Grateful Web recently had the opportunity to speak to legendary bandleader, composer and jazz guitarist, John McLaughlin.  John discussed his ongoing and diverse collaborations through the years, his newest album, Now Here This, and some of the guitarists who continue to push the envelope.

Denver’s Fillmore is in store for a psy-dub-bass showdown this Holiday season, as perennial electronic favorites EOTO take the stage on December 8th with VibeSquad and NiT GriT. Known for their 100% live improvised performances, EOTO has been carving out their niche as an electronic dubstep dance duo, interweaving live instrumentation, for a unique musical experience night after night.

Canadian-based jam band Days Of You is set to release their first album in over a decade, after taking a 12-year hiatus throughout the 2000’s. The band’s upcoming LP release, You Belong Where You Go, marks a triumphant return to the scene for the Canadian pioneers. Mixing elements of rock, blues, jazz, reggae, and folk, on top of improvisational experimentation, Days of You quickly gained success through community radio and word of mouth.

We are happy to announce that Leftover Salmon swims westbound for 2013 Winter Tour! The tour sees stops throughout the West, Southern California, Southwest, and back through some of the Mountain West’s favorite ski towns.

This November 11, Boulder, Colorado’s Fox Theatre hosted Xavier Rudd, one of Australia’s most iconic voices, for the last American stop along his Spirit Bird Tour. Behind his custom drum set equipped with two didgeridoos, Xavier Rudd appeared like a mythic creature from an aborigine creation story. Rudd embodied the totem spirit vision as half-man and ecstatic bird with colossal tusks.

One of the more humorous developing attitudes of newer bluegrass acts is that they don’t like applying the label “bluegrass”. Though their instrumentation, song selection, and style all point to an existing form. The trend seems to be that up-and-comings feel marginalized by being cornered into accepting the label. In certain ways I understand this fear. Donning the title of a “bluegrass” band makes its musicians pressured into accepting a certain catalogue of songs and a limiting context in which they can expand and improvise their instrumentals.