Honest to the Point of Recklessness

It’s hard to pick my favorite Grateful Dead song. I named my first-born after one. I’ve listened to many others hundreds of times.

But if you make me pick one, it would be Althea.

If you haven’t seen it, binge watch Long Strange Trip (on Amazon Prime). A must-watch for anyone who likes music, and anyone who wants to understand the importance of the Dead in American music.

Bonus: It’s audio only, but many people, including me, believe that the best Althea ever was this one, from 1980.

Here’s my personal Dead playlist. All live.

No Sweeping Exit

Most non-Deadheads don’t know that Jerry Garcia started off as a banjo player. This is magical.

Old & in the Way at Amazon.

Travelin’ Every Day

I’ve said for decades that the Allman Brothers is (was) the best rock and roll band ever, and that Chuck Leavell is the best keyboards player who ever lived. Here’s one of many reasons why.

The entire thing is perfect. The keyboards at 3:04 are out of this world.

Brothers and Sisters, maybe the best record ever made, at Amazon.

That Bitter Taste

Jade Jackson. Buy her excellent new record at Amazon.

This, friends, is country music. Love it.

It was the 3rd of June

Another sleepy, dusty, delta day.

“In 1967, it was a No. 1 hit for Bobbie Gentry, a singer-songwriter from Chickasaw County, Miss. For two weeks, Gentry was bigger than the Beatles, as her album bumped Sgt. Pepper off the top of the charts.”

“There’s so much power in the brilliant instrumental arrangements in the song, the string section echoing the sound of flowers fluttering down off the bridge, and the pulse of the Tallahatchie River itself.”