The Grateful Dead
Eternally ‘Grateful’: Peter Shapiro Is Helping Keep Jam-Band Music Alive, One Trip at a Time
Peter Shapiro has worked both on and off the stage with the biggest names in music history and has overseen some of the most beloved venues in the United States. But after more than 25 years in the business, he’s still a super-fan at heart who loves nothing more than rocking out with and talking shop about the artists who’ve shaped his life. Shapiro, 49, chronicles his remarkable career in his new Hachette book, The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic, co-written with longtime collaborator Dean Budnick. Structured as 50 different chapters about specific shows and experiences, the book details a Eureka moment at a 1993 Grateful Dead concert in Chicago (when he was a film student at nearby Northwestern University) that s...
Phil Lesh, Wilco Uniting as PHILCO at Sacred Rose Festival
In a pairing sure to delight jam band fans and rock aficionados alike, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh is teaming with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and guitarist Nels Cline for their first-ever performance as PHILCO this summer. The musicians will collaborate Aug. 26 at the Sacred Rose festival outside of Chicago, in what is being described as “a once-in-a-lifetime musical moment.” PHILCO will perform songs from both the Dead and Wilco, and will also be joined on stage by a host of guest musicians, including Jeff Chimenti (Dead & Co, Wolfpack), Phil Lesh & Friends collaborators John Molo, Stu Allen and Grahame Lesh, and Elliott Peck (Midnight North). Lesh and Wilco have teamed up just once before, when they covered the Dead’s “Ripple” at Wilco’s May 29, 1999 concert in Angels Camp, C...
Concert Promoter Peter Shapiro Releasing First Book in August
Peter Shapiro, the beloved concert promoter behind such events as The Grateful Dead’s 2015 Fare Thee Well reunion and storied venues as Wetlands, Brooklyn Bowl and the Capitol Theatre, will share his behind-the-scenes stories in his first book this summer. Shapiro’s The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic, arrives August 2 via Hachette and was co-written with longtime collaborator Dean Budnick. It is structured as he reminiscences about 50 of the most important concerts in his career, including shows with U2, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and more. Says Questlove of Shapiro, “I’ve given Peter 11th-hour surprises, like, ‘How about a practice Usher show?’ or ‘Can we organize a quickie Elvis Costello performance?’Anyone else ...
The 50 Best Albums of 1972
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by how many bronze-cast classics came out that year: LPs from David Bowie, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and on and on. Run down basically every genre – glam, soul, prog, art rock, Southern rock, metal, folk, MPB — and you’ll find the very best shit, whether eternally famous or sadly obscure. (My poor spreadsheet, swelling each day, originally had hundreds of worthy records. But you have to start chopping eventually.) Here’s wher...
Devandra Banhart Honors the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah Anniversary With Cover
Celebrating the 45th anniversary of The Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah, Devendra Banhart recorded his own rendition of “Franklin’s Tower.” Released as an Amazon Original track, the song was produced by Noah Georgeson and recorded remotely with his current touring band, which includes guitarist Nicole Lawrence, Jeremy Harris on synths and Gregory Rogove on drums and percussion, all tracking from different studios around Los Angeles and Stinson Beach, Calif. Banhart spoke of why he chose to cover “Franklin’s Tower” in a statement: “More than everI find myselfFighting dreadWith the dead… We chose “Franklin’s Tower” for its opening line, one of my favorite opening lines of all time:“In another time’s forgotten spaceYour eyes looked through your mother’s face” This is the gift of the Dead, The...
