The Music Never Stopped

The Grateful Dead’s lead guitarist and principal songwriter, Jerry Garcia, once insisted that his band catered to a selective palate: “We’re like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.” Ray Robertson must really like licorice. This past spring, he contributed liner notes to a pair of the band’s archival releases, and his recent novel, Estates Large and Small, starred a Deadhead protagonist. With his latest work of non-fiction, All the Years Combine, Robertson hand-picks fifty essential shows from the group that performed over 2,300 times between 1965 and 1995 without repeating a set list. He explores the concerts’ historical contexts and sonic characteristics while also fitting them into the narrative arc of the band’s career. This meticulously researched passion project ably explains why the Grateful Dead were such a successful touring act and how they became a cultural...