Welcome back to a special Deadhead addition of the weekly Wednesday jam! Jack Straw is such a fun song to play, I’m not sure why it took us so long to add it to our setlist. It’s in there for good now, especially on Freaky Fridays. Which reminds me, I should change the name of my Weekly Wednesday Jam to ‘Ramsdays’, where every day is a Freaky Friday.
Kidding, that would be a horrible name.
After a recording session this past February, long after the engineer headed home, the band was still hanging out and drinking beer jamming and calling audibles. We were running silent with cans on, so we didn’t have to worry about noise or the neighbors, so we went through a number of covers and new originals. We recorded Jack Straw that night, had so much fun, decided to play it at our first show of the spring.
The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
by David Dodd Foreword by Robert Hunter
What a song Jack Straw is, such a fun song to play. Garcia and Robert Hunter are two of the reasons I picked up and leaned how to play guitar as a kid. Hunter’s characters are colorful, his stories, full of action, adventure, and treachery. I was lucky enough to see these songwriters in both large and small venues when I was younger. The late 80s were a good time to be a music fan living in upstate New York. New Paltz, the college town I lived in during university was a stone’s throw from Woodstock, the band’s ‘Big Pink’ house was a quick drive up the road en route to Kingston.
Danko, Jorma (Hot Tuna) were living and playing locally in the area, as was Dylan and so many others. When we got bored of country life, we barreled down to New York City for shows. Good times.
Musicians | The Camp Store Carlsbad, CA | 3.29.2024
Dan Greenbaum
Aaron Brownwood
Mike Hunt
Mark ODonnell
Lyrics
We can share the women
We can share the wine
We can share what we got of yours
'Cause we done shared all of mine
Keep a rolling
Just a mile to go
Keep on rolling, my old buddy
You're moving much too slow
I just jumped the watchman
Right outside the fence
Took his ring, four bucks in change
Now ain't that heaven sent?
Hurts my ears to listen, Shannon
Burns my eyes to see
Cut down a man in cold blood, Shannon
Might as well be me
We used to play for silver
Now we play for life
One's for sport and one's for blood
At the point of a knife
Now the die is shaken
Now the die must fall
There ain't a winner in this game
Who don't go home with all
Not with all...
Leaving Texas
Fourth day of July
Sun so hot, clouds so low
The eagles filled the sky
Catch the Detroit Lightning
Out of Santa Fe
Great Northern out of Cheyenne
From sea to shining sea
Gotta get to Tulsa
First train we can ride
Got to settle one old score
And one small point of pride...
Ain't no place a man can hide, Shannon
Keep him from the sun
Ain't no bed will give us rest, man,
You keep us on the run
Jack Straw from Wichita
Cut his buddy down
Dug for him a shallow grave
And layed his body down
Half a mile from Tucson
By the morning light
One man gone and another to go
My old buddy you're moving much too slow
We can share the women
We can share the wine
About the Day
2023-24 El Niño weather made for an interesting few years. Our mountains were inundated with snow, our coastal weather was wetter than normal. All of this coming on the heels of a historic 10 year drought. When it rains, it pours. Once again, I was spooked as the local weather forecast said it was going to rain, it didn’t. The week before, I saw another local bank play the stage right up until the moment the sky opened up. The good lord wouldn’t have it any other way, so the weather held. He wouldn’t piss on our first show of the season, I knew that in my heart. Too much practice went into this show, and besides, I had to share my new songs to my friends and family. So we willed the day to be excellent.
Our live shows are about celebrating life, friendship and family, giving back to the newfound community (built by Anthony Marrocotti at his work at The Camp Store), and celebrating our collective enduring spirit. This was the first show our band performed the newly written ‘Warmth of the Fire‘ publicly, and the first time I used my 80s custom Telecaster at live at a show through a Fender Chris Stapleton Princeton. Same combo that effortlessly wrote and recorded my new song ‘Warmth of the Fire‘. During the show, it stayed in tune better than my SG or my es335, but I think I play better on Gibson guitars. I don’t know, I love the way all guitars sound. Could be just the jitters caused by the first show of the season.
About the Ram
Mark "The Ram" O'Donnell is an independent American composer, producer, filmmaker, multi-instrumental performer, designer, and visual artist based out of Carlsbad, California. He performs original, surf-inspired rock-and-roll music on the West Coast.
For more information about the Ram and his music, go to www.TheRamMusic.com
More Information
I currently use DistroKid to get everything out to the streaming platforms, Disco for all sync requests, Bands In Town to list live shows, and Substack for just about everything else.
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