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What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. This week I will be writing about the Grateful Dead, so probably 99% of y’all can stop reading now. I honestly wanted to write about something else cause I know most people reading this couldn’t care less, but it’s what I’ve been listening to the most lately and this year marks 60 years of the bands formation and we just randomly got this cassette from a collection so why not let it rip? I get it; the most popular, mainstream Grateful Dead stuff is from the late 80s/90s and it’s pretty bad, hokey, whatever you wanna call it. Unfortunately, that’s a lot of people’s first and only impressions. Not saying everyone would like the earlier material, but I think some people would be surprised to hear what the Grateful Dead sounded like in their early years, specifically ’65-’70. Today I’m writing about the album released in 1973, Bear’s Choice: History of The Grateful Dead (Vol. 1). The “Bear” in the title refers to Owsley Stanley, who recorded this material at a couple different live shows three years earlier in 1970 at the Filmore East in New York City. Owsley provided quite a few “extracurriculars” for the band as well as acting as the band’s soundman at this time. The album starts off with excerpts from a very laid-back acoustic set by the band, mostly covers including Katie Mae, Dark Hollow, and a version of Wake Up Little Susie that I’ve always been particularly fond of. The second half of the album features only two songs, mostly due to the first one being a ripping 18 minute cover of Howlin Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning, followed by Hard To Handle. The band’s lead man at the time, Pigpen, has a bluesy, raw voice that really lends itself to these tracks. Anyway, if you’ve ever been “Dead-Curious” I’d say a great place to start would be here and the Live Dead album. Don’t knock it till you try it!