in addition to the ‘dave’s picks’ quarterly releases from the archives, the dead have been also doing occasional theme releases, and this is one i pulled the trigger on this summer. it is of interest to me on a number of levels. the five shows included in this package were the entire tour dates of a mini tour they put together in the midwest – basically a week long 1800 mile road trip. outside of the last show (the second night at red rocks), most of these shows are fairly unknown to tape traders, for various reasons. the dead had almost no archive material of either the tour logistics notes or the shows. the latter all changed drastically as the archivists starting negotiating with a group of folks that are in possession of what are known as the ‘betty boards’. for those unfamiliar with the term, betty refers to betty cantor-jackson. she recorded many of their shows from one of their strongest periods, and her reputation for high quality is legendary. she recorded them on her own equipment and tapes and was on the dead payroll off and on through much of the seventies. when her romantic relationship with brent mydland fell apart, she became ostracized from the band, and the relationship came to a halt.
in 1986, encountering financial difficulties, she moved all of her tapes (including an extensive collection of jerry garcia band shows) to a storage facility and then couldn’t pay the rent on that, and the contents went up in auction. i am oversimplifying the entire history for brevity sake here, but in a nutshell, some of these tapes are starting to come back to the vault. rob eaton, from dark star orchestra, has been instrumental in getting the archivists in contact with the current owners of a large swath of these lost tapes, and this box set is one of the initial results of this negotiation.
on top of the outstanding quality of the recording here, the band is in fine form and there are very few lapses in any of the shows. each one is individual in character, but all stand alone in being top notch shows. in a year in which there were high points and low points, this week in their history they were flying at a higher level. jerry is particularly engaged throughout, with his vocals and guitar work having a pronounced feistiness to it.
the first show is somewhat of an anomaly, as they are the opening act in arrowhead stadium for willie nelson’s rock and roll picnic -with willie, waylon and jessi colter. instead of their usual two sets, they did one long set, and rocked it out.
july 3rd and 5th they did two indoor shows in st. paul and omaha respectively.
and then they traveled for the first time ever to red rocks in colorado. the second night there is pretty widely known in taper circles, and is generally considered to be the best show of all of 1978. i don’t have a lot of 1978 personally, so i can’t speak to that, but it is an awesome show. the lesser known first night is nearly as good, and might be the biggest nugget here for fans of the dead who really only know the second night.
the overall package is very well done, and the accompanying booklet of about 50 pages tells you everything you need to know about the whole tour and the process of getting the tapes. very glad i bought it. it was a limited edition – only about 15000 copies – and sold out quick, but you can still get it used on amazon.
http://www.dead.net/store/1970s/july-1978-complete-recordings
What’s Become of the Bettys? The Fate of the Long-Lost Grateful Dead Soundboards
redeyegin 
the shows are solid and fun to hear knowing their legacy. that time in 1978 the band was definitely enjoying a renewed amount of energy and interesting that a few months later the band lost a keyboardist and was in limbo for the second time.
but more than these shows is the anticipation of the rest of the boards to hear. i always cringe at the knowledge that there are negotiations going on for these tapes. capitalism is alive and well but that wasn’t the spirit of the dead as shows were being recorded. and since it isnt betty trying to extract her pound of flesh necessarily for mistreatment in the end that potentially caused her to lose the recordings, one would hope that all the tapes made accessible for release via daves picks or otherwise.
ive read more than a few entries about these tapes and certain folks having access to them and only allowing old school tapers or old school heads access to them. again something that goes against the spirit of the band’s concerts, family etc.
looking forward to future releases.
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not to mention the fact that these tapes are around forty years old now and should only be in the most professional of hands at this point. hate to have a great show go to waste because some old head spilled his bongwater on it.
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