Summer Jam 1973 Watkins Glen NY

04/20/2026

03/13/2026

01/21/2026

Remembering Garth Hudson (August 2, 1937 – January 21, 2025)
A multi-instrumentalist, a key element in the recordings and arrangements that defined The Band as essential forebears of the Americana genre, and a man with a distinctly large physical presence, he also happened to be the only member of the group who didn’t contribute vocals. Content to reside in the background, he was equally reticent to do interviews.

“It was a job,” Hudson once of his said of his efforts with The Band in a 2002 interview with the Canadian magazine Maclean’s. “Play a stadium, play a theater. My job was to provide arrangements with pads underneath, pads and fills behind good poets. Same poems every night.”

That statement offered yet another example of the understated honesty and humility with which Hudson approached his work. His bandmate Levon Helm once told producer John Simon that “The Band wouldn’t be The Band without him.”

Simon, who produced The Band’s early efforts, once said in an interview with the Toronto Star, that Hudson was the “wild card” that made Music From Big Pink a favorite of such superstars as Eric Clapton and George Harrison.“Garth was essentially a colourist,” he continued. “He had an incredible palette.”

Lee Zimmerman / Rock n Roll Globe
Photo: The Estate Of David Gahr

01/11/2026

Rest In Power Bobby!! It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.
For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road. A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead. Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music. His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them. Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove. There was an invitation: to feel, to question, to wander, and to belong.
Bobby's final months reflected the same spirit that defined his life. Diagnosed in July, he began treatment only weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts. Another act of resilience. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design. As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived. A man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.
There is no final curtain here, not really. Only the sense of someone setting off again. He often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him. May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin’.
His loving family, Natascha, Monet, and Chloe, request privacy during this difficult time and offer their gratitude for the outpouring of love, support, and remembrance. May we honor him not only in sorrow, but in how bravely we continue with open hearts, steady steps, and the music leading us home. Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.
📸 Chloe Weir (from Bobby Weir Official Page)

08/16/2025

Happy 56th Anniversary of Woodstock!!!

08/09/2025

Legend!

08/01/2025

Happy Birthday Jerry Garcia!!! 📷Wolfgang's Vault

07/28/2025

Alan Paul is a Terrific Writer has covered the Allman Brothers Band (and many others) for years, and he has his own band!

52 years ago today, 650,000 people flocked to Watkins Glen to see The Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band and the Band. A Brothers and Sisters excerpt.

07/28/2025

Memories from Grateful Dead

07/27/2025

Sacred Ground

Watkins Glen Summer Jam—52 Years Ago: Little did folks in Watkins Glen know what they were in for 52 years ago tomorrow. It was on July 28, 1973 when the Finger Lakes village on the south end of Seneca Lake was completely overwhelmed by some 600,000 concert goers for the Summer Jam at the famed race track there. The gigantic crowd, there to see the Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and The Band perform, was SO massive and impressive that the next day it made front page headlines in newspapers across America. An estimated 150,000 tickets were sold in advance at $10 each. Astoundingly, another 450,000 showed up and basically experienced a free concert. The Associated Press photo here of the gigantic crowd says it all. There are endless tales of folks stuck in traffic, abandoning their cars and walking miles to the race track. Many of my followers here have wonderful memories of that day—feel free to share them in the comments below. It is a day that will live on forever in the Finger Lakes Region. It was a different era—in large part, folks behaved wonderfully, incidents were held to a minimum and most all had an experience they’ll never forget. Hard to believe that epic event was 52 years ago tomorrow.