Alt.Latino: Our Love Letter to Bob Weir

Summary

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All Songs Considered – Alt.Latino: Our Love Letter to Bob Weir (January 14, 2026)

Episode Overview

This special Alt.Latino edition from NPR Music, hosted by Isabela Gomez Sarmiento (with Felix Contreras contributing), is dedicated to the life, influence, and legacy of Bob Weir—founding member of the Grateful Dead, who passed away recently at the age of 78. The episode embarks on a heartfelt journey through Weir’s musical roots, his central role in shaping American and global music traditions, and his surprising influence on Latin musicians. Through interviews, anecdotes, musical performances, and personal stories, the Alt.Latino team pays tribute to how Weir and the Grateful Dead fostered community, experimentation, and emotional connection across generations and cultures.

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1. Bob Weir’s Story and the Grateful Dead’s Place in American Culture

[00:19 – 05:37]

Early Life and Origins

• Isabela reflects on Weir’s importance:
  “Bob Weir was a founding member of the Grateful Dead, and he died over the weekend at 78. The musical tradition that Weir was a part of isn't one we always focus on here on Alt.Latino, but he's influenced many Latin musicians we do cover.” [01:00]
• Weir’s rebellious, anarchist childhood (“Bobby was a born anarchist.” – Devendra Banhart, 02:11), marked by undiagnosed dyslexia and getting kicked out of school.
• Dropped out at 17 and joined a jug band led by Jerry Garcia, which evolved into the Grateful Dead by 1965.

The Haight-Ashbury Era and the Band’s Creative Dynamics

• Felix and Isabela describe San Francisco’s counterculture scene and how Weir found acceptance among fellow musical “misfits."
• “He found brothers.” – Bob Weir, on joining the Dead [02:45]
• Despite his youth and lack of classical training, Weir became known for his idiosyncratic guitar lines and songwriting, shaping the Dead’s sprawling yet coordinated sound.

Improvisation and Musical Fusion

• The Dead’s shows featured psychedelic experimentation, improvisation, and a fusion of styles, including jazz and blues.
• “Bobby's quote was, well, the song was over, but we weren't done playing.” – Devendra Banhart, [03:36]

“Hippie Metaphysics” and the Role of the Artist

• Weir describes songwriting as channeling otherworldly visitors:
  “There are visitors from another world, another dimension... that come through the artists to visit this world, have a look around, tell their stories. I’m happy to oblige them.” – Bob Weir [03:55]

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2. Bob Weir’s Enduring Influence & the Dead’s Legacy

[04:13 – 07:29]

Weir as Vocalist and Composer

• Credits include “Sugar Magnolia,” “Playing in the Band,” “One More Saturday Night,” and others.
• His intense vocals contrasted with Garcia’s relaxed style, creating a unique balance.

Post-Garcia Years and Cultural Integration

• After Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, Weir remained the bridge to the Dead’s legacy, notably through Dead & Company with John Mayer (2015–2024). The project introduced the music to younger generations.
• On mainstream acceptance:
  “We've been more or less accepted into the American musical tradition, which is where we've always been. We haven't changed anything… We've just continued to evolve.” – Bob Weir [05:37]

Weir’s Vision of American Music

• Weir on fusion and unity:
  “What happened on these shores is the fusion of the African and European musical traditions… In this country, we disagree deeply on political issues, but we all agree on one thing, that American music is the stuff, it's the real thing. And it's my hope that American music can help pull us together.” – Bob Weir [06:37]

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3. The Symphonic Dead: Orchestral Collaborations

[07:29 – 13:17]

Dead with the National Symphony Orchestra

• In 2022, Weir collaborated with the National Symphony Orchestra to reinterpret Dead songs.
• “On paper, it seemed like the most unlikely combination… Improvisation was the rule [for the Dead]; an orchestra is about playing the notes as written.” – Felix Contreras [08:24]
• The challenge: blending improvisational Dead music with orchestral discipline.

Collaborative Process

• “The songs that we've written over the years, they have a depth to them that merits this kind of attention, I think.” – Bob Weir [09:24]
• Stanford music professor Giancarlo Aquilanti, the arranger, describes learning to respect the Dead’s style and integrating space for improvisation:
  “Why these improvisations… go on for so long and they're still working, why these chord progressions… are so different from what I'm used to. How can I translate all their colors into the color of the orchestra?” – Giancarlo Aquilanti [11:14]

The Audience as “Band Member”

• “There are always two or three moments every night when [the connection] happens… Add 80 more people in an orchestra. When that clicks, it's a huge rush.” – Bob Weir [12:18]

• Aquilanti found the dancing, expressive crowd transformed the performance:
  “It would be disrespectful to the audience to pretend that they sit down. That's how they enjoyed the music and that's how they should continue to enjoy the music.” – Giancarlo Aquilanti [12:45]

• Weir’s guiding ethos:
  “These songs are visitors, that they're living critters and they're visitors from another world… I don't know exactly how that works, but… I do know that it's real.” [13:17]

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4. Deadhead Stories Across Generations & Cultures

[16:02 – 22:38]

Felix and Isabela's Shared Fanhood

• Isabela recalls connecting with Felix over her Grateful Dead tattoo and how this led to a discussion and segment about “American Beauty” on the Dead’s 50th anniversary [16:02].
• “They're not the best at what they do. They're the only ones who do what they do.” – Felix quoting Bill Graham [17:35]

Music as Personal Refuge

• For Isabella (a younger host), “American Beauty” is an emotional touchstone:
  “It feels like American Beauty has been with me through all of these transitions of my life. It's kind of like a hug in an album format for me.” [18:52]
• On the song “Ripple” as a metaphorical home:
  “As I got older and I started listening to the Dead and to American Beauty, the song Ripple kind of became like a metaphorical home for me.” [19:16]
• Ripple as a post-election refuge and symbol of community: “Everybody singing together at the end. And that last line… always makes me want to cry.” [19:57]

Musical Appreciation

• Felix singles out “Friend of the Devil” for its intricate, melodic instrumentation:
  “Phil Lesh's Melodic bass. He's almost taking the lead at places… It's exactly what's needed for the music at any particular moment. Nothing more, nothing less.” [20:46]
• Reflects on aging and the album’s impact:
  “At this point, we're spending more time looking back… It helps us appreciate what we have lived and how we have lived it, and also to remind us to continue to live with the rebellious and adventurous spirit that American Beauty invoked when we first heard it.” [21:45]

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5. The Dead’s Surprising Latinx Resonance

[22:38 – 27:38]

Latin Interpretations of Grateful Dead Songs

• Isabela notes, “Deadheads… in the most unexpected places,” referencing the lyric from “Scarlet Begonias.” [22:38]
• Features the Latin Dead, a California ensemble blending Latin jazz with Dead covers [23:05].

El Aló Negro’s Subtle Homage

• Highlights Alt.Latino favorite Roberto Carlos Lange (El Aló Negro), whose album concludes with a “Touch of Grey” reference:
  “Cause you've painted my face with just a touch of gray.” [24:24]

Devendra Banhart’s Emotional Connection

• Devendra appears wearing a “Steal Your Face” hat, confesses:
  “I just got to come out of the Dead closet and really embrace it. And I feel like the Dead are helping me through this time immensely… I turn to the Dead for that maternal, paternal feeling.” [25:17]

• Shares story of discovering the Dead through a bootleg “Live Dead” CD on the streets of Caracas.

• On how the Dead helps fans:
  “They just like, help so much. And really, I think they're one of the most greatest bands, without a question of all time. And if you don’t like the Grateful Dead, you haven’t discovered the Dead for you. There’s a Dead for everybody.” [27:03]

• Isabela and Isabella echo how the Dead's music is a source of communal solace—even rescuing Isabela from pandemic-era depression:
  “I was very depressed at the beginning of quarantine, and then I put on Cornell, and I was like, this is all I needed. My mental health restored immediately.” – Isabella [26:51]

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6. Closing Tribute: Bob Weir at Tiny Desk

[28:10 – End]

• The episode closes with a moving, stripped-down performance of “Ripple” from Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros at NPR’s Tiny Desk in 2019. The hosts allow the music to take listeners out in the spirit of community, continuity, and warmth.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps and Attribution)

• “Bob Weir was a founding member of the Grateful Dead, and he died over the weekend at 78. The musical tradition that Weir was a part of isn't one we always focus on here on Alt Latino, but he's influenced many Latin musicians we do cover.”
  – Isabela Gomez Sarmiento, [01:00]

• “Bobby was a born anarchist.”
  – Devendra Banhart, [02:11]

• “He found brothers.”
  – Bob Weir, [02:45]

• “Bobby's quote was, well, the song was over, but we weren't done playing.”
  – Devendra Banhart, [03:36]

• “There are visitors from another world, another dimension… that come through the artists to visit this world, have a look around, tell their stories. I’m happy to oblige them.”
  – Bob Weir, [03:55]

• “We've been more or less accepted into the American musical tradition, which is where we've always been. We haven't changed anything… We've just continued to evolve.”
  – Bob Weir, [05:37]

• “What happened on these shores is the fusion of the African and European musical traditions… In this country, we disagree deeply on political issues, but we all agree on one thing, that American music is the stuff, it's the real thing. And it's my hope that American music can help pull us together.”
  – Bob Weir, [06:37]

• “The songs that we've written over the years, they have a depth to them that merits this kind of attention, I think.”
  – Bob Weir, [09:24]

• “When we tackle a tune, it has to be stripped to just as barest bones and then reassembled. Each one of them is different…”
  – Bob Weir, [09:59]

• “It would be disrespectful to the audience to pretend that they sit down. That's how they enjoyed the music and that's how they should continue to enjoy the music.”
  – Giancarlo Aquilanti, [12:45]

• “They're not the best at what they do. They're the only ones who do what they do.”
  – Felix Contreras, quoting Bill Graham, [17:35]

• “It feels like American Beauty has been with me through all of these transitions of my life. It's kind of like a hug in an album format for me.”
  – Isabella, [18:52]

• “I came across the Dead when I was a kid in Caracas, on the side of the street. They were selling bootleg CDs, and I bought Live Dead… I was like, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard.”
  – Devendra Banhart, [25:17]

• “And really, I think they're one of the most greatest bands, without a question of all time. And if you don’t like the Grateful Dead, you haven’t discovered the Dead for you. There’s a Dead for everybody.”
  – Devendra Banhart, [27:03]

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Memorable Moments & Highlights

• Isabela and Felix’s intergenerational and cross-cultural connection as Deadheads.
• Personal stories of solace and belonging found in Dead songs (“Ripple” as a home).
• The blending of Dead music with Latin jazz and the seamless inclusion of their sensibility in projects by Latinx artists.
• Devendra Banhart’s playful confession of “coming out of the Dead closet” and finding comfort in the Dead during troubled times.
• The closing “Ripple” performance, encapsulating the episode’s warmth and reverence for Weir’s musical journey.

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Key Segments by Timestamp

• 00:19-01:44 — Intro and premise: Bob Weir tribute and Latinx connections.
• 01:44-03:19 — Early Dead history, Weir’s origins, and unique role in the band.
• 03:19-04:41 — The Dead’s improvisational ethos and Weir’s artistic worldview.
• 04:41-06:25 — Post-Garcia years, Dead & Company, Dead’s legacy.
• 06:25-08:24 — The fusion of American music and unity message.
• 08:24-13:17 — National Symphony Orchestra collaboration (arranger, process, fan culture).
• 16:02-22:38 — Intergenerational Deadhead stories: personal and cultural impact.
• 23:05-24:53 — The Latin Dead, El Aló Negro, and Latinx Deadheads.
• 24:53-27:38 — Devendra Banhart’s Deadhead stories and emotional reflections.
• 28:10-end — Bob Weir’s Tiny Desk performance of “Ripple.”

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This episode is a touching, genre-spanning celebration of Bob Weir’s musical spirit—demonstrating how his work transcended genres, generations, and cultures, and continues to provide sanctuary and connection for listeners everywhere.

Transcript

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This message comes from Sony Pictures Classics with the Coral, directed by Nicholas Hittner, written by Alan Bennett, starring Ralph Fiennes as a choir master in 1916. Yorkshire making music as War Rages on, now playing only in theaters.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

From NPR Music, this is a Latino. I'm Isabela Gomez Sarmiento. Let the chisme begin. The chisme this week is that Ana and Felix are both. So I'm in charge. And we're gonna do a little bit of a different episode. We're gonna go down memory lane to celebrate a musician that's near and dear to my heart and to Felix's heart. Bob Weir.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

I went down to the mountain I was drinking some wine look up in the heavens While I saw my sign written Fire across the heaven planets Black and white every day there's gonna be a party tonight hey, it's Saturday night.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

Bob Weir was a founding member of the Grateful Dead, and he died over the weekend at 78. The musical tradition that Weir was a part of isn't one we always focus on here on Aunt Latino, but he's influenced many Latin musicians. We do cover. And so over the years, the Dead just keep creeping into our coverage. Felix and I also share an obsession with them. We each interviewed Bob Weir in recent years, and we've gone to pick the brains of other artists and about the ways the Dead's music is infused in all sorts of genres. So today we're gonna play you some of those pieces to celebrate Bob Weir's life, and we'll hear a bunch of music. But first we gotta go back and catch people up on Weir's story, a story that started in San Francisco.

[Felix Contreras]

Well, this job I got is a little too hard.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

The Haight Ashbury scene of the 1960s rejected conventional American society, and Bob Weir became one of its most prominent ambassadors. But longtime Grateful Dead publicist and historian Dennis McNally says Weir relished rebellion long before the Summer of Love.

[Devendra Bonhart]

Bobby was a born anarchist.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

He was born in 1947 and grew up in a San Francisco suburb. He had undiagnosed dyslexia and got kicked out of multiple schools. By the time he was 17, he'd dropped out and joined the circus of a kind. Playing guitar in a jug band led by Jerry Garcia, it became the grateful dead in 1965.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Well, she's coming down the stairs Comin.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

Back her yellow hair in the Dead, Weir was now surrounded by misfits. Bagnally says he finally belonged.

[Bob Weir]

He found brothers.

[Felix Contreras]

They were all big brothers.

[Devendra Bonhart]

He was the baby, age wise and personality wise.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

But Weir didn't play in the shadows of his much more experienced or classically trained bandmates. As the Dead's second guitarist, he created his own eccentric, rambling roadmap for each melody, somehow falling perfectly in step with the contained chaos of the group. Jerry Garcia encouraged Weir to write songs and take turns on lead vocals.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Spanish Lady Come to Me.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

The Grateful Dead were billed as a blues based psychedelic rock band. They played some of their earliest shows at Ken Kesey's LST parties. But just as important was the influence of jazz. They stretched songs out into long improvisational jams that sparked an entire subculture.

[Devendra Bonhart]

Bobby's quote was, well, the song was over, but we weren't done playing.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

In a 2022 interview with NPR, Weir described the origins of his songs, using the phrase hippie metaphysics.

[Bob Weir]

There are visitors from another world, another dimension or whatever you want to call it that come through the artists to visit this world, have a look around, tell their stories. I'm happy to oblige them.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

For decades, the Grateful Dead amassed a loyal following that trailed them on tour and traded bootleg tapes. Weir composed and sang many of the band's most notable songs, including Sugar Magnolia, Playing in the Band and One More Saturday Night. His full throated and fiery vocals were the perfect foil to Garcia's mellowed out style.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Pain on the Saturday Night Pain on a Saturday Night Everybody Can Cry.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

The Grateful Dead officially came to an end with Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, but for the three decades that followed, Weir dedicated himself to carrying the band's legacy forward. He reunited with his surviving bandmates in different configurations over the years. Maybe the most notable was Dead and Company, which he formed alongside singer songwriter John Mayer in 2015. The group, which also included Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart, played extensively until 2024. It helped introduce the Dead's catalog and the Deadhead tradition to generations of fans. Born after Garcia's death in 2024, Weir and his surviving Grateful Dead bandmates were honored by the Kennedy center for their role in shaping American culture. In an interview with npr, he reflected on being embraced by the mainstream.

[Bob Weir]

Back not so long ago, we were sort of outsiders. Now all that's kind of changed. We've been more or less accepted into the. The American musical tradition, which is where we've always been. We haven't changed anything. Yeah. We haven't changed our approach. We haven't changed the note. We just. We've just continued to evolve. And maybe it's that evolution that we've finally gotten to. To where people understand what we're up to and what we've been trying to do all along.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

I want to play more of that interview that I did with Bob Weir in 2024, because it says a lot about how he saw the Grateful Dead's music fitting into, as he calls it, the fusion of the American musical tradition.

[Bob Weir]

No matter where you go in this world, people have the highest regard for American music, the American music tradition. And the reason for that is real simple. What happened on these shores is the fusion of the African and European musical traditions. And it happened here. You won't find it anywhere else. And here in this country, we disagree deeply on political issues, but we all agree on one thing, that American music is the stuff, it's the real thing. And it's my hope that American music can help pull us together.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

What I love about that interview is that Bob Weir sees his music as part of an ever evolving tradition. And what I Want to play Next is a perfect example of how he kept pushing that evolution in different directions. In 2022, Weir paired up with the National Symphony Orchestra to give a symphonic treatment to some Grateful Dead classics. Felix and I actually caught some of those shows together and it was quite the scene. Let me paint a picture for you. Bobby dressed up for the occasion. He wore a tuxedo on stage, but in the audience it was Deadhead business as usual. Barefoot fans were spinning in circles up and down the aisles while the poor Kennedy center ushers tried to get them to sit down, which obviously they did not. It was an incredible mix of American traditions. And at the time, Felix caught up with Weir and his collaborators. Here's his story.

[Felix Contreras]

On paper, it seemed like the most unlikely combination of musical forces. On one side you have the Grateful Dead, a band that never played their songs the same way twice during their entire 30 year span. Every night was different. Improvisation was the rule. On the other side, you have the 80 piece National Symphony Orchestra, another type of band whose very existence is defined by notes written on paper with little to no improvisation. And yet the musical mashup exceeded expectations and. And blew a whole bunch of mines. Okay, so here's the backstory. About a dozen years ago, Weir was approached to do a benefit for his local symphony in the Bay Area's Marin County. Weir kept that idea and those arrangements in his back pocket, and now he's bringing them back out again.

[Bob Weir]

The songs that we've written over the years, they have a depth to them that merits this kind of attention. I think.

[Felix Contreras]

The Grateful Dead catalog has over 450 songs and are filled with the musical DNA of this country, bluegrass, folk, country and western, jazz, black and white, gospel music, blues, and of course, rock and roll. The process of reconfiguring that music included getting to what Weir calls the heart of each song.

[Bob Weir]

When we tackle a tune, it has to be stripped to just as barest bones and then reassembled. Each one of them is different. You know, you go to the rhythm section for this song, you go to the vocal for this song, you go to just the story for this song.

[Felix Contreras]

His collaborator was Stanford music professor Giancarlo Aquilanti, the arranger from 12 years ago who knew nothing about the Grateful Dead.

[Giancarlo Aquilanti]

I knew of them, but I really didn't know much about their music or their styles and their history.

[Felix Contreras]

He says meeting the songs on their own terms meant using every classical composing technique at his disposal, because the gig was wasn't just putting some strings behind some rock and roll songs. It was writing for an orchestra with a rock and roll band embedded within the strings and oboes. And he says he wanted to create a space for improvisation between the band and the orchestra.

[Giancarlo Aquilanti]

I had to go into the technical aspect of why these improvisations, they go on for so long and they're still working, why these chord progressions, either they're simple one or complicated ones, why they're still working, why they're so different from what I'm used to. How can I translate all their colors into the color of the orchestra?

[Felix Contreras]

The Grateful Dead famously considered their audience as another member of the band. The give and take of emotions was palpable. Initially rolling over San Francisco's hippie dance halls back in the 1960s, then eventually massive stadiums in the 1990s. Bassist Don was was part of the Wolf Brothers ensemble on stage with the orchestra at the Kennedy Center. And he says the audience was a mix of tie dye and tucks. And the unexplainable connection between the band and the audience was still.

[Bob Weir]

There are always two or three moments every night when that happens. They're always different, and you never know when it's coming, but when it happens, it's the greatest feeling in the world. Add 80 more people in an orchestra. When that clicks, It's a huge rush.

[Felix Contreras]

That was a new experience experience for arranger Giancarlo Aquilanti.

[Giancarlo Aquilanti]

I had two different reactions. One, they say, oh, why don't they sit down? And they listen what we're doing here? And then at the same time, it would be disrespectful to the audience to pretend that they sit down. That's how they enjoyed the music and that's how they should continue to enjoy the music. It was so different, but there was so much energy that translated also into the way we play the music.

[Felix Contreras]

Bob Weir says this is how he wants to spend the rest of his musical life, and he explains why, with.

[Bob Weir]

Hippie metaphysics, these songs are visitors, that they're living critters and they're visitors from another world, another dimension or whatever you want to call it that come through the artists to visit this world, have a look around, tell their stories. I don't know exactly how that works, but but I do know that it's real.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, Felix tells his Grateful Dead origin story. Devender Bonhart tells us why he fell in love with the band, and we get a taste of Bob Weir at the tiny DES.

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[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

And we're back. So when I first started At NPR in 2019, I tracked down Felix for a coffee because I was obviously a longtime alt Latino fan. I wanted to ask him all about his fascinating career and what it was like to cover Latin music at npr. And then when we finally sat down, he saw my Grateful Dead tattoo, and the conversation took a totally different pivot. Pretty soon after that, in 2020, he and I got to go on the radio to talk about the 50th anniversary of the classic Grateful Dead album, American Beauty.

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

Hi, Felix.

[Felix Contreras]

Hey, Isabella. How are you?

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

I'm good, thanks. I'm excited to be talking to you about this album. I'm 23 years old, which means that American Beauty is more than twice my age. I was not around when the Grateful Dead were originally playing music. I discovered them through a Netflix documentary about guitarist Bob Weir's life. But you were actually there when it was all happening. So what was that like? How did you discover this band?

[Felix Contreras]

I'm 62 years old. I grew up in California, came of age in the late 1960s, early 70s, actually, and they were all over the underground FM radio stations that I used to listen to and discover music through. And actually, I didn't start going to shows until I saw Garcia, Jerry Garcia, and Bob Weir sit in with Santana at a benefit show. I think it was the early 80s, and I kicked myself because I missed out on so many years of seeing so many shows. But I did manage to squeeze in a handful up until the point when Jerry Garcia died in 1995.

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

I am so jealous. So, like, what was that like, going to actually see the Dead perform live?

[Felix Contreras]

It was that spirit of adventure and the spirit of improvisation that always, always spoke to me. And, of course, Jerry Garcia, as a guitarist, I think he epitomized what concert promoter Bill Graham once said about the Grateful Dead. They're not the best at what they do. They're the only ones who. Who do what they do. And I'm always fascinated because that's what it means for our generation. But what about for your generation, the younger generation? What is it for you about American Beauty, specifically this album for young people?

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

I mean, especially for myself, it can be really intimidating to get into, like, hundreds and hundreds of archives of live recordings. But American Beauty is like a very accessible entryway into the Dead's music. There's actually this scene in Freaks and Geeks, which is a Judd Apatow show from the 90s, and the main character is really struggling to fit in. She's having, like, a really hard time, you know, just being a teenager and being in high school. And her hippie guidance counselor gives her a copy of American Beauty, and there's this scene of her just, like, dancing around her room to Box of Rain. She's, like, totally blissed out. She lets go of all of all of her anxieties about being a teenager and about being in high school.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Look out of any window, any morning, any evening, any day.

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

And I watched that show my senior year of high school, and I feel like it really resonated because as I've become an adult and sort of grown into this person I'm becoming, it feels like American Beauty has been with me through all of these transitions of my life. It's kind of like a hug in an album format for me.

[Felix Contreras]

Okay, now, is there a specific song from American Beauty that speaks to you more than the others?

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

So I immigrated to the US from Venezuela when I was 17, and I've always had a kind of complicated relationship with the idea of having a place that I can go home to. And I feel like as I got older and I started listening to the Dead and to American Beauty, the song Ripple kind of became like a metaphorical home for me, you know, like this really tender intro on the acoustic guitar and just finding joy in something as simple as listening to a song.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine and my tunes were played on the heart of strung I.

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

Remember after the 2016 presidential election, I decided to follow Dud and company, which is some of the surviving members who still play music together. I followed them across the country, and I would see so, so many young people at shows, so many people my age, and it really made me realize that it's like all of these people are just looking for a little bit of refuge from reality and looking for an American tradition that's rooted in love and kindness and looking out for one another. And I feel like Ripple really encapsulates that as a song. You know, everybody singing together at the end. And that last line, if I moved.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Away.

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

I feel like it always makes me want to cry. So that's my top Dead song on American Beauty. Is there a song for you that stands out?

[Felix Contreras]

Specifically for me, one of the songs that stands out is Friend of the Devil. You hear that? The interweaving guitar and bass lines. You know, as a musician, I appreciate the musicality of that intro. Phil Lesh's Melodic bass. He's almost taking the lead at places. And then when Billy Kreutzman's drumming comes in later, just like in everything he does, it's exactly what's needed for the music at any particular moment. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Ran into the depot baby, loan me 20 pills spent the night in Utah in and give up in the hills Sit out and running But I take my time A friend of the devil is a friend of mine I get home before daylight Just might get some sleep tonight.

[Felix Contreras]

You know, one of the things that makes this album interesting for me is that it's an interesting time for boomers, my generation in general. And I think at this point, we're spending more time looking back, looking back at our lives, looking back at some of the things that we've experienced. I think it helps us appreciate what we have lived and how we have lived it, and also to remind us to continue to live with the rebellious and adventurous spirit that American Beauty invoked when we first heard it. And it all comes together in a classic album that both young and old can enjoy.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Trucking Got my chips cashed in Keep trucking Life to do the man together, no less in line Just keep truck.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

What I love about Deadheads is that you find them in the most unexpected places. It's just like the Scarlet Begonia's lyric. Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places. If you look at it right, Felix and I tend to find those places. And we keep finding other people in the Latin music universe who are also Deadheads. Felix is a big fan of this group called the Latin Dead. They're a California collective that does Latin jazz arrangements of Dead songs. Check it out.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Right outside this lazy summer hole. Ain't got time to call your solar critic no. Right outside the lazy gate Winter, summer.

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[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Wondering where the nut thatch winters Winds a mile long Just carried the bird away.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

Another one that comes to mind is Alt Latino fave El Alone, AKA Roberto Carlos Lang. He released this beautiful album called far in in 2021. The whole thing had kind of a Deadhead sensibility to it, not really in how it sounded, but in this thesis that we all can and should be a little bit kinder to the world that we're living in. And I thought I was maybe just reading into things, you know, interpreting it from my own Dead lens. And then in the last song, Roberto sings this line that references a famous Grateful Dead song.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Cause you've painted my face with just a touch of gray.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

Roberto and I ended up Going back and forth about it on Twitter and confirmed El Alo Negro is a Deadhead. And so is another musician that he works with very closely, the Venezuelan auteur Devendra Bonhart. A few years ago, Felix and I actually talked to him about his love for the band.

[Felix Contreras]

If people could see the zoom call that we're on, they'd see that you're wearing a hat, says steal your face, and that is a symbol for the Grateful Dead. A phrase for the Grateful Dead, part of a lyric. So tell us about that. You have. Did I hear, like, a newfound fascination or appreciation for the Grateful Dead in their lyrics?

[Devendra Bonhart]

I don't know if it's newfound. I think it's more like I'm less intimidated by. I don't know how to put it. Okay, so it's not newfound, but it is. But it is so deep, and it's been so deep for so long that I just got to come out of the Dead closet and really embrace it. And I feel like the Dead are helping me through this time immensely. Immensely. So many of us cannot see our parents. This is a crisis. And in those instances, we want something that's this maternal, paternal thing. We need that. We need that consolation. We run to that safety. And right now, literally, it's, like, not safe to run to your parents, let's say. But I turn to the Dead for that maternal, paternal feeling. I mean, I kind of did that before, but now more than ever, I'm just freaked out a little bit. A thought goes into my head. My gosh, I'm. You know, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? I just start to picture Jerry, and I feel better. I feel really, really safe with the Dead. I came across the Dead when I was a kid in Caracas, on the side of the street. They were selling bootleg CDs, and I bought Live Dead, but it didn't. It was all pixelated, so it didn't say any. I didn't know what Bandit was. But I first heard Dark Star, and. And I. And I. And I was like, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard. I wonder who this is. And then I even heard the Dead later, and it was like, oh, I like this band, but. But it's not as good as whatever this thing is.

[Isabella (younger interviewer)]

But I love what you were saying about the Dead. Feeling like a safe space right now. I, like, was very depressed at the beginning of quarantine, and then I put on Cornell, and I was like, this is all I needed. My mental health restored immediately.

[Devendra Bonhart]

We just did a cover of Franklin's Tower for the anniversary of Blues for Allah. And I cannot even be. I think I'm trying, but I haven't even begun to express how important the Grateful Dead are, how much I love the Grateful Dead, how much they help. They just like, help so much. And really, I think they're one of the most greatest bands, without a question of all time. And if you don't like the Grateful Dead, you don't. You haven't discovered the Dead for you. There's a Dead for everybody. There really is a Dead for everybody. Oh, I heard that. No, I'm not. No, trust me, there is a Dead for you.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Roll away the dead Roll away the.

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[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Roll away the doom. Roll away the doom.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

I absolutely love, love that cover of Franklin's Tower. And of course, just the most Devendra Bonhart take possible on a Grateful Dead classic. So we're just about done with our celebration of Bob Weir's life and his legacy, but I want to leave you with a really special performance. It's Bob Weir at the tiny desk with his band, the Wolf Bros. They came in 2019 and played a super stripped down set. We'll finish up with a Grateful Dead classic, Ripple.

[Bob Weir]

If my words did flow with a.

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Gold of sunshine.

[Bob Weir]

And my tunes were played, oh, my heart growing strong. Would you hear my voice come through the music?

[Singer/Musician (performing Grateful Dead songs)]

Would you hold it near.

[Bob Weir]

As it were young.

[Isabela Gomez Sarmiento]

You've been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our producer is Noah Caldwell. A huge special thanks to Lars Gottrich and Alina Edwards on this episode as well. Surya Mohammed is the executive producer of NPR Music, and Sonali Mehta is the executive Director. I'm Isabella Gomez Armiento. Thanks so much for listening.

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