Workingman's Dead

a wonderful, folksy, mostly acoustic look into the souls of the Grateful Dead. Released in May, 1970, 6 months before American Beauty. the flow of music between these two albums is quite startling. try listening to them back to back. some of the Dead's most heartfelt, honest, raw musicis contained in these two albums. in an interview, Bob Wier told about how many of the band's members had close relatives die during the recording period of this album (and American Beauty). if i remember correctly, he said, "It was raining on us the entire time we were recording that album."

tracks:

1. Uncle John's Band
2. High Time
3. Dire Wolf
4. New Speedway Boogie
5. Cumberland Blues
6. Black Peter
7. Easy Wind
8. Casey Jones

if you only own one Grateful Dead album, make it American Beauty then make room for another. if you own two, make one of them Workingman's Dead.