Bessie Mae's Dream
7/1/2000 - The Brewery, Raleigh, NC

By R. Hargis

Driving south on I-95 last Thursday night, I was listening to a Dead show from '69 with one of those big crazy Dark Stars that always make my soul smile. It's an adventure to me, every time I listen to one of those old Dark Stars because the Dead, with the help of Tom Constanten, seemed to find new turf each time. They were like the pioneers of the old west, cutting through the wilderness in search of the promised land, they were the adventure of humanity, exploring space, exposing time to be nothing but an idea to be manipulated and twisted, sped up and slowed down. And I wondered, is there anything left to explore? Or are we all just covering the same ground again and again?

Fast-forward to Saturday night, The place, the Brewery on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. The band, Bessie Mae's Dream. The guest, Tom Constanten. The crowd, small but energetic. The music, mesmerizing.

The show opened with "Lee Roy", the opening track from the band's self-titled CD, and within moments, I realized that I was in the presence of something truly special. The band played like they'd been together forever, exploring territory the likes of which I'd never heard. After an explosive exploratory jam and some amazing interplay they drifted into a Zappa song... "City of Tiny Lights" which is kinda appropriate for my old home town, crescendo and crash crescendo and crash shift twist and reverberate, the jam soon found itself leaving the city and landing in a place that Bessie Mae's Dream calls "Featherfall".

The song ended and the band called up their special guest, Tom Constanten. TC fit into Bessie Mae's Dream like another finger in a glove. From the opening notes of "China Cat Sunflower", it was clear that this band really could play Dead, and do it well. But as the song progressed, it went into new directions, different territories than the Dead had explored, and the next thing I knew, there was a mic in front of TC and he started singing "People are Strange"... HUH?!? Too much! Too cool! A nice reading of the old Doors favorite that wound around and into one of the oldest songs in the world, "I Know You Rider". WHOA! They played the "muddy water" verse, and it sounded great. Long jam, final verse, end song. ahhhh... take a little breath. Then, through the smokey Brewery air came those four notes we all know so well... "Dark Star" had crashed into Raleigh. Since '95, I've seen a lot, and I mean a LOT, of jam bands take a stab at Dark Star. Some of them made it work, others didn't. Bessie Mae's Dream, with the help of the man who played on so many great Dark Stars in the sixties, made it work and work well. It wasn't unfocused and meandering, as Dark Stars can tend to be, but instead it was rhythmic and powerful. The played it fast (kinda like the way Jazz is Dead play it) and did they explore! I've never heard a Dark Star that sounded quite like this one... only one verse was sung, and the jams were tight and wild at the same time. Heavy bass explorations and some amazing keyboard interplay made this one something to remember. TC really added some spectacular flourishes to the band's already great sound on this one. The jam went on and shook the room until it landed in "All Along the Watchtower" done as if BMD were covering the Dead covering Hendrix covering Dylan... Being the Dylan fanatic that I am, I'm always a little harder on Dylan covers than anything else, but there was nothin to criticize in this one as I was thoroughly blown away.

SET BREAK.

The second set started off with three Bessie Mae originals "Slap the World", "Promised Land" (different song, same name) and "Fly With Me". It's kinda hard to review songs I'd never heard before, so I won't go into too much detail (but I will be able to soon, once I've seen these guys a few more times, which I most certainly plan to do). All three songs kept the same high-energy feel that this band is certain to be known for in the future. Fly With Me was my favorite of the three, and TC was brought back out to jam during that one. The jam was a dance your ass off, mind-bending sort of experience that took the band and the audience through a series of amazing peaks and valleys before settling down in another Dylan song... "Maggie's Farm". Great vocal work on this one! Great playin too. The next song was "Miss Pinky" (a Zappa tune). Not being a big Zappa fan, I was not at familiar with the tune but did enjoy it (and the ensuing jam) to the extreme. Lots of fun.

As I was listening to the second set and writing down my makeshift setlist, I remembered those Hunter-penned words "there are things you can replace, and others you can not". I actually wrote that on my little setlist piece of paper thingie, and when the band chose to wrap things up with "Althea", I had one of those little cosmic moments where it seems like there's something happening that you can't touch but that you can certainly feel (if you've had one, you know what I'm talking about). Althea is one of those songs from the Dead catalog that I've always been afraid of hearing someone else do live because it meant so much to me way back when. But my fears were laid to rest when it was played last Saturday night. They did it just right, not too much, not too little, just exactly right.

The show was over, the lights came up and I made my way back to my motel room. Didn't have a date with a pretty little girl from Greece. Didn't even have my beloved with me (she was back home in Jersey). All I had were my thoughts and a half-full pack of cigarettes and the music of one of the best new jambands still ringing in my ears... Ain't pleasant surprises great? I didn't know I was going to have my mind blown when I left my motel room, and when I got back to that same room, so many things had changed. I'd been gone for weeks, I'd been away for a second. I'd been off with the pioneers again... different pioneers, different territories, and somewhat familiar terrain. So I'd answered my own question from three nights before. Music is still expanding, exploding, and exploring and there's so much ground left to be covered.