CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Sunday at the Southern Café and Music Hall a collective of local musicians will join together for the 10th straight year for an annual Halloween show celebrating the music of the Grateful Dead. For a decade now, the Day of the Dead All-Stars have been joining together for a performance that seeks to keep the spirit of the eclectic rock group formed in the 1960s. For guitarist Eric Cope, the group brings together musicians from across the area all in the pursuit of staying true to the songs while adding their own flair. “We strive to perform these songs which I think are this very beloved songbook, one of the greatest American songbooks that there is, and kind of play it with our own voices and stay true to the, exploratory, spirit of freedom of the Grateful Dead,” he said.

The idea for the group came from the group’s keyboard player Charlie Eldridge in 2017 while he and Cope were in a different band called Tequila Mockingbird.

“He had an idea to do a Halloween show, bringing together a bunch of local artists to celebrate the Dead and also just collaborate with each other,” said Cope.

Between him and Eldridge, the two were able to form a core group and drew a healthy enough crowd for their first performance they decided to keep it going. The band has mostly stayed the same with only a couple of exits which has allowed the annual tradition to build for 10 years.

“We kind of think of it as a collective, a Charlottesville like music collective,” said Cope, “And it’s just an opportunity for all of us to come together and hang out for a couple of months rehearsing and then put on a great show for a really great community.”

The group now features musicians from local bands such as Sisters & Brothers, XOAP, The BLNDRS, and Funktional Electrik, among others.

Though the show has only existed for 10 years, the connection to the Grateful Dead’s music goes back even further for some members of the group. Drummer Ben Smith said he distinctly remembers where and when he was first exposed to the Grateful Dead.

“My mom threw on Casey Jones, just the album version,” he said. “And I heard that riff, blasting from my sister’s room. And I was, there was a very sharp moment about three years, three years old, and that music just sticks with you.”

Cope said after a few phases of indie, emo, and even screamo he stumbled into more improvisational music and found himself connecting with the Dead. That improvisational style, while challenging even for seasoned musicians, is what draws people into the music Smith said.

“There’s a certain risk as far as improvisation, and they were willing to take that risk,” he said. “And some people just really like to see that when it works.”

For the 10th anniversary show, Cope said the group is bringing in eight other local musicians along with the D.C. based psychedelic rock group Gordon Sterling and The People.

“A bunch of well-known familiar faces in the Charlottesville music scene will be there sitting in with us and adding their voices to the mix,” he said.

The group will also look to reflect back on a decade of shows that, despite having to pivot to an outdoor show in a field during the COVID-19 pandemic, has found a way to persist.

“We’re going to try to, in our own story, go back to the roots of that first one 10 years ago and, you know, all the stuff in between,” said Smith.

The 10th annual Day of the Dead All-Stars show begins at 7:30 pm at the Southern Sunday with Cope and Smith’s other band Pink Lady Slipper as the opening act. For his final word on the show, Smith looked to the words of one of the Grateful Dead’s founding members: “In the words of Bob Weir, it’s going to be more fun than a frog in a glass of milk.”