The College Tour

You do a great job (click image) and I really, really loved that you chose my very first Grateful Dead concert to play this week. It's even better than I remembered it! My only regret was I was a college freshman with a test looming, so I had to skip the second show they spontaneously announced for the next night. Can't do it all, right?

Anyway, keep up the great work. And Right On!

Tom S.

Alabama Getaway - Not Really

The very first Stream of the year (click on image to the right to enlarge) started on a very good note. Episode #107 opened with a Cosmic Charlie which was then followed by lots of tunes that were auspicious for a New Year - a New Decade message: Love, Sunshine and Unbroken-ness.

The featured show was a college show - The Grateful Dead at the University of Alabama in the Spring of 1977. It showcases one of the first Jack-a-Roes' and they do everything else so sweetly. The set list may suggest a typical show, but it is the quality of the playing that makes this show more than typical. Below is a very nice email I received from a fellow Streamer regarding last week's Shakedown Stream - right on.

Hi Jer Bear, Tom in Cleveland here... I download and listen to The Stream every week. I try to workout everyday, and my routine is to pop in the ear buds and go for a ten mile ride (so to speak). Actually it’s a hour on the elliptical for cardio, than another hour of calisthenics, weight lifting, steam, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I appreciate your streams, and I really look forward to them. Anyway, The Alabama show this week was remarkable. Bob, Jerry, AND Donna's voices were all in tip top shape. What a pleasure hearing it. Jerry's noodling in the second set was sweet. Tom B.

Last Show of the Year

Episode 106 (click on image to the left to open)was the last Stream of the year of 2009. Yet, it was not the last time we Streamed, in fact, it was a continuation of the current theme (all streams have currents) of "The Grateful Dead College Tour."

The Stream started off with some strong picks from the month of December - Shakedown, Eyes>Saint - to name a few. We even got a Crazy Fingers from Bob & Phil's Furthur band from the Hammerstein Ballroom, NYCity.

The featured show (5/6/70) was a free concert the Dead played before their official show the next day at M.I.T. (5/7/70). This afternoon show recognized the fallen students at Kent State College who had been shot and killed at an anti-war protest.

Because this afternoon show was so short, it gave us room to play an array of different tunes from Dead December. We even got a Christmas song in there for those Merry Streamers.