It’s so interesting to ponder how the Grateful Dead, despite being self-described poster children for avoiding politics and activism and concentrating on music, really aren’t that. From the beginning all members of the Dead were rooted in San Francisco’s scene and are an iconic representation of so many different facets of a humanitarian persuasion.

By the fall of 1994, the Grateful Dead scene was growing unmanageably large. Even large mainstay venues that the boys have been performing at for decades were too small anymore. The performance that used to be a not-so-well-kept secret had grown to sell out the largest football and soccer stadiums.

Specific aromas have the power to transport me back to an earlier, more youthful time: the earthy redolence of decaying leaves, mesquite smoke wafting from a neighbor’s barbeque, and even the gamy stench of a hockey locker room. I also have triggers for my ocular, haptic, gustatory, and aural senses. All of us do. And I thought sensory recall was the closest thing I would ever have to a time machine. But on Friday night, Phil and Friends changed that – not once, but twice.

The Rex Foundation is pleased to announce that tickets are now on sale for the Rex Benefit The Wheel - A Musical Celebration of Jerry Garcia, taking place on Saturday, March 24th at the The Hamilton in downtown Washington, DC, featuring New Riders of the Purple Sage, Jesse McReynolds with Garret McReynolds and Steve Thomas, and 

For the fans of the Grateful Dead most saw the time they spent as shows as an escape from reality, a dojo where the realms of the ordinary and the everyday vanished. The counterculture that surrounded that band was not only based on the years of memories captured in the hearts of millions, but like church, a Deadhead could truly have a mind-left-body experience and be closer to their spiritual selves.

41 MORE DAYS TO GO until the 2011 Grateful Garcia Gathering! "YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS 3 BIG UNFORGETTABLE NIGHTS AT JERRY GARCIA'S 69th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS! MELVIN SEALS of the "JERRY GARCIA BAND", w/ THE SCHWAG~DEAD AHEAD featuring guitarist Dave A'Bear! "GERONIMO BLACK", will rock your soul! Limited $40 Tickets Online now! Aug 4th-7th Black River Falls, Wi.

Like every good Deadhead, sometimes I’ve tried to imagine what it must have been like back in 1964 when Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions played at the Top of the Tangent coffee house in Palo Alto.  As most Deadheads know, it was Mother McCree’s, a band steeped in traditional folk and bluegrass influence, that birthed the band we’ve come to know as the Grateful Dead.  Back then, I don’t think anyone could have imagined that the sprawling lawns of the

Some forty or so years ago in the Summer of Love, tens of thousands of Northern Californians – and soon after, many more Americans – changed their minds about certain aspects of American life.  They decided that spending their lives in the pursuit of fun and a higher wisdom would be preferable to an existence devoted exclusively to getting, spending, and serving corporations.  They decided that all of this would be best accompanied by music.

Awestruck by the immortal musicians lining Fillmore Auditorium’s corridors, 25 weeks pregnant Stars female vocalist Amy Millan, glowing and beaming, dedicated the Stars’

Join the Rex Foundation on Saturday, December 4th at The Fillmore in San Francisco for a festive, one-of-a-kind musical occasion to benefit the Rex Foundation:  The Wheel - A Musical Celebration of Jerry Garcia.  Musical friends of Jerry Garcia since 1962 come together to play his music, including:  Jesse McReynolds, Garrett McReynolds, Steve Thomas, Peter Rowan Blue Grass Band: Peter Rowan, Jody Stecher, Keith Little, Paul Knight, David Nelson & Friends, Electric: David Nelson, Barry Sless, Robin Syl