The Reckoning to Bring Grateful Dead to Party at the Point on Friday, May 19th

The Reckoning at The Pour House. Photo: Ellison White

The Reckoning are set to bring their Grateful Dead tribute band to Party at the Point on Friday, May 19th for a very special 2 sets at Patriot’s Point in Mt. Pleasant.

Over the past 3 weeks Party at the Point has hosted bands such as Banana Pancakes-A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Dead 27s, The Trongone Band, and Sol Driven Train. The Reckoning stamped their spot for this weekend on the water at the great beach turned venue in Mt Pleasant at Patriots Point. The band is made up of interchanging parts that are all some of the Lowcountry’s best musicians. The leader of the band, Rusty Cole plays the roll of Bob Weir on rhythm guitar, Wallace Mullinax (Dead 27s) plays lead to celebrate the work of Jerry Garcia, and Bob Hogg (Runaway Gin, Holy City Heaters) plays bass along side a variety of interchanging members from week to week. Other members include, Wes Powers, Mark Davis, Chris Duvall, with sit ins from Charleston Music Scene greats John Kennedy, Jack Friel, Alan Brisendine, Dennis Ware, Mark Davis, Jeff Kozelski, Mike Quinn, Parker DeWitt, Matt Thompson, Steven Sandifer and a bunch more! The Reckoning rock The Charleston Pour House deck every Wednesday night for free to the Dead Heads in the area.

The Reckoning at Dead on the Deck. Photo: Victoria Sheehan

I got the chance to get up with singer/songwriter Rusty Cole to share some history of The Reckoning. Cole said “The Reckoning started about 7 yrs ago, as an accident. At the time I was living with local Charleston writer and musician Stratton Lawrence, I asked him to join and also asked about that Wallace guy that plays guitar. I had played bass with Wallace a couple times, but we weren’t super close. Wallace was down, so we grabbed a banjo, couple of acoustic guitars and a bass and decided we would just pass around the instruments and play some tunes. However, we had no idea what to play and only had a couple days to pull something together. I had just returned from a lengthy run in Colorado with Sol Driven Train, and was thoroughly saturated with the Dead vibe and when Stratton said he had an old Grateful Dead chord book laying around, it all kind of came together. A chill Sunday afternoon playing Dead on the Pour House deck…works for me. We continued as a 3 piece for a year or two. Inevitably, one of us were busy from time to time and needed a fill in. I was still touring heavily with Sol Driven and Wallace was getting his law career underway…yup, Wally is/was going to be a lawyer. we asked old Bobby Hogg to sit in, actually he was Rob Hogg then. Since Bobby was quite competent on bass, guitar, and vocals, he was able to fill in for Wally, Stratton or myself to keep the show moving along. So, this is the beginning of the ever evolving band and the start of the Reckoning Family. Ross Bogan was the next full time addition and then Jack Friel was later added to the mix on drums.”

Cole continued to tell me about more recent history as the Reckoning Family grows bigger and bigger, ” Over the last year or so, the core 5 have become very busy with other projects. Thankfully, we have some incredible local musicians that have deep love for the music and project that fill in on Wednesday nights, and other events to keep The Reckoning alive. It’s becoming more and more rare that the core 5 has the ability to play together, and it really has become a family. Without great players like Jeff Kozelski, Alan Brisendine, Dennis Ware, Jack Friel, John Kennedy, Mike Quinn, Matt Thompson, Ben Kinser, Whitt Algar and so many more, we couldn’t keep this thing rolling. We are so thankful that we have them around.”

The Reckoning have developed quite the following over the past 7 years. The Charleston Pour House and The Reckoning have joined people of every age to their back deck to share the vast catalog with old fans and new ones. Deadheads are beginning to come to Charleston to celebrate and this weekend will be great. On Wednesday, they will play per usual on the deck, and Friday they will play at Party on the Point, and they are also set to play at The Terrace Theater on May 25th. After Party at the Point, Cosmic Charlie will bring high energy Grateful Dead Music to The Pour House inside. All the ticket info is below.

Cosmic Charlie @ The Pour House Tickets here
Party at Point Tickets Cash Only Entry
The Reckoning @ Terrace Theater Tickets here

If you’ve got a couple hours, check out The Reckoning’s recorded show from 4/26/2017 at The Pour House.

Party at the Point 2017 Schedule