alan gilman

lead guitar - vocals

Alan has been playing with Uncle John's Band and it's precursor formation since 1993. While growing up on Long Island in New York, Alan's father was very influential in teaching him piano at the age of 3. He went on to study classical piano at the Julliard School of Music until other genres of music began to have their appeal. Although Alan's first Grateful Dead music came by New York area cover bands 'Timberwolf' and 'The Volunteers', his first Dead shows were in the late 70's era. Artistic improvisation with colorful rhythmic phrasing are what the various picking styles of Jerry Garcia are all about and what keeps Alan working to create exciting jams. Before the Florida Grateful Dead scene, Alan had played in bands from Binghamton, New York, Richmond, Virginia, and Morgantown, West Virginia where he was part of a reggae outfit, 'Rasta Rafiki' and the Dead cover band, 'Nexus'. In 1991, it was in West Virginia, where he hooked up with a custom guitar maker, Chuck Powers, who with material information from Doug Irwin was commissioned to build a copy of Garcia's 'tiger' guitar. That purchase was to be the beginning of what became the never-ending search for 'the sound'. After years of research, different pre-amps, multiple Mcintosh 2300s, and different guitars including a Cripe-built 'Bolt' prototype, everything has come full circle back to a new 'tiger' copy being built by John Reuter in Tempe, AZ. With over a decade of playing together, the expressiveness, spontaneity, and dynamics with Uncle John's Band are what keeps the magic refreshing each and every time.