Amid a brief West Coast stint, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros graced the newly rebranded Oxbow RiverStage in Napa, California last Saturday. The trio led by the legendary guitarist and bandleader alongside constant collaborator Jay Lane on drums and prestigious producer/bassist Don Was has deservingly garnered an attentive following of its own. For many Bobby fans, his best work after the Grateful Dead was with RatDog throughout the mid-1990s into the 2000s.

Few iconic bands who have been a group for fifty years truly play with the vigor and focus of their heyday. Not that there’s anything erroneous regarding nostalgia, but for the seminal group King Crimson there’s historically been little looking back. Denying the moniker of progressive rock (reasonably so, as they predate the subgenre) the group’s core founding member Robert Fripp (guitars, keyboards, mellotron) generally led a charge towards new material every tour and an evolving methodology on arrangements.

The San Francisco-based Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band arguably played some of their most prolific shows on the East Coast, as strange is it may seem. Those spectacular primal billings at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East entering the 1970s, “the best show that almost didn’t happen” in May of 1977 at Boston Garden, Clarence Clements ethereal sit-in with Jerry Garcia Band at Great Woods, Massachusetts in fall of 1989.

On the last Tuesday night in May, Little Feat continued their triumphant 50th anniversary tour in Oakland at the storied Fox Theater. Time-honored members Bill Payne (piano, keys, synth), Paul Barrere (guitars), Kenny Gradney (bass), Sam Clayton (percussion), and Fred Tackett (guitars, mandolin, trumpet) were joined by Gabe Ford (drums) and very special guests Midnight Ramble Horns (Steve Bernstein, Erik Lawrence, Jay Collins,) for a night of career-spanning classics.

On March 15th Round Records released the highly anticipated box set from Jerry Garcia Band, Electric On The Eel. The Six-CD set contains three complete performances from the storied Northern California hippie haven of French’s Camp on the Eel River located in rural Mendocino County.

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.

While San Francisco has a rich history in live music, few independent venues exist outside of music group monopolies such as Live Nation, Another Planet, Golden Voice (owned by AEG), or SF Jazz. All politics aside, it’s becoming less common for a medium-capacity venue to operate independently, likely related to hugely inflated rent/operations costs and radius clauses. Just last week Great American Music Hall and Slims relinquished booking rights to Golden Voice and laid off its loyal longtime staff.

Last weekend, the historic Warfield in San Francisco hosted a special two nights in honor of the life and legacy of Jerry Garcia. It is fitting, as the storied 86-year old theater hosted Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band dozens of times and continued to book acts that bring an adventurous music spirit. One of the beloved guitarist and bandleader’s closest collaborators outside of Grateful Dead was organist Melvin Seals.

Grateful Web recently had the honor of speaking with Bill Payne about the upcoming milestone of 50 years of Little Feat in 2019. Payne’s depth as an artist goes much farther than Little Feat’s founding pianist, co-songwriter and vocalist. A photographer, poet, one of the hardest working and best damn American rock musicians since the 1970s.

Legendary blues preservationists Hot Tuna performed a three-night engagement in Berkeley’s storied Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse to bid farewell to 2018. On the eve of their fiftieth anniversary together as Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were unmistakably grateful to be still playing and creating together.