Song Review(s): Phil Lesh & Friends - “Deal,” “Jack Straw” and “Eyes of the World” -> “The Eleven” Live, March 18, 2023)
With Friends like these, Phil Lesh can breathe new life into old songs while maintaining ties to the past fans expect.
The four-song, livestream giveaway from Lesh & Friends’ March 18 show in New York featured adventurousness in instrumentation and arrangements and a passel of lead singers as the band stuck to the Grateful Dead’s pre-retirement repertoire.
The show-opening “Deal” was, indeed, dealing as Nicki Bluhm stretched her vocal cords to a rasp and violinist Katie Jacoby made herself known early and often across a powerhouse arrangement that planted the long-ago firmly in the here-and-now.
Son and father - guitarist Grahame and bassist Phil Lesh - sung the Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia lines, respectively, on “Jack Straw.” While Lesh the younger is not a particularly enthralling vocalist, it must run in the family, Dad was spirited, flexing muscle not heard in his baritone since the 1990s.
The band nearly fell apart coming out of the play for silver verse, making for a clumsy reading set to an aggressive presentation.
“Eyes of the World” was its typically glorious self, with the smooth James Casey at the mic. When he wasn’t singing, Casey wrapped his soprano sax around Jacoby’s violin in a warm aural embrace that further illuminated between-verse spotlights from the violinist, keyboardist John Medeski and guitarists Grahame Lesh and Rick Mitarontonda.
The rhythm section of Lesh the elder and drummer John Molo propelled “Eyes” seamlessly into “The Eleven.” And while the ensemble vocals were raggedy, the ensemble playing was the delightfully antithetical, giving the sonic illusion this particular band had played together for years rather than days.
Grade card: Phil Lesh & Friends - “Deal,” “Jack Straw” and “Eyes of the World” -> “The Eleven” (Live - 3/18/23) - A-B-/A/B
