Steve Kimock, guitar wizard and the man Jorma Kaukonen labeled one of the best guitarists alive, first came to notice with Zero, the legendary Marin County jam band from the ‘80s.  Then came the post-Grateful Dead Furthur tours in the ‘90s, and he currently leads Voodoo Dead among other combinations.  But for a good long while—25 years!—Steve Kimock & Friends has been his primary outlet.  It’s a hell of a band, and in September they’re going to take a short jaunt around the Northeast to celebrate. 

The Golden Gate Wingmen launched their east coast leg of Spring Tour 2019 this week.

It’s not often that venerable guitarist, composer, and bandleader Steve Kimock appeases his hugely loyal fanbase by giving into song requests. Not that Steve overlooks the folks who’ve gone to every damn show since the days of his heralded archetypal band Zero, but for the veteran artist, music is ever-evolving and never about looking backward or forwards.

The second annual Skull and Roses Festival brought Deadheads from all over California, to the Ventura Fairgrounds, for three days of music inspired by The Grateful Dead. The campground area was nearly full by the time the music started early on Friday afternoon, April 6th. Festival publicist Dennis McNally, who was the publicist for the Grateful Dead from 1984-95 choose the spot because of its significance in the history of the Dead.

The last 2 shows of the Golden Gate Wingmen Spring Tour 2018 are this weekend! Friday the 13th in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall, and Saturday the 14th at the Crystal Bay Casino in Lake Tahoe!

Live music lovers in the North Bay Area know Mill Valley’s Sweetwater Music Hall as a hotbed for unexpected collaborations and special one-off celebratory performances. Not surprising considering the primary investors behind the intimate café/venue in the music savvy Marin County town are rock ‘n’ roll investors (Bob Weir and Sammy Hagar namely) bringing in one-of-a-kind collaborations.

Skull and Roses is a celebration of community, a community generated by the music of the Grateful Dead.  Our music.

Somebody asked Uncle John what being a Dead Head was all about.  He smiled and said, “When you want to be fully alive, an individual but also tied at the heart within a rich, vibrant family, somebody who wants to have a lot of fun and probably dance, too – then you’re a Dead Head.”

A marathon musical journey featuring a full rendition of the Talking Heads opus “Stop Making Sense” with Pink Floyd & Phish songs intertwined throughout the piece.

While on tour with various projects over the past few years, bassist extraordinaire Reed Mathis spent his spare time rearranging Beethoven (Symphonies 3 and 6), recording each newly reimagined movement with a long and impressive "who's-who" list of his musical brethren, including Phish's Page McConnell and Mike Gordon, Marco Benevento, Joe Russo, the Barr Brothers, Robert Walter and Galactic's Stanton Moore.

Isaac Newton once said, “If I have been able to see further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  The exciting new album and resulting tour of Reed Mathis and 'Electric Beethoven' is just that, going further standing on the shoulders of giants.  The album is filled with classical allusions and improvisational rockets that launch off into another world.  Mathis took a concept that he has been chewing on for quite some time and put the pieces together into a masterpiece.

It’s jamtronica with Beethoven — hence, the world’s first CDM (“classical dance music”) band.

About Reed Mathis and Electric Beethoven: