this year in grateful dead history

in line with my last post about musical releases from 2019 that went by without comment, i thought i would also do one reflecting on the output from the grateful dead over the last twelve months. say what you will about the band, but it is hard to deny that their fan base has not diminished much since they stopped playing in 1995, following garcia’s death. the band, and/or their crew, had begun recording their live shows almost from the outset, and most of the recordings from a total catalog of an estimated 2,500 shows are still around. the organization has been slowly and methodically releasing selections from the vault for nearly 25 years now, and this year was fairly typical in that regard. here is a brief summary of what they (including the garcia family organization) presented this year. it is pretty substantial.

of course, over the last several years the lynchpin of the archival releases are the quarterly ‘dave’s picks’ series.

volume 29 was the 2/26/77 show from san bernardino – essentially the first show of that legendary spring tour. i wrote about it more extensively back in february. they come out swinging, fresh off of recording new material for the upcoming ‘terrapin station’ album. indeed, they open the show with the title cut.

volume 30 takes us back to their first show of the seventies. on january 2nd of 1970 they played at the fillmore east in new york city, and this performance is pretty typical of the transition the band was going through at the time – still playing material from their heavier psychedelic sixties act, but beginning to sprinkle in more americana songs by robert hunter that would eventually be released on the ‘workingman’s dead’ album just a few months later. the transition was not working out well for organ player tom constanten, as his carousel style playing didn’t really mesh well with the new songs, and he would be out of the band within a month or so.

volume 31 takes us to the other side of the seventies, a december 3rd show in 1979 at the uptown theater in chicago. this one also showcases somewhat of a transitional period for the band, as they are hitting their stride after installing a different keyboard player. brent mydland had replaced keith godchaux earlier in the year, and the band had renewed energy, inspired by the different style of playing and brent’s gruffy vocals, and the new material they had just recorded.

volume 32 takes us back to march 24th of 1973, a monster show at the spectrum in philadelphia that clocks in at nearly four hours – 31 total songs. this was in the middle of an east coast tour that they had started a couple of weeks earlier, right after the passing of one of their original members, pigpen. as some of you have heard me argue, i think 1973 might be their overall strongest year, and this is very representative of that period.

a new format that they have been starting is revisiting their studio albums as they each hit their 50th anniversary. this year’s package was focused on ‘aoxomoxoa’, the last album of their earlier psychedelic period. it has the original 1969 mix, and then the 1971 mix that they decided to do for marketing reasons, and then a second disc of live material from the avalon ballroom in january of 1969. interesting, but i have to admit i am more looking forward to next year, when we hopefully will see something regarding the aforementioned ‘workingman’s dead’, and ‘american beauty’.

another new trend has been to issue something for ‘record store day’, and this year they revisited the ‘reckoning’ material and offered a two disc package with acoustic material from the warfield theater run in 1980. perfect soundtrack for a summer afternoon on my deck.

of course they usually put out some kind of box set each year, and this year they chose to focus on five shows from giants stadium in east rutherford, new jersey. one from 1987, two from 1989, and two from 1991. the 1991 shows have bruce hornsby on keyboards, and the second night is also presented as a full length blu ray disc in the box set. very well recorded and worth a look if you like this period of the dead.

their last output for the year was rather unusual. due to a number of reasons (mostly jerry), the dead never released a studio album in the nineties. but they were writing and playing new material, and so dead archivist dave lemieux put together what he found to be the strongest live versions of his favorite unreleased songs from that period and released it as such in november. again, if you like this period of the band (post brent), you may find this interesting. i don’t, and i didn’t.

in addition to the grateful dead organization’s output, i also pay attention to what the garcia estate is doing in a similar fashion. 2019 saw the release of two volumes that are reminiscent of the dave’s picks series, namely the ‘garcia live’ series.

volume 11 features the jerry garcia band in fine form on november 11th 1993 at the civic center in providence, rhode island. jerry was not happy with the super stardom of the dead at this time and hated playing in large arenas. but he sure found renewed energy when he went out on the road with his own band.

volume 12 goes back 20 years earlier to january 1973 when garcia and merl saunders played a three night run at the boarding house in san francisco. while two long time staples of the early versions of the band were there – john kahn on bass and bill vitt on drums – the other interesting component was a young r&b vocalist named sarah fulcher. different than any other garcia band recording i have heard, sarah is on many tracks the lead vocalist, instead of just a backup role. hers is a very improvisational, bluesy, and soulful style, and she can get a little over her skis sometimes. think donna on steroids. but the liner notes suggest that much of that may be due to the unstructured nature of the band, and she is just filling in space. jerry’s playing on the songs where she takes the lead is great, taking on the role of the rhythm guitarist like you don’t normally hear. his overall leads also have a more bluesy sound to them, totally different than his work with the dead at the time (compare it to the dave’s picks 32 described above). the band is tight, and their version of ‘that’s all right mama’ in the second set is just scorching.

and last, but certainly not least, we have the box set they released – ‘electric on the eel’ – which i reviewed in march. three shows from three different years (1987, 1989, and 1991) from a summer benefit festival at a camp near the eel river in california. of everything that i have talked about here, this would be one that i would point you towards, as well as that 1980 warfield album. i also thought this was an excellent year for the dave’s picks series.

once again, thanks for following me this year, and i look forward to another great year in music.

2019 island of misfit albums

instead of the usual ‘best of’ articles we usually get around this time, i am going to go down a different route and give a list of albums that were released this year that i found interesting, but for whatever reason, i never got around to posting on. and instead of waiting till the last week of the year, i thought i would get this out before xmas so that maybe you could add a few to your wish list. all of these were worthy of a full rendering, but as most of you know, this blog is a side gig for me, and life and work just get in the way sometimes. so, here they are, in no particular order.

professor longhair, ‘live on the queen mary’

i found this in a great record store in new orleans during jazzfest. it is a recording of a private party on the queen mary, put on by paul and linda mccartney on march 24, 1975. it captures him in his prime, and the recording, produced by tom wilson, is very good. a good introduction to him, if you are not familiar with the legendary pianist. there was no one like him.

kelsey waldon, ‘white noise/white lines’

debut album from this west kentuckian, the first new artist signed to john prine’s oh boy record label in over a decade. much like margo price’s first album, the songs are in large part an autobiographical picture of growing up poor in a small rural town. she is quite a talent, and someone to keep your eye on.

marvin gaye, ‘you’re the man’

this was the follow up to his groundbreaking album, ‘what’s going on’. the single of ‘you’re the man’ hit the charts, but the album was never was released. the extensive liner notes tell the whole story, but essentially it came down to political and artistic freedom disagreements with his label. here we have the entire album, plus quite a few bonus tracks, including some christmas music. i actually think it would have been a more profound historical release if they had just packaged it without the extra tracks, as some of them are either corny or over produced. but the first nine tracks are some of the finest work from one of the most important artists to ever come out of the motown scene.

justin townes earle, ‘the saint of lost causes’

another solid release from this guy – i don’t think he has put out anything better (and i have all of it). one of the better singer/songwriters out there. and, as i have mentioned before, i think he may be more talented than his father, steve.

bob dylan, ‘the rolling thunder revue, the 1975 live recordings’

released in conjunction with martin scorcese’s documentary of the same name, this box set presents five of the concerts from this tour showcasing the then recently released ‘desire’ album, plus a few extra discs with outtakes from rehearsals and other shows. if you are a big bob fan, then this is interesting. if you want to get a full flavor of the power and quality of these shows without dropping $75 on this, get his bootleg volume five (‘bob dylan live 1975’) instead.

‘the highwomen’

this is a side project of four individual artists – brandi carlisle, amanda shires, maren morris and natalie hemby. presumably a take on the ‘highwaymen’ super group of the eighties (willie, waylon, johnny, and kris), these women share the singing and songwriting throughout. many times compilations like this underperform, but this one exceeded my expectations.

neil young and the stray gators, ‘tuscaloosa’

another release from his ‘archive’ series, this one is a selection of cuts from a performance in february of 1973 at the university of alabama. he was touring on the recently released ‘harvest’ album with the musicians who did most of the recordings in nashville. most of this tour was a disaster, but this show finds the band in fine form, and the recording is crystal clear. maybe the strongest song is ‘alabama’. even though it was a gutsy selection to be playing in front of this crowd, they gave it all they had. play it loud.

sturgill simpson, ‘sound and fury’

this was not what i was expecting. i very much have enjoyed his last few albums, and i was looking forward to this. i was given hints on a radio station that this was a small divergence from his previous work, so i should have been warned. but this is just a total left turn. it almost has more in common with ‘eliminator’ era zz top or synth pop from the eighties, with some ‘dark side of the moon’ nods as well. plus it was released with its very own anime movie:

very good, but not really my cup of tea. but he gets points for poking his finger in the eye of the music industry and not really caring what they think. he is on record saying that his next record will be blue grass covers of his wife’s favorite classic rock songs.

the mavericks, ‘play the hits’

first saw this band on a small stage on the last day of jazzfest, and i was highly impressed. one of my favorite shows of the year. this just came out about a month ago. they did a whole album of cover songs by artists that had influenced them during their thirty years as a group. a few of them, like ‘swingin’ and ‘are you sure hank done it this way’, are uptempo rockers more indicative of their live shows. but just as many are ballads that sometimes are more laid back than the originals. a good introduction to the band if you are not familiar with them. plus, this a damn funny video:

van morrison, ‘three chords and the truth’

this dude just keeps pumping them out. all new original material, revisiting many of his usual themes – musings on the unfairness of the music industry, fondness for the early days of rock and roll, and odes to celtic mysticism. the various musicians include jay berliner, who played on ‘astral weeks’ with him. there really isn’t a bad cut on this one. one of those that just seems to get better the more you listen to it.

ryan bingham, ‘american love song’

speaking of repeated listenings, i think i gave up on this one too soon. for whatever reason, i only gave it one shot, and didn’t come back to it for awhile. a couple of these tracks (‘jingle and go’ and ‘pontiac’) are still getting heavy play on the ‘outlaw country’ station, and they keep sounding good. produced by charlie sexton, there are some nods to the stones and zeppelin, but mostly this is just a good alt country rocker with some blues thrown in. one of his best.

grateful dead, ‘the warfield’

released by the dead as their contribution to april’s ‘record store day’, this is a little hard to find but well worth it. if you know their ‘reckoning’ album, then this will sound familiar, as it is taken from the same set of acoustic shows at the warfield in san francisco in the fall of 1980. i will be doing a post in a few weeks highlighting the entire output from the dead archivists and the garcia family this year (which has been substantial), but i thought i would throw this in here anyways.

calixeco/iron and wine, ‘years to burn’

i love both of these artists (hard to call them ‘bands), and their collaborations seem to be productive, even though their styles are quite different. this is certainly a good version of their teamwork, and i wish i had been able to catch them on tour this summer.

robbie robertson, ‘sinematic’

his first album of new material in years, this is a guy who continues to push the envelope and doesn’t rest on his laurels. i wasn’t entirely smitten with this one, but there is a decent chance that was in my head and not necessarily fair to the material and production. i love his first two solo albums, and i want to compare it to them, but that really isn’t the right thing to do. the first cut is a duet with van morrison, ‘i hear you paint houses’, which is the name of the book that is the basis for scorcese’s current movie ‘the irishman”. the second cut is ‘once were brothers’, which is about the rest of the guys from the band. many of the songs are rather lush and the backup vocals are fantastic. writing this post has convinced me i should probably give this one a few more tries.

hopefully you found something here that you find interesting and go out and give it a try. thanks to all of you for following this little project of mine, and please consider sharing with others.

seek.better. music.

‘echo in the canyon’

this has been out for a while, but i just got around to checking it out in the last week or so. jakob dylan interviews many of the significant artists that drove the beginning of the folk rock sound, focusing on the ones who lived and recorded in the los angeles area – and more specifically – the area known as laurel canyon. a picturesque bohemian suburb uphill from the sunset strip, it became a destination for artists from around the world to convene and explore the synthesis of two musical genres that were considered somewhat incompatible just a few years before. the documentary combines conversations with artists that were there or directly influenced by the sound, video footage of the scene as it was in the late sixties, and concert and studio scenes of today’s generation of artists paying tribute to some of the classic songs from that era (i assume this is the reference to the ‘echo’ in the title). it is packed with information and i actually watched it a couple of times to make sure i didn’t miss anything.

i have two minor issues overall, the first being too much of the ‘echo’ component. my rough estimate is that maybe a quarter of the run time is devoted to newer artists tackling the material – some competently and others not so much. leaning towards the amateur musical historian that i am, i found this aspect of it less compelling.

maybe my second quibble is related to the first, but i also felt that the focus was somewhat more limited than i had hoped. it really only covers the period from late 1964 through 1967 – and it does a great job at that – but the area continued to be a driving force in the musical world for at least another five years. we see jackson browne waxing nostalgic on the byrds, brian wilson and others, but we don’t here any of his contributions to the scene. joni mitchell isn’t mentioned at all, not to mention gram parsons, the flying burrito brothers, or james taylor. if you want a good read on that, try barney hoskyn’s ‘hotel california’.

but overall i enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about where that jangly twelve string sound came from.

this one is for you, kevin:

bob dylan, ‘travelin’ thru, the bootleg series volume 15, 1967-1969′

the fifteenth edition of bob’s usually great bootleg series focuses on two things – his flirtation with the nashville sound, and his relationship with johnny cash. both of these subjects are pretty well documented, and although there is nothing here that wasn’t known by dedicated dylan fans, this is a nice package that doesn’t get too much in the weeds. it is broken down into three discs, the first being outtakes from the two albums he made there during this period, ‘john wesley harding’ and ‘nashville skyline’. the selections are well played and produced, but offer only slight variations from the tracks that were eventually chosen for release. ‘as i went out one morning’ is presented as a waltz tempo, and many of the ‘skyline’ tracks have a bit of an edge to them(‘country pie’ gets funky with charlie daniels on guitar).

the second track focuses on an impromptu session put together around the ‘skyline’ sessions with johnny cash. bootlegs of this have been going around for years (indeed, my good friend dave c. sent me a copy of this just this summer), but it is offered here from the original tapes. it is interesting the first few times you hear it, and it certainly has historical significance. carl perkins was recording in an adjacent studio, and joins the gang for a few tracks. but overall it is a little rough and unrehearsed, and the suits decided that is wasn’t good enough to issue as an album.

the third disc has more from those sessions, then three songs he did on the ‘johnny cash show’ that may. following that are three johnny cash tunes he covered for the ‘self portrait’ album, and then four songs recorded at a house in 1970 with the legendary banjo player, earl scruggs.

once again the liner notes are extensive and informative, and even a bob nut like me learned quite a few things. this video below does a good job of providing more background:

ian noe, ‘between the country’

this has been out a few months now, so i am a little late to the party, but i took a liking to him the first time i heard his material. hailing from eastern kentucky, it is not hard to see him eventually gaining national notoriety much like his fellow kentuckians sturgill simpson and tyler childers. in my opinion he may be the better songwriter of the three. his hero is john prine, and it is easy to hear that in his style and delivery. i also hear faint echos of ‘john wesley harding’ era dylan. his songs are full of small town characters, usually down on their luck. the material is raw, gritty, and real – tales covering murder, addiction, broken romances and appalachian desperation abound – but there are also glimmers of hope strewn throughout.

he has been opening up for artists such as son volt, blackberry smoke, and mr. prine himself, if that gives you any idea of the types of artists that are trying to give him his well deserved audience. dave cobb produced the album, and it is just about perfect.

this is another one of those artists i just ask you to hear him out and give him a chance.