Alongside the dozens of discount emails I receive each day from Amazon, Target, Horchow, among others… The Phil Lesh and Friends folks have also blanketed fans with coupons for his upcoming shows at The Capitol Theatre. I found this weird and unsettling, but certainly a sign of the times and nothing against Phil or the Capitol Theatre which have a great Instagram marketing program. 


But it’s not the Dead I like. 

Jerry Garcia created a free floor forum (FFF) that lives in the spirit of “togetherness”. Not kumbaya hippie shit, but rather communal music that strikes a nerve much higher than the typical day to day life bullshit (yes it’s late so I will curse). 


The music mojo that people get from from The Dead is interestingly enough (in my humble opinion) now found in small venues on the local level or at a simple backyard BBQ party. It is not in Disney-like presentations (unlike Pink Floyd’s mojo which is found in Roger Waters big broadway-like show coming soon to the NY area, displayed in recent years at Yankee Stadium in 2012 and The Desert Trip) in 2016, both of which I saw w Rincon Hotel Guru Andrew.)  


The look on my non-Dead neighbor Jason’s face the other night when I played him the Garcia version of “Tangled Up in Blue” was so cool and certainly “The Dead Head flurry mojo” in all its glory. He is now hooked. This introduction of The Dead by a friend in an intimate setting has happened all across the US for several generations, just as it did with me as a youth hanging in Bubba’s van behind the Haverstraw Pizza Place when I was a (too) young teen. People discover the Dead from a friend in a small setting. Not on the radio, or at a show, or by putting a bumpersticker on your car, and certainly not by attending a show at Citi Field with a VIP badge.


My first powerful emotional connection with the Dead was sneaking into Blondie’s bar (now Olive’s in Nyack) to watch The Roadrunners when I was 16 years old. (Funny enough, I sat next to Roadrunner’s guitar man Perry at the Dead & Co show.)  When I heard their version of “That’s What Love Will Do” and was hooked ever since. Seeing all those people dance in unison was super cool.  That vibe still (thank god in this social media spineless world) exists in places like Maureen’s Jazz Cellar in Nyack.

The last time I saw Phil and Friends was my last time I will see him. I had a ball with my buddies O’C and gang (Thanks Timmy), but the music wasn’t great and the scene seemed contrived. 


Disney Dead took hold. Buy a tee-shirt and poster before you leave…


Although the Capitol Theatre/Brooklyn Bowl gang puts on the best music show in the Big City, handing out cowboy hats and plastic candles (for Phil’s 70th birthday) felt lame and (although very Bill Graham-like) distruptive and cheap. Sorry Peter Shapiro.


I still have mine… not sure why. I tossed it soon after writing this story though.

Yes, Brad I am taking this photo and writing this story after you dropped me off at home!

To Peter Shapiro’s credit he has created an environment (big and small) to enjoy the music and friends each and every night. Kudos. Dead Heads owe you a big thanks.







The Dead documentary on Netflix that came out this year was great and worth watching. The first few episodes were awesome and rolled off the screen one after another like watching old Sopranos reruns on a snowy Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for me, it was a Tuesday night and kept me up past my bedtime. The last two episodes skipped over too much though leaving me hollow, but then maybe the Dead had a fast steady fall once the drugs and money ran the show. It’s a sad and common theme in music (see the Eagles, The Band… you name em’). 


It was great and very interesting in the show to a “solid to the core Dead Fan” (yes, I am green eggs and ham) to hear about Garcia’s desire to leave the helm of the band unattended and Dead’s power in loose hands. I’ve read several Garcia books, and the way the film makers presented this was new and fresh. I really liked it.  


Captain Trips was certainly in his element taking charge on the stage, but not off the stage.  He was pushed into the spotlight by circumstance and took great lengths to not take the reigns and let the horses run where they may. A ballsy move. The film showed me a unique view of what really took place in the 70’s.  Sometimes Parish was in charge, sometimes Garcia and sometimes other stage hands like Ramrod (a legendary name that every Dead Head knows). The footage about the Dead’s trip to Egypt was most cool!


The best thing about the documentary was seeing that Garcia just wanted to be in band and play music. This was so clearly evident with his Garcia Band expositions that started in the late 70s after the band took a hiatus is 1975. Like most musical greats, Garcia kept playing no matter the size of the spotlight and pulled together jazz and blues in way that no one had done before. See the Oct 2016 post about the Keystone Sessions. 


Although my Phish buddies disagree (Burke and Healy), I really felt Trey took lesson from Garcia’s solo book (after a luke warm attempt at fronting The Dead) and did this mix of groove based jazz and blues and rock in their most recent 13 nights at The Garden run in NYC (more on this later). Maybe that’s what Phish is… but for whatever reason it hit me this go around like never before.

At the urging of several friends (Frankie, Andrew and Burke), I went to see Dead and Company for the first time at Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center in July.  It was the scene of the legendary (for me) Grateful Dead shows in 1988 when the band was riding high upon the wave of Jerry’s resurgance. I was a young lad (15 years old away on a weekend adventure; what were my parents thinking… thank you always cousin Bob and Kevin/Cathy), and remember clearly being ushered into the venue by an older hippie a girl named Bina while “Hell in a Bucket” was playing. Everytime I hear that song and sing the chorus, “going to hell in a bucket baby, at least I’m enjoying the ride”… I think of that rainy magical day. I eventually found my crew and endured a true great American adventure that doesn’t exist in the mobile phone age.

The Dead and Company show was fun. Much better than going to work, but certainly not the same as going to see The Grateful Dead. John Mayer was great (most songs) and a breath of fresh air to the music (especially during Black Peter, a solemn favorite of mine). 


I agree with his critics and think Mayer learned a lot of humbleness from his first tour with Bob Weir and Company (minus Phil Lesh).

The music was good and party was fun too, but the ole’ Grateful Dead vibe wasn’t as good as my local Thursday night Dead night at Maureen’s Jazz Cellar in Nyack. Thanks for the fun Andre and Brad.


Without Jerry the Grateful Dead music lives in the passions of small groups and investigational musicians. Disney Dead does not work.


For example, the drummer and lead guitar man in the band I saw tonight in Nyack for “One Man Gathers” (Ray Longchamp, Frank Colonnato, et al.) were just as good as the The Dead and Co show (to me). I got better goosebumps and swagger to my dance step then I did seeing The Dead and Company from afar in my $200 sets with Adam and gang from the Hotel Chantelle in NYC Lower East Side.


A few weeks ago my old friends from elementary school (Eric Escoffery) had his Dead band play at Maureen’s Thursday Dead Night and it was just as fun. The stand-up baseman (Adam Roberts), who is a vet of the Garcia Lounge at The Capitol Theatre, dug in tight with his mule and provided that soulful vibe just as well as Phil does at The Cap. I know I’m crazy, but it is the same to me, and about spirit and connection, the way Garcia designed it.


Albiet a strong opinion for sure… my friend Jen M from Nyack will attest to this… Joe Russo’s Almost Dead is the best way to experience Grateful Dead music these days. See past TBR Joe Russo story here. They are coming to Brooklyn Bowl in October.  Although they don’t have any original members of The Grateful Dead, they capture the essensce of the band like no other (including Weir and Phil’s merry gangs). The last time I heard Scott Metzger do West LA Fadeaway, I melted into the ground. That’s the kind of emotion I’ve come to expect from the Dead and way they are so revered by America. Kind of like an old Levis denim jacket.


So my advice to you is to turn up the Cornell ’77 and dive deep in to Morning Dew from wherever your favorite perch is. Mine happens to be on my front steps on North Franklin St around dusk with the porch speakers turned up or in my blue Jeep Wrangler with no top driving back from my early morning Nyack Bootcamp workouts.

Go ahead TBR readers, put some Dead (I recommend Europe ’72 if you don’t know where to start) on whatever music source (you listen too tonight when you get home… phone, computer, Apple Music) or Sirius Dead Channel.


Perhaps, I’ll see you at a Joe Russo show at the Brooklyn Bowl in October or Capitol Theatre (which are getting too small for the band unfortunately… they just played Red Rocks… ummm? Not the best trend.)


I know I’ve jumbled a bunch of Dead related topics in one, but that’s why this column is called the Thunderbird Ranch Ramble.


Peace and love… ramble on,
Black Peter