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So Many Roads
Composer: Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter

So Many Roads was first performed by the Grateful Dead on February 22, 1992. It was then played regularly through to the last performance of the song on July 9, 1995. In total the song was played just over 50 times.

Jerry Garcia spoke about So Many Roads in an interview with Dave DiMartino in 1992;

It's Hunter writing me from my point of view, you know what I mean? We've been working together for so long that he knows what I know. The song is full of references to things that have to do with me....

....Hunter is the only guy that could do that. He can write my point of view better than I can think it, you know what I mean? So that's the kind of relationship we have. And he frequently writes tunes from my point of view that are autobiographical. There actually biographical I guess. He's the one writing them, but even so they express my point of view - and more than that they express the emotional content of my soul in a certain way that only a long-term and intimate relationship with a guy as brilliant as Hunter coughs up ... I can sing that song, feel totally comfortable with it.

Robert Hunter's comments on the origins of this song in the notes in Box Of Rain: Lyrics 1965-1993;
One afternoon, Jerry was playing some unstructured changes on the piano. Figuring they might be forgotten otherwise, I clicked on my tape recorder. Ten years later I found the tape and listened to it, liked it, and set these words to it. Listening to the pitifully recorded and time-degraded tape, Jerry protested that, although he liked the words, his changes were not very good and unfinished besides. This didn't seem to be the base and I requested that he at least give it a run through. The result was one of the better received new GD songs and one that almost got away.


Grateful Dead

info So Many Roads (1965-1995), Grateful Dead, 1999
info 30 Trips Around The Sun Box Set, 2015
info 30 Trips Around The Sun: The Definitive Live Story: 1965-1995, 2015
info The Best Of The Grateful Dead Live, 2018
info Ready Or Not, Grateful Dead, 2019

The Dead

info Tampa, FL, July 30, 2003
info Irvine, CA, June 24, 2004
info Dead '09: Wilkes-Barre, PA, April 22, 2009

Furthur

info Dec 31, 2009, San Francisco, CA
info Feb 13, 2010, Fairfax, VA
info Mar 3, 2010, Chicago, IL
info June 30, 2010, Lowell, MA
info July 9, 2010, Masontown, WV
info July 29, 2010, New York, NY
info September 18, 2010, Redmond, WA
info November 11, 2010, St. Louis, MO
info November 21, 2010, New York, NY
info March 15, 2011, New York, NY
info March 20, 2011, Upper Darby, PA
info March 30, 2011, Pittsburgh, PA
info July 19, 2011, Saratoga Springs, NY
info July 30, 2011, St. Augustine, FL
info Sept 25, 2011, Eugene, OR
info Oct 6, 2011, Los Angeles, CA
info Nov 10, 2011, New York, NY
info April 14, 2012, New York, NY
info July 8, 2012, Columbia, MD
info September 22, 2012, Morrison, CO
info January 17, 2013, Mill Valley, CA
info April 15, 2013, Port Chester, NY
info Sept 27, 2013, Berkeley, CA

 
Ratdog

info Hartford CT: October 22, 2003
info Des Moines IA: November 13, 2003
info Columbia MO: November 17, 2003
info Spokane WA, March 9, 2004
info Jim Thorpe PA, March 27, 2004
info Sayreville NJ, April 12, 2005
info Toronto, Canada, October 31, 2005
info Lowell MA, November 10, 2006
info Baltimore MD, March 19, 2007

Phil Lesh & Friends

info April 11, 2014, Port Chester, NY, 2014
info April 12, 2014, Port Chester, NY, 2014
info April 18, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, 2014
info April 19, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, 2014
info April 20, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, 2014
info May 30, 2014, Port Chester, NY, 2014
info October 17, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, 2014

Billy & The Kids

info 7/12/21, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO, Billy & The Kids, 2021

Other recordings

info The Grass Is Dead, Crazy Fingers, 2000
info The 1000th Show, Dark Star Orchestra, 2005
info 02/12/16, Albany, NY, Jackie Greene, 2016
info 02/13/16, Fairfield, CT, Jackie Greene, 2016
info 02/20/16, Jay, VT, Jackie Greene, 2016
info 02/22/16, New York, NY, Jackie Greene, 2016
info 03/16/16, West Hollywood, CA, Jackie Greene, 2016
info 03/25/16, Mill Valley, CA, Jackie Greene, 2016
info Official Bootleg #3, Davy Knowles, 2017
info On The Road, John Kadlecik, 2019
info Acoustic Magic, John Lynch, 2021

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