Well, last year was certainly one for the books! The hottest year in recorded history saw the departure from this world of so many beloved artists and performers, and an election cycle that seemed to be lifted from the pages of a Batman comic book… don’t get me started! ;)

But my music world continued growing and evolving in the “post-Furthur” phase of my life. The John Kadlecik Band hit the road hard in 2016, playing 72 shows across the country, including two full west coast tours, and Todd Stoops joined the band in May, playing most of the rest of the year with us. I am sad to bid farewell to Nathan Graham, who is going back to grad school and taking time off from full-time touring in 2017, so JKB will take a brief hiatus from hard touring while we regroup. (literally!)...

The Golden Gate Wingmen, while only playing sporadically (16 shows in 2016), is still active, and we have a run of four shows coming up in February on the east coast. Keep your ears to the ground for more news down the line...

The DC Mystery Cats is my DC-area-only (non-touring) Jerry Garcia Band tribute project, and we played a bunch of shows at Gypsy Sally’s, including another Thanksgiving-eve benefit show for the DC Food Kitchen. I really enjoyed playing those JGB setlists with that great bunch of "cats," and certainly plan for more shows in 2017...

I did a number of fun side-man gigs in 2016, including Phil Lesh & Friends in Las Vegas, Melvin Seals & JGB at the Warfield in San Francisco, Keller Wiliams’ Grateful Gospel at Lockn and New Years Eve, and a return to Venice, Italy for another of Innovative Giving Enhancement’s amazing “Immersion” benefit-parties. But another first-time-played-in-a-new-country event happened last year when I was invited to play with Oteil Burbridge and friends in Costa Rica! And now, as I am writing this, I am in Utah having just played with Oteil, Aron Magner, and Jeff Franca for the Sundance Film Festival in a new project we are calling the Bureau of Sabotage after having just played a wildly fun show at Gypsy Sally’s on January 20th. We are definitely looking forward to more shows popping up in the future… stay tuned! And right on the horizon coming up in the sideman department are two shows just announced with Dead Feat in New Orleans during Jazz fest!

And last, interestingly enough, this past year my solo shows started taking off, and this has become a very fun way to get out in the world and tour. I call my one-man concert “Solo Acousti’lectric,” in part because I can produce a convincing acoustic guitar sound out of my electric guitars, and part because I explore other sounds outside the usual “solo with acoustic guitar” format, and lately I have been having a lot of fun with it. And tonight begins a 7 show solo tour in Salt Lake City at Gracie’s…

The road goes ever on and on… thanks for traveling with me!

Peace, Love, and Art,

-John