Dead to the Core

Dead to the Core is a collective of singer-songwriters and acoustic musicians, led by musician/author Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, celebrating the Grateful Dead—with creative arrangements featuring unexpected instruments (clarinet, flute, Strumstick, accordion) and lush vocal harmonies. 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.

The band:
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.

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 Grammy-nominated Blue Heron Suite. Hamer’s Child Ballads album with Anaïs Mitchell earned a BBC2 Folk Award and was named one of NPR’s top-ten folk releases of the year.

Wendy Sassafras Ramsay, Rodgers’ bandmate and duo partner (as Pepper and Sassafras), is a singer-songwriter and versatile multi-instrumentalist on clarinet, flute, accordion, and guitar. She also plays in the alternative rock band Starting Off Red.

Brendan Gosson is a fiddler and flatpick guitarist based in Buffalo. He currently plays with the roots band Folkfaces, Sean Peters Band, and Brian Thomas and the Strikes.