From 1965 to 1995 the Grateful Dead played approximately 2,350 live concerts. Of these I went to exactly 52. My first was at the Fox Theater in Atlanta in 1978 and my last was at the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, CA in 1993. My favorite venues included Red Rocks in Colorado, Madison Square Garden in New York and Alpine Valley in Wisconsin.

Every Grateful Dead concert was different, they never played the same set list twice and for that matter never played a song the same way twice. It would be impossible for me to pick out my favorite Dead song so the one I chose here is one that sums up touring with the Grateful Dead in the summertime for me.

This track, “US Blues,” was written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia and it first started being played live in 1974. It was one of the more commonly played Dead songs and was almost always played as an encore. It’s bouncy, catchy and reminds me of the 4th of July and traveling the back roads of the United States heading to a town I’ve never been to before!

The version here is from Winterland in San Francisco recorded on October 19th, 1974 and appeared in The Grateful Dead Movie.