As what's left of the Grateful Dead steers towards their 50th anniversary in 2015, they're cutting loose baggage, such as Furthur, the band that has toured off an on since 2009.
This message has been posted at the Furthur site:
To our loyal Furthur fans… we'd like to thank you for the terrific ride. We'll be closing up shop at further.net and heading onward. Thanks for making the Furthur community a great place to hang out and for coming out to the shows… It's time to let Furthur take a bow. We enjoyed the ride more than we can possibly express.
What made Furthur - named for Ken Kesey's psychedelic bus - different than Phil Lesh and Friends and Bob Weir & RatDog is that it comprised the two leading members of the original group, Lesh and Weir, surrounded by familiar musicians like guitarist John Kandlecik, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Joe Russo.
But Weir's unstable health has prevented the group from playing shows, such as at Lockn' Festival in September. Weir canceled his summer tour on Aug. 12, complaining that "this year has especially busy." Weir added: "Taking some time off, which I haven't done in 50 years."
In 2005, he fell over on stage while performing with Furthur at the Capitol Theatre in New York. Several shows were canceled after that. Apparently, Lesh has had enough of Weir and decided to take Furthur off the road.
It's likely that the four original members of the Dead, including drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmnann, will reunite sometime in 2015.
