Becoming a Dead Head was and still is a remarkable thing, much richer and more complex than simply deciding to like a band.  It means becoming part of a community, a family of kindred souls.  It’s about celebration but also about learning – new music forms, whether it’s obscure blues or chanting monks or … everything.

Which is why, almost 24 years after Jerry Garcia passed, there are more Dead Heads than ever before.  And why they continue to gather – the excellent example being the Skull and Roses Festival, in the legendary home of Dead concerts, Ventura County Fairgrounds, April 5-7, 2019.  Featuring Oteil & Friends -- Oteil Burbridge (Dead & Co.) John Kadlecik (Further), Scott Metzger (JRAD), John Morgan Kimock (Mike Gordon), and Weedie Braiman (Mr. Unique) and JGB with Melvin Seals, Skull and Roses will have more than a dozen bands playing Grateful Dead music in every way imaginable…and then some:

Grateful Shred, one of the emerging younger bands; Fragile Thunder with David Gans, acoustic and Hawaiian slack key stylings; Wake of the Dead (Celtic Dead), Cubensis (Los Angeles’s Dead Head heart for thirty years)…and much, much more.

There’ll be camping, good food and drink, drum circles, dancing in the streets, and surprises, oh my yes – more on that later.  A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Check it out at www.eventbrite.com -- prices are reasonable to start with, and 25% off until February 3rd….see you in Ventura!