Dead & Company shared pro-shot video of their performance of “Dire Wolf” that took place at TD Garden in Boston during their 2017 Fall Tour.
After opening the Sunday night show with the rousing sermon “Samson & Delilah,” the sextet offered up a take on the cosmic Americana tune led by John Mayer. Jeff Chimenti delivered some standout barrelhouse piano, while Mayer channeled Jerry Garcia’s pedal steel playing from the original studio version throughout.
Gary Lambert, the co-host of Tales From The Golden Road on SiriusXM’s Grateful Dead Channel shared his notes regarding this version of the Workingman’s Dead cut:
Is “Dire Wolf” the most cheerful murder ballad ever? Quite possibly! A tantalizingly ominous Robert Hunter lyric is wedded, with delightful incongruity, to a jaunty countrified melody by Jerry Garcia. The song, first performed live in 1969 and recorded for 1970’s “Workingman’s Dead,” was created during the all-too-brief period that Garcia was playing pedal steel guitar onstage with the Dead as well as New Riders of the Purple Sage (fun trivia note: since pedal steel required a musician’s full attention to play in a way that anyone would find listenable, it was damn near impossible to play it and sing simultaneously, Bob Weir sang the lead on some early versions of “Dire Wolf” so that Jerry could concentrate on the primary task at hand). Here, Dead & Company deliver the tune with the appropriate twang factor, and a fine John Mayer lead vocal.
Watch Dead & Company’s November 19, 2017, performance of “Dire Wolf” in Boston below:
