photo by Stuart Levine

The day began and ended with rain. But, as has already been demonstrated, a little rain (or even a ridiculous amount of it) will not stop Lockn’ 2015 from pushing through. Anyone who stayed through the encore at the late-night Umphrey’s McGee concert on Friday night understands this well.

In the midst of a gloomy morning drizzle at the Blue Ridge stage, Melvin Seals, John Kadlecik and the Jerry Garcia Band delivered all the sunshine necessary as they made their way through some Garcia favorites from various points in the late great musician’s career, including “Cats Under the Stars,” “Sugaree” (complete with an emphasized “standing out in the pouring rain” lyric), “Mission in the Rain” (another apropos selection), “Midnight Moonlight” and the closer, “Sisters and Brothers.”

As the rain let up in the early afternoon, the action on the main stages began with Rockn’ to Lockn’ winners Lord Nelson. The band brought their southern rock energy to the Oak stage and told the crowd to “enjoy Nelson county,” which just happens to be where the band members call home.

The music continued on the Ridge stage with Love Canon, the only full-on bluegrass group at this year’s Lockn’. The five-piece string band burned through their set with impressive musicianship, and even threw in a cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.”

Things got dancy as Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe took to the stage next. The suit-clad group opened up with “When I Get Home” and invited Chuck Leavell to join in. The former Allman Brothers keyboardist and current Rolling Stones touring member lent his signature style to a number of songs, including a cover of the Stones’ “Tumbling Dice.” The band closed their set with a “My Baby Likes to Boogaloo” that had the whole crowd grooving.

photo by John Patrick Gatta

Hot Tuna came next, an acoustic return for Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, who both played Friday night in the Jefferson Airplane 50th Anniversary celebration. While Friday’s show was an all-out rocking affair, Saturday’s performance was subtle, yet no less beautiful. Kaukonen’s fingerpicking along with Casady’s measured bass intertwined perfectly in songs like “Hesitation Blues,” “Good Shepherd” and the closer, “I Know You Rider.”

One of the more straightforward rock bands at Lockn’, the Jayhawks, were next up. The Minnesota-based group featured three guitarists, including recurring guest Steve McCarthy, who played both regular and lap steel guitar on original Jayhawks songs like “Take Me With You (When You Go),” “Angelyne” and “Ain’t No End.”

photo by Dean Budnick

It’s always a party when the Tedeschi Trucks Band gets on stage. They proved that Friday night at the Joe Cocker tribute, and they cemented the fact on Saturday. Susan Tedeschi’s powerhouse vocals coupled with Derek Trucks’ smooth and soaring slide guitar—not to mention a bevy of other phenomenally talented musicians and vocalists—make for a rich performance not to be missed. Bob Weir even got in on the action, sitting in for “Key to the Highway” and “Walkin’ Blues,” both of which featured solo trade-offs between Weir, Tedeschi and Trucks.

On a day and at a festival packed with legends, Robert Plant and his Sensational Space Shifters then burst out of the gates with “Trampled Under Foot,” a Led Zeppelin classic that was accompanied by other Zep tunes “Black Dog,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Whole Lotta Love” and, in a rare festival encore, “Rock and Roll,” which Plant introduced as an “English folk song.”

photo by Stuart Levine

As the sun finally peeked out from behind the day-long cloudiness only to slip below the horizon, Widespread Panic took to the stage, eventually accompanied by Chuck Leavell, to deliver original tunes like set opener “Chainsaw City,” “Tall Boy” and “Surprise Valley,” along with a cover of Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me.” The band then welcomed out an animated Jimmy Cliff, who led them through his hits “The Harder They Come,” “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Many Rivers to Cross” and “I Can See Clearly Now,” plus a bonus cover of The Clash’s reggae-tinged anti-establishment anthem “Guns of Brixton.”

The highlights of the night, came with the final two sets that ended up including all core four members of the Grateful Dead, although not all at the same time. First up was Bill Kreutzmann’s Billy & the Kids project, which featured Bob Weir for the night. Weir and the band started off with “Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Cassidy” and “Peggy-O” before launching into a funky “Dancing in the Streets.” After moving through a “Let It Grow” that led into a spacey jam, the band came out the other end playing “Wharf Rat” into “Throwing Stones.” Drummer Mickey Hart then joined his former Dead bandmates for a fitting “One More Saturday Night” and the set closer, “Not Fade Away.”

The Phil Lesh & Friends set then began with the group—which included guitarists Warren Haynes, Carlos Santana and Barry Sless—jamming on the remnants of “Not Fade Away” from the previous set. The jam led into “Scarlet Begonias,” which was followed by a Haynes-led “Hard to Handle.” The performance carried on with several extended jams that allowed Haynes, Santana and Lesh to stretch out and explore. The band ran through “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” “New Speedway Boogie,” “The Other One,” “Fire On the Mountain” and “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” before breaking out a roaring take on “All Along the Watchtower” with Santana doing a spot-on Hendrix impression.

After “Dark Star,” the rain began to return as Lesh led the group through a reprise of “Not Fade Away,” a fitting end to a day full of seasoned veterans (with a hint of younger talent) that have no inclination of ever giving up the ghost. And from what transpired on Saturday, there doesn’t seem to be any reason they should.