Grateful Dead

The first two Dead albums were pretty bizarre affairs. Warner Brothers were losing bucks and told the boys that they needed to do something that was a bit more coherent. They responded with two acoustic country, rootsy albums in one year "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty", both recorded and released in 1970.

This project on "American Beauty" was both a remix and a re-master ,a joint effort of both the Dead and Rhino Records. This recording never sounded better, you hear percussive sounds not present before and the whole ambiance is so warm and analog. Their vocals never sounded better, great three part harmonies on some great material. A clear departure for a year anyway from the bizarre sounds, feedback and cosmic jamming, in fact there is not one Garcia lead guitar solo on the whole record.

The artwork on this cardboard cover CD is plain beautiful ,duplicating the original album cover. Even the CD has the original green Warner Brothers design from the album. There are six bonus tracks to boot and even a hidden track (you get your money's worth).

The original album was ten great tracks, some which would turn into some of their best electric live material for the rest of their career, like "Sugar Magnolia" and "Truckin"(3 versions of Truckin', album track, single track and a live track) David Nelson plays the only electric lead guitar break on "Box Of Rain" which Lesh sings the Lead and plays acoustic guitar while Dave Torbert (another member of The New Riders Of The Purple Sage, plays bass.) This great acoustic beauty starts out the album. Garcia does a couple of pedal steel solos on the album, but the vocals and the songs are the focus of the record. Jerry did overdub some electric guitar after the album was recorded.

A slow acoustic ballad "Attics of My Life" has probably the the most incredible harmonies the Dead ever did. One familiar thread thru this record is Lesh's unmistakable bass tones and creative bass work. Interesting notes in the credits have both Garcia and Lesh playing piano on the record.

Robert Hunter was on a roll in 1970 with lyrics providing the Dead with some incredible material to work with. "Ripple" is an especially beautiful acoustic number with some very poetic lyrics. David Grisman plays some stunning mandolin.

A song this reviewer loves is "Brokedown Palace", a slow paced ballad with some more riveting harmonies. I wore out an LP of this record many, many years ago, so I am very familiar with every note, this remix and remaster is remarkable, so warm, the vocals so clear, nobody does it better than Rhino.

Besides the ten original tracks, there are six bonus tracks, one (single version of Truckin'- shorter, more electric guitar), a hidden track which is another studio version of Ripple which is shorter and the guitars are more out front in the mix ,also sounds a bit more compressed.

There are five live tracks from different venues (all from 1970),all songs from American Beauty. Imagine Dick's Picks quality, mastered by Rhino, they sound good, some acoustic and some electric.

I'll pick this as the Dead's best studio effort. They simply sounded better on their live recordings which including Dick's Picks is quite a lot.

Go visit the Dead at: www.dead.net