Robert Hunter Switches It Up At City Winery

Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter played his first two of three consecutive performances at City Winery in NYC on Monday and Tuesday nights. In recent interviews Hunter mentioned that he planned to dig deep into the repertoire of songs he wrote for the Dead and beyond during his current tour, which concludes on August 2 back at City Winery. So far, he’s been true to his word.

Throughout the first two nights of the tour, Hunter has only repeated “Ripple” and “Boys In The Barroom,” both of which served as the encore each night. Robert posted a note on his Facebook page saying he’ll only repeat “Ripple” at tonight’s third and final show of the run. He also addressed an issue he faced during last night’s first set. “The first set Tuesday started off like BlunderBunny, with no guitar sound. Not to be undone, I played Dire Wolf into Peggy-0 holding the guitar up to the vocal mic best I could while singing into it. The show must go on! Have worked up enough arrangements to do all different tunes for a third evening excepting Ripple, which a show wouldn’t feel complete without. Bit of a clunker 1st set, by my lights, but the 2cnd went smooth as Vick’s vaporub on a weasel!” reads Hunter’s note.

Watch fan-shot footage of Robert Hunter performing “Wharf Rat” thanks to Robinson Dunham:

Here’s a look at the setlists from the first two shows via Ratdog.org:

Monday, July 21

Set One: Bertha > Easy Wind > Jack Straw > Cool White Water, Days Between

Set Two: Candyman, Deal, Wind Blows High, Wharf Rat, Mountains of the Moon, It Must Have Been The Roses, Brown-Eyed Women, Silvio, Scarlet Begonias

Encore: Ripple, Boys In The Barroom

Tuesday, July 22

Set One: Dire Wolf -> Fennario, Ship of Fools, Keys to the Rain, Fandangorello, Ramble On Rose, Yellow Moon, Friend of the Devil

Set Two: Dry Dusty Road, Brokedown Palace, One Thing to Try, Lazy River Road, Into the Blue, Mission in the Rain, Reuben & Cerise, Franklin’s Tower

Encore: Ripple, Boys In The Barroom