Night two, “One More Saturday Night” at Citi Field is in the books! Very lucky to have attended both shows. The weather was spectacular on this second night of the two-night run at the ballpark. The Dead & Company 2018 Summer tour is in full swing and at the halfway point. I have been following Dead & Company since their inception and witnessing what I see as an evolution.

SPAC, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center is one of those venues that has always been a special place to visit. The concert shed is located in the State Park, a couple of miles from downtown Saratoga Springs, NY. Saratoga State Park is known for its healing springs. The waters are rumored to be magical. FDR bathed in these spring waters during the Great Depression as a treatment for his Polio.

March for Our Lives, the movement and organization started by high school students who survived the mass shooting in Parkland FL, will have a booth at every Dead & Co. show on the summer tour.

With Wavy Gravy, Bob Weir, and Steve Kimock as its star personalities on May 6, and Wavy’s Camp Winnarainbow the recipient of the evening’s proceeds, the intimate event at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California, exuded a friends and family vibe. And there was cake!

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.”

American rock prodigy Steve Kimock took over Denver’s Cervantes’ Other Side for two nights of funk, rock, and blues this past weekend, playing an exotic orchestration featuring jam-fueled originals and traditional covers alike.

Did I say one? Better make it two. While Dead & Company trounced Dallas this past Friday with a meaty rocker of a show, Saturday night in Austin received a more deliberate performance befitting the band’s early era of improvised exploration. Which was better? Well, that depends on the opinion of the most opinionated fans in music. But we can all agree that for one weekend there was a seventh flag flying over Texas: the Freak Flag.

No stranger to the music of the Dead, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti  - of Dead and Company, and formerly of Furthur, RatDog, The Dead, and The Other Ones - joins Dark Star Orchestra November 18 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, CT and November 19 at The Palace Theatre in Albany, NY.  DSO bassist Skip Vangelis is unavailable for these dates, so keyboardist Rob Barraco will pivot to fill in on bass while Chimenti, who joined DSO in 2012 and 2014 for similarly brief sit-in

Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, with John Mayer and featuring Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, better known collectively as Dead & Company, opened their highly anticipated Summer 2016 tour by announcing a free show at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Monday, May 23.

Iconic guitarist and composer Steve Kimock is a fixture in many different contexts. It’s hard to think of a musician who’s more adaptable and melodically resourceful. While his style gets unfairly lumped into the jam category, those more knowledgeable know better. It’s best to regard him as a purveyor of free music. Jerry Garcia admired his work immensely and proclaimed Kimock his favorite under-the-radar guitarist.