Phil and Grahame Lesh

Eric Krasno (0:11)

Hey, everybody, this is Eric Krasno and you are listening to the Plus One podcast. I want to thank everybody that's been tuning in and sending me messages. We're on Instagram, Kras Plus One. That's K-R-A-Z-P-L-U-S-O-N-E.

You can hit me up on Gmail, KrasPlusOne at gmail.com. It's the same spelling there. I've been enjoying reading all your comments, all your suggestions, and yeah, we have a lot of really cool guests coming up on the show over the next few weeks and months, and we've had some incredible conversations, and I just want to say thanks to everybody that's supported the show, to everybody that's been on the show, especially the team at Osiris Media. And again, you can always check out their other content at osirispod.com. They've got a lot of great shows. And it's just been a really amazing learning experience for me, mainly learning from all these artists. I get to ask all these questions and absorb some of their music knowledge and their knowledge on life in general. And my guest today plays an important role in my music development. And it's one of the first bands that I ever saw actually live. I think I was 12 years old when my brother brought me to a Grateful Dead concert. And I remember also seeing them again the next year when I was 13 That was at Brendan Byrne Arena. It was 101689, which is a well-known show. They played Dark Star that night for the first time in a long time as The Grateful Dead. I think they had played it previously as The Warlocks on a secret show or something like that. But if amongst the dead heads out there, they probably know that show that was a highly circulated tape. So I got to say as a kid, oh, I was at that show and I actually got to go backstage at the show at 13 years old with my older brother who had some connections to get us back there. And I got to like high five the band. I've always told that story various times throughout my life. Of course, once I started getting serious about playing music, I kind of went down the rabbit hole on jazz music and funk music because I was introduced a lot of that through the Grateful Dead. You know, my dad also played a lot of jazz records and he was into so much different music. But the Grateful Dead was kind of something that I gravitated towards because of the community and just had all these friends that would go to shows. And if you listen to the John Mayer episode, you hear us talk about trading. It was like trading baseball cards. It's like if you went to this show, you saw this version of this song. And every night you were like, are they going to bust this out? Are they going to do this? Are they going to do that? And that kind of mentality of changing the show every night really birthed what became the jam band phenomenon or community. And many of us don't love that name, but that concept of changing the show every night was something that was uniquely the Grateful Dead. They kind of helped invent touring as a whole, as we know it. They were touring with massive sound systems and playing these big shows, and their crew was as important to the experience as the band. And the sound and the lights, it was all about creating a unique experience every night. Very different from pop shows. You see a pop concert and a lot of times they're just fine-tuning different versions of the same thing over a long period of time. And with The Grateful Dead, it was about being a part of the improvisation and being a part of it. And as Jerry said, we just want to give it away. A lot of people would ask, why do you give away your live tapes and your live recordings? And he said, well, once we've done it, we're done with it. I'm paraphrasing there. But he wanted everyone to be able to enjoy what they did. And he didn't want to hold it too precious because he wanted to give another crack at it the next night. And that has influenced me and so many other musicians. So getting to play with Phil Lesh for me was kind of a full circle, which happened about 20 years after seeing them, maybe even 25 years later, in the early 2000s I linked up with Phil Lesh. Actually, in the early 2000s, Soul Live opened for Phil and friends back when Jimmy Herring was in the band and Warren Haynes and Rob Barraco and John Mollo. That was called The Q. And then fast forward to 2013, he actually asked me to play in The Q to basically sub for Jimmy Herring, who was at with Widespread Panic. But previous to that, I was asked to play with Phil Lesh as part of a secret show with Joe Russo that took place at Central Park during an event called Jazz in Colors that was put together by Pete Shapiro of the Brooklyn Bowl and Relics and all of that. And without ever really talking to Phil or playing with Phil, we showed up to that. It was arranged by Pete and his team. And we had amplifiers with no electricity, all battery powered, and we just showed up to an outdoor little concert area in Central Park with no announcement and just started playing and the word spread and I think people tweeted it. I think Relics tweeted it and some other people. And next thing you know, there was a crowd of people in the middle of Central Park and we were playing to these little speakers, and it was Joe Russo and Phil and I. You can actually find that on YouTube if you search it. And we sparked a rapport right there. I'd listened to him so much in my life that playing with him was a little surreal at first, but it was unlike any other bass player that I've ever played with because he listened to everything I was doing and reacted to everything that I was doing in a way like no other. And the way that he was able to weave in and out of the chord changes without even preparing any music was very, very cool. And we instantly sparked a friendship. And I think that night he invited me to come play with the Terrapin Family Band, which is also where I met Grahame Lesh. And he and I instantly connected. So, and then over the years, I got to play with Phil in so many different formats, with Chris Robinson, with our dear friend Neil Casale, and quite a bit with Grahame Lesh, Ross James, and the Terrapin Family Band. And this particular interview you're gonna hear today was actually recorded in the summer of 2018, where we were doing a run of shows. We played the Capitol Theater. We played Central Park, which is actually where this interview took place. And right after this, we actually put together a concert where I helped arrange the guests and helped be, I guess, quote unquote, musical director on this show that took place at the Apollo Theater, where we had Talib Kweli, who was someone I'd worked with for almost 20 years in hip hop music. And then we also had the Harlem Gospel Choir on stage with us. And we just did some incredible music that night. And I got to be a part of it. But it was also just as a fan, watching those different worlds work together. We also had Robert Randolph, Nicky Bloom, and a few other great musicians. But hearing the Terrapin Family Band of Phil Lesh play Get By, which is like this classic song by Talib Kweli, with the gospel choir singing the chorus, I just remember that moment being like, oh my God, so much music that I grew up on converging into its own thing, and introducing Talib Kweli to Phil Lesh was such a cool moment for me. Anyway, so I want to thank Pete Shapiro for giving me that opportunity and thank Phil for trusting me in that situation to be able to pull in these different artists that he maybe wasn't completely aware of but instantly became a fan of from that experience. We also talk a bit about Phil and Grahame's father and son connection, the passing down of the music and the passing of the torch to a certain degree when they created the Terrapin Family Band. We also talk about Grahame as a songwriter in his band Midnight North, and how he used the Terrapin Crossroads, which is the venue which Phil and his family created, as a springboard for different projects, different ideas, and trying out different songs. Phil also talks a bit about how Yvonne Helm and his barn in Woodstock, New York, inspired the whole idea of Terrapin Crossroads. I'd like to give a shout out to Relix Magazine, who originally helped out with this episode, and also Jesse Lauder who produced and recorded it way back in 2018 Before we get into the interview, I'd like to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors.