Tonic Ball to raise the Dead

To gauge the current stature of musicians popular many years ago, look to the Tonic Ball.

Now in its 12th year, Tonic Ball gathers Indiana acts and gives them an assignment: Perform songs made famous by someone else.

This year's fundraiser for Second Helpings, a food rescue and job training program, will celebrate the music of the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty and the Pixies on Nov. 22 at three separate Fountain Square venues.

The Grateful Dead made their final studio album in 1989 and disbanded in 1995 following the death of vocalist-guitarist Jerry Garcia.

But the pioneering jam band from San Francisco keeps on truckin' on the cultural landscape. They're a big enough deal that Tonic Ball is bringing in noted Dead historian David Gans to perform and serve as the evening's master of ceremonies at Fountain Square Theatre.

"I think the Grateful Dead are more beloved than ever, in a way," Gans said during a phone interview.

Gans hosts two Dead-themed radio shows — "Tales from the Golden Road on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio and "The Grateful Dead Hour" on more than 100 stations coast-to-coast.

Entire music festivals, including Connecticut's Gathering of the Vibes and Ohio's All Good event, are devoted to the Dead's legacy. New York-based radio DJ Jesse Jarnow is working on a book titled "Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America."

Gans recommends two films released this year: "Sunshine Daydream," which documents a 1972 Dead performance in Oregon, and "Move Me Brightly," a posthumous 70th-birthday salute to Garcia starring modern acts such as Vampire Weekend and the Hold Steady.

"Youngsters who were in diapers when Jerry died are now playing that music," Gans said. "There must be something to it."

In addition to Dead tunes at Fountain Square Theatre, Petty songs will be performed at Radio Radio and Pixies songs will be performed at White Rabbit Cabaret.

Cover concept: The idea of musicians performing songs popularized by the Grateful Dead is far from foreign to Gans. He produced "Stolen Roses," a 2000 compilation of live covers executed by artists ranging from Henry Rollins to Widespread Panic. Today, Gans leads the Sycamore Slough String Band, a trio that specializes in unplugged Dead covers updated with new arrangements, different keys and alternate vocal phrasings, Gans said. "Ideally, we'll see people interpreting the songs — not just cloning them," Gans said of his Tonic Ball expectations.

Getting on board: Gans attended his first Grateful Dead show at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on March 5, 1972. The band was near the end of a hard-charging phase associated with keyboard player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (who died in 1973). Meanwhile, Bob Weir was rising to the status of songwriter and band co-leader with Garcia. Gans said he gravitated to this version of the Dead, featuring songs populated by loners, cowboys and gamblers: "Hearing 'Brown Eyed Women' and 'Jack Straw' changed my whole consciousness as a songwriter. 'Wow. This is the kind of songwriting I want to do.' "

Trouble in Indiana: A low point in Grateful Dead history arrived at Noblesville's Klipsch Music Center on July 2, 1995 (when the amphitheater was known as Deer Creek Music Center). Thousands of ticketless fans charged the back fence of the amphitheater's lawn, and a second show at the venue the following night was canceled. A massive community of traveling Deadheads became too unruly to control in the band's final years, Gans said: "It broke the hearts of the Dead."

Drugs were synonymous with the parking-lot gatherings. "Certain cities were not welcoming to it, and certain cities went after the dope scene," Gans said. "To be truthful, there was an aspect that needed to be gone after. Some bad (things) happened in those parking lots, as well. Anywhere you go where there's a big crowd of happy people, you're going to attract a bunch of parasites and opportunists."

Meanwhile, Garcia was insulated from the fans but losing his own battle against drugs. He died on Aug. 9, 1995, of a heart attack while attempting a rehabilitation stint at California's Betty Ford Center.

Built to last: Gans said no single defining sound can be attached to the Dead. In the early 1970s, the band specialized in country-folk textures. By the late 1980s, Garcia and Weir led an arena-rock outfit. "They adapted and changed over the years," Gans said. "They kept themselves interested and they never really repeated themselves. They would do new material that would open up different areas of their musical exploration."

Unlikely fans: On tribute projects such as "Move Me Brightly," "Stolen Roses" and 1991 compilation "Deadicated," decidedly non-jam band artists Elvis Costello, Patti Smith and Jane's Addiction have popped up to pay homage to the Dead.

"In the 1970s, the punk and New Wave movements grew up very much as a reaction against the hippies: 'We're going to make this aggressive, hard-edged music instead of that self-indulgent Southern California confessional music,' " Gans said. "After that, though, the reaction against hippie music sort of dissipated and the next generations that came along thought, 'Oh, this is good music. Listen to these songs.' "

Contact Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404 or @317Lindquist on Twitter.