GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

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Blues For Allah 50: Blues For Allah Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

The Deadcast’s overstuffed season finale unpacks Blues For Allah’s oft-misunderstood title track, the unlikely story of its album art, & the remarkable coalition that manifested the Dead’s September 1975 Golden Gate Park show, officially the New Age Bio-Centennial Unity Fair.

Guests: David Lemieux, Ron Rakow, Al Teller, Ned Lagin, Steve Brown, Bill McCarthy, Larry Weissman, Gary Lambert, Ed Perlstein, Joan Miller, Geoff Gould, Dan Hanklein, Raymond Foye, Nicholas Meriwether, Shaugn O’Donnell, Chadwick Jenkins, Keith Eaton

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Blues For Allah 50: Sage and Spirit Nov 06, 2025

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The Deadcast explores Bobby Weir’s guitar étude, “Sage and Spirit,” speaking with one of the song’s namesakes, Sage Scully, before taking an extended trip to legendary Dead show at the Great American Music Hall in August 1975, where the song received its only full live performance.

Guests: David Lemieux, Donna Jean Godchaux MacKay, Sage Scully, Ron Rakow, Al Teller, Steve Brown, Roger Lewis, Lee Brenkman, Steve Schuster, Gary Lambert, Deb Trist, Ed Perlstein, Danno Henklein, Joan Miller, Steve Silberman, Michael Parrish, Keith Eaton, Shaugn O’Donnell, Benny Lander

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Blues For Allah 50: Crazy Fingers Oct 23, 2025

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We explore how the dreamy delicacy of Crazy Fingers came about at a time of great tumult in Grateful Dead history, with visits from new record company boss Al Teller of United Artists and Seastones composer Ned Lagin, plus a stop at Winterland for the Bob Fried Memorial Boogie.

Guests: David Lemieux, Al Teller, Ron Rakow, Ned Lagin, Gary Lambert, Michael Parrish, Danno Henklein, Ed Perlstein, Geoff Gould, Jay Kerley, Blair Jackson, Shaugn O’Donnell, Chadwick Jenkins, Christopher Coffman, Nicholas Meriwether

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Blues For Allah 50: The Music Never Stopped Oct 09, 2025

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Bobby Weir & John Perry Barlow’s classic “The Music Never Stopped” came into being when the music was briefly in danger of stopping, the song transforming from live jam to final form as the Dead struggled to solve the financial difficulties that came with a retirement from the road.

Guests: David Lemieux, Ron Rakow, Steven Schuster, Steve Silberman, Sean Howe, Shaugn O’Donnell, Chadwick Jenkins, Christopher Coffman, Graeme Boone, Eric Lindquist, Benny Lander

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Blues For Allah 50: King Solomon’s Marbles/Stronger Than Dirt or Milkin’ The Turkey Sep 25, 2025

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The Deadcast unpacks the two-part extra-heady “King Solomon’s Marbles”/’Stronger Than Dirt or Milkin’ the Turkey,” using the instrumental to get into the Dead’s 1975 dalliances with holography, as well as Phil Lesh’s other unfinished pieces from Blues For Allah.

Guests: David Lemieux, Ned Lagin, Ron Rakow, Eugene Dolgoff, Michael Parrish, Ed Perlstein, Keith Eaton, Nicholas G. Meriwether, Shaugn O’Donnell, Chadwick Jenkins

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Blues For Allah 50: Franklin’s Tower Sep 11, 2025

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The Deadcast examines how Franklin’s Tower bucked every trend on Blues For Allah to become one of the Dead’s all-time classics, including a tape of its studio creation, a look into the multi-tracks, & a rare line-by-line breakdown by lyricist Robert Hunter himself.

Guests: David Lemieux, Geoff Gould, Jürgen Fauth, Shaugn O’Donnell, Chadwick Jenkins, Will Backstrom, Max Ritchie, Hannah Grabbenstein

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Blues For Allah 50: Slipknot! Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

The Deadcast uses Blues For Allah’s complicated instrumental Slipknot! to explore the musical and creative ambiguity the Grateful Dead pursued in early 1975, when there both was and wasn’t a Grateful Dead, & their public reemergence at Bill Graham’s S.N.A.C.K. benefit that March.

Guests: David Lemieux, Ned Lagin, Ron Rakow, Steve Brown, Gary Lambert, Joan Miller, Jay Kerley, Chadwick Jenkins, Shaugn O’Donnell, Melvin Backstrom

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Blues For Allah 50: Help On the Way Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

The Grateful Deadcast points itself towards 1975 to begin a song-by-song celebration of Blues For Allah’s 50th anniversary, loaded with raw session tapes, early lyric drafts, & the story of how the Dead built a new studio, musical language, batch of songs, & LP from the ground up.

Guests: David Lemieux, Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, Ron Rakow, Stephen Barncard, Ned Lagin, Steve Brown, Gary Lambert, Keith Eaton, Shaugn O’Donnell, Chadwick Jenkins, Matt Campbell

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Bonus Rerun: From the Mars Hotel 50: Ship of Fools Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

The Grateful Deadcast visits the set for the Grateful Dead Movie, aka the Dead’s five “retirement” shows at Winterland in 1974, with heads who attended. This bonus episode is a re-run of the 2nd half of Deadcast Season 9, episode 8.

Guests: Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, Ron Rakow, Ned Lagin, David Grisman, , Steve Brown, Richie Pechner, Jerry Pompili, Jim Sullivan, Gary Lambert, Geoff Gould, Joan Brown, Michael Parrish, Corry Arnold, Strider Brown, Jay Kerley, Rita Fiedler, Rene Tinner, Lee Ranaldo, Gregory Barette, Ron Long, Brian Anderson

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Dan Healy 80 Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast is thrilled beyond all audible frequencies to begin its 12th season by welcoming Dan Healy, the Grateful Dead’s in-house sound wizard for most of their career, for tales from three decades in pursuit of high and higher fidelity.

Guest: Dan Healy

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