Three decades after the final Grateful Dead performance, the legendary sound of Jerry Garcia continues to resonate. Guitarists Jeff Mattson of Dark Star Orchestra, Tom Hamilton of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD), and the young rising star Bella Rayne each offer their own interpretations of Garcia’s musical legacy—both through tone and performance style.
“I met Jerry Garcia once, in 1992, at the bar at the Ritz Carlton in New York,” says Jeff Mattson, guitarist for the Dark Star Orchestra, during a phone interview. Nearly 67 years old, Mattson is a veteran of the Grateful Dead tribute scene, which has grown into a global phenomenon with hundreds of bands. Mattson’s journey began in his teens when he discovered American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead at his local library. Around that time, he also began studying jazz guitar. Between 1973 and 1995, he saw the Grateful Dead live countless times, formed the renowned jam band Zen Tricksters, and eventually stepped into the role of lead guitarist in Dark Star Orchestra (DSO), one of the most respected Dead tribute acts.
“At the bar, I didn’t even tell Jerry I was a guitarist,” Mattson recalls. “I had just heard him play the new song ‘Days Between,’ and I told him how excited I was about it. He said he was excited too. It was a short conversation, but I shook his hand and told him how much his music meant to me. It’s a very sweet memory.”
The Grateful Dead’s final studio album, Built to Last (1989), proved to be a prophetic title. From 1965 to 1995, the band fused psychedelic rock, folk, blues, country, jazz, progressive rock, and funk, all anchored in deep improvisation. They carved out a singular space in American music. While every member contributed to the magic, Jerry Garcia was the band’s musical soul. When he passed away in 1995, the remaining members retired the Grateful Dead name.
“Jerry Garcia was the most creative guitarist of the 20th century,” says historian and official Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally. “He had the widest ears and the sharpest instincts. After his death, Deadheads found comfort in the music itself. Who plays the music now is just a matter of taste.”
Now, 30 years after Garcia’s death and 60 years since the band’s formation in the Bay Area, new generations of musicians continue to keep Garcia’s sound alive. Among them are high-profile artists like John Mayer with Dead & Co., and others such as Jeff Mattson, Tom Hamilton Jr., and Bella Rayne.
Tribute bands dedicated to the Dead began popping up in dive bars as early as the late 1970s. Unlike typical cover bands, these groups immersed themselves completely in the Dead’s catalog. Some began touring nationally, performing in college towns, ski resorts, and small theaters. Mattson was part of this early wave. “The first band I was in that played only Grateful Dead was Wild Oats in 1977,” he says. “Then in 1979, I joined the Volunteers. We focused almost entirely on the Dead and had real gear—PA system, lights, a truck—the whole nine yards.” That band evolved into the Zen Tricksters.
Following Garcia’s passing, the tribute scene exploded. Fan bases expanded, and some bands moved into major venues like Red Rocks and the Beacon Theatre. Entire summer festivals emerged around them.
Dark Star Orchestra, founded in 1997, has a distinct approach: they recreate actual Grateful Dead concerts, replicating specific setlists from historical shows. They even use era-specific gear, meaning they may play one night with equipment modeled after the band’s 1971 setup and another with gear from 1981. Mattson joined DSO as lead guitarist in 2009.
Another major shift occurred after Garcia’s death: the surviving members of the Grateful Dead began supporting the tribute scene. They welcomed musicians who had immersed themselves in Dead music to join them onstage. Over the years, Mattson has played alongside all four core members—Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart—as well as former members Donna Jean Godchaux and Tom Constanten.
Younger musicians in today’s tribute bands often never saw Garcia perform live—or only caught glimpses in his final years. One such figure is Tom Hamilton Jr. Raised in a musical household in Philadelphia, Hamilton saw Garcia live only three times. His early influences included Stevie Ray Vaughan, but it was his older brother, a devoted Deadhead and guitarist, who introduced him to Garcia’s music. “My brother wanted to play like Jerry,” Hamilton says. “He roped me in to play rhythm guitar like Bob Weir.”
Eventually, Hamilton embraced the Garcia role himself. “In my twenties, I focused on developing my voice as a songwriter and guitarist,” he explains. “That’s when I met Joe Russo. He wasn’t really into the Dead at the time, but he knew I was.”
A Brooklyn-based drummer, Russo began working with members of Phish and Ween around 2006. His collaborations caught the attention of Lesh and Weir, who invited him to join their post-Dead project Furthur in 2009. John Kadlecik, a founding member of DSO, was selected for guitar, opening the door for Mattson’s entry into DSO.
“When Joe played in Furthur, he really got inside the Dead’s music and came to appreciate its depth,” Hamilton notes. After Furthur ended, Hamilton and Russo formed Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD). “We weren’t trying to do a note-for-note recreation,” Hamilton says. “We just loved the music and wanted to play it with our own improvisational spirit.”
Formed in 2013, JRAD quickly became a top-tier Grateful Dead tribute band. Hamilton and Scott Metzger anchor the group’s guitar sound, with Hamilton also taking on vocal duties. Hamilton later joined Phil Lesh and Friends and even started a band with Kreutzmann called Billy and the Kids in 2015.
Now there’s a new face among the keepers of Garcia’s legacy: 18-year-old Bella Rayne. Raised in Mendocino, California, Rayne grew up with parents who were Deadheads—though they had been more into Phish during their youth. During the pandemic lockdown, Bella discovered her mom’s old Stratocaster in the garage. Bored and searching for a creative outlet, she taught herself to play grunge songs from the ’90s, particularly Pearl Jam, by watching YouTube tutorials.
As she posted videos of her musical progress online, her skills caught the attention of the China Dolls, a Bay Area all-female Dead tribute band. “They asked me to sit in, and I thought, ‘No way,’” she says. “I’d been surrounded by Dead music all my life. But once I played, it became this amazing spiral.”
Her current project, Bella Rayne and Friends, has gained attention from both peers and Dead veterans. One of her milestones came when she sat in with Melvin Seals, the former Hammond organist for the Jerry Garcia Band. “He hired me to sit in for a couple of songs,” she recalls. “We were having such a good time that he asked me to stay for the whole second set. It was incredible.”
Jerry Garcia played a wide variety of guitars, but four instruments remain most iconic for those seeking to replicate his tone. The first is a heavily modified 1955 Fender Stratocaster nicknamed “Alligator,” which he began using in 1971. The others—Wolf, Tiger, and Rosebud—were hand-built by luthier Doug Irwin and introduced in 1973, 1979, and 1989 respectively. Occasionally, these treasured instruments are passed ceremonially to modern players, allowing them to perform with Garcia’s original gear.
Despite their different beginnings, Mattson, Hamilton, and Rayne share something rare: each has played one of Garcia’s personal guitars. Rayne remembers a special moment in March 2024. “I was sitting in with the China Dolls, and no one told me that Alligator would be there. My friend, Alex Jordan, just handed it to me without a word.”
These guitarists, spanning three generations, are united by a shared mission: to keep the spirit of the Grateful Dead alive—not through imitation, but through honest musical exploration. Garcia may be gone, but through their strings, his music lives on.
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