Rainer Ptacek (KUAT Profile and 'Worried Spirits')
I posted about Tucson’s (by way of Chicago by way of East Germany) Rainer Ptacek back in August, featuring two live sets from the Live Music Archive.
Rainer is one of my favorite musicians, especially his instrumental tracks and his dobro playing, but that’s probably another post. He plays the same instruments as a lot of other people, but he doesn’t play them like a lot of other people. For now, let’s watch a 1997 KUAT feature profile.
The video’s Youtube page says: “A feature on Rainer Ptacek produced for KUAT-TV's Arizona Illustrated in 1997. Includes interview footage with Howe Gelb (Giant Sand).”
This profile aired some time in 1997 which would have been about a year after he was riding his bike to work at a guitar shop and suffered a seizure which revealed that he had a brain tumor. After surgery, and almost unbelievably, Ptacek re-taught himself how to play guitar. He talks about the weight of the experience in this profile. Plus a quite young looking Howe Gelb.
Knowing that he didn’t make it, the moment he gets his daughter Lilly a cookie, gets me every time.
And next we have the ‘Worried Spirits’ video. The video’s page says: “Worried Spirits -- previously unreleased video. It was intended to be released with the CD 'The Best of Rainer - 17 Miracles' as a bonus video.”