Shakedown Strings, the Kansas City acoustic trio, is bringing the boisterous music of The Grateful Dead to Alaska for a five-show tour this month.
Rob Shatzer, the band’s sponsor and Alaskan promoter, is returning to Alaska for the first time in 16 years, where he published a monthly entertainment guide called AK This Month and sponsored his friends’ bands. Now, he’s bringing Shakedown Strings for a tour under his new project called Shakedown Vegas Presents, marking their first out-of-Vegas production.
“We are absolutely stoked to bring our unique take on the music of The Grateful Dead to the Alaska community,” said Rick Willoughby, the band’s upright bassist and manager. “Feels like an excellent fit. The music of the Dead and Alaska. Vast, wild, and exploratory.”
The tour begins in Talkeetna on Jan. 22, then the band makes their way to Palmer, Homer, and Anchorage, completing the tour on Jan. 26.
The trio is made up of jazz musicians who came together three years ago after performing “Althea” at a gig for a different group. Since then, Willoughby, Adam Galblum, the band’s violinist, and Clayton DeLong, the band’s guitarist, have become a popular acoustic Grateful Dead tribute band in Kansas City, Missouri. Each member also contributes vocals.
“There’s a really vibrant, healthy, supportive community,” Galblum said. “And people come to the shows and support, so it’s really nice.”
Last year, during Dead & Company’s residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Shakedown Strings was asked to perform at events with Shakedown Vegas, the eccentric market that brings together vendors, performers, and Deadheads from across the country, hosted at the Tuscany Suites & Casino just down the road from the Sphere.
“It just feels like what we’re doing has some good energy and momentum, and it’s exciting. I never thought I’d be playing the music of the Grateful Dead,” Willoughby said. “I just love it when folks come hang out and dance, or hang there and listen, engage with it however they want, and have a good time.”
Last summer, the trio packed up a rented van and drove from Missouri to scorching Las Vegas, where they played at receptions and after-parties. Now the band is bracing for the cold as they embark on their next adventure to Alaska.
“Alaskans love their live music,” said Miles Pruner, sponsor of the tour and host of the Dead or Alive radio show in Alaska. “Bands that come here from out of state make this kind of a second home.”
"Alaska matches the lifestyle a lot of Deadheads crave," said Rob Bashleben, a sponsor for the tour and volunteer DJ for Big Cabbage Radio, a local radio show in Palmer, Alaska.
“Some of them came up here in 1980 when the Dead came, and haven’t ever left,” Bashleben said. “Then there’s the younger Deadheads who just move up here because Alaska life is very similar to what the Deadhead mentality is.”
Jam bands are popular in the Alaskan music scene, Pruner said, and there is a lot of live music year-round.
“I think people will love them,” Pruner said. “What I feel that band is going to bring to Alaska is that bluegrass sound but Grateful Dead songs, and nobody up here is doing that.”
Because the trio does not use drums, Shakedown Strings gives The Grateful Dead a new sound, similar to bluegrass.
“I’m never trying to sound like Jerry Garcia. I just play to play,” DeLong said. “And I’ve done that with jazz as well—to have my own voice. I specifically try to display the way that it just comes out of my hands.”
Because it’s so difficult to travel to see live music outside of Alaska, Pruner said that bringing out-of-state bands to local venues is important for locals.
Last year, however, a group of Deadheads from Alaska got together to see Dead & Company at the Sphere, and they are planning another group trip for the next residency that begins in March.
But before then, Alaskans are looking for live music events to get outside their homes, now that the winter is bringing a bit more sunlight, Bashleben said.
“They’re going to be itching for some good music,” DeLong said. “So I’m excited to play for people who are pumped up and ready to go.”
Unlike the other band members, Galblum has previously toured in Alaska with a different group.
“I really enjoyed my time up there playing. I feel like the crowds are great—they have a lot of fun at the shows. Everybody comes out and supports the music,” Galblum said. “You sort of feel like you’re the thing going on for the community on that particular night.”
The tour was made possible with the help of donations from Dawn Venter, owner of Talkeetna View Cabins and Lodge, and Mike Casey, the proprietor of Grateful Bed BNB. Tickets are on sale on Shakedown Strings’ website.
“This will be the biggest adventure the band has embarked on to date and is certain to be a long, strange trip,” Willoughby said.
