Songs Of Their Own | ShwizZ – Scarlet Begonias

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, JamBase teamed with Telefunken to produce the Songs Of Their Own 50-day tribute series featuring a daily cover of a Grateful Dead original song and culminating with our grand finale 50th video premiering the day of the final Fare Thee Well show in Chicago on July 5. We started the series with a list of 100 Grateful Dead original songs (exclusively their tunes, not covers they often played) and asked many of our favorite artists to record cover versions either at the JamBase office in San Francisco, at one of the many venues around the Bay Area, at Telefunken’s Connecticut studios and beyond. No song was allowed to be covered twice, and today’s participants ShwizZ passed by “Scarlet Begonias.”

The Grateful Dead’s March 23, 1974 show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California was the first official unveiling of the famed Wall Of Sound sound system. Along with the massive P.A. built by soundman Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the band debuted “Scarlet Begonias” that night, later released as Dick’s Picks Volume 28. Written by Robert Hunter (whose birthday is today) and Jerry Garcia, “Scarlet” appeared on the band’s 1974 studio album From The Mars Hotel. It was played prior to the debut of “Fire On The Mountain” to close the first set at the Winterland in San Francisco March 18, 1977, the first of nearly 250 “Scarlet/Fire” pairings. The two songs often opened second sets, as they did one final time at the July 2, 1995 Grateful Dead concert at Deer Creek in Noblesville, Indiana.

New York-based ShwizZ found room to stretch out at Telefunken’s spacious studios complete with a mini-light show in full effect. Guitarists Billy Schmidt and Ryan Liatsis, bassist Frank Coda, drummer Andy Boxer and keyboardist Gianluca Trombetta came up with an instrumental and funky take on “Scarlet Begonias.”

Watch all of the Songs Of Their Own entries including Max Creek, Jackie Greene, Strangefolk, Midnight North, Anders Osborne & Luther Dickinson, Keller Williams and more via the YouTube Playlist below.