That well-known lyric from the Grateful Dead song “Truckin’” was on my mind this weekend. “She” might refer to America’s most iconic band. “She” might be a Deadhead who was born before Jerry Garcia took his first breath – or a Deadhead who never heard a lick of Dead music until after Garcia died. “She” might be San Francisco, the city that reluctantly birthed the psychedelic movement and its most famous rock band in the tumultuous 60s. Or “she” could be that same city in its current incarnation, the city that welcomed Dead & Company with open arms for a 60th birthday celebration this past weekend.

A cavalcade of accomplished, like-minded musicians with connections to Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and/or Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads nightclub appeared in San Francisco on July 31 for The Heart of Town, a four-hour, all-killer-no-filler tribute to Garcia, “GD60,” and the spirit of San Francisco.

Mid-July, The String Cheese Incident made their institutional return to their home base in Colorado and played back-to-back solid shows to capacity crowds at the world-famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre. This year marked their 19th year to perform at the location many refer to as ‘the best venue on earth,’ delivering their forty-eighth and forty-ninth gigs respectively since their first performance in the sound sanctuary in 2000.

Tedeschi Trucks Band is as much a musical movement as they are a band. They are a large group of gifted musicians that travel around the country together as a family, bandmates and friends. The dozen musicians who make up this powerful force of musical joy are all well-seasoned road warriors. They spend countless hours and miles on the road, chasing the moonlight through the windshields of their homes on wheels to arrive at their next gig. With so many band members come many musical influences and musical ideas.

These days, it can often times be a daunting task for those of us who are fans under the ever expanding umbrella of the genre known as country music to sift through the seemingly endless mire of tired, overplayed & shallow subjects like red solo cups, truck tailgates and bikini clad girls on a river bank (usually while also holding red solo cups and sitting on truck tailgates).

Jam‑rock titans Phish returned to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for the twenty‑fourth time in their career on July 25, 2025, kicking off a three‑night run at the storied venue. The band has decades of jam‑filled history at the lush, tree‑covered site they first played nearly thirty‑three years ago, and they did not disappoint.

Phish made their debut at the iconic Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, NY, on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. The legendary tennis-stadium-turned–concert venue is smaller than the average Phish stop and boasted the best concert fare we’ve seen so far. The foursome from Vermont delivered a vibrant show that included a fiery, twenty-eight-minute “Carini” in Set Two.

Rock‑and‑roll rumors of death have been exaggerated for decades, but step inside any dimly lit club in Portland and you’ll feel its pulse kicking like a stubborn bass drum. That lifeblood courses loudest right now through Chris Margolin & The Contraband, a Northwest foursome that introduced themselves last year with the riff‑packed Carnival Station.

Part of the Terrapin Roadshow series, a fine ensemble of talented musicians with shared music pedigrees gathered on July 19 at a 500‑capacity amphitheater in San Rafael, California, for a two‑set, kaleidoscopic performance of (mostly) Grateful Dead music. This was the second of three weekend shows at the venue, typically utilized by the Marin Shakespeare Company, within the Dominican University of California campus, each of which had a different ensemble cast.

On July 13, 2025, the Vina Robles Amphitheatre buzzed with excitement as a sold‑out crowd gathered for the eagerly awaited Happy Together Show—a nostalgic celebration of 1960s music presented by the stars of the 2025 Happy Together Tour. The evening featured legendary acts including The Turtles, Jay and the Americans, Little Anthony, Gary Puckett, The Vogues, and The Cowsills, all of whom delivered engaging performances.