Multifarious guitar player Stephen Inglis is no stranger to the music of the Grateful Dead. A life-long Deadhead through and through, Stephen took his native Hawaiian guitar playing roots and mingled it with the band that changed his life. In conversation with Grateful Web, Stephen opened up about his ambitious solo Slack Key Guitar-centered album Cut The Dead Some Slack.

GW: Can you talk about your musical beginnings? Who are your influences?

As you entered the theater, you were given a postcard which had instructions for the “cue” for when to sing happy birthday to the birthday boy. Some of my fellow attendees were already wearing birthday hats and even giving them out to their friends. The theater was hoppin’, and the vibe was that of a celebration. It was a sold-out crowd (GA/LOGE/BALCONY). Of course, it really didn’t matter if you had a seat anyway when I looked around, people were standing and dancing everywhere.

The rumor mill was in full force with speculation of which special guest would accompanying Bob Weir and Phil Lesh on stop two of their mini “Duo” tour in Boston. The two Grateful Dead founding members were joined by Trey Anastasio in NY, and many expected that John Mayer would guest in Boston.

Originally released as part of the sold-out Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings, the Grateful Dead’s Fillmore West, San Francisco 2/27/69 show will be issued on vinyl for the very first time exclusively for Record Store Day 2018. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl, the limited-edition 4-LP set (8th side etching) will have a worldwide run of 9000.

Legendary Grateful Dead drummer and three-time Grammy-award winning artist, Mickey Hart and the American Museum of Natural History are collaborating to present a dynamic artist-curated program at the Museum on the evenings of April 13th-14th. Tickets are now on sale here.

Something really remarkable happened at the Fare Thee Well shows in 2015.  Instead of being a goodbye, it was a re-ignition, a passing of the torch in some ways.  Although Jerry was always quick to point out that it was Dead Heads who created themselves, the phenomenon of Dead Head-ism was focused on the band for the first 30 years.  And it was fairly fractured for the next twenty, with some liking some iterations, and others, not.  And the musicians aren’t done, whether it’s Dead & Co. or Phil and Bobby’s recent duo, or the future outings of Billy and Mickey.

One of the longest running Grateful Dead tribute bands in the world, Shakedown Street, makes its home in and around the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Spawned from jam sessions at the Ancient Mariner bar in Manitou Springs, Colorado in 1987, Shakedown Street quickly grew in popularity, and garnered a legion of loyal fans who refer to themselves as "Shakeheads".

There is something about the energy created by people coming together to hear the music of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. The first time I experienced this seemingly human-powered electricity was a few days before my 18th birthday, in 1994, in a parking lot near what was then the Boston Garden. When Jerry died the following summer, I found myself in a park sitting in a circle around a singular candle that seemed to burn for hours.

Founding members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, of Grateful Dead fame, playing as a duo without a backing band for the first time together, ended their “Bobby and Phil Tour” with two, consecutive nights at the Chicago Theatre, after selling out New York’s Radio City Music Hall and Boston’s Wang Center.

On May 11th, Round Records will release its most ambitious project to date with the long-awaited Jerry Garcia boxed set Before The Dead. The project features a meticulously researched and curated compilation of recordings the iconic Grateful Dead founder made prior to forming the legendary band. Before The Dead includes never before heard performances, recordings that have never been commercially released and a small selection that have.