So Many Roads: A Grateful Dead Podcast

The Unbroken Chain: Phil Lesh, Daniel Donato, and The Capital Theatre

• P.Bouley • Episode 9

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A room can change the way music moves — and The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester is one of those rare spaces where the past hums in the walls and every note cuts sharper. We follow a living thread from the Grateful Dead’s legendary 1971 run to Daniel Donato’s first headlining night, exploring how tradition and risk keep pushing each other forward.

From the Dead’s debut of Bertha, Loser, and the luminous Dark Star → Wharf Rat sequence to Donato’s Telecaster fire and cosmic-country swagger, the Cap remains a stage that rewards daring. Phil Lesh’s legacy still anchors the room, and Donato’s blend of twang and transcendence feels like the next verse in that story.

Fans, friends, and familiar spirits all add to the charge — proof that at The Cap, history doesn’t just echo; it evolves.

Thanks for riding along on So Many Roads.
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Find all episodes, videos, and extras here: https://linktr.ee/somanyroadspodcast

SPEAKER_07:

There's something about the Capitol Theater in Porchester, New York. It's not just a venue, it's a living, breathing piece of rock history. You feel it the moment you walk through the doors. That subtle charge, like ghosts of the music paths, are waiting for you as you climb the stairs into the balcony. Tonight I'm here to see one of the hottest new bands on the scene. Daniel Donato's Cosmic Hundred. Psychedelic improved a dead-inspired exploration into something entirely his own. I first saw Daniel over a decade ago when he was eighteen, playing in Nashville, a kid with a telecaster, already wielding a tone and touch that stopped you in your tracks. Now, years later, he's headlining the cap for the first time. At the same stage where Jerry Pigpen and the gang once churned out one of the Grateful Dead's greatest runs. By the late 1960s, it had transformed into something else entirely, a psychedelic palace. Artists who've played here read like a music hall of fame. In addition to the dead, the early 70s saw Traffic, Pink Floyd, and Janice Joplin, who premiered her song Mercedes-Bands Here. After falling on hard times, the theater reopened in 2012 with a Bob Dylan show. And under Peter Shapiro's leadership, it's become a vegan for live music again. Personally, living just an hour away, I can't imagine a musical life without the cat. Regular access to J. Rad, Phil Ashen Friends, Dark Star Orchestra, and Melvin Seals keeps me connected to the legacy I may have missed as a young dead fan. When you walk in, you can feel it. The dual energy. Her cathedral, part roadhouse, velvet curtains, ornate plaster work, and at the same time, sweat enjoy his chaos by the end of every night. There's only two theaters, man, that are set up pretty groovy all around for music and for smooth stage changes, good lighting and all that. The Fillmore and the Capitol Theater. And those are the only two in the whole country. That's what Jerry Garcia told Jay Echowitz after a 1970 concert at Queen's College. And after looking back at their history at the Capitol, it's easy to understand why. The February 71 shows are stuff of a legend. The band seem to have reinvented themselves in real time. During his run in Torchester, they debuted seven songs. And Mickey Hart left the band after the first show. As much as it's fun to dissect the first night without Mickey, it's his final night that really steals the show. Or in this case, the shows. It opens with a clean, punchy debut of Bertha. Garcia song Loser is played for the first time, but sounds as if it's been in their set list forever. The greatest story ever told makes its first slightly clunky appearance before evolving into the powerhouse it would soon become. And then there's plane in the band, introduced in its unusual ten-four time signature before it grew into the open-ended jam vehicle we all know. There's also some banter that came to be known as the chandelier incident. A glimpse into the intimacy between the dead and their audience. You can almost picture the ornate ceiling, the warm light, and a band at ease in that room.

SPEAKER_10:

Let's take a show of hands. How many people want that line on?

SPEAKER_07:

That same night, Wharf Rap made its debut, sandwiched between two versions of Darkstar. When David Gans later played that sequence in the late 90s for Phil Lesh, he teared up.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Oh.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh. When was that from?

SPEAKER_01:

February 18th, 1971, Capitol Theater, Port Chester, New York. It was coming out of the first Wharf Rat ever and back into Darkstar.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh. Pretty stuff. Oh, that's just gorgeous. Oh that I'm sorry, that just brought tears to my eyes. I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, that's gorgeous. Is it longer than that?

SPEAKER_01:

No, that's pretty much it from well, Warfrat kind of winds down, and that's the jam that kicks in. It's about five minutes worth, and then it's back to the conclusion of Dark Star. But that if you know I thank you very much. I'm so glad you liked it, Phil.

SPEAKER_02:

Gorgeous.

SPEAKER_07:

Thanks, man. And I get it. The sequence is different and pure delight. The first Dark Star is searching and expansive. Dwarf rat then arrives beautifully and complete. And the second Darkstar blossoms into what deadheads call the beautiful jam. Maybe it's me. But before they go into the transition, is Jerry flirting with China Cat? Phil and Billy nudging towards going down the road feeling bad. Whatever it was, that dark star outro developed into pure improvisational magic. A snapshot of the dead at their most fearless. Bobby's rhythm work is sharp. Billy steps forward into the single drummer role with ease. But on those recordings, it's hard not to see Phil as the driving force. His bass playing melodic, powerful, and central to the new sound the band was shaping. Phil's love for the Capitol Theater never faded. Since the venue's reopening in 2012, he played there a hundred and six times. A living thread back to those nights in the early 1970s. So it feels only right that Port Chaster recently renamed the street outside the cap, Phil Lash Lane. As my crew walked up that road into the theater for Daniel Donato, you could still feel that cosmic energy in the air. He calls it cosmic conjury, a name that's as much a mission statement as it is a sound. It's the meeting point of tradition and improvisation, of twang and transcendence. I think cosmic conjury is a tale as old as time, really, Donato once said. It's yin and yang in a musical form. It's three chords in the truth. And then on the other side, it's exploration and bravery, quote. That's the tight rope he walks every night. Nasheville storytelling roots mixed with the free-form energy that bands like the grateful dead build their legacy on. His guitar-playing channel wolf. The discipline of a honky tonk in the open sky of the jam-band world. It's music that's grounded but unafraid to lift off. So when Donato steps on stage of the cat, a place where the dead once turned Americana and rock into something limitless, it feels less like a throwback, but more like an evolution. The show opened with instant energy, straight up honky honk twang, full of great groove and confidence. A few songs in they hit us with mystery train. Played closer to Little Junior's Blue Flames version, the same one the Jerry Garcia band used to play. For me, the highlight of the first set was fan favorite double exposure. There's a stretch in the jam where Donato's phrasing even brings to mind Trey. You can hear why so many fish fans have found their way into his orbit.

SPEAKER_00:

I was hooked. I thought it was awesome.

SPEAKER_04:

What about you? What about you, brother? Come on. I live in Connecticut. Heard about him about five, six years ago, and saw him this summer at the Lovin Pavilion in Westport with infamous Scream Gusters and Mama. Daniel's got a tone like no other man. Loving him.

SPEAKER_06:

He's such an talented player. What do you guys think about the band in general? What do you think about the albums? Like, are you all in, like, listening all the time on social media? Like, is this a new band for you guys?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I've I've listened to a lot of his shows over the last couple years and like pretty regularly as they come out. So uh yeah, no, it's kind of cool to see them continue to grow. Like they, you know, their jams are getting deeper and deeper kind of all the time. So it's yeah, it's it's I want to see kind of where they go for in the next couple of years.

SPEAKER_04:

Embracing the jam scene, but still keeping their roots within Nashville little twangy guitar. Love the the whole band.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, it's cool to see his fan base expand too. Like, you know, the first couple of shows I went to was like more cowboy hats, and now it's kind of more like jam guys, and so it's kind of cool to see him continue to grow and uh yeah, it's American Americana at its finest.

SPEAKER_07:

Before heading back inside, I caught up with my good friend Joe, one of the guys I first saw Daniel with over a decade ago, to get his thoughts on seeing Donato at this historic venue.

SPEAKER_06:

Let's talk a little bit about how we saw Daniel Donato before he was super famous 12 years ago. You and I went to uh Nashville for our 40th birthday party, and we went into there was a bar called Robert's Western World. And uh Daniel was playing, he was 18 years old. What do you remember about that joke?

SPEAKER_03:

I just remember um how fun it was and how like he was so young but so talented, and I wanted to see him again because it was like so such a great time.

SPEAKER_06:

And then we saw him just a few years ago in Hartford, and it was kind of like um I think it was kind of near our 50th birthday, too. That was kind of like an anniversary when we saw him. And what do you think of this band he's put together?

SPEAKER_03:

I think they're great, like I actually love the keyboard players. I think he's the man.

SPEAKER_06:

Alright, all right, and what about Joe? What about the Capitol Theater? What do you think about the Capitol Theater in general?

SPEAKER_03:

I love the Capitol Theater, the dentist played here so many times. We got Garcias, it's epic, like those balconies on the side. It's it's it's like it's really cool. It's it's old school.

SPEAKER_06:

I love Garcia stuff all over the walls. I think we even saw a uh Piece of the Wall of Sound they have here. I haven't really given it a good look, even though I've been here so many times. I need to do that. Um, so anything else you gotta say about the party that the Capitol Theater puts on?

SPEAKER_03:

No, I think it's a really good time. Um it's it's kind of crazy out there, which is fun. Like it was having a good time, which is which is what it's all about when you go see live music, so it's great.

SPEAKER_07:

The second set stretched further, more expansive, more cosmic. At times it even leaned into disco territory, a groove-based psychedelic experience that shimmered and pulsed. The band's interplay was tight but fearless. A 19-minute dance in the desert captured it perfectly. Part country sermon and part interstellar voyage. One of those moments where everything clicked. Donato stepped to the mic and talked about what he had learned from Phil Ash, which hit especially deep on this night. Exactly one year to the day of Phil's passing.

SPEAKER_08:

You know, each note. And it's the first time that you've ever played the song, and if you played it dozens, hundreds of thousands of times. And this day today is the one-year anniversary of Phil's departure from this material realm. And it's also a further certification of everything that he gave us and how he was still very much alive. So it's a beautiful day and the synchronicity of us being here today for our first time headlining. I wanted to do something for the first time. I figured I would just take a cue from Jerry, and uh Jerry debuted this song. Acoustic, just him in a guitar on this very stage, and it was the only time he ever did that. And it was the first time, and it was the last time for him, and so I wanted to give it a shot here on this very stage, and that's why.

SPEAKER_07:

What followed was pure reverence. An acoustic Ruben Cherisse, and an odd Jerry playing the same song on this very stage. Then came Loser, Cumberland Blues and Samson and Delilah. It wasn't imitation, it was a conversation across generations. I don't think it was a coincidence that Loser appeared on the same stage where it debuted. And in the transition to Samson and Delilah, maybe even a subtle nod to that first bird song. You can decide for yourself. The history wasn't lost on Donato and his band. It was alive and glowing. Another thread in the cap's ongoing story. So to take us out, here's Daniel Donato joining Phil Ash and Friends on Direwolf at the Capitol Theater in Porchester, New York in 2024. One of Phil's final shows. It's a moment that says everything about this place. History meeting the future, tradition meeting reinvention, but the music truly never stops.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm your host, Pete Booley. Dave Steinman is our show's technical director, theme music by Sawyer Boolean. Original artwork by Ashley Hodson. You can find us on YouTube, Meta, at our website, so many roadspodcast.buzzsprout.com. If you have a unique story or perspective to share, feel free to make a comment on any platform. Or hit me up at so many roadspodcast at gmail.com. Thanks for listening. Until next time, let's keep the journey going.

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Pete

Host
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Dave

Producer
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Ashley

Editor
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Sawyer

Editor

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