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It's hard to rank the best Dark Star out there. The Grateful Dead prided themselves on playing differently each concert they played, and the song that epitomized that most in my opinion is Dark Star. Some were chaotic, some mellow, quite a few that fluctuated between the two. Thus different people will like a different Dark Star just as they appreciate different eras of the Dead. With that said though, this one is probably my favorite version. It ebbs and flows sometimes gently, sometimes a little more fierce. It's an agreeable Dark Star - it may not immediately catch your attention but it's consistently great music and without realizing it your head will be wrapped around this Dark Star (or the DS may be wrapped around your head). With jazzy touches, some slide work by Jerry, and the looser sound with the absence of Mickey Hart, this Dark Star has a similar flavor to those in 72/73, but it's long (37 minutes) and there aren't really any dull moments. I love it.
A lot of how I judge a Dark Star is based upon the song that Dark Star leads into. Dark Star is on the psychedelic and difficult side of the Grateful Dead, and after 20+ minutes of my mind being blown to bits, it's nice to have either a fun song (a la El Paso, Me & My Uncle, etc) or a song of resolution (Morning Dew, Stella Blue, Wharf Rat) to reorganize the music and the moment. The psychedelic depths that Dark Star takes you to are somewhat challenging - and that's the point of it - but the Dead is very well aware of the fragility of its music and knows that a happy or mellow song is a great follow up. This Morning Dew is a really nice wrap-up to the Dark Star. The whole show is fantastic overall and could be found on archive, but I'm trying to focus on shorter segments of Dead shows and studio albums of other artists.. And this is a great segment
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This is an album and artist I found recently, but it's something I found at the right time. Had I heard this album four years ago, I wouldn't have had the background or patience to enjoy it, but as I listen to Rainy Day Raga while writing this, I couldn't think of a more perfect album for where I've been, musically speaking. Between folk, primitivism, and Hindustani music all in a drawn out improvised manner, this album is at the apex of what those individual genre could connect to become. This album is so beautifully relaxed and melodic that Timothy Leary of LSD fame hired Walker as his "Musical Director" in the 1960s. Walker with his six string plays over a droning tanpura, occasional flute, and sometimes percussive instruments that inspire a sound somewhere between the Indian cities of Varanasi and the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, probably closer to the former. This album is worth a listen - I've done my homework with Basho, Fahey, Sandy Bull etc, and Peter Walker is right there with them. It also stands out from them in that he's accompanied and he's far closer to Indian music than American music (we could argue Basho too).
After Rainy Day Raga and a follow up entitled Second Poem released in 1968, Walker faded into relative obscurity until pretty recently when we saw a resurgence of insterest of American primitivism and conveying raga sounds on six string steel guitars. He recorded a few tracks for a tribute album "A Raga For Peter Walker" which also includes original tracks by Jack Rose, Thurston Moore, and James Blackshaw. While appreciative of his music of old, it seems that Walker's love is in flamenco guitar, which drawns shocking comparisons to the Indian raga system. I've yet to listen to any of his flamenco records, but I'll get to that.. and maybe post about it here. Enjoy this one.