Watch: Tommy Hamilton Jr. Joins Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble for Four-Piece Bobby Weir Tribute Outside Philadelphia
Photos: Dino Perrucci
Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble are currently on the road, supporting their debut album, Groove in the Face of Adversity, while also celebrating the golden anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah. During Wednesday night’s layover at the Ardmore Music Hall, the ensemble welcomed a local musician with substantial ties to the Grateful Dead songbook through his placement in Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Tommy Hamilton Jr., to honor the late Bobby Weir.
Rather than bake the sit-in into the set and evoke anticipation, Hamilton Jr. joined his hosts on acoustic guitar and vocals from the concert’s jumping off point, using “New Speedway Boogie” as a launch pad to initiate a four-piece tribute to Weir. From the Workingman’s Dead classic, synonymous with Weir’s vocal lead, the ensemble and their guest moved into a striking iteration of the Ace featured, “Cassidy,” followed by a tale of touring escapes on “Truckin’.” For the fourth and final piece of the night’s team-up, they picked the transitional riverside goodbye, “Brokedown Palace.”
Following Hamilton’s stage time, Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble continued the concert with treatments of Grateful Dead standards mixed in with originals. Highlights from the Dead’s catalog included the classic three-piece Blues for Allah suite: “Help on the Way,” “Slipknot!” and “Franklin’s Tower.” They continued with the instrumental “King Solomon’s Marbles,” crowd rouser “The Music Never Stopped,” intricate “Crazy Finger,” before another push into lyric-less music on “Sage & Spirit.” Before drawing the event to a close, the group conjured a lively “Shakedown Street.”
Hamilton Jr. will release highly-anticipated solo debut, I’m Your Vampire, on January 23 via AWAL/Relix. Read about the project here.
Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble’s tour continues tonight at the Thunderbird Cafe & Music Hall in Pittsburgh. Tickets remain on sale. For more information, visit donwas.com.
Read Was’ latest conversation with Relix.
Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble
Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, Pa.
Jan. 14, 2026
Set: New Speedway Boogie +, Cassidy +, Truckin’ +, Brokedown Palace +, You Asked, I Came, Carry Me Back to Old Morocco, I Ain’t Got Nothin’ but Time, Help on the Way, Slipknot!, Franklin’s Tower, King Solomon’s Marbles, The Music Never Stopped, Crazy Fingers, Sage & Spirit, Loser, Midnight Marauders, Insane, Shakedown Street, This Is My Country
+ With Tom Hamilton Jr.
Setlist via setlist.FM.
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