New Bern, NC ~ March 7, 2025 ~ For those who have been here for my blogging journey, you know I’ve tried a few tactics to create a place for local live music to dwell. I’m starting things off where I last left the blog on WIX.  Our first quartet of jammers is Thankfully Departed. I met this Grateful Dead Tribute Band at Wally Palooza II in June last year. Before departing from the WIX platform in September, I caught the band at The Brown Pelican in August for Jerry Garcia’s Birthday Celebration and wrote about the experience. For those who missed the history, here is a recap of that article:

 

Thankfully Departed is Gratefully Jamming

 

 After catching a night of jams, I researched who speaks for the Thankfully Departed and contacted singer and guitarist Vince Tricarico to learn more about how the band came together.

 

I learned that two players in this outfit have a long history of making music together. Tricarico met bass player Joseph Beamon in 2008 while working with a Folk/American trio. Beamon had been playing around Raleigh/Fayetteville in some blues rock-based outfits, but he wasn’t in a band then. He was looking to produce and record a project, and we, The Cohee, were it.

Beamon and Tricarico hit it off musically speaking, and soon after the end of The Cohee, Vince started hosting an open mic. He needed a band, so he immediately called Beamon, and that started what would become Wide-Eyed Mischief. They were a self-identified Psychedelic Groove Rock band, an all-original six-piece jam band that included his wife on lead vocals and flute. They played and toured together from 2009 to 2014. Tricarico confessed, “Pursuing original music is a long road; sometimes, life gets in the way.”

In 2015, Tricarico and his family moved to Greenville to do life. In 2022, Beamon moved to Kinston, which brought back the idea of starting another project. He had been playing with a trio that Tricarico and his wife would occasionally moonlight with, called HoneyBee Kind. When that had run its course, it opened up the schedule to start something new.

Tricarico tells me, “To me, the Grateful Dead has always had a timeless songbook. The songs span genres, and the improvisation is second to none. Over the years, I had casually mentioned the idea of starting a Grateful Dead tribute act to Beamon, and he was always intrigued and willing to take on the monumental task of representing the low end. Playing Phil Lesh parts and inspired jams is no easy task. We now had two pieces to the puzzle. We needed at least two more to get off the ground.”

From there, we meet Mike Bailiff. Tricarico and Bailiff met through their kids. “They were in the same grade, and he noted some Grateful Dead-inspired shoes my son was wearing one day and mentioned it to my wife. It turns out the boys became quick friends, so we took it upon ourselves to get to know each other, which was in the best interest of our boys, of course. Mike has a solid background in bluegrass, a la Jerry Garcia, and an interest in the jam scene. He came at it through the Allman Brothers and Phish, which Beamon and I loved. We had also attended many shows ourselves. He was starting to dig into The Grateful Dead since Dead & Co was up and touring and was getting turned on to the music. I told him what I wanted to do, and he was more than willing to plunge into the deep end of the Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead pool.”

Once they had three aligned, Tricarico started posting that we were looking for a drummer and a keyboard player on local pages. He had no luck. “One day,” he said, “I saw someone post that they were a drummer looking to play ‘tight hot dirty jazz.” I figured I’d take a shot and see if he was interested. I explained that the Dead had plenty of room for improvisation and that he should let me know if he didn’t get any hits on the jazz. Sure enough, he’d seen the original Grateful Dead more than a dozen times and had seen Phish and the Allmans, too.” That’s where we find Craig Anderson behind the kit.

 

Tricarico tells me that Anderson played and recorded with a handful of bands based in Florida, all over the Southeast region, and beyond. These groups were more rock-based and heavier, but he was well-versed in all the musical styles and looking for something where he could play and be creative. I can hardly think of a better setting.” Following the breakup of his last band, he moved to Asheville. In 2018, he moved to Greenville and had the time to pursue some musical interests.

From there, Tricarico said they put together a small list of songs to learn before our first rehearsal. He said, “You can learn much about who you play with at a first rehearsal. Did everyone learn the material? Are people actively listening to each other? Can you have a musical conversation with the others in the room?” So naturally, the first thing I set out for us to do, unbeknownst to the other members, was play a tune not on the list and see what would happen. It checked many boxes, and we all knew we had something.”

Tricarico explains, “The Grateful Dead’s music offers listeners a naturally conversational songbook for the musicians and audiences. The songs tell stories both lyrically and instrumentally. There are a lot of moving parts. It would take some time before we had upwards of four hours of music, which was our benchmark before we started booking. Grateful Dead fans expect, at minimum, a three-hour show, and we knew that as we are fans. Once we had that, we started booking and haven’t stopped.”

With an entire handful of gigs already in the books, he said, “Every show we’ve played has had its own set of highlights. Our two favorites thus far have been Club Swedish (our second show) and Local Oak Brewery (our fourth show). At Wally Palooza II, we decided that since we only had an hour, we might as well fill every second with music, so we ripped a one-hour set with nothing but songs that jammed into other songs. 3 pm – “Hey, we are Thankfully Departed.” Sixty minutes of music. 4 pm – ‘Thanks for coming.”

“One thing about what we do, which I think is necessary compared to other cover bands,” Tricarico said, “Is our attention to the equipment we use. Of course, if you can’t play the song’s foundation, it’s a problem. We tackle that in our way concerning the song and the parts that need to be there and the parts the audience needs to hear, as there are plenty of Grateful Dead tribute acts out there, but there is a sound that is necessary to have to become immersed in it. Don’t get me wrong, the song’s energy, the feeling you get from a band, and how they approach a song, set, and show are essential and valuable, but with what we do, we focus on the equipment as well. Our instruments use period-correct microphones, speakers, amps, and electronics. Whether people realize it or not, the Grateful Dead were cutting-edge in the equipment world. Their live sound equipment was second to none, and the instruments were no different.”

If you enjoy the jams of the Grateful Dead and wish to immerse yourself in local music, you can “wine down” for the weekend at The Brown Pelican tonight with 70Vine at 5 pm. Tonight, they will pair French wines with cheese. The wine tasting will be followed by the smooth jam sounds of Thankfully Departed from 7 to 10 p.m. 

 

Tentacle Grooves Out of Grifton

 

Tentacle is a fun fusion jam band from Grifton, NC. This quartet features Brian Shewchuk on bass, Jim Gilliam on piano, keys, and sax, Peyton Wynne behind the kit, and Jon Snyder, the band’s director, on guitar and vocals. Half the band has roots in the soil of NC, but Snyder and  Shewchuk are transplanted  Yankees, much like myself, and they played in familiar territories in my NJ/PA stomping ground. Snyder was in several popular groove bands in the ’90s.  Familiar to me are Copious Jive and Machine Gun Kelly.

 

Tentacle Band is still relatively new to the scene. They started jamming together professionally last year. They have a page on Facebook, where you will learn they are versed in playing an eclectic mix of funk, jazz, fusion, and boogaloo. I caught the band at The Brown Pelican at the end of January and thoroughly enjoyed their opening set.  When I contacted Snyder, he directed me to a recent article by local music journalist Donna Davis and her write-up on the band for The Daily Reflector in December of last year. I love Davis’s work on our local music scene. Many Pitt and Beaufort Counties bands refer me to her informative write-ups. 

When I saw them at The Pelican at the start of the year, I considered Tentacle a wild ride of fusion grooves. I can always hear the technical Jazz side of these jam-style bands. To put them in a pocket with other local groove masters on our scene, I’d say they sound a lot like Hank Barbee of Richlands joining forces with The Spread of Morehead City. If you missed their New Bern shows until now, catch them this weekend. They will roll through town on Saturday night, March 8, 2025. Join them at The Brown Pelican and get lost in their grooves. Tentacle will offer their jams from 7-10 pm.

I look forward to learning more about this band and its players and telling you more about them in the coming weeks.

 

Cove City Quartet Packhouse Brings the Jams 

Sometimes, it takes months, even years, before the schedule meshes for me to take in the grooves of a band I hear word spreading about. In the case of Packhouse, it was about a year. They have been causing a stir since stepping foot in New Bern in the fall of 2023.

Following their show earlier this year at The Brown Pelican, I contacted the band to learn more about the band and their jams. Bassman, Matthew Crawford reached back with some answers to my questions. He told me, “Packhouse is a dynamic musical experience rooted in funk, rock, and jam traditions. Born out of late-night jam sessions, Packhouse evolved from casual gatherings into a collective with a unique sonic identity—a place where diverse influences and creative ideas converge. Their immersive live experiences, such as the acclaimed ‘Packhouse of Horror’ on October 31, 2024, at The Brown Pelican, saw them reimagine the Grateful Dead’s ‘Workingman’s Dead’ album into their set.”

The current rotation offers jams with Dave Weatherly (Percussion), Ashlan Crawford (Drums), Matthew Crawford (Bass), and John Honbarrier (Guitar).

Bassman and brother Crawford explained, “Each performance is a unique journey shaped by on-stage chemistry and the crowd’s energy. Whether stretching a song into uncharted sonic landscapes or curating themed sets, Packhouse continually evolves, inviting audiences to embrace something new and unpredictable every night.” They seem quite at home with the loving crowd at The Brown Pelican.

With calling Cove City, NC their homebase makes Packhouse a local jam band. Area clubs looking to incorporate more jams should consider this quartet of music makers for their establishments. They bring the grooves and joy for all music appreciators—call (252) 474-6174 for rates and availability.

If you have not heard this jam quartet, mark your calendars and fly to The Brown Pelican on Saturday, March 22, 2025.

 

 

 

From The Creator:

 

 

I hope you can forgive the delays and the downtime. Since September, I have been transferring my old WordPress site (The First Decade of NCMZ.LIVE ) to file form, and since November, I’ve been revamping this site. I have been off the grid from publishing articles and sharing pictures because I have been working on creating a landing page for live music events around the state for this site. On the writing side, this creates a backlog of bands, which I hope to catch up with now that the doldrums of blogging are figured out. I have three blogs in the draft bank. This was the first off the press.

Having mentioned the landing page in passing, however, let me tell you that if you’d like to add your events to this site, please share your calendar and events with me. Tag or invite me to Facebook events and/or send me a link to your gig calendar on Google. Please email me at tracey.stones.writer@gmail.com. You can follow me on Facebook at Tracey Stones for music info and invite me to your events. You can also follow or ask me to events via the page I created for this site at ncmz.live on Facebook.

Many music makers have Facebook and use a Google calendar. Some keep it to themselves, but I say share that shit. I’m ready to add your events from Eventbrite, Facebook, and Google to my calendar and landing page on this site. I don’t feel that one system is effective at offering information. Though Facebook is good, it is becoming more cluttered with ads, and now they limit data. I am back on WordPress, offering an extra promotion layer for area music venues and bands. Thank you for being here. Please share this site with your friends. 

 

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