Listen to audio excerpts from our interview with Phil Lesh

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia once said, “If Phil’s on, the band’s on,” referring to Phil Lesh, the band’s bass player. The statement became a truism with the legion of Deadheads who followed the group across the country, who waited for those particular nights when “the Dead” became musically much greater than the sum of its parts. It became mythic and part of the legend of the Grateful Dead.

“That’s when I said, ‘Thanks for putting it on me, Jer,’”  Lesh laughed.

The Grateful Dead officially disbanded following Garcia’s death in 1995, though the band now continues on both as the abbreviated The Dead, as well as in a half-dozen related side projects, including Phil Lesh and Friends.

Last year, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and his band Ratdog performed at the All Good Music Festival. Speaking over the phone on July 4, just a few hours from his next performance, Lesh said he was bringing his friends to Masontown this year for All Good.

Phil Lesh and Friends might be the closest band to the experimental spirit of the Grateful Dead. It’s certainly the most malleable, with a revolving door of special guests and new members. The band’s list of alumni reads like a rock and roll yearbook and includes top performers like Derek Trucks, Ryan Adams, Trey Anastasio and Joan Osborne. The music of PLF draws heavily upon Grateful Dead standards, but reinterpreted and remixed by the relevant styles of the changing musical partners.

Lesh says the band isn’t assembled with specific parts in order to get a particular musical result. “It’s kind of improvisational, as is everything we do. It all depends on who you can find and who you hear.”

PLF’s current lineup includes band members who’ve played with Lesh for as long as 10 years, as well as guitarist/keyboardist Jackie Greene, who’s only been with the group for about a year. Joining the band can be an unusual process. It almost seems to happen accidentally. Lesh found Greene while sitting in his car.

“I was waiting for my son,” Lesh said. “It was one o’clock in the morning and this song comes on the radio. It was one of Jackie’s tunes called, ‘I’m So Gone.’ It just rocked my socks off and I thought, ‘Whoa, who is this guy?’”

He researched Greene online, then went out and bought his record. Lesh liked the interplay between musicians on the album. In an interview, Lesh was asked about what he was listening to and he mentioned Greene’s album. Greene e-mailed to say thanks.

“A little while later, I had a non-PLF project that I wanted to do, so I called him up. We did this recording and it was so successful, I decided to invite him to join the band.”

What makes that interesting is PLF doesn’t do much in the way of studio recordings. Lesh has no love for record companies or commercial radio and would just as soon avoid both. Fans are welcome to tape shows, however.

Lesh says eventually he might get around to recording an album with the current incarnation of the band, but it’s not really a driving need. The live show has always been the fun part.

He still gets together with the rest of the Grateful Dead every now and again. The last time was just a few months ago when he helped organize a “Deadheads for Obama” get-out-the-vote event.

“My younger son Brian has been volunteering with [Barack] Obama since last summer,” Lesh said. “For his birthday, we took him to New York to see ‘The Daily Show’ when Obama was on.”

After the show, there was an Obama event in Brooklyn. Lesh met the presidential candidate and was impressed with the senator from Illinois, comparing him to Robert Kennedy. Lesh offered to help put together music events for Obama’s campaign.

He got the call just before the California primary. Lesh’s son told him, “You’ve got to get the Grateful Dead guys.” So he called up Bob Weir and Mickey Hart. Drummer Billie Kreutzmann was in Hawaii and unavailable, but Lesh put together a group made up of members of his own band and Mark Karan from Ratdog.

“This was really short notice,” Lesh said. “It was just really gratifying, and it was for a good cause. That’s the best way for us Grateful Dead guys to do it.”

It hardly matters Hillary Clinton carried California in the primary.

Rumors persist that The Dead may make other appearances during the presidential campaign season.

“We made some really excellent music. It was wonderful just to walk out on stage and do this for something bigger than us.”

Want to go?

All Good Music Festival

WHEN: Today through Sunday

WHERE: Marvin’s Mountaintop,   Masontown, Preston County

TICKETS: Start at $139 for the weekend with additional fees for camping

INFO: www.allgoodfestival.com

Lineup:

Today: The Join, Brazilian Girls, Perpetual Groove, Jazzam

Friday: Gov’t Mule, SOJA, Phil Lesh and Friends, Lettuce, Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood, All Mighty Senators, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, The Avett Brothers, Basshound, RAO, MJ Project, The Wood Brothers

Saturday: Dark Star Orchestra, The Bridge, Widespread Panic, Bassnectar, Kellar Williams, Pnuma Trio, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Telepath, Mike Gordon, Scrapomatic, Tea Leaf Green, Rex Jam, Hot Buttered Rum, Outformation, Eric Lindell

Sunday: Michael Franti & Spearhead, Danielia Cotton, Railroad Earth,

deSol, JJ Grey & MoFro, Bonerama

Reach Bill Lynch at lynch@wvgazette.com or 348-5195.