Magazine work gave way to book work, and in 1985, his first book, Playing in the Band: an Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead (co-authored with Peter Simon) about his long-time favorites the Grateful Dead, was published to much acclaim. While he was working on his second book, Talking Heads: The Band and Their Music, he produced a show for a Grateful Dead radio show on a local station, and discovered he liked doing it. Before long, his Grateful Dead Radio Hour was syndicated on dozens of stations across the United States.

After the passing of Jerry Garcia in 1995, he resumed performing and writing songs in earnest. With the radio show paying his living, he released a duet album of himself playing with Berkeley singer-songwriter Eric Rawlins, Home By Morning, in 1997, backing it up by performing around the Bay Area. This was followed the next year by a topical single, "Monica Lewinsky," that got a lot of airplay and publicity and enabled David to expand his touring base. Over the past five years he has appeared in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Lexington KY, Louisville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Greensboro, Asheville NC, Charleston SC, Richmond VA, Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Eugene, LA, San Francisco, Fresno, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Duluth, Detroit, Boston, Worcester, and Burlington VT. He's a regular at the Suwannee SpringFest and MagnoliaFest, both held at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak FL, and has appeared at the High Sierra Music Festival in northern California.

All of this performing deepened the Gans repertoire and made him a better performer, of course, so in 1999 he began recording his shows, issuing the best performances on Solo Acoustic in 2001. This features not only his own material (including one of the three songs he's co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter), but also songs by Gram Parsons, Steve Goodman, Gillian Welch, and Martin Mull.

In 2002, Gans became one of the first independent musicians to release a DVD. Live at the Powerhouse documents a stirring outdoor afternoon performance at a northern California brewpub, featuring some of his best material and demonstrating his virtuoso work multi-tracking himself live, using a Boss RC-20 Loop Station.

David hasn't given up the Dead -- the program still airs weekly, and he co-produced Arista Records' gold-certified 1999 Grateful Dead box set So Many Roads (1965-1995) and is currently working on a boxed set of Jerry Garcia's solo work -- but one listen to his music will dispel any thoughts of him as "that Dead guy."