Interview | Jay Blakesberg Talks Guitars That Jam
By Andy Kahn May 13, 2015 • 12:00 pm PDT
Written by: Stu Kelly
:: Interview – Jay Blakesberg Talks Guitars That Jam ::
In September of 1978, Jay Blakesberg borrowed his father’s camera and took it to a Grateful Dead show at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. At only 16 years old, Blakesberg walked away with what he described as “a few OK shots,” but it was developing the pictures in his parents’ basement that made him feel especially good about this new found love. Blakesberg hung his photos on his wall and never lost sight of his creative expression. Today he’s transformed his love of concert photography into a remarkable craft, labeling his art “visual anthropology.”
[All photos by Jay Blakesberg] 
JAMBASE: In the new book the artists write a little blurb about their gear. Did any one of these move you in a particular way or did you learn something cool when putting that together?
JB: Well I learned a lot. I didn’t personally do the interviews. The way the interview worked is that we had a short four or five question email interview that went out to the artists, and some of the interviews were also done on the phone. Every phone interview was done with my editor at the publishing company, Dustin Jones, who did a great job. We basically had the same framework for everyone. I think what’s best about Guitars That Jam is some people wrote very technical stuff about their instruments and some people wrote very emotional stuff about their instruments and there’s a nice mixture of both in the book. There are great stories about how these artists got guitars, how they were inspired to own a certain brand or make or model of guitar.
Personally, I love guitars and I love photographing guitars, but I don’t know the technical side because I don’t play music. So I definitely learned a lot about that. I always had a basic understanding of how tones are created and the different pick-ups and frets and lengths and the difference between a hollow body versus a solid body. Obviously the guitar is an incredible piece of art, which is used to create another piece of art when it’s put in the hands of these musicians. They’re able to give so many things to them and create so many lush sounds with them. So I learned a lot by reading their stories.
JAMBASE: How many of these photos are from your archives and how many did you have to go out and chase?
JB: There are really very few archival old-school photos. Obviously the Jerry Garcia photos are older, but pretty much everything else is relatively recent. I started shooting more detailed close-up shots when the digital revolution really started happening in photography. There really aren’t that many close-up shots of guitars on film, at least not that I have. I started doing these close-up guitar shots around eight years ago and when I did the inside of JAM I realized I had this big collection but it wasn’t enough for a book because it also had to match the full body shots of the artists as well. If you look at Bob Weir, for instance, the live shot with his Modulus guitar was from The Dead 2009 tour. I have one from John Bell in 2005 and actually the close-up shot is from a different show. It’s the same guitar but it’s from a different year because in 2005 I didn’t have the close-up shot but I liked the full body shot of J.B. from 2005. I had actually picked a different guitar for J.B., one of the newer Washburns he’s been playing the last few years, he basically said to me, “I don’t really have a lot of stories about that guitar. Do you have any of my older guitars that I wrote songs on?” So I showed him a few and he pointed it out, “That’s the one, the 1990 Washburn.” He wrote a lot of songs on that guitar but he doesn’t play it on stage much, it’s more of a rehearsal guitar.
In general the Kimock shots with Jerry Garcia jamming with his white Strat, his 1960 Strat, is an example of something I was just lucky enough to have so I had to throw that in the book. I was working right up to 2014 shooting new photos for the book.
JAMBASE: Were there any artists who you wanted to feature in the book but couldn’t for whatever reason?
JB: There were definitely a lot of artists I couldn’t get in and you know people are busy, like Dave Navarro had agreed to do the interview and his manager had said he was into it but as time went on he kept postponing the interview and eventually we just had to move on because he wasn’t making himself available. We had reached out to John Fogerty, I had a great shot of Fogerty from Gathering of the Vibes from last year. I have a great shot of his gold Les Paul I would have loved to have in. I had Tom Petty and Mike Campbell on my list but we really started to run out of pages. There as a whole bunch of people that sadly I couldn’t even fit in the book because the publisher wouldn’t give any more pages because they have a certain limit of what they can do. People like Stu Allen and Mark Karan, Josh Clark from Tea Leaf Green, John Kadlecik, all of these people aren’t in the book because of the pages. At the end of the day I think if this book is successful all of those people will be featured in volume two.
JAMBASE: Let’s talk about your gear. What are you armed with these days?
JB: I’m a Nikon guy. My whole professional career I’ve shot with a Nikon. Currently I’m shooting with a Nikon D810 and love it. It’s a great camera. Most of the close-up shots are shot with a long lense. They’re not shot from far back and cropped in tight, they’re shot pretty much as you’re seeing them, in super tight. So I had very specific goals in mind when I was shooting these pictures. The Garcia shot of his Tiger [guitar] is a cropped photo, but the Wolf [guitar] shot has been out to play a little more. That was actually shot with Dan Lebowitz from ALO playing it. He’s played it, Neal Casal has played it, Chris Robinson has played it, Ryan Adams has played it and of course Warren Haynes has played it. So I had a few really good opportunities to get the close-up of the Wolf in the last couple years. Pretty much everything else were shots I’ve been taking the last couple years, so everything worked out.
JAMBASE: Would you say Jim Marshall is your greatest inspiration?
JB: Jim is definitely one of my top inspirations. As far as shooting concerts and backstage and stuff like that, yes absolutely Jim is my greatest influence. On the portrait side of things, other photographers inspired me, but this book isn’t a portrait book. But as far as in the recording studios and in people’s homes Jim is definitely my greatest inspiration.
JAMBASE: What do you think of the Dead 50 shows?
JB: I’m excited for the Dead 50 shows. I think it’s going to be a wonderful celebration of a 50 year adventure that’s not really over. As far as the Grateful Dead are concerned, sure that chapter was closed when Jerry Garcia died. But many, many more chapters have been written after that. If you look at the core four and what they’ve done it’s amazing. Look at what Billy is doing with Reed Mathis, Aaron [Magner] of the Disco Biscuits and Tom Hamilton. Look at Phil Lesh on a nightly basis up at Terrapin Crossroads -it’s incredible what he’s doing. Same thing with Bobby at Sweetwater. He came out and sat-in recently with Jackie Greene. Bobby is incredibly healthy and strong and I can’t wait to see him at the top of his game in Santa Clara and Chicago in a couple months. I think that it’s a celebration. It’s not the end. This isn’t a wake. It’s a celebration of a really incredible thing that’s been going on for 50 years.
JAMBASE: Will you be shooting any of the Dead 50 shows?
JB: Yeah absolutely. Right now I’m definitely planning on being there and I’m super excited to shoot all five shows. That’s the plan for now. There’s going to be a lot of moving parts but I’m excited to document this. For me documenting the Grateful Dead experience doesn’t end till these last four guys have completely retired or stop playing music. As long as they’re making music I feel that my Grateful Dead archive will continue to grow. I feel that it’s important to document this and I truly believe the Grateful Dead experience is a pop culture phenomenon like none other. There are other bands who are close but these guys started in 1965, ground zero in Haight-Ashbury. I think it’s been an incredible cultural zeitgeist that I’ve been very privileged to photograph now for over 35 years. I shot my first Grateful Dead concert in 1978, so we’re getting close to 40 years for me. Just because Jerry is gone doesn’t mean there hasn’t been so many magical moments.
JAMBASE: Tell me about your relationship with Phil Lesh and the work you do with him at Terrapin Crossroads?
JB: All of the band members are starting to celebrate the 50th anniversary in their own way. At Terrapin Crossroads Phil and Jill Lesh decided they would do a show every night to honor each year of the Grateful Dead’s history. The first couple shows [1965 and 1966] I don’t think they created an exact show, they played a list of songs the band was playing back then. I don’t think there are many recording from ’66 and if there are they’re usually short. I think they started recreating exact shows around ’69. The players were even playing the same style of instruments. Stu Allen was playing the same make and model of what Jerry was playing. They also played right into their amps with no effects because back then they didn’t have effects.
A few hours before the first [1965] show I got a phone call from the people down at Terrapin and they asked me if I was interested in interviewing Phil on stage about 1965 and I could talk about whatever I wanted. Of course I said “yes.” So I did some research and the format I created usually lasts around 15 minutes long on stage with Phil. We do a brief history lesson about that year in general. We talk about what T.V. shows were popular, what songs were on the Top 10 Billboard charts, what albums were out, what movies were popular and political stuff. In the late 60’s I talked about Martin Luther King, civil rights, presidents, man on the moon, etc. Then we talk about the band’s history and we hone in on a specific story Phil wants to tell. We’ll be working through the ‘70’s in May so it should be a great time.
JAMBASE: Anything else Jay you wanted add about the new book or maybe your future plans?
JB: Well, I’m really excited Warren [Haynes] wrote the foreword for the book. Warren is a great writer, a great player and very integral to this whole scene. I really love the way this book came out. It’s got a bunch of great information and photographically I tried to pick photos that weren’t boring. We live in a social media world where everyone is posting stuff all the time, so I thought it was important to try and pull out images that will resonate with people visually, as well as with the words on the page. I was looking for engaging photographs, so I think I came up with a good collection. Again, I like that people are feeling inspired to buy coffee table books and have this physical, tangible thing that they can look at and hold. I’m hoping that people will support the arts. Photographers are in the same situation as musicians are as far as the digital world is lowering the value of our work and how we generate revenue based on our work.
I’m also excited for my next project Hippie Chick: A Tale of Love, Devotion and Surrender, which will be out later this year in October. It’s in processing now, we’re about two-thirds of the way into design, so it should be cool. It’s just photographs of women at music festivals and concerts. We interviewed over 100 women and Grace Slick wrote the foreword and Grace Potter wrote the afterword so I’m super excited for that one.
In September of 1978, Jay Blakesberg borrowed his father’s camera and took it to a Grateful Dead show at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. At only 16 years old, Blakesberg walked away with what he described as “a few OK shots,” but it was developing the pictures in his parents’ basement that made him feel especially good about this new found love. Blakesberg hung his photos on his wall and never lost sight of his creative expression. Today he’s transformed his love of concert photography into a remarkable craft, labeling his art “visual anthropology.”
Currently Blakesberg is preparing to issue his new book Guitars That Jam, which will officially be released on May 19 via rockoutbooks.com. Jay caught up with Stu Kelly on a foggy morning in the Bay Area just after Blakesberg finished walking his dog. Jay spoke to JamBase about his new book, the gear he uses, his work with Phil Lesh at Terrapin Crossroads and more.
JAMBASE: Congratulations on the new book Jay. Tell me a little bit more how it came to be.
Jay Blakesberg: Inside the JAM book (Blakesberg’s previous book) on the inside covers, which is called the end paper, I did a whole lot of bunch of close-ups on guitars and I got a lot of really positive feedback on those photos. They’re the only photos like that in the whole book, so when so when people saw that, it really resonated that this could be a cool idea for a book. So that’s where the idea came from.
JAMBASE: What did you learn from JAM that you wanted to do different this time?
JB: I learned a lot from JAM. I learned that people are still interested in hard cover coffee table books. I think it’s somewhat similar to collecting vinyl these days, to give it an analogy. Something tangible. We live in a very fleeting online world of digital images and I think it’s nice to hold something in your hand. So I think I learned that from JAM. But as far as the process, it’s really hard to get artists to do interviews. In JAM the artist did all the writing. So we scheduled it for 18 months and we spent it tracking down artists and trying to get them to believe in the project I was doing in order for them to do the interviews. So when we approached Guitars That Jam, we knew it was going to be the same kind of thing because you’re relying on the artist to actually do these interviews. But we got it done relatively quickly so that was good.
JAMBASE: In the new book the artists write a little blurb about their gear. Did any one of these move you in a particular way or did you learn something cool when putting that together?
JB: Well I learned a lot. I didn’t personally do the interviews. The way the interview worked is that we had a short four or five question email interview that went out to the artists, and some of the interviews were also done on the phone. Every phone interview was done with my editor at the publishing company, Dustin Jones, who did a great job. We basically had the same framework for everyone. I think what’s best about Guitars That Jam is some people wrote very technical stuff about their instruments and some people wrote very emotional stuff about their instruments and there’s a nice mixture of both in the book. There are great stories about how these artists got guitars, how they were inspired to own a certain brand or make or model of guitar.
Personally, I love guitars and I love photographing guitars, but I don’t know the technical side because I don’t play music. So I definitely learned a lot about that. I always had a basic understanding of how tones are created and the different pick-ups and frets and lengths and the difference between a hollow body versus a solid body. Obviously the guitar is an incredible piece of art, which is used to create another piece of art when it’s put in the hands of these musicians. They’re able to give so many things to them and create so many lush sounds with them. So I learned a lot by reading their stories.
JAMBASE: How many of these photos are from your archives and how many did you have to go out and chase?
JB: There are really very few archival old-school photos. Obviously the Jerry Garcia photos are older, but pretty much everything else is relatively recent. I started shooting more detailed close-up shots when the digital revolution really started happening in photography. There really aren’t that many close-up shots of guitars on film, at least not that I have. I started doing these close-up guitar shots around eight years ago and when I did the inside of JAM I realized I had this big collection but it wasn’t enough for a book because it also had to match the full body shots of the artists as well. If you look at Bob Weir, for instance, the live shot with his Modulus guitar was from The Dead 2009 tour. I have one from John Bell in 2005 and actually the close-up shot is from a different show. It’s the same guitar but it’s from a different year because in 2005 I didn’t have the close-up shot but I liked the full body shot of J.B. from 2005. I had actually picked a different guitar for J.B., one of the newer Washburns he’s been playing the last few years, he basically said to me, “I don’t really have a lot of stories about that guitar. Do you have any of my older guitars that I wrote songs on?” So I showed him a few and he pointed it out, “That’s the one, the 1990 Washburn.” He wrote a lot of songs on that guitar but he doesn’t play it on stage much, it’s more of a rehearsal guitar.
In general the Kimock shots with Jerry Garcia jamming with his white Strat, his 1960 Strat, is an example of something I was just lucky enough to have so I had to throw that in the book. I was working right up to 2014 shooting new photos for the book.
JAMBASE: Were there any artists who you wanted to feature in the book but couldn’t for whatever reason?
JB: There were definitely a lot of artists I couldn’t get in and you know people are busy, like Dave Navarro had agreed to do the interview and his manager had said he was into it but as time went on he kept postponing the interview and eventually we just had to move on because he wasn’t making himself available. We had reached out to John Fogerty, I had a great shot of Fogerty from Gathering of the Vibes from last year. I have a great shot of his gold Les Paul I would have loved to have in. I had Tom Petty and Mike Campbell on my list but we really started to run out of pages. There as a whole bunch of people that sadly I couldn’t even fit in the book because the publisher wouldn’t give any more pages because they have a certain limit of what they can do. People like Stu Allen and Mark Karan, Josh Clark from Tea Leaf Green, John Kadlecik, all of these people aren’t in the book because of the pages. At the end of the day I think if this book is successful all of those people will be featured in volume two.
JAMBASE: Let’s talk about your gear. What are you armed with these days?
JB: I’m a Nikon guy. My whole professional career I’ve shot with a Nikon. Currently I’m shooting with a Nikon D810 and love it. It’s a great camera. Most of the close-up shots are shot with a long lense. They’re not shot from far back and cropped in tight, they’re shot pretty much as you’re seeing them, in super tight. So I had very specific goals in mind when I was shooting these pictures. The Garcia shot of his Tiger [guitar] is a cropped photo, but the Wolf [guitar] shot has been out to play a little more. That was actually shot with Dan Lebowitz from ALO playing it. He’s played it, Neal Casal has played it, Chris Robinson has played it, Ryan Adams has played it and of course Warren Haynes has played it. So I had a few really good opportunities to get the close-up of the Wolf in the last couple years. Pretty much everything else were shots I’ve been taking the last couple years, so everything worked out.
JAMBASE: Would you say Jim Marshall is your greatest inspiration?
JB: Jim is definitely one of my top inspirations. As far as shooting concerts and backstage and stuff like that, yes absolutely Jim is my greatest influence. On the portrait side of things, other photographers inspired me, but this book isn’t a portrait book. But as far as in the recording studios and in people’s homes Jim is definitely my greatest inspiration.
JAMBASE: What do you think of the Dead 50 shows?
JB: I’m excited for the Dead 50 shows. I think it’s going to be a wonderful celebration of a 50 year adventure that’s not really over. As far as the Grateful Dead are concerned, sure that chapter was closed when Jerry Garcia died. But many, many more chapters have been written after that. If you look at the core four and what they’ve done it’s amazing. Look at what Billy is doing with Reed Mathis, Aaron [Magner] of the Disco Biscuits and Tom Hamilton. Look at Phil Lesh on a nightly basis up at Terrapin Crossroads -it’s incredible what he’s doing. Same thing with Bobby at Sweetwater. He came out and sat-in recently with Jackie Greene. Bobby is incredibly healthy and strong and I can’t wait to see him at the top of his game in Santa Clara and Chicago in a couple months. I think that it’s a celebration. It’s not the end. This isn’t a wake. It’s a celebration of a really incredible thing that’s been going on for 50 years.
JAMBASE: Will you be shooting any of the Dead 50 shows?
JB: Yeah absolutely. Right now I’m definitely planning on being there and I’m super excited to shoot all five shows. That’s the plan for now. There’s going to be a lot of moving parts but I’m excited to document this. For me documenting the Grateful Dead experience doesn’t end till these last four guys have completely retired or stop playing music. As long as they’re making music I feel that my Grateful Dead archive will continue to grow. I feel that it’s important to document this and I truly believe the Grateful Dead experience is a pop culture phenomenon like none other. There are other bands who are close but these guys started in 1965, ground zero in Haight-Ashbury. I think it’s been an incredible cultural zeitgeist that I’ve been very privileged to photograph now for over 35 years. I shot my first Grateful Dead concert in 1978, so we’re getting close to 40 years for me. Just because Jerry is gone doesn’t mean there hasn’t been so many magical moments.
JAMBASE: Tell me about your relationship with Phil Lesh and the work you do with him at Terrapin Crossroads?
JB: All of the band members are starting to celebrate the 50th anniversary in their own way. At Terrapin Crossroads Phil and Jill Lesh decided they would do a show every night to honor each year of the Grateful Dead’s history. The first couple shows [1965 and 1966] I don’t think they created an exact show, they played a list of songs the band was playing back then. I don’t think there are many recording from ’66 and if there are they’re usually short. I think they started recreating exact shows around ’69. The players were even playing the same style of instruments. Stu Allen was playing the same make and model of what Jerry was playing. They also played right into their amps with no effects because back then they didn’t have effects.
A few hours before the first [1965] show I got a phone call from the people down at Terrapin and they asked me if I was interested in interviewing Phil on stage about 1965 and I could talk about whatever I wanted. Of course I said “yes.” So I did some research and the format I created usually lasts around 15 minutes long on stage with Phil. We do a brief history lesson about that year in general. We talk about what T.V. shows were popular, what songs were on the Top 10 Billboard charts, what albums were out, what movies were popular and political stuff. In the late 60’s I talked about Martin Luther King, civil rights, presidents, man on the moon, etc. Then we talk about the band’s history and we hone in on a specific story Phil wants to tell. We’ll be working through the ‘70’s in May so it should be a great time.
JAMBASE: Anything else Jay you wanted add about the new book or maybe your future plans?
JB: Well, I’m really excited Warren [Haynes] wrote the foreword for the book. Warren is a great writer, a great player and very integral to this whole scene. I really love the way this book came out. It’s got a bunch of great information and photographically I tried to pick photos that weren’t boring. We live in a social media world where everyone is posting stuff all the time, so I thought it was important to try and pull out images that will resonate with people visually, as well as with the words on the page. I was looking for engaging photographs, so I think I came up with a good collection. Again, I like that people are feeling inspired to buy coffee table books and have this physical, tangible thing that they can look at and hold. I’m hoping that people will support the arts. Photographers are in the same situation as musicians are as far as the digital world is lowering the value of our work and how we generate revenue based on our work.
I’m also excited for my next project Hippie Chick: A Tale of Love, Devotion and Surrender, which will be out later this year in October. It’s in processing now, we’re about two-thirds of the way into design, so it should be cool. It’s just photographs of women at music festivals and concerts. We interviewed over 100 women and Grace Slick wrote the foreword and Grace Potter wrote the afterword so I’m super excited for that one.
