Article Contributed by Missing Piece Group
Published on November 22, 2025
Currently On West Coast Tour Through LA, SF and More
Today, California-based Jerry Garcia tribute experience Jerry’s Middle Finger has released Jerry Day Live at Sweetwater, 8/1/24, a dynamic live album commemorating the birthday of Grateful Dead co-founder and jamband icon Jerry Garcia. Known for their explosive live performances and musical chemistry, the album captures the band in its element – live on stage channeling the spirit of the Jerry Garcia Band with electrifying, dynamic performances.
Alongside the album, the band is in the midst of a West Coast tour, which will find them performing at legendary venues such as The Fonda Theatre in LA, Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown and the San Francisco jamband staple Great American Music Hall. For a full list of tour dates, please see below or visit jerrysmiddlefinger.com.
When asked about how the band brings the music of Jerry Garcia to new heights, drummer and co-founder Rodney Newman shares: “This isn’t just a cover band — it’s a band that genuinely honors the music Jerry made and the community he built. We’ve studied these songs: the guitar tones, the vocal arrangements, the keyboard sounds. We play them the way Jerry did, and we connect with the audience in an interactive, open-hearted way. It’s an approach that transcends the perfection of a performance or the spectacle of a light show, because we’re not really about that. We’re about the music, the feeling, and the communal experience.”
The second release in a recurring series, the album follows their double-sided full-length debut, Live at the Chapel, San Francisco, May 30, 2025, a powerful, immersive introduction to the Jerry’s Middle Finger live experience. Each release further shines a light on JMF’s striking ability to virtuosically play Jerry Garcia Band’s music — a blend of blues, reggae, Motown, gospel, and psychedelic rock, performed from the early 1970s up until his passing in 1995 — with sincere reverence for the original material.
Three decades after the loss of Jerry Garcia, the close-knit band of musicians are carrying the torch for his distinctive sound and broadcasting it to a new generation, upholding Garcia’s dedication to camaraderie and community-building by creating their own family-like experience onstage. Naming their fans the “Fingerheads”, they have a special way of connecting with their audience nationwide, making them feel like family when they’re at a JMF show. Whether audiences have seen Jerry Garcia perform hundreds of times or were born after his time on earth, this much is true: JMF makes you feel like he’s still here.
Beyond the honoring of the legend, the band is known to bring their own flair to the music, using their own influences to push themselves deeper into the material. Lead guitarist and singer Garrett Deloian, is a seasoned veteran of the blues circuit, having toured heavily with GRAMMY-winning blues artists as a versatile guitarist capable of replicating other players’ tone, and Keyboardist Jon Gold has collaborated with musicians like Danny Elfman. Drummer Rodney Newman has also released indie-folk music as a solo artist, while vocalists Halina Janusz and Lisa Malsberger (affectionately known as “The Ladyfingers”) take the audience to church with their striking, gospel-inspired harmonies. Breathing fresh life into a catalog that sounds as vital today as it did decades ago, Jerry’s Middle Finger are bringing it back to the stage, paying tribute to Garcia — and the community he built — with every note.
Tracklist:
1) I’m A Roadrunner
2) The Way You Do The Things You Do
3) Tough Mama
4) They Love Each Other
5) Struggling Man
6) That’s What Love Will Make You Do
7) Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
8) Deal
9) Happy Birthday Jerry
10) Cats Under The Stars
11) Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
12) Dear Prudence
13) Run For The Roses
14) Sittin’ Here In Limbo
15) Tore Up
16) Shining Star
17) Tangled Up In Blue
18) Thank You Jerry
19) Like A Road
Tour Dates:
November 21 – Frisco, CO – 10 Mile Music Hall
November 22 – Denver, CO – Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
November 23 – Fort Collins, CO – The Coast
December 6 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
December 20 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s
December 26 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall (Night 1)
December 27 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall (Night 2)
January 24 – Auburn, CA – Odd Fellows Hall Auburn
