Episode 12: Part 1
Mitch Stein was kind enough to join us this week. After seeing his first Dead show in 1978, he saw nearly 400 until the last Shoreline show in 1995. Mitch also saw nearly 300 additional Jerry, Jerry/John, JGB, Acoustic Jerry, Bobby & The Midnites, Go Ahead, Kingfish, Mickey & The Daylights, The Dead, Furthur, Seven Walkers, etc. shows.
On two occasions he got to have one-on-one chat with the Man himself, once interviewing Jerry on the phone for his high school radio program and then spending 20 minutes in the back of a limo alone with Jerry while they watched Fantasia and discussed animation art.
Mitch created and produced DEADSHOWZ, the most powerful mobile Grateful Dead concert-specific reference app on the planet and currently available for both iOS and Android devices. DEADSHOWZ recently sponsored both the Skull & Roses Festival in Ventura and the Café Istanbul Nightfest during Jazzfest, where Mitch produced 15 shows and performed in 5 of them (including when Melvin Seals invited him to sit in during the 5/6 JGB show).
As a classically trained pianist who then studied jazz at the Berklee College of Music, Mitch’s first Grateful Dead show was in 1978. In the ensuing decades , Mitch has played in multiple bands influenced by the Dead. He's performed music with every currently living member of the Grateful Dead including several times with Phil Lesh at Terrapin Crossroads upon his invitation, and with Bob Weir at Sweetwater (search YouTube for "GATORATORS Bob Weir" for some clips of his band featuring Dave, Camile and Reggie from The Radiators). His band CRYPTICAL was selected as the Exclusive Performers at the very first SF Giants Jerry Garcia Tribute Night at AT&T Park; Stu Allen has been their lead guitarist for more than 10 years, and Mitch has played in more than100 additional shows with him as a duo and with Stu’s Mars Hotel.
Mitch created and has performed in every AXIAL TILT since the first in 2015 to celebrate the Dead's 50th Anniversary (here's a clip from that one featuring Donna Jean Godchaux, and here's one from a few years later with Joan Osborne).
Mitch is good friends with legendary Grateful Dead recordist and producer Betty Cantor-Jackson, who engineered his Groove Division project featuring his brother Martin Fierro (Legion Of Mary, Wake Of The Flood, etc.).
The list goes on and on, and that's why this is a two-parter, enjoy...
