During Ripple, Otis (Weir's dog) wandered on stage.

The acoustic sets are pure gold as they were in 1970. But now the boys have reliable sound so we don't get any "Matthews, turn the guitars up in the monitors!!" The electric sets sometimes don't take off as they should; probably because they were trying to record for an album -- that's one way to get the band to choke up :) 5 stars for the acoustic set; 4 for the electric.

I couldn't possibly tell which one these Warfield acoustic sets I like best. A man could lose his sanity on such an endeavor. Imagine the folks selecting tracks for Reckoning.. what a job.
Everything is great hear with special mention to the gorgeous TLMD and Ripple.

I love these acoustic sets from these shows. I love the reckoning album. Great instumentation and vocals. Great sound. When ever I meet someone who doesn't really like the Grateful dead, I play them Reckoning and they love it.

First To Lay Me Down since 10-19-74 (part of the Grateful Dead Movie, and it sounds great accoustic.

This On the Road Again, first in 14 years! An accoustic China Doll, a gem, as is Ripple. This is the FIRST accoustic Cassidy, and the song is reinvented.

Check out one of the reviews of the previous night (9/25/80): more songs played for the first time in 9 or 10 years. With this string of shows, the Dead are revitalizing themselves, going forward by looking back, and by going accoustic.

You can hear this revitalization in the album Reckoning, which came from these concerts. When it released in 1981, it demonstrated a fresh new Dead sound for people who thought that the Dead had done all they could. This is old material, but is also a brand new direction.

The performances on this set are all as good as on Reckoning. Jerry is really feeling these songs in his voice and guitar, and his voice sounds as good as it ever did. Brent trades in the cheezy electric keyboard sound for a real piano, and he sounds fabulous. He also harmonizes nicely here.

Check out the Jango Jerry riffs in China Doll

Maybe my five stars are not discerning enough but all these Warfield shows sound great to me. Each night has something special. The quality of the recordings is phenomenal.

This is a pretty beautiful acoustic set, highlights are a solid and expansive China Doll and a sparkly OTRA. The sound quality is good to great. Vocal performances spot on... You can tell that Jerry really loves these old timey acoustic journeys and his tasteful licks and slick runs have a wistful fire that tugs the heart strings. I recommend this show for a monday at work (if you can listen to music that is) cos it eases, pleases, and inspires!

I still have to double check, since I haven't head my tapes in storage in quite a while; if not then it was the first day. But I was at all the weekend shows, between the 4th and about the 15th row, (4th on this day). All mediocre electric sets on the weekend
shows here, all of which I was at. The best acoustic set is definitely the 11th !