Grateful Dead Dave's Pick's Volume 48 ......time to put a fork in this !


I am a collector of this band's material and have been since the 70's. Fast forward about 20 years and bought all of Dick's Picks volumes and really enjoyed them all. Rhino pushed out '' Road Trips '' series which was when the Grateful Dead had Rhino distribute their live shows which were made up of partial shows and were okay at beat. I have all of those as well. Then picked up all of the box sets and there are a lot of those and some were mixed and recorded by Dan Healy which all of them sound like they were recorded under water or by a 12 year old. A lot of them were terrible sounding and he should have been sent to Siberia.

Then David Lemiux picked up the series after Dick Latvala passed and has put out 48 volumes of complete shows and most of them aren't too bad if they were recorded by Kid Candelero or especially by Better Cantor Jackson ........you can tell her stuff right off the bat or even Owsley Bear's stuff.

But the last one and a bunch before volume 48 are just bad.....it seems like they may have got to the bottom of the barrel and are just pushing these put now. I did although reluctantly sign up for the 2024 subscription but just can't help but feel that the quality in sound or the show itself was just not in the same league as others when this journey for them began doing this.

The mid year big box sets have been pretty good for the most part and maybe they should concentrate on just doing those for now. Also, the Dead and Rhino could skip all of the elaborate and sometimes just silly art work on those box sets and bring the price down on them. Some of that stuff is just unnecessary. 

So would like to hear from other's on what their thoughts are on if the Grateful Dead Dave Pick's Series has run its course .......thanks and stay well.  

     

garebear

I have every one of the annual GD box sets, and they all sound great as far as I'm concerned. Not all the performances were great (the St Louis box set was kind of a waste as far as that's concerned),

But the sound quality has been fine, except for a few occasions where the problem was the PA in the venue, and they generally got these fixed after a few songs.

I also have all the Dicks Picks on CD, but none of the Dave's Picks - I can only go for so much.... but I've lately been buying the live vinyl LP boxes...

Who has favorites?

Mine in no particular order-Dick's Picks #8 5/2/70, #14 11/20 and 12/2/73

Dave's Picks-#2 7/31/74, #34-6/23/74

Also, while not part of the series-

Cornell, 5/8/77

Ladies and Gentlemen Fillmore East from April, 1971

From the Vault 1 and 2

Europe 72 Releases-

100 Year Hall

5/26/72 Lyceum

View from the Vault 1 and 2

Not part of any of the collections we are discussing, but have a listen to the Soundtrack to the Grateful Dead Movie. The performances are brilliant, and for the audiophile crowd the recording is one of the best. 

......there is no doubt some really good recorded performances of this band and as I I had noted ; those recordings were usually done by Owsley Bear, "'Kid '' Candelero or Betty Cantor Jackson. However, my original question which has not really been addressed is; has the Dave's Pick's run its course as there has been some real duds lately and just come out with some specific box sets ( sans the big boxes and art work and etc. ) and have some really good shows or good runs on them ?