GD Blog - Manifesto ~ Who am I and Why I do this ~

I recently read a book about music and media in which the writer criticized the plethora of music blogs on the web for being more about the relationship of the blogger to the music than about the music.  I am completely and utterly guilty of this exact thing, so forgive a Deadhead for being so wrapped up in himself... I really just can't escape my Deadhead experience from all those years ago, and I do this to relive it.

I am a Southern California born and raised Deadhead (also lived in SF for a few years too) who saw his first Dead show in 1993 in Las Vegas.

I saw the Dead 17 times and JGB 4 times.  I will be posting a review of every show that I saw. I will also post my take on the many shows I hear and eras, and I think I'll review all of the songs too.

I am an avid listener of the Dead and I read all the books, I love to play the music too.  

I find myself with a different set of preferences than most when it comes to the Dead.  I prefer later ('90s) Dead much more than the 70's "golden years" and I most definitely am a Jerry fanatic much more than the other members.

...The Finest Ever Seen...

I think the Grateful Dead as a whole was the most amazing musical project I've ever witnessed because of the entire experience that sprung up around the events.  Also I am very proud of our (Northern) California history of the hippie/civil rights era that the Dead were a part of.

I want to write in this blog about the Dead in hopes of finding like minded souls who might appreciate a bit of it and also  maybe I'll meet some new cool people.

Also, in a lot of the song reviews keep in mind that I only saw a sliver of the repertoire so I'm working off of tapes (and more recently youtube videos) to get to know the songs.  A lot of the songs were probably great in the moment at the concert  but don't seem that exciting on tape (ie Bertha, Tennessee Jed). So probably, I judge a lot of the songs a little harshly without ever having seen them performed live.