The final day of Skull and Roses 2022 dawned, revealing an overcast windless sky, which was a welcome respite from the hot, windy conditions from the days before. When Keller Williams and Grateful Grass took the stage in the early afternoon, the sun began to peek through the clouds revealing a vast crowd assembled for the festival finale. Williams, a well-known singer, songwriter, and musician who combines elements of bluegrass, folk, alternative rock, EDM, jazz, funk, and other musical genres, could put together a captivating performance on his own. The talented singer plays guitar, bass guitar, percussion, theremin, synthesizer, piano, and other instruments. Williams played as a member of the Rhythm Devils with Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, glorifying him in the Dead world as a bonafide member of the extended family.
The talented musician formed Grateful Grass to play new interpretations of Grateful Dead songs done in a bluegrass style. The result was a psychedelic improvisational bluegrass music group. The band played a 90-minute dance-inducing set of foot-stomping Grateful Dead covers. The crowd responded with a mass dance along to the well-known tunes in the 11-song setlist. The set included a cover of the Jerry Garcia classic “Sugaree” and ended with a blazing version of the Dead classic “Shakedown Street,” which sent the crowd into a further frenzied dance trance.
Having solved the technical problems from the night before, the revolving stage was back on track, revealing seamless music from Grateful Grass to the Soul Rebels. Another fixture at the Skull and Roses Festival, The New Orleans-based Soul Rebels, is an eight-piece brass band that fuses soul, jazz, funk, hip-hop, rock, and pop music. The day's theme was Mardi Gras, with many festival-goers dressing in appropriate Bourbon Street attire. The band offered up a perfect backdrop offering a ninety-minute set of dance-inducing funky jazz rhythms. The group even played a fantastic reimagined version of the Eurythmics classic “Sweet Dreams.”
Finally, the band most everyone in the crowd had been anxiously anticipating since the start of the festival arrived on stage just after 5.30. A beaming Phil Lesh sauntered onstage and donned his bass, which caused the tightly packed crowd to erupt in a huge cheer. The rest of the band joined him, including Stu Allen, Grahame Lesh, Jason Crosby & John Molo. The band performed a nine-song main set of primarily Grateful Dead classics, mixed with a few related covers. As the first few notes of every new song drifted across the fairgrounds, the crowd would erupt in a euphoric cheer. Songs like 'Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" and “Franklin’s Tower” had many singing along to every word in the crowd. The band ended their main set and briefly left the stage.
After an enormous cheer from the crowd, the band returned and rewarded them with a four-song mini-set encore. By the end of the set, generations of Deadheads were beaming big smiles in the crowd. Many of them were near tears as the reality of spending the afternoon with living legend Phil Lesh, and his band of veteran musicians began to sink in. Skull and Roses will have quite a challenge to top this year's festival. But they have risen to the challenge before, so who knows what 2023 will bring to the prestigious festival.
Phil's Setlist:
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Franklin's Tower
Iko Iko
St. Stephen
King Solomon's Marbles
West L.A. Fadeaway
Crazy Fingers
Viola Lee Blues
Not Fade Away
Encore:
Help on the Way
Slipknot!
Standing on the Moon
Uncle John's Band
