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The Dead can always come back though the magic of DVD. The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and his support band made an appearance in 1990 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, September 1, 1990 in Mountainview, California that was recorded for home video release. Performing two sets during the same night, Garcia was in top form mixing in originals and covers by some of his favorite songwriters. The performances are all top notch and the direction focuses on what it should—the music. You won’t find fancy camera angles, weird special effects or anything else that detracts from the strong performances featured here. Altough even at this stage Garcia didn’t look all that well (he would die five years later in 1995), his guitar playing is sublime.

We get a number of very cool extras including interviews with most of the backing band and Garcia’s frequent collaborator lyricist Robert Hunter. Both interviews are conducted by Blair Jackson author of the definitive biography of Jerry Garcia. The Hunter interview is one on one. Hunter discusses his working method with Garcia and although it’s the least revealing of the interviews, it’s fascinating nonetheless. The band interview features four of the five band members interviewed at the Filmore in San Francisco discussing their memories of working with Garcia. Jackson also narrates and writes the “Song Info Capsules”. These feature artwork and/or pictures of the artist that wrote/performed the original version of the song that Garcia plays with a bit of history about the song itself. For example, we hear the often told story of how John Lennon wrote “Dear Prudence” about Mia Farrow’s younger sister who was in India with the Beatles and Mike Love meditating. She wouldnt come out of her room so Lennon and Harrison would try and motivate her to come out. There’s also an essay that discusses the remastering and digital authoring process used to create this DVD. We also get the concert play list and you can access each song individually or each set as well as play both sets. ---