DESCRIPTION:
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, JamBase teamed with Telefunken to produce the Songs Of Their Own video series. We began with a list of 100 Grateful Dead original songs (exclusively their tunes, not covers they often played) and tapped many of our favorite artists to record a cover version either at the JamBase office in San Francisco or at one of the many venues around town and beyond. No song was allowed to be covered twice, and today’s participant Keller Williams gave his interpretation of “Brown-Eyed Women.”

“Brown-Eyed Women” (or as the typo on Europe ‘72 displayed, “Brown-Eyed Woman”) entered the Grateful Dead rotation August 24, 1971 at Chicago’s Auditorium Theater. Sung by Jerry Garcia, who wrote the tune with Robert Hunter, “Brown- Eyed Women” tells the ill-fated tale of the bootlegging Bigfoot County dwellers Jack and Delilah Jones. The Dead regularly played the song up until July 6, 1995 at Riverport Amphitheatre near St. Louis, the second to last stop on their final tour.

Terrapin Crossroads again provided the setting to record Williams’ version of “Brown- Eyed Women.” KW was in town to participate in the 4/20 House Party on April 20, joining Phil Lesh & Friends along with with Jackie Greene, Jason Crosby and Alex Koford. Though not performed at the 4/20 party, Keller was well-versed when it came to “Brown-Eyed Women” having played the song live regularly for years.

Audio and video recorded and edited by: Jake Alexander