Never miss a Sunday show.

Shakedown Sunday is a monthly series at Syracuse’s 443 Social Club, hosted by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers and members of Dead to the Core with special guests, that celebrates the Grateful Dead.

The music spans not only the Dead’s originals but songs from across the roots and rock worlds they made their own, plus selections from Jerry Garcia Band, Garcia and Grisman, and Old and in the Way—and a sampling of original songs by the Shakedown Sunday performers. All delivered with the creative acoustic arrangements and lush vocal harmonies that are the hallmark of Dead to the Core.

Guest artists include an array of top-shelf singer-songwriters and instrumentalists from Central New York and beyond, digging into their favorite tunes.

Expect deep cuts, fresh collaborations, old favorites reimagined. Only at Shakedown Sunday, only at the 443.

Never miss a Sunday show.


Coming next

Sept. 28, 2025, with special guest Jason Fridley

Jason Fridley is a jazz-trained bassist and alto saxophonist. As a longtime member of Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers’ band, Fridley played on the Sammy-winning album Almost There; on Live and Listening, recorded at the 443 Social Club; and on the Dead to the Core EP American Beauties. Fridley currently lives in South Carolina and will be back in Syracuse for this special reunion show.


Oct. 26, 2025, with special guest George Newton

Photo by Sandy Roe

The October Shakedown pays tribute to a lesser known legacy of Jerry Garcia—as a pedal steel guitarist on not only Dead tracks but songs by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and more. 

George Newton has been playing the pedal steel guitar and lap steel guitar for 55 years—his curiosity aroused by experiencing Big Ed Little and the Adirondack Drifters and further enticed by the emergence of Rusty Young and others at the dawn of the country rock era. 

He has long been a fixture on the Central New York and Mohawk Valley club scenes and is currently a member of Quatro, the Dust Devil Band, Little Georgie and the Shuffling Hungarians, and Better Than Bowling. George can also be heard on many albums produced by top area singer-songwriters.

Past guest artists

Photos by Neil Daley and Herman Schlimmer