Pick up a guitar at a party and along with the usuals (everything between "Stairway to Heaven" and "Ghost Riders in the Sky") someone is bound to request a Grateful Dead tune. Buy this video, learn the riffs, and you'll have the crowd singing along in a memory lane haze of hemp and tie-dye in no time. Guitarist Fred Sokolow, himself from the San Francisco scene that spawned the Dead, is an accomplished player with the ability to create simple-to-play parts that don't sound exceedingly spare. This tape is a great choice for Dead fans who know their way around the fretboard a little, but would like to learn some of the tricks, such as how to play the extra beats in "Uncle John's Band" or the rock-and-roll turnarounds in "Alabama Getaway." Each song (including "Friend of the Devil," "Truckin'," "Touch of Grey" and others) is played through in regular time, followed by a note-by-note breakdown. With many of the Dead's tunes in an acoustic guitar-friendly nether land between bluegrass, folk and blues, this video is a welcome addition for gitter-plunkers with a Dead bent. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Block)
The Music of the Grateful Dead Arranged for Fingerstyle Guitar
(2000) 92 min. $29.95 (booklet included). Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 15, Issue 5
The Music of the Grateful Dead Arranged for Fingerstyle Guitar
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.