One Stacked Saturday Night: Greensky Bluegrass & Holly Bowling Celebrate Grateful Dead At Halloween Concert In San Francisco

Greensky Bluegrass enlisted keyboardist Holly Bowling for a Halloween concert at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater on Saturday honoring the music of the Grateful Dead. The 6reensky lineup mixed originals and GD classics over the course of two sets last night and brought out Tea Leaf Green guitarist Josh Clark for the evening’s “U.S. Blues” encore.

San Francisco-birthed band Tea Leaf Green got the festivities underway with a set of their own. Greensky Bluegrass and Holly Bowling then took the stage dressed in all-white suits ala what the Grateful Dead wore in the photo used on the cover of their 1980 album, Go To Heaven. Photographer Jay Blakesberg introduced the members of the band in similar fashion to Bill Graham’s introduction of the Grateful Dead at the show featured on One From The Vault (August 13, 1975 at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall). 6reensky then launched into their first “Feel Like A Stranger.”

The opening song was followed by originals “Old Barns” and “Reasons To Stay.” GSBG and Bowling then delivered their debut performance of the Dead’s “Must Have Been The Roses.” Staples “Murder Of Crows” and “Burn Them” followed along with just the second “Exuberance” of 2022. The sextet uncorked the clever pairing of the Dead’s “Let It Grow,” another debut, and their own “Grow Together” to end the set.

Greensky Bluegrass and Holly Bowling began the second set with “Worry For You” off GSBG’s 2022 studio album Stress Dreams before returning to the Grateful Dead songbook for “Jack Straw.” Last night marked GSBG’s first performance of the Hunter/Weir gem since January 24, 2009 according to Phantasy Tour’s stats. “Past My Prime” came next along with the group’s premiere take on “They Love Each Other.” Greensky and their guest then looked to 2019’s All For Money with “What You Need.”

Last night’s second set ended with a wild “Don’t Lie” sequence that included “St. Stephen” and “Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad” encapsulated within. “St. Stephen” was a GSBG debut and was the first song to emerge out of “Don’t Lie.” The six musicians went on to conclude “St. Stephen” later just before the end of “Don’t Lie” and the set. The traditional “Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad,” a staple of the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire, hadn’t been performed by Greensky since September 21, 2016.

Josh Clark of Tea Leaf Green emerged with 6reensky to perform “U.S. Blues” as Saturday’s encore. The Hunter/Garcia classic was the evening’s sixth and final Grateful Dead cover debut played by Greensky Bluegrass last night.

See fan-shot footage of “Feel Like A Stranger” and “U.S. Blues” from Saturday’s show below:

Setlist (via Phantasy Tour)

Set One: Feel Like a Stranger [1] [2], Old Barns, Reasons to Stay, Must Have Been the Roses [2], Murder of Crows, Burn Them, Exuberance > Let It Grow [2] > Grow Together

Set Two: Worry for You > Jack Straw, Past My Prime, They Love Each Other [2], What You Need, Don’t Lie > St. Stephen [2] > Don’t Lie > Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad > Don’t Lie > St. Stephen > Don’t Lie

Encore: U.S. Blues [2], [3]

• [1] – Grateful Dead “One From the Vault” style band intros over Help on the Way vamp
• [2] – first time played
• [3] – W/ Josh Clark (guitar and vocals)