The long strange trip continues this summer as two generations of musicians kick off the second annual Further Festival, a concert tour designed to perpetuate the cultural and musical integrity of the Grateful Dead experience.

The summer-long festival, stretching from California to New England, will include a midwestern leg performed at four local metropolitan area amphitheaters.

Exploring all genres of music — rock, jazz, folk, blues and psychedelic — the Further Festival has a line-up that looks like a who’s who of rock ‘n roll music.

Headlining the festival is the Black Crowes, a band known to explore and improvise on stage with a mix of blues, soul, bluegrass, gospel and psychedelia.

After headlining the H.O.R.D.E. tour and playing with bands like the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, the Black Crowes have become known for playing fan-friendly theaters rather than arenas and making music to please itself and its fans rather than critics.

Returning to the festival this year is Ratdog, last year’s headliner. Ratdog is the musical project of Bob Weir, Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist and vocalist, and Rob Wasserman, a Grammy Award-winning bass player. Ratdog’s music is a complex combination of blues, rock and jazz. The band has also been known to delight its audiences with Grateful Dead favorites and other rock classics.

Mickey Hart, one of two drummers for the Grateful Dead, will also be part of the festival with Planet Drum, an ensemble of percussionists from all over the world. Planet Drum uses poly-cultural rhythms and indigenous instruments to bring worldly, avant-garde music to the stage.

Arlo Guthrie, the emcee of the festival, is a folk storytelling legend. In his 30-year career, which began with the epic folk anthem “Alice’s Restaurant,” Guthrie has written and performed music with other folk legends like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.

The festival opens with Moe, a young east coast band with a reputation for wildly improvisational shows.

“Personally, I’m out of my mind that we’re included in the Further Festival,” said Moe guitarist Al Schnier.

“I’ve seen the Dead well over 100 times and hold them in the highest regard. The Dead has inspired a wonderful sense of community with their fans and their music has always been left-of-center, yet very traditional at the same time. It’s great to be a part of this tradition,” Schnier said.

The festival also features Bruce Hornsby, the Grammy Award-winning songwriter who sat in as the Grateful Dead’s keyboardist after band member Brent Mydland died; Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist for the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna; musicians Michael Falzarano and Sherry Jackson.

Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead publicist, said the Further Festival will end nightly with “The Jam” — an all-out jam session where all the musicians “take the stage to explore the musical cosmos together.”

In addition to a full day’s worth of non-stop music, the festival also features a vending fair.

The Grateful Dead was a musical institution, touring endlessly for thirty years until lead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, McNally said, and the spirit of the Grateful Dead lives on, carried out by the Further Festival.

The Further Festival hits the midwest in July with stops at the Alpine Valley Amphitheater in East Troy, Wis., on July 18; The World in Tinley Park, Ill., on July 19; the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis on July 20 and River’s Edge Park in Somerset, Wis., on July 25.