Jules Leyhe is a regular at San Francisco’s Biscuits and Blues, a venue devoted to live blues music and Southern cuisine. Here, Leyhe hits a sweet spot on his Fender Deluxe Special Stratocaster while playing at the club in 2019.
Jules Leyhe is gonna piss off some blues guitar purists.
His main passion is the blues, and he cuts the best blues-slide licks since Derek Trucks—maybe even Duane Allman. But you won’t find one blues song on his newest release, Your First Rodeo. In fact, they’re not really on any of his albums. His songs are a steady stream of EDM, ’70s funk, Hendrix-like psychedelic jams, and horn sections from south of the border. Think Oz Noy and his admittedly twisted take on jazz. That’s what Leyhe brings to the blues.
“Oz is doing his version of this thing, too,” says Leyhe. “He loves Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan as much as he loves Allan Holdsworth, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. He’s just doing his mutant Oz Noy version of that. And I’ve got my more slide-guitar-centric version of that.”
Leyhe sees the best of the Delta, Chicago, and 1960s rock in even the most modern genres. And it’s his mission to connect today’s music fans to the bluesy core of their favorite songs. It’s a mission that started at a very young age.
“There was always music in the house when I was growing up, and we were always dancing,” he says. “Way before I ever played, I liked the Beatles, blues, and jazz. I had a CD player, my headphones, and a little CD collection. I loved music. But by the time I saw School of Rock as a 13-year-old, I knew what I needed to do.
Jules Leyhe - Start Your Engines (Official Video)
“That same week I went to see Doc Watson with my dad,” Leyhe remembers. “Driving home from the show, we drove by the Warfield where Jeff Beck happened to be playing. My dad saw ‘Jeff Beck’ up on the marquee, and he goes, ‘Hey, we’re not going home yet; we got to go see Jeff Beck.’ I got my ass kicked by the guitar that night. I’m 13, and I saw Jeff Beck! After that, I said to my dad, who had a Telecaster, ‘Hey man, you got to teach me everything you know.’ I dove in headfirst.”
Leyhe immediately took to the instrument, but he wasn’t into the musical flavors of the week. “I was listening to all the early acoustic blues guys: Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters. My dad introduced me to it. And he took me to shows. I saw the Rolling Stones, Buddy Guy, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, all as an 8-year-old. That was part of my life.”
All of those experiences and his love affair with the 6-string came together in one magical night—a night that certified Leyhe’s blues credibility. “I played with Buddy Guy for the first time when I was 16. My dad and I went to see him, and Buddy had some wireless setup so he could walk around the entire place. He’s walking right by my dad, and my dad goes, ‘Buddy, my son is here, and he can play some blues.’ Buddy walks back up onstage—and this is all in the middle of a song—and he’s pointing at me and goes, ‘Come on up here.’ I ran up. He put his guitar on me. He literally took his guitar off his back, his famous polka dot guitar, and put it on me. We played a slow blues in G, and he let me take it away. The crowd went bonkers. I’ll never forget it. We became friends that night, and I play with him anytime he’s in town. He was always really supportive. I’ve kept in touch with him ever since. He’s been so freaking cool to me for over half of my life now.”
“As soon as you’re playing the Klon into a Dumble on a Les Paul, it’s like you grew up driving an old Volkswagen Beetle. Now your dad’s giving you the keys to his Maserati and telling you to go have fun on the freeway.”
Leyhe’s love for the blues has never waned since being called onto that stage. It’s apparent in his slide style. But, strangely, it’s not so apparent in the music he writes and records. There’s a good reason for that.
“That’s definitely on purpose. I certainly started as a blues player, but I’m trying to stretch what that can be,” Leyhe explains. “I’d love to make more of a straight-ahead blues record, too. But my mission is to expose the younger generation, who might be listening to totally blues-influenced music, to the origins of where that is coming from. Say, hip-hop, where they’re sampling jazz and blues records. Like, I heard a sampled thing of Johnny Smith, one of my favorite jazz guitar players, the other day. I told my friend, ‘That’s Johnny Smith.’ She said, ‘No, it’s some hip-hop artist who sampled it.’ That’s a great illustration of what I want to do. It’s a baton handing-off between the old generation and the new generation. My music is the moment that both hands are on the baton, and it’s cross-generational inspired.”
Though some purists would call it sacrilegious to play over hip-hop and call yourself a blues guitarist, they obviously haven’t been paying attention. If it was wrong, Muddy Waters would never have electrified it, Clapton couldn’t have cranked his Les Paul into a Marshall JTM45, and Hendrix’s outer-space experiments would be off the table. Don’t even get me started on ZZ Top’s use of synthesizers.
As far as Leyhe sees it, these experiments are all part of the inevitable evolution of the blues. And his playing might just help push it forward.
“I’m trying to filter these things through my slide guitar,” he said. “It’s super Duane Allman-influenced, but I play in a context with maybe hip-hop beats, EDM, or more modern-sounding beats. Like, say, “Taco Truck.” It’s basically Buena Vista Social Club with Cardi B and then a funk band from Oakland. That’s the style.”
TIDBIT: Jules Leyhe says his engineer, Protist (Nick Bergen), used a Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander as the main studio tool when recording Not Your First Rodeo. When it came to experimenting with effects, Leyhe went deep. “I’m a kid in the candy shop with too many options,” he says. “I really work well that way.”
Your First Rodeo is full of sonic mashups like “Taco Truck.” On the one hand, “The Journey” offers understated melodies with some of the most captivating tones on the album. Then “Start Your Engines” strips everything back to an electronic beat and exploding slide riff. After Leyhe takes us on a wild ride, the album closes with “Sad but True,” a beautiful ballad with a decidedly Motown feel. As you can tell, crossing genres throughout the album was easy for Leyhe and his band (the Jules Family Band). Recording it, however, was not.
“It was totally COVID,” Leyhe says. “It was recorded way before people got vaccinated. It was all done separately and all in one day. No two musicians recorded at the same time. All the musicians came into the studio and took turns. Luckily, we’re all great buddies. We’ve been playing together for 10 years, and we all know each other’s tendencies, so we can give each other space and play off each other.”
The band’s camaraderie is obvious as they ebb and flow through different genres with a tight and live feel. They fill each song with new tones, new instrumentation, and new layers that always keep you guessing. But above all, they make every song entertaining from beginning to end.
“It’s basically Buena Vista Social Club with Cardi B and then a funk band from Oakland. That’s the style.”
“I think music should be really fun,” Leyhe says. “I think that’s something you get if you look at the cover of Your First Rodeo. Everybody chuckles when they see it. That’s what I’m trying to bring—some levity, creativity, and art. Then I think that matches the experience you have when you hear it. Like on the opening track, you’re going, ‘Wait, is this even a guitar record?’”
Though Leyhe’s musicians enjoy plenty of space to stretch out, Your First Rodeo is absolutely a guitar record. And once it was his turn to track, Leyhe didn’t hold back. “Protist [Leyhe’s recording engineer, Nick Bergen] and I used the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. That was our studio. We never recorded a cabinet. And there were so many options between pedals and impulse responses that we were spoiled rotten. I think some people feel like, ‘Ah, there are too many options.’ But I felt like, ‘I love too many options!’ I’m a kid in the candy shop with too many options. I really work well that way.”
Those options manifest throughout the album in a myriad of guitar tones. But even though they shift from vintage ’50s cleans with spring reverb to fuzzed-out explosions of energy, the core of Leyhe’s rig is as classic a setup as you can imagine.
“One of the best moves I’ve ever done was getting an Overtone Special, 50-watt amp by Ceriatone. They make Dumble clones. Oh my gosh, this amp was a game-changer for me, my sound, and everything. At this point, I’ve been playing for, man, it’s close to 20 years. And after working hard on it, I finally have an amp that really brings my voice out, and tells the story I want, how I want it to.”
Jules Leyhe’s Gear
Jules Leyhe prefers his Gibson SG with a Coricidin bottle for playing slide. “It’s the ’61 reissue, and it barks,” he says. “There’s something about the Coricidin bottle. It’s this magic. The tone, it’s this sweet spot. It feels really good on the strings, and I swear it sings.”
Photo Lizzy Myers
Guitars
- Gibson Les Paul 1959 Reissue
- Gibson SG 1961 Reissue
- Fender Deluxe Special Stratocaster
Amps
- Ceriatone Overtone Special 50
- Milkman 1x12 with Celestion G12M-65 Creamback
Strings, Picks, Slide
- GHS Boomers .012 sets, on the SG
- Dunlop .010 sets on the Les Paul
- Dunlop Eric Johnson Jazz IIIs
- Coricidin bottle
Effects
- Ceriatone Centura overdrive
- Vertex Dynamic Distortion
- Vertex Ultraphonix Overdrive
- Vertex Boost
- Vertex Steel String Clean Drive
- Xotic EP Booster
- Line 6 DL4 delay
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
- T-Rex Tremster
- Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah
- Dunlop Volume (X) Mini
- Mojo Hand FX Luna Vibe
Leyhe is so in love with his Overtone Special that it’s the only guitar amplifier on the record. He often rounds out his rig with the other two-thirds of a tonal trinity. “My high-gain tones are definitely the dirty channel on the amp with a freaking Gibson Les Paul,” he shares. “It’s one of the ’59 reissues. Ceriatone also makes a Klon Centaur clone that I use. They call it the Centura, and, man, that thing is so great. As soon as you’re playing the Klon into a Dumble on a Les Paul, it’s like you grew up driving an old Volkswagen Beetle. Now your dad’s giving you the keys to his Maserati and telling you to go have fun on the freeway. [Laughs.] Part of that is using a lot of gain. That’s a technique or a trick that I definitely rely on. I love the tone you get from a lot of gain. Like, Stevie Ray when he’s playing 'Lenny,' he’s definitely using a lot of gain, but, man, you gotta roll back a little bit to get that sound. Jeff Beck does that a ton, too. I’m sure a lot of guys do that, but those are two of my favorite influences for that sort of thing.”
As hairy as Leyhe’s high-gain sound gets, it’s the exact same setup on the more delicate-sounding solos of “The Journey.” The only twist is Leyhe’s secret weapon: a Dunlop Volume (X) Mini Pedal.
“It’s cool because it’s the same setup, but everything’s way dialed back. It’s still nice and fat, but we turned all the gains down, and I’m riding the volume pedal a lot,” explains Leyhe. “The volume pedal really is a big part of my sound. There’s always a little life on the notes because I’m riding the volume most of the time. Between being expressive with it and the tone from this amp, that’s my sound now.”
But Leyhe’s not afraid to dig into his other effects and experiment. He’ll often throw one of his favorite Vertex overdrives on for a different shade of grit or create full-on soundscapes, “giant worlds” as he calls them, with a Line 6 DL4. “The Planetarium” features this technique. “That song’s in the key of D major,” says Leyhe. “So, I’ll build a big D-pad, where I make random noises and get a layer that I can play over. It almost comes off as the synthesizer or something, but it’s a guitar.”
Another of Your First Rodeo’s standout tones is the harmonica solo on “High Street” … except it’s not a harmonica. It’s his trusty Gibson, Ceriatone, and Klon clone. “It sounds like an old Howlin’ Wolf record or something,” he says. “It’s super raw and nasty. There’s this nasty-ass, low, gritty, bluesy thing and this tight, Tower of Power-ish funk thing going on, too.
“I saw the Rolling Stones, Buddy Guy, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, all as an 8-year-old. That was part of my life.”
“Those are the worlds we’re combining there. But it’s just me playing and trying to sound like a harp. I think part of the sound is that the strings were jangly. I tuned way low to C, and I didn’t use the right [gauges] or anything. They were kind of angel hair pasta-ish [laughs]. But it’s cool that way. You don’t do that the whole time. But once is fine, and actually cool.”
Once is right. “High Street” is the only time Leyhe deviates from his two favorite tunings—standard and open E for slide—for the entire album. And while he often uses a pick, he plays slide with his fingers alone.
“I only play slide on my SG. It’s the ’61 reissue, and it barks,” he explains. “I have it strung up with the action really high. Also, I’m in a band called the Alameda All Stars. They were Gregg Allman’s touring band for a good 12 to 15 years. The guitar player in that band, Jellyroll [Marke Burgstahler], gave me a Coricidin bottle slide, and I use that as my main slide. There’s something about the Coricidin bottle. It’s this magic. The tone, it’s this sweet spot. It feels really good on the strings, and I swear it sings.”
Coricidin bottle slide on pinky finger, Leyhe is on the rise at the perfect time. Derek Trucks is at the height of his lauded career, and roots-based players like Justin Johnson, Ariel Posen, and Joey Landreth (The Bros. Landreth) dominate YouTube guitar channels and are hitting the charts. People can’t get enough slide guitar.
On his new album, Jules Leyhe’s winning combo was a Les Paul, a Ceriatone Overtone Special, and a Klon clone. But he doesn’t ever stick to just one guitar. Here he dons a Telecaster, which is the model he started playing with his dad at age 13.
Photo by Bob Hakins
“Slide is the most powerful way of specifically conveying my musical thoughts,” Leyhe says. “It has a heavy sound. You can really get sad and mournful, or you can really rock a room. Like, we were playing last night, some classic Chicago blues romp, and everyone’s shaking their ass. But then I can make people cry playing ‘Amazing Grace’ like we’re at church or something. It’s amazing what you can do. People respond to it so much. If there’s a slide playing a melody well, people melt. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I’ve seen that over and over. It gives me goosebumps, and it’s what I’m into. It’s this mysterious thing.”
Unfortunately, people may have to wait to hear Leyhe’s slide in person. Like most artists, he hasn’t been able to perform as often as he’d like. But that doesn’t mean you can’t watch him play. Harnessing the power of YouTube, Leyhe created a guitarist’s dream channel full of his performances, lessons, gear overviews, and more. Hell, he may be in front of more fans now than ever.
With a new album, a growing YouTube channel, and even playing the “Star Spangled Banner” at Oakland A’s games, Leyhe is in a good place artistically and career-wise. But the future is calling. He’s already recorded his next album, tentatively titled Dub Blues. If all goes as planned, itwill be another step in lifting the blues into the future.
“It doesn’t have to be like, ‘I went to this blues show, and I heard some slide guitar.’ What if you went to a classical show, or opera, or anything else?”
But Leyhe doesn’t want to go it alone. He hopes his genre-bending forays rub off on his contemporaries. “The blues is in a funny place, and I think it needs to be carried forward with more than chops,” Leyhe says. “I’m trying to say that delicately, but we got to do what the Beatles did in the studio.
“They weren’t going to have two-minute pop tunes forever. They needed to be artists. I want to hear more of the art. I love guys like Josh Smith, Kirk Fletcher, and Eric Gales. Shit, these guys are all amazing. Everybody can ball. If you get guys like Eric Gales, Joe Bonamassa, Josh Smith all playing, that’s an NBA All-Star game. But I’d love for those guys to hear what I’m doing here. I want to hear the imagination that’s on records like Electric Ladyland and Sgt. Pepper’s.”
Whether his heroes share this view, we’ll have to see. But one thing’s for sure, Leyhe’s not putting any limits on his favorite music. Considering slide guitar’s current popularity, he’s happier than ever to bring it to a broader audience.
“I love it, and people love it everywhere. It’s this universal thing. People fucking love slide guitar. So it doesn’t have to be like, ‘I went to this blues show, and I heard some slide guitar.’ What if you went to a classical show, or opera, or anything else? That would be really wild. I’m definitely trying to do my part to bring it into other contexts.”
Jules Leyhe and the Family Jules Band | PayPal: jleyhe@gmail.com
Jules Leyhe and his band played a traditional-flavored blues gig in early 2021, performing as a quartet with guitar, drums, saxophone, and keys. Jump to 43 minutes in to see Leyhe’s slide chops.
A rig meant to inspire! That’s Jerry Garcia with his Doug Irwin-built Tiger guitar, in front of his Twin Reverb + McIntosh + JBL amp rig.
“I met Jerry Garcia once, in 1992, at the bar at the Ritz Carlton in New York,” Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Jeff Mattson tells me over the phone. Nearly sixty-seven years old, Mattson is one of the longest-running members of the Grateful Dead tribute band scene, which encompasses hundreds of groups worldwide. The guitarist is old enough to have lived through most of the arc ofthe actual Grateful Dead’s career. As a young teen, he first absorbed their music by borrowing their seminal records, American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, brand new then, from his local library to spin on his turntable. Around that same moment, he started studying jazz guitar. Between 1973 and 1995, Mattson saw the Dead play live hundreds of times, formed the landmark jam bandZen Tricksters, and later stepped into theJerry Garcia lead guitarist role with the Dark Star Orchestra (DSO), one of the leading Dead tribute acts.
“At the bar, I didn’t even tellGarcia I was a guitar player,” Mattson explains. “I had just heard him play the new song ‘Days Between’ and I told him how excited I was by it, and he told me he was excited too. It wasn’t that long of a conversation, but I got to shake his hand and tell him how much his music meant to me. It’s a very sweet memory.”
The Grateful Dead’s final studio album was 1989’sBuilt to Last, and that title was prophetic. From 1965 to 1995, the band combined psychedelic rock with folk, blues, country, jazz, and even touches of prog rock and funk, placing a premium on improvisation and pushing into their own unique musical spaces. Along the way, they earned a reputation that placed them among the greatest American bands in rock ’n’ roll history—to many, the ultimate. Although no one member was more important than another, the heart and soul of the ensemble was Garcia. After his death in 1995, the surviving members retired the name the Grateful Dead.
“I think Jerry Garcia was the most creative guitarist of the 20th century because he had the widest ears and the sharpest instincts,” opines historian, author, and official Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally, over the phone. “What we see after his death are the Deadheads coming to terms with his passing but indicating that it’s the music that was most important to them. And who plays the music now becomes simply a matter of taste.”
Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Jeff Mattson, seen here with Garcia’s Alligator Stratocaster (yes, the real one).
Photo by Susana Millman
This year marks 30 years since Garcia’s passing and 60 years since the band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, the guitarist’s musical vocabulary and unique, personal tone manifests in new generations of players. Perhaps the most visible of these musicians is John Mayer, anointed as Garcia’s “replacement” in Dead and Co. But dozens of others, like Mattson, Tom Hamilton Jr., and a young new artist named Bella Rayne, strive to keep the Dead alive.
The first few Grateful Dead tribute bands began emerging in local dive bars by the late ’70s. More than mere cover bands, these groups devoted themselves entirely to playing the Dead. A few of these early groups eventually toured the country, playing in college towns, ski resorts, and small theatres across the United States. Mattson started one on Long Island, New York. He tells me, “The first band I was in that played exclusively Grateful Dead was Wild Oats. It was 1977, and we played local bars. Then, in 1979, I joined a band called the Volunteers. We also played almost exclusively the Grateful Dead, and that was a much more professional outfit—we had a good PA and lights and a truck, the whole nine yards.” The Volunteers eventually morphed into the Zen Tricksters.
Garcia’s death turbocharged the Dead tribute band landscape. Fanbases grew, and some bands reached the point where big-time agents booked them into blue-chip venues like Red Rocks and the Beacon Theatre. Summer festivals devoted to these bands evolved.
“The first band I was in that played exclusively Grateful Dead was Wild Oats. It was 1977, and we played local bars.” —Jeff Mattson
Dark Star Orchestra launched in 1997, and they do something particular, taking an individual show from somewhere out of Grateful Dead history and recreating that evening’s setlist. It’s musically and sonically challenging. They try to use era-specific gear, so on any given night, they may be playing through recreations of the Grateful Dead’s backline from 1971 or 1981, for example. It all depends on the show they choose to present. Mattson joined DSO as its lead guitar player in 2009.
Something else significant happened after Jerry died: The remaining living members of the Grateful Dead and other musicians from Garcia’s inner circle embraced the tribute scene, inviting musicians steeped in their music to step up and sit in with them. For Mattson, it’s meant playing over the years with all the core members of the band, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, plus former members Donna Jean Godchaux, who sang in the band from 1971 to 1979, and Tom Constanten, who played keyboards with the Dead from 1968 to 1970.
Tom Hamilton’s Lotto custom built had a Doug Irwin-inspired upper horn.
In the newest post-Garcia tribute bands, many guitar players aren’t old enough to have seen Garcia perform live—or if they did, it was towards the end of his life and career. One of those guys sitting today at the top of the Garcia pyramid, along with Mattson, is Tom Hamilton Jr. Growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, Hamilton saw Garcia play live only three times. Early on, he was influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan, but Hamilton’s older brother, who was also a guitar player, loved the Dead and Garcia. “My brother wanted to play like Jerry,” he recalls, “so he roped me in because he needed me to play ‘Bob Weir’ and be his rhythm guitar sidekick.” Eventually, Hamilton leaned more into the Jerry role himself. “Then I spent my entire twenties trying to develop my own voice as a songwriter and as a guitar player. And I did,” Hamilton says. “And during that time, I met Joe Russo. He was not so much into the Dead then, but he knew I was.”
A drummer from Brooklyn, by about 2006, Russo found himself collaborating on projects with members of Phish and Ween. That put him on the radar of Lesh and Weir, who invited Russo to be a part of their post-Dead project Furthur in 2009. (And on guitar, they chose DSO founding member John Kadlecik, opening that role up for Mattson.)
“When Joe played in Furthur, he got under the hood of the Grateful Dead’s music and started to understand how special it was,” Hamilton points out. “After Furthur wound down, we decided to form JRAD. We weren’t trying to do something academic, not some note-for-note recreation. We were coming at it through the pure joy of the songs, and the fact that the five of us in JRAD were improvisers ourselves.”
“We were coming at it through the pure joy of the songs, and the fact that the five of us in JRAD were improvisers ourselves.” —Tom Hamilton Jr.
Today, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD) is considered to be one of the premier Grateful Dead tribute bands. They formed in 2013, with Hamilton and Scott Metzger as the band’s guitar frontline, with Hamilton handling Garcia’s vocal roles. Eventually, Hamilton, too, found himself jamming onstage with the ever-evolving Phil Lesh and Friends. That, of course, further enmeshed him in the scene, and in 2015, he started a band with Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann calledBilly and the Kids.
Now, there’s a new kid on the block, literally. Bella Rayne recently turned 18 and grew up in Mendocino, California. Her parents were into the Dead, but even they were too young to have really followed the original band around the country. At her age, they were big into Phish. By the pandemic, Bella started embracing the guitar out of boredom, woodshedding while social distancing in quarantine. She explains, “Like any other teen, I was bored out of my mind looking for anything to do.” Rummaging through her garage, she came across her mom’s old Strat. “At the time, I was really into ’90s Seattle grunge. I put new strings on the Strat, and then I tried to teach myself Pearl Jam songs, and I learned how to play them by watching YouTube videos. Then, I started posting videos of my journey online as I became more serious about it. I hit a point where I knew it would be my thing. The next thing I knew, one of the Bay Area Dead bands [China Dolls] reached out to me and asked me to sit in. I thought, ‘no way.’“My parents are huge Deadheads,” she continues. “That’s theirthing. I grew up with the Dead being pushed on me my whole life. But I ended up going, and it’s just been this awesome spiral ever since.” Bella calls her current Dead-related project Bella Rayne and Friends, and she, too, has been recognized not only by the new generation of Garcia players in the Dead tribute bands, but also by Melvin Seals, the Hammond organist who played for years in theJerry Garcia Band. “I was hired to just sit-in for a couple of numbers withMelvin and his JGB band,” she recalls, “and we were having so much fun he said to me, ‘Why don’t you just sit in for the whole second set.’ It was an amazing night.”
Bella Rayne with her Alligator-inspired Strat, with a JGB Cats Under the Starssticker on the body.
Photo by Sean Reiter
Jerry Garcia played many different guitars. But for those guitarists wanting to emulate Garcia’s tone, the focus is on four instruments in particular. One is a1955 Fender Stratocaster known as “Alligator,” which Garcia had heavily modified and began playing in 1971. The other three guitars were hand built in Northern California by luthier Doug Irwin: Wolf, Tiger, and Rosebud. Garcia introduced them in 1973, 1979, and 1989, respectively. Sometimes, in a jam-band version of being knighted by the Excalibur sword, a chosen member of this next generation of Dead players is handed one of Garcia’s personal guitars to play onstage for a few songs or even an entire set.
Although they started their journeys at different times and in separate ways, Mattson, Hamilton, and Rayne all have “knighthood” in common. Rayne remembers, “In March of 2024, I was sitting in one night with anall-girl Dead tribute band called the China Dolls, and no one had told me that Jerry’s actual 1955 Strat, Alligator, was there that evening. My friend [roots musician] Alex Jordan handed me the guitar unannounced. It’s something I’ll never forget.”What’s it like to strap on one of Jerry Garcia’s iconic instruments? Tom Hamilton recalls, “It wasRed Rocks in 2017, and I played with Bob Weir, Melvin Seals, and JGB at a tribute show for Jerry’s 75th birthday. I got to play both Wolf and Tiger that night. I was in my head with it for about one song, but then you sort of have a job to do. But I do recall that we were playing the song ‘Deal.’ I have a [DigiTech] Whammy pedal that has a two-octave pitch raise on it, real high gain that gives me a lot of sustain, and it’s a trick I use that really peaks a jam. That night, while I am doing it, I had the thought of, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I am doing this trick of mine on Garcia’s guitar.’ Jerry would have thought what I was doing was the greatest thing in the world or the absolute worst, but either way, I’m cool with it!”
“I was sitting in one night with an all-girl Dead tribute band called the China Dolls, and no one had told me that Jerry’s actual 1955 Strat, Alligator, was there that evening. My friend [roots musician] Alex Jordan handed me the guitar unannounced. It’s something I’ll never forget.” —Bella Rayne
Jeff Mattson has played Alligator, Wolf, Garcia’s Travis Bean 500, and his Martin D-28. He sums it up this way: “I used to have posters up in my childhood bedroom of Garcia playing his Alligator guitar. I would stare at those images all the time. And sowhen I got a chance to play it and plug it in, suddenly there were those distinctive tones. Those guitars of his all have a certain mojo. It’s so great to play those guitars that you have to stop in the moment and remind yourself to take a mental picture, so it doesn’t just fly by. It’s just a tremendous pleasure and an honor. I never imagined I would get to play four of Jerry Garcia’s guitars.”
With young people like Bella Rayne dedicating herself at the tender age of 18 to keeping the Dead’s music going, it feels like what the band called their “long strange trip” will keep rolling down the tracks and far over the horizon. “People will be listening to the Grateful Dead in one hundred years the same way they will be listening to John Coltrane, too,” predicts McNally. “Improvisational music is like jumping off a cliff. Sometimes you fly, and sometimes you land on the rocks. When you take that risk, there’s an opportunity for magic to happen. And that will always appeal to a certain segment of people who don’t want predictability in the music they listen to. The Grateful Dead is for people who want complete craziness in their music—sometimes leading to disaster and oftentimes leading to something wonderful. It’s music for people who want to be surprised.”
Guest picker Ally Venable
Ally Venable - Guest Picker
By FifthLegend from Eagan, Minnesota, United States of America - Thundercat, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70617212
A: For my late-night show's house band, I’ve assembled a dream team. This ensemble inspires me with their unparalleled musical talents and diverse backgrounds. Chris Layton’s drumming is unmatched and he will provide a solid foundation. I’ll have Jon Batiste on keys. His creativity and energy is boundless. Eric Gales would be on guitar. I love how emotive his music is, and I strive for that type of connection within my playing as well. Finally, I’d have Thundercat on bass. His playing is infused with jazz and funk sensibilities that would tie the whole sound together in an interesting way.
Obsession: My current obsession is shifting my approach to playing—focusing on connection over applause. Instead of chasing technical perfection or crowd reactions, I’m leaning into the emotional and spiritual side of music. It’s about creating moments that resonate deeply, whether it’s with myself, my bandmates, or the audience.
David Saenger - Reader of the Month
A: I love the idea of supergroups and how each of the players would interact. On guitars I would have Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) and Isaiah Sharkey. My drum and bass combo would be Stewart Copeland (The Police) and Mohini Dey. On keys and sax, I would have Herbie Hancock and Joshua Redman. My male and female vocalists would be Corey Glover (Living Colour) and Liv Warfield (Prince). All of these players are fantastic improvisers and really know how to put on an entertaining show in any genre.
Bassist Victor Wooten
Obsession: My current obsession has been bass. My 12-year-old daughter started playing electric and upright bass about two years ago, and it’s been a blast working with her. I’ve been really focusing on having a solid pocket, and it’s forced me to get better at reading bass clef. I’m taking her to see Victor Wooten next week. Can’t wait!
Jason Shadrick - Managing Editor
Jason Shadrick on the SNL stage.
A: The natural move would be to go for a high-energy party band decked out with multiple keyboards, horns, and vocalists. I’d go a different route. I’d go for a more rootsy vibe with Blake Mills leading a band consisting of Jay Bellerose on drums, esperanza spalding on bass, Bob Reynolds on saxophones, and a rotating guest each week. They could cover lo-fi Americana, funky open-tuned blues, and so much more.
Obsession: This month is slightly less obsession and more reflection as this will be my last issue as Managing Editor for PG. Over the last 15 years I’ve worked on 182 issues, which is kinda mind-boggling. I’ve been lucky enough to do some incredible things during my time at PG, including walking through the host door at SNL and spending a few minutes with Brian May. Never could have imagined it. I am very grateful.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
A: I’ve long said that joining one of the late night bands would probably be my absolute top dream gig. So, if I were choosing my own late-night band, from any era, I would go no further than getting a chance to sit with Paul Schaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band or G.E. Smith-era Saturday Night Live Band.
Obsession: The late guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, who spent time in Schaffer’s band, had a heavy resume that included stars of all genres from Billy Joel to the Roots to McCoy Tyner. I got to see him play some low-key gigs around Philly, and each rearranged my molecules. It’s only now, years after his 2013 death, that I’ve become obsessed with his discography. Though much of his work was as a high-level sideman, his albums show the broad range of this masterful guitarist, whose tone, feel, and phrasing conveyed the instrument’s deepest emotional capabilities.
