Grateful Dead cover bands began in NJ more than 50 years ago. The music never stopped

The Grateful Dead tribute band scene began in New Jersey more than 50 years ago — and the music never stopped.

John Zias knows because he was there at the start.

In 1969, the guitarist, who grew up in Fort Lee, started Cavalry as a teenage Deadhead. The Grateful Dead’s official podcast, “The Good Old Grateful Deadcast,” described Cavalry in a July 2021 episode as “very likely the world’s first Dead cover band.”

Until Zias graduated from high school and left for the University of Denver in 1971, Cavalry made the local rounds playing parks, schools, churches and other venues.

“We developed a very loyal following,” Zias said. “And at the time, it was kind of weird because it wasn’t like there were even that many people into the Dead in metro New York/New Jersey at the time. There was this very loyal, small following that you could tell were picking up on the whole zeitgeist of the Dead.”

Zias said his Dead dedication began in May 1968, when he and childhood friend and fellow guitarist Van Manakas went to a free show featuring the Dead, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Jefferson Airplane in New York City’s Central Park.

The band had only released their self-titled debut album the year before and were “at their most primal,” according to Zias.

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“They shook the Earth on the first chord of ‘Morning Dew’ and we turned to each other and I said, ‘Oh man, I get it totally now,’ ” Zias said. “And they proceeded to blow our youthful brains out for the next two, two and a half hours.”

Zias recalls hearing material from the band’s second album, “Anthem of the Sun,” which would go on to be released that July, and said he was “profoundly affected” by the experience.

“(It) totally kind of affected me in that way that you’ll hear stories from Deadheads all the time,” Zias said. “It was like a connection with something larger than me. It’s a consciousness thing, and they hit upon a certain headspace that I had never felt before.”

Within a year, Manakas had formed Cheyenne, inspired by the psychedelic rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. Zias started gigging around with Cavalry in the fall of 1969.

“We just kept spreading the word, and all of a sudden Bergen County became — and much of New Jersey and much of Long Island and much of Westchester — became Deadhead Meccas,” Zias said.

Zias never lost touch with his love for the Dead’s music. He estimates he saw 70 shows featuring the band’s co-founder, singer and harmonica player Ron “Pigpen” McKernan before McKernan died in 1973, and another 100 shows or so by the band over the next 22 years.

But his own music left the land of the Dead and entered the jazz world, and eventually he began working in the wine business.

After not playing Dead music professionally from 1975 to 2000, Zias is now living in Florida and working as part of the Dead tribute band Unlimited Devotion.

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“You can always work, and when you’re one of the better bands it’s the best work around for a regional or a local band,” he said.

And from his spot on stage, Zias sees how this music continues to connect with audiences after more than half a century.

“I have 18-year-olds that come to my gigs and I’m 68,” he said. “And I have 75-year-olds that come to my gigs that were aware of this stuff probably before I was.”

'We can do anything'

In Cavalry’s wake, there has been a steady flood of Dead tribute acts across the state and around the world. Some of the country’s in-demand touring Dead tributes — such as Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Dark Star Orchestra, Rainbow Full of Sound, Dead On Live and Brown Eyed Women — feature musicians from New Jersey.

As the live music business has revved back up following the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dead tribute acts and Deadheads have been leading the charge.

Splintered Sunlight, longtime favorites of the Jersey Shore and Philadelphia-area music scenes, re-opened the iconic Stone Pony Summer Stage in July 2021.

“That was like a dream come true for us,” said Splintered Sunlight singer and guitarist Butchy Sochorow. “We’d never played on the Summer Stage before, and to be able to headline rather than open for somebody else or something, that was really cool. And then the show itself, we just had a blast."

Rising Asbury Park area scene stars Cosmic Jerry Band was among the acts that stayed busy by playing socially distanced gigs during the pandemic. Drummer Dan Donovan also plays with local jam scene favorites such as guitarist Mark Diomede and bassist Skip Vangelas of Dark Star Orchestra. He said there’s something special about the in-person experience for Dead music, which is reliant on improvisation, spontaneous and continuous musical invention.

“Everyone appreciates live music, but some of these different genres, you could be just as happy sitting at home and listening to a CD of it,” Donovan said. “But there’s something about the in-the-moment thing of live Dead music. ... Anything could happen, and a lot of the people who go out to see this kind of music, they just crave that live music and they want it so badly and they want it several nights a week.”

The music of the Dead can be endlessly inviting to musicians as well as to fans.

“There’s so much music,” said Sochorow. “The Dead music, there’s a lot of easy tunes. There’s a lot of hard songs and everything in between. ... If you look at the Dead catalog, they played tons of cover tunes. They played their own original songs. They just kind of mixed everything together."”

Tribute approaches vary from the note-perfect, classical-recitation-style concept behind Dead On Live; the show recreation route of Dark Star Orchestra or Rainbow Full of Sound’s springtime tour re-tracing the Dead’s European 1972 run; the faithful good time vibes of Splintered; or the anything-goes spirit of Cosmic Jerry Band.

“We can do anything at any moment and the fans, the crowd is going to totally go along with it,” Donovan said. “Because they’re just down to get down and they want to be excited like that.”

Upcoming Cosmic Jerry Band shows include 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park; 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, at Garcia's at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, and 4 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at the Jersey Shore Arts Center in the Ocean Grove area of Neptune. Drummer Dan Donovan also performs with guitarist Mark Diomede at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Olde Village Pub in Middletown

Splintered Sunlight performs 9 p.m. Friday, March 18, at Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia, and 8 p.m. Friday, April 1, at Ardmore Music Hall in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

Alex Biese has been writing about art, entertainment, culture and news on a local and national level for more than 15 years.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Grateful Dead cover bands began in NJ and the live music never stopped