by Fred Mills

It was just shy of one year ago, on December 17, 1996, when I hesitantly wandered in to DuVal Auditorium, in Tucson’s University Medical Center. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one arriving with more than the usual set of questions a person has prior to a concert. No "what kind of light show... who’s the opening band... will they play my favorite song..." this time. For this noontime recital, concerns gravitated more towards, "How does he look? Has he lost any of his skills? Will his family be there? Is this going to be an emotional event?"

The answers to those questions, and many more that no doubt lingered in our minds, were soon answered.

Rainer Ptacek looked terrific, if just a tad haggard (and who wouldn’t, having spent the better portion of a year battling cancer and going through chemo - and radiation therapy?). His legendary fretboard talents, his facility at wielding his mystical National Steel guitar, seemed undiminished, and, combined with his keening, passionate voice, suggested nothing less than a man possessed with new wisdom, the kind one gets by going to the edge and peering over, and then feeling compelled to return and impart that wisdom to the rest of the world. Indeed, his family was there -- his wife, his three kids, and several hundred more of us! -- to witness his first public concert since February, when he’d suffered a seizure that led to his being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

I don’t need to tell you what the answer to the fourth question was. The year that followed, in fact, has been one long, emotional event, wondrous and fulfilling and, yeah, tinged with the spectre of impending tragedy – although the tragic element didn’t really carry the proverbial stench of doom, more just the burdensome weight of inevitability. Rainer was given an extra year and a half of life, and when it came time for him to surrender it he did so with the honest sort of dignity that is rare among mere mortals. For those of us who had, and are still having, a hard time surrendering (you see, those of us that loved Rainer, and there were so many, were also given an extra year and a half to celebrate what we have before us) should take Rainer’s example

to heart.

On November 12, Rainer Ptacek passed away. He was 46 years old. A little bit of Tucson died with him, but at the same time, Tucson gained a new sense of living, a renewed reason to believe, if you will.

Rainer was born in East Germany, but his family fled in 1953, eventually settling in Chicago in 1956. As a teenager he formed the usual British Invasion-influenced combos of the day, smitten like most other ‘60s teens by the Beatles. In an interview on KXCI-FM with Tucson deejay Kidd Squidd he mentioned that the first record he bought was "Hello Mary Lou" by Ricky Nelson and the first concert he attended was most likely Iron Butterfly; combined with a firsthand exposure to the blues giants that played regularly around Chicago, Rainer’s musical apprenticeship, clearly, was nothing if not diverse.

By the ‘70s he wound up in Tucson and quickly became a favorite among local audiences for his emotionally vivid lyrics, his high, keening vocals and his near-otherworldly style of slide guitar. His national and international profile probably commenced around the time he founded Giant Sandworms with his friend Howe Gelb; despite the fact that the group’s recorded legacy includes only a pair of seven-inch records, to this day critics and collectors in far away places still speak of those singles in reverent tones, citing them as early examples of this area’s vaunted desert rock sound. When Gelb temporarily moved the band to New York, Rainer chose to stay in Tucson. Before too long, in addition to his regular solo gigging, he formed Das Combo, a kind of mutant roots/power blues trio.

I can speak personally for the impact that "Barefoot Rock With… Rainer and Das Combo" had. Vacationing in London in 1985, I was hanging out with a couple of label people and the publisher of "Bucketful Of Brains" magazine one afternoon when someone pulled out a copy of the album (it was a UK-only vinyl release) and asked me if I was familiar with the band, me being from the US and all. No, I wasn’t (this was some time before I would move to Tucson) -- but I soon would be, once I returned home and cranked up my old Victrola and listened to the record. I remembered being told in London, "This Tucson guy is incredible. One of the best guitarists in your entire country!" No shit.

It’s interesting that Rainer, like his pal Gelb and Giant Sand (with whom Rainer would continue to collaborate over the years as an auxiliary member of

Giant Sand and in the countryish Band Of Blacky Ranchette), was always better known in England and Europe than in the States. With the exception of one CD, all Rainer’s music was issued overseas, and what might potentially have been a significant ticket to national fame -- a series of tunes he recorded with Robert Plant -- even wound up being released as UK-only B-sides. Not to mention that a timely collaboration with British ambient techno outfit The Grid came out on a tiny German label; the "Nocturnes" CD, featuring the ethereal Rainer/Grid composition "Nod To N2O," is one of the most significant Rainer recordings, and one of the most elusive, too.

Just the same, Rainer was never lacking quality Stateside fans -- as if the names Victoria Williams, Los Lobos, Greg Brown, Vic Chesnutt, Kris McKay, The Blasters, Jonathan Richman and Billy Gibbons might suggest. The latter artist, in fact, became a Rainer fan one night, when Gibbons happened to drop by Tucson club Nino’s after a ZZ Top concert; taken by Rainer’s unique slide guitar style, Gibbons sent a note up via one of his bodyguards that he’d like to meet the musician. A few years later Gibbons and Rainer would record together, the results appearing on Rainer’s "The Texas Tapes" CD. (It’s always been a source of great amusement around Tucson that Rainer would never let himself be pinned down by the Gibbons question. Apparently something in Gibbons’ contract prevented his name being listed on any outside credits, and Rainer always honored that. With a smile, it should be noted -- as Rainer told me once during an interview, "You can write, "It has been said that Rainer recorded with members of ZZ Top..." and that will not be untrue. Because that has been said!"

When Rainer fell ill in early ‘96, Howe Gelb and Robert Plant rallied together and assembled an all-star cast of musicians for "The Inner Flame" tribute/benefit album. Released earlier this year by Atlantic, it not only featured Plant & Page, Evan Dando, Victoria Willams, PJ Harvey, Jonathan Richman, Bill Janowitz, The Drovers, LK and Vic Chesnutt performing Ptacek songs, but also showcased Ptacek and his trademark National Steel guitar on collaborations with Plant, Emmylou Harris, Giant Sand, Kris McKay, and Madeleine Peyroux. This CD, along with Epiphany Records’ live benefit CD "Wood For Rainer" featuring a slew of Tucson musicians (Rainer himself is on two cuts), can easily be found in record stores (unlike most of Rainer’s discography listed below) and is a solid listen from start to finish.

In the month before his death, Rainer recorded a number of new tunes with Giant Sand, and plans are for some sort of posthumous release. I’ve heard the material and can only hope that a CD is made available soon; it’s some of the most emotionally riveting stuff I’ve heard in years, and it also has all of Rainer’s trademarks, from that unique voice to that alien brand of guitar to that offbeat sense of humor. Just the other day I was listening to Kidd Squidd’s "Mystery Jukebox" program on KXCI. He was doing a three-hour Rainer special, and it featured a lot of these new songs. Hearing them pour forth over the public airwaves, for anyone to scoop up and treasure, even if just for a few minutes, seemed incredibly precious.

At a memorial service held in Tucson on November 17 in the ancient San Pedro Chapel where Ptacek had recorded on numerous occasions, an overflow crowd spilled out the Chapel doors and into the yard as Giant Sand’s Gelb and Kidd Squidd offered moving testimonials to their late friend. Another Ptacek friend, Austin’s Kris McKay, got up and sang a song while backed by Giant Sand, followed by a number from Giant Sand themselves. Wandering around the yard afterwards, I saw a lot of moist eyes, heard a fair amount of nervous laughs, took note of more hugs than I could count. A couple of mounted displays featuring snapshots of Rainer from over the years had been set up in the yard and small knots of people would cluster around them, some gesturing and smiling, others gazing silently. There was Rainer’s widow Patti, and she looked good, and I told her so. Then there was Howe Gelb, and I greeted him too, and I swear it was the first time I’d ever heard his voice tremble. When someone pointed out Rainer’s mother to me, I wondered what it must be like for her this afternoon. I couldn’t make myself go over to her, just another well-wishing stranger after all, so I just stood there under the slowly waning sun,

silently hoping that she understood how much we loved Rainer -- and saying to myself, "How proud she must be to have had such a son."

Rainer is survived by his wife, Patti, and their three children: Gabe, 20;Rudy, 13; and Lili Marlena, 2. Anyone wishing to donate to the Charitable Fund For Rainer, previously established to help the Ptacek family offset hospital expenses (like many working musicians, Ptacek carried no health insurance), may do so by writing: PO Box 13719, Tucson AZ 85732.

"Barefoot Rock With…" (Making Waves, UK, 1986; reissued

on Demon, UK 1994)

"Texas Tapes" (Demon, UK, 1993)

"Powder Keg" 3-song CD EP (Demon, UK, 1993)

"Worried Spirits" (Demon, UK, 1992)

"Nocturnes" (Glitterhouse, Germany, 1995)

"Nod to N20" b/w "Ode to N2O" white label 12" single

(Glitterhouse, Germany, 1995)

"DYO Boot" (Mushed Music, US, 1995)

"Derailed Out Of Chicago," on "Could You Wood?: The

Wooden Ball Compilation"(San Jacinto/Club Congress,

1995)

"Life Is Fine," on "Silos And Utility Sheds"

(Glitterhouse, Germany, 1995)

"Top Of The World" and "Ooh La La" (with Billy Sed) on

"Wood For Rainer"(Epiphany, 1996)

"The Inner Flame" Rainer Tribute (Atlantic, 1997)

"Underground Train" on "Vera Groningen: Beauty In The

Underworld" compilation (Vera, Germany, 1990)

"Giant Sandwich" (Homestead, 1983)

"Giant Songs One" (Demon, UK, 1989)

"Dreaded Brown Recluse" (Howe Gelb solo CD)(Houses In

Motion, Germany, 1991)

"Ramp" (Amazing Black Sand, 1992)

"Purge And Slouch" (Restless, 1993)

"Glum" (Imago, 1994)

"Giant Songs Two" (Demon, UK, 1995)

"The Band Of Blacky Ranchette" (New Rose, France, 1985)

"Heartland" (Zippo, UK, 1986)

"Sage Advice" (Demon, UK, 1990)

"21 Years," "Dark Moon," "Whole Lotta Love" (B-sides to "29 Palms CD EP,

Phonogram, UK, 1993)

"Great Spirit" (B-side to "I Believe CD EP, Phongram, UK,

1993)

"The German-American Octet" (Return To Sender/Normal,

Germany, 1993)

"Lucky Lager" and "That’s How Much I Love You" on "And

Then I Shot Everyone" (CD Epiphany, 1995)

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