Ed Perlstein News Today

Old and In the Way were (ironically) mostly not old – and certainly not at all in anyone’s way! – when they gathered in 1973 to play about 50 live shows. Fiddler Vassar Clements, born in 1928 and having joined Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys at 21, was still under 50. The other members of OAITW were only about 30 at the time, give or take a few years.

Grateful Dead photographer Jay Blakesberg and historian Blair Jackson detailed 'Between the Dark and Light: Grateful Dead 1965-1995,' an art exhibit set to begin July 11 at the Haight Street Art Center in San Francisco.

Thirty-five years later, is the Grateful Dead’s only Top 10 hit—'Touch of Grey'—the worst thing that ever happened to the band—or the song that saved it?

"We never had an intention of being a rock ‘n’ roll act. It was a conceptual multimedia band, a collaboration of artists."