Happy Birthday to the late Keith Godchaux who was born on 7/19/48 and would have been 75 today. At a Grateful Dead show in San Francisco in 1971, Godchaux and his wife, Donna Godchaux, introduced themselves to Jerry Garcia, as the Dead were on the lookout for a new keyboardist, as Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, was struggling with his health. Soon after Godchaux was touring with the Dead and his time there was certainly a golden era. Godchaux brought a unique acoustic piano-based sound that served as a harmonic counterpoint in many of the improvisational adventures the band took during his tenure from 1971-1979, a majority of which was spent with Donna on vocals. Suffering from his own substance troubles Godchaux decided to leave the band in 1979 and he died a year later in a car accident, at the age of 32. Watch the Grateful Dead perform at the Closing of the Winterland on 12/31/78
