Jerry's Middle Finger

Three decades after the loss of Jerry Garcia, a close-knit band of musicians are carrying the torch for his distinctive blend of soul, guitar, and eclectic American music. Jerry’s Middle Finger do more than celebrate the Jerry Garcia Band’s catalog; they also broadcast it to a new generation, upholding Garcia’s dedication to camaraderie and community-building by creating their own family-like experience onstage. How sweet it is, to experience the joy of JGB’s music in a live setting. A concert by Jerry’s Middle Finger is a connective, cathartic event: a fusion of artist and audience, where everyone’s a fan of the same catalog and experience. Those concerts began in 2015, when bandmates Garrett Deloian, Rodney Newman, Son Vo, Jon Gold, Halina Janusz, and Lisa Malsberger were drawn together by a love of the Grateful Dead and its iconic lead guitarist. As the years progressed, the band’s audience grew. Dive bar gigs in JMF’s hometown of Los Angeles gave way to performances at bucket-list venues across the country, including jam-band destinations like the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, the Troubadour in Los Angeles, The Ardmore in Philadelphia, and Garcia’s at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. “This isn’t just a cover band – it’s a band that genuinely honors the music Jerry made and the community he built,” says Newman, the group’s drummer and co-founder. “We’ve studied these songs: the guitar tones, the vocal arrangements, the keyboard sounds. We play them the way Jerry did, and we connect with the audience in an interactive, open-hearted way. It’s an approach that transcends the perfection of a performance or the spectacle of a light show, because we’re not really about that. We’re about the music, the feeling, and the communal experience.” Double albums like Live at the Chapel San Francisco, May 30th, 2025 capture that experience, shining a light on JMF’s striking ability to play Jerry Garcia Band’s music – a blend of blues, reggae, Motown, gos

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