Elementary School Choir Sings the Grateful Dead's "Ripple," "Box of Rain," "Brokedown Palace" & More: RIP Bob Weir

"the choir per­forms a wide-rang­ing mix of music, from clas­sic pop and rock to indie songs by artists like Wilco, Muse, The Flam­ing Lips, and espe­cial­ly the Grate­ful Dead. Above and below, you can find per­for­mances of such Dead clas­sics as "Rip­ple," "Box of Rain" and "Going Down the Road Feel­ing Bad" → "I Know You Rid­er." And if you head to their YouTube chan­nel, you can find ver­sions of " Cas­sidy," " Touch of Grey," " Scar­let Bego­nias," " Broke­down Palace, " and more."

"With the pass­ing of Bob Weir this week­end, it seems like a fit­ting time to high­light these per­for­mances. Weir first joined the Dead when only a teenag­er, still basi­cal­ly a kid him­self, and then con­tin­ued the jour­ney for the next 60 years, intro­duc­ing the Dead­'s song­book to suc­ces­sive gen­er­a­tions of fans. In recent years, he talked about the Dead song­book endur­ing for the next 200 to 300 years, much as Beethoven remains with us today."

Gavin Tabone leads the Barton Hills Choir in Austin, Texas, composed of 3rd through 6th graders. The choir performs with professional musicians and covers a wide range of music, including classic pop, rock, indie artists like Wilco, Muse, and The Flaming Lips, and especially the Grateful Dead. Performances and YouTube videos include Dead classics such as “Ripple,” “Box of Rain,” “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad → I Know You Rider,” “Cassidy,” “Touch of Grey,” “Scarlet Begonias,” and “Brokedown Palace.” Bob Weir joined the Dead as a teenager and carried the songbook across generations, suggesting the repertoire could endure for centuries.

Read at Open Culture