A sold out show and full house of guests watch an acoustice style performance by Dead to the Core and guest performer Liz Ingersoll at 443 Social Club in Syracuse, New York. Credit: Yolanda Stewart| Central Current

Once each month in Syracuse, Grateful Dead fans head to Shakedown Sunday, an acoustic-style concert series at the 443 Social Club.

The venue can be found filled with Deadheads dressed in Grateful Dead T-shirts. 443 is dimly lit and illuminated by multicolored projector lights for the shows.

“There’s all kinds of people who play the Grateful Dead repertoire all over, I mean, in every city, but not many who do it in that sort of concert setting like we do and the acoustic interpretations,” said Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, a musician and journalist who helps put on the shows.   

The monthly concert began in September 2023. The next concert is Oct. 20 at 1 p.m. at 443 Social Club. Ticket prices are $17.79.

The name of the event is an ode to the Grateful Dead song “Shakedown Street.” The series includes Grateful Dead hits covered by Dead to the Core, the Grateful Dead cover band created by Rodgers. Now in its second year, the series includes different guest performers in collaboration with Dead to the Core.

Rodgers’ band played their first concert at 443 as part of the concert series last September. They came to the attention of Julia Leone, who runs the social club, because of some of their other performances. 

This iteration of Dead to the Core took years to form. It began with Rodgers and bandmate Wendy Sassafras Ramsay playing twice at the Jerry Garcia Birthday Celebration in Cambridge, Mass. 

Not long after, the show series’ success Rodgers and Ramsay decided to rebrand as Dead to the Core, a touring act. The group played their first show in Central New York in 2019 at Johnson Park in Liverpool. 

In 2022, Rodgers added more members to the band. He brought in Syracuse-based music artists like Tim Burns and Wendy Sassafras, of Rochester. He also found Josh Dekaney, from Texas, and John Dancks and Brian Welch, both Central New York natives. 

“We all crossed paths through local music circles. I’ve played and recorded original music with all these musicians – except Brian –  for many years before forming Dead to the Core,” Rodgers said. 

After several years of planning and pandemic-related delays, Leone got Dead to the Core to play at the social club in September 2023. The show sold out in a few days, he said. 

“People have loved it, and the shows have all sold out.  It’s become such a fun community event in all ways. I [have] really gotten to know people who come regularly,” Rodgers said.  

Burns and Ramsay host Shakedown Sundays with Rodgers and help him bring on special guests every month. Both bandmates have been involved in various music projects with Rodgers for more than a decade.

Depending whether the band brings in a special guest, they sometimes perform original music or music from other artists. 

“It’s not about recreating things like a tribute show, but it’s definitely about people doing the songs in their own way,” Rodgers said. “We just have a lot of fun treating the music as very much a living thing to interpret, rather than trying to recreate some specific recording or anything like that.”

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Yolanda Stewart was raised in the Bronx, New York City. Before choosing a career path in journalism she found a voice in writing plays, short stories, and a myriad of other creative outlets. She is a 2022...