Grateful Dead - blues for Allah

The 8th studio album by the Grateful Dead came out in 1975 and is rightly regarded as one of the band's best studio albums. The album tapped, perhaps more than most of their studio work, into the freeform rock/jazz/blues/add-a-few-more-genres-here creativity of the band's live shows and gave us songs like the melodious "Franklin's Tower" which is one of my all-time favourites.

Much of the album is a mysterious soundscape, as you would imagine tracks with titles like "Unusual occurances in the desert" would be! Sometimes it does get a bit tedious and self-indulgent however there is also some lovely rock songs here in the form of "The music never stopped" and the aforementioned tower.

MV : "Scarlet begonias" by The Grateful Dead

Classic track.

Live : The Grateful Dead (Santa Clara, CA 27/06/15)

Disclaimer, i wasn't there physically but i was there spiritually maaan. In other words I had to make do with the live web feed but thats the closest i will ever come to seeing the Grateful Dead live (unless i can find a bucket of cash before the final shows in Chicago early next month). Its the 50th anniversary of the forming of the band and 20 years since the death of Jerry Garcia and the final concerts of the Grateful Dead. To add a proper full stop to the story the surviving 4 members of the band and some friends have got together for 5 final shows.

Its formless and well formed, a fluid psychedelic jam of blues, funk and rock. Songs begin reasonably familiarly before heading off into sonic exploration. Like a guitar shaped Voyager probe. It all sounds amazing too and the visuals accompanying the music were also gorgeous. The only glitches being Phil Lesh's microphone seemed to be playing up but the guitars sounded fine.

Cream Puff War was the highlight if one can pick anything out like that, that dates back from the very first album. Indeed much of the first night of five's songs came from the early Dead period. Maybe this also brings the 60s to a close too? But no, the legacy lives on and will mutate and grow into many other forms. The originals are getting old now but younger generations have taken up the baton and taken it in new directions.

The Grateful Dead - built to last

Everyone says this, the 13th and final studio album by the Grateful Dead from 1989, is not very good. Well everyone except me that is, i think its one of the best records ever recorded. I have a few 1000 albums but the only one i would run back into a burning house to save is this one (though to be honest just buying it again on Amazon would be safer).

Its sublime. Relaxed West Coast rock mixing bluesy rock with synths and electronic wizardry. Sonic adventures abound on the sprawling epic "Victim or the crime" which shows more innovation in a few asymmetric chords than most bands show in an entire career. "Picasso moon" also scores highly here, at once familiar and totally alien.

Then there is the beauty of tracks like "Standing on the moon" and "Built to last", reflective and melancholic. Its pretty much perfect, the only problem was there never was a 14th album to follow it up.

Jerry Garcia - Garcia

Jerry Garcia's first solo album from 1972 was a very solo affair indeed with the great man playing most of the instrument parts himself. Its a very strong album too with a strong folk-psychedelia blues rock vibe, a number of the songs later becoming part of the Grateful Dead's repertoire.

Highlights are the superb blues-rock of "Sugaree", the skanky folk of "Deal" and the astral cowboy epic "To lay me down", steel guitar taking you into outer space. Man.

MV : "The real thing" by Phil Lesh and Friends

How to build a brilliant song.

Bill Cutler - crossing the line

It took 30 years apparently to make this solo album by songwriter/producer and member of the Grateful Dead extended family Bill Cutler, with the first tracks laid down in the 1970s (though most of the time the tracks have lain dormant). Once the album was finally finished in 2008 the results were very very fine indeed. An excellent album drawing on a rich heritage of American rock and roots and backed by musicians from the likes of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and beyond.

Highlight is the Jerry Garcia tribute "Starlight jamboree" which uses some guitar work by Garcia wrapped up in a beautiful reflective but also joyous rock track. No tracks are fillers though, the album is a distillation of the joy of Californian rock.

The Grateful Dead - workingman's dead

Recorded in 1970 at a time of great turmoil for the Dead, the band hammered out this album in quick time amid the drug busts and being ripped off. The album moved the band into country rock territory and introduced harmonies and layered vocals to the Dead repertoire. As such its a perfect 1970 album, a celebration of country, folk and Americana.

Laid back and rooty, "Uncle John's Band" starts the album off in fine style. A highlight of the album though is the bluesy "New speedway boogie", a lovely shuffle of a song. "Casey Jones" is driving that train, high on cocaine. What a great way to start a song!

Phil Lesh & Friends - there and back again

A former Grateful Dead member's solo album then, well these days with this kind of release you can expect thoughtful and intricate adult rock... and this is exactly what you get here with the Dead's bassist Phil Lesh who here works with the likes of Warren Haynes from the Allman Brothers, who wrote some of the songs on here.

"Patchwork quilt" is lovely and a highlight of the album or indeed any album, reflective and soulful and dripping with tasty guitar and keyboards. "No more do i" is complicated and bluesy, a nice song.

Another great song is "Night of 1000 stars" which is a great uptempo number with some 70s widdly guitar and atmospheric piano in the mix.

MV : "Rockingham Mill" by Bill Cutler

MV : "Starlite jamboree" by Bill Cutler

MV : "No more do I's" by Phil Lesh & Friends