The Zen Tricksters

The Zen Tricksters can do it all. They are a superbly talented Rock/Jam band who play in both electric and acoustic formats and as of January, 2004, they are once again touring as a four-piece electric band. The Tricksters have a huge working repertoire that ranges from their tuneful and well-crafted original pieces to traditional bluegrass and hillbilly jazz classics, to Grateful Dead, Dylan, Neil Young, and inventive interpretations of any and all songs that catch their fancy. Winners of the Relix Magazine Jam Off (one of ten winners chosen from over 200 band entries), The Zen Tricksters are not only renowned for the trademark jamming ability they have displayed for over two decades, but also for their inspired songwriting. This band will rock you, psychedelicize you, make you cry, and pick it with the best of them!

The band has three studio CDs, The Holy Fool, recorded in 1996, A Love Surreal, 1999, and the brand new Shaking Off the Weirdness, 2003. This CD features ten original tunes, including new titles such as High Horse and Sleepwalking, plus staples of their live shows Light of Life and The One. It also boasts a colorful roster of special guests including former Trickster and current member of The Dead and Phil Lesh & Friends, Rob Barraco, Buddy Cage from the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Jason Crosby, former ZT who also plays with Oteil & the Peacemakers and Susan Tedeschi, and Tom “Banjo” Hanway. The Tricksters play many local New York area gigs, but inevitably winds up back on the road again. This is their life and it is what they love. Jeff is very proud of the fact that he has never made his living in any other way but music. “Road life,” he says “very much embodies the yin-yang of life. You trade the long hours of traveling and tedium day after day for the supreme pleasure and sheer love of making your own kind of live music night after night.” That is quite obvious at any Zen Trickster show–you can hear their love of their art in every performance they give.