(Goldmine magazine)

by Fred Mills

Tucson, Arizona, bluesman Rainer Ptacek passed away on November 12, following a nearly two-year battle with lymphoma of the central nervous system.

Following a serious seizure on September 30 and the return of a brain tumor previously thought in remission, Ptacek had been enrolled in an in-home hospice program, where he was cared for by his family and friends. He was 46 at the time of his death.

Ptacek, whose family fled East Germany in 1953 and settled in Chicago in 1956, began his musical career as a violinist but switched to guitar in the mid ‘60s because, as he once quipped to this writer, "None of the Beatles, it seemed, were interested in the violin." By the ‘70s he’d wound up in Tucson and was a favorite among local audiences for his emotionally vivid lyrics, his high, keening vocals and his near-otherworldly style of slide guitar.

After founding Giant Sandworms with his friend Howe Gelb, Ptacek went on to put together the power blues trio Das Combo; he would also continue to work as an auxiliary member of Gelb’s Giant Sand and as a solo artist. The latter role would earn praise from such diverse musical icons as ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Robert Plant, Greg Brown, Victoria Williams, and Los Lobos. Plant, in fact, was so taken with Ptacek’s fretboard talents that in 1993 he invited the guitarist to London to record several songs to use as UK B-sides.

The Plant connection would further prove fortuitous.

When Ptacek initially fell ill in ‘96; Gelb enlisted the anxious-to-help Plant, and the pair marshaled Atlantic Records for the Inner Flame Ptacek tribute project. The ‘97 benefit album not only featured Plant & Page, Evan Dando, Victoria Willams, PJ Harvey, Jonathan Richman and Vic Chesnutt performing Ptacek songs, but also showcased Ptacek and his trademark National Steel guitar on cuts with Plant, Emmylou Harris, Giant Sand, Kris McKay, and Madeleine Peyroux.

At an emotional 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 Tucson deejay Dave "Kidd Squidd" Squires 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.

Recordings available by Ptacek include:

Barefoot Rock (w/Das Combo), The Texas Tapes (featuring an uncredited Billy Gibbons) and Worried Spirits, all on England’s Demon Records; Nocturnes (atmospheric instrumentals, including a collaboration with ambient techno artists The Grid), on Germany’s Glitterhouse; D.Y.O. Boot (Giant Sand on some tracks) on Ptacek’s own Mushed Music label (see POB address below); and the Inner Flame tribute on Atlantic.

Additionally, Ptacek was recording with Giant Sand in the month prior to his death, hoping for a posthumous release. Having heard tapes of some of these sessions, this writer can only pray for that wish to come true. Ptacek was a rare individual, a musical genius, and one of the most spiritually-driven artists ever to record and perform. When he died, the desert mourned, then sang.

Ptacek 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.

--Fred Mills