'A friend of a friend of ...': Jeff Pehrson

Keep in mind, this "friend of a friend" social networking adventure began with a trip to the San Francisco area.  So, what does that mean when it comes to any trend that is prevalent in my daily social networking news feed since then?

To riff on a famous line from a movie, "I see Dead people."

As in The Grateful Dead.  Images of Jerry Garcia pop up quite often, in various ways.  I see people who've shared a stage with Jerry, a former girlfriend and mother to one of Jerry's children, people who've shot countless photos of him and the band, and even more countless fans of The Dead, people who are eager to share any bootlegged recording and can name exact dates they saw the beloved band, like so many other Deadheads around the world.

Jeff Pehrson performs with Furthur.  (Photo via Furthur.net)

I can't claim people like Grateful Dead guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir or bassist Phil Lesh among those "friends of friends."  But there is a connection in Jeff Pehrson, who performs backing vocals with Lesh and Weir's band Furthur when he's not working with his own folk rock band, The Fall Risk.  While you're at it, check out Pehrson's music with another folk rock band he co-founded, Box Set.

Pehrson has serious songwriting skills which makes the music of Box Set and The Fall Risk unique on their own.  When it comes to the time he's spent with the rock music legends that are Weir and Lesh, try listening to recordings of Garcia singing a song, and then follow that up with the sound of Pehrson singing.  It'll soon become a bit obvious why Jeff Pehrson is a part of that Dead-like family, and has been since he joined Furthur in 2010.

The spirit of The Dead lives on to this day, and just might never die.