Grateful Dead

Legendary drummer and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, Bill Kreutzmann, (who played every show in the band’s illustrious 30 year career as well as The Dead incarnations since) first met funky bluesman and voodoo electronic pioneer

1970's intense. T.C. leaves the band in late January. The band's 'busted down on Bourbon Street' on January 31st. In March they discover their manager, Mickey Hart's father Lenny, has been stealing them blind (they're already hugely in debt to the record company). Only the music is sane; they enter the studio in March and in three weeks record Workingman's Dead, fulfilling Garcia and Hunter's work of the past year. It comes out in June.

It was another jam-packed night outside the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. You would have thought you were seeing Furthur on New Year’s Eve 2009 all over again. It was just about impossible to get into line outside the arena as there were so many people walking up and down the cordons with their pointer fingers in the air hoping for some miracle ticket to gain entry into DeadHeads kingdom; a Furthur show.

From now through July 4th, one of the nation's great repositories of history will play host to a remarkable and significant collection of cultural treasures: "The Grateful Dead – Now Appearing at the New-York Historical Society" is the first-ever traveling exhibition of materials on loan from the Dead's own vast archive of art, documents, photographs and memorabilia, which the band donated in 2008 to the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Furthur, featuring Phil Lesh & Bob Weir played the brand new 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado on March 5th & March 6th, 2010.  The Grateful Web was on hand to check out the show, take some photos, shoot some videos and soak in seeing the band a mere 1

Road Trips 2, Number 2 finds us deep in the heart of Grateful Dead's prime. Presented in its entirety, this spectacular performance was captured at the Austin Municipal Auditorium on November 15th, 1971.   Highly revered for its improvisation and loaded with beautiful musical turns, the show features on this 2-disc set spotlights the Dead jamming through soon-to-be classics and dusting off their "Star" for the Lone Star State.

On a cool Saturday night my buddy Dean and I drove down to the Ashkenaz on San Pablo Ave. to catch two outstanding Grateful Dead cover bands I have seen quite frequently in the Bay Area over the last year, The Dead Guise and Play Live Dead (formerly known as Live Dead.) Dean had never been to a show at Ashkenaz, nor had he seen either band, so I was quite excited to introduce him to this incredible live music, especially because he was a big fan of The Dead like myself.

The anticipation outside San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center was at an all time peak! Dead Heads everywhere with their long hair, dread locks, beards, hemp necklaces and tie-dyed clothing were lined up outside the venue either in line or holding up their pointer finger praying for a miracle ticket. This was the kind of atmosphere I had dreamt about for years! It was beyond a rock n’ roll concert! It was the indescribable coming together of thousands of Dead Heads, who are a tribe, who become joined into one strong force once they step a foot through those auditorium doors.

Amid the recent and exciting “Shakedowns” amongst the currently touring Grateful Dead threaded projects, I had the good fortune of swapping some very interesting and eloquent emails with my friend Jeff Mattson.

After years at the helm of The Zen Tricksters, a stint with Phil Lesh and Friends, a terrific and on-going run with Donna Jean Godchaux and her various recent incarnations, Mattson now steps into John Kadlicek’s shoes with the freight train that is the Dark Star Orchestra.

Archived news