Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, as we wrap up January with a good variety of music spanning almost 20 years, from 1973 to 1992, with a stop in 1977.

Our first stop this week is at Kezar Stadium on 5/26/73, one of the Grateful Dead's very, very rare appearances in the Bay Area in 1973. Aside from Kezar, the band only played for its hometown fans on 2/9/73 at Stanford, and the three night run at Winterland in November. Obviously, what they lacked in quantity of performances they certainly made up for in quality. This Kezar show was the third consecutive major weekend show for the Dead, with the previous stops being 5/13/73 in Des Moines, and 5/20/73 in Santa Barbara. From Kezar, we have a Looks Like Rain, They Love Each Other, Playing In The Band. Although the Des Moines show on 5/13/73 is my favourite of the three May shows, Kezar only falls a fraction below that on the list, with 5/20/73 being just as good as Kezar.

Speaking of Santa Barbara on 5/20/73, we figured we should give you a taste of that one as well. So, from that show, we have Rider, BIODTL, TLEO. All three of these big shows followed a similar set list, but all are worth seeking.

Next up, we have music from the penultimate show of the magnificent Spring Tour of 1977 (that's three weeks in a row we've used the word "penultimate;" this will be the penultimate time we use it for the foreseeable future...). This is the opening sequence from 5/26/77, and features The Music Never Stopped>Sugaree, Mama Tried, Sunrise, Deal, Passenger, Brown-Eyed Women. There have been plenty of CD releases from this tour, for very good reason.

Lastly this week, we have music from Shoreline Amphitheatre from 5/24/92, a show that a good friend of Dick Latvala's turned me on to. From the second set, we have Samson and Delilah, So Many Roads, Long Way To Go Home, Corrina, a good bunching of the then-new songs that we haven't played too often here at the Tapers' Section.

Tune in next week when we'll be playing you music from the 1980s exclusively here at the Tapers' Section. Feel free to write the email address below with questions or comments about the Tapers' Section, or any aspect of Grateful Dead and CD releases.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net