i got this in the mail last week. by coincidence, i had a road trip planned to see my daughter for dad’s weekend, which involved a three hour trip through the foothills of the appalachian mountains. it was a crisp late autumn morning, sunny skies, plenty of fall foliage, and a few patches of fog. got very close to finishing the whole thing by the time i pulled into her small college town. it basically set the tone for a nearly perfect day.

this is a chronicle of a show that was put together last spring to pay tribute to the life and music of jerry garcia. all surviving members of the original grateful dead were there (the ‘core four’), and were prominently featured throughout. it is a two cd collection, and a dvd of the show. all of the performances are at least worth a three star, and some are just downright righteous. highlights for me include buddy miller tackling ‘deal’, jimmy cliff doing his own ‘harder they come’, and then delivering a killer ‘fire on the mountain’. bill kreutzmann and billie and the kids do ‘help on the way/slipknot/franklin’s tower’, then are joined on stage by disco biscuit and deliver a stunning ‘scarlet begonias/ i know you rider’. and that is just the first disc.

back up band for many of the artists includes buddy miller, don was, and sam bush. grand finale with the entire cast doing ‘ripple’. if you like jerry, you will like this.

 

also arriving last week was the most recent dave’s picks, volume 20. recorded at the university of colorado in december of 1981, it is a particularly energetic show. there are really only two flaws throughout, one due to the band and the other in the recording. jack straw is the second song, and weir just totally blows the lyrics about halfway through and kills the momentum of the song (in fairness, jerry seems to have gotten off track before this, which may have in turn confused weir). half way through the first set the overall recording has a completely different sound to it (the band is a little muted and the crowd is much more up front), and so i expect that there is a gap in the original seven inch reel to reel tapes, and they spliced it with a high quality taper source. but again, i quibble. ‘bird song’, ‘candyman’, and ‘cassidy’ on the first disc are great. the first set closer starts the second disc, a solid ‘china/rider’, which would basically set the tone for the epic second set.

‘scarlet begonias/fire on the mountain/estimated prophet to start, a nearly perfect ‘stella blue’, and then close out with ‘around and around/good lovin’/us blues/satisfaction’.