Dead to the Core

The Grateful Dead have left us a musical bounty of thirty years and thousands of shows.  Now Dead to the Core: An Almanack of the Grateful Dead takes Deadheads through the seasons and years of the Dead's dazzling array of music, with lavish treatment of those "bumper crop" eras from which their most succulent songs and shows and shows can be harvested.  It is part reference, part critical companion to the best the Dead have to offer, a work liberally stocked with trivia, lore, humor, and arcana.  No Head "farmer" wanting to reap the dankest of the Dead kind will want to be without this essential resource.

Includes...

Show-a-day seasonal calendars
Detailed show reviews from key years
Musical and lyrical analyses of the Dead's core tunes
Annotated lists of hot versions of key tunes
Capsule reviews of shows from throughout the Dead's career
Personal anecdotes and observations from Deadheads
A guide to the best Dead-related sites on the Internet
In-depth essays on the Dead's prime eras

...And much, much more, including the Dead-Dylan connection, the Dead and Garcia's place in the musical universe, the Deadhead pantheon, tour lore...

Eric Wybenga is a writer and editor in New York City.  He has been "on the bus" since 1985, when he climbed in the back of a friend's infamous yellow van to see the spring Nassau run.  Since then he has, between shows, attended Brown University, from which he graduated in 1991, and been an editor in New York book publishing.  This is his first book.