Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 3 – Wall of Sound

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There’s been a palpable flow to a couple of the Grateful Dead Road Trips releases, but nothing so tangible as that which distinguishes the latest issue from the summer tour with the legendary “Wall of Sound.” It’s no illusion each CD of the triple set segues to the next on the way to a rousing finish.

Produced by David Lemieux and Blair Jackson from two June stops of the summer 1974 tour, Vol. 2 No. 3 sounds like one gigantic performance evolving over three sets. When played in sequence, the music follows the progression of the best Dead concerts because it evolves almost imperceptibly from structured playing into increasingly expansive improvisations.

The quick stops and starts around the fluid portions of "Eyes of the World" on disc one begins this process, but the group–at this point an instrumental quintet with single drummer Bill Kreutzmann plus Donna Jean Godchaux sweetening the vocal mix–truly breaks free when embarking upon “Playing in the Band."

"Eyes of the World" reappears on disc two (though in a markedly different form due to the prominence of acoustic piano) almost as if to purposely recall the spirit of that earlier moment as the Grateful Dead embark upon Bob Weir’s “Weather Report Suite:” here an exercise in collective ingenuity leads almost inevitably into one of the Dead’s earliest original vehicles of its kind, "The Other One," as well as some elaboration on the rarely played "It’s a Sin."

An unusually long version of "Morning Dew" at the beginning of the bonus disc introduces a clutch of Dead standards including "Truckin’," "Wharf Rat" and “Sugar Magnolia,” almost directly in the middle of which is a pure improvisation that creates a seamless unity for this entire Road Trips package.

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