Although some Jambands.com readers likely first heard Jeff Pehrson’s name when he joined Furthur as a vocalist back in 2010, others have been following his career for a few decades now. Pehrson first gained notoriety in the mid-90s as the co-founder of Box Set (the group was featured in my 1998 book Jam Bands). Pehrson and Jim Brunberg were the vocalists and songwriters for the group, which signed with Capricorn Records and released a well-received album before the sale of the label’s parent company threw them off course. From there the two continued to record and perform, often as a duo, touring nationally until, as Perhson explains, “around 2008 or so, Jim and I both turned 40 and we had both been doing this since we were 22. So we decided to see what life’s like without being on the road constantly. I guess it was kind of a midlife crisis.” Brunberg now lives in Oregon where he is one of the founders of Mississippi Studios (“It’s a great venue and he’s got a little restaurant next door.”). As for Pehrson, he took some time away from music before resurfacing with a new group, The Fall Risk, and not so long afterwards, received a phone call that altered his path.
Beyond his role in Furthur, Pehrson is a longtime Deadhead with more than 100 shows to his name. As a result, it’s quite fitting that today The Fall Risk release their debut CD, Volume No. 1. The group is also touring through the East Coast from August 2-6, including stops at Bear’s Picnic on Friday and Brooklyn Bowl on Monday. In the conversation that follows, Pehrson talks about all of these subjects and offers his thoughts on Jerry Garcia as well.
So let’s start with your transition from Box Set to the Fall Risk. How did that come about?
I ended up taking a year off to get my head together and think about what I wanted to do. I realized that I went to college at one time (laughs), so I sent out a bunch of résumés downtown just looking for a new experience and see what it was like to have a straight job. I ended up getting a marketing job at a mergers and acquisitions firm, of all things. I was good it because it’s basically being a bullshit artist but after a year of it I was getting pretty burnt out and wanted to do music again. So I called Mark Abbott who was the drummer in Box Set and said, “Hey, let’s get something together. I’m tired of not playing music.” So we started a little band called The Fall Risk, which at first was just Mark and I and a bass player I knew from college, who’s no longer in the band. These were just guys I went to college with that I used to jam with way back and we started playing little gigs. It was never meant to be anything other than an outlet for fun.
And then around that time I got a call from a guy named J.C. Flyer. Years ago he wrote for Relix and he used to do this column called Bay Area Bits. He loved Box Set and he had since gone on to work with Furthur. So he called me one day out of the blue and said, “Hey man, what are the best lead vocals you think you ever did on a Box Set CD?” I thought it was an odd question but I gave him my answers and I said, “Do I even want to know why you’re asking me this?” (laughs). And he said, “No, you don’t want to know.” So I said, “Fine” and about another three weeks go by, then he calls me up and basically offered me the gig in Furthur. I guess he took these tracks and played them for Phil.
Bob was aware of who we were because Box Set opened for RatDog a couple times and he used to pop in and see us at the old Sweetwater in Mill Valley. In fact, the day after Jerry died when he flew home, he came to Sweetwater where we were playing, not to see us but to see Jeannie [Patterson] the owner of the original Sweetwater who was a very dear friend of his.
So I think between J.C. and Bob knowing who I was and J.C. turning on Phil to what we did, that’s kind of how I got the gig.
The other strange thing is Sunshine [Becker] is the sister of Box Set’s longtime roadie (Laughs). I had known Sunshine since she was 17 or 18 years old. She sings some harmony vocals on the very first Box Set CD.
Were you uncomfortable at first singing without a guitar in front of you? Did that take some time getting used to?
Absolutely. It was actually quite harrowing for me. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I still don’t know what to do with my hands, which is why a lot of time on stage I’ll just put them in my back pocket. You knew especially being a big dude I feel goofy dancing up there and I don’t want to draw attention to myself because it’s not about me, Furthur is Bob and Phil’s band. So when I first joined the band I used to wear a hat and hide my face and try to be invisible and then I saw some video of myself where I was dancing around pumping my fists and I said, “You look like an idiot and you’re drawing attention to yourself, so put on some black clothes, stand back there and just sing.” People aren’t there to see me they’re there to see Bob and Phil because those guys are incredible.
Were you a Grateful Dead fan back in the day?
I saw well over 100 Grateful Dead shows. In the late 80s, early 90s over a six year period I saw about 100 shows.
Is there one that stands out for you?
I think my very first show is the one that sticks out to this day. I grew up a big progressive rock fan. Rush is still one of my favorite bands so I was used to the whole rock show thing: the opening band plays 45 minutes and then the next band come on and plays an hour and a half straight and then they leave and that’s the night.
My very first Grateful Dead show was at Henry J. Kaiser and it was 1987 Mardi Gras [3/3/87]. I was in college and a friend of mine brought me over. It was a lot of fun. There was a park across the street where the whole shakedown happened and in those days they just let you sleep in the park because In The Dark hadn’t come out yet and it wasn’t this mob scene like it became. So, we dosed, saw the show and I remember they opened with “Quinn the Eskimo.” At the time the only thing I knew about the Grateful Dead was “Casey Jones” and “Truckin’.” So they opened with Quinn and I thought, “Oh cool, Dylan.” Then the acid kind of kicked in and all of a sudden there’s this this parade going down the venue with all the Mardi Gras floats and beads. So we got in line, went up to the front of the stage, they did “Terrapin” and I was hooked. It completely melted my face. As Deadheads like to say either you get it or don’t. I got it immediately and I was never the same (laughs). It opened up an entire window into how different music can be and where you can take it and what you can do with it and how you can put on a show. It was just so uplifting and so wonderful to be moved like that. And when I ended being in a band later with Phil and Bob it just blew my mind.
What was it like then, your first rehearsal or performance with Furthur?
It was terrifying. We did rehearsal shows at the Seafood Peddler which later became Terrapin Crossroads. Basically it was trial by fire and that’s exactly how it was described to me. “We roughly do about 300 songs. Here they are, good luck.”
How do the vocal arrangements shake out?
It shakes out like this: you find a part. Sunshine bless her heart, I went to her house because she had been with Furthur for one tour before I joined. And she said, “Here are the parts I sing.” It’s a matter of finding the parts that aren’t overly taken and it also depends on when Phil wants to sing and when Bob wants to sing. So when Phil sings I usually change parts to double Bob and when Phil is not singing I usually do the part that he would sing. So you’re constantly on your toes trying to find parts that are not completely overdone. It was an incredible challenge. I’ve never been challenged so much musically and it was incredible. I feel like I’ve grown so much and I have them to thank for it.
Let’s jump back to The Fall Risk. How did the group develop beyond the initial trio you described?
We started doing more gigs and then when the Furthur thing happened it became easier to get better gigs because people knew that I was now in Furthur. I don’t like to go around promoting The Fall Risk by saying “With the guy from Furthur” because I feel like I’m stepping on Bob and Phil’s toes and using them to push my own thing. But it became easier locally because like New York and Philly, this is an incredible Grateful Dead area. The Bay Area lives and breathes the Grateful Dead. So I started thinking, “Well maybe I should take this more seriously,” and I recruited the organ player from Box Set, Sam Johnston. I also called my old buddy Matt Twain who I used to play in a duo with years ago before Box Set. He’s an incredible musician, probably the best technical musician in The Fall Risk and an incredible singer as well, a great harmony singer. Mark knew this guitar player Rich Goldstein who’s a great slide player and then we went forward with that lineup for a while.
Then I was looking at Facebook one day and this crazy guy named Phil Savell sent me this video of him playing “Eleanor Rigby” on the electric guitar. Not Stanley Jordan style but just kind of shredding this lead part all over it, and thought, “Wow, this guy’s amazing.” We had this gig coming up at a club in San Francisco, so I wrote to him and said, “I see that you’re in L.A. If you’re ever in the city let me know, we’d love to have you sit-in.” And he wrote back, “Okay I’ll come up, when’s the gig?” I told him, so he shows up for soundcheck and I threw a couple covers at him and I’m like, “You don’t know our stuff so why don’t we do ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ or something.” And he said, “No, I know all your songs.” And I said, “Excuse me” And he said, “I went back through the Box Set repertoire and I learned all your songs.” And I said, “All my songs?” And he said, “Yeah, all your songs.” So I showed him the set list and he said, “Yeah, I know all those.” I was completely blown away and he sat in the whole night and at the end of the show I said, “Do you want to join the band?” And he said, “Yes I do,” and that’s how we got Phil.
I guess that’s how you get a gig
That’s it man. (Laughs). Yeah it was amazing and Phil is just an incredible guitar player and the work he did on The Fall Risk CD is just insane. The rhythm parts, the parts he came up with, he’s just really a genius. And then we still had this old bass player from college. I love the guy, he’s a good buddy of mine but he just wasn’t bringing what needed to be brought to the table. So there was a band called Jambay back in the 90s when Box Set was coming up that I really liked. Matt Butler who does the Everyone Orchestra was in Jambay and the bass player is named Mike Sugar. And Mike is world class, he can do anything. So we asked him to join and he agreed and that kind of rounded out the group.
You mention the new album. Originally you were going to record an EP and things just grew from there?
That’s a funny story too. I was going to do an EP just to get something out there and let people know what we were doing and then I was talking to Sam Cutler one day and in Sam’s own way he said, “Listen mate when you talk to me do you talk to me in incomplete sentences?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Well then why put out an EP? It’s half a record. You’ve got enough songs, get in there and record an album.” I started thinking about it and decided, “You know, he’s right. So I credit Sam and he’s going to come to Brooklyn Bowl and Bear’s Picnic and introduce us.
In terms of the material on the new record, how would you say your songwriting has developed over the years?
I’ve definitely got more Americana. The storytelling has moved away from me to focus on putting myself in the mind of a character I’ll come up with and exploring their thoughts and ideas. I’ve traveled around the country 26, 27 years and I’ve spent time in most areas. So I write songs that are based in certain places and I try to convey the thoughts, the smells and the sights of those areas. When you do that musically it tends to follow in this Americana vibe.
There’s this song “Angeline,” on the new album that’s probably my favorite and it’s written from my memories of being up and down the Cumberland River and listening to Sonny Boy Williamson and thinking about John Hartford because he had that house on the Cumberland River. He used to be a steamboat pilot and there’s a bend in the Cumberland River called Hartford’s Bend where his house was and I incorporate that into the song.
There’s another one called “LeClaire,” which is an old story that happened to Box Set. We were going up to Minneapolis to play a show. We were leaving Davenport [Iowa] and we broke down in a little town called LeClaire, which has since become famous because the TV show American Pickers is based there, I guess. We broke down there and we’re on the side of the road freaking out because as I recall the transmission actually fell out. And these guys pulled over and asked what the problem was. It was a set of brothers who said, “Well, we own this auto shop, why don’t we get our tow truck?” And we explained we had to make this gig the next day and they said, “No problem.” They stayed up all night to get us back on the road again so we could make our next gig and gave us the deal of the century on the price. So the song is not about them but I kind of fell in love with LeClaire. It’s right on the Mississippi River and I just wrote this story about a guy who was passing through town.
For folks who have never seen The Fall Risk and might come out over the coming days, what can they expect to see?
They’ll see a lot of high energy, incredible musicianship. Basically the band is there to serve the songs and they do an amazing job. It’s an incredible band, a lot of high energy but for us it’s all about the songs and we try to present the songs in a way that will be interesting to people. There’s a lot of jamming, not Grateful Dead style jamming but Phil is such an amazing guitarist player and Sammy is such an amazing organ player that we feature them quite a bit.
Final question, since this will run tomorrow on Jerry Garcia’s birthday, can you share your thoughts on what his music has meant to you over the years?
For me it’s all about Jerry’s songwriting. The jamming was incredible, I loved his guitar playing but for me it was the songs. In fact all of the Grateful Dead it’s about the songs. Something like “Tennessee Jed,” that song’s just amazing or “Terrapin Station,” the whole side of a record and the music’s incredible. It just blows my mind how amazing that man was. It’s sad that he’s not with us anymore but talk about leaving a legacy behind. I look out into the crowd at Furthur shows and I see kids wanting to capture what they missed out on and it’s the music that brings them back. People argue sometimes that it’s the scene. No it’s not the scene, it’s the music. The scene would get people there once. They keep coming back for the music and that’s because the songs are so powerful. So for me Jerry has always been about the songwriting.
