Dead & Company has shared pro-shot video of their performance of “The Music Never Stopped” from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans that took place during their February 2018 run of makeup shows.
That night the six-piece act was joined by local hero George Porter Jr. for a string of songs to close out their opening frame. Earlier in the set though, Dead & Company delivered an unusual jammed-out take on “The Music Never Stopped” that they stretched out for 11+ minutes. After working their way through the first part of the song the sextet locked in on a blissful jam that eventually peaked as they returned back to the lyrics. Dead & Co. then capped it off with a funky outro jam that never strayed too far from the song’s structure and featured a heavy dose of wah-wah tone from John Mayer and some noteworthy clavinet playing from Jeff Chimenti.
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 Blues For Allah classic:
Hard to think of a more appropriate place to play “The Music Never Stopped” than in New Orleans, where that’s literally true on so many levels. The Bob Weir/John Barlow tune, first heard on the Grateful Dead’s 1975 album “Blues For Allah,” conveys the power of music to inspire joyous celebration – something integral to the everyday life of the Crescent City – and Dead & Company maximize the song’s potential as a jumping-off point for high-spirited collective improvisation that recalls David Crosby’s wonderful description of Grateful Dead music as “electronic Dixieland.”
Watch Dead & Company’s performance of “The Music Never Stopped” in New Orleans below:
