When it comes to the Grateful Dead family, the old saying, “The  whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” is epitomized by Deadheads the world over. Yet we would be remiss if we didn’t understand that this is due to the quality of the parts, and their relationship with one another. The whole cannot be greater than its parts if the parts do not serve the whole. And in the end, this is why the Grateful Dead survives. We come for the music, and stay for the family. And what a family we have become.

Sometimes from within the musical world the cosmos comes together in just such a way, at just such a time that it produces something truly special. In this case, two historic characters, Johnny Cash and Owsley “Bear” Stanley collide with Haight-Ashbury’s famously historic venue, The Carousel, in one of the most historic times in music history, 1968.