What's Dave been up to lately?  LOTS!  My primary focus has been playing in Raising The Dead - a tribute to the Grateful Dead.  For 2 years, we've been climbing the ladder of Detroit Jam Bands and making fans from St. Clair Shores to Brownstown.  In one weekend early August, we played 4 sets over 2 days at a Hippies at the Village in Lake Orion, and then we played Comerica Park for the Detroit Tiger's Grateful Dead night!  You can see the entire show below. We'll be playing this fall at Otus Supply in Ferndale, The Watermark in St. Clair Shores, and more places to be announced soon.  We are ending the summer by playing the Taylor Botanical Garden and Conservatory on August 28, and the Watermark on August 30.  

The Classics have also had a fun summer playing the classic #1 hits of the 50s and 60s.  You can see a song from our last show in Auburn Hills below also.  

Dave has stepped back from doing solo acoustic shows for the time being, but all it takes is the right opportunity, and I'm back!  In the mean time, give Raising The Dead a Like on Facebook and come out to a show - it's a beautiful time!

Flock of Words is a beautiful song by Phish frontman Trey Anastasio, from his debut solo album.  I've loved this song for years, especially the beautiful vocal harmonies and haunting lyric.  When the theme of worship at Grosse Ile Presbyterian Church was announced as "The Power of Words," I knew the time to perform this had come.  Doug Scott and I charted the song, and I rehearsed the harmony with my daughter Mia.  We performed it on September 15, 2018, and here's the resulting video.  The audio is from a camcorder and thus not super high quality, but the performance still shines through.  Check out the original song on YouTube.  

I am a long-time phan of the Vermont-based jam rock band, Phish.  Every Halloween, Phish has a tradition of surprising fans with a "musical costume" for the second of 3 sets of music.  Previous costumes included The Beatle's White Album, The Who's Quadrophenia, Talking Heads' Remain in Light, and even 2 debuts of all-new original Phish material.  This year, they announced they were covering an unknown album called "i Rokk" by the early 80's Swedish prog-rock band Kasvot Vaxt.  Dressed in all-white, on an all-white stage, wielding all-white instruments, they played 10 songs that nobody had ever heard before - because they made it up, faked articles on the internet included.  

Hearing the show, I wondered what the originals might sound like, and decided to take it a step further.  Using the song "Death Don't Hurt Very Long," I recorded the song as I imagined an early 80s European band might have done it. The goal was to create the album Phish was re-creating.  The song features only vocals from me, a little guitar work, and drums and synths from my red Yamaha SHS-10 keytar.  The result went viral among the Phish community on Twitter and Facebook, and racked up over 4,000 views in 48 hours.  I was super excited to share it among other phans, and the greatest thing would be to give a smile to the members of the band who have given me so much enjoyment over the last 25 years.  

UPDATE: Relix Magazine has picked up on the joke, and published this article about my cover and one other. 

 You can hear part of the original as well as my cover here.  

Download a free MP3 of my cover of "Death Don't Hurt Very Long" Here.  

Here's a couple of videos from our July 28 performance at Canterbury Village in Lake Orion to whet your appetite for Raising The Dead's upcoming performance at the Cadieux Cafe.  Hope you can make it out!  More at RaisingTheDeadBand.com

Raising The Dead, a tribute to the Grateful Dead will perform 2 sets along with Hoist: A Tribute to Phish at the legendary Wyandotte bar The Rockery on May 11.  This will be the final gig at the Downriver dive bar, as it has been sold and will cease operations May 12.  Join us for one last show at The Rockery.  

My Grateful Dead tribute band, Raising The Dead, performed 3+ hours of some of the best music around at Taylor's All Around recently.  Here's a taste from the show, The Wheel>Space>Truckin'  Enjoy!

Raising The Dead is Southwest Michigan’s tribute to The Grateful Dead. We’ll be playing at The All Around in Taylor for a 2-set show starting at 9:30pm. RSVP on Facebook, and we will see you there!