The 50th Anniversary of Grateful Dead unofficially kicks off tonight with a tribute to Jerry Garcia in Maryland.  All of the "core four" GD members will be there with various outfits (and let's be honest, probably be on stage together for at least one song), as well as FTW band-member Bruce Hornsby.  The...

Can't say I've ever seen this picture before... As shared by the Jerry Garcia facebook page, a photo of what looks to be around four or five year old Jerry looking suitably awed by his brush with the big guy.Wouldn't be too long before that little fella might have been mistaken for St. Nick...

On a summer night in 1982, Garcia & Kahn brought their acoustic show to the grand Auditorium in Chicago.Two compact sets and a nice little "Reuben & Cherise" encore.  There's not much to dislike here in this rare audience recording.  Enjoy.Download Entire Show

Given the format and its inherit lack of spontaneity, I was in "no spoilers" mode and had shut myself off from the flow of information about the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration featuring Warren Haynes prior to the Chicago stop on the short spring tour.So it was a bit strange that the only bit of (...

With David Letterman's retirement announcement yesterday, I thought it'd be nice to check in with some of the inspired lunacy created during the Late Night years with our musical heroes.Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir made three notable appearances on the show dating back to 1982, where they played acoustic on an off night between Nassau...

Rock coupled with the symphony has always made for a curious marriage. This is particularly true for improvisational music, which doesn't lend itself to arrangements for dozens of musicians.For jam fans in Chicago (and really most of the Midwest) we haven't had too much evidence to sway us either way. We've had to sit...

Volume Two of The Barn'sNotes From The Jazz Underground feature showcases the show broadcast on August 9th -- the 18th anniversary of Jerry Garcia's passing and the ceremonial close of Jerry Week festivities. Host Paul Abella wears his Deadhead credentials on his sleeve and this show was his tribute to Jerry's legacy as a jazz...

It wasn't jambands that introduced me to the music of J.J. Cale, I (like most people) have Eric Clapton to thank for that. But it certainly was the jambands who reinforced just how deep and impressive his catalog is, and totally ingrained just how cool the man was. We lost a great one when...

Buzzfeed recently reported on a curious feature that Google offers as a part of its Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) product. Many spreadsheet jockeys have been known to start a series in the first two cells of a worksheet (e.g. Days Of The Week, Months of the Year, etc.) and use the autofill feature...

I recently finished Neil Young's autobiography Waging Heavy Peace -- and while I'll save all my thoughts on that tome for another post, one of the things that did stand out was how much he values the friendships in his life, whether they be musical, business or otherwise. At around the same time, I came...