News flash: After 11 years of solid success blending Celtic traditional music with the songs of the Grateful Dead, the world’s first Celtic all-star Grateful Dead jam band is bringing its unique brand of musical alchemy to the Summer of Love, much to the delight of Deadheads, folkies, rockers, and lovers of Irish reels. The Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” the Youngblood’s “Get Together,” Steven Stills’ “Love the One You’re With” – all receive the band’s unique Celtic twist. “If you didn’t know the songs, or hadn’t read the credits,” says Shaun Dale in Cosmik Debris Magazine, “it would be easy get swept up in this music and imagine that some of the Garcia/Hunter material came from the pen of Turlough O’Carolan himself. Every segue works, and every song is beautiful.”

The band features Maureen Brennan on harp, Cindy Browne on bass, Danny Carnahan on vocals, fiddle, octave mandolin, and guitar, Kevin Carr on fiddle, whistles and uilleann (Irish bellows) pipes, Sylvia Herold on vocals, Paul Kotapish on mandolin, guitar, and jaw harp, and Brian Rice on percussion. Tonight’s show honors the Day of the Dead, and you may hear a few rarities, like the Brothers Johnson’s “Cast My Spell on You.” Be sure to wear a flower in your hair, and let Wake the Dead cast a Celtic spell on you.

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Listen to a track from Wake the Dead: