Phil & Friends [Grateful Dead] - Unplugged '94

To ring in the New Year for the next three weeks I'll be posting nothing but acoustic Dead. This is leading up to something special I've been working on for a while now that I'm really excited about.

My favorite part of the Dead is when they just get down to it and play songs. I love the jamming if I'm in the right mood but the songs will always lift me up when I'm feeling a bit low. And in an acoustic setting we get more songs than jamming. I'm also a big fan of acoustic music in general so acoustic Dead seems to be a natural fit for me.

On September 24th, 1994 the Dead played an acoustic set at Berkeley Community Theatre. Billed as a Phil & Friends show, it featured everyone except the drummers. The setlist was a nice mix of old and new songs. As a prelude to a future Dead post that is just about ready I thought I would share this.

Acoustic sets were rare occurrences for the band outside of 1970 and 1980. The latter giving us the wonderful Reckoning album. I'm working on 1970. There was also a 1978 set that I will be posting next week. I've seen some nice alternate Reckoning comps out there. I encourage you to seek those out if you're into this but I don't see them as essential, just more of a good thing.

Tracklist

01 Tuning & Bob Weir intro
02 Walking Blues
03 Lazy River Road
04 K.C. Moan
05 Dupree's Diamond Blues
06 Childhood's End
07 When I Paint My Masterpiece
08 Attics Of My Life
09 Cassidy>
10 Bird Song>
11 Throwing Stones

Reality Notes

A nice, tight, one hour set that is a treat to listen to. It's nice to hear Vince just playing piano with no midi stuff in sight. Everyone is in fine form. Some songs to note; Lazy River Road and Childhood's End are songs that were considered for the final album that never happened. For those that have/are constructing that album I recommend this Childhood's End as the version to use. Phil's voice is a bit more relaxed which makes him easier to listen to. Cassidy>Bird Song is just wonderful. And a beautiful version of Masterpiece as well. The whole set is just a great listen. If you like acoustic Dead then you need this.

As always with live shows I trimmed the between song tuning and chatter to help the overall flow. I'm visualizing this as a gray market CD rather than trying to pass it off as an official release. That gives me some wiggle room on overall quality and editing.

I threw the cover together featuring a pic from the event. There was a better, clearer version but it was cropped at the top so wouldn't fill the cover like I liked. I think it completes the gray market feel I was going for. Enjoy!