Playing The music of The Grateful Dead , The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Marshall Tucker and more!
Featuring
Michael Falzarano, guitar and vocals (New Riders of the Purple Sage/Hot Tuna)
Tom Circosta guitar and vocals (Zen Tricksters)
Paul Avrutin bass (Dead on Live)
Russell Stedman, drums (Jeff Mattson Band)
Kevin Griffin guitar/pedal steel, vocals (Jelly Band)
Annie Mac Vocals, flute and Sax (Jelly Band)
Mike Katzman (Friends of the Brothers)
On September 3rd, 1977, The Grateful Dead headlined one of the largest and most musically successful concerts of all time at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. In addition to the Grateful Dead, who had just completed its legendary Spring/Summer 1977 tour featuring a batch of new material from Terrapin Station, the show also featured the Dead family’s New Riders of the Purple Sage and the good-time, southern rock of The Marshall Tucker Band. This tribute extravaganza will feature healthy “doses” of selections from each band’s sets that day along with other deep cuts from all three bands and more.
As Michael Falzarano tells the tale! Everywhere I toured with The New Riders of the Purple Sage for the past 20 years someone would come up to me at almost every show and say “I saw you guys at Englishtown.” Long story short, it seemed like a good idea to put a band together and pay tribute to that legendary September 3, 1977 show. With that, The Englishtown Project was born.
The Mission! The mission is to pay tribute to the music of the bands that played that day in 1977 by all three iconic bands: The Grateful Dead, The New Riders of the Purple Sage and The Marshall Tucker Band. There were over 60 songs played that day, all of which are instantly recognizable. We play an ever-changing mix of the songs at every show along with some other songs not played that day. These bonus tunes are true to the history and legacy of the three bands. So if the spirit moves you and you have a request, shout it out. It just might get played.