About Jam Band Graveyard
Our community has always had a way with loss. Not formally—but practically. We feel our dead at shows. In the empty space next to us, in the songs that were ours together, in everyone around us who feels it without being told. We hold space in the lot. We come back year after year, carrying who we’ve lost alongside who we still have. For decades, across generations of bands and runs, this has been happening—not because anyone organized it, but because this is how the jam community works.
What it didn’t have was a place made to hold it.
The memories, the rights, the prompts to plan ahead—they exist in fragments, scattered across conversations, social media, and pages that weren’t designed to keep them together. JBG was created to hold them—for the jam community, and the people who love them.
Somewhere that holds the memories of people who’ve died—their stories, their songs, their presence in the community—so the people who loved them can find their way back. Education about the rights that disappear if you don’t know to ask for them, at the moment when our loved ones are suddenly asked to make expensive and irreversible decisions while overwhelmed. A prompt—and a place—to make a plan before the people you love are left to guess.
That’s what Jam Band Graveyard was built to hold. Three things that belong together, because this community’s experience of death doesn’t separate them neatly—and because the people who need one often need the others, even if they don’t know it yet. Before a death, during arrangements, and in the long aftermath.
We’re accountable to the jam band community, not to investors. JBG is ad-free by design and a 501(c)(3) public charity—our Transparency page shows exactly how we’re funded and governed. This work is community-created—in person, not just online.
What You’ll Find Here
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Honor
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The Graveyard
A place to honor people who’ve died, keep their stories and songs alive, and return to who you miss.
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The Luminary Field
A field of luminaries, open any hour from anywhere—light one (or more) for anyone (people and pets) whose death is with you, whether you have words or not.
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Know Your Rights
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Know Your Rights
Plain-language funeral rights education, grounded in the FTC Funeral Rule.
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Learn and Reflect
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Resources
Curated resources for grief, remembrance, practical next steps, and planning ahead.
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What Remains
Our blog—writing about grief, loss, rights, and what it means to carry all of it in the jam community.
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What JBG Is and Isn’t
Jam Band Graveyard isn’t therapy, a crisis service, a funeral home, a seller of funeral goods or services, or a provider of legal advice.
What JBG is: a community-rooted place for remembrance, education, and practical next steps. For some people that’s enough for now. For others it’s one part of a larger support system. Both are welcome here.
The Story Behind JBG
There’s a personal story behind why Jam Band Graveyard exists—why August 9, 2023, and why this community.
In Person
JBG shows up at festivals and concerts, not just online. If you want to connect in person or bring JBG to your event, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re all in this together
When you give to JBG, you help keep tribute spaces and curated resources available to the jam community—and the people who love them.
Support JBGThe PayPal Giving Fund covers processing fees, so 100% of your gift reaches us. Opens on PayPal Giving Fund site.
If you’d like to talk with us about another kind of gift, please reach out directly.
Give Regularly
Make It a Habit
This helps us plan ahead—just like we encourage everyone else to do.