Blog Posts by Dave DiMartino

[Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images]The following conversation with late Grateful Dead guitarist Garcia took place in the dressing room of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum prior to his band's performance on February 24, 1992. It was to be part of a large feature on the band for a weekly entertainment publication but, oddly, that publication's editors decided to forgo the feature before the piece was ever written. To commemorate what would have been Garcia's 70th birthday, here Y! Music presents that 1992 conversation in full.

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It's been interesting hearing your new song "So Many Roads," particularly because it seems so unusually autobiographical.

Well, it's [longtime lyricist Robert] Hunter writing me, from my point of view, you know what I mean? We've been working together for so long that he knows what I know. The song is full of references to things that have to do with me. It's got a line in there about "Winin' Boy," which is an old Jellyroll Morton tune. Back when I was a folkie, I spent a month working on the

Boy, am I bummed out!

Like most of us, I've been breathlessly anticipating watching the Olympics this year! I'm completely into athletics, I like uniforms, and sometimes cool music is featured! And this year, what with the Olympics being in London and all, word was that the opening ceremonies would include the finest musical tribute of all time!

But unfortunately, as you may have heard, NBC—the television network that's broadcasting the event here this year—decided that rather than boring the USA with dopey music far beyond our ken, they'd replace it all with some idiotic Ryan Seacrest interview and hope we wouldn't notice the difference!

So a word to the wise: If you want to hear the semi-reunited Clash sing "We Represent The Lollipop Guild," Coldplay jamming on Herman's Hermits' "No Milk Today" and Adele dropping jaws worldwide with her unexpected Curved Air medley, check out YouTube for the random BBC feeds kindly posted by sympathetic foreigners who completely feel our pain!

1) Mariah Carey has signed on to be a judge for the upcoming season of American Idol!

2) The latest single by P!nk  is called "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)"!

3) This week offers up the best new album releases of the year!

Sadly, only one of these bewildering statements of fact is untrue!

Even more sadly, it's the most difficult to believe!

Rodriguez: Searching For Sugar Man (Legacy) Anyone who prowled the cut-out bin of used record stores over the past few decades has likely come across countless copies of Cold Fact and Coming From Reality--two excellent albums from Detroit-based singer Rodriguez that virtually defined the notion of instant obscurity. How strange it is that history has conspired to make them cult items so many years later, and that the singer himself—despite his cultural invisibility Stateside—managed to make such an impact worldwide that a movie devoted to his life would emerge and result in this soundtrack document. There's a fascinating story to be had here, and a lesson to be learned as well: Sometimes the most intriguing tales in

The career path of Canadian singer-songwriter is one of the most intriguing in pop music: Her music is all over the place.

Beginning with her debut album Whoa, Nelly!, released in 2000 and filled with hit singles like "I'm Like A Bird" and "Turn Off The Light," Furtado's been directly in the public eye, garnering Grammy nominations and praise for what at the time sounded like clever and sophisticated music with a pure pop base. But with her follow-up album Folklore—and the eye-opening collaborations she recorded with the likes of Jurassic 5, Paul Oakenfeld, and Colombia's Juanes—it became evident that the singer had musical roots much more adventurous than the norm.  With her massively successful set Loose, a 2006 set owing much to her work with producer Timbaland, the singer topped charts all over the world with such tracks as "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" and seemed squarely headed for the top ranks of pop diva-dom.

Let me take this opportunity right now to apologize if you are one of my many friends or acquaintances who might have received an odd email from me this morning, at around 9:49 am PDT, that offered nothing but an anonymous URL upon which you theoretically were supposed to click!

In fact, it was at that precise moment that my hacked personal email account sent you--courtesy of a wonderful benefactor in Poland--marvelous spam!

Additionally, if you were one of the half-dozen or so now-deceased acquaintances that I apparently sent email to since 1997 or so, rest assured it's OK if you don't send me a personal note telling me my account has been hacked!

Just tell me if it really made a difference if you were good or bad while you were still running around on earth! And if you can really tell what I'm wearing while I type this!

Maybe we should take this offline!

Frank Ocean: channel ORANGE (Odd Future) Everyone's talking about the new Frank Ocean album, and with good reason! The big question? Is he related to Billy Ocean? Heck, I don't know! Even more importantly:  In the scheme of things, can massive physical bodies like mountains, clouds, rivers or oceans ever be less than frank? You know--insincere? "Hi, even though I look like a big, ominous dark storm cloud in the sky, I have no intention whatsoever to rain--so go ahead and have your picnic!" It's no small matter! Still, the man of the hour--who has written for artists such as Brandy, Justin Bieber and John Legend, according to a trusted biographical source, and is a member of the spectacularly written about for no apparent reason Odd Future--has released a power-packed album filled with marvelous songs, guests like Andre 3000, John Mayer, and the legendary Earl Sweatshirt, and an album title certain to puzzle anybody with a TV remote control in their hand! I'm thinking it may be the most meaningful experience I've ever had in my life! Well, except for that day in confession!

One of the most unexpected delights of covering the music scene are those random encounters with celebrated, truly iconic figures that one rarely expects to meet.

At the top or very close to it? Ram Country's recent jaunt to New Haven, Ct., where with full crew and a strange sense of the surreal, we boarded the tour bus of no less a legendary figure than Willie Nelson.

Nelson--only one of a handful of working musicians whose name and image is recognizable to inhabitants of virtually every continent on the planet--was outside New Haven's Shubert Theater, where in a few brief hours he'd be doing what he does best--singing and playing in front of an audience that clearly loved the man, the music, and all he represents.

And what Willie Nelson represents is the finest in American music tradition: An outstanding songwriter--the man wrote "Crazy," "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Hello Walls," among many other standards--a world-class singer, a poet, a movie actor, one hell of a guitar

It's a week filled with familiar names! Larry, Bob, Otis, Mike, Linda, Anne Marie and Belinda!

Similarly, many of this week's new releases are by familiar names as well!

I'd like to think it's pure coincidence! After all, if the middle of 2012 brings us a batch of music releases by artists who've been around the block a few times, perhaps have a few gray hairs or, even less tactfully, are dead--what does that say about today's biggest hitmakers?

Could it be that many of them are talentless fops unworthy of any press coverage whatsoever? Could it be that rather than recording albums and making music, today's best and brightest talents are making millions of dollars as computer programmers and entrepreneurs by exploiting the recorded works of other, lesser individuals--directly taking from them whatever small pittances they might make as recording artists until, heartbroken, they begin new careers as short-order cooks who could have once had promising careers but now work the late-night shift at Denny's?

Nope! It's just a crummy week! And hasn't it been hot?

Zac Brown Band: Uncaged (Atlantic) There's no denying that the Zac Brown Band are one of country's music's brightest stars: They're award-winners, they have serious musical chops, they don't worship at the altar of country radio, and, any way you look at it, they rock. This latest set, their third, features an intriguing array of

Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Usher, Linkin Park, the reunited No Doubt, Brad Paisley, Green Day and more than a dozen other A-list performers will be headlining Clear Channel's 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival--the lineup of which was announced this morning.

The two-day festival, slated for Sept.21-22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and billed as "the Biggest Live Music Event in Radio History," will be streamed live by Yahoo!, Clear Channel's web and mobile webcast partner for the event.

This year's iHeartRadio Music Festival follows last year's inaugural event--tickets for which sold out 10 minutes after being made available to the public—and likewise has focused on superstar talent.

The officially announced talent lineup-- unveiled this morning via special live announcement  by Ryan Seacrest--also includes Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Lil Wayne, Swedish House Mafia, Pitbull, Deadmau5, Miranda Lambert, Enrique Iglesias, Linkin Park, Jason Aldean, Pink, Mary J. Blige, Calvin Harris and Shakira.

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