Eventually, artists who have toured for years start to slow down. It's no wonder many of our favorite bands have been touring literally for decades, and after hitting seventy-five or eighty, maybe it's time to throttle things back a bit and settle down into a musical home venue. Whole communities have sprung up from this concept; first, Las Vegas was then the well-known Branson, Missouri. Another home venue is in Marin County, California, owned by Phil Lesh, the indefatigable and octogenarian bassist of the Grateful Dead and the leader of the great series of Post-Dead all-star ensembles. Friends.

I love Phil. He is one of those road warriors who has kept up a steady clip of live tours long after the band's demise upon Jerry Garcia's death. Playing with several post-Dead ensembles, Phil is best recognized in my mind for his fantastic Phil Lesh and Friends groups (the first incarnation of the group was almost 25 years ago, made up of members from the Grateful Dead playing acoustic tunes). The first non-Dead Phil and Friends group appeared in 1999, with Phish's Trey Anastasio on guitar and Page McConnell on keyboards, joined by guitarist extraordinaire Steve Kimock. Since then, the group has had an expansive rotation of great musicians, including some of the best guitarists in the business--Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, Derek Trucks, Robben Ford, and John Scofield. Phil has been extraordinarily generous about recordings of these shows, most of which are readily available at sites like archive.org and bt.etree.org, not to mention the official Phil Lesh site, which sells and often gives away excellent soundboard recordings of shows.

While every show has a full menu of Grateful Dead tunes, there are always a few jam band anthems from Traffic, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane, the Allman Brothers, or even Elton John.

Phil's venue Terrapin Crossroads sits closed by COVID-19 in San Rafael, California. It's a musical home that allows him to tour when he wants and kick back and bring the musicians to him when he wants to stay home. Some fine live music is always up on the Crossroads net, whose slogan is "Buckle Up Kids." The venue website explains it all in a few sentences:

"Terrapin Crossroads hosts ongoing shows where Phil will invite his musician friends – both young and old – to play along with him in his various bands Phil Lesh & Friends, West Coast Rambles, the Fellowship and the Terrapin All Stars."

Yeah, I know we're in Middleburg, not California, but the assortment of live music recording coming out of Terrapin Crossroads via the Internet collapses those three thousand miles quite effectively. Here's a recording to start with, found at bt.etree.org, http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=555073. It's a Phil Lesh Quintet show recorded off the soundboard on April 29, 2012, with Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule, The Dead, The Allman Brothers) and Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic, The Dead, Jazz is Dead) providing the dueling guitars. It's a must listen to for those so inclined, with some fine Grateful Dead material, along with a sublime Strawberry Fields Forever and a lively Blue Sky. More at www.terrapincrossroads.net.

Great Concert Pics

There have been many great concert photographers over the years, and one, in particular, has recently caught my attention, Jay Blakesberg. A long-time concert photographer, video producer, and author has a long list of credits shooting many great bands for Rolling Stone and a bunch of other media. His Facebook site Jay Blakesberg Photography and his website www.blakesberg.com have tons of great photos. I like to browse through the Facebook albums to see extraordinary images of some of today's great bands on stage, including recent shows from Terrapin Crossroads, a huge assortment from the Summer Camp Festival, and some great pictures of Roger Waters, moe., Umphrey's McGee, and Yonder Mountain String Band, to name only a few. You can also buy fine art prints and coffee table books, one of which I was given for Christmas a few years ago, full of great pics from some of my favorite Bands. Seeing we can't go to the shows, looking at great concert pics is a good thing.

Keep your Eyes on B-Chord Brewing Company

The COVID-19 crisis has effectively shut down most venues and festivals, including Terrapin Crossroads and Lockn', but sometimes things can bloom in the ashes. I have talked to the folks at B-Chord Brewing Company in the past about some fine local music they have presented. Still, with COVID impacting many of the prime venues, B-Chord has only stepped up more to present some of the top national jamgrass talents in the Country outdoors in their 20-acre field on the side of the Blue Ridge in Round Hill. These concerts have limited entry and are socially distant events, keeping the music intimate and the atmosphere safe. Recent shows gave The Del McCoury Band, Larry Keel, Keller Williams, Jeremy Garrett, Andy Falco, Railroad Earth, and Sam Bush, to name a few. I expect great things from them when the crisis is over as they become a major acoustic music venue only a few miles from Middleburg. Check out the B-Chord Facebook page for news on upcoming shows.

Steve Chase is in Unison listening to Phil and Friends.