Uncle John's Band

Clearwater, FL · formed 1989

Uncle John's Band formed in Clearwater in 1989 and is the longest-running Grateful Dead tribute on Florida's west coast. For 24 years its Thursday nights at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa were church for the Tampa Bay faithful; the weekly Thursday now lives at Bayboro Brewing in St. Petersburg, with Skipper's on Fridays and Saturdays. The band — Michael Bortz and Dan DeGregory on drums, Michael Edwards on bass, Alan Gilman on lead guitar, Casey Otto on keys, and Rich Whiteley on rhythm guitar — has played thousands of hours of Dead music from Chicago to Key West and the whole Florida festival circuit: Gasparilla, Magnolia Fest, Orange Blossom Jamboree.