Nate Gross spent three years fielding requests before he finally took Blues Is Dead on the road. The project — built around the blues tunes the Grateful Dead covered in their own sets — drew what Gross himself called an “insane” response when it debuted, and a crossover audience that told him something worth knowing about where the Dead’s blues roots actually live in people. After that limited tour schedule was announced, it picked up this stop: Monday, October 19 at Funk ‘n Waffles in Syracuse.
About the Show
Blues Is Dead is Gross’s own concept — its full name is Nate Gross’ Blues Is Dead: A Celebration of the Blues Music by The Grateful Dead — where he and his collaborators play the blues tunes the Dead absorbed and covered throughout their career. The project treats the blues as a progressive genre, with the Dead’s versions as one chapter in a longer story. The evening opens with that set, then gives way to the full Nate Gross Band: blues, rock, soul, Americana, jazz, and traditional American sounds built around what his press materials honestly call “monster-sized guitar licks.” Two sets. Two different angles on where American music has been and what it carried forward.
Gross has spent more than two decades building a reputation in the Central NY and Northeast PA blues and roots scenes. He is a two-time winner of Best Blues Recording at the Syracuse Area Music Awards, most recently for Raw Turkey, a live EP recorded at the Blarney Stone Pub in Norwich the night after Thanksgiving 2022. His latest studio album, A Ride with the Devil, arrived on streaming platforms in October 2024. The company he has kept over those years tells its own story: Walter Trout, Mike Zito, Tommy Castro, Levon Helm, Willie Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, Dickey Betts, Blackberry Smoke, and Popa Chubby have all shared a stage with him, and the endorsements that followed were genuine. Castro told him, “You have a long career ahead of you.” Popa Chubby, watching from the wings, said, “I need to step it up after Nate’s set.” Peter Marinus of Bluestown Music Magazine kept it simple: “Energetic, Pumping, Blazing Guitar Playing.”
Gross has headlined the NYS Blues Festival and the Chenango Blues Festival and was featured on the Masters of the Telecaster tour in 2020. Away from the stage, he operates a private music studio in Norwich teaching more than 50 students weekly and serves on the Board of Directors at the Earlville Opera House.
Venue & Logistics
Funk ‘n Waffles at 307 South Clinton Street is a bar, restaurant, and music venue in central New York — a Syracuse room that regularly draws regional blues and roots acts. The show is 18 and older. Show time is 7:30 p.m. EDT.
Tickets
Tickets start at $13.07. Buy tickets