by Isaac Josephson

Later this month, Grateful Dead Records will release So Many Roads, the band's first-ever full retrospective. It's a five-CD boxed set with cuts culled from live performances, band rehearsals and studio outtakes, and it covers everything from a 1965 recording of "Can't Slow Down" to "So Many Roads" from the Dead's final performance thirty years later at Chicago's Soldier Field.

Those are the facts. Here's the pitch:

So Many Roads is by far the most compelling work to come out of the Grateful Dead camp in these posthumous years. Not only does it brilliantly convey the evolution of the band from the gritty days of Autumn Records and the Warlocks, through the intense and psychedelic late Sixties/early Seventies, all the way up to that full, mature sound they had in the end, but it also captures the beauty of the Dead's improvisational and compositional skills without any of the "fat" that every live show is bound to have. So Many Roads is five hours of lean and joyous sonic discovery.

The boxed set's highlights are too many to name in total, but here are a few of this author's favorites: a 1966 version of the jug band favorite "On The Road Again" with Garcia on lead vocals (instead of Weir who sang the tune when the Dead revived it in the Eighties); an acoustic studio outtake of "To Lay Me Down" from the 1970 American Beauty sessions; the now-famous Watkins Glen Soundcheck from 7/27/73; the beautiful and delicate "Stella Blue" circa 1978; 3/22/90's "Scarlet>Fire"; a two-keyboard (Hornsby and Welnick) "Terrapin Station" from 1991; the crown jewel of the boxed set - a never-played folk ditty called "Whiskey in the Jar" that found its way onto a 1993 rehearsal tape complete with band banter and commentary on the song.

Given the quality and rarity of all the tracks, the amount of music (nearly six hours), and the accompanying book of essays from renown Dead scholars, the $60 pricetag on Dead Net is more than agreeable, hopes the project's co-producer and Grateful Dead Hour host David Gans.

Together with veteran authors Steve Silberman (Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads) and Blair Jackson (Garcia), Gans spent months earlier this year sifting through music to find the best of the best, the rarities and the gems for So Many Roads. Now, days before its street date, the 27-year Grateful Dead fan and music/radio producer looks back on his work and theirs.

JAMBANDS: What does So Many Roads have for the newbies?

DAVID GANS: For the newbies, we think it's a nice introduction to the special magic of the Dead. We have many of their finest songs in here, and we have many of their finest and weirdest improvisations in here. If you ever wondered what the deal was with the Grateful Dead, this would be a good place to start.

By comparison, the Dick's Picks series, which is either a full or nearly full concert experience, is going to be like a Grateful Dead concert with passages that might not be that exciting.

What does So Many Roads have for the erstwhile fans who might be brought back into the fold for one more listen?

To the erstwhile fans, I'm guessing that this will be something they can listen to that they'll be like, "Yeah, that was what it was about." This is something you can buy and give to your dad so he'll understand what it is that kept you chasing around all those years.

And what about the hardcore fans who've already exhaustively catalogued the music of the Grateful Dead?

We didn't really program this disc to impress the hardcore tapers, but we did come up with a couple of things no one ever heard before. For example, there's this rehearsal version of "Whiskey in a Jar" that was just beautiful (Steve and Blair and I were listening to rehearsal tapes in my living room one afternoon and we heard that, and we just went, "Yaow!!!"). And there are some cool outtakes, like the studio version of "To Lay Me Down."

How did the idea for the project come about, and how did you, Steve and Blair get involved?

We were brought in early this year by Peter McQuaid at Grateful Dead productions. From what I could gather, John Cutler (the keeper of the archive over there), had this project on his desk for several years and nothing had ever come of it.

Peter did something that is unusual in Grateful Dead land. He brought in outsiders - people who aren't part of the inner cabal there.

Why do you think Peter McCoy made that decision?

Well, there's a certain black hole phenomenon with the Grateful Dead archives. It's extremely hard for any product to escape the gravitational field. Getting the Dick's Picks out was a struggle for Dick Latvala. I know because he would confide in me about how depressing it was. There are many differences of opinion as to what was appropriate and what should be put out there. I think Peter brought us in to break some kind of creative log jam that was happening.

What did each of you bring to the table?

Each one of us came with a shortlist of stuff that we knew we absolutely wanted to have on there. At the top of my list was the "Eyes of the World" from 10/19/74. And Steve's list included "The Music Never Stopped" from 10/14/80 and the "Cassidy" that was included. I believe I was responsible for the 2/27/69 "Other Ones." Blair was really into using the early stuff.

It was an extremely enjoyable process. There were days when the three of us sat down in my living room and listened for hours. One day we listened to every single version of "Liberty" we could find.

Dick Latvala was a part of the project before he passed away, right?

Dick - God love him - put together a whole stack of wonderful stuff. We asked him, "What do you have for 'Scarlet-->Fire,'" and he gave us like, three DATS full. We'd say, "Okay... which do you like the best?" He'd refuse to narrow it down any farther, which was great. Dick's participation in this was fabulous because he stood back and let us duke it out over the final product.

There are a couple "Dark Stars" on there, but for the most part, no overlap. Was that a conscious decision? Wouldn't it have been really easy to show how the band evolved using the same composition?

I thought that too, and at the beginning I thought we'd probably try and do something like feature a "Minglewood" from each of its three or four incarnations. But, I was overruled on that. We had too much ground to cover in basically six hours. It was a group decision that we couldn't be redundant.

Can you talk a little about the evolution of the band as conveyed in the boxed set?

Well, what you hear in the beginning is a band that sounds very much like a lot of other bands of 1965. There's a compilation of demos and singles from Autumn Records, which was Tom Donahue's label in the mid Sixties. Each of the tracks have that twangy, surfy guitar, a cheesy organ, bass and drums. They've got the same kind of vocals with harmonies and counterpoint and stuff. The Grateful Dead, for a very brief moment, fell into that sound. And they made that recording for Tom Donahue's label of which we excerpted two cuts. But even then, from "Can't Come Down" you can tell that this band has something else going on.

To me, "Can't Come Down" is the keynote for the whole thing. It's got their punk attitude. It's like Jerry's version of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" for me.

Then you very quickly get into the Grateful Dead's ability to go out. The developments from '66 to '69 are pretty impressive.

I think you nailed that on the 1968 "Dark Star > China Cat Sunflower > The Eleven."

Yeah! I love that selection so much, and I'm so glad that my colleagues allowed me to go with that decision. That's a unique performance of "China Cat." It was in mid-composition. There was a change, something about it to make it easier for Jerry to sing. Plus, there's some great jamming, so it gives you a sense of what they were able to do with improvising at that stage.

And then from there, we get into the early Seventies when things really opened up. Steve is responsible for the inclusion of the 6/23/74 "Dark Star jam-->Spanish jam-->U.S. Blues." That's long been a favorite of mine.

There's a bit of controversy surrounding that track, isn't there?

Well, yes. There was a reel change in "U.S. Blues." The tape ends and they had to put on another reel. So, some of the music was lost. We decided to handle that by editing out a portion of it, so that it went right from the first chorus into a solo, which meant leaving out a partial verse.

It would have been very hard to go out and find that piece of another "U.S. Blues" that was exactly the right tempo with the same mix to splice it in. So we tried to handle it by editing out a section and making it sound smooth and normal even though there was a verse missing.

For reasons that I will never understand John Cutler overruled our edit and did a different thing. He left half a verse hanging and it cuts directly from, "Shake the hand that shook the hand / of P.T. Barnum and Charlie Chan" directly to the solo, which sounds very weird and unlike the song. I object to it strongly.

If it's any consolation, I think that any faux pas there is more than overshadowed by the power of the music on that track. What were some of the band's other major developments conveyed in the boxed set?

Well, later on toward the end of the Eighties and the Nineties when the technology got better, you got to hear Jerry playing the flute through his guitar. There's a beautiful passage in the 1990 "Scarlet --> Fire" where Jerry is playing a succession of digital instruments through his guitar. Bob Bralove was the sound librarian and he programmed those sounds.

And of course, the boxed set shows what they sounded like with the different piano players. We even got some great Hornsby material in there.

And there's the Vince Welnick song, "Way to Go Home." Some of the more hardcore fans probably won't be too keen on that.

Vince deserved to have a song on there. He was a member of the band for the last five years. People got really tired of that song because they played it constantly, but that's not Vince's fault. By the time Vince joined the band, they were all tired and they weren't interested in working very hard, and he had other songs that he wanted to work on that they weren't interested in for one reason or another.

I think that the people who object to its inclusion, forget it. It's not my problem. It belongs on there. It's an excellent performance of a fine song. Vince Welnick - as controversial as it all may be - he was a member of the band, and he deserves his place in history.

Do you have a favorite track on So Many Roads?

I'm glad we got to put the Watkins Glen Soundcheck in there. That was another no brainer. We all agreed on that. I guess my real favorite, though is that "Whiskey in a Jar." It's a magical thing that came up real time in rehearsal and it went away again. They sound checked it, but never played it live. It's an intimate moment with the Grateful Dead that we were fortunate to unearth.

What's your favorite Grateful Dead era?

I'm a '74 baby, I guess. '73 and '74. That band could really transcend space and time. There's greatness in almost every era, though. There's stuff from '82 that was also great, despite Garcia's health problems. There's stuff from '87 when Garcia was back that's pretty glorious. And there are things from '91 when Hornsby was touring and they had the two keyboards. That was also amazing stuff. But, I guess the time when they were the healthiest and the most telepathic, when the Grateful Dead were doing superhuman things together, I'd still say '74/'73 was the peak.

Do you see the new projects as a continuation or something separate? If it were up to you, would you include them in future Dead retrospectives?

If it were up to me, I'd probably keep them separate. It might be interesting to do a compilation of things from the different guys, but I don't know how they would feel or what the politics would be. Politics have been really insane, and I don't know if I'll be asked to do anything else. I mean, Steve and Blair and I would love to do more. We'd like to do a Pigpen boxed set, and a special guests record.

What's going on with your own music career?

I'm having a grand time. I started a year and a half ago touring as a solo acoustic performer. I sit in with moe. every once in a while. And I've recently been playing with Blueground Undergrass which is a really great band from Atlanta. They play bluegrass and country rock and all kinds of fun stuff. We did a gig together last week that was really great.

Basically, I've been concentrating developing my identity as a songwriter separate from the Grateful Dead. There's no need for me to get away from Dead music entirely, but I need to get away from the identification, and the assumption that I was a Dead cover band. I play my favorite Dead ballads and stuff, but I also play huge amounts of other stuff. I'm trying to get out there and have an identity that's separate from the Dead to the degree that that's possible given who I am.