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ALBUM REVIEW September 5, 2020

Grateful Dead: Workingman's Dead - 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Read "Workingman's Dead - 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Doug Collette

Released on-line around the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Workingman's Dead (Warner Bros., 1970), The Angel's Share of over two-and-a-half hours of unreleased studio outtakes and fly-on-the wall conversations from the recording sessions somewhat give the lie to the expeditious cost-effective time the Grateful Dead spent recording their landmark album. But it's a profound paradox that the delicious simplicity the likes of which permeates the iconic band's fourth studio effort is usually the result of meticulous ...

ALBUM REVIEW January 25, 2020

Grateful Dead: Ready Or Not

By Doug Collette

The curators of the Grateful Dead's Ready Or Not have done the band a favor in producing this title. The band's own attempts were futile in recording a studio followup to Built to Last (Arista, 1989), but the group nonetheless kept composing new material and playing it in concert during their final years of touring. Captured from the stage between 1992 and 1995 at various locations by engineers Dan Healy and John Cutler (then mastered by David Glasser), ...

ALBUM REVIEW January 11, 2020

Grateful Dead: Saint of Circumstance: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 6/17/91 (3CD)

By Doug Collette

Hearing Grateful Dead's Saint of Circumstance is a significantly different experience than seeing it. Both the audio and video recordings of Giants Stadium June 17, 1991 are part of a larger box set, appropriately subtitled Shall We Go, You and I, While We Can? (Rhino, 2019). But the film, featured as last year's annual 'Meetup at the Movies' theatrical screenings, posits a Jerry Garcia in marked contrast to the figure of years just prior, as captured, for instance, on Crimson ...

LIVE REVIEW November 16, 2019

Dead & Company at The NYCB Live at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum

By Mike Perciaccante

Dead & Company NYCB Live at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum The Fall Fun Run Tour Uniondale, NY November 5, 2019 With the former Nassau Coliseum smelling like a mixture of pot, patchouli and incense with the vast majority of the attendees wearing something featuring tie-dye colors, the latest incarnation of the Grateful Dead, Dead & Co. took the stage and delivered a concert that had the multi-generational audience dancing, acting out the tunes ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 7, 2018

Grateful Dead: Pacific Northwest '73-'74: Believe It If You Need It

By Doug Collette

Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux long ago proved himself a past master at formulating composites of performancess based on more expansive releases from the iconic band's vault. Going back to the triple set culled from The Complete Recordings Fillmore West 1969 (Grateful Dead/Rhino, 2005) to its companion piece double set from Europe '72: The Complete Recordings (Rhino, 2011). The archivist has shown himself intimately familiar with the group's music, allowing him to pick and choose tracks (here from May and ...

EXTENDED ANALYSIS August 4, 2018

Anthem Of The Sun 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

By Doug Collette

In an essay dense with historical detail and rich in provocative allusions, Steve Silberman accurately and vividly recounts the sequence of events involved in the original production of the Grateful Dead's second studio album Anthem of the Sun. The writer recounts a herculean task, the comparable likes of which has resulted in this 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. Continuing the series of milestone editions initiated last year with the group's eponymous debut. this double CD set is comprised of both the ...

BOOK REVIEW June 16, 2018

Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip

By Doug Collette

Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter in the Grateful Dead's Long Strange Trip Joel Selvin with Pamela Turley 288 Pages ISBN: #978-0306903052 Da Capo Press 2018 Joel Selvin's Fare Thee Well may end up equally parts enlightening and disillusioning for whoever reads it. Drawing upon his coverage of the Grateful Dead over the early course of their history, in collaboration with Atlanta freelancer Pamela Turley to glean her insight into events of more ...