The Grateful Guitars Foundation (GGF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that obtains world-class musical instruments for talented players who seek to carry on the tradition of jam band music into the 21st century and beyond, has announced that it will gift the legendary musician Steve Kimock with a recreation of Jerry Garcia’s Wolf guitar during his band Zero’s 40th-anniversary shows at Petaluma’s Mystic Theater on November 8 and 9.
Hailed as a highly influential guitarist in the Grateful Dead and jam band community, Kimock’s style has often been compared to Garcia’s—which, in his later years, called him one of his favorite guitarists. As a founding member of the Bay Area fixture Zero (which at one time included the Dead’s famed lyricist Robert Hunter), he also played with a variety of Grateful Dead offshoots including the Other Ones, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Dead & Company. Over time, he’s shared the stage with everyone from Bob Weir to Donna Jean Godchaux to Phish’s Mike Gordon.
This year, Zero is celebrating its 40th anniversary, marking four decades of musical exploration and innovation. The anniversary will be celebrated with special concerts, including the shows next month at the Mystic, where Kimock will be gifted with a custom-built, Doug Irwin-certified Wolf 2.0 #4 guitar, crafted by Bill Asher and inspired by Jerry Garcia’s iconic Wolf guitar. Buy tickets to the show here: https://www.seetickets.us/event/zero/614626.
“It’s an extraordinary instrument and a really touching vote of confidence that I’d be worthy of such a gift,” shares Kimock. “I’m humbled and truly grateful. Beyond that, it’s an inspiration to hold and play, and it’s sure to advance my playing. It’s a very special gift at this point in my life.”
Founded by Andy Logan in 2019, the Grateful Guitars Foundation not only serves to put guitars in the hands of musicians in the community, but also supports music instruction in schools to seed the next generation of these players through their partnerships with various schools and educational organizations. The foundation recently established an ongoing partnership with Blue Bear School, which will directly support Blue Bear School of Music's Outreach Programs. These programs provide free music instruction to San Francisco youth from low-income housing units and in underserved neighborhoods throughout the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).
GGF has also recently increased its partnership with Mono County’s Crescendo Music Program, which puts music education in schools across the county with previously limited access to music history and instruction. Spurred by the June Lake Loop Performing Arts Association, since 2022, the Crescendo Music Program has put Mono Arts Council programming in schools, providing hands-on learning opportunities and music theory lessons for students TK-8th grade.
“We are so honored to support music instruction for our youth via Blue Bear and the San Francisco Unified School District and the Crescendo Program and June Lake Festival for Mono County,” shares Logan. “As a mental health clinician, I know firsthand the importance of the arts to the developing mind, and it is beyond short-sighted that school budget cuts have removed music for so many. GGF believes all children should have access to music instruction and to the arts.”
It’s been a busy year for the GGF, which hosted its second annual benefit concert at San Francisco’s famed Great American Music Hall on August 13, 49 years to the day since the Grateful Dead’s legendary performance at the venue, featuring performances by Melvin Seals (Jerry Garcia Band), John Kadlecik (Dark Star Orchestra, FURTHUR), Barry Sless (Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros), David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), and more. This followed the release of the compilation Grateful: The Music Plays the Band, a seventeen-track collection of some of the finest Grateful Dead songs performed by key members of the band’s greater musical community, including Oteil Burbridge (Dead & Company), Dark Star Orchestra, and more. Learn more about The Grateful Guitars Foundation at https://gratefulguitars.org/.
