Of all the members of the Grateful Dead, Billy Kreutzmann, really knew how to retire.  Hanging out in Hawaii, he showed none of the predilection for road-warrioring into the sunset like his bandmates.  Sure he'd play with the boys when they got back together for the full band gigs and after ten years on the island he started playing out more often with various old cronies, but he didn't have his name on the marquee with his band, his music, his beat.  He was always the one behind the scenes.

In the late sixties and early seventies they had Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but they didn't quite have in sound and performance what Bill Kreutzmann's power trio has today. The Grateful Dead drummer was joined on stage Saturday night at the Fox Theater with the Allman Brothers Band's Oteil Burbridge on bass and Max Creek's Scott Murawski on lead guitar.

When my sister was in high school she was a musical filter for me, as I was her younger brother and was very impressionable. Most of the music I was listening too was coming on mix tapes that artsy-fartsy, private school boys would make for her and she would subsequently hand down to me when that boy's time passed. So, as my friends were enamored with the New Kids, Tiffany and Color Me Badd.

When Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played dropped in 2005, it made history. Produced by Bob Cutarella and Fran Cathcart, it brought Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Sam Cooke, Steve Miller, and many others into the studio to play with guitar pioneer Les Paul. That recording earned two Grammys in 2006.