This was, for me, the grand gateway arch into the wide, weird world of the Grateful Dead. Read James’ entire American Beauty tribute below:Īmerican Beauty. The set is available to order now through Vinyl Me Please. The Story of the Grateful Dead follows VMP Anthology collections dedicated to Stax Records, the women of Motown, Ghostly International and more. James continues, “And then one day it hit me: When someone hears the Grateful Dead, in whatever state or form it may hit you in - and there are many - they feel the way they WANT to feel.” The talent and musicianship were undeniable. Yet, it reflected the presence and possibility of every emotion in the rainbow, and the recording was unbelievable. “I listened to the album two or three times that night just taking it in, living in its world and loving it, trying to understand what this feeling was,” James writes. In his liner notes for American Beauty, James writes that even though he was exposed to the Dead at a young age the band didn’t connect with him… until he purchased his own copy of the 1970 LP during a My Morning Jacket tour.
