BERTHA: Grateful Drag is a one-of-a-kind endeavor, an all-drag celebration of the Grateful Dead.
“But what,” you may ask, “do the worlds of drag and the Grateful Dead have to do with one another?” Surprisingly a lot, as lead guitarist Thomas Bryan Eaton, also known as Auntie Bertha, explained in an interview with The Pop Break. It turns out that in a Venn diagram of ethos, energy and spirit, there is plenty of overlap.
“When we started this, we figured it would be fun. I think most of us had an idea it would work well, but we had no idea, I don’t think, how well it works,” said Eaton. “And as soon as we started doing it, even after our very first show, most of us never having done drag before, it was very apparent to me and I think to a lot of people how well they go together because in reality it’s about freedom of expression. And the way the Dead organized themselves and their music, it was very much giving individuals the ability to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the consequences. And that’s a very drag thing too, it’s very personal. So freedom of expression and individuality and diving into that is a huge part of both of those.”
“And the other thing that’s really huge is it’s just fun. There are plenty of interviews with various members of the Dead – I see Jerry (Garcia) mostly in my head when I’m thinking about it – where he’s just like, ‘Yeah, if it wasn’t fun man, we wouldn’t be doing it.’ And that’s very much drag, too; it’s fun. There are a lot of troubles in the world, and sometimes the songs touch on those things; the songs are not always fun, but when you come together in a room with people, you can lean into the fun and self-expression.”
In dark times, acts of joy can be seen as radical, as the members of BERTHA know well. The Nashville-based band was founded in 2023 in response to anti-drag legislation; they’ve since taken the show on the road to stages from the Sea.Hear.Now festival on the Asbury Park, New Jersey beach to San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, fundraising for local LGBTQ+ organizations and featuring drag and burlesque performers across the country along the way.
The band’s high-energy, full-throttle, gang vocal approach draws from many Dead eras, light on the ballads as it deploys a strong late 1970s/early 1980s vibe with a dash of the late 1960s’ primal Dead ferocity. It can all be heard on the band’s debut LP, Slayin’ in the Band Vol. 1, out now. The album is flush with highlights including a monster interpolation of “Viola Lee Blues” and “Cumberland Blues” recorded in April 2025 at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas and a rapturous, yes, “Bertha” from Thalia Hall in Chicago in February 2025.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the album, produced and engineered by Eaton, will go directly to Trans Aid Nashville.
Eaton’s guitar work, as evidenced by the likes of a gloriously crunchy “St. Stephen” recorded at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina last May, walks the fine line between paying tribute to Garcia and performing with the freedom to make the songs BERTHA’s own.
“For me personally, it’s been an interesting road being the lead player because I’ve loved the Dead dearly for pretty much my whole life, and I’ve been alive for a while at this point, but I’ve never really played it that much and I’ve never really gone in and transcribed Jerry’s solos or even parts in different ways,” Eaton said. “I’ve listened to it a lot, so when we started it was kind of wild because it would be a song like ‘Terrapin Station,’ for instance – I know how that melody goes, I know how he phrases it and feels it when he’s playing it, but I’d never done it before.
“So I think it’s kind of interesting because his playing has informed a lot of my playing throughout my life, but I’ve never gone really deep and specific with it. In this context, I’ve definitely leaned more into those Jerry-isms, but I also feel like I’m old enough and I’m experienced enough that I have some of my own stuff to add to it and I understand how that can work in the context of what he was doing – at least I try to.”
For more on BERTHA: Grateful Drag including tour dates, music and more, check their official website.
