John Mayer continued his ongoing summer tour on Friday with a performance at Charlotte, NC’s Spectrum Center featuring a touching tribute to the late Jerry Garcia on the anniversary of his death in 1995.
After spending two entertaining sets working through numbers from throughout his career catalog, Mayer returned to the stage for his encore by his lonesome with an acoustic guitar in hand. With the iconic photo of Jerry Garcia in front of the Pyramids from the Grateful Dead‘s famed Egypt run projected on the screens behind him, Mayer worked through a touching, understated rendition of “Ripple”, one of Garcia and Robert Hunter‘s most beloved ballads.
While Mayer has worked a number of songs from the Garcia/Grateful Dead repertoire into his solo shows throughout this tour, this marked his first-ever solo rendition of “Ripple”—making for a touching tribute to the man whose torch he now carries as the lead guitarist in Dead & Company. You can watch John Mayer honor Jerry Garcia with “Ripple” below:
John Mayer – “Ripple” [Grateful Dead cover]
[Video: wertsdb71]
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Charlotte, NC: Friday night x summer = 3 times the weekend vibes. It’s simple math. (📷: @daniel)
You can also scroll down to check out a beautiful gallery of photos from the performance courtesy of photographer Carol Spagnuola.
For a full list of John Mayer’s upcoming tour dates, head to his website here.
Setlist: John Mayer | Spectrum Center | Charlotte, NC | 8/9/19
Set One: Helpless, Love on the Weekend, Who Says, No Such Thing, I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You), Changing, Queen of California, I Guess I Just Feel Like, Edge of Desire
Set Two: Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967*, Your Body Is A Wonderland*, Neon*, Belief, Still Feel Like Your Man, Rosie, 3×5 (tease), If I Ever Get Around to Living, Slow Dancing In A Burning^, In The Blood, Waiting on the World to Change, Gravity
Encore: Ripple (Grateful Dead cover), Born and Raised, New Light
*Acoustic
^with “The Beautiful Ones” (Prince) intro
