Grateful Web recently had the chance to speak with keyboardist and producer Chad Staehly. He’s a member of the rock’n’roll roots group Hard Working Americans. Featuring some of the most established talents in American music including vocalist/guitarist Todd Snider, guitarists Neal Casal and Jesse Aycock, bassist Dave Schools, and drummer Duane Trucks, the band which began as a group project has grown into their own after four years of touring and recording.

One of the biggest new-music buzzes of the June 2017 edition of the Monterey International Pop Festival was a pioneering performance by Jamtown, a burgeoning venture from three separately renowned musicians – Cisco Adler (from Malibu), G. Love (from Philadelphia), and Donavon Frankenreiter (from Hawaii). Cisco also happens to be the son of Lou Adler, who helped produce the original Monterey Pop in 1967 and was on-site in 2017 as well.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Summer of Love is among us. Country Joe McDonald’s music was a cornerstone of those times. Whether you know him best from his iconic Vietnam protest anthem “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-To-Die Rag” or have dug deep into his brilliantly diverse Country Joe & The Fish seminal albums, including the aforementioned title album and Electric Music for the Mind and Body, all of the above happened in 1967, fifty years ago this summer.

Grateful Web recently had an enlightening conversation with Hawk Semins of The Owsley Stanley Foundation. Hawk is an OSF board member, the Foundation's lawyer, the corporate secretary, the executive producer of the box set, and sometimes he even works in the mailroom.  He helped to form the Foundation after Bear died and has volunteered his time to the organization since then, working closely with Bear's son, Starfinder Stanley, the OSF President.

Recently, we at Grateful Web had the opportunity to chat with Elise Olmstead, the founder of the jam-based musical magazine The Jamwich and The Mad Tea Party Jam. Our conversation focused on The Mad Tea Party Jam, a music festival in Artemas, PA every year. She founded the festival with her husband Taco.

Dylan Muhlberg of Grateful Web here with guitarist, singer, and songwriter Grahame Lesh, who cofounded Bay Area based folk rock band Midnight North five years ago.

Pat Mastelotto joined iconic English “Progressive rock” originators King Crimson back in 1994. His years as a stalwart L.A. session drummer brought him to audition with Crimson’s founding guitarist and (undefined) bandleader Robert Fripp. The rest is history. Mastelotto’s diverse style lent itself to their groundbreaking double-trio format which deeply expanded the ensembles live spectrum of possibilities.

Scott Guberman has been a professional rock pianist for years now. He’s Deadhead thru and through who first saw the Grateful Dead in the Brent Mydland-era and never looked back. Destiny brought Scott and his wife out to the San Francisco Bay Area to inevitably become an integral part of Terrapin Crossroads musical community.

Grown from the heartstrings of the Bay Area, The Brothers Comatose have been delivering a beautiful combination of folk, Americana and bluegrass that has grown with the masses. Brothers Ben and Alex Morrison created the epic folk group after discovering a banjo in their mother’s living room. After that, the group has taken off and played with legendary groups such as Yonder Mountain String Band and Devil Makes Three.

Sitting in your favorite outdoor chair, contemplating which is sweeter: The valley breeze lifting off the river to cool your brow, or the soul soothing sounds of an epic summer festival line up. Either way, you’ve decided that you feel more at home than you ever have…”

That’s the sensation I felt last year while doing all of my favorite things, together at once, while also being a good steward of the earth. To me, that’s what Homegrown on the River is all about.