Article Contributed by June Jameson
Published on 2026-09-05
Charlie Dupree & Gilman Chatsworth Photo courtesy of June Jameson
Poached eggs, bacon, bluegrass ’n bloodies: we had ourselves quite a time at Garcia’s Chicago for Bluegrass Brunch with Chatsworth & Dupree on Sunday, August 30, 2026.
As Missy says, “I’m down for bottomless everything.” And really, what more needs to be said?
There’s something about a long Sunday morning, a plate of simple snacks and a band playing songs that have been following you around for twenty-some years. Add a Bloody Mary, a velvet booth and a buffet you can visit as many times as your waistband will allow, and suddenly you’re not just having brunch. You’re remembering.
Memories mixed with mimosas when they opened the set with “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” talking about Breakfast with the Beatles. Signals beyond the senses mingled with the sounds and smells of Garcia’s. This place is soaked with memories of Jerry, so it feels a little like a sanctuary from the force of the future waiting just beyond those tinted glass doors.
Inside, we can relish in the memories.
And on Bluegrass Brunch Sundays, we can go for as many trips to the buffet as we can handle. Wristbands, not waistbands, my friends. Get it while it’s hot!
I love a long morning with simple snacks. I started with pancakes and sausage and eventually found my way to sliders and pizza. The girls and I shared sweets, passing around a plate full of doughnuts, cake pops, and croissants. It was like being at Grandma’s house, where she somehow had something for everybody, and your cousin was mixing up drinks to keep the party lively.
Except Grandma probably didn’t have Garcia’s velvet booths. Or a bluegrass band.
Or quite this many Grateful Dead references. You know that’s right.
For those of you not from Chicago, Breakfast with the Beatles is a radio staple around here. Every Sunday from 8 to 10 a.m., radio legend “Aunt” Terri Hemmert takes to the airwaves of WXRT 93.1 with Beatles classics and hidden gems.
Wavy Dave AKA Gilman Chatsworth, has also recently become a radio DJ at The Wizard, 88.3 FM. There is a radio revival happening if you’re into that sort of thing.
I very much am.
Maybe that’s why the morning felt so familiar. There were layers of memory everywhere. Beatles songs. Bluegrass songs. Old friends. New radio gigs. Garcia’s. Jerry. Cornmeal.
And then there was “Feet on the Ground.” Remember that Cornmeal tune? I sure do.
Floods of memories came rushing back: times in the rain, the sweltering sun, indoors, outdoors, and everywhere in between. I started seeing Cornmeal play together in a little pub in Chicago on Wednesday nights. It must’ve been 2003, maybe 2004. It was my reprieve from life at the animal hospital where I worked. While I adore puppies and kitties, the humans were hard to handle.
Cornmeal gave me a place to dance it all out. More importantly, they gave me something to look forward to. Every week. Something you could count on. That matters more than we sometimes realize.
It’s time-tested and traditionally true that these songs have been played by many others in many different ways. The music must be played. You can enter that zeitgeist the minute you walk through the doors at Garcia’s Chicago.
Sitting in a velvet booth, eating bacon and begging for more Jack-A-Roe while getting refreshed with John Hartford tunes sans fiddle.
Just when you think it can’t get no better than it does.
The reedy voice of Wavy Dave - sorry, Gilman Chatsworth- set the tone for “Working on a Building.” They picked up the vibe with “Pig in a Pen” on banjo. My husband’s favorite, “Althea,” mingled with more Cornmeal memories, and there was something for everyone to snack on. He was so jazzed to hear a version with banjo.
Charlie Dupree, AKA Chris Gangi, announced to the crowd that this version of “Hasten Jason” would be half-paced. The menfolk got up to dance. Chatsworth & Dupree took to the dancing gnomes like it was their private show. They volunteered for the class and kept quiet while dazzling us with displays of love and light. A little dancing started from up in the aisles too. Now it was warming up.
My heart was pumping and the meatsweats were kicking in, so I had to disagree.
That version of “Hasten Jason” was three-quarters pace and not a step slower!
Danna, in the front row, stopped spinning to record what was happening onstage, and I had to wonder: Can these memories be preserved inside the little box in our pocket?
As soon as that thought mused through my mind, he stopped. He started spinning again. And there it was. The moment was gone.
I know we all try to hang on to the memories, but it’s a one-time shot. The meaning. The memory. It’s an owl behind a branch when the high hits, the bump in the video, the scratch in the record.
It’s not before or after. It’s here and now. FOMO or forgotten. It’s arms above your head, letting all the energy out the top while you receive all that musical goodness down your spine. That’s the part you can’t put in your pocket.
Gracie Lou came up to join the fellas for a tribute to Dolly Parton with “Coat of Many Colors.” They dusted off “Shady Grove” next as Gracie returned to the audience. Between “Shady Grove” and “Midnight Moonlight,” I must admit that without Cornmeal, I wouldn’t know these tunes. It was a time and place.
While the world was being introduced to Yonder Mountain String Band, I was so focused on this new wild ride of bluegrass that it was all Cornmeal for me, all day. That led to the next. Then the next. Then the next.
That’s how music works sometimes. One song opens a door, and behind that door is another room full of songs, people, places and versions of yourself you forgot were still hanging around.
Now we have the Ionia Freak Fair happening on this same weekend, and it’s safe to say that 26 years later, everybody is familiar with the whip and whirl of bluegrass music. Funny how that happens. The things that once felt like our little secret eventually become part of the landscape.
They were encouraged by the threat of the audience. The interaction and easy conversation between the band and everyone in the room was one of the biggest joys of this Bluegrass Brunch. It felt less like a performance and more like everybody had wandered into the same living room and somebody happened to bring banjos. Thank you, Wavy. Nobody Banjo's better.
The bread may have been hard from too much time in the chafing dish, but the songs and camaraderie made it all taste better. Eli Schultz hadn’t seen the fellas in many moons, so somebody hollered out:
“If you love Eli, you’ll play one more!”
Turns out there was a lot of love for Eli, because they stood onstage for one more, “Ripple.”
And that pretty much says it all. Because “Ripple” is one of those songs that knows something about memory. About time. About roads we’ve been down and roads we haven’t even found yet. Some songs belong to a particular room. Songs that belong to a particular summer. Songs that belong to a particular version of yourself. And then some songs somehow keep finding you.
That’s what Garcia’s does to ya. It holds the old stuff without making you live there. It gives you a place to bring the memories, order another drink, eat another little something and make a few new ones.
When you want the comforts of the local watering hole to hold special memories and create new ones, go on down to Garcia’s Chicago. There’s a warm cup of something waiting for you. Many colors. All sorts of flavors. Fresh ways to get through this thing we call life. Somebody buy that guy a free mimosa!
