By Jedd Ferris
Joe Russo juggles a lot of projects. The versatile drummer, a fixture on the New York City jazz and jam scenes, is an in-demand studio player and a prolific live collaborator. When reached by phone in late July, he was preparing to play two different sets at the renowned Newport Jazz Festival, one with the 10-piece Bogie Band and the other an improvised performance with virtuosos Christian McBride and John Scofield.
Russo’s diverse musical interests are hard to pin down. He exhibited bombastic, loose-limbed dexterity in the Benevento/Russo Duo, his long-running industrial jazz band with keyboardist Marco Benevento, and provided subtle kit work backing Craig Finn of The Hold Steady on the singer’s mellow folk-rock solo albums. He’s also toured with the U.K. electronica act Shpongle, as well as with Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon of Phish.
“My goal is to play every different type of music with different artists,” Russo says. “These experiences fill my tank and keep my musical vocabulary constantly evolving.”
Somewhat surprising, then, is that Russo’s mainstay gig has become a Grateful Dead cover band—a high-energy tribute act that regularly sells out large theaters. Now 8 years old, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead wasn’t supposed to last for more than a night. Tasked with putting together a one-off show in Brooklyn back in 2013, Russo enlisted some friends, including Benevento and Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz, to play an impromptu set of Dead covers.
At the time, Russo was immersed in the band’s extensive catalog, winding down his tenure in the Dead offshoot Furthur with original members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. But with his own crew, which also includes guitarists Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger, Russo gives the material an up-tempo edge.
“We’re a bit irreverent,” he says. “It was kind of the way I always wanted to hear that music played, with a little bit of my Jersey metal-head aggression. We love the songs—the lyrics and the melodies—but we look forward to ripping them apart every single night.”
The fresh spin on beloved Dead staples like “Shakedown Street” and “Eyes of the World” resonated with audiences, and soon after the initial gig Almost Dead—commonly referred to as JRAD by fans—started getting offers to play more shows. The group has since shared stages with Lesh, Weir, and John Mayer, and sold out venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado.
With every member pursuing other musical projects, Russo says JRAD will always be a part-time band, but with three decades worth of songs in the Grateful Dead repertoire, the group can continue playing to-gether, on a limited basis, indefinitely.
“As we kept getting to know the material, we started to really enjoy it, because we realized we could do whatever we want within those walls,” Russo says. “It’s become this joyful thing, because we’re able to interpret a cherished songbook in our way.”
Currently on its first tour since pandemic restrictions eased, JRAD will play a three-night run at Lockn’ Farm in Arrington from Friday through Sunday. The shows are taking place at the same site that hosted the large-scale Lockn’ festival between 2013 and 2019, with acts including Tom Petty, The Allman Brothers Band, Zac Brown, and Phish.
The festival organizers have adjusted their format, using the scenic property to host a series of downsized “mini fests” with onsite camping for three consecutive weekend events in August.
Following JRAD’s three-night stand, up-and-coming jam act Goose will host the multi-band Fred the Festival from August 20-22, featuring Dawes, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Dr. Dog. Then Tedeschi Trucks Band will take the Lockn’ stage from August 27-29, leading an event that includes opening sets from The Marcus King Band, Lettuce, and Jon Batiste.
“This is a first step towards turning it into a multi-event venue,” says Lockn’ co-founder Peter Shapiro of the 387-acre site just off Route 29. “We’ve developed this land into a place that can be used for more than one weekend a summer. With COVID, it makes sense to evolve into something a little smaller. The big festival was great for seven years, but now we’d like to have more bands from different genres come and host their own weekends with music and camping.”
Russo and his bandmates will use their weekend to stretch beyond the catalog of the Dead. The group has a total of nine sets scheduled throughout the three days, two of them billed as “JRAD Plays Other Sh*t.” Russo says there are also plans to collaborate with the other acts on the bill: The Slip and John Medeski and Billy Martin of experimental funk act Medeski Martin & Wood.
“We’re all going to come together and improvise in the woods,” Russo says. “That’s the crux of all these acts, creating in the moment, and that’s what I’m most excited about.”
