Summertime done come and gone

It has been a wonderful summer for DPO, as we have hit so many of our favorite summertime Colorado stages. Our public show schedule has been relatively quiet for the last few weeks, though we have had several weddings and private events on the calendar. We have a handful of Colorado shows starting in October, and we are making plans for a trip to Florida in early November. And keep an eye out for a big New Year’s Eve announcement and some shows around the Colorado ski towns. Hit our upcoming shows page for the details!

 

And check out our Acapella quarantine vid
of the Grateful Dead’s “Attics of my Life”:

 

 

WHO, WHAT, WHY, AND WHERE

The Deadphish Orchestra is a quartet of Colorado musicians who, above all, are close friends who have played together for many years. They had played Grateful Dead songs together, and they had played Phish songs together.  But they got to wondering what would happen if they tried to merge the music of these two bands, the Granddaddies and Daddies of the jamband scene.

While these two bands have their surface similarities, most fans realize that their actual musical styles are quite different. The Grateful Dead are an earthy, folky, bluesy band where Phish is sharper around the edges–funky and more aggressive. But both bands have an improvisational approach to their live shows, and it is in that spontaneity where the magic really happens.

The guys in DPO have posed themselves a unique challenge in merging the two styles.  Setlists end up with segues that look like Divided Sky > Morning Dew > Divided Sky, or Help  > Slip > Frankenstein.  Or how about Mike’s Song > Stella Blue > Weekapaug Groove.  Or even stranger, like My Friend, My Friend of the Devil…or It Must Have Been The Roses Are Free.  You can see that between the vast repertoires of the two bands, the possibilities are endless.

It’s just about as much fun as humans are allowed to have.

Guest Musicians

We are fortunate to know a lot of great musicians here in Colorado and elsewhere, and one of our favorite things to do is invite guest musicians to join us for songs, sets, or entire shows.  DPO has had many guest musicians onstage with us, including:

John Kadlecik (Furthur)
Michael Kang (String Cheese Incident)
Fareed Haque (Garaj Mahal, Fareed Haque Group)
Darol Anger (David Grisman Quintet, etc.)
Andy Thorn (Leftover Salmon, Drew Emmitt Band)
Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon)
Chris Pandolfi & Jeremy Garrett (Infamous Stringdusters)
Jeff Austin (Yonder Mountain String Band, Jeff Austin Band)
Stu Allen (JGB, Mars Hotel, etc.)
Dave Hebert (JGB)
Edwin Hurwitz (Shakedown Street, Shockra)
Tyler Grant (Grant Farm, Drew Emmitt Band)
Pete Wall (Particle, Motet)
Bridget Law (Elephant Revival)
Larry Keel (Bluegrass Legend!)
Jeff Lloyd (The Heavy Pets)
Brock Butler (Perpetual Groove)

Go to our YouTube and Audio pages for video & audio of many of these shows!