On Saturday, June 14, Grahame Lesh & Friends closed out the inaugural Hudson River Music Festival with a memorable take on a Grateful Dead-catalog classic, “The Music Never Stopped.” It was a fitting conclusion to the single-day event, which was held at Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.’s Croton Point Park and grew out of Pete Seeger’s long-running Clearwater Festival/Great Hudson River Revival—a roots-leaning and environmentally conscious activist event held on the same site for decades until COVID placed its future in jeopardy. 

Fronting an all-star version of Grahame Lesh & Friends that felt like an extension of the all-star tribute shows he staged for his father at Port Chester, N.Y.’s Capitol Theatre in March, Grahame brought together Phil & Friends alums Rick Mitarotonda (Goose), Oteil Burbridge (Dead & Company, Allman Brothers Band), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes),  Rob Barraco (Dark Star Orchestra/Zen Tricksters) and Jen Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band) for a career-spanning Dead tribute that kicked off with “Mason’s Children,” an oft-overlooked Workingman’s Dead outtake that the elder Lesh rediscovered during his latter-day solo work. They then busted into “Bertha,” quickly moving into “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” “Cosmic Charlie,”  “It Must Have Been the Roses,” “Doin’ That Rag,” “St. Stephen,” “He’s Gone,”  “The Other One,” Days Between” and the before-mentioned “The Music Never Stopped.” 

This version of GLAF spotlighted several voices who have recently grown into headliners on their own. Burbridge, who has become increasingly comfortable singing Jerry Garcia ballads since joining Dead & Company, had a memorable lead on the penultimate tune. As he prepares to return to New York in a few weeks for a headlining show at Madison Square Garden with Goose, Mitarotonda fit his appearance at the event between marquee dates with his Connecticut-bred outfit at Bonnaroo and All Good, though Bonnaroo ended up being cancelled due to weather. And, taking the stage the day before his first Father’s Day since Phil Lesh’s passing, the weight of the day was not lost on Grahame. 

The festivities commenced almost 10 hours earlier at 11 am, with a direct bridge to Clearwater—a celebration of Pete and Toshi Seeger featuring multi-generational folk acts Tom Chapin, David Amram and The Chapin Sisters. Then, Steve Earle offered a guest-heavy segment that opened with a few solo acoustic songs, before Jorma Kaukonen emerged for “Hometown Blues.” From there, Eli Smith slid on stage for 

“John Henry Was a Steel Drivin’ Man” and an appropriate take on Earle’s 2007 tune “Steve’s Hammer (For Pete)” while Laura Cantrell appeared on “When the Roses Bloom Again” and Amram sat in on “On the Road – Book Reading.” Finally, the members of Preservation Hall Jazz Band emerged for a set-closing “This City Will Never Drown.”

Kaukonen, who snuck in his appearance at Hudson River between two evenings at the recently refurbished Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, N.Y. nearby, offered a duo set with guitarist John Hurlbut that began with Hot Tuna’s “True Religion,” nodded to his time with Jefferson Airplane with “Trial By Fire” and referenced Bob Dylan with “She Belongs To Me.” As a treat, and a wink to Seeger and Woody Guthrie, they closed things out with a sing-along version of “This Land Is Your Land.” Preservation Hall played next and also teased the tune during their selection of New Orleans classics and Big Easy originals. 

The second portion of the day focused on emerging indie and Americana acts with roots in the folk music that Seeger dedicated his life to passing on to new generations. Madison Cunningham breezed through cuts like “All I’ve Ever Known,” “Hospital,” and “Subtitles,” and Lucius singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig crafted a unique acoustic show, augmented throughout by Dawes principals Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith. Their hootenanny-style concert felt like a swirl of their sounds and songbooks, including Dawes’ “All Your Favorite Bands,” a take on the Grateful Dead’s “Uncle John’s Band,” and an appearance by Cummingham on “Impressions.” 

Croton Point Park itself is also something of a storied venue for the jamband scene—the second-ever Gathering of the Vibes festival, and first to use that name, was held on the property in 1997 and the Bayou Blues & Music Festival took place there for a few years in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The 2000 edition ended up being both Gov’t Mule bassist Allen Woody’s final show before his untimely passing and Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein’s first official show back in the band after a multi-month break from the group. 

This weekend’s gathering—which was put on by Dayglo Presents, Harper House Music Foundation and Riverfest FPS—nodded to Clearwater’s communal spirit and family-friendly energy with several craft offerings, children’s areas and a focus on protests. (It was even a stop on the “No Kings” protest map.) That included Pete & Toshi’s Grove, the Circle of Song, and family-friendly performances from the Arm of the Sea Puppet Show, The Eathball, yoga and wellness options and The Rock and Roll Playhouse, which focused, fittingly, on the Seeger songbook. Held on the banks of the Hudson River, the new event also hosted Boat Flotilla, a flotilla of boats, moving together in the Hudson River that arrived at the festival grounds around 4 pm. Dayglo founder Peter Shapiro, who serves as Relix’s publisher, also addressed the crowd near the end of the afternoon, connecting many of the notes that helped bring a cherished event back to life in a new form.

Learn more about the event by visiting www.hudsonrivermusicfestival.com.