Greensky Bluegrass & Holly Bowling Dust Off Grateful Dead Covers + Welcome Lebo At High Sierra Music Festival

Greensky Bluegrass and Holly Bowling were among the headliners at this past weekend’s High Sierra Music Festival. #6reensky’s Friday night set at the beloved event in Quincy, California featured both an inventive tribute to the Grateful Dead and a guest appearance from HSMF 2024 Artist-At-Large Lebo (Dan Lebowitz).

Last summer, Greensky and Holly Bowling used their across the Atlantic for Camp Greensky Iceland to head to Flóki Studios in the wilds of Northern Iceland to record The Iceland Sessions. “Born Again” from the recently released EP was selected as the opener at High Sierra and “Distracted” and “Enitrely Mine” off the four-song collection also made #6reensky’s setlist in Quincy.

The six musicians fit plenty of classic GSBG into their performance at High Sierra including “Burn Them,” “Past My Prime,” “Run Or Die” and the “Living Over” closer. #6reensky also worked in material from the latest GSBG album, 2022’s Stress Dreams, with its title track, “Streetlight” and “Give A Shit” among them.

“Give A Shit,” which came in the middle of the set, saw the band joined by Lebo. The ALO guitarist was introduced by GSBG dobroist Anders Beck. Beck also led the crowd in chants of “Lebo.” Dan arrived with electric guitar in hand and took a riotous solo on the Stress Dreams standout.

Greensky Bluegrass and Holly Bowling celebrated Halloween 2022 with a Grateful Dead-themed concert in San Francisco. The sextet paid tribute to the legendary band at High Sierra with a sequence connecting three beloved Dead songs. Each of the three weren’t performed on Halloween 2022 and had been shelved for at least 246 shows.

Mandolinist Paul Hoffman and guitarist Dave Bruzza channeled Bob Weir on their first “Cassidy” since July 17, 2021 to get the sequence underway. The “Cassidy” jam faded to near silence before GSBG busted out the pairing of “Cryptical Envelopment” and “The Other One,” which were last played on October 25, 2017 and December 30, 2019 respectively. Instead of presenting a full “That’s It For The Other One,” the band swerved into the end of “Cassidy.”

Paul Hoffman took a moment late in the set to show love for HSMF founder Roy Carter, who died in April. “It’s been a pleasure to play festivals curated by a really great guy. A legacy that will live forever — thank you, Roy,” phoff told the audience.

Stream official audio of the set via nugs.net and check out Susan Weiand’s 2024 HSMF photos below:

Greensky Bluegrass picks their summer tour back up tomorrow, Thursday, July 18 at Wonderland Forest in LaFayette, New York. Holly Bowling will perform with the band at Red Rocks in Colorado on September 13 and 14.

Setlist (via PT GSBG)

Set: Born Again, Burn Them, Fixin To Ruin, Stress Dreams, The Radio Blues, Past My Prime, Run or Die, Distracted, Murder of Crows, Give a Shit [1], Streetlight, Cassidy > Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cassidy, Entirely Mine, Living Over

[1] – w/ Dan “Lebo ” Lebowitz (guitar)