Green Leaf Rustlers Begin Inaugural Tour In Oakland

The Starline Social Club in Oakland, California hosted the first show of the inaugural Green Leaf Rustlers tour on Thursday night. The impressive collective of players performed two sets of covers for the first performance of their six-show run.

When the GLR tour was announced, the newly formed band’s tagline was, “From the sage smoke and mists of Marin come your local purveyors of Cosmic Cali country music, playing the dusty country classics of your dreams.” Thursday’s concert in Oakland made good on that promise as the group featuring Chris Robinson Brotherhood/As The Crow Flies frontman Chris Robinson, Moonalice/David Nelson Band bassist Pete Sears and multi-instrumentalist Barry Sless, The Mother Hips’ guitarist Greg Loiacono and Phil Lesh Quintet/Bruce Hornsby & The Range drummer John Molo tore through one classic country and blues tune after another.

The opening set saw takes on Bob Dylan’s “If You Got To Go, Go Now,” Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore Blues,” Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Elvis Presley’s hit “That’s Alright Mama,” Gene Clark’s “Tried So Hard” and more. The second set saw more Dylan via “Odds & Ends,” as well as Utah Phillips’ “Rock, Salt & Nails,” Gram Parsons’ “Big Mouth Blues,” the well-known country favorite “I Ain’t Never,” J.J. Cale’s “Ride Me High” and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” among others. The show was capped with an encore rendition of The New Riders Of The Purple Sage’s “Last Lonely Eagle.”

The Green Leaf Rustlers tour through California continues tonight at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley. Watch audience-shot video footage from last night in Oakland below:

[Folsom Prison Blues > That’s Alright Mama | Captured by nowiknowuryder]

[Big Mouth Blues | Captured by nowiknowuryder]

[Groupie | Captured by nowiknowuryder]

[Rock, Salt & Nails & Tried So Hard (partial) | Captured by cabezon_designs]

Setlist