Rob Eaton
{{short description|American singer-songwriter}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Rob Eaton
| image =
| caption =
| image_size = 250
| birth_name = Robert Eaton
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Mount Kisco, New York
| death_date =
| origin =
| occupation = Musician, singer-songwriter
| instrument = guitar, vocals
| genre = Folk rock, jam, bluegrass, country rock, jazz
| years_active = 1980–present
| label =
| associated_acts = Dark Star Orchestra
| website =
}}
Rob Eaton is an American guitarist. He is best known for his work with the renowned Grateful Dead tribute band, Dark Star Orchestra, of which he has been a member since 2001.
Career
Rob Eaton grew up in Vermont and was inspired to start playing guitar at the age of 12 after hearing the Grateful Dead's Europe '72. He joined his first band, The Peyote Ridge, in 1975 which played a combination of originals and Dead covers.
Eaton has been a member of the Grateful Dead community since the 1970s and used to tape shows. This led to him moving to New York in 1980 and getting a job in the recording industry at the Power Station recording studio. Around the same time he began playing with the Dead cover band Border Legion. He continued gigging with them until 2001 when he was offered a permanent position in Dark Star Orchestra, playing the part of Bob Weir.{{cite web | url=http://www.darkstarorchestra.net/NEWSITE/HTML/dso.php?sec=band&cat=1&id=4 | title=Rob Eaton: Rhythm Guitar, Vocals | publisher=Dark Star Orchestra | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918225816/http://www.darkstarorchestra.net/NEWSITE/HTML/dso.php?sec=band&cat=1&id=4 | archive-date=September 18, 2008 | url-status=dead}} Since then he began putting most of his time into performing with that band as well as his new side project, Sages and Spirits. He has also produced albums for Pat Metheny and appeared as a guest on other albums such as Peter Wolf's Sleepless.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jambase.com/article/dark-star-orchestra-life-after-dead|title=Dark Star Orchestra: Life After Dead|website=JamBase.com|accessdate=January 22, 2021}}
Betty Cantor-Jackson, a longtime recording engineer for the Grateful Dead in the 1970s and early 1980s, made high quality reel to reel recordings of many Grateful Dead shows. They are colloquially known as Betty Boards as many were direct feeds from the soundboard.{{cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/11/26/deadhead | title=Deadhead: The afterlife | first=Nick | last=Paumgarten | work=The New Yorker | date=November 26, 2012 | access-date=April 12, 2021}} Thousands of recordings were sold to three anonymous buyers in 1986 in a storage locker foreclosure auction. In 2014, one of those buyers asked Eaton to begin restoring and digitizing the old, sometimes moldy or disintegrating magnetic tapes. Eaton felt the work so important as, in many cases, these were the best if not the only recordings of the performances. He eventually tracked down and convinced the other two buyers to allow him to do the same.{{Cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593958534/do-you-want-to-talk-to-the-man-in-charge-or-the-woman-who-knows-what-s-going-on | title='Do You Want To Talk To The Man-In-Charge, Or The Woman Who Knows What's Going On?' | first=Alison | last=Fensterstock | date=March 20, 2018 | website=NPR.org | accessdate=January 22, 2021}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.darkstarorchestra.net/NEWSITE/HTML/dso.php?sec=band&cat=1&id=4 Bio at Dark Star Orchestra Website]
- [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0247872/#SoundDepartment Internet Movie database page on Rob Eaton.]
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:Guitarists from Vermont
Category:Record producers from Vermont