Phil Lesh will return from semi-hibernation this fall for an extended tour with a new group of friends. Like his recent Bay Area shows, Lesh’s friends will include singer/songwriter Jackie Greene, guitarist Larry Campbell, drummer John Molo and Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz. The cross-country outing will open September 22 at California’s Santa Barbara County Bowl, before making stops at Berkeley’s The Greek Theater (9/23), Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium (9/28), Morrison, CO’s Red Rocks (9/29) Santa Fe, NM’s Paolo Soleri (9/30), St. Louis, MO’s The Pageant (10/2),Kansas City, MO’s Uptown Theater (10/3), Chicago’s The Riviera Theater (10/5-7), Boston’s The Orpheum Theater (10/9-10), Camden, NJ’s Tweeter Center (10/12), Virginia’s Charlottesville Pavilion (10/13), Atlanta’s The Echo Project festival (10/14), Baltimore, MD’s Lyric Opera House (10/16), Buffalo, NY’s Shea’s Performing Arts Center (10/18), Uncasville, CT’s (10/19), Glens Falls’ Civic Center (10/20), Syracuse, NY’s War Memorial at Oncenter (10/21). The extended outing will conclude with a nine night Halloween run at New York’s Nokia Theater Times Square (10/31,11/1-3, 5-6 and 8-10). While Lesh’s sometimes collaborator Ryan Adams is not part of the bassist’s lineup, the singer/songwriter will likely play New York around Halloween and may indeed pop in to visit his old friend.

In other Lesh news, over the weekend the bassist and his future touring friends played a intimate show at San Francisco’s the Independent. Longtime Grateful Dead family member Barry Sless also contributed guitar duties throughout the night, playing on songs like ‘Loose Lucy,’ ‘Deal’ and ‘Viola Lee Blues,’ among many others. Lesh also offered a handful numbers of his bandmate Jackie Greene’s canon, including ‘I’m So Gone,’ ‘Seven Jealous Sisters,’ ‘So Hard To Find My Way’ and ‘Down in the Valley Woe.’