Five Unforgettable Grateful Dead Sit-Ins That Shaped Their California Sound
From Joan Baez to Carlos Santana, these iconic guest appearances reveal how the Dead’s California shows became incubators for creative reinvention.
The Grateful Dead loved a sit-in—when the band invited a guest musician to join them onstage. Of the dozens of sit-ins at California Dead shows, here are five noteworthy, career-spanning home-state appearances that track the iconic group’s sonic evolution.
This roundup appears in Issue 34 of Alta Journal. SUBSCRIBE
Joan Baez
July 16, 1966, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco
Joan Baez’s laid-bare folk sound stood in stark contrast to the Grateful Dead’s electrified psychedelic dance music—but that’s why her sit-in during the Dead’s encore at a packed Fillmore Auditorium worked. Alongside Jefferson Airplane members, the band jammed Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” for a half hour, with Baez on guest vocals. She would join the Dead onstage again on a few occasions in the early ’80s, in San Mateo and Oakland.
David Crosby
July 14, 1970, Euphoria Ballroom, San Rafael
Guitarist David Crosby influenced the Dead before he joined the band onstage for acoustic versions of “Cumberland Blues” and “New Speedway Boogie.” As a member of folk rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, his music inspired the Dead to refine their vocals as the ’60s rolled over to the ’70s, when the band’s singers learned to harmonize. The shift can be heard on the companion studio albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, released in June and November 1970, respectively. That Crosby’s sit-in occurred in San Rafael, the Dead’s longtime headquarters, lent the proceedings a decidedly down-home feel.
Carlos Santana
January 13, 1980, Coliseum Arena, Oakland
Carlos Santana had his share of Dead encounters. The guitarist first saw the band play in San Francisco in their early days. Santana’s own band and the Dead shared bills in the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s. So when he finally joined them onstage for an ultra-jammy “Not Fade Away” and “Sugar Magnolia” at the 15,000-plus-capacity Coliseum Arena at the dawn of the ’80s, the collaboration was a long time coming. That was the first of four Santana sit-ins with the Dead in California, and in recordings of it, the guitarist’s playing is instantly recognizable.
Bonnie Raitt
December 31, 1989, Coliseum Arena, Oakland
For years, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir had tried to integrate the slide guitar into their songbook, to middling success. That is, until Bonnie Raitt took the stage with the band on the last night of the ’80s for a low-and-dirty cover of Jimmy Reed’s 12-bar blues classic “Big Boss Man.” Too bad that was the only time she ever sat in with the Dead—but how memorable it was.
Branford marsalis
December 16, 1994, Sports Arena, Los Angeles
Sometimes a sit-in is so good it has to span the whole show. Take saxophonist Branford Marsalis accompanying the Dead for this nearly three-hour concert, save the encore. The late-era Dead unlocked new musical spaces by tapping guest sax players, including Ornette Coleman, Clarence Clemons, and David Murray. Marsalis had twice sat in at California Dead concerts, but his presence at this gig felt particularly inspired at moments when the band itself needed a spark. His screaming solo on “New Minglewood Blues,” tasteful runs across a monster 20-minute “Eyes of the World,” and controlled freak-outs during a heady and cosmic “Estimated Prophet”? Far-out.
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