Terrapin Roadshow Takes the Gang to the Golden Road

It’s a festive Friday evening at the Forest Meadows Amphitheater on the campus of Dominican University in San Rafael, California, on 18 July, and it feels a lot like a time warp back to the Terrapin Crossroads era from 2012 to 2021. The now legendary local concert venue and restaurant owned by bassist Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead served as a near utopian clubhouse for local music fans, as well as a mecca for pilgrims visiting the San Francisco Bay Area. 

However, Terrapin Crossroads was lost at the end of 2021, after Phil and his wife Jill were ready to retire from running the business, and a deal to sell to a promoter with the resources to keep it going fell through during the economic crash of the Covid-19 pandemic. Lesh kept on rocking, though, and continued to amaze with electrifying performances at other traditional venues. However, illness tragically crept in, and a tremor in the Force was felt across the galaxy last fall as the Jedi Master of the tone sciences departed to the Rainbow Bridge on 25 October, at age 84.

Son Grahame Lesh  – who played guitar as a Padawan of sorts alongside his dad during countless Phil & Friends shows from 2012 onward – is doing his best to help fill the void. These “Terrapin Roadshow” concerts in multiple California locations this summer are gathering fans and musicians known as “the Terrapin Allstars” together again to keep the music going, while reviving the spirit of “the Terrapin Nation” as Phil liked to call it in recent years (all tracing to the Grateful Dead’s signature 1977 composition “Terrapin Station”.)

Nearly everyone on the roster for these three shows was a regular player at Terrapin Crossroads, and most also played numerous shows as members of Phil Lesh & Friends to catch some of the torch’s flame.

Friday, 18 July

It’s heartwarming to walk in and see the big Terrapin Crossroads circular logo with two dancing turtles gracing the stage, a symbol of that special time and place in space, as well as seeing friends and acquaintances from TXR (as it was known). There’s also a banner reading “A celebration of Terrapin Nation”, emphasizing the vibrant community that had grown around the venue.

When the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995 at age 53, a large and nebulous question arose about whether the music could continue without him. However, after a few years to recharge, the surviving members of the band reconvened as the Other Ones in 1998, as everyone discovered how this music has a life of its own that can and will outlive the original band members. So it is here with the Terrapin Roadshow.

An opening set from local rockers San Geronimo gets the party started before Friday night’s main event kicks off in a celebratory fashion. Grahame Lesh and the Terrapin Allstars open with “The Golden Road”, the first track on the Dead’s debut album from 1967. It’s quite the triumphant vibe as Lesh and his bandmates sing, “Come and join the party every day, hey, hey, hey, come right away!”

The song was oddly shelved by the Dead through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s until Phil Lesh & Friends revived the entire catalog in the 2000s, much to the delight of fans who never got to see such material performed. When the band sing, “Well everybody’s dancing in a ring around the sun, nobody’s finished, we ain’t even begun”, it’s both a call back to the socio-cultural revolution of the 1960s and a statement of intent for the here and now.

The group includes lead guitarist Stu Allen (the only other player to join Grahame Lesh for all three of the weekend’s shows), keyboardist Scott Guberman, drummer Sean Nelson, bassist Scott Padden, and vocalist Sunshine Garcia Becker. It feels like old times at Terrapin Crossroads on tunes like “Peggy-O”, “Walking Blues”, and “Reuben & Cherise”. Padden’s bass sounds clear and crisp as he plays with a pick, essential for conjuring Phil Lesh-style grooves.

Other first set highlights include local guitarist Jon Chi joining the group for a bluesy jam on “West LA Fadeaway”, Greg Loiacono from the Mother Hips leading the ensemble to “drink all day and rock all night” on “Tennessee Jed”, and Reed Mathis fronting the band on Bob Dylan‘s “Isis”.

The second set opens large with the epic sonic journey of “Terrapin Station”, though the group throw a changeup as they veer off after the first verse into the late 1960s psychedelia of “Mountains of the Moon”. The interplay between Lesh, Allen, and Guberman sparkles here, revealing a chemistry developed over so many shows at Terrapin Crossroads.

The band rock out again for a scintillating “Mason’s Children”, another 1960s song like “The Golden Road” that sat on the shelf for three decades before a glorious revival here in the 21st century. Lesh rips on the solo, displaying how he’s evolved his lead guitar skills quite strongly over the past decade. 

Guberman shines on lead vocals for Brent Mydland’s “Tons of Steel”, as there’s no one else who can nail Brent’s gritty vocal style like “Gubes” can. Reed Mathis rejoins the group for vibrant jams on “Scarlet Begonias” and “Tangled Up in Blue” to close out the set in climactic fashion, as the energy level soars. The arrangement on the latter song seems to blend Dylan’s original version with the jammier Jerry Garcia Band style, which generates one of those magical moments where it feels like everyone present is syncing into a groovy collective unity.

Grahame Lesh thanks everyone for coming before the encore and continues his dad’s tradition of asking everyone present to become an organ donor. “I got an extra 25 years with my dad,” he explains, thanks to a 1998 liver transplant that saved the bassist’s life and also brought 25 more years of incredible music to the community.

Saturday, 19 July

The lineup rotates on Saturday, as it would in the bar on a typical weekend at Terrapin Crossroads with Grahame and Stu now to be joined by keyboardist Jason Crosby and drummer Alex Koford (both of whom were members of the Terrapin Family Band), guitarist Scott Law, bassist Brian Rashap (who was also Phil Lesh’s bass tech), and vocalist Elliott Peck (who plays with Grahame in their band Midnight North.) Midnight North also opened the show, providing another flashback to Terrapin Crossroads, where they used to play the bar every Sunday night.

The group features more of an Americana sound that isn’t trying to follow in the Dead’s footsteps. However, those roots still show at times, such as here on Grahame’s majestic song “Jupiter”, from 2023’s Diamonds in the Zodiac album, which moves into an exploration that recalls those early 2000s Phil & Friends jams.

The Terrapin Allstars open with the timeless wisdom of “Uncle John’s Band”, which benefits from Peck’s harmonies and twin guitar lines from Law and Allen. Rashap also mostly plays his bass with a pick, which is key for dropping the bass bombs on a “Jack Straw” that soars with Crosby’s electric piano solo and Law’s ripping guitar leads. Peck stars with a sassy lead vocal on “Hard on to Handle”, before the surprise of the set when Allen sings “Like a Rolling Stone”.

Here’s a classic Dylan tune that was not covered by the Jerry Garcia Band, but is imagined as if it were. The song also flashes some folks back to Phil Lesh’s 70th birthday show in 2010 at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where a rousing performance of it led by vocalist Chris Robinson was a peak moment in that special three-set show from Furthur & Friends. 

Tim Bluhm from the Mother Hips joins the fun to sing “Here Comes Sunshine” and returns to open the second set too with Merle Haggard‘s “Working Man Blues”, plus a great jam on “Brown Eyed Women”. The anthemic “Help on the Way” kicks the set into higher gear with its intense vibe and timeless message, “Sell everything, without love day to day insanity’s king”. It feels like the spirit of Phil Lesh lives on in the quintessential bass lines of classic songs like this one, as the audience falls into another collective groove. 

The group throw another changeup as they only tease the “Slipknot” transition and move instead into “Let It Grow”, another quintessential Dead classic from the 1970s. It’s a tight transition, and Grahame shines on the lead vocal with Peck’s harmonies elevating the sound higher still, leading to a smoking jam for one of the weekend’s most electrifying moments. The Terrapin Allstars have tapped into the “x-factor” that was a hallmark of Phil & Friends shows, searching for the sound and demonstrating how well they’ve learned from the master.

Another memorable moment occurs when the group revisit the “Terrapin Station” started on Friday, but only play the next section with the “storyteller” verse, segueing into “Bird Song” instead of finishing “Terrapin”. The song selection continues to impress as Peck delivers a stellar vocal for a glorious jam on the ever timely “Eyes of the World”, followed by Crosby singing the set closer with lyrics from “Casey Jones” over music from Pink Floyd‘s “Eclipse” (one of the signature mashups from his Crosby Collective project that dazzled fans at the Mill Valley Music Festival in May.)

A touching encore performance on “Attics of My Life” hits all the heartstrings, much as it did on the last night of the GD 50 Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago in 2015, before the group follows with a rousing rendition of “The Music Never Stopped” to end the night on a very rocking note.

Sunday, 20 July

Mark Karan’s Buds open the Sunday matinee show and include a couple of great covers with Nina Simone‘s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” and Elvis Costello‘s “(What’s So Funny Bout) Peace Love and Understanding”. Karan was one of the lead guitarists employed by the Other Ones on the 1998 tour and played for a number of years with Bob Weir‘s Ratdog before becoming another regular at Terrapin Crossroads as the venue became a clubhouse for both veterans and newcomers on the local music scene.

One of the newcomers was keyboardist Holly Bowling, who started playing at Terrapin Crossroads in 2016 with Phil Lesh, with the bar bands, and as a headliner with her own signature solo piano performances of Grateful Dead and Phish songs. Bowling quickly became a fan favorite with her dynamic jamming skills, so it’s fitting that she’s included as keyboardist for the Terrapin Allstars on day three. She also kicked off the weekend with her solo shows at SFJAZZ Center on Thursday and Friday, enabling dedicated fans to make a four-night run of it. 

Bowling took the opportunity to debut some of her long-awaited original music, opening Thursday’s late set at SFJAZZ with a melancholy tune titled “The Thief is Insatiable”. She explains that it was written during a period of insomnia, during which she found herself wrestling with time since her son’s birth four years ago, what it means for her mortality, and how the fact that none of us can escape the passage of time is both beautiful and tragic. 

Bowling looks like she could be in the X-Men with her lean, athletic physique and metaphysical powers, which she wields in the form of her incredible skill with the tone sciences. A case in point occurs when she plucks strings from inside the piano with her right hand, while playing the lower range notes on the keys with her left hand on an exquisite intro jam into Phish’s “Pebbles and Marbles”. She also dazzles on Phish’s “Mercury”, an elaborate composition that leads to a trippy space that sounds like wavelength interference from another dimension before she pivots triumphantly into her sensational arrangement of the Dead’s “Help on the Way”.

Four-year-old Rylan Bowling is already looking like a future rock star, making a heartwarming guest appearance at Sunday’s Terrapin Roadshow when he warms up the drum kit (following a recent debut public performance at the High Sierra Music Festival). Thirty-eight-year-old Grahame Lesh, meanwhile, comes out for Sunday’s show wearing the blue raglan shirt from the GD 50 Fare Thee Well shows in 2015, a celebration of the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary with five stadium shows in Santa Clara and Chicago.

It’s another reminder of that inescapable passage of time, as another decade has passed by and Phil Lesh has passed on. However, as Saturday’s encore invoked, this music never stops. The core band includes Eric Krasno along with Stu Allen on lead guitars, Danny Luehring on drums, long-time Bay Area rocker Pete Sears on bass, and Barry Sless on pedal steel guitar.

The group open the show with the Beatles‘ “Revolution” – a song the Dead covered a handful of times in the 1980s – striking a chord from the late 1960s that sets an uplifting thematic tone. Other highlights of the first set include Bowling jamming out on organ during “Sugaree”, Lesh singing “Friend of the Devil” with sweet pedal steel from Sless. Allen is taking the lead on the Jerry Garcia Band’s “Sisters and Brothers” to make this Sunday afternoon feel like church as the song encourages everyone to “Keep the faith”. There’s also a lot of hot lead guitar and piano interplay between Krasno and Bowling.

Sunday’s second set goes large from the start with a hot jam on the groovy “Shakedown Street”, as Mookie Siegel sits in on keyboards with Bowling while the four guitarists intertwine their lines dynamically. Lesh sings the Rolling Stones‘ “Tumbling Dice”, which also features Allman Brothers’ “Blue Skies” teases, which Lesh and Krasno have been weaving in throughout the day.

The classic “St. Stephen” ignites the show higher still, always a peak moment when performed by Phil Lesh at Terrapin Crossroads. Bassist Pete Sears plucks the strings with his fingers throughout the show, but seems to sense a duty to take charge here as he steps up with some bold lead bass lines to power an ecstatic jam. The final chorus then pivots into the “Inspiration” section of “Terrapin Station”, which has now been strategically spread across all three shows.

A set closing jam on “Not Fade Away” feels like it goes back into the “St. Stephen” jam for a big finish as both the band and audience pledge their undying love for this music. A parade of guests has added to the fun, with Scott Guberman, Alex Jordan, Mark Karan, Nathan Graham, and Anna Elva all sitting in during the set. Lesh and the audience agree on digging the beautiful venue during the encore as he expresses hope for coming back. 

The group rocks out on Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around”, before closing the weekend in with the timeless and ethereal beauty of “The Wheel”. Debuted in 1976, the classic song has only grown deeper through the decades with its message to “Try just a little bit harder” to get “A little bit further than you’ve gone before.” Grahame Lesh and the Terrapin Allstars have taken the message to heart, rising above adversity to take the music further and make the Terrapin Roadshow a huge success.