Official Grateful Dead Day

At school. Today marked the twentieth anniversary of Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland's passing. He lived in Lafayette and I was always envious of my wife that her town owned a member (and one of my favorites) of the Grateful Dead. Brent brought blues, gospel and a whole lot of fun to the band, succeeding Keith Godchaux, not an easy task. Keith, who performed predominantly on the grand piano, helped focus the band after Pigpen's leaving the band without a decent keyboard player. Brent's harmony vocals and boogying key playing added so much to the band when they needed it. He brought so much.
How amazing did things change when I randomly discovered via google that Brent attended my high school!!! He grew up in a local community and even played in the band with others that I've known. Of course, he was just a teenaged kid and those yearbook pictures could not have shown the future keyboardist but I was floored that I never knew this vitally important story.
We started a new school year today and so, in my rock history class, we celebrated Brent with a video and power point slide show. I joked that the school should be renamed Grateful Dead High except for the redundancy.
Lots of '80s era Dead. Here's to Brent, who passed away too early and should be more appreciated for his contribution to one of the greatest bands in the world.