As the post-Jerry years pile up into decades, an interesting trend in the Dead business is the melding of tribute players with original Dead collaborators, as all have a vested and spiritual interest in the perpetuation of the music and its live institutions. No one illustrates the point better than Gratefully Yours, a project founded by New Paltz-bred keyboardist Alex Mazur, who, as founder of the Deadbeats, was about as early in on Dead-tribute business as you could be. Mazur’s band is fed by a player stream that the Dead itself has drawn from. Consider that an occasional member of Gratefully Yours is Rob Eaton from the Dark Star Orchestra, whose keyboardist Rob Barraco has been tapped repeatedly by the Dead and Phil Lesh & Friends in recent years, putting Mazur’s Gratefully Yours only one degree of separation from the mother ship. Try to find the same proximity to the source in any Weezer cover band.
Gratefully Yours and Dave “A Bear” Hebert headline a night of Jerry Garcia Band and Grateful Dead music at the Bearsville Theater on Friday, April 6 at 9 p.m. As a member of Melvin Seals & JGB, Hebert is yet another cat only one player removed from Jerry himself.
Tickets cost $15 in advance, $20 on the day of the show. For more information, visit www.bearsvilletheater.com. The Bearsville Theater is located at 291 Tinker Street in Woodstock.
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