From his first gigs with the legendary Mother Hips all the way up to his recent debut solo album, ‘Songs From A Golden Dream,’ Greg Loiacono has always been driven by one unwavering desire: to connect. In music, he found a direct conduit to the soul, a miraculous means by which to inspire and unite, and it’s guided him like a compass throughout his remarkable career. Whether Loiacono’s fronting a band, guesting with peers like Phil Lesh or Chris Robinson, or onstage by himself, it’s all part of a never-ending quest to generate and celebrate the magic of shared human experience.

Loiacono’s journey began at Chico State, where he co-founded The Mother Hips with fellow songwriter Tim Bluhm. Before the band had even graduated from school, they were signed to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings on the strength of their debut album, ‘Back To The Grotto.’ Over the ensuing two-and-a-half decades, they would go on to release eight more studio albums as they cemented their status as architects of a new breed of California rock and roll, one equally informed by the breezy harmonies of the Beach Boys, the funky roots of The Band, and the psychedelic Americana of Buffalo Springfield. Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “one of the Bay Area’s most beloved live outfits,” their headline and festival performances became the stuff of legend and helped them earn dates with everyone from Johnny Cash and Wilco to Lucinda Williams and The Black Crowes. Rolling Stone called the band “divinely inspired,” while Pitchfork praised their “rootsy mix of 70’s rock and power pop,” and The New Yorker lauded their ability to “sing it sweet and play it dirty.”

In the early 2000’s, Loiacono dipped his toes into solo waters for the first time, releasing a stripped-down, homespun EP titled ‘Purgatory,’ and during The Mother Hips’ 2003 hiatus, he launched a new band called Sensations. The group’s debut album, ‘Listen To My Shapes,’ was inspired by the concept of synesthesia, and their live concerts were immersive events meant to stimulate each of the listener’s senses en masse.

With 2016’s ‘Songs From A Golden Dream,’ Loiacono showcased a new, more nuanced side of his songwriting, one inspired as much by British folk and pysch-pop as the roots music he’d become known for with the Hips. Called a “remarkable sonic journey, with…ever shifting moods and textures” by The Marin Independent Journal, who also dubbed Loiacono “one of Marin’s most accomplished musicians and songwriters,” the album offered Loiacono the opportunity to define himself on his own terms as an artist. From the hard-charging groove and densely stacked harmonies of album opener “The Red Thread Part I (The Gloaming)” to the fingerpicked twang of “Sunny Day Blues,” the album showcases Loiacono’s stunning depth and breadth, both as a songwriter and as a vocalist. On the soulful “Mahalia Mornings,” he pays tribute gospel legend Mahlia Jackson, whose music became a daily listening ritual for Loiacono and his young son, while the Beatles-esque “Please Let Us Be Friends” draws on his own childhood, which was spent growing up in a household with a fondness for Alan Watts and Eastern philosophy, and the smoldering “Bus Ride Blues” spins a trip to the end of the line into a metaphor for addiction and recovery.

Loiacono is currently preparing to release a new album with the Hips as well as a second album under his own name via Blue Rose Music.