most musically intriguing of any rock groups, but they seem to be straying from the typical dance format more quickly than any of the others.” When Brent switched to synth, I thought he lost a bit of "his sound". “A lot of people can play, but with us they just don’t know how to navigate. Mr. Welnick was born in Phoenix, Ariz., where he started playing piano as a kid. In the years following Garcia’s death the group’s other longtime members have occasionally toured as The Other Ones or The Dead. ... At some point during Never Trust a Woman, he kicked back his piano bench and started pounding away on the keys Jerry-Lee-Lewis-style. The Dead's complex personal changes are as legendary as their public ones, and they ended only when they decided that they didn't have to be just the Grateful Dead. John Perry Barlow. The death of the group’s unofficial leader hit Welnick particularly hard, McNally recalled Saturday. They could also be Bobby Ace and the Cards from the Bottom, a reentry group led by Bob Weir, or Mickey Hart and the Heartbeats which a lot of golden oldie rockers. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dr. John, the New Orleans singer and piano player who blended black and white musical styles with a hoodoo-infused stage persona and gravelly bayou drawl, died Thursday, his family said. Garden Aud., Vancouver Canada, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C., July 12 & 13, 1989, Pacific Northwest '73–'74: The Complete Recordings, Pacific Northwest '73–'74: Believe It If You Need It, Playing in the Band, Seattle, Washington, 5/21/74, The Warfield, San Francisco, California, October 9 & 10, 1980, Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead, Dead Zone: The Grateful Dead CD Collection (1977–1987), All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection, Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead 1987 Tour, Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead, Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Grateful_Dead_members&oldid=993714088, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 12 December 2020, at 02:32. The musician’s Web site gives two ages for him, 51 and 55, but several other sources list his age as 55. “He had this real high harmony. When I met Phil in 2006, I didn’t know that much about the Grateful Dead. This is a great question that will probably get many different answers . Related Grateful Dead Live at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on 1989-12-27. by Grateful Dead. Vince Welnick. During this show, they were joined by a flute player for a few numbers, the third time it happened in 1969. “The big thing about Vince was that he had that fearlessness to be able to go and just jump into our madness and just operate on it like it was a normal, everyday procedure,” Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recalled Saturday. You are now the longest tenured keyboard player in the history of the Grateful Dead family [original keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan died in 1973 … Was quickly put at ease when the Cleveland audience gave him a welcome! 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