Two Bearsville Theater headliners played a free, unannounced show Saturday afternoon for about 200 jam band fans on Tinker Street in Woodstock.
The guitar-and-vocal duo featured Grahame Lesh, son of the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, and Daniel Donato, whose Cosmic Country band has built a loyal following nationwide. The two performed for more than an hour on the front porch of Happylife Productions.
The surprise set came the day after the duo’s second straight night at Bearsville Theater and hours before their final performance in the three-night run. On Tinker Street, fans danced, sang, and cheered.
David Burger, 54, of Hollidaysburg, Pa., was in Woodstock for all three Bearsville Theater shows.
“This is what the world needs,” Burger said on the sidewalk after the Happylife performance.
The afternoon performance connected Woodstock’s musical past with its present: Happylife is in the building where Bob Dylan, a former Woodstock resident, once lived, and Bearsville Theater is operated by the national concert promoter Peter Shapiro.
“It was amazing. This was an incredible day. It went off beautifully and as I had hoped,” said Mike DuBois, a Woodstock artist and co-owner of Happylife Productions.
DuBois, who owns Happylife with his wife, Kelly Sinclair, has a long history working with the Grateful Dead and its offshoot bands. He has known Grahame Lesh and Lesh’s manager for years, and ran into the manager at the Bearsville Theater show Thursday night. DuBois asked whether the duo would be interested in performing at his shop, and plans were set for Saturday’s show.
Asked after the performance what he thought of the secret gig, Donato said, “I don’t think. But I felt good.”
The set list leaned heavily on the Grateful Dead repertoire, including “Cumberland Blues,” “Jack Straw,” and “Box of Rain.”
Woodstock musician Brian Mitchell, who performed for years with the late Levon Helm of the Band, sat in on accordion for “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” which was written by Dylan, recorded by the Band, and often played live by the Grateful Dead.
Mitchell also joined in on “Ophelia,” a song by the Band that featured Helm on vocals and was performed regularly at his Midnight Ramble house concerts at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock.
Mitchell had heard that Happylife would host live music at noon Saturday, so he headed over with his accordion, as he often does. He did not know who was performing. Mitchell, who knows Grahame Lesh and had performed with him before, quickly found himself enlisted as a guest.
“I thought they were fantastic. I thought they had a really nice chemistry,” Mitchell said of Lesh and Donato.
Grahame Lesh and his father developed a close relationship with Levon Helm and his daughter, the musician and Woodstock resident Amy Helm, through the Rambles. Those performances also inspired Phil Lesh to open Terrapin Crossroads, a now-closed music venue in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Both Phil Lesh and Levon Helm were likely on the minds of many in the crowd Saturday as the performers moved through songs and connections that have long tied Woodstock to the wider jam band scene.
“This was an amazing Saturday afternoon,” Grahame Lesh said. “What can I say?”
John W. Barry is a reporter for The Overlook. Reach him at john@theoverlooknews.com.
