David Gans

Folklore endures through the ages. Satire hones critical thought. Political humor festers like an inflamed sore under relentless summer heat. After folk music lost its foothold in the United States following its peak during the 1960s, David Gans—principal Deadhead recognized for the nationally syndicated program Dead to the World—demonstrated across his California Bay Area musical endeavors that personal expression still thrived within carefully crafted tunes exploring family existence, mortality, and wandering Deadheads. In the middle of the 1990s Gans retrieved his acoustic guitar to revive his performing path. While the material he had delivered earlier as a solo artist largely belonged to folk traditions, he shifted in 2001 to presenting improvisational and jam-based material alongside a complete ensemble.

Gans first established himself within the Bay Area music community during the 1970s. Following his 1976 cross-country travels to install computer-based ticketing systems for BASS, he entered journalism, contributing to MIX Magazine and BAM while holding the position of West Coast editor at Record Magazine. Amid a 1985 radio campaign tied to his debut publication Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead, he aired uncommon Grateful Dead recordings and assumed responsibility for the enduring KPFA broadcast The Grateful Dead Hour.

Gans earned recognition as an author through the book Conversations with the Dead, which received a revised edition in 2001, along with his editorial work on Not Fade Away: The Online World of Jerry Garcia. His production accomplishments included oversight of Stolen Roses: Songs of the Grateful Dead, plus co-production of the Grateful Dead’s certified gold collection So Many Roads (1965-1995) and Might As Well: The Persuasions Sing the Grateful Dead. By the mid-1990s, however, Gans sensed that his “Mr. Deadhead” persona had reached its limit and redirected energy toward his original passion of performing and recording acoustic music. In 1997 he and Eric Rawlins issued the CD Home by Morning, which included contributions from Bobby Black and David Grisman. Throughout that year he collaborated weekly with the fluid ensemble of composers and players known as the Broken Angels, whose profile rose after Gans unveiled the satirical composition “Monica Lewinsky.” He relaunched his solo work in June 1998 at Chicago’s Heartland Café. His 2001 solo performances coincided with the emergence of the song “Sovereign Soul,” also from that year. Gans issued the Solo Acoustic CD via Perfectible Recordings in 2001.