August 9th happens every year

Well, yeah, it's always a sad day in a Dead Head's world, isn't it? Been thirteen years, hard to believe...

Rather than focus on that, let's just acknowledge the sadness and move on. What about the good parts?

The fun at the shows.
The friends made and experiences had.
The music itself...

And even though most of us had no personal, real-life connection to the band other than the music, how's about what we know about Jerry? The sharp, open mind. The complexities. The sense of humour. The love of music and disdain for sacred cows...

I think those attributes are summed up and reflected really well in this cover of Friend of the Devil by a band called Hot Ham & Cheese. It's true to the original but irreverent if only in its stylistic take. Jerry would have gotten a kick out of it don't you think?

Have a great weekend.

Hot Ham & Cheese - Friend of the Devil
from Revolution & Revelations

Happy Birthday, Keith

From my main blog, burningdervish.com:

"Keith Godchaux was the third keyboard player for the Grateful Dead. His tenure with the band (Oct 71 - Feb 79) coincides, at least for the first few years, with the widely-accepted peak years of the band, in terms of audience and artistic growth. Keith was a major contributor to the band's "free" approach to arena rock through 1974.

Today would have been Keith's 60th birthday, had he not died in an auto accident a little more than a year after leaving the band (...on July 23, 1980. Ten years later Keith's successor would play his own last show with the band before dying several days later...).

This compilation contains only a very few of hundreds of highlights of Keith's years with the band. Feel free to post comments about ones I missed or even better - upload me some!

Download
Burning Dervish Vol 26

The Tracks

1971: Bertha from Download Series Volume 3: 10/26/71 The Palestra, Rochester, NY

1972: The Other One from Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72

1973: Jam from Dick's Picks, Vol. 1

1974: Weirdness from The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack

1975: King Solomon's Marbles/Stronger Than Dirt (Or, Milkin' the Turkey) from One from the Vault

1976: Uncle John's Band from Live at the Cow Palace: New Years Eve 1976

1977: Truckin' from Dick's Picks, Volume 34

1978: Werewolves of London from Dick's Picks, Volume 25

1979: I Need a Miracle from 1979-02-10 - Soldier's And Sailors Memorial Hall"

Why is the Grateful Dead Amazon.com's #1 MP3 Artist Right Now?

"Because the band's album American Beauty is on sale for $1.99. Incredible that two of these album downloads cost less than one gallon of gas. John Lennon's Imagine is currently selling for about one gallon of gas."

- from Coolfer.com

Grateful Dead Mix CD

"My first real introduction to the Grateful Dead, from a Deadhead as opposed to the radio, was the songs on this compilation...Before I got heavy into collecting live shows I played this tape over and over...in my car, at parties, in my basement bedroom...The old beat up TDK tape is lost to antiquity but I still have the cover so was able to put it back together for this mix...Whether or not this is even a good beginner's guide to the band's various studio albums isn't really the point of this post...I've been in a melancholy frame of mind lately and this tape transports me to fall of 1985 - maybe not the most interesting destination to set the time machine to but there sure was some fun involved!"

- from the original post that accompanied this mix on one of my other blogs, burningdervish.com, which just so happens to be celebrating its two-year anniversary today...

Download Burning Dervish Volume Eleven

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 12 recordings for download and stream from 4 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1976 - 93...click here for the shows.

Phil Lesh & Friends - 05.16.2008 - The Warfield - SF, CA

You've heard about this by now, no? Phil Lesh and his band closing the Warfield Theater in San Francisco with a 5-night run in May 08...the first three nights of the run consisted of complete performances of the first six Grateful Dead records, in order, one per set. Wild.

Today's download is in the AAC format (not copy-protected, don't worry), with the following source info: Neumann skm 140s->Sound Devices 722->Resample-1.8+(24/192->16/44.1khz); minor glitch fixes w/ cooledit.

Phil Lesh & Friends: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty
from 05.16.2008 - The Warfield - SF, CA

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 9 recordings for download and stream from 5 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1969 - 93...click here for the shows.

New live recordings - Bill Kreutzmann, Jazz Fest, Bob Weir

From Munck Music:

"...On April 22nd, KBM Trio - the new power trio with Bill Kreutzmann (of The Grateful Dead), Oteil Burbridge (of The Allman Brothers Band) and Scott Murawski (of Max Creek) headlined the Green Apple Festival in Chicago. Later that same night the trio played a full 2 set show at Martyr's that had seasoned jam-band aficionados grinning in awe.

Luckily, we were there to capture a live multi-track recording of this event, which is now available on CDs and downloads. And - for a limited time - when you purchase the live Kreutzmann-Burbridge-Murawski Trio recording from Martyr's, we will include a FREE BONUS RECORDING of the trio's entire headliner performance at the Green Apple Fest!...And finally, as Bob Weir & RatDog are commencing their summer tour we'd like to remind you that Downloads of all 2008 RatDog shows (including the Beacon shows from New York City) as well as CDs and downloads from '03-'07 archives are all available at: RatDog Downloads.com..."

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 3 recordings for download and stream from 3 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1966 - 91...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 4 recordings for download and stream from 3 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1969 - 92...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 9 recordings for download and stream from 4 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1969 - 92...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 9 recordings for download and stream from 5 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1969 - 95...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 12 recordings for download and stream from 4 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1976 - 95...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 4 recordings for download and stream from 2 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1989 - 93...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 17 recordings for download and stream from 5 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1972 - 95...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 11 recordings for download and stream from 6 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1972 - 95...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 7 recordings for download and stream from 5 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1969 - 95...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 8 recordings for download and stream from 5 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1969 - 93...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 10 recordings for download and stream from 4 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1977 - 93...click here for the shows.

Grateful Dead Shows on This Day in History

Archive.org has 15 recordings for download and stream from 6 different shows played on this date......years covered are 1974 - 95...click here for the shows.