Andy Falco and Travis Book Pay Tribute to Jerry Garcia at WHBPAC

“When did you get on the bus?” This is a common line Deadheads ask each other to find out when someone went to their first Grateful Dead show, taken from a lyric in the song “The Other One.” For Andy Falco, his first show was on April 4, 1986 at the Hartford Civic Center.

Flash forward 40 years, Falco has made a name for himself as the guitarist and singer of Grammy Award-winning bluegrass group The Infamous Stringdusters. But between tours with the band, Falco spends his time playing shows as a duo with Stringdusters bassist Travis Book focusing on the music of Grateful Dead lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

And now, the bus — or in this case, Falco and Book’s minivan — is rolling into Westhampton Beach for an evening of acoustic jamming paying tribute to Garcia at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, June 8.

Before Falco saw his first Dead show, he was introduced to the music when his older brother Tom showed him a tape from the band’s October 11, 1983 performance at Madison Square Garden. Falco recalled being intrigued and wowed when he heard the crowd erupt as the band went into “St. Stephen” for the first time in 1979, instantly becoming curious about the scene.

From there, he started listening to the album “Reckoning,” taken from acoustic performances in New York and San Francisco during the Dead’s fall 1980 tour, and jamming on guitar with his brother to these songs. Though Garcia’s guitar playing stood out to him at first, he soon embraced Garcia’s vocals.

“When I got a little bit older, I realized the impact of Jerry’s vocals and it’s the same as his guitar playing,” said Falco in a recent phone interview. “It’s the way he emotes, the way he makes you believe the story he’s singing about, you really feel like you’re being told a story from the source.”

For Deadheads, Garcia is often viewed as a larger-than-life figure who’s at the epicenter of the Grateful Dead universe. Falco senses this, but also noted how Garcia still came off as down-to-earth.

“He was such an extraordinary human being, especially when you hear him in interviews and telling stories,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s something about him that’s also very ordinary and you feel like you can relate to him.”

One of Falco’s favorite things about Garcia is that “he wasn’t afraid to live on the edge and sometimes make a mistake here or there.” The music wasn’t always perfect, but it was genuine and natural, which resonated heavily with Falco.

The duo shows started when the Stringdusters were performing at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, in 2007 . Falco was invited to do a guitar workshop at a small stage in a park along the main drag of town. Not wanting to just stand up there and talk the whole time, Falco recruited Book and mandolinist Jacob Jolliff to play some Garcia songs with him. Falco explained that he and Book often spend their time backstage at Stringdusters shows warming up and jamming on these songs, making it an easy choice for what to play.

The impromptu show was a hit, with the crowd of Deadheads dancing along to the music they hold dear. He recalled that “As I was looking out into the audience, I felt so connected as all of us were fans of Jerry and we were all honoring him together.”

This bond between the Falco and Book and their audience is a key hallmark of the duo shows that Falco emphasized. They’re not celebrating Garcia’s music for the audience, but rather with them.

The duo’s ever-expanding repertoire features Garcia’s songs that he played with the Grateful Dead, as well as songs from his solo albums and side projects like Jerry Garcia Band. They don’t use set-lists for the shows, instead opting to feel out the energy of the space and call out songs as the show goes on. Sometimes, the two will play songs that they may not know how to fully play, but go for it anyway, bringing the energy of their impromptu backstage jams to the crowd.

Though they’re a duo, Falco and Book aren’t just playing Garcia’s acoustic material. They haven’t been afraid to tackle more ambitious songs like the lengthy “Terrapin Station” or the three-part medley “Help On The Way/Slipknot!/Franklin’s Tower.”

The two also aren’t confined to the roles of their respective instruments. There are times where Book will play Garcia-esque licks on the upright bass, while Book will throw in a line that emulates Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland. Being a duo also allows them to extend jams and take more creative risks that resolve better than with the full band.

“One of the interesting things about doing it as a duo is that you can make sharp turns, the music is very malleable,” Falco explained. “We could be in a jam and I might have a thought to completely change keys or go to another tune and I’ll just look at Travis and be like ‘Go to D.’”

This balance isn’t something that the two discuss, but happens in the moment on stage. Falco said that “we both know the music and we try between the two of us to make sure that we’re covering anything that feels like the most essential parts of that song.”

The shows are a low maintenance effort, as the duo hops in a minivan with no other crew and listens to Garcia interviews on their way to perform. They also don vibrant tie-dye suits for the shows, something that Falco said they added because “We didn’t want people to think that we’re taking ourselves too serious.”

For Falco, playing these shows with Book has given him an opportunity to do a fun side project that’s different from his main work in the Stringdusters.

“When I’m playing with my Stringdusters brothers, I feel like I’m playing in the best bluegrass band you could possibly play in,” he said. “But when I’m going to go out and do a side project, I want to do something different. And what better than going down this road with Travis and playing this music that’s so close to us?”

Andy Falco and Travis Book perform at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, June 8, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $55 to $75 at whbpac.org. The WHBPAC is at 76 Main Street in Westhampton Beach.