Phil Lesh turned 81 years young this past Monday. Phil’s 80th birthday plans at the Capitol (and later at LOCKN) were spoiled by the pandemic last year. In retrospect, I’m just glad Phil and his friends are celebrating 81, even if it is socially distant.

To mark the Grateful Dead founding member’s 81st trip around the sun, Phil’s son Grahame Lesh and his Terrapin Family Band assembled an absolutely knock-out line-up for a quarantined collaboration of Lesh’s “Unbroken Chain.” While the line-up for this cover represents just a sampling of the Phil and Friend’s line-ups through the years, it gave me goosebumps reading it.

Here are the notes from on the performance, “Happy 81st birthday to Phil Lesh! For the last several years we’ve been gathering at The Capitol Theatre or Terrapin Crossroads to celebrate Phil’s birthday with various star studded Phil & Friends or Terrapin Family Band lineups. We can’t wait to all be back doing it in person, but for now a kaleidoscopic collaboration of Phil’s friends have honored him with a quarantined version of his masterpiece, “Unbroken Chain”.

The performance features The Terrapin Family Band (Grahame Lesh, Ross James, Alex Koford, Jason Crosby, Nathan Graham, & Elliott Peck) along with Mike Gordon, Joe Russo, Warren Haynes, John Scofield, Jeff Chimenti, Adam MacDougall, Stanley Jordan , Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Amy Helm, Nicki Bluhm, Karl Denson, Holly Bowling, Eric Krasno, Anders Osborne, Jackie Greene, Tom Hamilton, Luther Dickinson, Jon Graboff’s what’s happening page, Scott Law Music, & Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz. Happy Birthday Phil – we love you more than words can tell!”

Thanks to Terrapin Crossroad‘s YouTube channel for the great collaboration! Happy birthday, Phil!!