Few details have been floating around about a new Grateful Dead tribute piece, led by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. Some of the tracklisting from that recorded tribute recently leaked, and the band quietly slipped their way onto Justin Vernon‘s (Bon Iver) second annual Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival for their first and only live performance as “Day Of The Dead.”
Rolling Stone Australia sat down with Scott Devendorf, bassist of The National, to talk more about the project. “One of things we’ve been working on is a Grateful Dead covers record. We’ve been working on it for a number of years and it’s finally coming out some time in late [U.S.] spring. It’s all musical activity and exercise, versus sitting around and not doing anything [laughs].”
He continues about this exciting new album, “It’s 60 songs and about five-and-a-half hours long, it’s really great. We worked hard on it and there’s a ton of other bands on it, and we’re the house band on a bunch of stuff. It’s a multi-artist effort, but we’re sort of curating and producing it. There’s so many people on it – the War on Drugs, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Lee Ronaldo, Ira from Yo La Tengo, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Hornsby with Bon Iver and a bunch of others. It’s gonna be cool.”
According to some leaked information from Will Hermes’ Twitter account a few weeks ago, we can also expect to hear the Flaming Lips, Wilco with GD founding member Bob Weir, and many more on this 60-song compilation.
We are indeed looking forward to this genre-spanning tribute collaboration. Projects like this go to show just how far music can really go.
[via Rolling Stone AU]