In the devoted community that has grown around Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Aug. 1 to 9 holds a kind of spiritual significance as a period of remembrance and reflection. Those are the dates of Garcia’s birth and death, respectively, and are known among Deadheads as “The Days Between.
” Fittingly, “The Days Between,” a poignant ballad, is the last song that Garcia, a reluctant rock star who was the de facto leader of the Grateful Dead, wrote with lyricist Robert Hunter before his death in 1995. In acknowledgment of this quasi-memorial, the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley has bookended “The Days Between” with a pair of Dead-related shows: Jerry’s Middle Finger, a Grateful Dead cover band from Los Angeles, celebrates what would have been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist’s 82nd birthday on Aug. 1.
That show has been sold out for weeks. And on Aug. 9, the China Dolls, a mostly female band that bills itself as “women empowered Dead,” commemorates Garcia’s passing with a show that puts a feminine spin on classic songs by the Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band.
“It’s a special night, very sad and very bittersweet,” says singer Sunshine (Garcia) Becker, the founder and lead singer of China Dolls. “It’s allowing people the space to feel the sadness for Jerry not being here on this earth, but also to look at how his music transcends his lifetime. For me, as a Deadhead, what I hope is that we can tap into and channel a little bit of the ma.