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Friday, November 29, 2002

By Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette Weekend Editor

Rob Barraco first saw the Grateful Dead on March 29, 1972, and life hasn't been the same since.

He walked out thinking, "This is what I want to do with my life" and he didn't mean follow them around the country in a beat-up van.

Barraco wanted to be a player and devoted his life to bands that jammed in the free spirit of the Dead. He became established enough with the New York group the Zen Tricksters that when Phil Lesh was looking for "Friends" after the death of Jerry Garcia he gave Barraco a call.

Barraco found himself in dual roles in Phil Lesh and Friends, playing the keyboard parts once graced by the likes of Keith Godchaux and Brent Mydland and putting his voice to songs Garcia once sang..

"I've been a Deadhead since I was 15," Barraco says, "and all this music had become second nature. I've been singing these songs, whether in a band or doing them myself, for years. I remember being 15 and sitting on a lawn in high school and singing these songs. It's almost natural for me to sing them. I did an interview with a guy and he said, 'It must be an awesome responsibility to fill Jerry's shoes.' I never even thought about it that way, because you can't fill Jerry's shoes."

Barraco's dream gig went up a notch when he was recruited to become part of The Other Ones with Lesh, former Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, guitarists Jimmy Herring and Susan Tedeschi, and pianist Jeff Chimenti.

Although both bands use the Dead as source material, the approaches are subtly different.

"Phil's band is highly improvisational. Right from the beginning, we start going places. We hardly discuss it. We discuss a key and a rhythm and then it goes. Even the songs themselves, we're prying open and exploring places the Dead never did.

"The Other Ones is not gonna do that. It's more like the Dead approach. There are places where the band can go out, but we won't be ripping up the songs, unless, like on something like 'Dark Star,' they're designed for that."

Barraco sees the Other Ones as more than just a trip back through the Dead's glory days, particularly since most of the band members are working on new material. Barraco even had the chance to write with longtime Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who is accompanying the band on the tour.

"For me, it was the ultimate dream," Barraco says. "I used to tell people, 'I just want to write one tune with Robert Hunter in my life' and it came to pass. Now I've written a bunch of tunes with him."

Scott Mervis can be reached at smervis@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2576.