Before rounding out the year with two nights at Boulder Theater, Umphrey’s McGee paid homage to one of the greats we lost in 2024 with a moving rendition of the Grateful Dead‘s “To Lay Me Down” dedicated to Phil Lesh.
The touching tribute came at the end of Umphrey’s two-night stay at Denver’s Ogden Theater as guitarist Brendan Bayliss returned to the stage for the encore by himself.
“On behalf of everyone here at Umphrey’s McGee,” he said, “I’d like to play this song and send out some love to Phil Lesh and his family. He was very good to us when we were young and talked a lot about us in interviews and gave us a lot of love. We appreciate it and we’re just going to send a little bit back now.”
Umphrey’s first connected with Lesh more than 20 years ago when he sat in with the band at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall on October 22nd, 2004. The beloved Grateful Dead bassist made a surprise guest appearance filling in for UM’s Ryan Stasik during “Robot World” and “Franklin’s Tower” (the show was shared by the band as an archival release in 2015 and is available via nugs.net). UM then opened for Phil Lesh & Friends at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium a few months later on February 12th, 2005 and Lesh again sat in with the band, this time on “Partyin’ Peeps” and “Franklin’s Tower”.
Watch Brendan Bayliss play “To Lay Me Down” in honor of Phil Lesh below. Umphrey’s will return to the road later this month for the Cruising Altitude 2025 Tour. After that, the band will host Morockshow, a destination event in Marrakech, Morocco, on April 18th–20th. Find tickets via the band’s website or try Ticketmaster or Stubhub.
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