For a brief period of time, Grateful Dead shows featured rare acoustic sets to open the night, with a set by New Riders of the Purple Sage (and Garcia on pedal steel) in the middle, followed by a full-blown electric Dead set.
As an opener to this acoustic set, Garcia and Weir play "The Ballad of Casey Jones," the first of two times it was ever played in concert. The tune was pulled from somewhere deep down in Garcia's seemingly bottomless repertoire of vintage cover songs (and is not to be confused with the Garcia/Hunter song "Casey Jones").
Weir takes over on lead vocals for…entire summary
"Pigpen" McKernan - vocals, organ, percussion
Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
Bob Weir - guitar, vocals
Phil Lesh - bass
Bill Kreutzmann - drums
Mickey Hart - percussion
Guest: David Nelson - mandolin, vocals
Guest: John Dawson - vocals
For a brief period of time, Grateful Dead shows featured rare acoustic sets to open the night, with a set by New Riders of the Purple Sage (and Garcia on pedal steel) in the middle, followed by a full-blown electric Dead set.
As an opener to this acoustic set, Garcia and Weir play "The Ballad of Casey Jones," the first of two times it was ever played in concert. The tune was pulled from somewhere deep down in Garcia's seemingly bottomless repertoire of vintage cover songs (and is not to be confused with the Garcia/Hunter song "Casey Jones").
Weir takes over on lead vocals for "Silver Threads & Golden Needles," another rarity, before turning the mic over to Garcia for the mournful original, "Black Peter." Someone requests "Friend of the Devil," which delights Garcia, and he announces that they'll be breaking a long standing tradition by repeating the number from the early show.
A lovely acoustic version of "Uncle John's Band" comes next, followed by a "Candyman" featuring impressive guitar work and sweet ensemble playing in general.
The band are about to bring out David Nelson, when Pigpen says "Wait a minute! Don't I get to play one?" to which the audience cheers their approval. In what was an extremely rare occurrence, Pigpen straps on an acoustic guitar and mouth harp, and treats everyone to a double dose of down home blues - solo, all by himself. "She's Mine" and "Katie Mae" are both great performances that ooze authenticity. These rare instances zero in on the raw earthy factor and authentic blues elements that all but disappeared from the Grateful Dead following Pigpen's death. These are wonderfully unique glimpses of pure, undiluted Pigpen, and the Fillmore audience is more than appreciative for the gift.
At this point Dawson and Nelson, as well as the rest of the band, return to the stage. They end the acoustic set with another first, the primarily a cappella gospel number "A Voice From On High," sung with full blown four part harmony and a sweet mandolin part added by Nelson.
Captured at a uniquely inventive time in their career, acoustic Dead sets like these are hard to come by; but anyone willing to seek them out will be more than rewarded by their lyric potency and soulful expressiveness. A must for Dead fans of any generation.
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