Bob Weir’s long, strange trip with the Grateful Dead began on New Year’s Eve, 1963, when he followed the sound of a banjo into a Palo Alto music store. There, by chance, he met bluegrass veteran Jerry Garcia, waiting for a student. The 16-year-old Weir played folk guitar, and the two enjoyed a marathon jam session. They decided to form an acoustic band – Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions – with Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who doubled on harmonica and drums. Inspired by the Beatles, the musicians switched to electric instruments …

During the 1960s Jorma Kaukonen created some of the purest psychedelic guitar solos on record. His electrifying guitar playing on Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow – especially on the Top-10 single “Somebody to Love”– became part of the soundtrack of the Summer of Love era and helped define the San Francisco sound. Guitarists also revere Jorma for another track on that album: His beautiful acoustic instrumental “Embryonic Journey” introduced a generation of fingerpickers to dropped-D tuning and inspired many people – myself included – to buy their first guitars.
Kaukonen originally played country …

Following their stunning performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Big Brother and the Holding Company hit the top of the album charts with Cheap Thrills. This psychedelic masterwork featured the astounding vocals of Janis Joplin and the groundbreaking guitar work of James Gurley and Sam Andrew. “Piece of My Heart” remains one of the era’s defining singles. Many of those who were on the scene cite James Gurley as the father of psychedelic guitar in San Francisco.
Barry “The Fish” Melton, guitarist on San Francisco’s first commercially released psychedelic record, …

I spent the morning of Saturday, January 12, 1985, at a hotel in San Francisco, interviewing Yngwie Malmsteen, the extraordinary Swedish metal guitarist, for his first English-language cover story. As soon as that meeting was over, I switched cassettes in my tape recorder and headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to meet Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally at a restaurant in San Rafael. Dennis led me to the home of a Grateful Dead supporter who, it turned out, was letting Jerry Garcia live in her basement. My mission: Interview Garcia …