Art Space Talk: Alex Grey
Alex Grey is an artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art (or visionary art) that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Alex Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His oeuvre spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, and painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, aka CoSM, a non-profit institution supporting Visionary Culture in New York City.
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  • Leftover Salmon is breaking up or taking a break?
    Leftover Salmon after 15 yrs says no more.. a hiatus or good-bye for good? read more..

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  • Leftover Salmon is breaking up or taking a break?
    Leftover Salmon after 15 yrs says no more.. a hiatus or good-bye for good? read more..

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  • Railroad Earth
    With nearly 400 shows and tens of thousands of road miles now behind them, Railroad Earth has become a staple on the national touring and festival scene, and built a huge following of loyal fans that document and trade every note they play, and often join them on the road for multiple nights. These fans call themselves “Hobos,” and the band considers them to be the fuel that keeps this engine chugging along. Railroad Earth’s next album is planned for release in Spring 2004. Till then the band will continue to bring their music to the stage from East to West. So keep an ear to the ground and listen for Railroad Earth, because they'll be rolling through your town very soon.

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  • ten2nine
    "I hate to break the news to you, but you guy's may have finally put all the pieces together. This new ep is the best work I've heard from you ever! The writing, lyrics and music is superb, the performance is top notch and [Jim Leguilloux's] production gives it a true professional gloss." - Ron Gilmour, Power 104 Kelowna, BC

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  • Metharia
    The debut on the band was on 18th January 2000, when Metharia won the festival "Le Quattro Notti Rock." In June 2003 they are one of the three winners of the "NMC festival,' in Marcerta winning the award for the best live performance.

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  • Signal Path
    Armed with new jungle juice, they are warming up and ready to play. They opened up with a latenight show in Atlanta and continued on to Mountain View Jam Festival in North Carolina. Coast to coast, they'll be working their way to SummerCamp, Wakarusa, and High Sierra Music Festival.

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  • T-Band
    Jim Dooney plays guitar and does most of the lead vocals. He is great at getting everyone involved in the fun by taking requests or choosing the perfect song for any situation. Amy Anderson plays the stand up bass and sings harmony. Amy is the musical backbone of the band. Her playing punch and solid timing keeps us all together in our all acoustic environment. Robert Griffith plays banjo and sings harmony. Rob drives the band with lightning fast fingers and great improvising skills. Rich Egan plays mandolin and does some vocals. Rich keeps your feet tapping and your fingers snapping with his rhythm chops and is great at playing tasteful solos."

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  • Shanti Groove (September 2003)
    Shanti's groove moves along acoustical and electrical lines, combining the voice of jazz and rock with back porch bluegrass and funktified percussion. Bringing their unique sound to venues nationwide, the band provides a musical celebration of the 'groove' kind.

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  • Kelly's running column
    In this column I want to talk to you about Ghent. Ghent is the capital of the province East-Flanders in Belgium, a small country in Europe, and has about 225, 000 inhabitants.

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  • Kelly's running column
    In this column I want to talk to you about Ghent. Ghent is the capital of the province East-Flanders in Belgium, a small country in Europe, and has about 225, 000 inhabitants.

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  • Curious Yellow (August 2003)
    After fronting a couple bands in the mid 90s in California and spending the next several years developing his musical and songwriting talents in Japan and Minneapolis, Adam Lancaster landed in Denver in 2000 and founded the band. The band took on many formations and seemingly endless lineup changes for about a year until the perfect complimentary additions of Gregg Rosenthal (drums), Josh Eckhoff (guitar), and Matt Novack (bass, vocals) created a sound and style beyond what Adam could have hoped for. This new talented group immediately began writing songs and reworking old songs to create music and a performance that attracts and engages every listening audience. The personal and musical bond between each member deepened quickly and the dedication from everyone to develop the band to its fullest possibilities is evident.

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  • New Monsoon (June 2003)
    Utilizing congas, timbales, tabla, banjo, bongos, Dobro, ghatham, Didgeridoo, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drum kit and keys, the band offers a plethora of textures, rhythms, ideas and moods. New Monsoon absorbs elements of sound indigenous to world culture and incorporates them into a variety of colorful and original rhythmic compositions.

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  • One Way Rider (May 2003)
    "One Way Rider has taken Nashville by storm! It was an honor to have them perform on the Interstate Radio Network a network of over twenty stations that broadcast from Music City and airs nationwide and in Canada. Locally in Nashville, the IRN broadcast on WSM 650 AM, the home of the Grand Ole Opry. The response was great! We cant wait to have them come back on the air and play for us again. It was so good to be with folks that live and love the bluegrass way, truly a blessed family. David and Valerie are a great example of what a family can accomplish together."

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  • Smokestack (January 2003)
    “The quality of playing blew me away. All four guys were stars, but that keyboard player is a superstar. Very Hornsby in his writing and singing, very Medeski with his jams. I have had the CD for a few months, and being a little familiar with the songs impressed me even more.” CanJam News Toronto, Canada

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  • The Miltones (December 2002)
    Formed in the summer of 2000, the Miltones have already performed over 350 shows in under 28 months. Their high volume of gigs has enabled the band to mature and explore a range of musical directions that make them a formidable artistic act. Simultaneously their music seems to embrace a level of healing and celebration that make them both accessible and fortunate for the audiences they have attracted.

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  • Ripple (November 2002)
    When Ripple started out in an Old Tappan, NJ basement during early 1978, none of us thought we would be discussing the possibilities of playing together for 25 years. But that’s exactly what happened. From the early day’s of playing friends parties (usually when the Parent’s were away) to all the great nightclubs and other interesting venues we’ve performed at during the years, we’ve met some amazing people and formed life long friendships that will long out live the Band.

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  • Ray Charles died today at 73.
    Ray Charles dead at 73

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  • Fair To Midland (September 2002)
    Brett Stowers and Nathin Seals offer a rhythmic passion that leads the humble gentlemen in their avant-garde sound. The unearthed discord and unconventional cries of frontman Andrew Sudderth infused with guitarist Cliff Campbell's melodic fury tumble into a captivating creation of sonics, cultures, and confusion. Combined with the subtle offering of Matt Langley on keys, FTM glides past the expected boundries and gracefully throws their intense rock harmonies to the flame.

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  • The Few (July 2002)
    "We did it in chunks, whenever he was available," says Burnside. "Living there, and playing in the clubs, it raises your game." The result, an explosive, hooky collection that echoes Burnside's love of the Replacements and fascination with the Cure, is startling from a 22-year-old who took up guitar only three years ago.

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  • One Cat Left (May 2002)
    Pete’s former association with TOM MARSHALL of PHISH led to the band AMFIBIAN. It was here in this situation that Pete found his voice and his motivation..

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  • Mt. Kilimanjaro!
    In one scene we saw a hippo in the river, a croccodile laying on the bank just beside it, and a waterbuck stanking near in the grass!

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  • Leftover will be calling it quits at years end.
    Leftover Salmon are saying goodbye..

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  • AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TREY 05.25.04
    Phish is coming to end..

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  • Sativa Gumbo (April 2002)
    Sativa Gumbo

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  • Pamela's stories from Africa
    This month I'll continue teaching English at the school, organize a second beekeeping seminar, begin making fuel-efficient stoves, and track down another place to buy modern breed roosters.

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  • Yamagata update
    Yamagata

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  • Yamagata (June 2001)
    Yamagata

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  • JSwine (October 2000)
    JSwine

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  • Mark Karan (August 2000)
    Mark Karan

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  • Moses Guest (September 2000)
    Moses Guest

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  • Uncle Sammy (July 2001)
    Uncle Sammy

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  • Solomon Grundy (April 2001)
    Solomon Grundy

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  • Tonal Vision (May 2001)
    Tonal Vision

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  • Cosmic Dust Devils (December 2001)
    Cosmic Dust Devils

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  • Purple Buddah (November 2001)
    Purple Buddah

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  • Grateful Web's Interview with New Monsoon's Ron Johnson
    Prior to the performance, the Grateful Web had a chance to chill out with bassist Ron Johnson to discuss being the new guy in the band, what thrills him about this group, and why he digs The Beatles so much.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Jake Cinninger
    Of all the great artists making the rounds this year, none have been more ambitious than Umphreys McGee. They released the follow-up album to Safety in Numbers called The Bottom Half; a risky two-disc endeavor of leftover studio gems and insightful audio fragments. The band has also since embarked on a national tour that will take them all across the nation, including stops at such top festivals as Summercamp, 10,000 Lakes, Camp Bisco, Mountain Jam, and more.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Jake Cinninger
    Of all the great artists making the rounds this year, none have been more ambitious than Umphreys McGee. They released the follow-up album to Safety in Numbers called The Bottom Half; a risky two-disc endeavor of leftover studio gems and insightful audio fragments. The band has also since embarked on a national tour that will take them all across the nation, including stops at such top festivals as Summercamp, 10,000 Lakes, Camp Bisco, Mountain Jam, and more.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Jake Cinninger
    Of all the great artists making the rounds this year, none have been more ambitious than Umphreys McGee. They released the follow-up album to Safety in Numbers called The Bottom Half; a risky two-disc endeavor of leftover studio gems and insightful audio fragments. The band has also since embarked on a national tour that will take them all across the nation, including stops at such top festivals as Summercamp, 10,000 Lakes, Camp Bisco, Mountain Jam, and more.

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  • Bob Weir, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mr. Blotto, & Festival Philosophy
    Originally, all three bands were to perform on Thursday on different stages at different times, with Weir and Ratdog closing out the Main Stage. When Trey cancelled earlier this spring, Weir was moved up to the headlining spot on the Main Stage on Saturday night. Having him headline the festival is a move that Weir is most deserving of but is a spotlight he often shuns. “I’m not real concerned with grabbing people’s attention,” he says. “I never have been. I want to make music. As a matter of fact if I can make music that just grabs people without grabbing their attention, then that’s better as far as I’m concerned.”

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  • Bob Weir, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mr. Blotto, & Festival Philosophy
    Originally, all three bands were to perform on Thursday on different stages at different times, with Weir and Ratdog closing out the Main Stage. When Trey cancelled earlier this spring, Weir was moved up to the headlining spot on the Main Stage on Saturday night. Having him headline the festival is a move that Weir is most deserving of but is a spotlight he often shuns. “I’m not real concerned with grabbing people’s attention,” he says. “I never have been. I want to make music. As a matter of fact if I can make music that just grabs people without grabbing their attention, then that’s better as far as I’m concerned.”

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  • Bob Weir, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mr. Blotto, & Festival Philosophy
    Originally, all three bands were to perform on Thursday on different stages at different times, with Weir and Ratdog closing out the Main Stage. When Trey cancelled earlier this spring, Weir was moved up to the headlining spot on the Main Stage on Saturday night. Having him headline the festival is a move that Weir is most deserving of but is a spotlight he often shuns. “I’m not real concerned with grabbing people’s attention,” he says. “I never have been. I want to make music. As a matter of fact if I can make music that just grabs people without grabbing their attention, then that’s better as far as I’m concerned.”

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  • Jon Cleary On New Orleans Music: Part Two
    However, keeping New Orleans music viable is complex. “There are lots of elements that go into making up a healthy music scene,” says Cleary. “The most important, I think, is the consumer. It’s essential for musicians to be able to go and play a gig and get enough people in so that club owner is happy and generates enough income for the band to get paid. The primary driving force, I think, in New Orleans for musicians has almost been more economical than artistic. Musicians will take up an instrument much more regularly if they think they can go out and do some gigs and make some money at it to the pay bills and put gas in the car like everybody else. Really, you have to have a large concert-going audience.”

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  • Jon Cleary On New Orleans Music: Part Two
    However, keeping New Orleans music viable is complex. “There are lots of elements that go into making up a healthy music scene,” says Cleary. “The most important, I think, is the consumer. It’s essential for musicians to be able to go and play a gig and get enough people in so that club owner is happy and generates enough income for the band to get paid. The primary driving force, I think, in New Orleans for musicians has almost been more economical than artistic. Musicians will take up an instrument much more regularly if they think they can go out and do some gigs and make some money at it to the pay bills and put gas in the car like everybody else. Really, you have to have a large concert-going audience.”

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  • Jon Cleary On New Orleans Music: Part Two
    However, keeping New Orleans music viable is complex. “There are lots of elements that go into making up a healthy music scene,” says Cleary. “The most important, I think, is the consumer. It’s essential for musicians to be able to go and play a gig and get enough people in so that club owner is happy and generates enough income for the band to get paid. The primary driving force, I think, in New Orleans for musicians has almost been more economical than artistic. Musicians will take up an instrument much more regularly if they think they can go out and do some gigs and make some money at it to the pay bills and put gas in the car like everybody else. Really, you have to have a large concert-going audience.”

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  • Dumpsta-Divin’ with Ivan Neville
    Grateful Web recently caught up with Ivan Neville while he was in Maryland. The phone interview had to be postponed for two hours while Neville enjoyed some crab cakes, reputed to be the best in the country. “I’m in Baltimore ” he said. “You’ve got to have crab cakes, and I want to give them my full attention.” While his meal was digesting, he spoke about his new band, Dumpstaphunk...

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  • Dumpsta-Divin’ with Ivan Neville
    Grateful Web recently caught up with Ivan Neville while he was in Maryland. The phone interview had to be postponed for two hours while Neville enjoyed some crab cakes, reputed to be the best in the country. “I’m in Baltimore ” he said. “You’ve got to have crab cakes, and I want to give them my full attention.” While his meal was digesting, he spoke about his new band, Dumpstaphunk...

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  • Dumpsta-Divin’ with Ivan Neville
    Grateful Web recently caught up with Ivan Neville while he was in Maryland. The phone interview had to be postponed for two hours while Neville enjoyed some crab cakes, reputed to be the best in the country. “I’m in Baltimore ” he said. “You’ve got to have crab cakes, and I want to give them my full attention.” While his meal was digesting, he spoke about his new band, Dumpstaphunk...

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  • Derek Trucks Band
    Though he has sat in with nearly every blues great out there and recorded on plenty of albums, recently he toured all of June with his wife, roots performer Susan Tedeschi. Combing her own firey guitar work with Trucks and her powerful voice, that tour put folk, gospel, blues, and rock out there for audiences to eagerly lap up. “It’s a chance for the whole family to be on the road,” says Trucks. “My kids will be out. My younger brother will be playing drums. My mom will be out helping with the kids.” For Trucks and Tedeschi, it was a working vacation that allowed them to create music together and do some writing.

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  • Derek Trucks Band
    Though he has sat in with nearly every blues great out there and recorded on plenty of albums, recently he toured all of June with his wife, roots performer Susan Tedeschi. Combing her own firey guitar work with Trucks and her powerful voice, that tour put folk, gospel, blues, and rock out there for audiences to eagerly lap up. “It’s a chance for the whole family to be on the road,” says Trucks. “My kids will be out. My younger brother will be playing drums. My mom will be out helping with the kids.” For Trucks and Tedeschi, it was a working vacation that allowed them to create music together and do some writing.

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  • Derek Trucks Band
    Though he has sat in with nearly every blues great out there and recorded on plenty of albums, recently he toured all of June with his wife, roots performer Susan Tedeschi. Combing her own firey guitar work with Trucks and her powerful voice, that tour put folk, gospel, blues, and rock out there for audiences to eagerly lap up. “It’s a chance for the whole family to be on the road,” says Trucks. “My kids will be out. My younger brother will be playing drums. My mom will be out helping with the kids.” For Trucks and Tedeschi, it was a working vacation that allowed them to create music together and do some writing.

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  • From Appalachia to Folk & Traditional Music Festivals Past and Present: The Mike Seegers' Unique Lifes' Work
    Mike Seeger has helped bring the music of the rural South to popular attention. He did this as a folk musician in the 60s, bringing traditional musicians not yet well known to the forefront of popular attention and continues to do so through performances and archive work today. It is in part through his influence on his own generation that we have the folk-based songs of Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

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  • From Appalachia to Folk & Traditional Music Festivals Past and Present: The Mike Seegers' Unique Lifes' Work
    Mike Seeger has helped bring the music of the rural South to popular attention. He did this as a folk musician in the 60s, bringing traditional musicians not yet well known to the forefront of popular attention and continues to do so through performances and archive work today. It is in part through his influence on his own generation that we have the folk-based songs of Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

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  • From Appalachia to Folk & Traditional Music Festivals Past and Present: The Mike Seegers' Unique Lifes' Work
    Mike Seeger has helped bring the music of the rural South to popular attention. He did this as a folk musician in the 60s, bringing traditional musicians not yet well known to the forefront of popular attention and continues to do so through performances and archive work today. It is in part through his influence on his own generation that we have the folk-based songs of Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

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  • The Apple of the Big Apples' Eye
    As burlesque bumps, grinds and laughs its way back in vogue, the art of its’ golden eras, from Nouveau to the 50s, shimmies in alongside it. Montmarte had Lautrec, (or, perhaps more appropriately, his now lesser known but then more famous mistress, model and contemporary, (though not necessarily in that order), Suzanne Valdon.). The Neo-Burlesque world has Molly Crabapple, artist, subject and muse. Not surprisingly, she’s made several ‘Top New Yorkers’ lists. Her art has graced posters for burlesque shows as well as publications ranging from the “New York Times” and “The Wall Street Journal” to “Screw” and “Playgirl”.

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  • The Apple of the Big Apples' Eye
    As burlesque bumps, grinds and laughs its way back in vogue, the art of its’ golden eras, from Nouveau to the 50s, shimmies in alongside it. Montmarte had Lautrec, (or, perhaps more appropriately, his now lesser known but then more famous mistress, model and contemporary, (though not necessarily in that order), Suzanne Valdon.). The Neo-Burlesque world has Molly Crabapple, artist, subject and muse. Not surprisingly, she’s made several ‘Top New Yorkers’ lists. Her art has graced posters for burlesque shows as well as publications ranging from the “New York Times” and “The Wall Street Journal” to “Screw” and “Playgirl”.

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  • El Diablo, Brian Mitchell
    I left Appalachia’s Country Music Hwy., (via Flatpick KY), for Rt. 66. It was Labor Day Weekend and I was going to Asbury Park, NJ, a town made famous by Bruce Springsteen and others. I was going to see Soozie Tyrell, of the E-Street band, along with 9 other bands play over the weekend. There were even knowledgeable whispers, before an inconvenient hurricane hit at a most critical moment that Springsteen might make one of his periodic appearances there that Saturday.

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  • El Diablo, Brian Mitchell
    I left Appalachia’s Country Music Hwy., (via Flatpick KY), for Rt. 66. It was Labor Day Weekend and I was going to Asbury Park, NJ, a town made famous by Bruce Springsteen and others. I was going to see Soozie Tyrell, of the E-Street band, along with 9 other bands play over the weekend. There were even knowledgeable whispers, before an inconvenient hurricane hit at a most critical moment that Springsteen might make one of his periodic appearances there that Saturday.

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  • El Diablo, Brian Mitchell
    I left Appalachia’s Country Music Hwy., (via Flatpick KY), for Rt. 66. It was Labor Day Weekend and I was going to Asbury Park, NJ, a town made famous by Bruce Springsteen and others. I was going to see Soozie Tyrell, of the E-Street band, along with 9 other bands play over the weekend. There were even knowledgeable whispers, before an inconvenient hurricane hit at a most critical moment that Springsteen might make one of his periodic appearances there that Saturday.

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  • Dirty Sweet Pumps Out Irresistible Blues-Based Rock
    “We’re not a classic rock song band. That wasn’t the intention,” says Nate Beale, one of the guitarists. However, he does admit that classic rock had a heavy influence on him personally and on his guitar technique. His dad introduced him to the music of all of the rock legends. “I grew up on this stuff,” he says. “When I first started playing guitar when I was twelve years old, I was learning how to play Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin and all those classics.”

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  • Dirty Sweet Pumps Out Irresistible Blues-Based Rock
    “We’re not a classic rock song band. That wasn’t the intention,” says Nate Beale, one of the guitarists. However, he does admit that classic rock had a heavy influence on him personally and on his guitar technique. His dad introduced him to the music of all of the rock legends. “I grew up on this stuff,” he says. “When I first started playing guitar when I was twelve years old, I was learning how to play Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin and all those classics.”

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  • Dirty Sweet Pumps Out Irresistible Blues-Based Rock
    “We’re not a classic rock song band. That wasn’t the intention,” says Nate Beale, one of the guitarists. However, he does admit that classic rock had a heavy influence on him personally and on his guitar technique. His dad introduced him to the music of all of the rock legends. “I grew up on this stuff,” he says. “When I first started playing guitar when I was twelve years old, I was learning how to play Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin and all those classics.”

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  • Donna Jean & The Tricksters: Coming Full Circle
    “Once I got into the Grateful Dead,” Donna recalls, “Jerry actually encouraged me. He said, ‘You need to be writing song to put on a record.’ Which I did. I was greatly encouraged by his encouragement. I really started getting back into songwriting at about that time. I think the first thing I wrote for the Grateful Dead was ‘Sunrise.’ It’s on Terrapin Station. I’ve been writing ever since, growing musically.”

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  • Donna Jean & The Tricksters: Coming Full Circle
    “Once I got into the Grateful Dead,” Donna recalls, “Jerry actually encouraged me. He said, ‘You need to be writing song to put on a record.’ Which I did. I was greatly encouraged by his encouragement. I really started getting back into songwriting at about that time. I think the first thing I wrote for the Grateful Dead was ‘Sunrise.’ It’s on Terrapin Station. I’ve been writing ever since, growing musically.”

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  • Donna Jean & The Tricksters: Coming Full Circle
    “Once I got into the Grateful Dead,” Donna recalls, “Jerry actually encouraged me. He said, ‘You need to be writing song to put on a record.’ Which I did. I was greatly encouraged by his encouragement. I really started getting back into songwriting at about that time. I think the first thing I wrote for the Grateful Dead was ‘Sunrise.’ It’s on Terrapin Station. I’ve been writing ever since, growing musically.”

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  • Bob Weir and Ratdog at The Beacon Theater
    Chat with Bob Weir. I shared with Mr. Weir that I am advanced at yoga myself, and asked him what type of yoga does he practice? A-"Ashtanga". Q- "I understand you workout too, how often do you go to the gym?" A-"Everyday". Q-"What's your biggest accomplishment in life, what more would you like to achieve?" A- "I just want to keep playing, keep practicing, keep improving, that's what I really want to do, to keep on playing". Q-"Are you going to write a book?" A-"I have to write a book, it's long overdue."

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  • Bob Weir and Ratdog at The Beacon Theater
    Chat with Bob Weir. I shared with Mr. Weir that I am advanced at yoga myself, and asked him what type of yoga does he practice? A-"Ashtanga". Q- "I understand you workout too, how often do you go to the gym?" A-"Everyday". Q-"What's your biggest accomplishment in life, what more would you like to achieve?" A- "I just want to keep playing, keep practicing, keep improving, that's what I really want to do, to keep on playing". Q-"Are you going to write a book?" A-"I have to write a book, it's long overdue."

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  • Bob Weir and Ratdog at The Beacon Theater
    Chat with Bob Weir. I shared with Mr. Weir that I am advanced at yoga myself, and asked him what type of yoga does he practice? A-"Ashtanga". Q- "I understand you workout too, how often do you go to the gym?" A-"Everyday". Q-"What's your biggest accomplishment in life, what more would you like to achieve?" A- "I just want to keep playing, keep practicing, keep improving, that's what I really want to do, to keep on playing". Q-"Are you going to write a book?" A-"I have to write a book, it's long overdue."

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  • Grateful Web's Interview with the New Deal
    When we decided to play a proper “show” (to 5 people) as just the three of us, without any acid jazz covers, that was when it really kicked in. The beautiful accident was the fact that we played the music that we did that night, and happened to record it to a cassette tape, which turned out to be The New Deal This Is Live.

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  • Grateful Web's Interview with the New Deal
    When we decided to play a proper “show” (to 5 people) as just the three of us, without any acid jazz covers, that was when it really kicked in. The beautiful accident was the fact that we played the music that we did that night, and happened to record it to a cassette tape, which turned out to be The New Deal This Is Live.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Jason Hann
    In the midst of this extraordinary tour The Grateful Web had a chance to catch up with Jason Hann to discuss the power of this new improvisational project, the Tao of Isaac Hayes, and why it's not so easy being Cheesy.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Jason Hann
    In the midst of this extraordinary tour The Grateful Web had a chance to catch up with Jason Hann to discuss the power of this new improvisational project, the Tao of Isaac Hayes, and why it's not so easy being Cheesy.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Jason Hann
    In the midst of this extraordinary tour The Grateful Web had a chance to catch up with Jason Hann to discuss the power of this new improvisational project, the Tao of Isaac Hayes, and why it's not so easy being Cheesy.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Born in the Flood
    The Grateful Web had a chance to talk to Born in the Flood's bassist, Joseph Pope III, discussing the inaugural Mile Hi Music Festival, their new album, and what's next.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Born in the Flood
    The Grateful Web had a chance to talk to Born in the Flood's bassist, Joseph Pope III, discussing the inaugural Mile Hi Music Festival, their new album, and what's next.

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  • The Grateful Web Interview with Born in the Flood
    The Grateful Web had a chance to talk to Born in the Flood's bassist, Joseph Pope III, discussing the inaugural Mile Hi Music Festival, their new album, and what's next.

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  • A Conversation with Mandolin Virtuoso Peter Ostroushko
    Though Peter Ostroushko's generosity is well known among other musicians as he quietly sits in the background, adding instrumental support for many solo artists, he is in his own stead an incredibly versatile and sensitive player and composer. He has amassed a legacy of his own original recordings on Red House Records, orchestral compositions, scores for musicals, soundtracks for documentaries, and his own active touring schedule. He also plays several different stringed instruments in a variety of styles.

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  • A Conversation with Mandolin Virtuoso Peter Ostroushko
    Though Peter Ostroushko's generosity is well known among other musicians as he quietly sits in the background, adding instrumental support for many solo artists, he is in his own stead an incredibly versatile and sensitive player and composer. He has amassed a legacy of his own original recordings on Red House Records, orchestral compositions, scores for musicals, soundtracks for documentaries, and his own active touring schedule. He also plays several different stringed instruments in a variety of styles.

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  • A Conversation with Mandolin Virtuoso Peter Ostroushko
    Though Peter Ostroushko's generosity is well known among other musicians as he quietly sits in the background, adding instrumental support for many solo artists, he is in his own stead an incredibly versatile and sensitive player and composer. He has amassed a legacy of his own original recordings on Red House Records, orchestral compositions, scores for musicals, soundtracks for documentaries, and his own active touring schedule. He also plays several different stringed instruments in a variety of styles.

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  • Can I Hear An Amen?: Railroad Earth's New Album
    It's a curiosity that Railroad Earth named their latest album, Amen Corner. A lot of people relate that name to holes 11-13 in a full round of golf. It was first used in that context in 1958 by Herbert Warren Wind, a writer for Sports Illustrated, who was trying to give some color to Arnold Palmer's first dramatic win. Even today Tiger Woods and others refer to those holes and the sometimes miraculous things that happen there as the Amen Corner. But that isn't where that term originally came from. The sportswriter got it from an old jazz recording of a song called, “Shouting in the Amen Corner.”

    •  
  • Can I Hear An Amen?: Railroad Earth's New Album
    It's a curiosity that Railroad Earth named their latest album, Amen Corner. A lot of people relate that name to holes 11-13 in a full round of golf. It was first used in that context in 1958 by Herbert Warren Wind, a writer for Sports Illustrated, who was trying to give some color to Arnold Palmer's first dramatic win. Even today Tiger Woods and others refer to those holes and the sometimes miraculous things that happen there as the Amen Corner. But that isn't where that term originally came from. The sportswriter got it from an old jazz recording of a song called, “Shouting in the Amen Corner.”

    •  
  • Can I Hear An Amen?: Railroad Earth's New Album
    It's a curiosity that Railroad Earth named their latest album, Amen Corner. A lot of people relate that name to holes 11-13 in a full round of golf. It was first used in that context in 1958 by Herbert Warren Wind, a writer for Sports Illustrated, who was trying to give some color to Arnold Palmer's first dramatic win. Even today Tiger Woods and others refer to those holes and the sometimes miraculous things that happen there as the Amen Corner. But that isn't where that term originally came from. The sportswriter got it from an old jazz recording of a song called, “Shouting in the Amen Corner.”

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  • JJ Grey: Still Culture Rich
    There’s nobody who can speak about the land as a Southerner can. Though I’m not from the swamps or pine forests of Florida, but the isolated hollers of the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, I know exactly what JJ Grey means when he says, “After being away on the road for weeks at a time, there is no way to describe the joy it brings me when I catch my first homeward glimpse of them [the pines of his homeland].”

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  • JJ Grey: Still Culture Rich
    There’s nobody who can speak about the land as a Southerner can. Though I’m not from the swamps or pine forests of Florida, but the isolated hollers of the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, I know exactly what JJ Grey means when he says, “After being away on the road for weeks at a time, there is no way to describe the joy it brings me when I catch my first homeward glimpse of them [the pines of his homeland].”

    •  
  • JJ Grey: Still Culture Rich
    There’s nobody who can speak about the land as a Southerner can. Though I’m not from the swamps or pine forests of Florida, but the isolated hollers of the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, I know exactly what JJ Grey means when he says, “After being away on the road for weeks at a time, there is no way to describe the joy it brings me when I catch my first homeward glimpse of them [the pines of his homeland].”

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  • New Primitives: Living By the Drum
    The drum-driven world pop band New Primitives will again open this year's 10,000 Lakes Festival. This six-piece band from Minneapolis will play at 6:30 on the Field Stage. Though Gold Standard will start pumping out their horn-driven rock at the Barn Stage at 6 pm while Comosapiens warms up the Outstage Saloon, nobody can really start the party quite like the New Primitives can and set a tone for the entire festival.

    •  
  • New Primitives: Living By the Drum
    The drum-driven world pop band New Primitives will again open this year's 10,000 Lakes Festival. This six-piece band from Minneapolis will play at 6:30 on the Field Stage. Though Gold Standard will start pumping out their horn-driven rock at the Barn Stage at 6 pm while Comosapiens warms up the Outstage Saloon, nobody can really start the party quite like the New Primitives can and set a tone for the entire festival.

    •  
  • New Primitives: Living By the Drum
    The drum-driven world pop band New Primitives will again open this year's 10,000 Lakes Festival. This six-piece band from Minneapolis will play at 6:30 on the Field Stage. Though Gold Standard will start pumping out their horn-driven rock at the Barn Stage at 6 pm while Comosapiens warms up the Outstage Saloon, nobody can really start the party quite like the New Primitives can and set a tone for the entire festival.

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  • Getting to the Heart of Mickey Hart
    Next week, Mickey Hart will make an historic appearance at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. This will be the first year that two founding members of the Grateful Dead will be on the same bill, though they will play on different days.

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  • Getting to the Heart of Mickey Hart
    Next week, Mickey Hart will make an historic appearance at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. This will be the first year that two founding members of the Grateful Dead will be on the same bill, though they will play on different days.

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  • Getting to the Heart of Mickey Hart
    Next week, Mickey Hart will make an historic appearance at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. This will be the first year that two founding members of the Grateful Dead will be on the same bill, though they will play on different days.

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  • The Waybacks Are Loaded for Bear
    “There have been some festivals that have been concerned about the drums,” Hamilton said then. “Frankly, there have been a few festivals we probably could have played without drums, and they didn't want us with drums. To me, that's not what it's all about. We're a band, and we have a sound. You either like us or you don't.”

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  • The Waybacks Are Loaded for Bear
    “There have been some festivals that have been concerned about the drums,” Hamilton said then. “Frankly, there have been a few festivals we probably could have played without drums, and they didn't want us with drums. To me, that's not what it's all about. We're a band, and we have a sound. You either like us or you don't.”

    •  
  • The Waybacks Are Loaded for Bear
    “There have been some festivals that have been concerned about the drums,” Hamilton said then. “Frankly, there have been a few festivals we probably could have played without drums, and they didn't want us with drums. To me, that's not what it's all about. We're a band, and we have a sound. You either like us or you don't.”

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  • Heatbox Lights a Fire
    One of the most unusual acts at this year's 10,000 Lakes Festival is Minneapolis artist, Heatbox. Aaron Heaton, performing as Heatbox for the past five years, has created a one-man show that has to be seen to be believed. He's not a comedian, and he's not a singer or a rapper, though there is some of that in his show. He definitely is not a musician, and he's the first to admit he’s not an experienced musician. “I play the drums, the keyboard, and the bass--all badly,” he says. “ I played the tuba for a long time.”

    •  
  • Heatbox Lights a Fire
    One of the most unusual acts at this year's 10,000 Lakes Festival is Minneapolis artist, Heatbox. Aaron Heaton, performing as Heatbox for the past five years, has created a one-man show that has to be seen to be believed. He's not a comedian, and he's not a singer or a rapper, though there is some of that in his show. He definitely is not a musician, and he's the first to admit he’s not an experienced musician. “I play the drums, the keyboard, and the bass--all badly,” he says. “ I played the tuba for a long time.”

    •  
  • Heatbox Lights a Fire
    One of the most unusual acts at this year's 10,000 Lakes Festival is Minneapolis artist, Heatbox. Aaron Heaton, performing as Heatbox for the past five years, has created a one-man show that has to be seen to be believed. He's not a comedian, and he's not a singer or a rapper, though there is some of that in his show. He definitely is not a musician, and he's the first to admit he’s not an experienced musician. “I play the drums, the keyboard, and the bass--all badly,” he says. “ I played the tuba for a long time.”

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  • Cooking with Cornmeal
    “We’ve played the serious bluegrass festivals,” Gangi admitted, “and we enjoy doing that just as much as we enjoy doing the jamband festivals. We can also do the rock thing, rock festivals, country, folk festivals. We kind of curve our show a little bit, to bend and flex, to fit into all these types of venues.” This has allowed them to bring their original songs to a wide audience. “Our fan base will run the gamut of a 60 year old country and western fan to the traditional bluegrass fan to the young, 18 year old jam fan,” Gangi added.

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  • Cooking with Cornmeal
    “We’ve played the serious bluegrass festivals,” Gangi admitted, “and we enjoy doing that just as much as we enjoy doing the jamband festivals. We can also do the rock thing, rock festivals, country, folk festivals. We kind of curve our show a little bit, to bend and flex, to fit into all these types of venues.” This has allowed them to bring their original songs to a wide audience. “Our fan base will run the gamut of a 60 year old country and western fan to the traditional bluegrass fan to the young, 18 year old jam fan,” Gangi added.

    •  
  • Cooking with Cornmeal
    “We’ve played the serious bluegrass festivals,” Gangi admitted, “and we enjoy doing that just as much as we enjoy doing the jamband festivals. We can also do the rock thing, rock festivals, country, folk festivals. We kind of curve our show a little bit, to bend and flex, to fit into all these types of venues.” This has allowed them to bring their original songs to a wide audience. “Our fan base will run the gamut of a 60 year old country and western fan to the traditional bluegrass fan to the young, 18 year old jam fan,” Gangi added.

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  • Wood Brothers Creating Quite a Fire
    Musical siblings, the Wood Brothers, will be returning to the 10,000 Lakes Festival this year, touting their latest CD, Loaded. Two years ago, in 90+ heat, festival fans packed the Barn Stage to see this mix of southern backroads and big city boulevards. In their own version of country mouse and city mouse, Oliver Wood, who had been saturated with Georgia blues and rock, and his brother Chris, the standup bass player with the jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood, showed the world that they could carve out something totally unique from what either of them had been known for.

    •  
  • Wood Brothers Creating Quite a Fire
    Musical siblings, the Wood Brothers, will be returning to the 10,000 Lakes Festival this year, touting their latest CD, Loaded. Two years ago, in 90+ heat, festival fans packed the Barn Stage to see this mix of southern backroads and big city boulevards. In their own version of country mouse and city mouse, Oliver Wood, who had been saturated with Georgia blues and rock, and his brother Chris, the standup bass player with the jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood, showed the world that they could carve out something totally unique from what either of them had been known for.

    •  
  • Wood Brothers Creating Quite a Fire
    Musical siblings, the Wood Brothers, will be returning to the 10,000 Lakes Festival this year, touting their latest CD, Loaded. Two years ago, in 90+ heat, festival fans packed the Barn Stage to see this mix of southern backroads and big city boulevards. In their own version of country mouse and city mouse, Oliver Wood, who had been saturated with Georgia blues and rock, and his brother Chris, the standup bass player with the jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood, showed the world that they could carve out something totally unique from what either of them had been known for.

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  • The Hue Bringing New Color to 10KLF
    “Even with the electronic scene going on, everything is sort of growing off of its roots. People are taking those roots and kind of developing them into kind of what's happening right now in the scene. It's keeping the fans on their toes. Now people don't know what they're going to get these days. It could be anything. Our thing is to keep people really interested in every moment as much as possible, taking them through this ride and keeping them on as long as we can...We just want to do something different from everybody that kind of deviates from the normal jamband kind of stuff and sends some people to do some different kinds of stuff. We do improvise a lot and still jam out a lot, but we use our compositional skills a lot, too. Maybe people won't even know that parts are written necessarily. It kind of sounds like an improvised thing....We're just trying to do a little different kind of stuff.”

    •  
  • The Hue Bringing New Color to 10KLF
    “Even with the electronic scene going on, everything is sort of growing off of its roots. People are taking those roots and kind of developing them into kind of what's happening right now in the scene. It's keeping the fans on their toes. Now people don't know what they're going to get these days. It could be anything. Our thing is to keep people really interested in every moment as much as possible, taking them through this ride and keeping them on as long as we can...We just want to do something different from everybody that kind of deviates from the normal jamband kind of stuff and sends some people to do some different kinds of stuff. We do improvise a lot and still jam out a lot, but we use our compositional skills a lot, too. Maybe people won't even know that parts are written necessarily. It kind of sounds like an improvised thing....We're just trying to do a little different kind of stuff.”

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  • PRAANG Returns To Cervantes for Two-Night Stint
    Formed under a blanket of thick Colorado snow during the blizzard of 2006, PRAANG returns to Cervantes for a two night stand December 5th and 6th. Featuring Steve Kimock, Jason Hann and Michael Travis from EOTO/String Cheese Incident and Jamie Janover from ZILLA, PRAANG represents a new musical avenue for the four members to travel. Completely improvisational, spontaneous, and unrehearsed, the quartet’s music reflects their fateful existence

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  • THE ROXY IN LOS ANGELES CELEBRATES 35TH ANNIVERSARY
    Los Angeles’ THE ROXY THEATRE first opened its doors in the late fall of 1973. 35 years later, the legendary venue marks this significant milestone as one of America’s longest-running independently owned and operated establishments with two monumental shows highlighting its rich musical history: Zappa Plays Zappa December 10, 11, 12 and 13 and a New Years Eve performance by The Wailers.

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  • THE ROXY IN LOS ANGELES CELEBRATES 35TH ANNIVERSARY
    Los Angeles’ THE ROXY THEATRE first opened its doors in the late fall of 1973. 35 years later, the legendary venue marks this significant milestone as one of America’s longest-running independently owned and operated establishments with two monumental shows highlighting its rich musical history: Zappa Plays Zappa December 10, 11, 12 and 13 and a New Years Eve performance by The Wailers.

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  • Leftover Salmon to play Vail, CO + Upcoming Projects
    Leftover Salmon will perform a full two set show on December 12th at the Dobson Ice Arena. This show will be part of the Snow Daze Festival held each year in Vail Colorado as a kickoff party to the winter season.

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  • Leftover Salmon to play Vail, CO + Upcoming Projects
    Leftover Salmon will perform a full two set show on December 12th at the Dobson Ice Arena. This show will be part of the Snow Daze Festival held each year in Vail Colorado as a kickoff party to the winter season.

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  • Karrin Allyson Appearing This Weekend At The Iridium Jazz Club
    Over the years, Karrin Allyson has recorded a series of eleven CDs for Concord Records, each of which have showcased her astonishing breadth of repertoire, from standards by Gershwin and Porter to Brazilian bossa nova to samba and Thelonious Monk. She has also taken on French and Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio), the genius of John Coltrane (Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane) and the blues (In Blue).

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  • Karrin Allyson Appearing This Weekend At The Iridium Jazz Club
    Over the years, Karrin Allyson has recorded a series of eleven CDs for Concord Records, each of which have showcased her astonishing breadth of repertoire, from standards by Gershwin and Porter to Brazilian bossa nova to samba and Thelonious Monk. She has also taken on French and Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio), the genius of John Coltrane (Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane) and the blues (In Blue).

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  • Femi Kuti & the Positive Force @ Boulder Theater
    Four years after the DVD Live@Shrine, Femi Kuti returns with a generous, powerful and timeless new album, continuing to explore and push back the frontiers of Afrobeat. Thirteen titles that grab your belly, your feet, your heart and your head. From the ghettos of Lagos to the palaces of corrupt politicians, Day by Day takes us through the winding roads of African paradox. Why is such a rich continent inhabited by the world’s poorest people?

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  • Femi Kuti & the Positive Force @ Boulder Theater
    Four years after the DVD Live@Shrine, Femi Kuti returns with a generous, powerful and timeless new album, continuing to explore and push back the frontiers of Afrobeat. Thirteen titles that grab your belly, your feet, your heart and your head. From the ghettos of Lagos to the palaces of corrupt politicians, Day by Day takes us through the winding roads of African paradox. Why is such a rich continent inhabited by the world’s poorest people?

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  • BoomBox Set to Ring in the New Year at Mile High
    Kicking it all off on Tuesday, December 30th at Owsley’s Golden Road, the headline show will feature special guests Melvin Seals and JGB as well as Steve Kimock and Friends opening the night. BoomBox will take to the stage from 1:30am to 4:30am, keeping the party going until the early morning hours.

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  • BoomBox Set to Ring in the New Year at Mile High
    Kicking it all off on Tuesday, December 30th at Owsley’s Golden Road, the headline show will feature special guests Melvin Seals and JGB as well as Steve Kimock and Friends opening the night. BoomBox will take to the stage from 1:30am to 4:30am, keeping the party going until the early morning hours.

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  • Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's BEWARE Streets 3/17/09
    Though Beware shares spit with its immediate predecessor released this past summer, Lie Down in the Light, it's reach is longer and stronger, more grandiose. Where fiddle and steel contribute their rustic timbre alongside guitars and voices, a thickening thud of low tone rolls beneath, giving the record a bottom that’s fun to watch bounce in new clothes. This indensifies the air and heralds Beware as Bonny’s biggest, most ambitious record to date – yea, bigger and more ambitious than even The Letting Go! A listen or two through and you too may conclude that this could also be the great Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy contempo-country record

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  • Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's BEWARE Streets 3/17/09
    Though Beware shares spit with its immediate predecessor released this past summer, Lie Down in the Light, it's reach is longer and stronger, more grandiose. Where fiddle and steel contribute their rustic timbre alongside guitars and voices, a thickening thud of low tone rolls beneath, giving the record a bottom that’s fun to watch bounce in new clothes. This indensifies the air and heralds Beware as Bonny’s biggest, most ambitious record to date – yea, bigger and more ambitious than even The Letting Go! A listen or two through and you too may conclude that this could also be the great Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy contempo-country record

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  • Ladysmith Black Mambazo @ Boulder Theater
    Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the GRAMMY® Award winning vocal group from South Africa that has conquered nations in its own way with a joyous and spiritually charged brand of vocal music and native choreography, pays tribute to this historical icon with their new Heads Up International release, Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu. Ilembe celebrates not only Shaka Zulu but the sense of perseverance, creativity and pride that he has inspired in generations of descendants.

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  • Ladysmith Black Mambazo @ Boulder Theater
    Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the GRAMMY® Award winning vocal group from South Africa that has conquered nations in its own way with a joyous and spiritually charged brand of vocal music and native choreography, pays tribute to this historical icon with their new Heads Up International release, Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu. Ilembe celebrates not only Shaka Zulu but the sense of perseverance, creativity and pride that he has inspired in generations of descendants.

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  • Gene Ween Band Tour Dates Announced + New Ween CD
    Recorded live at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC 12/9/92, the CD comes with a bonus DVD which features clips from Ween's first tour of Holland, and also Stache's in Columbus, OH. As Dean Ween says; "The whole thing is so brown that it's almost black.

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  • Gene Ween Band Tour Dates Announced + New Ween CD
    Recorded live at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC 12/9/92, the CD comes with a bonus DVD which features clips from Ween's first tour of Holland, and also Stache's in Columbus, OH. As Dean Ween says; "The whole thing is so brown that it's almost black.

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  • Jazz Museum Events: Nov. 17-21, 2008
    The National Jazz Museum in Harlem begins an exciting full week of public programming with a conversation between executive director Loren Schoenberg and best-selling author, saxophonist and composer James McBride for Jazz for Curious Readers, whose first novel was recently turned into a film by acclaimed director Spike Lee.

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  • Jazz Museum Events: Nov. 17-21, 2008
    The National Jazz Museum in Harlem begins an exciting full week of public programming with a conversation between executive director Loren Schoenberg and best-selling author, saxophonist and composer James McBride for Jazz for Curious Readers, whose first novel was recently turned into a film by acclaimed director Spike Lee.

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  • Swing Into The Holiday Season With George Gee's Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra
    This Holiday season, The Edison Ballroom and producer Mickey Marchello, former guitarist from the legendary New York Rock Band Good Rats, will welcome the swing era sounds of George Gee and his Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra as they entertain guests with a new show that evokes a golden era: “Sleigh Bells Swing.” George Gee and his 22-piece Big Band offer the perfect Holiday treat for not only swing and jazz music fans, but also for tourists and tri-state area residents looking for an incredible Holiday entertainment experience.

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  • Swing Into The Holiday Season With George Gee's Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra
    This Holiday season, The Edison Ballroom and producer Mickey Marchello, former guitarist from the legendary New York Rock Band Good Rats, will welcome the swing era sounds of George Gee and his Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra as they entertain guests with a new show that evokes a golden era: “Sleigh Bells Swing.” George Gee and his 22-piece Big Band offer the perfect Holiday treat for not only swing and jazz music fans, but also for tourists and tri-state area residents looking for an incredible Holiday entertainment experience.

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  • The Motet performs Talking Heads @ Boulder Theater
    Performing the music of the Talking Heads, The Motet will be joined by Kyle Hollingsworth (SCI) on keys, Fuzz (Deep Banana Blackout) on guitar, Jans Ingber on vocals and percussion, Liza Oxnard on vocals, Joey Porter also on keys, Carrie Sangiovanni on background vocals and Paul McDaniel on bass.

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  • The Motet performs Talking Heads @ Boulder Theater
    Performing the music of the Talking Heads, The Motet will be joined by Kyle Hollingsworth (SCI) on keys, Fuzz (Deep Banana Blackout) on guitar, Jans Ingber on vocals and percussion, Liza Oxnard on vocals, Joey Porter also on keys, Carrie Sangiovanni on background vocals and Paul McDaniel on bass.

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  • Download Phish At The Roxy Now!
    Recorded Live February 19th, 20th and 21st, 1993, this run at the intimate Roxy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia set the stage for many classic tripartite celebrations to follow. With the second show's near-instant legendary status cemented among fans due largely to a non-stop thriller of a second set which included feats of rock and roll greatness, including a sit-in by a spurious Gene Simmons, At The Roxy captures a magical moment for Phish and their audience during a period of peak songwriting and experimentation.

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  • Download Phish At The Roxy Now!
    Recorded Live February 19th, 20th and 21st, 1993, this run at the intimate Roxy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia set the stage for many classic tripartite celebrations to follow. With the second show's near-instant legendary status cemented among fans due largely to a non-stop thriller of a second set which included feats of rock and roll greatness, including a sit-in by a spurious Gene Simmons, At The Roxy captures a magical moment for Phish and their audience during a period of peak songwriting and experimentation.

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  • Conscious Alliance Announces Holiday Meal Drive & Rebel Alliance Jam XIV
    Not-for-profit Conscious Alliance - feeding America's hungry through music - ramps up this year's holiday giving with the announcement of their 5th annual "Holiday Meal Drive." With the support of musicians and their fans, and this year in partnership with Whole Foods Market, the organization will deliver full holiday meals to impoverished Native American Reservations for the fifth year in a row. The organization also hosts the Rebel Alliance Jam XIV - a holiday benefit show at Boulder, Colorado's Fox Theatre on November 29th featuring Keith Moseley, Scott Law, Jeff Sipe, Gibb Droll, and special guest Kyle Hollingsworth.

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  • Conscious Alliance Announces Holiday Meal Drive & Rebel Alliance Jam XIV
    Not-for-profit Conscious Alliance - feeding America's hungry through music - ramps up this year's holiday giving with the announcement of their 5th annual "Holiday Meal Drive." With the support of musicians and their fans, and this year in partnership with Whole Foods Market, the organization will deliver full holiday meals to impoverished Native American Reservations for the fifth year in a row. The organization also hosts the Rebel Alliance Jam XIV - a holiday benefit show at Boulder, Colorado's Fox Theatre on November 29th featuring Keith Moseley, Scott Law, Jeff Sipe, Gibb Droll, and special guest Kyle Hollingsworth.

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  • Four Sushi Restaurants and the Toubab Krewe
    For lovers of atypical instrumental rock derivatives, there may be no sweeter words than Toubab Krewe. What’s a Toubab Krewe, you ask? Good question! For starters, Toubab Krewe is a band, five guys who make some of the grooviest music you’ve ever (or maybe never) heard. The only term that really sticks with any consistency is instrumental, since, as the word implies, they only play instruments sans vocals. Other than that, they are a really tough act to peg. Psychic-Afro-dub-rock comes to mind as a possibility, but somehow even that doesn’t do the Toubab Krewe justice.

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  • Four Sushi Restaurants and the Toubab Krewe
    For lovers of atypical instrumental rock derivatives, there may be no sweeter words than Toubab Krewe. What’s a Toubab Krewe, you ask? Good question! For starters, Toubab Krewe is a band, five guys who make some of the grooviest music you’ve ever (or maybe never) heard. The only term that really sticks with any consistency is instrumental, since, as the word implies, they only play instruments sans vocals. Other than that, they are a really tough act to peg. Psychic-Afro-dub-rock comes to mind as a possibility, but somehow even that doesn’t do the Toubab Krewe justice.

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  • Marco Benevento & Friends | Nathan Moore | The Flynn Space
    Many aspects of last Monday night’s show at The Flynn Space in downtown Burlington, Vermont felt as if they had been transplanted from past eras, even different locales. Nathan Moore, the opener of the festivities, was channeling the bravado and freedom of a Greenwich Village bohemian from 1962 and Marco Benevento, the band leader of the night’s all-star headlining troupe, seemed to have an uncanny resemblance in the mind’s eye to a young Miles Davis, breaking free from The Gil Evans Band in 1959 and forging his own musical path. And just like that jazz pioneer who has a stronghold on everyone’s CD collection, Marco has begun to blaze a trail all his own and, on this night, all of the musicians around him were in for a treat, just like the rest of us.

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  • Marco Benevento & Friends | Nathan Moore | The Flynn Space
    Many aspects of last Monday night’s show at The Flynn Space in downtown Burlington, Vermont felt as if they had been transplanted from past eras, even different locales. Nathan Moore, the opener of the festivities, was channeling the bravado and freedom of a Greenwich Village bohemian from 1962 and Marco Benevento, the band leader of the night’s all-star headlining troupe, seemed to have an uncanny resemblance in the mind’s eye to a young Miles Davis, breaking free from The Gil Evans Band in 1959 and forging his own musical path. And just like that jazz pioneer who has a stronghold on everyone’s CD collection, Marco has begun to blaze a trail all his own and, on this night, all of the musicians around him were in for a treat, just like the rest of us.

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  • Umphrey's Mantis Pre-Order Takes Off
    Umphrey's McGee's one-of-a-kind pre-order campaign for their highly anticipated new studio release, Mantis (January 20, 2009 / SCI Fidelity Records) is already being recognized as a brilliant and innovative use of digital technology. The power of this new pre-order concept is in the hands of the fans. Umphrey's offers fans more free bonus content the more Mantis pre-orders they receive; the fans "unlock" levels of content by getting more of their friends to pre-order the album. The idea is to give the fans incentive to help spread the word about the album, and to offer a totally unique music experience.

    •  
  • Umphrey's Mantis Pre-Order Takes Off
    Umphrey's McGee's one-of-a-kind pre-order campaign for their highly anticipated new studio release, Mantis (January 20, 2009 / SCI Fidelity Records) is already being recognized as a brilliant and innovative use of digital technology. The power of this new pre-order concept is in the hands of the fans. Umphrey's offers fans more free bonus content the more Mantis pre-orders they receive; the fans "unlock" levels of content by getting more of their friends to pre-order the album. The idea is to give the fans incentive to help spread the word about the album, and to offer a totally unique music experience.

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  • 'Jacofest' A Tribute to Jaco Pastorius
    The late great bassist-composer Jaco Pastorius, an undeniable force on contemporary jazz during the ‘70s as well as a towering influence on two generations of musicians, will be feted at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York from November 20 - 23. Included in this all-star gala, produced by impresario Charles Carlini, are Pastorius colleagues and former bandmates like trumpeters Randy Brecker, Miles Evans and Lew Soloff, Saxophonists Alex Foster and Butch Thomas, Trombonist David Bargeron, keyboardist Delmar Brown, guitarist David Gilmore and drummer Kenwood Dennard. Featured bass players are T.M Stephens, Matt Garrison, and Jaco's son, Felix Pastorius.

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  • 'Jacofest' A Tribute to Jaco Pastorius
    The late great bassist-composer Jaco Pastorius, an undeniable force on contemporary jazz during the ‘70s as well as a towering influence on two generations of musicians, will be feted at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York from November 20 - 23. Included in this all-star gala, produced by impresario Charles Carlini, are Pastorius colleagues and former bandmates like trumpeters Randy Brecker, Miles Evans and Lew Soloff, Saxophonists Alex Foster and Butch Thomas, Trombonist David Bargeron, keyboardist Delmar Brown, guitarist David Gilmore and drummer Kenwood Dennard. Featured bass players are T.M Stephens, Matt Garrison, and Jaco's son, Felix Pastorius.

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Alex Grey is an artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art (or visionary art) that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Alex Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His oeuvre spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, and painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, aka CoSM, a non-profit institution supporting Visionary Culture in New York City.

 

Grey's paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of Tool, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Newsweek magazine, the Discovery Channel, Rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including Feature Inc., Tibet House, Stux Gallery, P.S. 1, The Outsider Art Fair and the New Museum in NYC, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Alex has been a keynote speaker at conferences all over the world including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Basel, Barcelona and Manaus. The international psychedelic community has embraced Grey as an important mapmaker and spokesman for the visionary realm.

 

BS: Alex, can you recall your years as an art student? Also, at what point were you first interested in visionary art?

AG: As an art student I was a nihilist existentialist. I dropped out of art school after two years and went to work for Columbus Outdoor Advertising to paint billboards. I sent invitations to the openings of the new boards I painted, calling the work Capitalist Realism, making them part of the conceptual art movement of the 70's. Then I moved east and attended art school again for a year, studying conceptual and performance art.

 

Focusing on an examination of polarities such as life and death, I observed and documented a dead dog rotting. Later that year, observing the intuitive and the rational hemispheres of the brain, I shaved off half of my hair. Six months later, I shaved off the other half in a ritual performance. Placing the shaved hair on a human brain, I ate spaghetti, took the universal antidote, syrup of ipecac, and vomited onto the brain and hair. I wrapped the entire mess in a bag and called the performance "Brain Sack". These acts tapped into a deeply disturbed but somewhat shamanic search for meaning.

 

My study of polarities led me to trek to the North Magnetic Pole to perform "Polar Wandering". I found it ironic that the force humanity relies upon to get its bearings, the site to which all compasses point, is continually in motion, a phenomenon by that name. Returning, I asked God to give a sign because I felt desperately in need of spirit. Within 24 hours of that supplication I took LSD and experienced the unity of polarities as well as having met my wife, the human embodiment of divine love in my life. LSD was my first "visioning."

 

After "Polar Wandering", I left art school for good and took a job in a medical school morgue where I prepared bodies for dissection. A student of the subject of consciousness, I felt it was imperative to study the container in which consciousness lives.

 

BS: You are considered by many to be a master of visionary art. As you know, visionary art is often not accepted by what you have called the "legitimate" art world. In your opinion, why has visionary art struggled?

 

AG: Considering Modernism and Post-Modernism, the importance of Mystic and Visionary states of consciousness have been downplayed or ignored by most artists, critics and curators. Picasso's Cubism flattened the world into broken surfaces and shadows, with very little spiritual elevation. Pollock's chaotic compositions reflect further fragmentation of self, a loss of center, continuing the existential crisis of Modernism. Pop art is a perfect mirror of our shallow, surface oriented materialist corporate culture. Most recent art that includes religious imagery profanes the sacred (Serrano, Warhol, Gober) or if there are spiritual intentions behind the work, it's appearance is ambiguous (Rothko, Agnes Martin, Turrell).

 

When art devalues the self and the authenticity of the inner worlds we get art of the absent self, the hollow and shattered self, a hopeless self, in short, the art of today. Outsider Art is one cultural venue where visionary states are considered relevant, but often "Outsider" artists are considered naive or pathological. Humanity needs art that helps us reclaim the sacred experience of life, so that we will take actions that favor our species long term survival.

 

BS: At the same time... the history of visionary art can be traced back to the dawn of man. The roots of what we call visionary art today is deeply embedded throughout the span of art history, correct?

 

AG: There is a strong global visionary tradition. Visionary art has existed and continues to exist in every culture from pre-historic to contemporary times. I write about the tradition of visionary art extensively in my book The Mission of Art and speak of it also on the audio cassette The Visionary Artist (SoundsTrue). The 16,000-year old cave paintings of human/animal hybrids, such as the "Sorcerer of Trois Freres," are a good starting point. Ancient shamanic art, such as African ritual masks or Aboriginal rock and bark painting, clearly depict visionary dream-time wanderings and encounters in the lower and upper spirit worlds.

 

One of the earliest known Western mystic visionary artists was Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century German nun. Icons created from her visions are direct gifts of spirit. The 15th-century painter Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Delights" is one of the strangest paintings in the world -- an encyclopedia of metamorphic plant/animal/human symbolism. Pieter Brueghel was touched with the same visionary madness. Renaissance artists like Grunewald, Durer and Michelangelo delineated the spirit of Christian mysticism and Gothic realism.

 

Seventeen century alchemical engravings detail complex philosophical mandalas pointing to union with the divine. William Blake, the 18th/19th-century mystic artist and poet, conversed with angels and received painting instructions from discarnate entities. Blake's work laid the foundations for the 19th-century symbolist and 20th century surrealist and fantastic realist movements in art. In other words, there is a strong foundation of visionary art to be found throughout the span of art history. It is hard to deny that connection, but people often do.

 

BS: Speaking of art history... some of your imagery is reminiscent of past artists-- Hieronymus Bosch for example. Can you discuss some of your influences? Tell us about your specific roots...

 

AG: My father was my first influence and I consider him to be the most important teacher I ever had. He was an artist and he encouraged my early drawing. My father guided my development until I became a rebellious teenager. During my teenage years I grew very fond of Michelangelo's art. His Neo-Platonic idealism combined with gothic Catholicism is very tripped out. I would have to say that Michelangelo's obsession with the struggle of body and soul is something that I can relate to in my own work. Other influences would include Blake, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Tibetan and Hindu Tantric art, Ernst Fuchs, Jackson Pollock, Jean Delville, Pavel Tchelitchew and especially my wife Allyson Grey.

 

BS: What would you say to people who do not have knowledge about visionary art? How would you describe a work of visionary art to them? How would you introduce them to your art?

 

AG: A work of visionary art can shock a person out of their normal thinking patterns, and help them to see the world in a new way, help them to transfigure their perception of reality. Obviously, it's only one of many potential catalysts to healing and transformation, but I think it can be a significant one. It is as if the artist reveals his or her soul's journey through art and leaves the door open for viewers to find their own path.

 

As for my work, it is about the direct reproduction of intense visions. One's memory gets etched by the "naturally occurring" or the "psychedelic" visionary experience and there is something you don't understand about them, something profoundly disorienting but important in them. My goal is to bring back the state of wonder and amazement as directly as possible. That way, the contemplative viewer can resonate with it and it might reinforce an experience that has meaning for them.

 

My work examines the nature of consciousness, life, human identity and relationships through various mediums and imagery. I paint representations of the physical body and interlace the subtle vital and psychical energy systems from both eastern and western occult mystical and medical traditions, the acupuncture meridians and points, the chakra systems, halos, etc. I take a multicultural and multidimensional perspective in order to get as many truths as possible into my vision of our divine nature.

 

BS: There has been some controversy over your work through the years-- specifically your use of drugs as a means of exploration. As you know, the United States has taken a hard line against drug use. What are your thoughts on this issue?

 

AG: I am not an advocate of indiscriminate drug taking, by any means. However, when I am asked to comment on the source of my own personal inspiration it would be hypocritical not to discuss my entheogenic experiences.

 

A Johns Hopkins medical study, reported in Psychopharmacology Journal (2006), has proven scientifically that psilocybin can enable people to have full blown life transforming mystical experiences. Because the mystical experience is the foundation of all world religions, the United States government is interfering with people's freedom to practice religion by criminalizing the use of these sacraments. I am a stand for cognitive liberty, the right to alter consciousness anyway one sees fit, as long as the user causes no harm to anyone else. This is a right that requires a mighty sense of responsibility. Some people are allergic to peanuts and could die if they eat them. Peanuts should not be outlawed and are not safe for everyone.

 

An artist does not have to experiment with drugs to create visionary art but must experience the visionary state. Adult artists who are interested in this type of exploration, should consider an appropriate set and setting to enhance the sacred dimensions of one's consciousness. Young people should not take drugs. They should be forming their identity and strengthening their ego, not dissolving it prematurely.

 

BS: What about the dangers of using drugs to explore yourself and the beyond? Do you have concerns about that?

 

AG: A person could poison themselves and die from drinking alcohol all day. Smoking marijuana day and night for a week would not kill you. Alcohol is legal but it is far more toxic than marijuana. Corporations decide which drugs are forbidden and which are promoted. There is no known toxic dose of LSD and used in a therapeutic setting it has the ability to relieve people from addiction to alcohol. Ibogaine can alleviate an addiction to heroine in one session. Psychoactive drugs need to be studied and safer inebriants such as marijuana, should be legal.

 

BS: Can you talk about the influence that drugs have had on visionary art and art in general? You mentioned the sixties earlier...

 

AG: The psychedelic '60s spawned a new approach and style to all the arts including clothing design, graphic design, music, film, painting and sculpture. Psychedelics influenced every aspect of visual life. Ernst Fuchs and Mati Klarwein are two of the greatest painters that came to prominence from that era and both were obviously influenced by psychedelics. In the 70's, dystopic visions of contemporary hell-worlds were stunningly portrayed in the works of H.R. Giger, famous for his work on the movie, "Alien." Keith Haring, one of the most powerful artists of the 80's credited LSD as the inspiring source of his style. What unites these artists is their unconventionally intense imaginations and their capacity to reveal the full spectrum of the vast visionary dimensions of the mind, the heavens and the hells.

 

BS: Alex, can you talk about some of the symbolism behind your work... the eyes for example?

 

AG: The eye is the lens through which we see and through which we recognize others. It is the focus of awareness. The eye is the window to the soul, an outer manifestation of awareness in the deepest sense. A multiplication of eyes signifies expanded or increased awareness. An infinite field of eyes represents infinite. awareness.

 

BS: What about the spiritual side of your art?

 

AG: Art can be a spiritual practice, enabling the practitioner to develop qualities of mental clarity, mindfulness of the moment, wisdom, compassion and access to revelations of higher mystic states of awareness. A contemplative method, such as yoga or meditation, will stabilize and assist in the progress of spiritual awareness. An artist's craft can become a contemplative method, and the creations may provide outward signs of an inner spiritual journey.

 

Art is a covenant relationship between spirit, the artist and the viewer. The artist, if he or she has an inspiring spiritual experience, has a responsibility to translate and transmit that experience as closely as possible so as to evoke a similar experience in the viewer.

 

BS: Does the use of drugs help you-- and others --to find the spiritual in art?

 

AG: Many people have told me that they experienced my artwork for the first time while taking their first acid trip. They tell me that it helped them to have a spiritual opening. Not everyone that uses drugs has a religious experience. However, many report a sense of unbounded compassion for others and themselves during an Ecstasy, or LSD, or mushroom experience.

 

During a trip the typical boundaries of our identity dissolve and one may be able to experience their unity with all dimensions of reality simultaneously. It can be overwhelming, but it can also be a guidepost and affirmation of the soul's mission in life. A good trip can reveal the perfection, beauty and preciousness of every moment.

 

BS: Finally, do you have any advice for emerging visionary artists regarding success in the art market? Perhaps you have some suggestions for them?

 

AG: Draw and paint everyday. Create a unique body of work. Study what is important and make your art about the most important thing. Read Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. Honor your visions by noting them whenever you have them. Always carry a sketchbook and enter in it daily. Create a website for your work and print a postcard and a business card and give them out. Write an artist's statement -- over and over again. Learn to talk about your work so that it inspires others. Go to galleries and meet other artists. A certain amount of solitude is necessary but don't be isolated. Study the masters. Immerse yourself and become obsessed with your art and art in general.

 

The best advice about becoming a great artist was given to us by our daughter when she was six years old. We made a very small self-help book from this advice that Allyson and I give to every one of our students (and which you can purchase from www.alexgrey.com) -- it says: "Be Yourself", "Do Your Best", "Never Give Up."  You can learn more about Alex Grey by visiting his website-- www.alexgrey.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

 

Take care, Stay true,

 

Brian Sherwin

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