Dead to the Core
An acoustic celebration of the Grateful Dead
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Wendy Sassafras Ramsay, Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, Steve Roy, and Jefferson Hamer on tour in Vermont. Photo by Beth Duquette.
Dead to the Core is a collective of singer-songwriters and acoustic musicians, led by musician/author Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, with a shared love of the Grateful Dead.
“Dead to the Core brings brilliant acoustic interpretations of Grateful Dead songs, with stellar instrumentals and tight harmonies. Familiar songs follow new roads, and the result is pure audience-pleasing joy.”
—Mary-Nell Bockman, Whallonsburg Grange Hall
In intimate concerts, the musicians celebrate the band’s music not through note-for-note re-creations but by playing the songs their own way—with creative arrangements featuring unexpected instrumental colors (clarinet, flute, Strumstick, mandolin, accordion) and lush vocal harmonies.
Interspersed with the music are clips from Rodgers’ own interviews with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, in which they reflect on the roots and evolution of the music.
A Dead to the Core show is an experience unlike any other Grateful Dead tribute: a night of deeply personal performances that illuminate the masterful song craft of one of America’s most original bands.
Grateful Dead music right down to the core.
Dead to the Core grew out of the Jerry Garcia birthday celebrations that Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, grand prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and founding editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, began hosting at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2017.
“Rodgers doesn’t tap the legion of dedicated Grateful Dead tribute artists for these concerts…. Instead, he seeks out songwriters and musicians who have developed their own voices and styles, though they are very much inspired by—and fans of—Garcia and the Dead.”
—Arts Fuse (more)
The project now has several incarnations.
Tour dates often feature a quartet with Rodgers on guitar and Strumstick; Wendy Sassafras Ramsay on accordion, flute, and clarinet; Jefferson Hamer (Anaïs Mitchell, Sarah Jarosz) on guitar; and Steve Roy (Old Hat String Band) on upright bass and mandolin.
In addition, there’s a Syracuse-based full band featuring Rodgers and Ramsay with Tim Burns (Two Hour Delay) on guitar and mandolin; Josh Dekaney (Mary Fahl, Samba Laranja) on percussion kit; and John Dancks (the Cadleys) on upright bass.
In Syracuse, Dead to the Core hosts Shakedown Sunday at the 443 Social Club, a monthly series that has sold out every show since it began in September 2023.
Dead to the Core full band, with Wendy Sassafras Ramsay, Josh Dekaney, Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, John Dancks, and Tim Burns.
Other artists who’ve joined Dead to the Core concerts include:
Leslie Mendelson (who has recorded duets with Bob Weir and Jackson Browne)
Hayley Jane
David Surette
Brendan Gosson (Folkfaces)
Ryan Fitzsimmons
Laurence Scudder (Ryan Montbleau Band)
Jay Nash
Jim Larkin
Spotted Tiger
Celia Woodsmith (Della Mae)
Mark Ettinger (Flying Karamazov Brothers)
Greg Klyma
In addition to Club Passim, Dead to the Core has performed in some of the finest listening rooms and folk/acoustic concert series in the Northeast, including the Parlor Room (Northampton, Mass.), Word Barn (Exeter, New Hampshire), Folk Project (Morristown, New Jersey), Abilene (Rochester, New York), and 443 Social Club (Syracuse, New York).
