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    Road Trips Volume 3 Number 1

    Oakland, 12/28/79

    The latest installment in our Road Trips series, now entering its third big year (and ninth release overall) is bound to become a favorite. Road Trips Vol. 3, No. 1 is the complete show from December 28, 1979, part of the sparkling run that has already given us the excellent Dick’s Picks: Vol. 5 (from 12/26/79). You’ll recall that these year-end concerts, held at the Oakland Auditorium because Winterland had closed down for good the previous New Year’s Eve, were the first holiday shows featuring new keyboardist Brent Mydland, who joined the band in April 1979.

    The new lineup had been gaining momentum with each passing tour since that spring, and by December was truly hitting its stride. It helped, too, that the band was in the midst of recording their Go To Heaven album, so they were really playing together a lot during this period. This 12/28/79 concert is a blast: a super high-energy rock and roll show that also has its share of spacey jams and exploratory passages. The first set includes standout versions of “Sugaree,” “High Time” (rare enough that it always felt like a treat!) and “The Music Never Stopped,” while the second set opens with the always potent pair of “Alabama Getaway” > “Greatest Story Ever Told,” turns deep and introspective with “Playing in the Band” and “Terrapin,” and then later turns into a non-stop party with “Uncle John’s Band,” “I Need A Miracle,” “Bertha” and Good Lovin’.” If you’re not wiped out after that, the double-encore will waste you—“Casey Jones” and “Saturday Night”!

    The sound on both discs is spectacular (it’s hard to beat great reels as source tapes), and as always the CDs have been mastered to the exacting HDCD spec, because you would accept nothing less. The colorful accompanying booklet contains a number of excellent Jay Blakesberg photos from those Oakland Aud. shows, as well as a typically inspiring essay by the always poetic Dead scribe Steve Silberman.

    So it’s a win-win. A slam-dunk. A no-brainer. For more info on all the goodness packed onto these discs, click here. And when you finally come to your senses and decide that you can longer live another day without Road Trips Vol. 3, No. 1, you can order it here.

    —Blair Jackson

    Track List

    CD 1: Oakland Auditorium Arena, December 28, 1979

    1. SUGAREE
    2. MAMA TRIED>
    3. MEXICALI BLUES
    4. ROW JIMMY
    5. IT’S ALL OVER NOW
    6. HIGH TIME
    7. THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED
    SET 2:
    8. ALABAMA GETAWAY>
    9. GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

    CD 2: Oakland Auditorium Arena, December 28, 1979

    1. TERRAPIN STATION>
    2. PLAYING IN THE BAND>
    3. RHYTHM DEVILS>
    4. SPACE>
    5. UNCLE JOHN’S BAND>
    6. I NEED A MIRACLE>
    7. BERTHA>
    8. GOOD LOVIN’
    9. CASEY JONES
    10. ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT



    15687

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  • Dead Ahead
    15 years 1 month ago
    Mato, thanks for clarifying.
    Mato, thanks for clarifying. I admit I got carried away in my post. But I do see a trend in the music market place toward inferior music formats which is a threat to the new high-def music formats. Just look at DVD-a and SACD discs disappearing. Did anyone buy the DVDa version of American Beauty and play it on a system capable of reproducing this uncompressed, truly multi-channel sound? The music is stunning. Well, you're not likely to see anymore releases like that, which is a shame. Unless HDCD is supported in the market place, it too could disappear. I say keep them coming! Again, I apologize for my previous post. I shouldn't rail against my friends, the Dead Freaks, when it is the general market-place trend described above that I lament. Peace, Jay
  • mato1949
    15 years 1 month ago
    BTW
    BTW - I ordered RT 3.1 and Jerry Peace ;-) "When I die bury me deep, put two speakers at my feet, pair of ear phones on my head, and always play The Grateful Dead."
  • mato1949
    15 years 1 month ago
    Official vs Taper releases
    Dead Ahead said: blah blah blah blah. Dude, ease up. I greatly appreciate the hard work the wizards working with original material from the vault do and the great results they produce rendering these shows into HDCD. Twenty bucks for this show or any other is a great value. Listening to all my other official released shows, Dick's 1 to 36, the three Vaults, the four View from the Vaults, full shows, box sets, the eight Road Trips so far, and other material on my home Phillips system with HDCD is a real treat. So are all the quality low gen Soundboards, Matrixes, and good quality audience recordings. All my music is on CD, either purchased or burned. I only download in flac or shn which are lossless formats so I don't suffer from the degraded mp3 problem. Nero lets me burn straight from flac or shn to disk. I also back up my music to digital in wav format, just in case something happens to the original disks. I have a dozen hard drives loaded with wav files labled and stored away. Currently backing up to 500 gig externals and my next drive will be a 1.0 or 2.0 TB drive. A great soundcard on my computer wired into my stereo lets me play anything in my collection from my computer. But I don't just sit at home listening to music. I do have an iPod that lets me take my collection anywhere. I'm 85% full on an iPod 160 gig classic and can pull up everything in my collection to play through my car audio or the noise cancelling headphones I use. My beef has never been with the music, the band, or the releases. I'm pissed at Rhino for taking a perfectly good method of releasing and distributing music, and fixing it until it broke. Options we use to have are gone, the transition from friendly customer service via US mail to this electronic mega media outlet has taken most of the spirit out of Greatful Dead Merchandising. I miss waiting for the old newsletter coming in the mail with news of the latest release and the little order form to mail back. But I also miss my slim waistline, color in my grey hair, knees that don't hurt, and that chick in the back of that 67 VW bus. Peace my friend ;-) "When I die bury me deep, put two speakers at my feet, pair of ear phones on my head, and always play The Grateful Dead." - On the Bus since December 29, 1968
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Submitted by frogstorm on

Oakland, 12/28/79

The latest installment in our Road Trips series, now entering its third big year (and ninth release overall) is bound to become a favorite. Road Trips Vol. 3, No. 1 is the complete show from December 28, 1979, part of the sparkling run that has already given us the excellent Dick’s Picks: Vol. 5 (from 12/26/79). You’ll recall that these year-end concerts, held at the Oakland Auditorium because Winterland had closed down for good the previous New Year’s Eve, were the first holiday shows featuring new keyboardist Brent Mydland, who joined the band in April 1979.

The new lineup had been gaining momentum with each passing tour since that spring, and by December was truly hitting its stride. It helped, too, that the band was in the midst of recording their Go To Heaven album, so they were really playing together a lot during this period. This 12/28/79 concert is a blast: a super high-energy rock and roll show that also has its share of spacey jams and exploratory passages. The first set includes standout versions of “Sugaree,” “High Time” (rare enough that it always felt like a treat!) and “The Music Never Stopped,” while the second set opens with the always potent pair of “Alabama Getaway” > “Greatest Story Ever Told,” turns deep and introspective with “Playing in the Band” and “Terrapin,” and then later turns into a non-stop party with “Uncle John’s Band,” “I Need A Miracle,” “Bertha” and Good Lovin’.” If you’re not wiped out after that, the double-encore will waste you—“Casey Jones” and “Saturday Night”!

The sound on both discs is spectacular (it’s hard to beat great reels as source tapes), and as always the CDs have been mastered to the exacting HDCD spec, because you would accept nothing less. The colorful accompanying booklet contains a number of excellent Jay Blakesberg photos from those Oakland Aud. shows, as well as a typically inspiring essay by the always poetic Dead scribe Steve Silberman.

So it’s a win-win. A slam-dunk. A no-brainer. For more info on all the goodness packed onto these discs, click here. And when you finally come to your senses and decide that you can longer live another day without Road Trips Vol. 3, No. 1, you can order it here.

—Blair Jackson

Track List

CD 1: Oakland Auditorium Arena, December 28, 1979

1. SUGAREE
2. MAMA TRIED>
3. MEXICALI BLUES
4. ROW JIMMY
5. IT’S ALL OVER NOW
6. HIGH TIME
7. THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED
SET 2:
8. ALABAMA GETAWAY>
9. GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

CD 2: Oakland Auditorium Arena, December 28, 1979

1. TERRAPIN STATION>
2. PLAYING IN THE BAND>
3. RHYTHM DEVILS>
4. SPACE>
5. UNCLE JOHN’S BAND>
6. I NEED A MIRACLE>
7. BERTHA>
8. GOOD LOVIN’
9. CASEY JONES
10. ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT



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Submitted by vegafleet on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 04:18

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I too never got Road Trips 3.1, despite preordering in October and having my credit card charged in November. Multiple emails to MARYE and customer service were for nothing. When you do get thru to India on the phone, they promise to investigate and get back to me (they have never gotten back to me) and refuse to credit my credit card. I also am never buying from Dead.net again. I am trying now to get the 3 cd set from ebay. I'll pay more but at least I'll have an assurance that I'll get it. I have been defrauded and ripped off by GDP. I have been emailing and calling about this for 2 months now but I give up, life is too short. GDP should not use the bonus cd hook to sell cd's they can't ship. It only frustrates and penalizes the fans, it is a ripoff and only enriches the sellers in ebay (how did they get theirs in large quantities?) And GDP gets to keep my money! Never again.
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Submitted by vegafleet on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 04:27

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One more thing: They offer free shipping when you order sets in combo (i.e. RT3.1 and Let it Rock), and then go ahead and charge you for the shipping anyway. It seems the whole scheme of this website is now to ripoff customers. It didn't use to be like that.
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Submitted by stuman on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 05:19

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The Old Renaissance Faire Grounds from August 27, 1972. ??Nobody would be able to buy it , at least not from Dead.net !! However it would be nice to be able to vine out copy`s that already do circulate as bootlegs..
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Submitted by Captain Stormfield on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 13:09

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Time to start the wondering 'bout the next release. I see some are already doing so. I've been wrong about nearly every guess I've made since the series has started, so I guess I'll just keep my guessing to myself. Nevertheless, I AM eager for a new release... For Pure Jerry? That awesome JGB Halloween '93 show from Brendan Byrne would be sweet. One of the finest versions of Shining Star in existence. Just wishful thinking.