Featuring Dave Alvin, Jesse Sykes, Victor Krummenacher, Michael Jerome, and Mark Karan  “I had a crazy idea and was looking for musicians who perhaps didn’t think it was so insane”. – Dave Alvin  Starting five years ago as a wishful music fantasy, The Third Mind, a super group deemed “Californian Psychedelic Rockers” by Doom Charts, has now become a powerful and thrilling sonic reality.  The brainchild of Grammy award-winning songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin and veteran alternative music bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, Eyelids), The Third Mind began with studio recordings also featuring Jesse Sykes from her  critically acclaimed group, Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter, drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra, John Cale), guitarist David Immerglück (Counting Crows, Monks of Doom, Camper Van Beethoven), with special guest, legendary LA musician, Willie Aron on Keys.  LIVE - The Third Mind present their psychedelic improv performances with the addition of guitarist Mark Karan (Bob Weir's Ratdog, Phil Lesh, Delaney Bramlett) subbing for Immerglück.  The Third Mind’s eponymous debut was released in 2020, featuring extended and psychedelic versions ranging from 8-10 minutes of songs by Alice Coltrane, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Roky Erickson’s 13th Floor Elevators. Following its release, tour plans were thwarted by the  pandemic. The group reconvened in 2022 for a second album – The Third Mind 2 – which shifted from the instrumental focus of their first effort to vocals with Seattle-based Jesse Sykes at the helm covering songs from the late ‘60s by the Electric Flag, Fred Neil, Dillard and Clark along with an original tune, “Tall Grass,” penned by Alvin and Sykes.  Hailed as a “must-see” performance by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Third Mind made their live debut performance at the 2023 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco’s legendary Golden Gate Park, which CBS News Bay Area proclaimed “a spectacular performance.” A 10-date West Coast tour followed the festival garnering rave reviews including Twangville who noted, “if you want to experience a set of musicians at the top of their game improvising down a psychedelic rabbit hole, go catch The Third Mind.” 

Jenny Kerr is one of few active contemporary artists who fully embody the breadth of the Americana idiom, mining the roots of folk, blues, country, bluegrass and rock to produce a catalog of original work that is respectfully steeped in tradition while still fresh, modern and immediately identifiable as her own. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Kerr deftly traverses guitar, dobro, banjo, piano and harmonica over the course of a show, but it’s her deeply soulful, powerhouse vocals that define her sound and connect with audiences worldwide. Kerr’s musical education began in San Francisco, where she was exposed to the European classical tradition by her grandmother, a composer and the principal violist for the Cleveland Symphony. In her formative teenage years, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Muddy Waters lured her away from the concert hall as she explored the vibrant Bay Area folk, blues and psychedelic rock scene of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The music of The Haight led her on a journey of discovery of the foundations of Americana ­­– artists such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Little Walter and Dock Boggs who initially inspired her to pick up guitar, harmonica and banjo.  Kerr and musical partner/producer/guitarist Phil “Philbillie” Milner are the core of a rotating collective of the Bay Area’s top session players, so every live show is fresh and unique, centered around Kerr’s songwriting and vocal delivery and accentuated by some of the finest soloists and support musicians in the business. Milner, a highly sought-after producer and session guitarist, had an extended tenure as guitar tech for Bob Weir & Ratdog as well as Tracy Chapman, Bonnie Raitt and Primus. Kerr’s previous releases include the critically-acclaimed “Head of Fire,” produced and performed collaboratively with Bill Bottrell (Sheryl Crow, Michael Jackson, George Harrison, Madonna, Tom Petty), and a highly-anticipated, self-produced album is soon to be released on the pair’s independent label, Okey Doke Records. Kerr is as much at home in the local music scene of Marin County which she now calls home as she is on major festival stages nationally and worldwide, bringing the same power, energy, heart and rootsy soul to every performance.