The Grateful Dead Live · Double Feature
The Ace Show.
The JGB Show.
Everything Else.
Bobby Weir stole a guitar from George Benson. Jerry Garcia’s dream exhibition is finally being built. There’s an official cookbook. The cover band circuit is surging. All of it, right here.
On The Air Tonight
Tonight: JGB. Monday: Ace.
The JGB Radio Show is live tonight on The Grateful Dead Live. The Ace Radio Show airs Monday. One is dedicated to Weir’s solo universe. The other honors Garcia’s work outside the Dead. Both are worth your full attention.
The Ace Radio Show
Bob Weir, Solo
Rock · Folk · Americana · The Full Picture
Named after Weir’s 1972 solo debut, this program moves through his solo records, his RatDog years, his Wolf Bros performances, and the orchestral projects he built with Stanford composer Dr. Giancarlo Aquilanti. It is the most complete picture of Bobby Weir as a solo artist that radio offers. The rhythm guitar philosophy that defined the Dead for thirty years is only part of who he was. Tonight covers the rest.
The JGB Radio Show
Jerry Garcia Band
Solo Projects · The Music That Was Purely His
The Jerry Garcia Band gave Garcia something the Grateful Dead’s democracy could not: a band fully calibrated to his instincts, where he could follow a musical idea at the speed he thought of it and trust the musicians around him to follow wherever it went. The JGB Radio Show documents what he did with that freedom, from the gospel and soul covers to the original compositions to the extended improvisational runs that stand among the most rewarding live recordings in the entire catalog.
Breaking This Week
What’s Happening Right Now
Two stories dropped this week that deserve full attention. Neither is a rehash of anything you have read before.
The Guitar He Stole From George Benson and Never Gave Back
An exclusive archival feature breaking down Weir’s rhythm philosophy, his instrument collection, and the acquisition story nobody had told before.
Weir fell in love with a custom Ibanez electric belonging to jazz legend George Benson. He wanted it badly enough that he told Benson’s entourage they could call the police if they felt like it, but he was taking the guitar. He took it. It became one of his primary touring instruments. The Guitar Player feature goes deeper into his harmonic approach, his rhythmic voicings, and how the chord structures he built created architectural space for Garcia’s lead lines to inhabit.
“You can call the police or do whatever you’re going to do to me, but I’m taking it.”
Bob Weir · Guitar Player MagazineThe Samoan Fishermen and the Story Nobody Had Heard Before
On the anniversary of Garcia’s passing, Kreutzmann published a completely new personal memory on his Instagram that the community is still talking about.
Alone on a beach in Hawaii shortly after Garcia died, Kreutzmann was approached by two massive Samoan spearfishermen. He braced for trouble. Instead, they looked at him and said simply: “Sorry to hear about da big guy.” He wrote that realizing they knew exactly who Jerry was brought tears to his eyes immediately. Specific, funny in the way grief sometimes produces funny moments, and completely unrehearsed. That’s what made it land.
“They knew exactly who Jerry was… and that brought tears to my eyes.”
Bill Kreutzmann · August 9, 2026Garcia Estate · Major Announcement
Eyes of the World: The Jerry Garcia Experience
Garcia designed the blueprint for this more than thirty years ago. His family is finally building it.
Garcia began designing this experience over thirty years ago alongside counterculture author Ken Kesey and movie producer Cary Granat. The three of them were developing a location-based multimedia journey built around individual freedom and community. Garcia never got to see it built. Now his youngest daughter Keelin Garcia, co-founder of Jerry Garcia Music Arts LLC, and his former wife Manasha Garcia are partnering with Granat to finally make it happen. Production is handled by JGE (Jerry Garcia Experience LLC) with Esme Grace Media under Laura Rister overseeing global operations.
National Tour Schedule
The Eight Rooms
An atmospheric recreation of Golden Gate Park and Haight-Ashbury circa 1966, designed to drop visitors into the exact moment the Grateful Dead were forming.
Garcia’s obsession with sound design, recording technology, and the development of high-fidelity live concert audio from the Wall of Sound era forward.
His fine visual art, oil painting, personal writing, and his lifelong passion for scuba diving and ocean conservation, a dimension of Garcia most fans never knew.
Rooms dedicated to the Deadhead community, the parking lot culture, the improvisational musical philosophy, and the thirty-year relationship between band and audience.
A state-of-the-art performance venue hosting rotating live tribute bands every night, changing with the city as the exhibition tours nationally.
Open Now in San Francisco
Forever Grateful: Two Parts, One City
Co-curated by Ben Marks alongside Grateful Dead archivist Dennis McNally and photographer Susana Millman, with official backing from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Part One · Open Now
Haight Street Art Center
Open through September 20, 2026 · Free Admission
215 Haight Street, San Francisco. Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6 PM. Free to the public. Over 400 original artifacts spanning 1965 to 1995.
Part Two · Opens September 5
Golden Gate Park · Hall of Flowers
September 5 through October 25, 2026 · Paid Admission
San Francisco County Fair Building, 1199 9th Ave. An environmental transformation of the park’s historic hall into an interactive psychedelic cultural space.
The 20-Photographer Gallery Roster
An American Beauty: Grateful Dead 1965 to 1995, managed by Jay and Ricki Blakesberg, draws from archives arranged in strict chronological order with equal attention given to the band and the Deadhead community.
Inner-circle personal access to Garcia throughout his life
Chief curator. Stadium era and audience subculture
Defined the early visual aesthetic of Haight-Ashbury
Intimate off-stage candids through the 1960s and 70s
Garcia and Mountain Girl candids in Golden Gate Park
The 1967 post-bust jail cell photo at 710 Ashbury
The legendary 1978 Egypt concerts at the Great Pyramids
Tracked the band across their Winterland Arena run
Mid-to-late touring eras across America
Late 1960s San Francisco scene evolution
Early live concert visuals from Northern California
High-fidelity live performance action shots
Sweeping venue and performance imagery
Early counterculture neighborhood gatherings
Psychedelic portrait work, late 1960s
Communal park performances and free shows
Early black-and-white street-level documentation
The evolving audience and parking lot subculture
Technical setups, gear, and live musicianship
Foundational club appearances and early configurations
Official Release · Grateful Dead Productions
Dead in the Kitchen: The Official Cookbook
Authorized by Grateful Dead Productions, overseen by official archivist David Lemieux, and introduced by someone who actually cooked for the band on tour.
Official · Authorized · Grateful Dead Productions
Dead in the Kitchen
By Gabi Moskowitz · Published by Weldon Owen / Insight Editions · Available via Simon & Schuster
This is the officially authorized Grateful Dead cookbook, featuring the band’s legally copyrighted artwork, skulls, dancing bears, and lightning bolts, across 200 pages. The structural flow was overseen directly by David Lemieux, the band’s longtime official archivist, who also contributed a curated set of his own recipe picks. The foreword was written by Mollie Katzen, author of the Moosewood Cookbook, who physically prepared meals for the Jerry Garcia Band on tour in the 1970s. That connection between food and the Dead’s touring community is not incidental. It is the whole point of the book.
Every recipe is vegan or vegetarian, reflecting the plant-based tailgating culture of Shakedown Street. The instructions tell you to treat the recipes like a live jam session and not be afraid to improvise. That is exactly the right approach.
Cover Band Circuit · Late Summer Surge
The Tribute Scene Is Running Hot
With original touring on hiatus, the regional and national cover band circuit is carrying the live experience forward. Here is what is happening right now.
West Coast Run · Frost Amphitheater
August 17, 2026 · Frost Amphitheater
JRAD is hitting the West Coast this week with a highly anticipated Frost Amphitheater stop. They draw national crowds for good reason: this is not recreation so much as five distinct musical personalities processing the catalog in real time.
Capitol Theatre · Port Chester, NY
October 23, 2026 · The Capitol Theatre
Seals expanded his autumn schedule with a headline date at the Cap in Port Chester, one of the most historically significant Dead-adjacent venues in the Northeast. His years playing keys with Garcia make this something more than tribute.
BlueClaws Grateful Dead Night
August 20, 2026 · ShoreTown Ballpark, Lakewood, NJ
Headlining the annual Grateful Dead Night at the minor league stadium, performing live at the Sand Bar in a pre-game and in-game concert. As New Jersey a Grateful Dead experience as anything on the calendar this summer.
Grateful Halloween · The Stone Pony
October 31, 2026 · The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ
The Stone Pony on Halloween night. The venue choice alone makes this an event. Tickets are moving.
Outdoor Headline · Cooper’s Riverview
September 3, 2026 · Cooper’s Riverview, Trenton, NJ
A major outdoor headline dance event at one of the region’s most reliable live music venues, right before Labor Day weekend.
Shakedown South Street · Philadelphia
August 30, 2026 · Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia-based tribute collective formed in 2024 launches its Shakedown South Street two-floor afternoon matinee. A young band building real momentum in a city with a deep Dead community.
118 North · Wayne, Pennsylvania
October 22, 2026 · 118 North, Wayne, PA
A formal headline date at one of the region’s respected mid-sized venues, locking in the fall calendar with a show that the Wayne area community has been anticipating.
Northeast Theater Run · Fall 2026
September through November 2026
DSO finalized the routing for their late-autumn acoustic and electric theater runs across the Northeast corridor. The gold standard for historical accuracy in the tribute world, still running a nonstop schedule after more than twenty-five years.
“Bobby’s insistence on performing nine hours of music over three nights while privately fighting cancer-related respiratory issues was one of the greatest acts of heroism I will ever see in my lifetime.”
John Mayer on Bob Weir’s final Golden Gate Park performances · August 3, 2026
