Suwannee Amp Jam #2 Hosts Grateful Dead Tribute Supergroup with Grahame Lesh, Warren Haynes, Nels Cline, John Molo, Rob Barraco and More
Grahame Lesh at The Heart of Town, photo by Dave Vann
Suwannee Amp Jam returned to Live Oak, Fla.’s beloved Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park over the weekend for its second annual event. With a stacked three-day program, the festival built on its triumphant 2025 debut by hosting some of the foremost talents in jam, funk, Southern rock and all the music in between. Beyond appearances from Umphey’s McGee, Lettuce, Dumpstaphunk, The Heavyweights and more, two of the weekend’s most striking performances came from the Warren Haynes Band and a Grahame Lesh-fronted supergroup featuring Haynes, Nels Cline, Rob Barraco and John Molo.
Haynes wrapped up his Winter of Warren solo tour on Thursday night with a final eventful and intimate staging at The Caverns, then raced down to The Sunshine State on the following evening to reconnect with the Warren Haynes Band. Accompanied by Terence Higgins, Kevin Scott, Matt Slocum and Greg Osby, the guitarist and singer-songwriter rolled out the reliable opener of “Tear Me Down,” then worked through some other longtime favorites like “Banks of the Deep End” before shaking things up with a cover of Allen Toussaint’s “From a Whisper to a Scream.”
The band’s second treatment to date of Billy Cobham’s fusion deep cut “Stratus” kept the crowd on their toes, then guitarist Roosevelt Collier joined in on “Big Legged Woman (With A Short Short Mini Skirt).” As the band accelerated into the set-break, Collier stepped aside to make way for Lettuce eyboardist Nigel Hall, who bolstered Haynes’ solo original “Man in Motion.
The Warren Haynes Band returned to the stage with “Spots of Time,” preceding the ever-electrifying jam vehicle of “Lies, Lies, Lies” and “Monkey Dance.” Between several sit-ins that kept her busy through the weekend, trumpeter and vocalist Jennifer Hartswick joined in to lend her talents to “River’s Gonna Rise” and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Desdemona,” then the certified classics “Instrumental Illness,” “Invisible” and “Soulshine” closed out the show. Later in the evening, Haynes returned Hall’s favor by joining Lettuce for Tower of Power’s “What Is Hip?,” also featuring Skerik and Dumpstaphunk’s Alex Wasily.
On Sunday night, Suwannee Amp Jam #2 culminated in a tribute to jam’s originators as Lesh pulled together another supergroup of the Grateful Dead’s diverse devotees. Alongside their stacked core lineup, the quintet was joined by Hartswick for a sprawling exploration of the Dead’s songbook, including essential originals like “Hard to Handle,” “Cumberland Blues, “ “New Speedway Boogie,” “Pride of Cucamonga” and “St. Stephen.” The show came to a head with an unstable second set medley of “Dark Star,” Traffic’s “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” and “Viola Lee Blues,” which primed the five-headed beast for a powerful encore of “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” and “We Bid You Goodnight.”
Learn more about Suwannee Amp Jam at ampjams.com.
