For the Grateful Dead and its fans, 2015 was a pretty stellar year. The surviving members of the group spent June and July 2015 touring the nation with five final performances and celebrating 50 years of creating arguably some of the most iconic music of our time. In further celebration of that notoriety, rock & roll photographer and bonafide Deadhead Jay Blakesberg just released his book titled, FARE THEE WELL: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead.
Photo by Jake Blakesberg
The hard-covered coffee table photography book is a visual recount of the the group’s reunion, now made up of Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart. Blakesberg collaborated with photographers Chad Smith and John Margaretten to document all aspects of the tour which also featured Trey Anastasio filling in for Jerry Garcia, with Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti on keys. The final product was a beautiful 305-image and 208-page culmination of the Grateful Dead’s fifty-year career, ranging from live performances and Shakedown Street shenanigans, to stadium sound-checks, to intimate backstage moments.
Photo by Chad Smith
The book includes the Dead’s group portrait session that were featured on the massive stadium screens throughout the ‘Attics of My Life’ encore the final night in Chicago. Page after page, FARE THEE WELL displays photographs of Deadheads old and young, all with the same level of joy, exhilaration and passion for the band. Each page is decorated with colorful tributes, homemade signs and backstage passes, all creating a rich visual account of the group’s history and legacy.
Photo by Jay Blakesberg
Bill Walton, former NBA star and devout Deadhead provides the book’s Foreword, describing his deeply personal account of his experience at the Fare Thee Well shows. SiriusXM’s Gary Lambert offers two essays offering a historical perspective from firsthand recollections of Jerry Garcia’s memorial at Golden Gate Park and the aftermath of his passing. Grateful Dead’s archivist David Lemieux provides the book’s Afterword, reflecting on his personal journey with the band and his Fare Thee Well experience.
Photo by Jay Blakesberg
FARE THEE WELL is the essential tribute to the group’s legendary reunion, and is a must to check out for any Grateful Dead fan. The book is available on Amazon and in PDF form online.
BUY FARE THEE WELL : CELEBRATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD