For 30 years, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh usually sang harmonies, wrote only a few songs and assuredly didn’t play with his own band on the side.
Now, seven years after Dead frontman Jerry Garcia’s death, Lesh brings his own group, Phil Lesh and Friends, to Eugene.
Phil and Friends will play today at 6:30 p.m. in the Silva Hall at the Hult Center. Special guest Galactic will open. Phil Lesh and Friends is promoting “There and Back Again,” its debut album.
Ed Kashin, the host of “Short Strange Trip,” a Grateful Dead show on KRVM, said he is definitely going to the show. The Dead were known for stretching 4-minute songs to 40-minute epics at their live shows. While Kashin is still a huge fan of the Dead, he also listens to Lesh. He explained that Lesh’s musical style is more free-form than the Dead’s.
“The style is jazz, classical, rock ‘n’ roll, Grateful Dead fusion,” Kashin said.
Kashin said he feels a sense of happiness when he listens to Phil Lesh and Friends.
“I want to hear all the new songs,” Kashin said. “I can’t wait to see what they hear like live. “
Lesh is a classically trained musician with a knack for jazz and composition who originally played violin and trumpet. In 1965, Lesh joined his friend Garcia’s band, the Warlocks, which was soon renamed the Grateful Dead. He remained with the group for its three-decade existence.
After Garcia’s death in 1995, Lesh joined with bandmates Bob Weir and Mickey Hart in the group Other Ones. He then discovered the burgeoning jam band scene led by Bay Area musicians, who were inspired by the music of Grateful Dead. Lesh said he was fascinated to hear the effect of the Dead’s inspiration.
“It was strange hearing our music being played by others and for the first time I was able to hear the music from the audiences perspective,” Lesh said. “It was certainly an eye-opening experience for me.”
For a while, Lesh played with a rotating crew of musicians that he called Phil Lesh and Friends. At various times, the group included Little Feet members Paul Bararre and Bill Payne, Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks and Hot Tuna founder Jorma Kaukonen. In 1999, Lesh recorded “Love will See You Through” with some of the people he had been playing with.
Soon after the release, a permanent lineup of Phil and Friends solidified. Phil Lesh and Friends now includes Allman Brothers/Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes, guitarist and Allman Brothers alumni Jimmy Herring, drummer John Molo and keyboardist Ron Barraco.
“There and Back Again” was released May 21, through Lesh’s newly created Lapis Music/Columbia Records label. Lesh said his plan with Lapis is to search out new, vital and uncompromising music, and in partnership with Columbia, bring it to a wider audience. He hopes to do the same thing with his own music.
“I wanted this band to make a record because I wanted to see whether we could translate that energy that we have live, with the onstage jamming, into compositions for recording, which is really an art in itself,” Lesh said of the album.
The band Galactic is coming into its own as a favorite of the jam band scene, though they echo that title.
“Please don’t consider Galactic another jam band,” Galactic’s publicist said.
Galactic came out of New Orleans in the late 1990s and has now produced four albums. They were featured at the Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater with Ben Harper and Jack Johnson over the weekend.
Tickets are $35 in advance and can be purchased through Safeway/Fastixx or the Hult Center Box Office.