The five best songs from Grateful Dead side projects
After forming in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965, the Grateful Dead became one of the most prolific groups and one of the longest-running cultural institutions in modern American music history. Founded by Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann, the group has undergone myriad lineup changes over the years and has experimented with just about every genre conceivable in their time.
In concert, they developed a reputation as the ultimate “jam band”, sometimes stretching tracks out over a full 30 minutes or even more. They always explored new frontiers and sections in their songs, new rhythms, and melodic avenues in their music.
While Jerry Garcia denied the claim, many consider him to be the de facto leader of the band. Garcia was a prodigiously talented guitarist and a musical expeditionary who explored every available inch of the musical map. Incorporating elements of traditional folk and roots music and blending them with the popular psychedelic and experimental rock styles of the time, the Grateful Dead also fused elements of funk, soul, rhythm and blues, bluegrass, jazz, gospel and reggae into their music.
In addition to his work with the Grateful Dead, Garcia worked on a number of side projects when the main band occasionally went on hiatus over the years. Following his death in 1995, the Grateful Dead disbanded for good, but the members continued to work together in various other forms over the years, right up until the present day.
Owing to the combination of their musical expertise and proficiency, tireless exploration of new genres and styles and the beautiful lyrics of both Jerry Garcia and long-time songwriter Robert Hunter, some people even go as far as to say that the Grateful Dead are the greatest American band of all time. With songs like ‘Truckin’’, ‘Friend of the Devil’, ‘Stella Blue’, ‘Brokedown Palace’ and ‘Black Muddy River’, there is certainly an argument that can be made for them. One thing that is undeniable, though, is that they have spawned more side projects, spin-offs and sister groups than any other band.
Five best songs from Grateful Dead side projects:
5. ‘Sugaree’ – Jerry Garcia (1972)
Taken from his debut solo album, ‘Sugaree’ exhibits the very best aspects of Jerry Garcia’s work: fine guitar work, tight rhythm section, aching vocals, an intricately crafted narrative and an appreciation of an older musical form and tradition.
Jerry Garcia was a walking jukebox of American roots music. His love of traditional ballads came through so clearly in excellent performances of songs like ‘Been All Around This World’, ‘Deep Ellum Blues’ or ‘Dark as a Dungeon’, and ‘Sugaree’. Combining aspects of traditional songs like ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ and ‘Tell Old Bill’ with the Elizabeth Cotton song ‘Shake Sugaree’, Garcia does here what he did best: create something new, fresh and exciting from something old.
4. ‘Long Train Running’ – Reconstruction (1979)
Writing about the group in his 2022 book The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan said, “Grateful Dead are not your usual rock and roll band. They’re essentially a dance band. They have more in common with Artie Shaw and bebop than they do with the Byrds or the Stones”. One of the Grateful Dead side-projects was even more of a dance band than the original was Reconstruction.
Initially founded by longtime Garcia collaborator John Kahn to keep himself occupied while his guitarist companion was busy working with the Grateful Dead, Reconstruction also included longtime Dead collaborator Merl Saunders on keys and vocals. When the Dead went on hiatus in 1979, Jerry Garcia himself joined the new group for a series of shows. Though they never recorded together as a band, tapes of their shows that circulate demonstrate their frenetic, invigorating and exciting blend of rhythm and blues, soul, disco, funk and rock, which is best exemplified on the long soul jam ‘Long Train Running’.
3. ‘Liberty’ – Phil Lesh & Friends (2002)
Original Dead bassist Phil Lesh has been performing with various musicians under the banner Phil Lesh & Friends since 1994. The name is essentially a catchall for anyone Lesh finds himself making music with, and over the years, it has included over a hundred musicians, including fellow original Dead members Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, Derek Trucks, and plenty of others.
The only album to be recorded and released by an iteration of Phil Lesh & Friends, There and Back Again, arrived on Columbia Records in 2002. The album included songs newly co-written by Lesh and Robert Hunter, but the pick of the bunch was the 1994 Hunter/Garcia collaboration, Liberty. A buoyant old-time rocker with elements of country and gospel coming through, the song is a free-flowing trip through the American heartland.
2. ‘Evangeline’ – 7 Walkers (2010)
While the most famous Dead spin-off groups, such as Phil Lesh & Friends or the Dead and Company, endured for as long as the original band did, most of the side projects were short-lived. Formed in 2009 by founding Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, 7 Walkers was one of those shorter-lived sister bands, only releasing one album (so far).
With a set of new songs written by Robert Hunter and with a guest vocal on ‘King Cotton Blues’ from the legendary Willie Nelson, the album is consistently brilliant. An experimental, swampy serving of soulful, free-floating blues and roots music, the record has a lot of heart, a lot of soul, and it has got a lot of spirit. Perhaps the best song of all, ‘Evangeline’ is a slowly unfolding, extremely moving and heartfelt ballad that stands alongside some of Hunter’s best lyrics and features a truly haunting vocal performance from Papa Mali.
1. ‘Only a River’ – Bob Weir (2016)
Perhaps the Grateful Dead band member who has been involved in more spin-off groups than anyone else – including RatDog, Dead & Company, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Dead and Further – Bob Weir saved his best song for his 2016 solo album, Blue Mountain.
Co-written with Josh Ritter and Josh Kaufman of The National, ‘Only a River’ is an evocative heartland ballad from the perspective of an older man looking back on his life. Just like Jerry Garcia’s best solo work, the lyrics and melody of ‘Only a River’ are inspired and informed by an old folk song, in this case, the traditional ‘Oh, Shenandoah’, and, just like the best Jerry Garcia songs, ‘Only a River’ creates something wholly new, really moving and completely enriching from those pieces of the past.
From the Bay Area to the Shenandoah Valley, through roots music and rock and roll through to soul and funk and disco, what a long, strange trip it’s been.
