“We will get by. We will survive,” Jerry Garcia declares in the Grateful Dead’s 1987 hit “Touch of Grey.” Hearing a choir of kids sing those same words almost 40 years later, it’s hard not to think he was onto something.
The line has come to define the music of a band who still survives despite now existing more in spirit than flesh and bone. In Austin, nowhere is the band’s enduring legacy more vividly expressed than through the Barton Hills Choir. Composed of several sets of vocal ensembles made up of current Barton Hills Elementary students and recent alumni, the group’s known for its interpretive – and often adorable – covers of classic rock tunes.
Gavin Tabone created the choir in 2009 after taking over as music teacher for the school, but it wasn’t until about 2016 that they became forever linked to the music of the jam band godfathers. When a student told “Mr.” Tabone, as they refer to him, they were learning “Touch of Grey” on guitar, “I thought that’d be a really good tune for the choir,” he recalls. “I just started arranging ‘Touch of Grey’ with my students.”
The kids busted out the song at their next performance, which was, as always, shared in video clips on the group’s Facebook. At the time, the page consisted primarily of friends and family, but that changed overnight.
Tabone uploaded the “Touch of Grey” performance and went to sleep. The next morning he saw a text telling him to check the Barton Hills Choir Facebook: The official Grateful Dead Facebook Page shared the video. “It got 100,000 views in less than eight hours,” says Tabone. The children, all wearing matching shirts while singing and dancing, captured the hearts of Deadheads across the world.
Several other high-profile performances with acts like Roger Waters, the Flaming Lips, and a yearly gig at the Austin City Limits Music Festival have continued to attract attention from mainstream audiences. The choir has now amassed over 42,000 social media followers – though most of them are still Deadheads. Knowing his audience, Tabone often crafts setlists for his ensembles that lean Dead-heavy.
According to the choir director, the kids don’t need any prior experience with the band to connect with the music. “I don’t think the kids realize that when they’re performing it, but when they’re singing, like, ‘Ripple,’ it’s just like they seem to be at peace,” Tabone says.
During the pandemic, he left his position at Barton Hills and turned the choir into an LLC, allowing kids to keep performing with the choir after they graduate elementary school, though in separate lineups from the elementary students. Members like Kennedy Quintanilla have performed regularly with the choir for over 10 years. The recent high school graduate possesses a reverence for the cross-generational appeal of the Dead.
“That kind of connection throughout different generations and all different types of people is something that very few artists and people have the power to do,” she says. “For me to sit here and say that the Grateful Dead has changed my life is just so incredible, because my grandpa would say the same thing.”
Quintanilla sang with the choir as part of a July 19 Barton Hills Choir “All Star” show at St. Elmo Brewing Co. Ranging in ages from 14 to 20, the six members of the alumni group were Barton Hills students when the choir’s viral “Touch of Grey” performance forever linked them to the Grateful Dead.
“I’ve known [them] since they were 5,” Tabone says of the All Stars. “When I see them blossom into the amazing musicians that they are today, it fills me with a lot of pride.”
The choir helped Quintanilla and many other members find a love for performance and inspired them to pursue careers in creative fields, but what brings them back to Barton Hills is the man at the helm of the choir.
“He treats each of us kind of like we’re like his own kid,” says All Star Evy Whitfield about Tabone. The 20-year-old is about to transfer to Texas State from Austin Community College to study theatre. “I wouldn’t have stayed this long if he wouldn’t have been an amazing leader and teacher.”
“He has this innate ability to teach kids music and get them excited about it,” fellow All Star Fiona Kirsch echoes. “He has so much fun doing it. It’s never too serious.”
Tabone appeared to be exactly where he was meant at the All Stars’ July 19 performance. Manning a double-keyboard setup, the charismatic, middle-aged maestro rotated singers in and out based on the song, and pointed the crowd to singalongs. With KUTX engineer Jake Perlman on drums and veteran Austin musician Don Cento on guitar, Sunday evening’s two sets seemed both familiar and fresh, as tunes like “Brokedown Palace,” “Ripple,” and “Bertha” were injected with a showtune flair while still dipping into the exploratory waters that define live Grateful Dead music.
“For me to sit here and say that the Grateful Dead has changed my life is just so incredible, because my grandpa would say the same thing.”
Barton Hills Choir All Star Kennedy Quintanilla
Before closer “Eyes of the World,” all the singers left the stage except for Quintanilla. The jazzy Dead favorite not only wrapped the show, but marked the end of Quintanilla’s 12-year tenure with the choir. Her solo performance showcased the powerful voice she’s about to take to the musical theatre program at New Jersey’s Montclair State University.
“There’s a lot of songs that I [sang] at this show that I sang in my first few shows,” Quintanilla said after the performance. “It’s a reminder of how far I’ve come, how far we’ve all come, and how much farther we’ll go.”