liked the most almost have a gospel quality, which I think i might hear on this cut. I know from some of the programming on the SiriusXM Grateful Dead channel that their influences are complicated and many--from bluegrass and "Appalachian music" (not exactly sure what that means) to blues. I even think I've heard a ragtime like flavor in some of it. Two cuts I just heard this week for the first time are "Passenger" and "There's a Fire in the City Tonight" (which the band did backup music for). These two had that gospel quality too, with a lot of backup singing and much more polished than most of the GD stuff I'm familiar with. It's just an incredibly broad, rich repertoire.

It's really bad news to get interested in a band so prolific because there are so many CDs it's almost overwhelming. But it's fun too, to have so much to explore!

Earthy, but Jerry and Bob were backing Pigpen and he was leading the show. When he died, the Band morphed again,