I’ve been kind of stuck on music-related posts recently. The reason is twofold. It’s a function of this being the time of year when I start looking at summer tour lists and figuring out what trips might fit into our schedules. But it also has to do with several new things I’ve come across in the last week or two; new releases or unexpected musical connections that have sent my credit card and me ambling through iTunes.

My favorite, for the moment: Rex, by Grateful Grass, which is Keller Williams, Jeff Austin of Yonder Mountain String Band and Keith Moseley of String Cheese Incident. The 11-track digital-only release — it’s available on iTunes — was recorded in 2006 at the Denver Fillmore, and as you might surmise from the title, it’s all high-energy bluegrassy Grateful Dead covers.

Why is this working for me, especially right now? As I’ve written before, my musical tastes tend to follow cycles; we’re just getting into the time of year when I start to gravitate to what I’d be listening to while sprawled out on a blanket at Hartwood, at Star Lake, at Blossom — or just sitting on my front porch with a glass of Oberon in my hand.

You won’t find Keller in Pittsburgh this summer — The Wife and I will see him if we decide to attend DelFest in Cumberland, MD, in a couple of weeks — but if you want a shot of one of the other Grateful Grass guys, you can see Yonder Mountain for free at Hartwood June 8. If you bring a six of Oberon with you, you’ll enjoy it even more.