Famous drummer for The Grateful Dead Mickey Hart brings his new band to The Ridgefield Playhouse on Friday, April 13

                       Iconic drummer with The Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart is back with a recent release Mysterium Tremendum and a new band. Original Dead Head Mickey Hart has a passion for percussion and will demonstrate his musical talents in his show at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Friday, April 13, at 8 p.m. A Grammy® Lifetime Achievement award winner, Mickey Hart continues to thrill. There will be a free beer tasting in the lobby, courtesy of Guinness Black Lager, at 7:15 p.m. This event is part of the Guinness Black Lager Rock Series and is partially underwritten by Ancona's Market with media sponsors WPLR 99.1fm & The Fox 95.9fm. 

                  When the “Dead Heads” performed, it was a flamboyant spectacle due in great part to drummer Mickey Hart. His new band consists of vocalists Crystal Monee Hall and Tim Hockenberry, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Ian "Inx" Herman, guitarist Gawain Matthews, percussionist Sikuru Adepoju, and keyboardist Ben Yonas. 

                          “Mickey Hart is basically an American rock legend,” commented Allison Stockel, Executive Director of The Ridgefield Playhouse.  “He is a musicologist who spent nearly three decades as an integral part of The Grateful Dead and went way beyond just drumming playing so many other percussion instruments from around the world. His show at the Playhouse is a great opportunity to see an amazing artist.”

                  A “Renaissance Man”, Mickey Hart along with drummer Bill Kreutzmann, transcended the conventions of rock with their extended polyrhythmic jaunts in Grateful Dead shows. Hart has also flourished as a solo percussionist and author. Last fall, he released the Mickey Hart Collection, which demonstrates how Hart has expanded his musical horizons.  He has received multiple honors for his contributions to contemporary music. The Grateful Dead was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994

                           “It’s all about the vibrations of life. In this case, they began as light waves, and these light waves are still washing over us. The scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Labs and Meyer Sound made them into sound waves. I want to bring these light waves into the human range and use that as a musical catalyst and play with it,” explains Mickey Hart.

                     For tickets ($60 orches. & mezz.; $55 balc.), call or visit the box office at The Ridgefield Playhouse, (203) 438-5795. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT; ridgefieldplayhouse.org.