Watch Don Was Return To ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ With Pan-Detroit Ensemble & Fiery Grateful Dead Cover
The Grammy-winning producer and musician also played four tracks off the group’s new album, Groove In The Face Of Adversity, including a Hank Williams song.
By Scott Bernstein May 15, 2026 • 11:14 am PDT
Producer, Blue Note Records president and longtime Bob Weir collaborator Don Was brought his Detroit-rooted band to NPR’s Tiny Desk for a five-song set. The performance began with an imaginative version of Grateful Dead's “The Music Never Stopped.”
Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble features Was on upright bass along with lead vocalist Steffanie Christi’an, guitarist Wayne Gerard Milton, keyboardist Luis Resto, tenor saxophonist Dave McMurray, trombonist Vincent Chandler, trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canady, percussionist Mahini Masai and background vocalists Herschel Boone and Terena Boone.
Was previously performed on the series in 2020 as the bassist for Bob Weir & Wolf Bros. The multi-hyphenate dedicated “The Music Never Stopped” opener to his former bandleader. Lead vocalist Steffanie Christi’an helped breath new life into the 1975 classic.
“We are on a mission to promulgate the indigenous sounds of our hometown of Detroit, Michigan,” proclaimed Was.
Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble then showcased four songs from their album, Groove In The Face Of Adversity, which arrived last October via Mack Avenue Records. Originals “You Asked, I Came” and “Midnight Marauders” followed the Grateful Dead cover.
Up next was a soul-laced spin on Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothing But Time.” Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble closed the set in the same way Groove In The Face Of Adversity ends, with the funky “Insane.”
Watch Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s Tiny Desk Concert below:
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