The Rainforest Band

The Rainforest Band is an incredible musical group, originally called Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band. Muruga Booker first brought this music to Merl, who introduced it to Jerry Garcia, resulting in the album Blues From the Rainforest, one of the first New Age hits of the 1990s. What followed was a ten-year, four album run of this spiritual yet funky band, including many artists from the Grateful Dead family and elsewhere, and culminating in their last performance at Starwood in 2000. Merl suffered a stroke the following year, and passed away this year. In a special tribute to the great keyboard player Merl Saunders, we are proud to bring you the return of The Rainforest Band! We have brought together veterans and friends of the band for this exclusive re-launch, including Bassist & Singer Tony Saunders (Merl’s son), Guitarist Michael Hinton (Country Joe & the Fish, High Noon), Mitch Stein (Zero, Dark Star Orchestra) on Keyboards, Bill Norwood (Robert Stewart’s Heaven and Earth) on Drums, and Misa Malone (Shades of Blue) on vocals, with special guest: African Percussionist Sikiru Adepoju on Talking Drum. We guarantee an evening of music ranging from the spiritual to the funky, with some special treats for the Deadheads, dedicated to the good work Merl and Jerry did for the Rainforest Action Network.