American Beauty

50 years ago, Grateful Dead released 2 consecutive masterworks, "Workingman’s Dead" in June, and "American Beauty" in November. Rhino Records delivered a 50th anniversary edition of the former earlier this summer, and as promised, the latter will be released in its own golden anniversary set this fall. On October 30th, 2020, almost 50 years to the day after its original release, "American Beauty" will return as both a 3 CD set and a 1 LP picture disc.

"American Beauty : 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" features a remastered version of the original album on its 1st disc, while a previously unreleased concert recorded on February 18th, 1971 at Port Chester, New York’s Capitol Theatre comprises discs 2 and 3. The show has been mixed from the original 16 track analog masters by Jeffrey Norman at Bob Weir’s TRI Studios and mastered by David Glasser. On the same date, Rhino will release an anniversary picture disc limited to 15 000 copies with just the remastered album audio.

Like its predecessor "Workingman’s Dead", "American Beauty" was focused on tight, accessible songs with a folk and country rock flavor. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron Pigpen McKernan, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart convened in August and September 1970, not long after the June 14th release of "Workingman’s Dead", with co-producer Stephen Barncard at San Francisco’s Wally Heider Studios. The 10 songs on the finished album reflected some of the band’s most beloved creations including the charting single “Truckin’”, “Sugar Magnolia”, “Box Of Rain” and “Friend Of The Devil”. Mandolinist David Grisman joined the group for “Friend Of The Devil”, as well as “Ripple”, while other guest musicians included David Nelson, Ned Lagin, Dave Torbert, and Howard Wales.