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Grateful Dead to Release 1980 Performances

The latest release from the Grateful Dead archives culls highlights from the group’s 1980 performances at Recreation Hall at Penn State (May 6) and Barton Hall at Cornell (May 7). The shows featured on Road Trips Vol 3. No. 4 took place a year into keyboardist Brent Mydland’s tenure in the group, shortly after the recording of the Grateful Dead’s Go to Heaven album.

As Blair Jackson explains, “The two shows included on this three-disc set, provide a great snapshot of what was exciting Heads coast-to-coast during this 15th anniversary year of the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead. Our original intention was to present the complete Penn State show—which has never circulated as a soundboard recording—on the first two discs of this set, but we were dismayed to find that there were technical difficulties with the first couple of songs. So we decided to make Disc One a compilation of the best of the Penn State and Cornell first sets (leaning more on the Penn State show), and it’s good stuff from top to bottom: it contains inspired versions of both “Lazy Lightning > Supplication” and “Lost Sailor > Saint,” dynamic takes on “Althea” and “Cassidy,” and a lovely rendition of “Peggy-0,” among other treats.”