Using Dead reckoning

The long, strange trip continues, and Deadheads across the land are rejoicing.

On Wednesday evening, the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville will be stop No. 3 on the Dead’s spring tour, “On The Road Again … with the Dead.” Four original members of the Grateful Dead — Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — will perform a two-set show.

The group will be augmented by Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes and Ratdog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. And to a man, the reuniting band members believe that the late founder of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, will be there in spirit.

In a recent interview Lesh said Garcia’s presence never will diminish for the surviving band members. He said it’s an “incontrovertible fact” that Garcia is still with them.

When Garcia died on Aug. 9, 1995, many people mourned the death of the band as well. But time has proved that the group’s music — as well as its philosophy of love, peace and brotherhood — is eternal.

The Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group is now called the Dead, having omitted “Grateful” out of respect for Garcia. In an interview with Danny Clinch in Octoer 2008, the four original band members talked about getting back together for the 2009 tour.

“In the last 14 years since Jerry checked out, I’ve evolved, we’ve all evolved,” Weir said. “We still have our brotherhood and so we still react.

“We can still hear each other think, we can still intuit each other’s moves and stuff like that, but there are many, many more surprises in store that each of us has for one another. That’s a delight, you know — you get that surprise and it spurs you, it kicks you up and straightens you back up a little. It’s fun.”

As soon as Tim Bottrell heard about the Charlottesville show, he got tickets for himself and his fiancee. He got turned on to the Grateful Dead in the late 1970s and has been an enthusiastic Deadhead ever since.

“I’ve always been into bluesy rock ’n’ roll, and the Grateful Dead had that bluesy sound,” said Bottrell, who makes his home in Richmond. “As I got into them, I realized they got a lot of different flavors.

“Sometimes they have a country sound, sometimes they’ve got a psychedelic sound. Another thing I like about them is they held onto traditional American music.

“They redid a lot of old songs, and they also wrote an unbelievable amount of music themselves. I’ve been to a lot of Grateful Dead shows, and I think they enjoy making people happy — and the music does that.”

During the 2008 interview Weir said the 2009 tour would be a dream come true for Deadheads. He was confident that the musicians could live up to their fans’ expectations.

From the inception of the San Francisco group in 1965, the Grateful Dead and its legions of Deadheads have enjoyed a special relationship. Caravans of Deadheads followed the group from gig to gig — living off the land, so to speak — and grooving on the scene and the music.

“My theory all along, or for the longest time now, has been that they’re [Deadheads] kindred spirits,” Weir said. “They’re like us — they’re people who require a little adventure in their lives.

“Therefore, they require a little adventure in their music, and we’re nothing if not all about that. So it’s a rite of passage for them to discover us, and through us they discover jazz and improvisational music and they’ll discover life that way.

“These are our folks.”

Bottrell said attending a Grateful Dead concert always was about more than the music. But it was the music that brought them together.

“The guys in the band have done a lot of good things as far as charitable causes go,” Bottrell said. “They seem to truly care about people.

“They’re actually better live than they are in the studio. So when you get to see them live, they really come out.

“I hope to run into some old friends who I haven’t seen in a long time at the concert. It almost always happens.”

For a few hours on Wednesday evening, Bottrell fully expects to hear musical magic as he basks in the warmth of togetherness. That good-time feeling will probably be enhanced by knowing that the band members have reunited at the request of their fans.

“The [Grateful Dead] audience is one of the most unique audiences there is, and the peacefulness and love that they express for one another is probably the highest thing there is,” said Kreutzmann.

“One message that I hear really clearly from Deadheads is that, ‘We miss you guys, we wish you guys were playing again.’ That really makes you want to do it.

“The reason I’m going out on tour is I know there are a whole lot of Deadheads out there that would love to hear us play again, and that to me is a really good thing to do. Plus, I want to play for the folks again.”

The Dead concert on Wednesday starts at 7:30 p.m. with no opening act.

Tickets are $43 to $73 and can be purchased online at www. johnpauljonesarena.com or by calling (888) 575-8497.