Phil Lesh & Friends at Terrapin Crossroads… January 2016

A couple months ago in October, I was saddened to hear the news that Grateful Dead bassist, Phil Lesh was battling a bout of bladder cancer and cancelled a number of tour dates. Among them was a show at his venue, Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, CA playing with his band, Phil Lesh & Friends which I had been asked to do a print for. The print was at the presses when the news came in and we decided to put it on hold.

Luckily he has been feeling better again and is back on tour so we reworked the poster for a recent gig last week at the Crossroads.

The name of the venue, Terrapin Crossroads, conjures up a lot of imagery not just relating to The Grateful Dead but from the Blues in general such as the “Crossroads”, which to me is a reference to the crossroads in which bluesman Robert Johnson met the devil to trade his soul for his guitar prowess. This was the basis for most of my concepts. I usually do not try to go too literal with the artwork in relation to a band name or venue name but the terrapin-bluesman sitting at the crossroads seemed fitting this time.

The final poster is a 5-color, (18’x 24′) print printed by the folks at Monolith Press and has a print run of 150 which will be available by the band at the show. I will have a small Artist Edition run of 25 Signed & Numbered for sale on (Mon) January 25th @ 11AM (PST).

I am glad Phil is back and look forward to many more shows…