Continuing his dedicated commitment to two bands, Midnight North and Terrapin Family Band, means Grahame Lesh is almost always prepping for or playing another show. In Midnight North, he is writing and performing many original songs, recently completing a winter’s run of dates in the Western U.S. supporting the Infamous Stringdusters. He’s home only briefly at the moment before a weekend of Terrapin Family Band shows in the Pacific Northwest. After that, Lesh will take the Family Band—house regulars at Terrapin Crossroads—for a trek back east for a pair of special performances including The Songs of Barlow event honoring the late Grateful Dead lyricist at Brooklyn Bowl this Thursday, February 7 followed by a club appearance at Garcia’s in the Capitol Theatre on Friday, February 8. Discussing his most recent spate of activity as well as the future of both live and recorded music, Lesh spoke just ahead of his trip with the Terrapin Family Band back to the friendly confines of New York City. Explain the anatomy of The Songs of Barlow show at Brooklyn Bowl. How did this come about? I was approached by Peter Shapiro and Brad Tucker. It was because we had done a Songs of Barlow show at Brooklyn Bowl a couple of years ago, when John was still alive, to benefit his medical bills and all of the various organizations he started: freedom of information; freedom of the press. All of the things he was known for other than being the lyricist for the Dead. It was awesome. Super fun. Same band for the most part. It was a really cool event. Now, coming up on a year after he passed, it’s cool to be a part of it again. We play all these songs all the time in the Family Band. To do a whole set of them is really special. So, we said yes, of course, immediately. Tell us when. One of the names on the guest list caught my eye. Tell me about Jake Peavy. Most would know him only as a major league baseball player. He’s a musician. He’s put on shows. He’s got a band that he played with in the offseason. When we’re in Alabama, we stop by. He’s got an awesome studio. We were there about a year ago with (Eric) Krasno and my folks for a benefit. We called him up and asked if he wanted to come to this and sing a couple of songs. It’s going to be great. As a pro ballplayer hopefully he’s going to bring a few people in. He’s really fun and a good musician. I know he was a San Francisco Giants pitcher. Is that how you connected? He somehow got in touch with Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, who owns Tiger, Jerry’s guitar. He was instrumental in bringing Tiger out to some shows at Terrapin, and at Red Rocks for Warren (Haynes) to play. That was in 2016. I kind of got to know him through that. He put on a big show in San Francisco at The Fillmore in 2016 that I believe was a benefit show for his Jake Peavy foundation. My dad, Jackie Greene, Cody and Luther Dickinson, Jeff Sipe and I- we all played. Elliot (Peck), from Midnight North, and I were like Jake’s backup singers. We became friends and, that season, kept in touch. He’s doing really cool things in Mobile. What is about the New York City area and this music? You always seem to get great support. I don’t know. Midnight North was out east in December and it was an awesome run. Our fanbase out east is similar, on an incredibly smaller scale, to the Dead’s, where we feel this energy. It’s different than the California energy. It’s the whole vibe around the fandom (there). It’s a place where people who like live music definitely are at. Those folks are everywhere, but there is an energy there for sure. And you’ll also be doing a show at Garcia’s at the Capitol Theatre the next night? It’s an awesome venue whether you are at the Cap or at Garcia’s. We can’t come to the New York City area and just play one show. So, it’ll be a second night to have some fun with whoever is around. Midnight North just finished a tour in the west with the Infamous Stringdusters. How was that? It was amazing. They’re the best band, the best people. Their whole crew is amazing, right down to the lighting, sound, and tour management. We’ve done one-off shows with them, but to do a tour with them and really get to hang out, see how they put on a show, how they go about their business was really cool and really inspiring for us. And, to jam with them. They are masters, all of them. What are some specifics that were inspiring? For us it was how the band carries themselves, how they act, how pro the whole organization is: we’ll sit-it and their amazing tour manager will have the lyrics printed out for us; the way they have their meeting every day to do their setlist. None of it is seat-of-their-pants. It’s all putting themselves in a position to put on a great show for everybody. That also extends to how they treated us as an opening band. They’re on-time. They’ve give us time to soundcheck. We know they’re the five best players at their particular instruments, but to see the nuts and bolts of how they put on a show was a cool experience on this particular run. The Terrapin Family Band does its share of hosting shows as a house band at Terrapin Crossroads. What’s that experience like for you? I think it’s a blast. It’s definitely similar, though we go about it in different ways. We’re a little more freewheeling in both Midnight North and in the Family Band. But, yes, whenever we have guests we have to make sure they’re comfortable. That’s something we can take away (from the Stringdusters). Most of the time in the Family Band we have my dad and his institutional knowledge of playing with everybody under the sun. He takes the lead in that and everyone seems pretty willing to follow. What’s it like playing with the Family Band when your dad is not there? It kind of turns into a different band. It’s a whole different vibe. In theory, he’s still there because of the music to which he’s so deeply tied. But, for example, in this John Barlow tribute we’re going to be playing pretty different arrangements, even before we get to the guests, than how we normally do them. We’re excited every time we do something that’s a little unique from a normal show; trying to put our unique spin on it based on the variables we have that night. Do you approach playing with Terrapin Family differently mentally or emotionally than you do with Midnight North, or is it just playing music for you? Midnight North is mostly our original music, with songs we mostly wrote, either Elliot or I or the whole band. Each show is different, like whether we’re opening or headlining. The Terrapin Family Band shows are a lot longer because that’s how the Dead did it, and how my dad still wants to do it. That’s fun. But, a nice, short and sweet, couple-hours set is fun, too. It’s all different so I go day-by-day with it. I find it pretty easy to switch out of those two bands. When it comes down to it, we’re just jamming, making music, putting on a show. It’s seemed to turn out pretty well so far. Do you make either a priority, like in your resting hours, or is it equal? It is in some ways and not in others. We are lucky with the Terrapin Family Band and my dad’s age. That band gets all of our time when we are doing it, but we’re not touring 24/7. We have time to do other things. When it’s Midnight North time, it’s Midnight North time. In my average moment, I may be thinking of Midnight North more, but that’s likely because the Family Band is limited to a certain amount of days per year that we’re actually gigging. Is it hard for the Family Band, or any band, to convey that free spirit of the Grateful Dead as a live band when the Dead had so many decades of honing that unique sound? It’s hard to compare anyone the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead had years together, and within that had their micro bands: one drummer; two drummers; different keyboardists. The band was changing and had different eras. We’ve had coming up on seven years of all playing together, for the most part. Our goal is to be a core band for my dad. Before this he was playing in Phil and Friends bands that put on great shows, but were more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. They had much less familiarity with the music. We’re trying to build something around him that is more stable, slowly but surely getting that familiarity. I’d put our knowledge of the music up there with anybody. It appears that many musicians in the Dead-related community are touring virtually all the time. Does this endanger new music being made to provide new experiences for the audiences? For me, and Midnight North, like the Dead, touring is the be-all-end-all. If the Grateful Dead was a band right now, they would be doing better than anybody. They wouldn’t have to worry about Spotify or record sales or whatever. Records are advertisements for shows. We’re going to keep writing and recording. Creating new music is the point. Yes, we play from the Grateful Dead catalog but we try to do it in a new way. And we’re even putting some originals into the Family Band shows. So writing is at the top of the pyramid. If it was just touring on old songs it would be much less interesting. Do you like the current system of streaming music as the primary medium? As a consumer, I love Spotify and all the streaming services. I love having every single possible song, just about, at the tip of my fingers. But the whole way they distribute money is completely messed up. There’s no musical middle class. So, you can’t make a living if you are just recording music, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. I enjoy touring so it’s not terrible for me. But I understand that not everyone wants to live that life. Something should change. I think the whole world is going to hell because all anyone cares about is shareholder prices. I don’t know how to fix it. Do think there’s a medium other than streaming which could come along and reset the balance or is the artist relatively powerless at this point? I have no idea. I’d be trying to invent it if I did. I would assume streaming is the ultimate because it’s not a physical thing. Maybe an app implanted in your brain? (Laughs.) As musicians we need to put pressure on these big companies to be fair. I don’t know if it’s unionizing or what. It’ll take a lot of work. Point me in the right direction and I’ll help.
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