The Rhythm Devils Take Green Apple to the Streets - Last night, the Grateful Deads Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, collectively known as the Rhythm Devils, hosted an all-star jam session at New Yorks Canal Room. The official kickoff celebration for the Green Apple Music Festival, the Rhythm Devils opened the weekends festivities with a cover of Santanas Jingo. Fronting an ace band of Jammys performers, including Mike Gordon, Steve Kimock, Steven Perkins, Charlie Musselwhite, Baaba Maal, the Mutaytor and "2001" author Deodato, among several additional percussionists, the Rhythm Devils explored a wide range of percussion based sounds, ranging from drum-and-bass electronica to tribal influenced world music. A Deodato-led version of 2001 and Iko Iko rank among the evenings choice covers. At the end of the night, Hart led both his ensemble and the entire audience onto the streets for a extended, evening closing drum jam to the tune of "Not Fade Away." Hart and Kreutzmann will co-host the Jammy Awards tonight, with Hart also leading a drum circle in front of Grand Central Station at 5 PM. Friday. [Relix News]

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Poster of the famous 5-8-77 Barton Hall show

Subscribers to Gratful Dead podcasts may have noticed that we're serving up a classic today in the form of the famous Barton Hall show from 1977 (at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY). This is the show widely regarded by Deadheads to be "the" Grateful Dead show to play for their friends who don't know the Grateful Dead and think they don't like them. The Scarlet > Fire, in particular, is one of the most-played musical moments the Grateful Dead ever performed. This show regularly shows up on tapers' top-10 lists in spite of the almost universal agreement among Deaheads that the nights immediately preceding and following it were also quite smoking.

And if you liked that, check out this video, too. Watch the whole thing and you may see why I didn't post it here on this nice family site.

From PBS's Calebration Telivision Show. Recorded at the KQED Studios, San Francisco, 8/30/70.