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.

Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas have joined the lineup for the 6th annual Mountain Jam Music Festival. Krauss is the recipient of a staggering 27 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for her collaboration with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, Raising Sand. She is the most awarded female artist (and the second most awarded artist overall), in Grammy history.

The physical requirement of playing live music leaves little room for musicians to keep performing past a certain age.  Although a handful of timeless artists such as Buddy Guy, BB King, The Rolling Stones, and Paul McCartney have been able to defy the limits of time, it goes to say that most careers decline past middle age.