Have I ever told you guys about this place in Asheville called The Salvage Station? I feel like I have and, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but man do those guys know how to throw a party.

I mean unless hanging out down by the French Broad River with a beer in your hand and the best music touring the country isn’t really your thing. In that case perhaps I could interest you in a board game or something.

Just over a month after the release of his new album The Gathering, Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band took the stage at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, New York for a Sunday evening filled with songs both old and new.

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain has done far more for the craft than any predecessor of the instrument. Hussain crossed over into experimental Western music with groups like Shakti (alongside John McLaughlin and L. Shankar) and with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart in the classic World percussion releases Rolling Thunder, Diga and later Planet Drum. Still nothing has prepared followers of Hussain’s illustrious career for his marvelous group Cross Currents.

The musicians that make up Phish are relentless students and teachers of musical prowess, theory, and expression. It seems as though they never rest and constantly create. After a powerful three nights at Dick’s Sporting Good Park in Colorado a month and a half ago, bassist Mike Gordon was back with his solo band to close his tour in the mountains at the elegant Boulder Theater.

The Los Angeles-formed Vintage Trouble consists of vocalist Ty Taylor, guitarist Nalle Colt, bassist Rick Barrio Dill, drummer Richard Danielson and newcomer extraordinaire Brian London on keys. Their youthful flair for performance was immediately apparent on their 2011 debut, “The ‘Bomb Shelter Sessions’ and then peaked on ‘The Swing Acoustic Sessions’ (2014) and most recent chestnut ‘1 Hopeful Road’ (2015). It’s hard to believe that it was only a decade ago that they first performed live.

Guitarist, bandleader, and composer Steve Kimock already had an impressively diverse backdrop of music before co-founding KIMOCK, taking a notion from a creative apex following his previous album, the deeply personal and experimental Last Danger of Frost. The veteran multi-genre improvisor admitted in an interview with Grateful Web that he wanted to explore a side his musical self that was lesser seen onstage. His potently cascading compositions have always taken focus, each song is a journey, and the payoff is blissful yet unpredictable.

On Thursday, October 12th, the Campfire Caravan rolled into the Ogden Theatre, in Denver, Colorado and kicked up the energy in what was truly a full-on collaboration. Stop number fourteen, on a thirty plus city tour, the Campfire Caravan is a fifteen-musician crew featuring Mipso, The Brothers Comatose, and The Lil' Smokies.

Fans lined up well before the gates opened at the Vina Robles Amphitheater as a beautiful fall sunset painted the sky in myriad colors, Sunday, October 15th in Paso Robles. Arguably the best live music venue in California, the new amphitheater holds about 3000 people. There isn’t a bad seat in the house with a lawn section in the back, nearly as popular with patrons as front row tickets.

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead isn't much of a secret at this point; over the course of the last couple years they have confidently taken the throne as the pre-eminent Dead cover outfit, an ascension that seemed to culminate with their headlining Red Rocks show this past August.

When Thundercat last played New York the show came on the heels of the release of his excellent album Drunk, saw guest appearances from comedians Dave Chappelle  and Hannibal Buress along with pianist and record producer Robert Glasper, and left just about everyone in the room scraping up their jaw from the floor by the end of things.