The Wood Brothers & Daniel Donato Join String Cheese Incident For Classic Rock Covers At Red Rocks

The String Cheese Incident made their annual pilgrimage to Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre over the weekend. The home-state sextet started each second set with a special classic rock cover featuring openers The Wood Brothers on Friday and Daniel Donato on Saturday.

The Wood Brothers — guitarist/frontman Oliver Wood, bassist Chris Wood and multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix — previously teamed with SCI for a series of three dates in May. The trio started the action at Red Rocks on Friday with an 11-song performance that included three tunes from Puff Of Smoke, a new album set for release in August.

Cheese lit up Red Rocks by linking fan-favorites “Rosie” and “Black Clouds” to open their first set on Friday. Next came more recent fare in “Can’t Wait Another Day” and “Way Back When” before “Water” flowed. SCI then performed their recently debuted cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” for just the third time ever. Both “Water” and “Like A Rolling Stone” were well-jammed as were the subsequent versions of “Eye Know Why” and “All We Got” that wrapped the frame.

The String Cheese Incident returned to the stage with The Wood Brothers in tow for a take on “Ophelia.” While The Wood Brothers have frequently performed The Band’s 1975 hit, SCI hadn’t covered “Ophelia” since a 2019 show at Red Rocks as per stats on FriendsOfCheese.com.

Oliver Wood and SCI’s Bill Nershi exchanged lead vocal duties to start “Ophelia.” Chris Wood held down the bottom end and took the third verse, while The String Cheese Incident bassist Keith Moseley chimed in with harmonies sans instrument and eventually moved to percussion world with bandmate Jason Hann. Cheese’s Michael Kang sang the final verse.

Watch The Wood Brothers and The String Cheese Incident’s “Ophelia” cover at Red Rocks below:

After the collaboration, Cheese rolled through “Desert Dawn” and an extended “Carnival” ahead of a group hoot. From there, the band showed off one of their latest jam vehicles, “Roll Around The Sun.” A crowd-pleasing “Smile” then gave way to “Drums” before SCI strung together “Joyful Sound,” “I Know You Rider” and the end of the “Desert Dawn” to finish the set. The six-piece offered a debut cover of Steve Miller Band’s “Swingtown” and the instrumental “Valley Of The Jig” for their Friday night encore.

Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country supported on Saturday. The quartet consisting of guitarist Daniel Donato, keyboardist/guitarist Nathan “Sugar Leg” Aronowitz, drummer Will “Bronco” Clark and bassist Will “Mustang” McGee went with live staples from their repertoire such as “Luck Of The Draw,” “Chore” and “Sugar Leg Rag” over the allotted 60 minutes. SCI percussionist Jason Hann joined the group for their “Dance In The Desert” finale.

“Restless Wind” got the call to kick off Cheese’s first set on Saturday. “Get Tight” then led into “Solution,” which returned to action in February after nearly 13 years on the shelf. The beloved “Born On The Wrong Planet” followed along with “45th Of November.” SCI devoted the rest of the frame to a sequence pairing “Outside And Inside” with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Ocean,” a reprise of “Rosie” and energetic “The Big Reveal.”

Daniel Donato teamed with The String Cheese Incident on a cover of The Allman Brothers Band’s “Blue Sky” to start the final set of the run. Donato is intimately familiar with the ABB classic as a member of tribute act Trouble No More. Billy Nershi and Daniel Donato co-helmed the rendition of the Dickey Betts-penned song. Donato uncorked a fiery solo on SCI’s “Blue Sky” debut before Kang ripped it up on electric mandolin.

Check out fan-shot footage of The String Cheese Incident performing “Blue Sky” with Daniel Donato:

The String Cheese Incident moved forward with staples “Rollover” and “One Step Closer.” Next up was the band’s first “Texas Town” since 2018, which came after SCI's shows in the state were canceled earlier this month due to devastating floods in the region. “Sirens” then bled into “Howard,” which gave way to a set-closing “Hi Ho No Show.” A cover of Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” was tacked on as a lone encore.

Livestream replays of both shows are available with a nugs All Access account.

Setlists & Photos