Carlton on hearing us the first time immediately put us on his stage. The import of that action cannot be over stressed. Carlton thrust us into the scene and before his audience. We were in Bluegrass heaven. 
 
Frank Greathouse wrote to the management at Bill Graham’s rock venue on Second Avenue. Fillmore East was only open from March of 1968 through June of 1971. New Deal String Band was, I think, the only bona fide Southern born and bred Bluegrass Band to play that hallowed stage, in December of 1969.  I have played to lots of audiences but having that house erupt when we did Dylan’s “One More Night,” and then Paul Siebel’s “You Made Me Lose My Blues,” and then lose their minds when fiddling Al McCanless knocked back “Orange Blossom Special” remains emblazoned on my neural pathways. There we were on the stage where Bill Graham kick started Rock with performances by Hendrix, the Dead, The Who, Janis, Joni Mitchell, Otis Redding and Eldridge Cleaver.  
 
Richie Gottehrer was in the audience that night and soon thereafter signed us to do an album for Sire / London. Suddenly, the landscape in heaven got better. We hit the festival circuit in 1970 with an album in the works. We were REAL, though many in the standard Bluegrass crowds had some difficulty with the counter culture styling we were exhibiting. Once we started playing, however, we were usually able win the crowds over. 
 
Having an album in 1970 was more than just a next step. Every ensemble that comes to the table these days arrives with a digital CD reflection of what they are doing. This was decidedly not the case in 1970.
 
I met and married Pat Beaver, my Anthropologist wife of the last 45 years, in the spring of 1973, and moved to the North West mountains of NC in the fall of 1974, where I have lived since. Took a couple years with the family teaching and conducting research in the People’s Republic of China in the ‘80s. Took a few years to enter graduate school at Duke University studying Chinese Revolutionary History and the political symbolism that was such an important part of that success. Took a teaching job at Appalachian State University in the early ‘90s, and then moved into a parallel position in the Internationals Office. I taught and worked there until I retired in 2011, having served in several positions in the International efforts of the ASU/ UNC system. 
 
During the 45 years in Boone I have played music regularly: House Band Jazz trios, some Rock, a LOT of string band music of including straight ahead Bluegrass, Old Time, and did some studio work with my bass. The most significant and sustained effort is with a couple of pals at the University. We played and sang under the name “Lost Faculties” for the last 25 years. We do material from Harry Owen’s “fo-Hawaiian” material from the ‘30s, to a few Bluegrass tunes, stylized versions of songs that R. Crumb did with his “Cheap Suit Serenaders,” covers of some Classic Country and early Rock, some Zappa, Mills Brothers, Cole Porter, a few show tunes, and numerous tunes the band has written as well. We were tied to our academic careers, played a lot locally, but as Dylan’s theme in his song, “You Ain’t Goin Nowhere” provided a model…we were decidedly not going very far from Boone. If, if, if…one is just cognizant enough to figure it out, Life in Paradise is to be enjoyed when and if one lands there. So here I am: with what is left of my brain filled with the tropes of Bluegrass and other musical types floating; my bass; my library; my family, and the clear mountain air.   
 
(NOTE: You'll be able to learn more about Bob “Quail” White, The New Deal String Band, and the New Grass scene in the early 1970s, when our forthcoming BGCS box-set is published later this year.)