Rex invites Musicians, Bands and Promotors to get on Board the Rex Music Caravan

The Rex Foundation hopes you will all get on board the Rex Music Caravan over the summer when you encounter a Rex Jam at the summer festivals or see one of the bands on the Music Caravan. Rex Jams are when one of the bands announces from the stage that "this is a Rex Jam segment". Volunteers will walk through the crowd collecting donations that are granted to local music programs. The potential is that thousands of dollars will be donated to help children's music programs in communities where the festivals are held. 10,000 Lakes and Gathering of the Vibes are festivals where you will encounter the Rex Foundation in a prominent grass roots fundraising role.

Various bands out on the highway are also on board the Music Caravan donating a small portion of each ticket sold and helping Rex identify worthy non-profits and individuals who are doing the good work that fits the Rex Foundation Mission. Taj Mahal, Bob Weir, The Dead, Dark Star Orchestra, Melvin Seals & JBG, Moonalice, and Steve Kimock's Crazy Engine are just a few bands who are donating $1 from the ticket sales to the Rex Foundation. We encourage you to go out and see these bands which in turn will support their musical efforts along with supporting the Rex Foundation.

Are you a band or a musician who shares the values of the Rex Foundation? Whether you are an A list band or a bunch of Dead Heads jammin' your hearts out, Get on Board and let us know if you want to support the Rex Music Caravan. We would love to work with you! Please email info@rexfoundation.org and tell us who you are and how to contact you. Use the phrase "Rex Music Caravan" in the subject line.

We also welcome the interest and participation of Promoters who want to associate with the good works that Rex Foundation has supported for the past 26 years. We can use your help and expertise to further the tremendous effort that has supported so many people and positively affected the human race and the planet in so many ways. Take a look at the extensive list of Rex Grantees to see what we've been doing.

In this short video, Rex Foundation board members, Nick Morgan and Carolyn Garcia with Sandy Sohcot, executive director talk about the impact the money raised from the Rex Jams at summer festivals has on music programs in communities where the festivals are held. Please take a few minutes to hear what they have to say. Thank you in advance... for supporting the Rex Foundation!

Taj Mahal at Silver Oak Cellars 6-11-2009

In the heart of Napa Valley and California viticulture is Silver Oak Cellars, considered to be among the producers of the finest cabernet sauvignon in the world. The winery and vineyards are nestled between Route 29 and the Silverado Trail on Oakville Cross Road. Thanks to Executive Vice President and Rex board member Tim Duncan, Silver Oak Cellars opened its doors to the Rex Foundation's Music Caravan.

The extraordinary setting included a remarkable sunset that flowed into a bright view of the big dipper overhead while Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, Jay Lane and the Taj Mahal Trio shredded the vines right off their roots. Excellent wine and delicious food were served all evening to several hundred Rex supporters at this intimate event.

The evening was an acoustic exploration of Grateful Dead Music, and Delta Blues with a smattering of World Music sprinkled in. The first trio was Weir, Wasserman and Lane who played for an hour or so improvising a jam so thoroughly delightful that the wine enthusiasts rated it a 99. The Taj Mahal Trio followed with no less than a 99.5 performance that jolted the laid back crowd to its feet and kept them dancing till the music stopped. Bobby Weir joined Taj for an eclectic set of songs.

Proceeds from this Rex Music Caravan event will benefit small non-profits in Napa Valley doing good work who fit the Mission of the Rex Foundation.

Reflections on the Grateful Dead: Saying Yes to Fun

I was moved by the conversation with Sandy that started over coffee and prompted her to share her reflections here. So, I'm taking her up on the invitation to share my thoughts, too. I hope to read yours soon!

“Thought he’d have a big ol’ party; thought he’d call it planet Earth.”

In the early ‘80s, I was a prep school student in Westchester County, New York, on track for an Ivy-caliber college and a predictable path to success: doctor, lawyer, executive with a house in the ‘burbs. Like many of my classmates, I was envious of the people who lived in the 1960s. It seemed things had been much more exciting then, and that there had been more opportunity for adventure and a focus on making a difference – socially, artistically, politically, and personally.

Rock ‘n’ roll music tied us to that “energy” but underscored that we’d missed the boat: the deaths of the Who’s Keith Moon (in 1978), Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham (in 1980), the Rolling Stones’ ventures into disco, and, of course, the shooting of John Lennon (in 1980) amplified our sense of being stuck in not-so-interesting times.

Then there were the Dead, who were just … different. The Dead’s music—and the tour milieu—conjured up the possibility of world, and a country, that was still very exciting. Intellectually, I found the synthesis of so many different kinds of music –“American” spirituals, jazz, country, blue grass, with symphonic infrastructure, “global” drums, and Eastern European folk music – fascinating and promising in the way that Walt Whitman’s poetry was. Emotionally, though, it was as much about the people as the music.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell once said, “The Deadheads are doing the dance of life, and this, I would say, is the answer to the atom bomb.” That sounded like a pretty weighty assignment! Perhaps he was right, though, and the dance of life isn’t a solution – just a healing response: the best moments at shows gave a glimpse of what it would feel like if the world were right, and confirmed that regardless of the many things to worry about, the path to right should be (and, in fact, is) fun.

While I was involved with a variety of political and social activities and experiments, from apartheid protests to organic farming, these organized endeavors did not provide the level of community or the little doses of magic that appeared spontaneously among the Deadheads. The best part … once brought to life among those people, that version of reality has stayed with me; it is part of my inspiration for staying involved through the Rex Foundation in general, and in the capacity of social networking in particular. I want to help spread the human wealth.

You see, I’m not quite ready to give up on getting those out-of-the blue reminders of the dance of life: from a guy who greeted me in a parking lot on Easter morning 20 years ago with a quartz crystal and the announcement that, “Christ has risen, sister!” to a new, online friend who told me he’d encountered a 17 year-old “just turned onto the Dead” and introduced him to the charitable works of the Rex Foundation. If we’re all here for the same party, we may as well dance together.

Reflections: How Grateful Dead Concerts Influenced My Life

Rex Foundation Executive Director Sandy Sohcot writes:

See here how everything lead up to this day...

Robert Hunter's lyric from "Black Peter" is front and center right now as I contemplate a recent conversation with a sister Deadhead about how our experiences at Grateful Dead concerts have influenced our lives. We thought it would be interesting and fun to invite a story exchange on this theme--I hope you enjoy my story and feel inclined to share yours.

Unquestionably, I'm sitting at my Rex Foundation desk as Executive Director writing this because of that first Grateful Dead concert I went to at the Berkeley Community Theater in 1972. I recall that at about 1:00 a.m., during a long space set that prompted me to wonder if deeper contemplation was called for, I turned to Art Sohcot, my husband, who in 1987 passed away from complications related to leukemia, and asked what he thought this experience was all about. "It's just fun," he said. And so, the fun began.

What also began to happen as we went to one show after another was the connecting with people. At one Warfield show a woman sitting next to me just started talking to me about random thoughts, which then became a continuing conversation. We kept seeing each other at different shows and essentially became concert friends, which in turn generated expanded connections with the various people we each knew at the shows.

I had the same experience with many different people. We found that our shared connection with the music, and all that the music and lyrics evoked, offered a common frame of reference that was both fun and soul-enriching. Going to shows meant music and community. And, independent of concert-going, it got to the point that if you met someone and found out that you shared similar Grateful Dead experiences, you immediately had a common bond, which then paved the way for a likely friendship.

I'm at the Rex Foundation today in great part because of what I've just described. The Rex board member who called me in February 2001 to see if I'd be interested in being Executive Director was a lawyer who had met Art Sohcot at a law office party in 1983, and in talking, discovered common interest in the Grateful Dead. We became close friends as we went to many shows together and then kept connecting in other ways. The person who encouraged me to take the Rex Foundation position was the friend who took us to that first show in 1972.

These deep friendships were and are based on shared life views and values, extending way beyond the concerts we frequented, yet also are connected by the ethos felt during those shows. That same ethos is, in my view, how the Rex Foundation came to be; flowing along with the fun of enjoying the music was the awareness--among the band and the fans--that there was more to care about outside the concert hall.

It's now virtually impossible to distinguish between all the connections across people, lyrics and experiences that have led to today. I know that the personal life values I started with were both reinforced and enhanced by those connections. For me, the Rex Foundation has been an incredible opportunity to connect all these dots and carry forward day-by-day the very best of my concert experiences.

Congrats to Mickey Hart and Global Drum Project

Percussionist extraordinaire (and Rex board member) Mickey Hart, along with compatriots Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo, won the Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album in last night's Grammy Awards ceremony for their Global Drum Project album. It's the second such award for Mickey and his fellow drummers, whose Planet Drum won a Grammy in 1991. Congratulations to Mickey and GDP!

Bob Weir to Help Rex grantee Project Avary Celebrate its 10th Anniversary

If you are going to be in San Francisco on Wednesday, March 4th, please join Project Avary at the Great American Music Hall for an intimate evening that promises to be a literary and musical treat. Project Avary offers summer and family camps, field trips, and leadership programs for children with incarcerated parents. Founded by former Grateful Dead manager Danny Rifkin and supported from the beginning by the Rex Foundation, Avary is happy and proud to have seen so many of our children grow and thrive.

The festivities will include a conversation between KQED’s Michael Krasny and author Isabel Allende as well as a musical performance by Moonalice with special guests Bob Weir and Mark Karan. Your ticket also gets you dinner, entry to a silent auction, (which will include special signed collector’s items), and a chance to meet some of our children. Come and hear about their successes in college, the arts, the workplace, and the community! Just complete the online request for an invitation. Tickets are $100, with all net proceeds benefiting Project Avary's programs. Sponsorship opportunities are available.

Sweet Pictures Everywhere...

or at least on the Rex Web site and on our Facebook page--great shots by Susana Millman and Bob Minkin at December's Sweet Music Everywhere gathering. The music was wonderful, the vibe couldn't be better, and it all shows in the pics. Whether you were part of the event or want to join the fun now, check it out!