Why the world still cares about the Grateful Dead

Beethoven’s Ninth, the Hungarian Rhapsody and Terrapin Station?

If you’re not ready to place one of the Grateful Dead’s top jams up there with legendary symphonies, that day is coming.

And if you’re wondering why a thirtysomething South Florida columnist cares about the Dead, look no further than next week’s Wanee Music Festival at the Spirit of Suwanee Park in Live Oak.

It’s not exactly around the corner from us — a five-hour drive from Fort Lauderdale — but I’ve attended nearly every year for the last decade. And each year I try to spread the word because I believe in the power of live music — especially in these tense, irritable times when we should all let loose in the woods for a few days.

Wanee, a Southern rock-heavy festival founded by the Allman Brothers, now kicks off the nation’s ever-growing festival season. Overnight music festivals, a staple of the ’60s and ’70s, largely vanished for decades. Now, they’re everywhere — there are dozens and dozens across the country and internationally all summer long, and it starts with Wanee.

What I immediately noticed about this year’s lineup was the heavy dose of Grateful Dead music. Thursday night’s headliner, Dark Star Orchestra, is playing four hours of Dead music. Bob Weir, an original Dead member, performs both Friday and Saturday night. Keller Williams, a staple on the festival scene, is performing with his “Grateful Grass” group — a bluegrass rendition of the Dead. Crazy Fingers, South Florida’s long-time Dead cover band, will be there.

So I reached out to Williams and asked him why the Dead still inspires after more than a half century — and why young people continue to flock to their music.

“I think Grateful Dead music is a genre unto itself, in the same way jazz or bluegrass is,” he said. “You can get musicians together who have never met before and play together as if they played for years. They’re following a certain formula.

“The Dead has had such an impact on so many people. I think they’re far from going away and will be around long, long, long after all of us are gone.”

Without the Dead, you wouldn’t have this music festival scene which has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The Grateful Dead have made a lot of people a lot of money. It’s fascinating for a band that had just one Top 10 hit, Touch of Grey — not during the hippie revolution but during the Reagan revolution of the mid-1980s.

Two years ago, the surviving Dead members announced they’d play their final shows together. Fare Thee Well, at Chicago’s Soldier Field, was a smash hit — at one point tickets were scalping for tens of thousands of dollars. But instead of serving as a grand finale, it only sparked more interest in the Dead. Several documentaries have been released recently and Amazon is producing a Grateful Dead TV series.

Williams is right. The Dead’s impact will long outlast the band members.

“It starts with the lyrics, it starts with the meaning,” he said. “That’s where it all begins — with melody and words. Somehow that combination was very powerful from starting a long time ago. It keeps gaining this kind of spiritual meaning to so many different people.”

It’s why in these stressful times, I encourage everyone to take a road trip to north Florida. If the Dead’s not your thing, camp out on the Suwanee river for a couple days without your cellphone or cable news. We all need a break.

Without the Dead, you wouldn’t have this music festival scene which has become a multi-billion dollar industry.