Link to a NEW News Article on November 11, 2007 by Fred Mills
Harp Magazine
Bio Info:
Born on June 7, 1951, in East Germany, Rainer Jaromir Ptacek grew up in
Chicago after his family fled the Communist country in 1953. Musically
inclined from childhood, in the mid '60s Rainer swapped violin for guitar.
(He once quipped, "None of the Beatles, it seemed, were interested in
violin.") A decade later he'd become a fixture on the Tucson music scene,
ultimately garnering an international reputation as a song stylist and slide
virtuoso that had critics speaking of him, Ry Cooder and John Fahey in the
same breath, while pondering the intricacies of an elaborate tape loop and
delay pedal strategy he'd developed during his later years that allowed him
to sound like three guitarists at once. In addition to four albums
("Barefoot Rock", "Worried Spirits", "Texas Tapes" and "Nocturnes" - all
still available via Glitterhouse Records) released between 1986 and 1994, he
collaborated with everyone from Giant Sand and Germany's F.S.K. to ZZ Top's
Billy Gibbons and Led Zep's Robert Plant.
On Groundhog's Day of '96, while Rainer was riding his bike to work at the
Chicago Store (where he repaired string instruments), his brain faded out
and he fell over. He wound up at the University Medical Center where they
scanned him and imaged him and concluded that Rainer Ptácek had brain
cancer. They said it appeared like a cloud throughout his head - no lump of
malignancy that could be excised and let the man live in peace. So Rainer
had to commence the exhausting ordeal of radiation and chemo treatments. "It
took some time to relearn everything he'd known before the seizure," says
Howe Gelb (of Giant Sand fame and Rainer´s best friend) of Rainer's initial
recovery period. "The most amazing part of his trek - which was unbearably
frustrating, given how his brain wouldn't work with him for the longest time
to remember so many things, let alone the coordination it takes for his
hands to carry out his brain's ideas - was that he not only was able to
teach himself all over again; his stunning achievement was then to surpass
his ability before he got sick!" Howe Gelb also was the moving force behind
"The Inner Flame", a Rainer-tribute that featured the likes of Emmylou
Harris, Evan Dando, Page & Plant, P.J. Harvey etc., but also showcased
Ptacek and his trademark National Steel guitar on several cuts.
The record which was just finished before his seizure - "Alpaca Lips" - was
released in the fall of 2000 on Glitterhouse Records.
Another triumph occurred at a Tucson concert on June 6, 1997, prior to
Rainer's relapse. Recorded professionally and released in late 2001 (on
Glitterhouse) as the second installment in the trilogy, "Live at the
Performance Center" is, by Gelb's description, "the best live recording I
have ever heard from anyone, anywhere, from any time. And if you listen with
a critical ear - which is hard to do, given the emotional status - he keeps
getting better and better as the set goes on. He's on a plane I have never
heard anyone ever get to."
The brain tumor that was thought to be in remission returned.
"That came about after his final seizure [in '97]. I raced home from a
European tour to find him talking in numbers. Again, he slowly began to
relearn his guitar, but this time the end was imminent. We all knew it. And
we had to tell him, as well. Anyway, I mentioned to him that he was coming
up with all kinds of ideas on the guitar; would he like to record again? To
focus on that for the healing it can do, and the relief of the art he gave
himself to his whole life. A day or so later, he was up for it. He put in 4
days of recording spread over a couple of weeks, until his brain could not
make sense enough to go on." (Howe Gelb)
The result is "The Farm", Rainer´s last recordings. Rainer Ptacek passed
away on November 12, 1997.
"What a great struggle for him at times to even read and make sense of the
notes he'd made. The spine tingle is the delivery from a man who is perched
on the precipice and able to look over into the void and deliver still, in
this world, what he sees on both sides.
What can I say? You can hear it." (Howe Gelb)
Arizona Illustrated Feature (KUAT-TV Tucson - PBS) from 1997
OW OM Finished Recorded Products Website
Rainer Info
More about Rainer
Rainer concert downloads (and streaming audio) avaliable at Archive.org
