Stella Blue's Band, a project born out of love for the music, and jamming for fun, has blossomed into one of the premier Grateful Dead tribute band in the country. Our attention to the details of sound and love of the music are apparent from the first note of a SBB show. Like true Deadheads, all the band members are gear fanatics constantly in search of the best possible sound. The ability to reach that magic place in the music separates Stella from other Grateful Dead bands. Formed in Athens, GA in 2012, JGBCB has been filling a hole in the Grateful Dead scene by offering up spirited covers of classic. Other players sitting in with the band have included Bill Carbone (drums, Max Creek), Kenny Brooks (sax, Ratdog). JGBCB - Jerry Garcia Band Cover Band, Athens, Georgia. Garcia himself played with other musicians in acts including the Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way along with David Grisman and Vassar Clements, and Legion of Mary. We regularly perform with a small group of top-notch drummers sitting in with the band-such as Josh Kates (Reflections)-to provide the double-drummer magic that allows the band to find that higher gear, so essential to Grateful Dead jamming. Stella Blue's Band is Bill Bonacci (lead guitar, vocals), Steve Liesman (rhythm guitar, vocals), Greg Solomon (bass), Ken Aigen (keyboards), Ron Cohen (drums, vocals), and Amy Stahlin (vocals). With love and reverence for the music, we create that special feeling and community unique to Grateful Dead Shows. We play tunes from all stages of the Grateful Dead's 30-year run capturing the unique sound and adventurous spirit of the music. SBB features dynamic jams with lots of improvisation fulfilling the musical magic that the Dead achieved. The band was given a headline spot at the 50 th Woodstock Anniversary that took place on the grounds of the famed Yasgur’s Farm, site of the original festival. In New York City, the band plays regularly at venues such as the Brooklyn Bowl and The Cutting Room, in addition to a large number of venues throughout the tri-state area. Phil Lesh, founding member of the Grateful Dead. Stella has opened for Santana at the Greenwich (CT.) Town Party, played in the Central Park Bandshell since 2018 in an annual benefit for Riverkeeper, and has shared the Capitol Theater stage with Melvin Seals-Jerry Garcia’s longtime keyboard player-and Mr. Garcia's at The Cap has become the band's home base, and regularly hosts Stella Weekends and DeadCenter residencies. Stella was the first band chosen for residency at Garcia's at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. “We can all be grateful for it because it made him who he was.Stella Blue's Band was founded in 2009 to recreate the experience of being at a Grateful Dead show by playing this music with a deep commitment to authenticity. “He was challenged by the banjo, it was the hardest he’d ever work and the most focused he ever was,” McNally says. Garcia never forgot his first love for bluegrass. In fact, Garcia’s last recording session before he passed away in 1995 was at Grisman’s, covering “Blue Yodel #9″ for a Jimmie Rodgers tribute album released in 1997. Garcia loved hanging out at Grisman’s small studio in Northern California-it served as a hideout from the hysteria surrounding the Dead. Garcia and his close friend, mandolinist David Grisman, played bluegrass music often, sometimes as a duo as well as once being joined by Tony Rice for the legendary The Pizza Tapes sessions. Though Garcia shifted his musical focus to other genres, you can hear bluegrass elements in the three-part harmonies found on the 1970 Grateful Dead albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. “Salt Creek” is a blistering bluegrass instrumental made popular by Monroe and performed by Garcia’s most well-known bluegrass outfit, the Black Mountain Boys, which included longtime Garcia collaborator Robert Hunter. “Legend of the Johnson Boys,” an Irish ballad turned Southern folk-dance number is sung by the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers (AKA Garcia, Dick Arnold, and Marshall Leicester) in three-part harmonies akin to Flatt & Scruggs’ version of the song. The songs we playall music associated with the Dead or Garcia in one form or anothercome from a. Compiled by McNally and documentarian Brian Miksis, much of the Before the Dead material has never been released, including the two songs that Garden & Gun premieres below. We come at the music collected and lovingly reimagined by The Grateful Dead and The Jerry Garcia Band with the same sense of discovery, care, and exploration as our heroes. The new box set Before the Dead, out on May 11, traces the evolution of Garcia’s infatuation with the genre, beginning with his first-known performance at his girlfriend’s sixteenth birthday party through various band configurations before Garcia turned to focus on the Warlocks, the precursor to the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia with the Hart Valley Drifters in the fall of 1962.