grateful dead

all things related to the good ole band

grateful dead, ‘capitol theatre, passaic, nj, june 17th, 1976’

this is the 28th installment of the dave’s picks series, and it is a contender for one of the best of the year. on this particular evening they were only two weeks into their return to the road after a self imposed 18 month hiatus. they were emotionally and financially exhausted from their ambitious 1974 ‘wall of sound’ tour, and had decided to take some time off to regroup and restructure the organization. the 1976 version of the band found them newly energized, welcoming back drummer mickey hart and featuring new material from 1975’s ‘blues for allah’ album. they had also chosen to come back in smaller theaters, as opposed to the stadiums they had used in 1974. everyone is in fine form, and it is gorgeously recorded by betty cantor-jackson. the ten minute ‘let it grow’ in the second set is tight and energetic, maybe one of the best i have ever heard. ‘cassidy’ in the first set has a unique ending that they only tried a few times.

this release capped off another fine year for the series, with only one mediocre show, in my opinion. the 1983 show from boise, idaho that was released as volume 27 was just not up to speed from what i expect from dave. but i signed up for another year of course, especially knowing that he has already selected the next volume – swing auditorium from february 26, 1977. this was the first concert they played that year, which would eventually go down as one of the best overall years of their career. they opened the show with ‘terrapin station’, which wouldn’t be released on the album of the same name for another four months. i have had this show in my collection for awhile, but this is another example of the newly recovered ‘betty boards’, and so i expect that the new version will be superior to what i have. below we have dead archivist david lemieux discussing the latest release, and looking around for bears. enjoy.

i am tossing around doing an ‘honorable mention’ post in the near future. there is a ton of music i listened to this year that, for whatever reason, i didn’t get around to posting about. hopefully i will get that done thanksgiving weekend in time for your holiday shopping season.

jerry garcia band, ‘garcia live volume ten: may 20th, 1990 hilo civic auditorium’

the newest installment in this series captures the band, and specifically jerry, in one of their peak eras. the spring of 1990 was a prolific and inspired period for both this band and the grateful dead. much of that was due to jerry’s seemingly full recovery from his diabetic coma of 1986. a significant part of his recovery was his introduction (by bill kreutzmann) to scuba diving off the coasts of hawaii. the undersea adventures provided him respite from the pressures of the world, and he returned there often for the rest of his life. this show captures one of those visits, recorded in a small auditorium in the rural city of hilo, hawaii – a benefit concert for the ocean recreational council.

it is pretty well known that jerry was growing weary of the dead’s need to play larger and larger venues at this time due to their increasing popularity, and you can definitely tell he is enjoying playing in this more intimate venue with his personal band. right out of the gates he is engaged and energetic, and the song selections are top notch. this version of the band is the longest standing of all, playing together for nearly ten years, and they are in top form here. they open with ‘how sweet it is’ and then ‘they love each other’. true to the island vibe, they do two reggae covers – ‘the harder they come’ and ‘stop that train’. there are a handful of r&b/gospel tunes, but the set list is dominated by dylan covers, notably ‘knockin on heaven’s door’, ‘forever young’ and the finale of ‘tangled up in blue’.

of exceptional note is a soulful rendition of ‘tears of rage’, the dylan/richard manuel song off of ‘music from big pink’. an inherently difficult song vocally, jerry’s voice and passion are up to the task, and it is one of my favorites of this release. i also like their version of los lobos’ ‘evangeline’. i have all ten volumes of this collection, and this is easily in my top two or three.

dave’s picks vol. 24, berkeley community theatre 8/25/72

in the last installment of the 2017 releases from grateful dead archivist david lemieux, we get a brilliant show from the summer of 1972, the final show of four in a row that they played at this venue. only three months after their legendary european tour, and the last show before they headed up to oregon for the fabled veneta concert, this show captures them at one of the peak periods in their career. recorded by owsley ‘bear’ stanley, the sound is clean and well balanced. the set list is very typical of the period (almost all of the songs would be on the soon to be issued ‘europe 72’). it is also the early stages of the configuration of the band that would no longer include pigpen, as he had played his final show in june.

the band is firing on all cylinders from the opening ‘cold rain and snow’ to the encore of ‘sugar magnolia’. of note is the ‘he’s gone’ and ‘birdsong’ in the first set. the only possible blemish on an otherwise stellar evening is ‘bertha’. in a song that they normally use as a set opener to get the juices flowing, jerry absolutely butchers the lyrics a number of times throughout the song. luckily he partially makes up for it, maybe out of anger, by closing with an energetic guitar solo to finish up the first set.

i have been subscribing to dave’s releases for five years, and 2017 offered probably the most consistently great four shows of the series. next year also has great promise as it was announced earlier this year that they have successfully negotiated with a few parties for the return of hundreds of missing tapes known as the ‘betty boards’. many of these tapes are from shows from one of their other classic periods -late 1976 to early 1978 – that were missing from their ‘vault’. the holy grail of this was of course the fabled run in may of 1977, notably the cornell university show (although i prefer the buffalo show the next night a little bit more). dave released four of these shows on the 40th anniversary of the cornell date as a boxed set this past may. i highly recommend getting that as well.

if you are a fan of the band, i highly suggest you consider signing up for the 2018 year (link below). they are going fast, and are capped at 18,000 subscribers. he has already announced volume 25, which will be the binghampton ny show from 11/6/77, which was one of the missing betty boards.

http://www.dead.net/store/music/new-releases/daves-picks-2018-subscription?intcmp=home/bigbanner3

old and in the way, ‘live at the boarding house’

old and in the way was a short-lived bluegrass group formed in 1973. it featured peter rowan on guitar, the incomparable vassar clements on fiddle, jerry garcia on banjo, david grisman on mandolin, and john kahn on string bass. they released their only album in 1975 and it became one of the best selling bluegrass albums of all time. that album was culled entirely from the second show on this release – the complete recordings of two separate shows at the boarding house in san francisco in october of 1973.

recorded by owsley ‘bear’ stanley, it stands up well and is maybe the best representation of the group ever released. each show has nearly 30 songs in the two set lists. even though the second show will be more familiar to fans due to being used on the album, i think the first show may be better. they sound more crisp and focused, and the crowd seems to be more appreciative. there seem to be a few inebriated attendees in the second show, yelling out requests a little too aggressively. but i quibble.

it has been argued that the commercial success of the original album was due to the crossover appeal from fans of jerry garcia, and that no doubt is true. but, similar to the bluegrass popularity surge from the soundtrack of ‘o brother where art thou’, a lot of people got turned on to bluegrass in the mid seventies due to this band. and that’s a good thing. the genre is one dear to my heart, and deserves more sunlight. it should also be mentioned that this was perhaps the most productive period of jerry’s life. the grateful dead were touring heavily during 1973, and he was also playing with merl saunders on the side in the early formations of the jerry garcia band. four full discs of music at under 24 bucks, it is worth a listen.

midnight north, ‘under the lights’

i can’t recall how i first heard about this band featuring grahame lesh (phil’s son), but i was intrigued and bought their newest release. they are frequently found playing at papa lesh’s terrapin crossroads bar, and also appear in various iterations backing him on tours. a good way to get noticed, and i think they have enough talent on their own to be worthy of some consideration. this might be a stretch, but i hear a cross between tedeschi trucks and donna the buffalo, with superior vocals to both. individually elliot peck may not be up to susan tedeschi or tara nevins (yet), but she is damn good and is able to harmonize with grahame and alex jordan in a way that summons early crosby/stills/nash. see the cover of ‘helplessly hoping’ below. a band to keep an eye on, i think, and a decent addition to a summer playlist.