Grateful to the end: Final shows by remains of the Dead

Between Thursday and July 5, the remaining original members of the Grateful Dead - Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir - will play what they're calling their last shows together.

On May 14 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., the original Dead men will play solo sets as part of "Dear Jerry," a tribute to band cofounder, guitarist, and spirit guide Jerry Garcia (who died Aug. 9, 1995), with dozens of like-minded artists. The (supposedly) terminal concert series, titled "Fare Thee Well," is June 27 and 28 in Santa Clara, Calif., and July 3 and 5 in Chicago.

The final shows will feature the remaining four Dead (with Trey Anastasio of Phish, Jeff Chimenti of RatDog and other Dead splinters, and sometime Dead pianist Bruce Hornsby) playing Grateful Dead music together for the last time, nearly 20 years to the day of their final concert with Garcia.

"We all miss Jerry," said co-drummer Kreutzmann on the phone from San Francisco. It was a few days before the May 5 release of his autobiography, Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead, and a book tour that brought him to Barnes & Noble at Rittenhouse Square on Tuesday.

Missing Garcia and going out Dead one last (OK, several) time(s) gives him extra incentive to find more, something higher in these shows, he says: "I think they're going to relive a place - not the same place as before, but - it's going to be a very high place where we've never been."

For Deadheads, this could mean the end of that long, strange trip Garcia and company sang about. Yet, judging from the mood of fans attending those last shows, people booking Dead-related acts, and those in line at Barnes & Noble, it's like the Dead song says - the music never stops.

"It's time for a road trip," says local interior designer Beth Ann Kessler, who has tickets to "Dear Jerry" and all the Chicago "Fare Thee Well" shows. "When I heard that the remaining members of the Grateful Dead would perform final shows celebrating their 50th anniversary," Kessler says, "I knew I had to be there." Since the Dead play improvisational music, "no song would be played exactly the same way twice, no show the same as the last. Three concerts in a row, therefore, are exciting, not redundant."

Between "Dear Jerry" and "Fare Thee Well," Kessler is looking forward to reliving the music, the community, and the memories of being young and carefree: "I can hardly wait to make new memories."

Jesse Lundy books Ardmore Music Hall, a haven for Deadheads and Dead-related shows. Kreutzmann played a show there with his band Billy and the Kids in March. The hall also often hosts Dead cover bands such as Splintered Sunlight ("playing regularly for 15 years, always drawing well," Lundy says) and Box of Rain, as well as artists such as Melvin Seals from the Jerry Garcia Band. On June 12, guitarist Jeff Mattson and keyboardist Rob Barraco, bandmates from the Dark Star Orchestra and huge proponents of jam-band music, will play at Ardmore.

"When July's Dead shows end, there'll be a whole new group of Dead fans and players suddenly energized and indoctrinated," Lundy says. "The legacy of the Dead's music is well-protected, and the jam genre they birthed is stronger than ever."

From the length and enthusiasm of the line that wound through Barnes & Noble, Lundy's prediction seems a pretty fair one.

Sitting below a poster of the Deal cover showing himself as a younger, darker-haired man, Kreutzmann - now handsomely white-haired, with a deep Hawaiian tan - held court with co-author Benjy Eisen. Kreutzmann greeted a lawyer wearing "Steal Your Face" lightning-bolt-in-a-skull insignia on his cuff links as an "undercover head." He told a woman from Narberth to "lick page 42 and make sure you don't have anything to do for several hours." And he laughed when teary well-wishers told him they couldn't wait for "Dear Jerry" and "Fare Thee Well."

At times, Kreutzmann seemed to well with tears, too. "Yeah, we're going to have a good time," he said, wiggling his eyebrows and tapping the wooden signing table before him.

Female punks in Misfits T-shirts, hippie chicks in peasant skirts, and guys in suits and tie-dyed tops (author and co-author kept a running score of "wildest Dead T-shirts") all came to the bookstore to hear Kreutzmann talk warmly of another time.

"The Grateful Dead - either you loved them or you hated them," he said to no one in particular, a note of resignation picked up on by one local Deadhead with a handful of personal photos and a younger Deadhead in his arms.

"Been a fan all my life," says D.J. Hahn of Upper Darby. He'd brought his 18-month-old son, Jerry ("of course"), to Kreutzmann's signing. Little Jerry, said Hahn, dances around the house when he hears "Ramble on Rose" or "Scarlet Begonias," just as Hahn did when his dad played Dead records in the house. Hahn even brought photos of his father standing next to Kreutzmann in 1992. "Nice, D.J.," whispered Kreutzmann. "Thank you."

"Look, I'm just passing down the Dead to my kid, like Dad did with me," Hahn says. "I've got too many memories, and not enough."