One of the most apparent struggles for the “core four” surviving members of the late Grateful Dead is how to follow up a musical career without going about continuing the music of their previous band. And as we all know, calling Grateful Dead a “band” is simply a misstatement. It was a way of life.

Nestled away in the Manistee National Forest in the northern part of the mitten lie the beautiful grounds that Hoxeyville Music Festival calls home. The ninth installment of the festival proved to be one of the most exciting and eclectic lineups to date.

The worst of the heat lost its tight grip on the weekend very early Sunday morning.

“Get Lost in the Great North Woods” is the perfect way to describe Hoxeyville Music Festival.  The 8^th annual festival was held in the Manistee National Forest in Northern Michigan.  Each year Hoxeyville has grown and improved this year followed suit and featured a bigger and better lineup than ever before, cleaner and more organized festival grounds, and the largest crowd to date at around 4,000 people.  One of the greatest things about Hoxeyville is the family atmosphere, whether it was a grandparent and grandchild watching a mid-day set, lon

You might still think this was 1973.  I did for a second, as I watched the tie-dye clad Deadheads trekking through wheat-colored fields, on a pilgrimage to Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View on Sunday evening to catch the band now known as The Dead.

In many ways the Grateful Dead's music was destined from the beginning to be a symphony, much as the band itself was an orchestra with core members and a rotating cast lending a hand.  When I was a kid and my father would listen to them I would immediately be able to draw similarities due to the complexities between their music and classical.  Perhaps that's why it's fitting that finally after all these years someone has finally written a symphony which is based on and inspired by the