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What a waste of time.I mean come on, Cumberland Blues with out vocal harmonies. Grateful Dead songs can so easily be transfered to bluegrass but this is possibly the lamest example of bluegrass I've ever heard. These songs scream for bluegrass vocals, but there are none. The producer of this piece of crap should never be allowed to make another album. I know this is an overly harsh review, but SHeeessh.
The little blast of "I Know You Rider", among many others during Bird Song reminisceses of the anticipation at a show, wondering where it was leading. While niether David Grisman nor Old & In The Way, this CD should delight those who appreciate Dead tunes presented in less than familiar ways. Truckin' can't be remastered in a quasi-bluegrass steel pedal version to the satisfaction of any true deadhead, yet this version reminds us that their music is timeless and transcends definition. Dark Star done in this particular environment begs the intensity, yet conveys a similar sense of wonder. Overall, the mandolin soloing in this compilation is very interesting and will motivate those basement pickers to relisten to the original show tapes to find their place in an historic place in the evolution of roots americana.
Why they could not do the same with all of the other songs is a mystery. Flatt and Scruggs' 'Lonesome Road Blues').
It really should have been a no-brainer: take some of the more folkish GD songs (God knows there are plenty), get some top blue grass performers and let them have fun with them. As both a GD fan and a blue grass one, I was expecting so much more from this CD.
Interestingly, this is not even a GD original, but an old folk song covered by many blue grass artists (ex. Instead, what you get is a series of songs delivered in a sterile, flat, overly scripted manner with no spontaneity and no improvisation.
There is only one song on the CD that really catches the spirit of blue grass and shows what this CD could have been, and that is Going Down the Road Feeling Bad. In short, the performers go wild with it, give it the full blue grass treatment, and deliver a very, very interesting version.
This could hardly qualify as a tribute album.
I tend to agree with the one star review below, but not to that extreme. 2 yet, but I sure hope they have a singer this time. But the big drawback is the lack of vocals.
These renditions are clean, crisp cuts of tight bluegrass that don't quite achieve the bounce and spontanaiety of the originals. Friend of the Devil is a great tune, as is Scarlet Begonias, but how much flatter and less interesting they are without the wonderful words behind them. Much of the Dead canon would make fantastic bluegrass music, and it's great that someone is trying.
Much of what is irreplaceable and addictive about the Dead's music is the lyrics, not just the melody. That's understandable.bluegrass tends to be very tight, rehearsed, and laid out ahead of time. Everyone takes a little lead, and the song's over.
I haven't gotten vol. Reccomended, with this caveat in mind.
Big disappointment. What a great idea. Now I see they have a part II of this - unbelievable. What a flat, boring, soulless execution. It sounds like a bunch of couldn't-care-less paid by the hour studio guys who might have just finished laying down a track for a McDonalds commercial stepped into a studio, were given the charts, played what was written, and packed up and went home. None of the energy and joy that infuses bluegrass, nor any of the magic and beauty the is the Grateful Dead, made it on to this sorry rip-off. Save your money.
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