Tag Archives: Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley

The Code – Frisco Bound

FNQ band The Code has been invited by the Owsley Stanley Foundation to perform as a showcase artist at a fundraising benefit concert to be held at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA on 7 November 2015.

The concert will be headlined by Hot Tuna and will feature performances from Roger McNamee from the band Moonalice, The Code and other special guests. It is raising money to help preserve more than 1,300 tapes of live performance recordings made by the late Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley.

Bear, The Grateful Dead’s original sound man, recorded virtually every artist who played through his sound system. His archive includes recordings of shows by The Grateful Dead, Hot Tuna, Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, Santana, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, the Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, the Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and dozens more. These tapes have immense musical and historical value, but they are deteriorating and need to be preserved and digitised.

The Code is a local band made up of drummer Cameron Ferguson, who is Bear’s son-in-law, guitarist Neil Spranklin, bassist Gary Hill and singer Katie Jay. The band plays a wide range of covers and original songs, performing regularly in and around Cairns, in venues such as The Jack, the Red Beret and the Hambledon Hotel.

The Owsley Stanley Foundation was created by Bear’s immediate family and some of his close friends. Incorporated on 25 August, 2011 as a California non-profit corporation dedicated to fostering diverse charitable, artistic, musical, and scientific endeavours for the public benefit, it was granted official 501c3 non-profit status by the IRS in December 2012.

Check out the Code’s track “The River” performed live on Balcony TV recently.

Photo by Mimi Tannaka

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