The Grateful Dead - Reflections - Non-Album Tracks (1976)

Up until 1976, the Grateful Dead had put out at least an album a year, either studio or live featuring new songs. But there was no new Dead album in 1976, except for the live album "Steal Your Face," which contained no new songs and was widely panned for its poor sound and song selection, being nicknamed "Steal Your Money."

It turns out though that the Dead did release half an album that year, if you consider Jerry Garcia's solo album "Reflections." I don't know the story why, but halfway through the recording of that album, Garcia got rid of his band and brought in all the members of the Dead to finish the album off. Four of the songs on that album are actually Dead songs in every way (and are all written by the Garcia-Hunter team).

So that's half of a new album. I needed to find another half. The one remaining original song on Garcia's album, "Mission in the Rain," was performed live by the Dead that same year. (The other songs on the album are cover versions done by Garcia and his band.) So I included a live version of that as well (after editing out the crowd noise, as usual). One year earlier, Garcia's guitar playing was heavily featured on a solo album by Dead members Keith and Donna Godchaux called "Keith and Donna." Unfortunately, I didn't find any of the songs on that album strong enough to be included here, except for one track, "Who Was John." It's an acappella song, with lead vocals by Garcia.

However, my 1976 album still lacked any songs from Bob Weir. Luckily, he was featured on an album by the group Kingfish that year. A medley he wrote for that album, "Lazy Lightning- Supplication" was quickly incorporated into the Dead's live songs that year, so I've included a Dead version. He also wrote another good song on the Kingfish album, "Home to Dixie." Unfortunately, the Dead never played that one, so I've included a live version by Kingfish done that year.

All in all, I think this stands up as a fine Dead album, with solid songs and playing all the way through. It's a shame they didn't release something like this. One nice thing about it is that it doesn't suffer from the pop and disco production that would mar their next two albums.

01 Might as Well (Grateful Dead)
02 Mission in the Rain (Grateful Dead)
03 Home to Dixie (Bob Weir & Kingfish)
04 They Love Each Other (Grateful Dead)
05 It Must Have Been the Roses (Grateful Dead)
06 Lazy Lightning - Supplication (Grateful Dead)
07 Comes a Time (Grateful Dead)
08 Who Was John (Jerry Garcia & Keith & Donna)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15119076/TGratefulD_1976_Reflectins_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I put together various pieces to make what I wanted. The outer part comes from a poster with a peacock on it by Arik Roper. The inner picture comes from some art related to a 2015 concert called "Reflections, A Tribute to Jerry Garcia."