Last summer’s Fare Thee Well concerts, which took place in Santa Clara, Calif., and Chicago, were billed as the final five shows the surviving members of the Grateful Dead — Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart — would ever play together.
The Dead augmented its lineup by adding Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, pianist Bruce Hornsby and Ratdog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. The short run grossed a whopping $52 million for promoter Peter Shapiro and offered Deadheads one last romp with far-flung friends, a chance to celebrate five decades of accrued psychedelic-American culture, one more Saturday night of the Dead’s music — improvisatory, genre-twisting, iconic — as played by its originators.
When the smoke cleared, a restless Weir announced a Madison Square Garden date for Dead & Company, a post-FTW group with Kreutzmann, Hart and Chimenti returning, Connecticut native John Mayer filling in the Jerry Garcia role, and bassist Oteil Burbridge, a veteran of the Allman Brothers Band, Colonel Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Vida Blue, Oteil and the Peacemakers, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the BK3 (Kreutzmann’s trio), and probably a few other projects.
The one-off show led to a winter tour. This summer, Dead & Company plays a number of shows through mid-July, stopping at Hartford’s Xfinity Theatre on Tuesday, June 28.
Area Deadheads, and maybe a few John Mayer fans, are pleased.
“You always get the pre-tour buzz, the excitement,” Burbridge says. “It’s still all very new for us, playing together in this particular lineup. Me and John [Mayer]: We’re like the two new guys. We still have to learn a lot of songs, but we’re definitely buzzing. It sounds great, and I think everybody’s really excited.”
Burbridge grew up listening to his parents’ record collection: jazz, classical European and Indian music, blues, gospel and bluegrass. They didn’t have many Grateful Dead records.
In his 20s, Burbridge met experimental musician Bruce Hampton.
“He turned me on to some stuff that I didn’t really know from my parents: Delta blues, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker,” he says. “He really got me into bluegrass and old-timey music, and [members of the Grateful Dead] are into all that too. Everything that I’ve learned in my entire life, musically, [the Dead] were already into at a very young age.”
“I don’t know many bands that touch on that many different things,” Burbridge adds. “If you’re bored in this band, it’s your own fault.”
Most of Burbridge’s previous gigs, from the jazz/bluegrass fusion of Hampton’s ARU to the modal-rock explorations of the Allmans, involved high degrees of musical freedom.
With members of Dead & Company, freedom “was their philosophy from the outset,” he says. “Find yourself, find something new, connect with the moment. You don’t have to repeat yourself. The song is the song, so you play that. But after that, it’s off to the races.”
Live, those musical choices are made in front of Deadheads, a fan-base with countless opinions about who can play the Dead’s music and how it should be played. Deadheads aren’t shy about sharing expressing those opinions.
The inclusion of Mayer, known for soft-serve acoustic hits, blues-rock noodling and Laurel Canyon-tinged neo-soul, in Dead & Company triggered some early backlash, much of which was squashed the moment he played a few Garcia-like runs.
“First night with John Mayer, I was like, ‘Oh, boy, here we go,'” Burbridge says. “But we knew we had something that sounded good. I always try to balance it out. At a certain point, I can’t care about what anybody thinks. At the same time, obviously, I do care.”
“This music is sacred,” Burbridge continues. “This music is these people’s church, and now I know why. I think it’s the same reason the fans love John [Mayer]: If you love it, they’re going to know. They’re going to know that you’re connecting inside with something that really turns you on. I love it, and John loves it, and they can feel it, and that’s why we’ve gotten their acceptance and approval. But there’s always that side of me that’s like, ‘Oh, they’re saying I’m no Phil Lesh.’ You’re right! I’m no Phil Lesh. I can’t ever do that. It’s not even possible.”
Earlier this month, Dead & Company performed two sets at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, where longtime singer Donna Jean Godchaux joined them onstage (and Weir, uncharacteristically, spoke out about the recent tragedy in Orlando). For the summer tour, Burbridge says, Dead & Company added a number of back-catalog songs. Weir recently showed Burbridge the changes for “Shade of Grey,” a song from his 1978 solo album “Heaven Help the Fool.”
“My ear perks up when there’s not the same old chord changes,” Burbridge says. “It’s one of those classic Bobby tunes, where the melody is simple, and it works over all the chord changes. But then, you’re like, ‘What is that?’ So unconventional. … It’s something you can totally sing along with and you won’t even realize how crazy the chord changes are.”
Looking back, Burbridge now views his time with Hampton as preparation for later roles in two iconic American rock bands.
“I thought I was going to grow up and be a fusion musician,” Burbridge says. “Then I meet Colonel Bruce, and my life takes a total left turn. … That’s just how God works. You look back on it, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I see why.’ Literally, if I hadn’t played with Colonel Bruce, I don’t think I would have gotten the gig with the Allman Brothers or the Dead. When you think about those two bands, they really do go together. They’re yin and yang, you know?”
DEAD & COMPANY performs at Xfinity Theatre in Hartford on Tuesday, June 28, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 to $149.50. livenation.com.
