The City of Bridgeport and Gathering of the Vibes have finalized an agreement to hold the annual music, camping and arts festival at Seaside Park for the next five years, through summer 2012.  This year's 13th annual event, scheduled for July 31–Aug. 3, 2008, features New Orleans legends The Neville Brothers, southern rockers The Black Crowes, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and Friends and Bridgeport's own Deep Banana Blackout.

Grateful Web's Aaron Dietrich was in attendance at Friday night's Ratdog/Gov't Mule show in Eugene, Oregon.

Thanks to all of you who were able to come out and see DSO this spring on our winding road to Manchester, TN. Along the way we were honored to welcome two very special guests as Rob Eaton Jr. joined DSO for "Easy Wind" on the first night and Phish's Mike Gordon sat in for a few tunes on both nights at Higher Ground in VT. The end of the road brought DSO to Bonnaroo greeted by thousands of fans under 'The Other Tent' for their Late Night slot on Thursday night.

Every time I write about these boys, I somehow slip into my hill country roots and all sorts of mountainisms start coming out of my mouth. I guess it's because I get caught up in the theater of the band and the fact that they don't take anything seriously—except their music. You can't believe a word written on their websites—especially the bios of each current member and former member.

Despite two evenings devastated by severe thunderstorms and even hail, the 2008 Wakarusa Festival held at Clinton Lake, Kansas powered through it all and still provided its attendees a great weekend of music, camping, and all around good times.

For classical composer Lee Johnson, tackling the work of the Grateful Dead was like discovering the musical foundations of a new foreign country. Johnson is known for his concert pieces, choral works, short operas and musicals, planetarium soundtracks, and solo/ensemble pieces that cross into jazz and big band music.

Today's review is a show readily available for download at the Live Music Archive, 7/29/88, at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey California. This was the first of a three show run at Laguna Seca, and in my opinion the best of the three. I chose this show mainly because of the extremely high quality of the recording currently available at the LMA. It sounds to me to be a mislabelled soundboard or soundboard/audience matrix recording, but I suppose it's possible that its just a phenomenal audience recording.

After proving a highlight at Coachella this year, internationally acclaimed Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello performs today at Bonnaroo on Saturday, June 14 at 4:00 PM on the Which Stage. Come see why Q Magazine calls Eugene Hutz, "a great performer of our times," with what the New York Press is calling "a band that everyone should see live."