Acclaimed photographer Jay Blakesberg snapped the Chris Robinson image that appears on the current cover of the magazine. Jay also took a number of alternate images, which he shares below, along with his thoughts on the shoot.

I picked up Chris at the Hotel in Marin where he was home basing for a run with Phil at Terrapin Crossroads. He had rehearsal in a few hours and I had a plane to catch to the Doheny Blues festival. Chris is really fun to hang out with, it’s easy and authentic. He is a real music lover and can talk about music forever…obscure music that is so far off the radar, but oh so psychedelic. Wally and Roseanna were very kind to loan us their home in Marin County known as “Wallyworld” for the shoot. I had been there several times before and knew that it would be perfect to capture the California vibe of Chris…He may live in Southern California, but his soul is very Northern California…

Cont on page 2.

Dappled warm sunlight trickling thru the trees, lush green grass and plants, a beautiful Victorian house that was once a Bay Area home base for Ken Kesey, Furthur and his Merry Pranksters, along with Wally’s vintage 1936 “Cord” that he bought in 1959 and has held on to for all these years made it easy to get in a groove. The property and gracious hosts make the whole process calm and inviting. We picked four different locations for the shoot. We agreed an hour would give us enough time to do what we needed to do. One hour to create an engaging cover photograph and a series of photos that help reveal something about this musician who travels on a very high frequency. He is a Sadge [Sagittarius], like me and we have an ease that has developed over many years of me trying to capture those magical musical moments on stage, backstage, and on this day at Wallyworld.

Thanks Chris! Always a great hang…