Arts & Entertainment

Grahame Lesh And Friends Reinvigorate Hudson River Music Festival

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Grahame Lesh. (Photo credit: Jamie Soja)

June 12, 2025

.By W.B. King–

As folk icon Pete Seeger once said, “The world would be an infinitely better place if everyone did a little bit more listening and a little bit less talking.” When Grahame Lesh and Friends take the stage on June 14 at Croton Point Park headlining the inaugural Hudson River Music Festival, melodies, rhythms and lyrics will drive the collective conversation. “Everything I hear about the history; it’s really special and it’s really cool to be involved with it,” Lesh told The Hudson Independent.

The one-day festival, which includes performances from Lucius, Madison Cunningham, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Jorma Kaukonen, Steve Earle, Tom Chapin, and others, will also feature a special celebration of folk icon Pete Seeger and his wife and filmmaker Toshi Seeger. The couple founded the festival in the 1960s, which eventually found a permanent home at Croton Point Park in 1978. When operations ceased several years ago due to various challenges, a void was left in its wake.

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“We’re hosting the first Hudson River Music Festival here on this beautiful site, which has a ton of history related to music, activism, and keeping that beautiful Hudson River clean and that’s because Pete Seeger and Toshi Seeger for many years hosted the legendary Clearwater Music Festival on these hallowed grounds,” said event promoter and owner of The Capitol Theatre Peter Shapiro. “Now many years later, we’re going to bring that spirit of Clearwater back.”

A Dedicated Legacy

Lesh’s father, former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, sadly passed in late 2024 at the age of 84. After serving 30 years with the Dead, Lesh embarked on a series of musical endeavors, the most enduring of which was Phil Lesh and Friends that featured a revolving cast of heralded musicians from disparate genres. Past lineups included Warren Haynes, Joan Osborne, Jackie Greene, Jason Crosby, Jimmy Herring, John Molo, and members of Phish and Little Feat, among countless others.

“I don’t think it’s that different from when he was here with us,” Lesh said of his father. “I was always going to keep making music and playing his music and the music that is influenced by his music, and beyond,” said Lesh, who also fronts the well-received band, Midnight North. “He’s with us forever and probably will be for everyone who listens to this music as well, just like Jerry [Garcia] has been. [My dad] bringing so many people into the Grateful Dead world [I think] is going to be a very lasting legacy.”

For this concert, Lesh, who often performed with his father, tapped Oteil Burbridge (Dead and Company, Allman Brothers Band), Rob Barraco (Dark Star Orchestra and The Q), Rick Mitarotonda (Goose) Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band) and brothers Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes).

“Everyone has a history with Phil and Friends—from Rob way back when to Oteil to Rick and Jen and then the Goldsmiths. So, it just came together that everyone’s schedule was free for this…[some of] the best folks that I’ve played with, that my dad had played with who really enjoys playing this music together,” said Lesh, describing Phil and Friends as “rocket ship jams” that can “turn on a dime.”

Connecting musical dots is also a skillset Shapiro, a longstanding Lesh family cohort, has mastered. Phil Lesh and Friends performed more than 100 shows at The Capitol Theatre since it reopened under his direction in 2012. This past March, The Cap also hosted four memorable shows celebrating the life and legacy of Phil Lesh.

“A lot of this came from those shows at The Cap. He [Shapiro] was so wonderful about helping me see my vision through for how I wanted to honor my dad,” said Lesh. “He helped facilitate those shows and has done a lot to facilitate this festival as well.”

During that run of concerts, “Phil Lesh Lane,” located at the corner of Broad Street and Westchester Avenue, which runs parallel to the venue, was dedicated in his honor. “My mom and dad would park the [tour] bus there and just stay outside The Cap on that lane, which was kind of our home…it was a really special thing that Peter [Shapiro] and the town of Port Chester and everyone who made it happen—a really special way to kick off those shows,” Lesh reflected.

Ripple in Still Water

Prior to his passing, Lesh and the other surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, pondered how best to celebrate the group’s 60^th celebration. For its golden anniversary in 2015, the band played five “Fare Thee Well” shows in Santa Clara, Calif. and Chicago. The renowned concerts were promoted by Shapiro and featured special guests Trey Anastasio of Phish and Bruce Hornsby (who performed over 100 shows with the Grateful Dead). Ten years later, the idea for the band to reform in some configuration wasn’t initially as grandiose—the group has long bent toward unconventional wisdom and happenstance.

“It was still a little ways out… I don’t think any of them really loved rehearsals all that much, probably since the 80s,” Lesh said with a laugh. “But they were definitely talking about doing something. It’s a big number. You know, 60 years of this, this band, is a big deal, it really is.”

Not long after Lesh succumbed to his illness, the Grateful Dead was honored at the 47^th Kennedy Center Honors. Grahame Lesh was joined on stage by the likes of Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Don Was, Sturgill Simpson and Dave Matthews. Together the musicians paid tribute to the Grateful Dead’s vast song catalog and contributions to American culture. In the balcony, Weir, Hart, Kreutzmann, their families, and the family of Jerry Garcia all danced and rejoiced with wistful pride.

“That was the really cool thing about the Kennedy Center…not just seeing Bobby, Mickey and Billy but Justin Kreutzmann and Reya Hart and Chloe and Monet [Weir],” said Lesh, who accepted the medallion on his father’s behalf. “It really was a family reunion, and that was the special and unique part of the whole thing.”

As a child, Lesh, and his younger brother Brian (also a musician), often sat side stage wearing protective headphones while the Grateful Dead performed. “We joked that we would see a lot of first sets. My brother and I wouldn’t stay through the whole second set. Some of my memories are probably colored by photos and video that I’ve seen and that sort of stuff. I do have, what I think are some of my own memories. It was a pretty interesting way to grow up, that’s for sure,” he continued. “But, you know, Jerry died when I was eight. So, my sort of core musical memories are from Phil and Friends that came a few years later.”

Searching for the Sound

From August 1-3, Dead and Company, which features Weir, Hart, Burbridge, John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti, and Jay Lane, will celebrate the Grateful Dead’s 60-year history at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Lesh said the details of his family’s involvement are forthcoming. “All of that is still to be sort of finalized. Of course, it’s a big deal for all of us. And you know, if my dad was still here, he would have been involved with it as well,” said Lesh. “This music of the Grateful Dead, it’s gonna outlive all of us.”

As Lesh prepares for the group’s two-hour set this Saturday, he said the setlist will take a deep dive into the Grateful Dead song catalog, which include fan favorites his father wrote like “Box of Rain” and “Unbroken Chain,” among others. “I get everyone’s suggestions. I have a list. I hope we can get to everything. Rick [Mitarotonda] has a certain set of songs that he absolutely crushes. Obviously, Rob, with the long history of The Q, has certain ones and with Oteil, I think he loves stepping into the world of the Grateful Dead that Dead and Company doesn’t usually get a chance to touch on,” Lesh said.

“My thinking is to really honor the specific things that my dad had a hand in composing. You know the ‘St. Stephens’ and ‘Cumberland Blues’ of the world. And, yeah, maybe throw in a few that are a little more out there, from the early days of the Grateful Dead, which I think are really fun. It’s all a big stew,” Lesh told The Hudson Independent. [My dad], being a cultivator of music, is hopefully a big part of his legacy that I’ll be able to continue focusing on.”

For festival information, visit: https://www.hudsonrivermusicfestival.com/

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