July 17, 2001
Phil Lesh is still playing Dead
By MICK SKIDMORE
The Patriot Ledger

Sometimes, the best things in life turn out to be the spontaneous ones.

That could be a mantra for bassist Phil Lesh. Lesh, of course, was the bassist of the Grateful Dead, a band whose whole philosophy was based on seizing the moment.

Since the death of Jerry Garcia and the demise of the Dead, Lesh has fostered the same spontaneous spirit in his new band, Phil Lesh & Friends,which will bring its free-spirited, improvisational music to the Tweeter Center in Mansfield on Friday.

In a telephone interview last weekend, Lesh said the band, comprising guitarists Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring, drummer John Molo and keyboardist Rob Barraco, will play a four-hour set.

But don’t expect too much structure, he warned.

“It’s pretty much a revolving set. It always tells a story or describes a journey, but it’s a revolving set that we try not to repeat.”

In the past three years Lesh, often regarded as the most eclectic Dead member,has found renewed energy in live peformance, reinventing himself and the music of the Dead.

In late 1998, Lesh underwent a liver transplant. Since then, he has played with Phish, has double-billed with Bob Dylan and has done several tours with a variety of different players under the Phil & Friends moniker.

“I wanted to re-interpret Grateful Dead music with other players to see what would happen,” he said, “and the result has been that the music has been more than able to handle all the different interpretations, so the richness and depth is beyond dispute at this point.”

And it all happened almost by accident. As Lesh explained, “When I started performing again, one of the first things I wanted to do was a benefit.” The Grateful Dead had supported charitable causes through its Rex Foundation, but when the Dead could no longer tour, the foundation lost all its funding. Lesh and his wife, Jill, formed the Unbroken Chain Foundation, which supports a
variety of causes including Hepatitis C research, Music in Schools and many small, nonprofit organizations.

Out of Lesh’s initial benefit shows came the Phil & Friends concept.

“I discovered this pool of musicians that could play Grateful Dead music,and that started the whole musical end of things,” Lesh explained. “Each ofthese guys has played with me before in different combinations, but when they all got together it just ignited something special.”

Lesh said he has become so comfortable with the band’s current line-up and musical chemistry that he has begun writing new songs and has also asked bandmembers to start writing material, not only for the tour but for the possibility of a new studio album.

He has even been writing some songs with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. “Earlier this year,” said Lesh, “I was working on one piece, and it sat right up and said to me, ‘I’m a Robert Hunter song,’ so I called up Bob and he said ‘come on over.’ We ended up taking three pieces of music that I had written, and he wrote words for them.”

Fellow Dead member Bob Weir will open the Tweeter Center show with his band,Ratdog, and you can count on Weir joining Phil & Friends for a couple of songs.

“We have some stuff that we know we can do together, but I’m not sure what it is going to be on any given day,” Lesh said.

Lesh said he and the band members owe a lot to their audiences. “I tell the audience, the community, that this music couldn’t exist without them and their input. It’s really true, because we are doing it in the moment, and the energy that they provide is essential. In a way it helps define what is going to happen.”

It’s a relationship that works both ways. As an example of fan appreciation in action, the band provides free, downloadable versions of some of its best concerts at Lesh’s web site, www.Phillesh.net

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