Release Info

Road Trips Vol. 1 Number 3

Jonathan Lane — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:53:28 -0700

More Lost and Found From the Hot, Hot Summer of’71 on this Two-Disc Set!

$19.98 :: GO TO THE STORE

:: See Track List

Shows

New Haven, CT - 7/31/71
Chicago, IL - 8/23/71
Hollywood, CA - 8/6/71
San Pedro, CA - 8/4/71

Listening Party!

Join us for a limited
time as we stream selections
from this amazing new set.
::Listen Now

More Road Trips

Read more about the series,
plus answers to questions you
might have about the series.
::Click Here

::See All Road Trips

If you’re up on your Dick’s Picks releases—and we know you are—you’ll recall that Dick’s Picks 35, released in 2005, featured some smokin’ performances from the summer of 1971. The master reels from which it was culled, long believed to have been lost, had turned up miraculously on a houseboat owned by the parents of former GD keyboardist Keith Godchaux, discovered more than 30 years later by Keith’s brother, Brian, and son, Zion. And Keith had these masters because the band wanted him to be able to hear their most recent tour in preparation for his taking the piano seat that fall. It was quite a find, to say the least—the Grateful Dead world equivalent of uncovering a new royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

So imagine our surprise when two years later, under completely different circumstances, even more great, previously uncirculated master tapes from the summer of ’71 turned up unexpectedly. Surely that was a sign, too, that this music needed to come out and be shared with all of you. Which brings us, happily, to Road Trips Volume One, Number 3. This release offers up the brightest of these recently discovered gems: Disc One is taken from the famous show at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, July 31, 1971, anchored around an out-of-this-world “Dark Star” and a version of “Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down the Road” that also includes a short “Darkness, Darkness” jam. Hot stuff!

The material on Disc Two is from the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago about three weeks later—8/23/71 (the following night, 8/24, was spotlighted on DP35)—and its big highlight is probably the very jammed out version of “That’s It for the Other One,” which in my humble opinion stands with the best they ever played (yes, even ones from the Fillmore West box). Spread across the discs you’ll also find outstanding versions of “China Cat > Rider,” “Uncle John’s Band > Johnny B. Goode,” “Wharf Rat,” “Sugar Magnolia” and lots more. Like the DP35 performances, these are a Phil-lover’s-delight, with massive bass on almost every track—careful if you’re driving or operating heavy machinery when you crank up these CDs!

As is customary, too, for the proverbial “limited time only,” when you buy Road Trips #3, you’ll also receive a bonus disc with still more rarities from that ’71 tour. Check it out: The first few newly unearthed tracks are more from the 8/6/71 Hollywood Palladium show (featured on DP35), including the justifiably legendary, consensus-best-ever version of “Hard to Handle,” heard in pristine soundboard form for the first time. It will knock your tie-dye socks off! There are also more fine tracks from Yale Bowl, but the heart of this disc was plucked from the 8/4/71 show at Terminal Island correctional facility in Southern California, where Grateful Dead sound guru Owsley Stanley was incarcerated at the time. This show doesn’t even circulate as an audience recording! (What—a venue the tapers couldn’t crack? No way!) We think you’ll agree that all of this is GD of the highest order! As usual, these master soundboard recordings have been mastered in HDCD, and each package includes a cool booklet with an essay about the music (by yours truly in this case) and plenty o’ rare photos from the period.

So…You know the drill: click here for a complete track listing for the three discs, and click here to order your copy today!

The Wait Is Over… The Winterland 1973 Box Has Arrived!

Analise Dubner — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:51:42 -0700

Click Cover To Enlarge

$99.99 :: ORDER NOW!

See Track Listing

The Shows

Winterland - November 9, 1973
Winterland - November 10, 1973
Winterland - November 11, 1973
Cincinnati Gardens - December 4, 1973

In The Archives

Handwritten Set List
News Clipping
All Winterland Archive Items

Watch The Trailer

A Winterland video scrapbook
::Watch it now

Your Photos

Do you have any photos of Winterland?
::Share Them With Us!

Sherman, set the Wayback machine for the second week of November, 1973. The Grateful Dead are on a roll…yes, again! The summer had seen the band playing triumphant mega-shows with the Allman Brothers at RFK Stadium in D.C. and at Watkins Glenn in upstate New York. With their popularity seemingly still escalating by the month, fall tours took them to various East Coast haunts and all over the Midwest. On October 15, they released Wake of the Flood, their first album on their own independent record label, and copies were flying out of stores coast to coast. So the mood in the band was WAY UP when their incredibly busy schedule brought them home for three shows at Winterland in San Francisco November 9, 10 and 11—before they set off again for points East.

Winterland always brought out the best—and the beast—in the band. Located across Geary Boulevard from the Fillmore Auditorium, the one-time home of the Ice Follies had hosted dozens of amazing rock shows since Bill Graham started putting on shows there in the late ’60s. It’s where the top tier of Bay Area bands would get together occasionally for marathon shows, and it’s where the most popular out-of-town acts—from The Doors, to Hendrix, to The Who, to the Rolling Stones—would play in the era before faceless sports arenas became an unfortunate fact of concert-going life. But nobody played Winterland as often as the Dead. By the time they’d trucked their ever-expanding sound system to the venue for their November ’73 shows, they’d already logged 31 concerts there—and there would be another 28 eventful Dead nights at Winterland before the old place was closed after the Dead’s New Year’s Eve show in 1978, and eventually reduced to rubble to make way for condos. Sure, the 5,000-capacity hall was acoustically challenging and a little frayed on the edges. But with its narrow open floor, shallow lower balcony that encircled the entire venue, its deeper back balcony chill zone, and serpentine walkways between floors, it was a tremendously fun and entertaining place to see a show—especially a Dead show.

Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings captures the Dead during one of their peak years and absolutely at the top of their game. Spread over nine discs, it includes every note of three complete consecutive shows (save for the encore of November 9, which was not recorded), so there’s plenty here to satisfy every fan: magnificent jams on “Dark Star” (which sprawls to 35 completely compelling minutes!), “Playing in the Band,” “Eyes of the World,” the still-new “Weather Report Suite” and more; kick-ass rockers of every variety (“Sugar Magnolia,” “Casey Jones,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Truckin’,” et al); haunting ballads including “China Doll,” “Stella Blue” and “To Lay Me Down”; a truly spectacular “China Cat”; and the first of just three versions ever of the dazzling sequence of “Playing in the Band” > “Uncle John’s Band” > “Morning Dew” > “Uncle John’s” reprise > “Playing” reprise. (For a complete listing of the contents of the nine discs, go here.)

All the music here was drawn from Grateful Dead crew member Kidd Candelario’s crystal clear and wonderfully present 2-track soundboard reels of the shows, and enhanced by the mastering work of the always reliable sonic wizard Jeffrey Norman, who used all sorts of arcane processes to bring it all into the glorious world of HDCD sound. This stuff will rattle your bones! The beautifully designed box also comes with a colorful booklet containing scads of great photos and a fine essay by Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally.

We like to think of Winterland 1973 as being part of the noble tradition established by the ecstatically received Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings, and as a precursor for other complete-run boxes to come. So clear out a chunk of space in the ol’ CD case, ’cause this mutha’ is a BIG ONE!

Don’t delay! You can order Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings right now by clicking here !

(To help get you in the mood, you can preview some of the music on the Winterland 1973 box by clicking here. And to give you a little glimpse of what Winterland was like, check out this video montage with audio from the ’73 shows and visuals from The Grateful Dead Movie, shot at Winterland a year later!)

Come Join Us For Road Trips!

Analise Dubner — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:36:00 -0800

$19.98 :: GO TO THE STORE

More Details

Track listing for both CDs and
the bonus disc as well.
::Click Here

Shows

New Haven, CT - 10/25/79
Uniondale, NY - 10/31/79
Philadelphia, PA - 11/6/79
Landover,MD - 11/8/79
Buffalo, NY - 11/9/79
Ann Arbor, MI - 11/10/79

It’s time to put a little gas-gas-gas back into the ol’ Tour Bus and give it another spin, because Grateful Dead is very pleased to announce the debut of a new series of archival releases called Road Trips!

Here’s the deal: We all loved the Dicks Picks series. Over the course of 36 amazing releases between 1993 and 2005, GD archivists Dick Latvala (R.I.P.) and David Lemieux continually blew our little minds plucking one righteous show after another from the vaults, from classics like the February ’70 Fillmore East run (DP4) and Englishtown ’77 (DP 15), to overlooked masterpieces like 9/28/76 (DP 20) and 9/21/72 (DP 36), and shows not in general circulation among traders at the time, such as the February ’68 shows of DP 22 and the superb “Houseboat Tapes” from August 1971 that made up DP 35. Coupled with the many exceptional releases culled from multitrack tapes (the Fillmore West box, Steppin’ Out, The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack, Nightfall of Diamonds, et al) and the popular Download Series, there’s been a lot of musical territory covered over the years… but not all of it, of course—not even close!

With Road Trips we’re going to try something a little different. We want to plug in a few more pieces of the Grateful Dead puzzle by putting the spotlight on different tours and series of shows that have been neglected through the years. Take Road Trips Volume 1, Number 1, for instance. This two-disc set (plus a special Bonus Disc for a limited time only) was culled from the Dead’s blazing fall 1979 East Coast swing, when the band was just hitting its stride with new keyboardist Brent Mydland. You’ll find killer versions of “Dancing in the Street” > “Franklin’s Tower,” long exploratory jams on “Playing in the Band” and “Terrapin,” a rattle-your-brain “Shakedown,” and lots more, all pulled from the master tapes in the vault and expertly mastered in HDCD for maximum power and clarity by Jeffrey Norman. The Bonus Disc offers another hour-and-a-quarter of highlights from the tour. (You can find the complete track listings for all three discs here.)

Every Road Trips release will come with a beautifully designed booklet containing an essay about how the music on the discs fits into the Dead’s long history, plus many rare and never-before-seen photographs. We think you’ll agree it’s a pretty cool package. But wait, there’s more (as they say)! When each “edition” of Road Trips is announced on this site, we will also give you a link to an affiliated site devoted to the series which will include such goodies as articles and reviews from the tour (See one reviewer after another mess up Grateful Dead song titles! See the band savaged by cretinous critics!); additional photos; and any other weird/cool stuff we come across. Together we can paint a really rich and vibrant audio-visual picture of different stops along the Grateful Dead highway!

And this is just the BEGINNING of what we promise will be a tidal wave of releases, which will include more rarities from the deepest corners of the vault, multitrack releases, box sets (the patient will be rewarded; nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more), DVDs, downloads and who-knows-what-else. So keep your Third Eye tuned into this space for more in the coming weeks and months!

In the meantime, you can order Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 1 right here. But act now if you want to get the Bonus Disc!

--Blair Jackson

A Few AFAQ’s (Anticipated Frequently Asked Questions) About Road Trips

Sounds pretty interesting, but what took you guys so frickin’ long? We thought you’d forgotten us.
Naw, we never forgot you. It’s just taken a little longer than expected to get the ball rolling again and to figure out how to move forward in a way that will satisfy and hopefully also expand the fan base. As a certain sage known to all of us once wrote: “It takes time to pick a place to go…”

Is Dicks Picks over, done, kaput?
Yes, that series of releases ended with Volume 36. It will continue to be available, however. Road Trips will have a little more flexibility than Dicks Picks, in that we are not limited to full-show releases, or even 2-track tapes…or anything for that matter—we haven’t made any rules about what IT is. I guarantee we’ll surprise you from time to time.

But we want to hear full shows, too!
Don’t worry, there will definitely still be full-show releases. We’ll have more on that soon.

OK, I guess it might be pretty cool. I’ll check it out. In fact I’ve got a ton of ideas of shows and tours you guys should be releasing…
Well, let’s hear it. Of course we want your well-reasoned insights and input! The Dead have always looked to Dead Heads for inspiration and ideas, and you’re needed now more than ever!

New Global Drum Project Available October 2nd

ccasal — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:08:34 -0700

Mickey Hart's three decades as the innovative percussion engine of the Grateful Dead, earned him Rock & Roll Hall of Fame status and worldwide notoriety. Years of constant touring also afforded him a platform for introducing his lifelong interest in multicultural sounds (rooted in childhood exposure to his mother's collection of early Folkways ethnographic recordings) to the American public; he presented on the Dead's performance stage such diverse artists as the great Yoruban drum legend Babatunde Olatunji, Brazil's multi-talented Airto Moreira, Sudanese oud master Hamza El Din, and Nigerian talking drum ace Sikiru Adepoju.

Photo by: John Werner

Hart's longtime friend and collaborator Zakir Hussain is one of the world's giants of Indian classical music, a virtuoso percussionist globally acknowledged as the master of his art. Son of the fabled Ustad Allah Rakha, he made his debut with Ravi Shankar in 1970, and has recorded with George Harrison, Tito Puente, Van Morrison, Pharoah Saunders and many more - and co-founded fusion supergroup Shakti with guitarist John McLaughlin. His prolific career is studded with awards and honors, including being the youngest musician ever to be awarded the title of Padma Shri by the government of India.

The groundbreaking 1991 Planet Drum united Hart, Hussain, Olatunji, Adepoju, Moreira, Puerto Rican master conguero Giovanni Hidalgo and others in a sparkling fusion of global percussion, winning the first-ever Grammy for World Music - and soaring to #1 on Billboard's world music chart, where it stayed for an unprecedented 26 weeks.

Photo by: John Werner

Global Drum Project once again finds the all-stars collaborating, in a collection of tranced-out, mesmerizing grooves and elegant electronic programming. Performers include Planet Drum alumni Giovanni Hidalgo on Latin percussion and Sikiru Adepoju on talking drum, as well as Taufiq Qureshi on percussion and vocals, Niladari Kumar on sitar, Dilshad Khan on sarangi. The late Babatunde Olatunji is heard as well, in sampled “guest” vocals.

Photo by: John Werner

Coinciding with this release, previously unavailable digital reissues of essential Mickey Hart back-catalog -- Diga Rhythm Band, At The Edge, Planet Drum, Mystery Box, and Supralingua -- will become available via the iTunes Music Store, with physical re-issues planned for 2008.

Click here to purchase the new Global Drum Project CD in the Dead.net
Store.

Listen to "Easy Wind" from Three From The Vault

ccasal — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:35:43 -0700

Choose a Player:

Join us as we stream Easy Wind

Finally, the long lost final chapter in the Grateful Dead's legendary From The Vault series has arrived. THREE FROM THE VAULT features more than 2 hours of previously unreleased Grateful Dead music from a fondly remembered 1971 Port Chester show. THREE FROM THE VAULT contains 2 CDs of pristine HDCD sound mastered from the original multi-track tapes. The deluxe packaging includes vintage photos and insightful liner notes by Glenn Lambert.

Representing the pinnacle of the band's renowned archive of 2,400 live show recordings, the groundbreaking From The Vault series' rare multi-track recordings thrilled hardcore fans and novices alike before stalling in 1992 after only two volumes. That the Dead would wait another 15 years before putting out the series' third installment should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the band's longstanding policy of gleefully monkey-wrenching the space-time-continuum whenever and wherever possible.

Finally…Three From the Vault! - 2/19/71, Capitol Theater, Port Chester NY

Analise Dubner — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:03:09 -0700

:: Click HERE for more details

Disc One:
Two Ditties
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
Spring Song
Truckin’
Loser Cumberland Blues
It Hurts Me Too
Bertha
Playing in the Band
Dark Hollow
Smokestack Lightning
China Cat Sunflower
> I Know You Rider

Disc Two:
Greatest Story Ever Told
Johnny B. Goode
Bird Song
Easy Wind
Deal
That's It For The Other One
>Cryptical Envelopment
>Drums >The Other One
Wharf Rat
Good Lovin'
Casey Jones

We know what you’re thinking: What took ’em so long? After all, Two from the Vault, the second of the Dead’s archival releases from multitrack master tapes, came out 15 years ago. And of course, there has been a plethora of releases of multitrack material since, spanning much of the band’s career. So what gives? Well, way back in ’92-’93, Dead soundman Dan Healy, who had picked and mixed the first two choices in the Vault series (from August ’75 and August ’68, respectively), chose the 2/19/71 concert from Port Chester’s wonderful Capitol Theatre, as the third entry in the series. He had it mixed and ready to go, but then for various reasons — many now lost to the mists of time — it never came out. Bummer.

The good news, though, is that now this show can be enjoyed in all its glory. Perhaps you’ve heard one of the soundboard versions that have been floating around the taping world for many moons. But I guarantee you’ve never heard it like this.

Three from the Vault comes from an intriguing time in the Grateful Dead’s history. Though still riding high from their first serious commercial successes the previous year (Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty), the Dead were not ones to rest on their laurels. Indeed, the waterfall of new songs just kept on coming—at the Capitol that February they introduced seven new tunes, all of them strong enough that they became cherished cornerstones of the Dead’s repertoire—and all are represented here. The night before this show (2/18/71) saw the first versions of “Bertha,” “Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Loser,” “Playing in the Band” and “Wharf Rat.” This 2/19 show boasted the first “Bird Song” and “Deal.” Giving birth is rarely easy, and there are definitely a few rough edges here and there in these newly minted gems—“Greatest Story” didn’t have its chorus yet, and “Playing in the Band” hadn’t arrived at its magical symmetry—but you can still hear the thrill of raw discovery in these tracks as the musicians explore and enjoy their musical progeny.

This show also marked the beginning of a five-year period when Bill Kreutzmann was the sole drummer in the band. If he was at all apprehensive about this change, you’d never know it by listening to his fluid and nimble work here; it’s quite amazing, actually. But all the players are on top of their games, as they tear through a great selection of songs, from still-new tunes like “Truckin’,” “Cumberland Blues,” “Casey Jones” and “Easy Wind,” to older numbers, such as “China Cat Sunflower” and the dynamic take of “That’s It for the Other One.” But what struck me most, hearing this show anew with Healy’s sparkling mix, is that Pigpen is really in top form: On the deep blues of “It Hurts Me Too”; a magnificent, serpentine version of “Smokestack Lightning” (which also features some ultra-slinky slide from Mr. Garcia); the chugging proto-funk of “Easy Wind”; and the jammed-out rockin’ crowd-pleaser that closes the second set, “Good Lovin’.” Three From the Vault was originally set to come out in the spring of 1993, sometime around the 20th anniversary of Pigpen’s death. Nearly 15 years later it still stands as a fine tribute to him, and as a document of this band beyond description in a time of triumph and transition.

The 2-CD package also contains a lively historical essay by Gary Lambert, notes from mastering engineer Joe Gastwirt and a number of rare photos.
—BJ

Release Info

Road Trips Vol. 1 Number 3

More Lost and Found From the Hot, Hot Summer of’71 on this Two-Disc Set!

Archives

Grateful Dead - Yale Bowl
Press Clip - Variety

Shows

New Haven, CT - 7/31/71
Chicago, IL - 8/23/71
Hollywood, CA - 8/6/71
San Pedro, CA - 8/4/71

Listening Party!

More Road Trips

The Wait Is Over… The Winterland 1973 Box Has Arrived!

$99.99 :: ORDER NOW!

The Shows

In The Archives

Watch The Trailer

Your Photos

Come Join Us For Road Trips!

More Details

Archives

Browse Vol 1, No 1 Archives

Shows

New Haven, CT - 10/25/79
Uniondale, NY - 10/31/79
Philadelphia, PA - 11/6/79
Landover,MD - 11/8/79
Buffalo, NY - 11/9/79
Ann Arbor, MI - 11/10/79

A Few AFAQ’s (Anticipated Frequently Asked Questions) About Road Trips

New Global Drum Project Available October 2nd

Listen to "Easy Wind" from Three From The Vault

Finally…Three From the Vault! - 2/19/71, Capitol Theater, Port Chester NY

Release Info

Road Trips Vol. 1 Number 3

More Lost and Found From the Hot, Hot Summer of’71 on this Two-Disc Set!

Archives

Grateful Dead - Yale Bowl Press Clip - Variety

Shows

New Haven, CT - 7/31/71Chicago, IL - 8/23/71Hollywood, CA - 8/6/71San Pedro, CA - 8/4/71

Listening Party!

More Road Trips

The Wait Is Over… The Winterland 1973 Box Has Arrived!

$99.99 :: ORDER NOW!

The Shows

In The Archives

Watch The Trailer

Your Photos

Come Join Us For Road Trips!

More Details

Archives

Browse Vol 1, No 1 Archives

Shows

New Haven, CT - 10/25/79Uniondale, NY - 10/31/79Philadelphia, PA - 11/6/79Landover,MD - 11/8/79Buffalo, NY - 11/9/79Ann Arbor, MI - 11/10/79

A Few AFAQ’s (Anticipated Frequently Asked Questions) About Road Trips

New Global Drum Project Available October 2nd

Listen to "Easy Wind" from Three From The Vault

Finally…Three From the Vault! - 2/19/71, Capitol Theater, Port Chester NY

Grateful Dead - Yale Bowl
Press Clip - Variety

New Haven, CT - 7/31/71
Chicago, IL - 8/23/71
Hollywood, CA - 8/6/71
San Pedro, CA - 8/4/71

New Haven, CT - 10/25/79
Uniondale, NY - 10/31/79
Philadelphia, PA - 11/6/79
Landover,MD - 11/8/79
Buffalo, NY - 11/9/79
Ann Arbor, MI - 11/10/79