As one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll bands of all time, Grateful Dead, who gained popularity in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, quickly became synonymous with the hippie movement and demonstrated how the counterculture of the civil rights era drew inspiration from Black art, and challenged the segregationist norms of the era. … Read More
Rock N Roll memoirs are some of my favorite books to read. They’re personal, fun, full of drama and they contain lots of interesting recent history. They can make you laugh, make you cry, and make you think, meanwhile inspiring a craving for an adventure and an appreciation of home. Best of all, you get to learn … Read More
When I was twelve years old during the summer between 6th and 7th grade, I started sneaking out at night. I lived in a small town on the CT shoreline that was even smaller then, and my family lived in an old Colonial house with a big huge barn, both built in the mid 19th … Read More
Creating artwork for Little Hippie has been on my list of ‘cool jobs I’d love’ ever since I bought my first shirt from their booth at Berkfest 2003 in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. This adorable shirt had a picture of Taylor’s Grateful Dead bear and terrapin holding hands looking into the sunset. I wore the … Read More
Next year, 2016, will be the twenty fifth anniversary of the much-too-soon passing of famed poster artist Rick Griffin. Like too many good people, he lost his life in a motorcycle accident in Petaluma, California. He was truly a California Nature Boy, surfing his way up and down the coast. Surfing led Rick to illustration, … Read More
Here at Little Hippie we’ve been on a mission to dive into the origin story and evolution of the hippie – where did this culture come from, what does it mean and what are the values of that we’re passing onto our little hippies? Persians, Greeks and Germans were at it way before anyone thought … Read More
Our fearless leader and artist in chief Taylor Swope was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal as part of their coverage of the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well limited edition posters. For the grand “Fare Thee Well” finale in Chicago, the band commissioned nine different posters and two triptychs (consisting of a three inter-connected … Read More
With the Fare Thee Well shows come and gone, I’m left reminiscing about how I got here in the first place.
In the summer of 2001, when I was wide eyed and ready to see the world, I set out on a mission to photograph music festival culture.
The previous fall I had been in Los Angeles working for a photographer where I met the people who would soon introduce me to the jamband world. That winter back at home in New York City, I went to shows at the Wetlands (RIP) every weekend, meeting lots of people and learning everything I could about festivals.
We got curious about Dennis McNally’s reference in A Long Strange Trip, to a 1965 series of San Francisco Examiner articles by Michael Fallon. The articles are referenced in almost every major book about the era, as the first use of the word hippie in print – derived from the beatnik’s hipster – to describe the shifting culture of the … Read More
You’ve probably heard about what it is to struggle to be an artist. Some have struggled pretty hard, including a music composer named Charles Edward Ives (left), who was largely ignored during his lifetime (1874 – 1954). This had a major impact on the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh. “Phil was going to college of San … Read More