Image via YouTube

Greensky Bluegrass kept the thrills of its summer tour coming last week with a show at Birmingham, Ala.’s Avondale Brewing Company on Aug. 1. Following high-profile appearances on the summer circuit, including a show at Winter Park, Colo.’s SolShine Music Festival and its fifth annual headline engagement at 4848 Festival in Snowshoe, W.Va., the massively influential bluegrass quintet presented to its typical program, offering two sets of standards and an encore. To add flair to this return to form, the band roused its audience with a brief appearance from Goose multiinstrumentalist Jeff Arevalo and a debut treatment of the Jerry Garcia classic “Deal.”

Greensky set off its performance with the recent entry “Born Again,” then wound through classics like “Murder of Crows” and “Fixin’ to Ruin” and the genre standards of Bill Monroe’s “Wheel Hoss” and The Stanley Brothers’ “How Mountian Girls Can Love” en route to the set closer of “Solstice.” When the band returned for its second set, it welcomed Arevalo to open a rendition of the 2019 All for Money essential “What You Need” after mandolinist Paul Hoffman said, “We need some Goose.” Arevalo sauntered onstage with a vibraslap and, after counting in, gave it a whack to set the band in motion before promptly departing. Though too brief to term a proper sit-in, the appearance elated fans of the front-running indie groove group.

After issuing essentials like “Blood Sucking F(r)iends,” “Demons” and “Bottle Dry,” Greensky Bluegrass closed out the main portion of its performance with a fiery “Run or Die.” Once the lights had fallen, the band returned to the stage for an encore, when it let loose its first ever cover of “Deal,” the first cut from Garcia’s eponymous 1972 solo debut. This treatment arrived on what would have been the legendary Dead frontman’s 82nd birthday within a wider outpouring of tributes from the scene. The bluegrass torchbearers have long made their love for the Grateful Dead clear–fans will recall the band’s memorable Halloween 2022 tribute–and recently reaffirmed its admiration with a cover medley alongside Holly Bowling during High Sierra Music Festival’s headline set.

Greensky Bluegrass will take the stage again tonight, Aug. 5, at Fairport, N.Y.’s Perinton Amphitheater; for tickets and more information on the band’s ongoing summer tour, visit https://greenskybluegrass.com/tour/. Watch official videos of the band’s Aug. 1 show below and read on for the complete setlist.

Greensky Bluegrass
Avondale Brewing Company – Birmingham, Ala.
8/1/24

Set I: Born Again, Wheel Hoss* Hold On > King of the Hill%, Nine Days, Murder of Crows, How Mountain Girls Can Love&, Fixin’ to Ruin, Solstice
Set II: What You Need+, Doin’ My Time^ Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More$, Blood Sucking F(r)iends, Demons, Jaywalking, New & Improved, Bottle Dry, Run or Die
Encore: Deal#

Notes:
* Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys cover
% Jason Carter cover
& The Stanley Brothers cover
+ w/ appearance from Jeff Arevalo
^ Jimmie Skinner cover
$ The Allman Brothers Band cover
# Debut treatment of the Grateful Dead’s “Deal”