BERTHA -- Slayin' In The Band Vol. 1
There’s being in a band playing covers, and there’s being in a cover band. Steve Roberts explains how BERTHA: The Grateful Drag lives up to the Dead's brilliance and panache.
There’s being in a band playing covers, and there’s being in a cover band. The latter requires a certain level of bravery: you’re not being yourself, trying on a costume, you’re wearing a costume and pretending to be that thing. I’ll listen to a lackluster cover of the Police’s “Message in a Bottle,” but I wouldn’t hang around long to watch a mediocre Police cover band. So when a Nashville conglomerate of musicians became BERTHA:Grateful Drag and released the first of a series of live recordings Slayin’ in the Band, Vol.1, I was impressed with the size of their challenge: not only are they trying to satisfy the scrutiny of a million Dead fans with 50 years of the original Dead’s music to compare to, but they’re also throwing in drag, with its own legacy, protectors and critics of what is and isn’t. Gratefully, BERTHA have produced something universally pleasurable and joyful, in a fitting homage to both cultures.
The Grateful Dead themselves have created a Ship of Theseus over their many decades of existence. Starting as a hippie adjacent rock band in 1965, the Dead made the improvisational eclectic blues and jazz style of rock their calling card, on a seemingly endless tour for several lifetimes, all in collaboration with the army of “Deadhead” fans. Like many bands, the large unruly lineup went through dozens of iterations, losing and gaining members with departures and deaths, until one would be forgiven if they didn’t know any of the Dead onstage at any one performance, but to paraphrase another band, the Song Remains the Same. I’m sure some version of the band still exists and is currently out there performing, though only one original member of the band lives today.
So it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to hear a seven piece band onstage playing “Truckin’” and “Mr. Charlie” only to look up and not recognize anyone performing, but the drag aspect is the most immediate difference between BERTHA and other groups paying homage to Garcia, Weir, Lesh etc.
This isn’t a cover band in the traditional sense, as BERTHA’s origins were to create a one off fundraiser in 2013, in response to their home state of Tennessee’s creation of several anti-drag and anti-trans laws. Several band members are LGBTQ+, though not all. Some of the drag makeup and costuming is gender bending in its nature and some of it isn’t, although by now you’ve all watched enough Drag Race to know that drag can be drag no matter who’s wearing it or even why. The band’s queer relevance is a hybrid of sorts, but whether queer or just allied/adjacent, the members of BERTHA are not a bunch of guys in dresses who haven’t seen Paris Is Burning. They’re in touch with and sensitive to the queer spectrum.
Ultimately with music all of the previous paragraph is inconsequential. Do they rock? On “Slayin in the Band,” BERTHA definitely lives up to the spirit and energy of the Grateful Dead, if not always the virtuosity. Though this isn’t the first time we’ve heard AFAB voices for these songs, it’s refreshing to hear the majority of the vocal work handled by Melody Walker and Caitlin Doyle, whose soaring, rich voices can sometimes eclipse the original jam band’s less technically skilled singers. No one can compare to Weir and Garcia on guitar however, but Thomas Bryan Eaton can certainly walk a mile in their shoes, coming up with improvisations that do the originals proud. More than anything, the entire band feels comfortable and at home in the material, which is key to tribute acts if they want to keep the kind of following BERTHA has definitely found.
It isn’t hard to see why BERTHA has exploded in popularity. Just from the visuals and sound, they’re clearly a hell of a lot of fun to see perform. But as many other people have said, the drag band is no gimmick. And listening to their first record leaves no doubt that these queens can play. In short, if you were just listening to the musical product, you’d be pleased with the quality and authenticity of BERTHA’s homage to the Dead. It’s joyful, laid back, soulful, well performed, and in classic Dead tradition, the record is way too long. The high heels, mascara and huge hairdos are all just gravy.
