04/26/05

04/26/05	Ryan Adams	Beautiful Sorta	Previous
	& The Cardinals	Magnolia Mountain > Please Do Not Let Me Go	Next
	The Jammys	Wharf Rat (w/ Phil Lesh)
	New York, NY	Bird Song (w/ Phil Lesh)

	Brad Pemberton (drums); Jon Graboff (steel guitar); JP Bowersock (guitar); Catherine Popper (bass).
	Miami Herald: Anchored once again by the reassuring presence of host Lesh, Adams managed to make a pair of Grateful Dead classics his own in front of a sea of fanatics. Making the presence of Garcia even more explicit, the performance conjured up both the graceful humility of the Dead frontman's vocals as well as, more impressively, the thin, dripping tonality of his bluegrass-derived solos. Adams, himself a gifted songwriter, managed to cast light on how, at the center of the Dead's fearless instrumental tightrope act, lay a collection of powerfully substantial songs with their own insular histories and characters.
	Rolling Stone: Ryan Adams then took the stage and welcomed Phil Lesh to join his band. While the collaboration was far from the most elaborate the audience would witness, it was absolutely the most effective. After all, this was without question a Grateful Dead crowd. So singing "a song we didn't write," the Dead's epic jam "Wharf Rat," was a winning choice for Adams, who sang and played guitar up front with Lesh blending into the background perfectly.