On Sunday, August 8th, an impressive group of beloved acts came together at Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, CT for a loving tribute to the late Grateful Dead guitarist, Jerry Garcia.
The multi-band blowout came as part of Rex Foundation’s second annual Daze Between series, a nationwide celebration of Jerry Garcia through art, music, and service between August 1st, the date of his birth in 1942, and August 9th, the date of his death in 1995.
Roots of Creation kicked off the festivities with a running of their Grateful Dub reggae tribute to the Dead songbook. Keller Williams was up next for a bluegrass rendering of Garcia’s repertoire with Grateful Grass.
After harpist Mikaela Davis graced the stage with her trio for a brief interlude, the stage was set for some collaborative fireworks during the final two sets of the night.
For the Daze Between spectacle, longtime friends and collaborators Warren Haynes and Grace Potter were scheduled to perform both “Alone & Together,” though fans were left to guess how that combo set may play out. On Sunday, Potter took the stage first to work through some original numbers and a pair of fun interludes through Traffic (“Shanghai Noodle Factory”) and Alanis Morissette (“You Oughta Know”) tunes.
After a handful of songs, Warren finally strode onstage to join Grace for their first two collaborative tunes of the night, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” (first recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1956 and later popularized by Linda Ronstadt) and Fleetwood Mac‘s “Gold Dust Woman”.
From there, Grace made her exit and left the stage to Warren, who served up a tender reading of “Patchwork Quilt”, the song he wrote in 1995 upon hearing of Garcia’s untimely passing, before moving into Garcia/Robert Hunter favorite “Stella Blue”.
With so many talented friends in the house, the surprise sit-ins were bound to come. Keller Williams checked that box when he hopped on the Daze Between stage to join Warren Haynes for a run through Van Morrison‘s “He Ain’t Give You None”.
Warren snuck in one more Jerry ballad, “China Doll”, before welcoming Grace Potter back to the stage to close out the rotating set as a duo with the Dead’s “Friend Of The Devil” and Bob Dylan‘s “I Shall Be Released”.
To round out what had already been a memorable day of music, future-funk favorites Lettuce stormed the stage for the third-ever running of their acclaimed tribute to Garcia’s equally beloved, soul-steeped “other band,” the Jerry Garcia Band.
While Lettuce’s hip-hop-inflected jazz-funk style is a far cry from the sound of the Grateful Dead, the JGB repertoire provides plenty of common ground. To kick things off, they dove into ’70s soul staple “Finders Keepers”, which Garcia would frequently perform live with his various solo bands. The band continued through the set with a mix of original tunes and live JGB crossovers. A rendition of J.J. Cale‘s “After Midnight” brought out vocalists Alecia Chakour and Anna Lombard as well as surprise guest Warren Haynes, who stuck around after the song to jam Lettuce’s own “Phyllis”.
After welcoming Chakour and Lombard back for another pair of JGB/soul crossovers, Little Milton‘s “That’s What Love Will Make You Do” and Donny Hathaway‘s “Magnificent Sanctuary Band” (which appeared as a bonus track on Cats Under The Stars), Lettuce wrapped things up with seminal JGB composition “Cats Under The Stars”.
Below, you can check out photo galleries from each of the sets at Daze Between below courtesy of house photographer Zach Pelletier (@outttafocus) and watch a full, pro-shot stream of the six-hour music marathon via FANS.
Daze Between – Westville Music Bow – New Haven, CT – 8/8/21 – Full Video [Pro-Shot]
[Video: Relix]
Tonight, Tuesday 8/10, Rex Foundation will host Love in The Afternoon, a recap with highlights from the week and some more information about Rex’s goal to administer $10 million in grants since its inception in 1983. To watch Love In The Afternoon, click here. For more on Rex Foundation or to donate to the cause, click here.
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The post Lettuce, Warren Haynes, Grace Potter, More Celebrate Jerry Garcia At ‘Daze Between’ Blowout In CT [Photos/Full Video] appeared first on L4LM.
