Dead and Company was 'Truckin', H.E.R. rocked on stormy Saturday at New Orleans Jazz Fest

With 30 minutes to go in singer and guitarist H.E.R.’s Congo Square Stage closing set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Saturday, she repeated the phrase “make it rain, make it rain.”

It already had.

Morning storms delayed the festival’s opening until 12:15 p.m. The first acts on each stage were canceled, and many second acts had their set times pushed back and/or shortened.

But that allowed the rest of the day to proceed as scheduled, despite intermittent showers and lots of soupy muck on the track.

Despite the stormy start, big crowds turned out for the day’s three biggest closers: H.E.R. at Congo Square, Dead and Company at the Festival Stage and, especially, the Lumineers at the Shell Gentilly Stage.

It ended up being a solid Saturday. Without the storms, it would have been massive.

Bassist George Porter Jr.’s show with his Runnin’ Pardners was delayed by 25 minutes and shortened by 20 minutes. He made up some of that lost time by joining powerhouse R&B belter Erica Falls for part of her set at Congo Square.

But he did not, as many fans hoped, sit in with Dead & Company. He had to leave the Fair Grounds by mid-afternoon for a sound check for a nighttime show at Republic New Orleans. Ironically enough, that show was the first of two nights of “Voodoo Dead” – an all-star tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead.

Last weekend the Revivalists canceled their much-anticipated show on Jazz Fest’s main stage at the very last minute after singer David Shaw lost his voice. No manner of emergency treatment, he later revealed in an Instagram post, could revive it (no pun intended).

On Saturday his voice was in fine shape for his solo band’s show at the Shell Gentilly Stage. Backed by a band that included Orleans Avenue guitarist Pete Murano and PJ Howard, one of the Revivalists’ two drummers, Shaw strummed an acoustic as he sang “just sing along,” something he wasn’t able to do last weekend.

He showcased several tracks from his excellent 2021 self-titled solo album, including “I’ll Be Your Man” and “Shaken.” He also promised a “little surprise for y’all later.”

That surprise turned out to be the rest of the Revivalists. Last Saturday, “I lost my voice,” Shaw said. “It killed me.” Thus he was happy to bring out his “brothers in the Revivalists” for a quick turn.

“You knew we couldn’t let it go without doing something!” Shaw enthused. “You ready to turn this energy up just a little bit? Or a lot a bit?”

As gray skies unleashed another shower, the Revivalists did just that with an exuberant “Kid,” the hit lead single from the band’s forthcoming album.

With that, Shaw and his solo band concluded with “Got Me Feeling Good,” an apt description of his make-up gig.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band isn’t usually slotted on Jazz Fest’s main Festival Stage. But they performed just ahead of Dead & Company on Saturday for a reason.

In 1968, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band logged three nights at Bill Graham's Fillmore West in San Francisco with the Grateful Dead, Santana, Steppenwolf, the Sons of Champlin and the Staple Singers.

Fifty-five years later, after numerous other collaborations, Pres Hall was the obvious choice to precede the Grateful Dead-derived Dead & Company for what was the first show of the band’s farewell tour.

Two weeks ago, Dead & Company drummer Bill Kreutzmann and the band announced he wouldn’t be taking part in the tour due to a “shift in creative direction.”

On Saturday, his former drum chair was occupied by Jay Lane, the drummer in Dead & Company frontman Bob Weir’s side band, RatDog.

Lane largely powered Dead & Company as they went to work with “Truckin’” and its “busted down on Bourbon Street” lyric. Weir, the very definition of “grizzled,” evoked an 1800s miner just coming down from the mountain after an especially harsh winter.

But he gamely handled his vocal and rhythm guitar duties, letting young gun guitarist John Mayer and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti set off most of the instrumental fireworks, in “Shakedown Street" and, especially, “Brown-Eyed Woman,” which Mayer sang.

Mayer mimicked the country-flecked tones baked into Dead classics. Though he is capable of dominating a stage, he stayed in step with the ensemble.

Through the first 40 minutes, they managed only three songs; the wasted moments were few, even if the tempos overall dragged a bit. Momentum really flagged during the fourth song, “He’s Gone,” source of the “steal your face” reference that is key to Dead mythology. Drummer Mickey Hart, along with Weir the only holdover from the Grateful Dead, got up from his kit, ambled over to Lane’s and gave him a brotherly shake of the shoulders.

They picked up the tempo with “Cumberland Blues,” singing “the sun is getting high” right around the time the sun finally made an appearance over the Fair Grounds. During the “Drums”/”Space” interlude, Sunpie Barnes' Northside Skull & Bones Gang, complete with a stilt walker, made an appearance.

At Congo Square, H.E.R. gave the crowd much to cheer about despite calling for more rain. After a breezy, understated couple of songs on acoustic guitar, she showed off her electric guitar chops on a cover of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”

She concluded with “We Made It,” which contains the lyric “we was prayin’ for the sunshine.”

Yes we were.