Greensky Bluegrass Begin Summer Tour with Tribute to Lighting Designer Andrew Lincoln
Greensky Bluegrass, courtesy of the band.
Greensky Bluegrass embarked on their summer tour last night with a performance at Toronto’s The Opera House. To set a high bar for the 29-show sprint ahead, the trailblazing jamgrass outfit began with an expression of gratitude for their friend and longtime lighting designer Andrew Lincoln, who they invited to the stage to lead a take on the Jerry Garcia Band live staple “That’s What Love Will Make You Do.”
Lincoln will celebrate the 15th anniversary of his first tour with Greensky Bluegrass this summer, and before they took the stage in Toronto, the band voiced their collective appreciation with a note penned by dobroist Anders Beck and posted to the band’s Instagram. In that reflection, Beck shared that they first welcomed Lincoln into the fold when the then-”goofy-ass kid” approached the then-5-year-old group on board Jam Cruise 9 and pleaded that he’d “do anything” to work for them:
“It’s pretty obvious how important Andrew Lincoln is to the band when you see a Greensky show… but I think it’s worth realizing that the reason that it all clicks together so well — the music and the lights and the vibe… is because we created it all together over a decade and a half! We’ve evolved the show as a team, a family, a brotherhood… the 6 of us for 15 years.
Lincoln started out as our merch guy back when we were playing something like 200 shows a year (in a van). He actually argued with me about switching to lights because he really wanted to crush the merch game. Haha! The first few gigs with him on lights were pretty rocky, but over time the shows transformed, the band transformed… the whole thing grew into something much bigger than bluegrass. Lincoln helped create a space for us to explore the version of music we heard in our heads.”
Greensky Bluegrass called Lincoln up to the stage in the middle of their second set, and after a warm welcome from Beck, he explained the reasoning behind his selection. “My dad said to me, ‘So you’re getting in a van with a band playing bars for zero dollars pay?’” Lincoln said, per Jambase. “I said, ‘That’s right, that’s what I’m doing.’ And I’ll tell you it takes love to want to do that. I love these boys a whole lot. That’s what love will make me do, baby.” Greensky’s take on the Little Milton original, in the JGB’s loose, improvisatory style, was their first of 2026. Shortly afterward, the quintet capped off their frame with their well-honed cover of Traffic’s “Light Up or Leave Me Alone,” then delivered an encore of Steppin’ In It’s “Dustbowl Overtures” and “Burn Them.”
Greensky’s summer tour continues tonight with a home state show at Saginaw, Mich.’s Temple Theatre. Find tickets and more information here.
