One of the preeminent underestimations is how much alive everything is. Resonating with such constancy in so many ways, understandings about life are left compartmentalized into this or that form thought to be alive. Meanwhile, every perceptible thing is alive in an everlasting living flow field. So, from the sublime to the subliminal, life is the everywhere, all the time, everything. The human kind possess blends of mastery that make expressions of life artistic. Art abounds with the myriad of forms flowing through happenings. From the popular to the underground many of us are drawn to art forms of those that have created in ways that can be tasted, seen, felt, and heard. Notes flow through the ether, meet listeners, is felt, and returned with emotion that is in turn felt player. This closes a circuit of collective creativity. We’re in it together. This is the real dynamic living essence of performance art. It’s alive.
After untold of hours of pursuing performance art, both live and recorded, it’s fair to say that there is a demographic of music people out there. To a certain degree, I’m one of them. Innumerable hours have been spent in all types of listening zones; with radios, phonographs, stereos, and stages. Senses, feelings, responses, and understandings both common and unique have evolved with the listener. Many of these are shared with other listeners. Community comes about. There’s no reason to qualify one artistic form from another. It all has merit, and relates to the verities of existence. Without speaking for others, this is a commentary that is similar with others. The Grateful Dead’s work really hits home. It has made, and continues to, make contributions to my being that can be sensed. There may be other catalogues being covered as much as theirs, but the Dead’s is a lot. It is coming on strong. There are so many people covering Grateful Dead music that some desensitization has happened. So I get a tip. My buddy turned me on to Shakedown Citi.
As far as I can tell, Shakedown Citi is involved with the music, and it with them. This does not seem like a call to reproduce something we loved, liked, and repeatedly listened to. It feels like a living response to a call to expression. The song is the entry point to a vibrant space of spontaneity, improvisation, and jamming. Musical notes make the eternal audible. The dynamics of life played out a note at a time. While popularity may be reserved for the cursed in the modern world, one can only hope that this free feeling space of joy and expression can be held for another minute. It feels like a challenge to make a way through this plastic facsimile world of enforced obviousness. Whenever the genuine artistic article becomes noticed by a critical type of mass it is immediately commandeered for material greed, and exploited. Right now that is not the case with these people. I was standing right next to a person that identified himself as a well informed music culture person. “I thought I knew all The Dead cover bands. How come I have not heard of these guys!?”, he said. A few moments later his spontaneous smile morphed into a mouth agape wonder astonish as the next climax poured over us. “Holy shit…” was his last exclaim.
This online blog is not popular. Neither is Shakedown Citi, as far as I can tell, if the numbers of people in these clubs is any indication. That said, they are playing a special brand of rock and roll right now. Rock and roll in its most metaphysical combinations; inviting, original, vibrant, affirmative, and delivered by a group that works together as Jerry Garcia said, “Like fingers on a hand.” Shakedown Citi is a high achieving ensemble. On top of that, we’re not in security laden antiseptic arena environment. These guys play the rootsy bar/club dens we grew up in. It feels like a type of shelter from the claws of commercialism. These are events for sure. Sweating out the groove together. Privileged I am to have made it into this space. This has been as refreshing an introduction to an art formation, and living essence, as could be hoped for. Fare you well. Till we meet again…