CANCELLED
Unfortunately, two of the band members have contracted COVID and will not be able to perform. We will work to reschedule the concert for a later date.
Ticket Holders will be contacted by email.
If you would like to support the musicians, we encourage you to purchase their music on their individual websites. Also, Jeffrey Pepper Rogers hosts the first-ever Grateful Dead Song Camp, a four-wee online workshop, starting on April 12. Find more information at: Grateful Dead Acoustic Tribute
Dead to the Core
An acoustic celebration of the Grateful Dead
Saturday, April 9, 2022, 7:30 pm
Rochester Christian Reformed Church, 2750 Atlantic Avenue, Rochester
Featuring Jefferson Hamer, Ryan Fitzsimmons and Laurence Scudder, and Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers with Wendy Ramsay.
“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
Dead to the Core is a collective of singer-songwriters and acoustic musicians, led by musician/author Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, who pay tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead. The group celebrates the band’s music not through note-for-note re-creations but by playing the songs their own way – letting them grow and evolve collaboratively in the true spirit of the Dead.
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.
Jefferson Hamer is an internationally touring songwriter, guitarist, and traditional musician based in Brooklyn. He performs with the Murphy Beds and Session Americana, and his guitar work and vocals are featured on Sarah Jarosz’s Blue Heron Suite, nominated for a 2022 Grammy. Hamer’s Child Ballads album with Anaïs Mitchell earned a BBC2 Folk Award and was named one of NPR’s top-10 folk releases of the year.
Ryan Fitzsimmons and Laurence Scudder are fixtures of the Boston roots-rock scene and frequent collaborators. Fitzsimmons, a Syracuse native, has built a reputation as one of the Northeast’s most compelling songwriters and, in the words of Red Line Roots, “a brutal force of nature on acoustic guitar.” Violist/songwriter Laurence Scudder toured and recorded for seven years with Ryan Montbleau Band, and currently performs with Spotted Tiger, Danielle M and the Glory Junkies, Thank God for Science, Brothers McCann, and other bands.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers is a grand prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, founding editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, and author of a best-selling video series teaching his acoustic arrangements of classic Grateful Dead songs. Joining him is multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Wendy Ramsay, his partner in the duo Pepper and Sassafras, who have performed several times at Golden Link.