grateful dead remasters

The remasters sound great! These are the remasters originally released in The Golden Road boxed set, now available individually for the first time. Fantastic HDCD sound, lots of bonus tracks, excellent liner notes.

Steppin' Out is astonishingly good. It's from the same tour as Europe '72 and includes some amazing jams. There are a bunch of songs that wouldn't have been included on Europe 72 because they'd been on Live Dead or Skull and Roses, but these versions are all-timers. There's also some great Pigpen stuff. My favorite track is a ripping version of "Sitting On Top Of The World" with a Garcia solo for the ages. Sound quality is superb. It's one of the best Grateful Dead releases *ever*.

Chazzbo, Dick's Picks is for two-track masters. The Arista releases are all multi-track masters.

Bundy, the "from the Vault" series *has* continued...they just don't call them that any more. "Steppin' Out", "Ladies and Gentlemen...", "Nightfall of Diamonds", "Hundred Year Hall" are all multi-tracks that fall under the "from the Vault" criteria.

Greh, the first batch of Rhino remaster releases came out on Tuesday of this week.

The remasters are on Rhino because the remastered albums were originally released by Warner Brothers, which owns Rhino. Nothing to do with the Arista contract. Rhino, however, *is* rumored to be negotiating with the Dead for rights to the Vault.

The co-producers of So Many Roads were Steve Silberman, David Gans and Blair Jackson. They're the ones who picked the tracks. It's an excellent set.

And, yes, "How Sweet It Is" is a marvellous release. The "Tears of Rage" is just gorgeous.