Inspired by Brandi Carlile’s bold asking and past experience leveraging my content creation to connect to folks in the entertainment industry, I am putting this out there on this Friday the 13th! I hope you are inspired to boldly ask for something you wanna co-create! If you know JC Mayer or anyone who works in programming at Sirius XM please send this open letter along to them!
Dear Mr. Mayer:
I wish I could write this on a typewriter but the adorable typeface of my blog will have to suffice. I have a programming suggestion for your radio station LIFE coming in November to Sirius XM.
It’s an idea I have been brewing for my Patreon supporters as a low tempo Tuesday stretch aerobics class called Terrapin Tuesdays. (If you’re singing this to yourself, you’re pronouncing it correctly.)
For your radio station I assume you’re programming in hourly slots (wow, 24/7 programming is A LOT, I am impressed you are taking this on!) so to fill out the hour this is what I propose: you choose the version of Terrapin Station we are going to work with that day. I’ll narrate the stretch class over the song and then we chat about the song.
I want you to music nerd out on whatever made you excited about that version. I love the way you think and hearing how you interact with sound has deepened my understanding of listening. (You said this comment in a Current Mood* once about appreciating the sounds of your family during the holidays and I’ve never sat in a gathering the same again. Thank you.)
As a pandemique Deadhead I still have SO MUCH to learn about the Dead and would love to deep dive on some aspect of Dead culture for the rest of the hour.
I’ve watched Long Strange Trip on Amazon Prime going on five times and walk away with more questions every iteration.
Why is it a thirteen pointed lightening bolt? How do you know when it’s time to change songs during a set? Why are China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider always listed as separate tracks but Lady with a Fan / Terrapin Station are not? What’s the deal with the turtles?
I see a real opportunity to connect more folks to the Dead through your station. Spotify has gotten very aggressive about putting monthly streaming numbers in front of users in the past few months and I was shocked when I saw that Dead and Company only has 106,000 monthly listeners and John Clayton Mayer has 15 Million.
(And to anyone out there reading who is stressed about their numbers I want to give you my business mentor’s advice, which is to put your head down and do the work. The numbers distract you, create resistance and slow down your work. The energetics of creation matter when you make and release the art, not when people consume it. Please create your art; we need you.)
As a Deadhead and John Clayton Mayer fan, Dead and Company are venn diagram that is a circle for me. I enjoy both because of Andrew Joseph Cohen introducing them fresh to me.
Connecting to the Dead’s music has notably soothed my soul in these troubling times. I think leveraging your radio station to help more folks connect to what you and Bobby and the rest of Dead & Co have created would only vibe up those worldwide Mayer fans who haven’t yet figured out how to get into the Dead. (I suggest anyone who wants to get into the Dead to use the eight week Cohen Protocol, which I wrote out for my blog for your ease!)
I think there’s a lot of misconception about the Grateful Dead out there. I’m not currently sober from the Housewives, and on the fresh cast of RHONY Erin’s husband is a deadhead. The other housewives were calling them “metal” and while the Dead are deliciously cross genre (bluegrass! jazz! drumbeats from around the world! I could go on!) I would not call it metal. The closest to metal but not really are Dead & Co’s excellent covers of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.
I want to help the effort to connect more folks to the Dead through my curiosity! And get folks moving their bodies and breathing from a place of appreciation for their one of a kind meat sacks. I think Terrapin Tuuuuuuuuesdays would be a really cute addition to your LIFE programming!
So far you are one of only three humans who is 100/100 in terms of suggesting music I might like and I’m excited to hear what you’re programming when I can access Sirius XM. It will complement my beloved Canadian Radio station well and I anticipate a 2024 with songs to fill the air.
Yours very truly,
Bevin
P.S. While I have your attention there was a second 2022 Philadelphia Citizen’s Bank Arena Dead & Co. show that was up on Spotify but had the incorrect names on the songs (it was such a moment for me this summer as a newer fan to be certain “this is not Franklin’s Tower but the song says it’s Franklin’s Tower”). It was a really good show and it disappeared from Spotify and hasn’t reappeared. I’d love it to return to Spotify if you know the right person to contact. Okay thanks for your time and consideration, wishing you safe travels on your tour!
You can email me at fatkiddanceparty at gmail dot com!
*It’s the same episode of Current Mood that has the CVS Bag song which is catchy and magical and the whole thing is worth the time of any John Clayton Mayer fan. Especially if you’re always the family member going to stay someplace for the holidays and sleeping on an air mattress on the floor.
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