On September 23, Oteil & Friends performed a set heavy on Jerry Garcia material at the inaugural Borderlands Festival at Knox Farm State Park in East Aurora, New York. Oteil Burbridge‘s band for the set featured his brother Kofi Burbridge as well as drummer John Kimock and guitarists John Kadlecik and Scott Metzger. The set now holds special meaning for Oteil as it was one of two chances he had to play those songs with Kofi, who died on Friday.
Oteil joined Dead & Company as a founding member in 2015 and has fallen in love with the music of the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band. “(Kofi) did get to play his first full set of Jerry Garcia Band and Grateful Dead music with Oteil & Friends in Santa Cruz and Buffalo last year,” Oteil wrote in a remembrance of his older brother. “I was looking forward to watching him discover the great beauty of the rest of that catalogue as he learned more and more songs. He really loved it as you can hear on those shows and his flute playing was particularly inspired those nights. You could hear the reaction from the crowd that they felt it too. Those were my last two shows with him where we played together all night.”
The final full performance featuring both Burbridge brothers was a fantastic one. Kofi shined on the jam that led into “Run For The Roses” to start the set. The band then dug in on a 14+ minute version of Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come.” Kofi also soared on “Tore Up Over You” and added the perfect accents on the “High Time”/”Franklin’s Tower” pairing that brought the historic set to a close. Listen to a soundboard matrix recording captured and shared by Phil Harris:
Setlist
Jam > Run For The Roses, The Harder They Come, Tore Up Over You, Deep Elem Blues, Sugaree, What’s Become Of Mary, High Time, Franklin’s Tower
