Jamband Heroes Pick on the Dead

GRATEFUL GRASS:  Jamband Heroes Pick on the Dead
by Tim Hurley

The buzz was abound for one special evening on April 8th at Denver's now historic Fillmore Auditorium as Keller Williams invited his Colorado comrades Jeff Austin (mandolin) from Yonder Mountain String Band and Keith Moseley (bass) from The String Cheese Incident to perform bluegrass renditions of famed Grateful Dead songs.  Although this sold out performance was headlined by a solo Keller set and preceeded by a short acoustic set by Jerry Joseph and Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), you could sense that the energy and excitement amongst the fans surrounded this supergroup exhibition.

As expected, Keller took the reigns on most of the songs throughout the evening while Austin and Moseley showed their respective skills and lent their vocals on a few select tunes.  The set began with the highly anticipated and appropriate "One More Saturday Night", fueling an explosion of cheers and dancing.  This was followed by "Mississippi Half Step" and a very grassy version of "Eyes of the World".  The next song, to many fans delight, was a cover of SCI's rarely played gem "Resume Man" which allowed Moseley to take the spotlight for awhile.  The trio then proceeded with Dead favorites "Candyman", "Loose Lucy" (featuring Austin on vocals), "Black Peter", and "St. Stephen".  Then following a chant led by Austin and Williams, and or course the fans, to "let Keith sing!" they rolled into "Casey Jones" that would have made even Jerry proud.  The latter part of the set continued on with "Brown-Eyed Women", a ripping version of Yonder Mountain's "New Horizons", a beautiful and extended version of "Birdsong", and Keller's own tune "Crater in the Backyard" all before seguing into the most well received covers of "Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain".

Each musician showed off their skills at the appropriate times and furnished their own views on how each song should be presented.  This was a very unique and exceptionally fun performance to witness.  The connection between bandmates was strong and playful, while the vibe amongst the Fillmore faithful seemed very positive and kinetic.  Afterall, as often as musicians join each other on stage or in the studio to perform with one another, rarely do fans immersed in the jamband scene get to see some of their heroes play an entire set together, not to mention performing masterpieces of the band that started it all, the Grateful Dead.

At this point there are no dates or plans for Williams, Austin, and Moseley to perform again as Grateful Grass, however, seeing how their respective acts often play the same circuits and venues it would not be surprising that someday down the line these three once again join forces to interpret the tunes made famous by the Dead...  jamgrass style!


Published May 2006 by Jammed Online Music Magazine (www.jammedonline.com)
http://www.jammedonline.com/gratefulgrassstory.html