Dig it! My Duo might become a trio!

[Pine Apple Slim]

Hopefully, if the guy decides to stick with us. We do acoustic Grateful Dead covers. I play upright and sing harmony and my partner sings lead and has a nice J200 jumbo. We've been sticking mainly to Garcia/Hunter ballads and emphasizing the lyrics, groove, and arrangements. But we've been looking for the right 3rd person to add some solos and texture, hoping for a good mandolin player.
Yesterday we found him and had him over for a go. Dude was good. A serious bluegrasser with chops. Had a Ratliff that barks and sings like a great mandolin is supposed to. Hes done a bit of country/americana as well as bluegrass but he was totally unfamiliar with the Dead. Still he was intreaged and wanted to give it a try. He pretty much nailed everything we threw at him. A lot of Dead tunes are pretty complex despite sounding simple on first listen. The arrangements and progressions can be pretty tricky to nail without a lot of repetition and work, at least for us. He even nailed Crazy Fingers intuitively in the Key of C with chords like Bb, Eb, Db, Ab, including minors and a Dim in the progression. He didnt catch all the chords but he was right there with the melody and fills. Fantastic. Added a Dawg vibe to our sorta Wolf Bros vibe. He took the setlist home to actually listen to some versions.
Man I hope he sticks and works out because its the sound we've been wishing for.

 

[Chicken Man]

I keep telling myself that I'm going to bring a couple Dead tunes in to my band, as they're right up our alley vibe-wise and consistently kill with the festival crowds.

Every time, either the song has an essentially play-through structure with no consistent repeating chord pattern, or there's a simple chord progression but 600 verses. Even with the jamming set aside, the songs are surprisingly complex.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I keep telling myself that I'm going to bring a couple Dead tunes in to my band, as they're right up our alley vibe-wise and consistently kill with the festival crowds.

Every time, either the song has an essentially play-through structure with no consistent repeating chord pattern, or there's a simple chord progression but 600 verses. Even with the jamming set aside, the songs are surprisingly complex.

Harmonically and arrangement wise the epic jams like Dark Star and Birdsong are the simplest ones, 2 chords and an simple interlude. But it you want to do em right you gotta be well versed in many possible Bobby up the neck combinations and extension of those , not counting the lead guitar improv.
To me the simplest are the bluegrassy types w not too many words like Ripple and Friend of the Devil, or one of their public domain covers in that vein like Been All Round This World or Jack-Roe(well that ones got a buncha words but its a story), Rosa Lee McFall is a short one.
But theres some pretty easy other songs too esp if you include covers. Cold Rain and Snow, Morning Dew,Bertha, St Stephen,Must Have Been the Roses......

 

[xStonr]

The way I get Dead songs into the set list is to sneak in some songs the Dead have covered.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Well our mando player has gone awol.
No biggie, I think we are just gonna stay a duo.
Last week I had a friend who is good w video editing come and tape us.
Plan is for him to edit an hr set down to a 3-4 min highlight reel.
Figure that’s all any venue person is gonna pay any attention to.
If it turns out decent I’ll post it.