[SYN-062]
One has to wonder how the Grateful Dead spent an entire career getting pigeonholed as psychedelic hippies when you consider the extraordinary range of musical styles they embraced. On album, as in their legendary live sets, they explored everything from modern jazz to world music, and were never shy about their love for traditional American roots music, either — blues, country, folk and, most certainly, bluegrass — a fact exemplified as much by their choice of covers down the years as by the originals featured here. As early as 1970's American Beauty you can hear mandolin virtuoso David Grisman featuring on the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter classics "Ripple" and "Friend of the Devil" (both included here). Garcia himself, meanwhile, was as accomplished on banjo and pedal steel as he was the guitar (to wit, his involvement with bluegrass offshoot band, Old And In The Way), and that familiar "picking" style can be heard throughout his lead playing with the Dead. But all this bluegrass influence should not come as a surprise to anyone. Lest we forget, before the acid kicked in this was a group that began life as the banjo-pickin', tub-thumpin' outfit Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. — Mac Randall