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Alembic Club » Miscellaneous » Archive through November 11, 2010 » Archive: 2008 » Archive through October 25, 2008 » RIP Merl Saunders « Previous Next »

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tom_z
Senior Member
Username: tom_z

Post Number: 553
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Friday, October 24, 2008 - 9:42 pm:   Edit Post

May the four winds blow him safely home

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/24/BAGK13NQGB.DTL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb8g8I8WVww
keavin
Senior Member
Username: keavin

Post Number: 1478
Registered: 12-2002
Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 6:51 am:   Edit Post

Ive played a few gigs with Merl when i lived in san francisco back in the 80's.......good cat!
paulman
Advanced Member
Username: paulman

Post Number: 333
Registered: 2-2005
Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 8:42 am:   Edit Post

Wow, time moves on.

I met and spoke with Merl back in '98 in Madison WI. He was making a guest spot on a local cable TV show..TIM's Sun Dog which my old band played on a few times. Merl was backed up by a semi-local band "Mississippi Cactus" and the performances were phenomenal. I also just realized the article Tom posted didn't mention anything about the Blues for the Rainforest Project, Merl was very much into saving the rainforests.

Merl was conversational and really happy. I have a videotape of us talking somewhere, I'm going to have to dig it out and relive that moment.

Another note of this meeting is I got to meet "Boots", Merl's personal assistant at the time. Boots is the guy lighting off the explosions in the Grateful Dead movie :-)

Merl you will be missed, but never forgotten. He's taking the Mystery Train now, 15 coaches long....
lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq

Post Number: 3336
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 10:09 am:   Edit Post

Merl, Jerry, John Kahn, and the Keystone Berkeley too - all gone now. Helluva jam session going on at the Keystone Universe in the sky, I'll bet. So long Merl, and thanks for all the wonderful times.

"Cat on a tin roof. Dogs in a pile. Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile. He's gone."

Bill, tgo
flaxattack
Senior Member
Username: flaxattack

Post Number: 2091
Registered: 4-2004
Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 10:21 am:   Edit Post

wow i just saw this. i first met merl along with jerry and john on a hells angel ferry ride up the hudson river back in 73. a clip of this is int he movie.hells angels forver or forever angels, i forget the exact title. he was warm friendly and gracious. when i saw them the following week at the capital theatre i got down to the stage to take some photos and got a nice smile and wave from him. the next year when they played the bottom line for 3 glorious midnight shows, i happened to work near there and as i walked by i heard them rehearsing. walked in was allowed to sit down and hang out.
sounds like we should all take out our keystone cds and raise a doob.

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