It’s been a few years since I wrapped up the original Dead for a Year project. Most of my online Grateful Dead life revolves around the Steve Hoffman audio forum. There are a few Dead threads there that are not only some of the most amicable places on the internet, but also frequented by some of the most thoughtful and insightful analysis of Grateful Dead music you could want.
Recently, a group of folks from the forum conceived of project that would focus on long form content analyzing Grateful Dead music one show at a time. The Grateful Dead Guide blog is another influence in this regard.
I volunteered my site as a venue to host this content, at least initially because the infrastructure is already in place.
So, from now on there will be occasional long form posts about a wide range of topics surrounding Grateful Dead music. I encourage anyone who reads these posts to engage with the authors in the comments (please be respectful, as anything deemed inappropriate will be deleted) and contribute in the same thoughtful spirit that inspired this work in the first place. There’s no need to get into a cyber pissing match about Brent, or Donna, or Vince, or anyone that may be irksome at any given point. These are subjective opinions and no one is right or wrong so there’s no need to go on the defensive (or the offensive as the case may be).
There’s no set or planned cadence for this content. And the organization of this content may change over time. I don’t want to disturb the original content of this site, so I will work around that as necessary and as my limited web admin skills allow.
In short, this is a work in progress. We’ll see how it goes. I’m thrilled to have such analytical and insightful contributors and I hope that whatever gets produced and published here will not only be enlightening, but enjoyable for Deadheads of all kinds. If you’ve come here from the Steve Hoffman forum, you will no doubt recognize most of the cast of characters here. I’m thrilled to give them a platform to do what they do so well.
And, as always, if you get confused just listen to the music play.
