Three nights at Sullivan Hall in New York City. One night on the Infinity Yacht Cruise (yes, a freakin’ cruise). And most exciting of all for us, one night at Levon Helm’s Barn in Woodstock, NY.

As my family has mentioned a few times, a visit to Levon’s Midnight Ramble in 2010 was the inspiration for Terrapin Crossroads. Performing with my brother and my dad, hanging in Levon’s kitchen after the show, meeting the wonderful people that help run the Barn; it all helped put the idea in our heads for my parents to create Terrapin Crossroads and thus led to the creation of the Terrapin Family Band. It’s our honor to bring things full circle and perform at The Barn with the band that The Barn helped create.

We hope to see you there! Most tickets to Sullivan Hall and the Infinity Yacht Cruise are sold out, though more may become available HERE and HERE. Tickets to the Midnight Ramble will be onsale soon HERE.

Photo by Stuart Levine

We’re halfway through the Terrapin Crossroads 1-Year Birthday Extravaganza, and I figured that now would be a great time to step back and post links to all of the Terrapin Family Band setlists that have happened so far. Just so they’re all in one place! The shows have all been Phil Lesh & Friends shows with the Family Band opening for them (or in the case of 3/11 playing in between PLF sets), and we’ve had four of them already – March 8, 9, and 10 in the Grate Room, and March 11 in the restaurant for Phil’s Birthday House Party.

Here are the setlists:

• March 8
  
• March 9
• March 10
• March 11

Next up, we’ve got our Weekly Wednesday TFB Bar Show tonight at 8:30pm, then we kick off the 2nd weekend of Terrapin Birthday Celebrations in the Grate Room on March 14. Hope to see you there! And if not, remember that you can stream HQ audio and video of all of the Grate Room shows for just $7. All proceeds go to the Unbroken Chain Foundation.

-Grahame

It was a fabulous evening filled with our favorite Gram tunes. Me, Eric, Connor, and Elliott were joined for our set by Connor & Elliott’s bandmate Matt Lundquist of Otto Mobile & The Moaners on pedal steel, and it really added a cool element to our sound. Luckily, some friends recorded our set on video, and we’ve posted it to YouTube. Check it out below:

The setlist: That’s All It Took (from “GP”), Hearts On Fire (from “Grievous Angel”), Long Road (one of my originals), and Cash On The Barrelhead (also from “Grievous Angel”).

Next up, I’ve got 4 shows with the Terrapin Family Band at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael from Wednesday to Saturday, then Grahame Lesh & Friends plays another show on January 22nd at the Elbo Room in San Francisco. Hope to see you all at one of those shows!

-Grahame

My brother Brian Lesh, along with our good friends Ross James, Scott Padden, and Scott Harvey, has founded American Jubilee, and we’re all going on a mini-tour of Northern California starting Wednesday! Featuring originals from Brian, Ross, and me, plus re-arranged traditional American music, this American Jubilee tour is going to rock.

The dates:

• December 26, 2012 – The Red Room at Crystal Bay Casino in Crystal Bay, Nevada (North Lake Tahoe). Free show!
• December 27, 2012 – Little Belgium Deli & Beer Bar, Auburn, CA. With the Dry Creek Rounders. Free show! 
• December 28, 2012 –  Marilyn’s On K, Sacramento, CA. Opening for the Mother Hips! $20
• December 29, 2012 – Terrapin Crossroads, San Rafael, CA. Free bar show!

The lineup features Brian on mandolin and vocals, Ross James on electric guitar, pedal steel, and vocals, Scott Padden on bass, Scott Harvey on banjo, Alex Koford on drums and vocals, and me on acoustic guitar and vocals. It’s gonna be a week of grand old hootenanny’s, and we’d love to see you at one or more of them.

Happy holidays!

-Grahame

So go check it out! We played the vast majority of our original tunes (the ones that will end up on our upcoming album!) plus a very fun cover that Elliott sang. All in all, the evening was an absolute blast, and we’re very happy that it is preserved in some form online. Enjoy!

Thanks to Pete Gilmore for taping and uploading!

-Grahame

ps: Check out American Jubilee’s set from that night, also on Archive.org! Their set features me on acoustic guitar and backup vocals for much of the set, plus the rest of Grahame Lesh & Friends sitting in at various points in the set. Like I said – it was a fantastic night of music!

Communion In The Redwoods Lineup

I mean, just check out this lineup: The Devil Makes Three. Blind Pilot. Here We Go Magic. Tamaryn. Robert Ellis. The Brothers Comatose. Aaron Embry. Apache Relay. The Dunwells. American Jubilee. And so many more. We’re just honored to be a part of the musical experience with all these great artists, and we’re looking forward to a fantastic weekend of music, camping, and general revelry.

So! If this sounds fun, we’ve received info that more tickets are available! Hop over to the CitR Eventbrite Page to get some tickets – both Single Day and Weekend tickets are still available. You won’t find a better option for music this weekend. I promise.

-Grahame

Well, we had a long break until our next show, so what’s a better plan than heading to the studio to knock out some new tracks? Personally, it had been far too since I had spent any real time in the studio. I was jonesing to get back.

So Grahame Lesh & Friends, the band that I’ve been performing with recently (made up of Eric Saar, Connor O’Sullivan, and Elliott Peck – and which needs a real band name!), went out into the woods to In The Pocket Studios outside of Forestville, CA. We took a day to track an entire 10 tunes, five of my originals and five by our awesome co-lead singer/acoustic guitar player/keyboardist Elliott, and we got them done!

Well, not completely, but everything we wanted to finish that day was finished. All that’s left is some lead guitar overdubs, lots of vocal harmonies, and plenty of mixing. We’re very excited with how they’re turning out, and we can’t wait to finish em up and release them out into the world.

I took a few shots from the session – check them out! Meanwhile, be on the lookout for updates from us about the album – we want to get it out as soon as possible!

-Grahame

ps: our aforementioned next show is at the fantastic Communion In The Redwoods on October 27th. It’s a weekend long music festival in the glorious redwoods of Big Sur presented by (((folkYEAH))) & Communion UK. The lineup is fantastic and the locale is peerless, so if you like intimate 3-day music festivals this is one you can’t miss.

Communion In The Redwoods is a festival in the Fernwood Forest put on by Communion and (((folkYEAH))), and it is “an intimate musical party in the biggest and most beautiful of open spaces.”

I absolutely can’t wait for this weekend. The lineup so far looks incredible (I’ve recently become a huge fan of The Devil Makes Three), and it will only get better as more bands are announced. The idea of spending three days making and listening to music in this beautiful locale sounds absolutely wonderful.

My band will feature me on lead vocals and guitar, Eric Saar on drums, Connor O’Sullivan on bass (and maybe some mandolin), and Elliott Peck on more lead vocals, acoustic guitar, and keyboards. In addition, we’ll be bringing some additional friends in to help us out. Stay tuned for more info about that!

So, if you’re as excited for this event as we are, tickets go onsale tomorrow. Head to the Communion In The Redwoods landing page tomorrow to get tickets!

Hope to see you there!

-Grahame

Photo courtesy of @LevonHelmRamble

“And the songs would get a little bit juicier, and the jokes would get a little funnier…” -Levon

This past Saturday, July 21st, my brother Brian, father Phil, and I made our 3rd pilgrimage Levon Helm Studios to play at a Midnight Ramble. Of course, this was the 1st time we had been there since Levon passed away in April. And let me tell you, the magic is still there. Oh, my, is it ever.

This place was always a musical church to me. The perfect location in the woods, the beautiful barn the studio was set in, the wonderful people working there, the fantastic sound that seemed to seep out of the wood of its own accord – these were all part of it. But there is more to that place. There’s a magic there. That’s really the only way I can describe it. There’s a magic at that location in Woodstock, NY, and it comes to a head when the music is kicking and the people are moving.

Photo courtesy of @LevonHelmRamble

I write this because I want this place to last forever, and after Levon’s tragic passing there is no guarantee that it will. I want future generations to be able to make the same pilgrimage that me, my family, and so many others have been able to make. I want the wonderful Midnight Rambles to keep going, as we know Levon would want.

And we can help make that happen! Head to this link from LevonHelm.com to see how you can help keep it going. There is lots of cool merch – shirts, music, and more – that you can buy. But the best thing to do, especially if you’re on the East Coast, is to just go to the Rambles. You’ll see some incredible music from the guests (there are already 4 guests scheduled for August), the Dirt Farmer Band and Levon Helm Band, and whoever else is involved. And you never know. You may just transcend to that magic level that Levon’s Rambles tend to go to. Then you’ll be hooked, and you’ll join me in doing all you can to keep it going.

-Grahame

It went about as well as I could ever have dreamed it would – a good turnout, a successful set of music (for us and for the other bands), and lots of camaraderie and fun between the musicians before and in between sets. For example, before the show started I was strumming the guitar backstage and warming up my voice by singing “The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down” with Brian. The guys from Birdhouse apparently heard us through the dressing room walls, and before we got to the 2nd verse we had a good old-fashioned singalong going on. It was quite a moment – just impromptu singing with our new musician friends. Good times.

Without any further ado, here was the setlist. Find a couple videos at the bottom!

Grahame Lesh & Friends, July 6th, 2012 – Great American Music Hall

Long Road
One Empty Rose (Brian Lesh original)
Back Down South (Kings Of Leon cover)
San Francisco Rain
Up On Cripple Creek (The Band cover)
Fallin’
Burden Of Tomorrow (Tallest Man On Earth cover)
Hold Me Down
Who I Was
Squeaky Wheel (Tim Bluhm cover)

Videos:

San Francisco Rain:

Up On Cripple Creek: