With barely a week until Election Day, hundreds of musicians and celebrities are posting photos on social media with the #GoVote hashtag to encourage their followers to vote.

While many use music as a vessel for escaping the current and indulging in the nostalgia of blissful memories past, it can also serve as a powerful tool for inspiring social change. Rock’n’Roll concerts have always been a gathering place that additionally promoted social justice, educated about changes in our environment, and offered information on important political issues. While some bands kept the music separate from their personal views and ethics, the rock concert has always broadly been a place to promote social awareness.

Progressive transcendental folk quintet Elephant Revival will perform with Gipsy Moon at Boulder Theatre in Boulder, CO on "Arial",sans-serif">Thursday, December 8th at 7:30 p.m.

Leftover Salmon recently announced a hometown play at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium on November 26 with Los Lobos opening the night, and a special “Evening With” performance the night before at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox available only as a ticket bundle with the 11/26 Fillmore show. Tickets are currently on sale at www.leftoversalmon.com. 

Town Mountain is teaming up with The Honeycutters, another stellar band from Asheville, for the Asheville Holiday Hang as a run of shows in the Southeast. The Asheville Holiday Hang originated as a holiday benefit in Asheville, NC and is heading into its 5th year. This year’s benefit event takes place at The Grey Eagle in Asheville on Friday, December 16th and proceeds go to MANNA FoodBank.

Who's ready for a little early 80's Grateful Dead? For our last installment of the 2016 Dave's Picks series we are heeding that call with Boulder, CO, December 9, 1981. The last show of a 10-day run, Dave's Picks Volume 20 finds the band cranking out back-to-back high-energy sets; the first filled with superior Jerry moments ("Friend Of The Devil," "Bird Song") and a very rare 1-2 punch of Bobby songs ("Cassidy," "Looks Like Rain").

Born and bred in Los Angeles, singer-songwriter-guitarist-pianist-producer David Stücken has often been compared to revered rocker Ryan Adams for his artistry, self-production and music craftsmanship. David is the force behind LA-based rock band David and The Curse whose dynamic debut An Epitaph For Love is due out early 2017. David wrote and produced the autobiographical album of gritty rock tales told through the lens of an anti-hero.

Inspired as much by the New Orleans funk of Allen Touissant as the Chicago blues of his hometown, Josh Farrow puts a dark spin on American roots music with his full-length debut, Trouble Walks With Me, out October 28.

For Greensky Bluegrass, following up the banner year that 2016 has been is no easy task. Yet 2017 kicks off with a bang, with four multi-night stands highlighting a criss-crossing Eastern US tour, appropriately kicking off in the birthplace of rock n’ roll in Cleveland at the House of Blues January 11. Bluegrass will rip the roof off six new venues throughout tours stops all around the Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast.

Grateful Web recently had the opportunity to speak with photo anthropologist Susana Millman. Longtime spouse of the Grateful Dead’s historian and publicist Dennis McNally, Susana began her friendship with and photographing the Grateful Dead in the mid-1980s. Her unique vantage as a true insider granted her access to photograph behind the scenes intimately with the band, their family, their friends, and the Deadheads.