Last week marked 50 years since the world lost Ron McKernan (Pigpen), the Dead’s original frontman, who brought a whiskey-soaked blues sensibility to the others’ lysergic flights of fancy. His takes on “Lovelight”, “In The Midnight Hour”, and “Alligator” defined the early Dead sound, as did pretty much every song he sang. While his role in the band had diminished considerably, over the years, he could still be relied upon to step out front, every four songs or so, and whip the room back into a frenzy. His loss was immense and it even caused Garcia to consider throwing in the towel.
Coinciding with this was the end of the band’s contact with Warner Brothers. With sights set on starting their own label, they owed one more album, which turned out to be their first archival release. Utilizing recordings from Fillmore East, April 1970, this set features one side of acoustic performances, including Pigpen accompanying himself on guitar (!) on the gritty “Katie Mae”, which opens the album in homage. “Black Peter” makes a haunting appearance, to close out the side, while the space between is taken up by covers of various folk numbers, including a fun take on “Wake Up Little Susie”.
The tribute to Pigpen continues on side two, which is taken up by a lengthy “Smokestack Lightning”, and Pig’s classic take on “Hard To Handle”. While I still feel like the band has yet to do a proper tribute to Pigpen, this is still a nice nod, and fitting way to move on to the next phase of their career.
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