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 Sweeter 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.” "When we debuted live at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, I felt like I’d come home. I’m excited to be playing in The Third Mind’s live touring line-up.” - Mark Karan It was clear then that these shows were not to be missed, and needed to be recorded and released! The Third Mind’s – Live Mind is now available, released on February 14, 2025 by Yep Roc Records. What They Say…. “Not so much a supergroup as a great fucking band…” - Magnet “…onstage is where its spontaneous mastery goes off the rails in the best way.” - Magnet “…their mind-expanding set in Portland made it clear that they may just be the coolest jam band out there right now.” - Glide Magazine “Pretty Damn Unforgettable” , “Consider my Third Mind officially blown." –MusicFestNews (from The Troubadour 2023) “By breaking out of their comfort zone, The Third Mind have created music that offers up a kaleidoscope of aural colors. Fresh and wildly extemporaneous, no song is played the same way twice.” – Coachella Valley Weekly The Third Mind – Meeting of the Minds: Featuring Dave Alvin, Jesse Sykes, Victor Krummenacher, Michael Jerome, and Mark Karan: “Bringing all of our various musical histories and passions together in order to create something new and different at each performance, The Third Mind never fail to astonish and inspire me.” – Dave Alvin “It goes without saying that there are always going to be certain musical moments that just can’t manifest unless an audience is there to witness and to be witnessed. One could call it a shared conjuring.”–Jesse Sykes “There’s a set list, sure, but none of the shows we’ve played have been remotely the same. …this little band carries forward the idea that spontaneity and improvisation actually stand for something: freedom.”–Victor Krummenacher “Being called to play with incredibly talented musicians that give you the opportunity to be yourself, push your own boundaries, and somehow make it all work in a slightly different way every night, is a great gift indeed.” –Michael Jerome "We re-interpret the songs nightly, never playing anything exactly the same way twice… staying true to the musical approach I’ve loved for so many years playing in the Grateful Dead family.” –Mark Karan

Dave Alvin, Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and self-described "barroom guitarist," is widely considered to be one of the pivotal founders of the current Americana music scene. A fourth generation Californian, Dave Alvin grew up in Downey, California as the local landscape quickly evolved from orange groves and dairy farms to tract homes and freeways. Since forming the highly influential roots rock/R+B band The Blasters, with his brother Phil in 1979, and throughout his long and critically acclaimed solo career, Dave Alvin has mixed his varied musical and literary influences into his own unique, updated version of traditional American music. Combining elements of blues, folk, R+B, rockabilly, Bakersfield country and garage rock and roll with lyrical inspiration from local writers and poets like Raymond Chandler, Gerald Locklin and Charles Bukowski, Alvin says that his songs are "just like California.  A big, messy melting pot." Dave Alvin's 30 years of recordings and live performances move through the loud, aggressive rock and roll of The Blasters to the contemplative acoustic storytelling of his solo albums, (KING OF CALIFORNIA, BLACKJACK DAVID, DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY WOMEN) and from the traditional folk of his Grammy winning CD, PUBLIC DOMAIN to the electric blues of his ASHGROVE CD. Alvin has always managed to unite seemingly disparate genres into a cohesive vision of contemporary roots music. You can expect no less from his latest album, ELEVEN ELEVEN, released on Yep Roc Jun 21st 2011. Dave Alvin's songs have been recorded by a who's who of contemporary roots artists from Los Lobos, Little Milton, Robert Earl Keen, Marshal Crenshaw and Joe Ely to Dwight Yoakam, James McMurtry, Buckwheat Zydeco, Alejandro Escovedo and X. His songs have also been featured in many movies and television shows including Justified, The Sopranos, True Blood, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Crybaby, Miss Congeniality and From Dusk To Dawn.

Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter, is the result of an enduring musical alchemy between singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes and guitarist Phil Wandscher, which began in Seattle, Washington in 2001. Blending folk, blues, country, orchestral pop and various psychedelic stylings, their sound culminates in what Jon Pareles from the New York Times once described as, “spellbound music, rapt in fatalism and sorrow.” 
Known for her dusky, otherworldly vocals and lyrics that touch on the metaphysical, All Music added;  "whether the sonic setting is one of doomy distortion or fragile finger picking, Sykes remains a truly unique vocalist whose dusky voice is capable of imparting a transcendent, almost spiritual quality to almost any tune it touches." 
These two special shows with Black Mountain, reunites the two bands, who have toured together in the US and shared stages in Europe. 
Sykes and Wandscher will also be joined onstage with bassist Bill Herzog, an original Sweet Hereafter member (and decade long member of seminal northwest legends Earth) The trio recently returned from Europe where they had the honor of supporting avant-garde doom purveyors Sunn O))), who Sykes, Herzog and Wandscher are also known for collaborating and performing with. 
They are presently preparing the release of their 5th record, after a very long hiatus, and are thrilled to be back at the Tractor Tavern, to celebrate the beloved venues 30 year anniversary.