Come Join Us For Road Trips!
by Blair Jackson
http://www.dead.net/features/release-info/come-join-us-road-trips
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!
Heres 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 – now sold out) 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 sold out 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!
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REVIEW
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ajftxzqhldke
Road Trips follows in the wake of the defunct 36-volume Dick’s Picks series. One primary difference is that Road Trips anthologizes highlights from a tour — rather than narrowing it down to specific concerts. This debut installment contains just over two-and-a-half hours from the newly reconfigured lineup with Brent Mydland (keyboards/vocals) — who had replaced the husband-and-wife team of Keith Godchaux (keyboards/vocals) and Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals). Otherwise the usual suspects — Jerry Garcia (lead guitar/vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar/vocals), Phil Lesh (bass/vocals), Bill Kreutzmann (drums/percussion), and Mickey Hart (drums/percussion) — are here. While not overtly designed to replicate a typical evening, the 16 selections — spanning shows from the combo’s late October and early November 1979 East Coast run — accurately provide the contents of average Grateful Deadsets during the era. The primary caveat to that statement being the absence of lengthy drums or free-form space excursions that would occur during the latter half of a concert. Compilers were afforded the luxury of choosing the best executed performances but some enthusiasts may find that destroys the organic ebb and flow that made each and every time that the Grateful Dead interacted a unique event. Conversely, common entries including “Jack Straw” or “Bertha” are undeniably fresh. On the former, Weir lyrically ad-libs the line “…now we play for Clive” in reference to Clive Davis, owner of their current label Arista Records. The reading is particularly inspired as the rhythm section places the emphasis between each of the lines during the verses. The simple, but effective modification breathes new life into the songbook standard. The fiery “Passenger” benefits from the absence of Donna Jean Godchaux’s questionable vocal intonations. There is also a long and wonderfully boogie-fied revival of “Dancin’ in the Streets” — a Motown cover which the combo had first done as the house band for the Acid Tests. Skipping nary a beat they land right into a fun and funky take of “Franklin’s Tower” with Mydland’s synthesizer sounding like a deranged clavinet. One zenith among all the highlights is the nearly 40-minute medley connecting the opening two movements of the “Terrapin Station” suite with a psychedelic excursion of “Playing in the Band” that hearkens back to the mind-blowing mid-’70s sonic meltdowns. From Shakedown Street (1978) comes the quarter-hour tail-shakin’ title track. Plus, “Good Lovin'” — another resurfacing oldie deeply rooted in the Grateful Dead’s expansive repertoire — concludes a lengthy expedition from “Wharf Rat” into the Weirrocker “I Need a Miracle,” which is fused to an exceptionally hard-driving rendition of “Bertha.” Early editions also included a full-length Road Trips: Vol. 1, Number 1: Fall 1979(2007) whose nine-song tune stack arguably equals that of the feature presentation.
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Artist: The Grateful Dead
Album: Road Trips: Vol. 1, Number 1: Fall 1979 (Bonus CD)
Release Date: Oct 31, 2007
Label: Grateful Dead Productions
Type: Compilation, Live
Styles: Jam Bands, Country-Rock, Album Rock
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Tracks Disc 1
1. Alabama Getaway (11/10/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 5:31
2. Promised Land (11/10/79) (Berry) 4:44
3. Jack Straw (11/6/79) (Weir, Hunter) 6:47
4. Deal (11/6/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 6:48
5. Dancing In The Street (11/9/79) (Stevenson, Gaye, Hunter) 13:10
6. Franklin’s Tower (11/9/79) (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Hunter) 12:04
7. Wharf Rat (11/9/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 11:15
8. I Need A Miracle (11/9/79) (Weir, Barlow) 4:04
9. Bertha (11/9/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 5:52
10. Good Lovin’ (11/9/79) (Resnick, Clark) 7:08
Tracks Disc 2
1. Shakedown Street (10/25/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 15:32
2. Passenger (11/10/79) (Lesh, Monk) 6:04
3. Terrapin Station (11/6/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 15:25
4. Playing In The Band (11/6/79) (Weir, Hart, Hunter) 22:17
5. Not Fade Away (11/8/79) (Petty, Hardin) 9:27
6. Morning Dew (11/8/79) (Dobson, Rose) 10:13
Tracks Bonus Disc
1. China Cat Sunflower (10/31/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 7:29
2. I Know You Rider (10/31/79) (Traditional) 8:07
3. Lost Sailor (11/8/79) (Weir, Barlow) 6:30
4. Saint of Circumstance (11/8/79) (Weir, Barlow) 5:41
5. Jam (11/8/79) (Grateful Dead) 7:20
6. Althea (10/31/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 9:42
7. Estimated Prophet (11/9/79) (Weir, Barlow) 13:16
8. He’s Gone (11/9/79) (Garcia, Hunter) 10:35
9. Jam (11/9/79) (Grateful Dead) 8:41
10/25/1979, New Haven Coliseum – New Haven CT
10/31/1979, Nassau Coliseum – Uniondale, NY
11/6/1979, The Spectrum – Philidelphia PA
11/8/1979, Capital Center – Landover MD
11/9/1979, Memorial Auditorium – Buffalo NY
11/10/1979, Crisler Arena – Ann Arbor MI
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D1
D2
D3
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www.velhorockeiro.blogspot.com
07:59 6/3/2009