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The Grateful Dead's country turn album. After the psychedelic and acid detour that produced masterpieces like "Anthem of the Sun" and "Live/Dead," the Dead arrived at a more mellow album, although beneath the country surface, hints of the previous sound can still be felt. More than a turn, it could be considered a return since, especially Garcia, came from that kind of music. First among them, Dylan with "Nashville Skyline" and the Byrds with Parson had produced excellent country rock albums, and even earlier, we have the founding fathers "Buffalo Springfield." But this Grateful Dead album stands out, in my opinion, for the exquisite execution of the tracks.
There are two classics of their live performances, namely "Uncle John's Band," which opens the album, setting the tone for the entire record. Acoustic guitars, gentle voices, and a conclusion that references Jefferson Airplane as if to maintain a connection with the other great Frisco group. The other classic closes the album and is the legendary "Casey Jones" with Garcia's lead guitar ready to paint an underbrush of dark atmospheres on music that is instead sunny and cheerful. In the middle, we find plenty of country as in the track "Dire Wolf" with the featured slide guitar throughout. In this track, Pigpen is kept more restrained, his voice and monstrous organ are heard in the album's only psychedelic track, namely "Easy Wind." Absolutely relaxed atmospheres instead in "High Time," a song that, listened to attentively, takes us to a state of unique relaxation; it is precisely in this track that you can subtly feel the usual Dead, capable of bringing us to a state of acoustic trance. The same goes for "Black Peter," where Pigpen's organ peeks through at an unexpected moment.
If we want to find a flaw on this album, perhaps it's in the fact that it's a little too short. They would later produce "American Beauty," certainly more accomplished but less spontaneous and that winks a little too much at a clever sound.
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