Rhino

Most Deadheads, regardless of when they came onboard, have a favorite era or specific year, and for many, 1977 is high on the list. Refreshed from a year-plus-long hiatus, and with drummer Mickey Hart now back in the band after his own extended layoff, the Grateful Dead was tight and rejuvenated. This May show from Virginia is a slow-builder, picking up steam midway through the first set with Bob Weir’s “Cassidy” and Jerry Garcia’s “Loser” and never looking back. The band interplay in the “Lazy Lightning” > “Supplication” jam that follows is where the album kicks into high gear, but it’s the second set that’s the keeper, starting with a “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire on the Mountain” combo that finds all of the musicians locked into that single-mind state that defines the GD at their best. “Estimated Prophet” and “He’s Gone” are hypnotic – Garcia’s solo on the latter closes out as warm and sweet as any he’d ever played. The set peaks with “Wharf Rat” sandwiched between two slices of “The Other One” and tapers off into “The Wheel,” then rocks out with a rare double dose of back-to-back Chuck Berry, “Around and Around” and “Johnny B. Goode.” As quintessentially delicious as the playing is in Richmond, the true highlights are Garcia and Weir’s vocal performances; both were singing with a newly discovered care for nuance that served the music supremely well. Judging by this first release in David Lemieux’s new series, Dave’s Picks will be a worthy successor to the vaunted Dick’s Picks series.