Brent Mydland Of Grateful Dead

SAN FRANCISCO - Brent Mydland, keyboard player for the rock band Grateful Dead, was found dead in his home yesterday. He was 38.

It was unclear when and how he died, said Sgt. Richard Terry of the Contra Costa County coroner's office. An autopsy was scheduled for today.

``We lost a brother and we are very devastated,'' said Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally.

The 1960s counterculture band, known for such hits as ``Casey Jones,'' and ``Truckin','' retains a loyal cult following today. Fans - known as ``Deadheads'' and including people who weren't born when the band first came to prominence - follow the group from performance to performace.

Friends apparently went to his home in Lafayette, a suburb 25 miles east of San Francisco, after being unable to contact Mydland, Terry said.

Mydland wrote the well-known Grateful Dead tune ``Far From Me,'' and more recently co-wrote the environmental ballad ``We Can Run (But We Can't Hide),'' which was used in an Audubon Society video.

He was also known for his ``I Will Take You Home,'' a lullaby written for his two daughters.

Mydland was born in Germany to American parents stationed there with the military and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, McNally said.

Mydland made his name as the keyboard player with the 1970s rock band Silver and Bob Weir's band, Bobby and the Midnights.

Mydland joined the Grateful Dead in April 1979. He replaced

keyboardist Keith Godchaux, who died a year after leaving the band. The band's second keyboard player, Ron ``Pig Pen'' McKernan, died in the early 1970s at the age of 27.

Mydland is survived by his wife, Lisa, and his daughters.