Dead to the Core
An acoustic celebration of the Grateful Dead
upcoming ⟡ videos ⟡ releases ⟡ merch ⟡ shakedown sunday
Dead to the Core artwork by Dee Densmore Studio. Top photo by Neil Daley.
Dead to the Core is a collective of singer-songwriters and acoustic musicians, led by musician/author Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, with a shared love of the Grateful Dead.
In intimate concerts, the musicians celebrate the band’s music not through note-for-note re-creations but by playing the songs their own way—with creative arrangements featuring unexpected instrumental colors (clarinet, flute, Strumstick, mandolin, accordion) and lush vocal harmonies.
Interspersed with the music are clips from Rodgers’ own interviews with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, in which they reflect on the roots and evolution of the music.
A Dead to the Core show is an experience unlike any other Grateful Dead tribute: a night of deeply personal performances that illuminate the masterful song craft of one of America’s most original bands.
Grateful Dead music right down to the core.
“Rodgers doesn’t tap the legion of dedicated Grateful Dead tribute artists for these concerts…. Instead, he seeks out songwriters and musicians who have developed their own voices and styles, though they are very much inspired by—and fans of—Garcia and the Dead.”
—Arts Fuse (more)
Announcing Shakedown Sunday, a monthly series at Syracuse’s 443 Social Club featuring members of Dead to the Core with special guests.
Dead to the Core grew out of the Jerry Garcia birthday celebrations that Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers began hosting at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2017.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers plays Jerry Garcia’s Wolf guitar at Club Passim, 2018. Photo by Rich Gastwirt.
Performers to date include:
Jefferson Hamer (Anaïs Mitchell, Sarah Jarosz)
Leslie Mendelson (who has recorded duets with Bob Weir and Jackson Browne)
Hayley Jane
David Surette and Steve Roy
Ryan Fitzsimmons
Laurence Scudder (Ryan Montbleu Band)
Jay Nash
Jim Larkin
Spotted Tiger
Celia Woodsmith (Della Mae)
Wendy Sassafras Ramsay
Mark Ettinger (Flying Karamazov Brothers)
Greg Klyma
Natalia Zukerman
Mark Erelli
Anand Nayak (Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem)
Tim Burns (Two Hour Delay)
Brendan Gosson (Folkfaces)
In addition to Club Passim, Dead to the Core has performed in some of the finest listening rooms and folk/acoustic concert series in the Northeast, including the Parlor Room (Northampton, Mass.), Word Barn (Exeter, New Hampshire), Folk Project (Morristown, New Jersey), Golden Link (Rochester, New York), and 443 Social Club (Syracuse, New York).
