Singer Donna Jean Godchaux MacKay has contributed to an incredible
array of acts. Originally from Alabama, she launched her career at a
young age, serving as a session singer with Muscle Shoals Studios and
Fame Studios. She performed on singles by Elvis Presley, Otis Redding,
Aretha Franklin, and Percy Sledge, among many others, and she sang for
The Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band in the ’70s. Donna Jean and
the Tricksters will perform a concert from WXPN and World Café Live in Philadelphia at noon ET Friday and broadcast on VPR.net.
After
leaving The Grateful Dead, she and her husband Keith Godchaux created
the band Heart of Gold, which continued into the 1990s. In 2006, she
joined up with six other musicians she’d met during a benefit concert
for the Dead’s Rex Foundation. The Tricksters, originally the Zen
Tricksters, originated in Long Island in the ’80s, becoming one of the
most fondly regarded Dead-oriented bands around. Since joining forces,
Donna Jean and the Tricksters recorded a self-titled debut album, which
came out late last month.
Click here to listen to Donna Jean and the Tricksters Friday Live on VPR.net.