Press

FEATURED

The Stolen Faces Go Deep on Grateful Dead Covers

Nashville’s DIY Dead tribute act captures the spirit of Jerry Garcia and company
SEAN L. MALONEY / JUN 18, 2025
www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/stolen-faces-nashville-grateful-dead-interview

Starting a Grateful Dead cover band is no joke. The second you decide to cover the Dead, you set a high bar. It could be argued that the Dead were undisputed masters of cover song selection and execution — best-case scenario, you’re setting yourself up for second place. Not only that, this isn’t as concept-specific as “’80s music” or “a wedding” — you’ve got four decades of music to pick from, and there’s hardly any consensus among fans about the best material.

For every blues lawyer hoping for “Touch of Grey” and “Casey Jones” there’s some weirdo out there hoping for an all “Drums/Space” set or a Best of Brent tribute. It’s a tough hustle! This week we celebrate that hustle with local Dead cover institution The Stolen Faces, whose Christian Grizzard we caught up with ahead of Bird Song Ball — a mini fest at 6th & Peabody also featuring Ben Sparaco’s Slow Pass, Jack Silverman Quartet and Miss Tess.

“I think there are two schools of Grateful Dead-type bands,” says Grizzard. “One of them is the more rare, ‘We’re going to sound just like the Grateful Dead’ [type band]. I feel like Dark Star Orchestra has really nailed that. They’re at the top of that group. I mean, I don’t feel like anybody ever does it better.

“And then the group that most of us fall into,” he continues, “is, ‘We’re a band, a jam band, and we play Grateful Dead Music.’ So we’re not trying to sound like the Grateful Dead, so when it comes time to improvise, we’re all approaching this more like just a jam band who plays improv music. It just kind of goes where it’s going to go.”

And while your average “Friend of the Devil” enjoyer might be perplexed by some of the more outré places those jams can go, The Stolen Faces do capture the spirit of the band and, more importantly, the spirit of the fandom. Not happy to rehash Skeletons in the Closet, The Stolen Faces go deep into the catalog to keep audiences on their toes.

“If you’re going to start a Grateful Dead band, and this probably happens with a lot of ’em, there’s about 30 to 50 songs that are not terribly difficult to learn to play that you can start off with,” says Grizzard. “And because of that, it’s kind of easy to start a Grateful Dead band. But if you really want to get deep into this, there’s some complicated stuff going on.

“And it’s not easy music once you really start delving into the catalog and playing a lot of the deeper stuff,” he continues. “So that has been definitely the biggest challenge, I would say, is just really learning all the material. At this point, I think our song list is at 260 songs.”

Grizzard keeps track of every set, making sure each city gets a unique set for each show. Mix in their regular every-other-Monday shows at Acme Feed & Seed, and that’s a lot of songs and song combos to keep track of. It also means that, mathematically speaking, there is a chance for an all-Donna set if they ever want to polarize the entire room. But The Stolen Faces have worked hard over the past decade to cultivate a loyal audience, so don’t expect the wrath of Godchaux just yet.

“I think for a DIY band, we’ve done pretty well,” says Grizzard, who handles booking, promotion, merch and publicity in addition to his bass duties. “We’ve never had any kind of booking agent or management or anything like that. It’s always just been me trying to figure this out.”

NASHVILLE SCENE / Jimmy Fallon Sits In With The Stolen Faces at Brooklyn Bowl / Stephen Trageser