What a trio.
A couple days ago, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Lukas Nelson and Ryan Bingham rolled through Colorado last weekend as part of the Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson tour.
It’s part of an 18-show tour put on by Blackbird Presents that celebrates The Band’s 1976 Thanksgiving concert, which served as their farewell show, along with the life and legacy of Robbie Roberts. Lukas was added to the lineup a little while back to fill in for Jamey Johnson on this weekend, and per the usual, it looks like he didn’t disappoint.
While obviously the focal point of the shows are on the legacy of Robbie Roberts, the guys took time out of the set last weekend to honor Phil Lesh, founder member and bassist of the Grateful Dead for over 30 years, who passed away on October 25th (the family did not state a cause of death, though he dealt with various health problems over the years).
Lukas, Mike, Ryan and Bemont delivered an incredible performance of “Truckin'” for fans at the Boulder Theater on Friday night, which first appeared on the Grateful Dead’s 1970 American Beauty album.
It was written by Phil along with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Robert Hunter, and after initially being included as a five-minute song on the record, was edited down to three minutes with some slight production and lyric changes and released as a single. “Truckin'” peaked at #64 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart, and stayed on the chart for eight weeks.
Lukas addressed the crowd by saying he knows how much Lesh meant to them, adding that they wanted to sing one for him and honor his legacy as a musician:
“We lost a good one today, and I know a lot of y’all care about him, Phil Lesh. We love the Grateful Dead, we’d love to do this one for him.”
Of course, it’s simply incredible to see that amount of talent onstage together.
You can also start from the beginning and watch a little bit of them performing “Long Black Veil” with Shannon McNally:
“Truckin'”
