Dead to the Core

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Dead to the Core is a collective of singer-songwriters and acoustic musicians, led by musician/author Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, with a shared love of the Grateful Dead.

In intimate concerts, the musicians celebrate the band’s music not through note-for-note re-creations but by playing the songs their own way—with creative arrangements featuring unexpected instrumental colors (clarinet, flute, Strumstick, mandolin, accordion) and lush vocal harmonies.

Interspersed with the music are clips from Rodgers’ own interviews with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, in which they reflect on the roots and evolution of the music.

A Dead to the Core show is an experience unlike any other Grateful Dead tribute: a night of deeply personal performances that illuminate the masterful song craft of one of America’s most original bands.

Grateful Dead music right down to the core.

“Rodgers doesn’t tap the legion of dedicated Grateful Dead tribute artists for these concerts…. Instead, he seeks out songwriters and musicians who have developed their own voices and styles, though they are very much inspired by—and fans of—Garcia and the Dead.”

—Arts Fuse (more)

Dead to the Core grew out of the Jerry Garcia birthday celebrations that Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers began hosting at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2017.

The project now has several incarnations. There’s a Syracuse-based all-star band featuring Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers on guitar and Strumstick; Tim Burns (Two Hour Delay) on guitar and mandolin; Wendy Sassafras Ramsay (Starting Off Red) on accordion, flute, and clarinet; Josh Dekaney (Mary Fahl, Samba Laranja) on percussion kit; and John Dancks (the Cadleys) on upright bass.

Rodgers, Burns, and Ramsay also host Shakedown Sunday at Syracuse’s 443 Social Club, with special guests each month.

Dead to the Core tours feature Rodgers and Ramsay collaborating with a range of artists. Performers to date have included:

• Jefferson Hamer (Anaïs Mitchell, Sarah Jarosz)

• Steve Roy (Old Hat String Band)

• Leslie Mendelson (who has recorded duets with Bob Weir and Jackson Browne)

• Hayley Jane

• David Surette

• Brendan Gosson (Folkfaces)

• Ryan Fitzsimmons

• Laurence Scudder (Ryan Montbleau Band)

• Jay Nash

• Jim Larkin

• Spotted Tiger

• Celia Woodsmith (Della Mae)

• Mark Ettinger (Flying Karamazov Brothers)

• Greg Klyma

In addition to Club Passim, Dead to the Core has performed in some of the finest listening rooms and folk/acoustic concert series in the Northeast, including the Parlor Room (Northampton, Mass.), Word Barn (Exeter, New Hampshire), Folk Project (Morristown, New Jersey), Abilene (Rochester, New York), and 443 Social Club (Syracuse, New York).