Dames of the Dead celebrate the music of the Grateful Dead with an all-female lineup

January 2, 2024

Allison Scavo,

Dames of the Dead. // photo by Allison Scavo

Dames of the Dead is a truly unique band with talent that could move mountains, dedication that cannot be burnt out, and a connection of energy that stays with the audience far beyond the end of the show. A ripple in time, this band has begun making moves that will erupt in astronomical ways. Albeit in their infancy, this all-woman Grateful Dead tribute band will not be up-and-coming for long. Dames of the Dead began as a duo featuring Brooke Kafka and Michelle Cox.

My first time seeing them was mere weeks ago when the duo volunteered to play at a holiday charity event for local radio. They set the calming and relaxed tone for stress-free vending and gathering. Their next show would be an official gig at Mike Kelly’s Westsider, Kansas City’s mothership for all things Grateful Dead. At their debut show as a full five-woman band, powerful notes emerged into the tune of “Jack Straw,” a song about a man from Kansas, then jammed right into three more songs before ever stopping a note. If there was one way to show Kansas City that this is a serious band that has put in time, effort, energy, and love, that was it.

As the first string of songs came to a halt, members of the crowd could be overheard mumbling praises to one another. Absolutely no one was having a conversation of their own, every word was about the band. We were hooked. Another three-song jam followed, but not before a formal introduction and displays of gratitude to everyone who came to watch history in the making.

Dames of the Dead. // photo by Allison Scavo

Dames of the Dead continued to be interactive with the audience throughout the entire show, making us laugh with their connected energy and quick wit. Ending the first set with an appropriate “Man Smart Woman Smarter,” people barreled to the stage to congratulate them and share their praises.

A night of Grateful Dead was what we all expected, but in the second set a jaw-dropping version of “White Rabbit” caught us all by surprise. Another bombshell was dropped with a continuation into “Come Together,” “Brick in the Wall,” and back to Grateful Dead with “Shakedown Street.” Impressive doesn’t begin to describe how I felt watching these women belt out, with all their might, songs from other beloved bands.

Grateful Dead fans typically tend to guess which song will be played next as no two sets, shows, or gigs are ever played in a repeated manner. It promotes an element of surprise, excitement, and at times even some competition as to who will guess the next song correctly. When Dames of the Dead played tunes aside from Grateful Dead, all deadheads in the venue were excited as we had all been successfully bamboozled.

The evening drew to a close after a short break with an encore that I personally could not have chosen any better as it is, coincidentally, my favorite song ever written in the history of music: “Dear Prudence.” Self-restraint was practiced to stop myself from screaming how much I loved them at the end of the song but proved to be a wasted effort, for the encore was far from over.

“Dear Prudence” seamlessly grooved into Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” before the evening ended with “After Midnight.” If you don’t have goosebumps reading about it, you will when you see it for yourself. I was so blown away that at the end of the show I asked to interview them. I yearned for more information. There is only one other all female based Grateful Dead tribute band on the planet, Brown Eyed Women, a rock and roll style band. Dames of the Dead is unique in that their instruments are more geared towards a folk or indie vibe.

Dames of the Dead. // photo by Allison Scavo

The Pitch: I am really excited about this, your band is monumental. I’d love to talk to you about how it all started.

Michelle Cox: Let me take you back. Brooke and I have been playing together, I mean, for a while now in some other groups and we just love the [Grateful] Dead music so much. We realized like, there’s no women led dead groups really. I was kind of doing some research, you know, I was like, ‘what’s out there.’ Brown Eyed Women is an excellent, excellent group.

Yeah, you’re absolutely correct. I’ve worked with them before. They [play] at Skull & Roses, that’s how I met them. So when I heard of your project, I, like, immediately wanted to get you on [Skull & Roses’] the lineup. You’re an up-and-coming band, but not going to be up-and-coming for much longer. I’ve never said that about anyone, really ever, except Shakedown Strings! It’s on a different level, if that makes sense. So your instruments are the conga drums, ukulele, guitar, upright bass, keys, and saxophone. Tell me about how you chose those specific instruments in your band.

Brooke Kafka: Well, you chose what you chose. Of course, not super exciting. Michelle and I were doing our own thing for a while [in a duo], and we were like, ‘man, we’re just really missing that full band sound.’ So Michelle goes out, starts buying electric guitars and she starts learning stuff on electric. Then we had a couple of jam sessions where people would just come and sit in with us and it was like, ‘man, we really need a bass.’ We really need, you know, these things. Being that we wanted it to be all female, of course, again, this is just starting off, but these are kind of the people we’ve fallen into our laps.

Dames of the Dead. // photo by Allison Scavo

Wynne [on congas] is a really well respected member of the Dead community, so it’s a really nice opportunity to have her up there, for sure, just to give her an opportunity because she just supports everyone else so much. She really brings a lot to the table when it comes to actually playing music.

And then Krista [on upright bass] has been a long-time friend of mine from Winfield, which is the bluegrass festival. She is a pretty new beginner, but just in the two years that I’ve been playing with her regularly I’ve just noticed so much growth. And so I was like, Hey, we need to get her in here. I think she has a lot of potential.

Same thing with Ashlyn [on uke]. I met Ashlyn years ago. We really buddied up and she’s always had a really good stage presence and her own thing going, but just in the last year and a half her growth in her musicianship and her professionalism and the things that she’s doing is amazing. I had already wanted to sing with her, but it’s hard to get gigs booked so it was like well, hey, we’ve got this all-female thing going. Let’s, let’s keep it going, you know? Um, so we’re very lucky to have three of our closest friends with us.

That’s perfect. I love that.

Brooke: Yeah, we have a website too, Michelle does a really good job of keeping it updated all the time. Yay!

Okaaaaaaay!! Look at you guys. I’m so proud of you. I am like, so enthusiastic about this and what you guys have done and like seeing it live, like it’s life changing. Mind blowing jams. I am really so excited.

Brooke: It’s empowering. We have the power of fans, empowering women, empowering music … that’s really important to me because I’ve been doing music for so long and I’ve seen how it’s a man’s world. That was something really important for me. When we started this I wanted it to be all girls. I want women to feel powerful.

The Dames of the Dead is the epitome of the embodiment of empowerment, like you guys just exuberate this idea of feminine power in such a beautiful way. It’s truly the epitome of the embodiment of empowerment.

Brooke: We really appreciate you.

I really appreciated that of all the photographers in the area that you worked with a woman, you know, it kind of amplifies that empowerment.

Brooke: When we get famous it’s gonna be an all female production crew. Woo.

Dames of the Dead at Mike Kelly’s Westsider