Grahame Lesh

Midnight North singer Elliott Peck brought some of her friends to Mill Valley’s Sweetwater Music Hall on Friday, Dec. 8, for a delightful and powerful headlining gig that showcased her brilliant voice and distinctive songwriting chops. The Sweetwater was packed with veterans of Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads scene as well as other music lovers who have grown to appreciate Peck as one of the Bay Area’s finest performers.

Guess the Year– the gameshow podcast that celebrates the music of the Grateful Dead and the incredible passion of their fans, the Deadheads– has released a landmark video episode featuring Grahame and Brian Lesh in advance of August 27’s Sunday Daydream Festival in Novato, CA.

Which is the best version of Phil Lesh & Friends to play at the Capitol Theatre? The best version is the band that’s playing the night you’re going to see them. From a rotating cast of musicians, Phil Lesh has now played 100 shows at the Capitol Theatre since the reopening in September 2012. Starting in November of 2012, Phil Lesh played his first show at the Theatre since the Grateful Dead last played at the venue in February 1971.

Arriving early for round two on Sunday, February 5th, the air was electric with anticipation outside the Mission Ballroom on Phil Lesh’s final night in Denver with his friends. Fueled with the outcome of a great first night, multiple conversations in the already forming lines speculated over the musical possibilities of the evening, including the rest of “Dark Star” in lieu of the full moon or an appropriate “Mission In The Rain”. Certainly, the possibility of Billy Strings sitting in was on everyone’s mind, Strings having wrapped his own three night run the day before and sitting in with Ross James and Andy Thorn in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Of course, the “Never Miss a Sunday Show” theory factored into everyone’s predictive model and with all these dynamics, so much potential was still on the table. With everyone’s continued reeling from the outpouring of love and quality playing on Saturday, the energy of night two, from outside the building, was already climbing.

For the first weekend of February, Denver’s Mission Ballroom once again became a mecca for travelers seeking the psychedelic and for those who made the leap of faith, the reward was great. Grateful Dead bassist and living legend Phil Lesh gave the Rino district two nights of splendor, sound, and the opportunity once again to rejoice in community under a blanket of aural pleasantries that would defy expectation.

A rollicking “Cumberland Blues,” the Appalachian-bluegrass-style Grateful Dead tune that opened the first of two shows at The Warfield in San Francisco on December 27, was a microcosm of the mighty capabilities of this formulation of Phil Lesh & Friends.

The inaugural Sacred Rose Fest is less than 2 weeks away. For the first time ever there will be a weekend full of music as diverse as the Grateful Dead in its current form. Phil Lesh playing with Nels Cline and Jeff Tweedy as well as Karl Denson, Stu Allen, Grahame Lesh, Jeff Chimenti, and Elliott Peck all in one headlining slot!?! Khruangbin, JRAD, Umphrey’s McGee, Disco Biscuits, Lotus, Elliott Peck’s Midnight North, Holly Bowling, and the Gone Gone Beyond are kicking it all off?!? The list is exciting and inviting.

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