Welcome to the sixth installment of Dead Notes, where we find the Grateful Dead in the Fall of 1970, gigging at the famed Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. Between 1970 and 1971 the band played the theater 18 times, placing it thick in the pantheon of Dead venue lore alongside historic nights at Bill Graham's Fillmore East and West.
As the sixties came to a close, the psychedelic setlist center pieces of yore ("Dark Star" and "The Other One'' in particular) began to slowly disappear, replaced with a series of individual songs anchored by heavy Pigpen fueled R&B (see Dead Notes #1 & #4). Shows also began to include an opening acoustic set, drawing heavily from the American Beauty album and its predecessor, Workingman's Dead -- two albums that once again found the Dead shedding their skin. Donning a rural Americana vibe, a unique fusion of bluegrass, rock & roll and folk, with a heavy dose of country music, the Dead soon found themselves at the forefront of the country-rock movement with 5 of American Beauty's 10 tracks receiving radio play on both AM and (at the time underground) FM radio.
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