Muskrat Lightning - live music review
September 20, 2026

Muskrat Lightning, Buxy's 'Saldy' Dog Saloon - Dry Dock 28 Stage

The Grateful Dead weren't the best at what they did. They were the only ones who did what they did. And so it is with Delmarva's no.1 jam band, Muskrat Lightning. With their finely composed originals, along with their own twist on a catalog of songs from Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, Dickey Betts and Trey Anastasio, Muskrat Lightning puts on the best show on the shore. 

Interestingly, I have never heard Muskrat Lightning play a Widespread Panic tune, but that's the band they remind me of most. These guys are not like any band you'll see on vacation, except perhaps on jam cruise. These guys get down! They might present some lyrics, some structure, but they yearn to slip into that jam sphere of influence that pulls you in and dunks your mind into the doughnut fryer. Widespread Panic was just a bunch of deadhead Georgia explorers when they began. This is how organic Muskrat Lightning's music sounds. You feel this music. It'll take you places.

The place that ML brought it fans to last night was Buxy's on 28th, one of Ocean City's original hangouts. First of all, cheers to the Buxbaums for having the required '5 piece band' liquor license. Buxy's is welcoming to the Lightning, as is Beach Barrels, and the locals are thankful. We have a band pulled straight from the festival scene into our front yard. They are writing, and practicing their own material, and getting to play live - a lot. This ain't no time to stash Muskrat Lightning, it's time to get on this train. There are so many cheesy cover 'acts' playing in Ocean City, so many high priced bands getting pulled out of retirement, yet here we have a local band that can both write their own stuff and go deep with a Grateful Dead song. Some music just deserves to get played. Jerry Garcia and John Kahn's Don't Let Go is one of those songs. You're no ordinary cover band if you can play that well. 

Free up some space in your calendar to absorb Muskrat Lightning into your cerebral cavity. When I first began to catch ML, I felt like they were a Grateful Dead cover band. But they throw out enough original ML at their gigs to shake that label, if you want them to. Their members do have roots in the rich scene of Maryland GD cover bands. Currently, ML has dates booked this fall at both Buxy's and Beach Barrels. I suggest, if you love live music, to get to a show. Muskrat Lightning is one of the things I appreciate about life on the shore. We really are a groovy community ! If Ocean City is going to use a VW micro-bus as a symbol, you have to have a band like Muskrat Lightning in your back pocket. As for the smiley face the town also uses, no comment at all on that one!

GET GROOVY, GET MUSKRAT LIGHTNING

Greg "Lex" Gunther

New Orleans Beat Street Magazine National Coordinator