Phil Lesh & Friends Featuring Adam MacDougall Perform Double Sandwich For ‘Clubhouse Sessions’

Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh shared the latest edition of his The Clubhouse Sessions series featuring Circles Around The Sun keyboardist Adam MacDougall. The lineup delivered a classic Grateful Dead double sandwich that stretched over 40 minutes, released on the Terrapin Clubhouse YouTube channel.

The Clubhouse Sessions have seen Phil giving some amazing insight into GD favorites and legendary jams. The latest edition opens with Phil Lesh & Friends — MacDougall, guitarist Grahame Lesh, guitarist Stu Allen and drummer Jeremy Hoenig (Melvin Seals & JGB, deSol) — having a discussion on how Grateful Dead sandwiches evolved.

Phil fielded a question from Adam on how Grateful Dead setlists came together.

“There was no set list,” he said. “We would [just] play. Although we would sometimes say, ‘okay let’s do A, B and C, but in no particular order.’”

Stu then asked if there was a particular inspiration for doing sandwiches, something that has become a cornerstone of jam band performances.

“I think it just sort of happened a couple times,” Phil recalled, “and then we all realized what a cool method it is to extend things and to make them be unified on a large scale.”

The double sandwich featured in The Clubhouse Sessions Episode 9 is “Playing in the Band” > “Uncle John’s Band” > “Morning Dew” > “PITB” > “UJB.” The Grateful Dead performed that exact sequence three times over the course of 1973-’74, as per JerryBase, the first taking place at Winterland in San Francisco on November 10, 1973. But perhaps the most well-known sequence went down at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion a week later.

For Clubhouse Sessions, the first “Playing in the Band,” sung by Grahame, featured some stellar improv and a smokin’ transition into “Uncle John’s Band,” which as usual featured a group vocal effort handled by Phil, Grahame and Stu. Next, Allen handled lead vocals on “Morning Dew,” with the track featuring some of Adam’s signature spacey Moog synthesizer stylings. The space between “Dew” and the return to “UJB” stretched to roughly 13 minutes before the quintet finished up “Playin.”

Watch The Clubhouse Sessions Episode 9 below: