Celebrate one of the most beloved American rock bands, The Grateful Dead, at the High Desert Music Hall on Saturday night with an amazing line-up of local musicians playing the songs of the legendary band.

The Mostest, Gbots & The Journeymen, Call Down Thunder and Pete Kartsounes with special guests will jam into the night.

The event is also a benefit show for the Redmond Food Bank. Entry is either $10 or 10 cans of food which will be donated to the food band.

The show starts around 7 p.m. and goes into the night.

All the bands and musicians performing are well-known in the Central Oregon music scene.

The Mostest is Mark Ransom’s world-infused roots-rockin’ jam band. Ransom is a longtime Bend musician who pioneered the annual Bend Roots Revival Festival and has organized many local benefit concerts like this one.

“Mark Ransom is an integral part of the music community,” said Greg Botsford, the frontman for Gbots & The Journeymen. “As an individual person, I can’t speak more highly of him. He’s been involved with a lot of stuff and fundraising money for youth programs and music programs and things like that.”

Botsford, also known as Gbots, and his band will bring their own unique take to Grateful Dead Night.

“I think what we bring to the table, ‘cause we definitely do the Dead music, but we have kind of our own fun twist that we bring to it.”

Gbots & The Journeymen got the opportunity to open for Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers, a Grateful Dead founding member and his current band, at Hoodoo Mountain last year.

“That was kind of a big moment for us as a band,” said Botsford, “and then we’ve actually recorded one album, “Astrolabos,” at TRI Studios, which is Bob Weir’s studio in San Rafael, California. So it’s been cool to actually kind of be connected with Bobby, you know, on that level.”

Pete Kartsounes is also a big fan of the Grateful Dead and their music.

“I love jamming, and I’ve always loved the Grateful Dead. I mean, I’m a Deadhead,” Kartsounes said.

“I’ve gone to 40 Grateful Dead shows, and I’m just old enough where I got a chance to see Jerry perform. Yeah, one of my most prized memories is going to Grateful Dead concerts all over the country.”

Kartsounes is an award-winning singer-songwriter and blues, jazz, bluegrass and folk guitarist. After spending a couple of decades submerged in the Colorado bluegrass scene he moved to Central Oregon and stayed busy touring until the pandemic slowed him down. Since then, he spends most of his days immersed in the local music scene, creating art.

“My deal right now is to just create,” Kartsounes said. “I just create as much as possible and then opportunities come in. So I stay pretty busy — I teach guitar here in town, I do videography, I perform, and I write and record in my studio.”

This is the second year in a row these bands have come together for a Grateful Dead-themed benefit at the High Desert Music Hall.

“It’s a great space for live music concerts,” Botsford said. “It’s a great atmosphere for people to see shows and then the entertainment is going to be awesome and the interaction with all the bands I think will be a great experience.”

Kartsounes echoed this sentiment.

“I hope that as many people as possible can come out and experience it because it’s going to be a really, really awesome night with a lot of fun music from the Grateful Dead catalog, which is endless,” Kartsounes said.