Mark Karan

Mark Karan is a guitarist and singer based in Fairfax, in Marin County, California, and one of the longest-serving hired hands in the extended Grateful Dead family. He held the lead guitar chair in Bob Weir & RatDog for roughly fifteen years, and also played with The Other Ones, Mickey Hart's Planet Drum and Phil Lesh and Friends. Before that he worked with Dave Mason, Delaney Bramlett, the Rembrandts, Paul Carrack, Huey Lewis and Jesse Colin Young. His own bands are Mark Karan's Budz, which his EPK describes as psychedelicized Americana drawing on rock, R&B, country, soul, reggae, folk and funk, and the older Jemimah Puddleduck; he also fronts a project billed as Mark Karan's Living Dead and tours with Live Dead & Brothers. The HopMonk Sebastopol date on December 2, 2026 is a Budz show, part of the venue's Peacetown Wednesday series.