Us
During the Grateful Dead’s thirty-year tenure between 1965–1995, surprisingly few books were published about the band. Even as they filled stadiums, the Dead and their community danced on the fringes of the mainstream. Much like their official albums rarely drove big sales, the publishing world hesitated to invest in what would become a sprawling literary canon.
Before Jerry Garcia’s passing, shelf space was limited. Aside from a handful of lyric and interview collections, the core titles through the '80s were the two The Dead books by Hank Harrison, Playing in the Band by David Gans & Peter Simon, The Music Never Stopped by Blair Jackson, and The Official Book of the Deadheads by Paul & Jonas Grushkin and Cynthia Bassett. Supplemented by fanzines and the cassette tapes traded among Deadheads, these volumes served as the sacred texts of the community.
Since 1995, the landscape has changed dramatically. More than two hundred and fifty books have appeared—covering the band, its members, the technology, the fans and culture they inspired. With so many pages in print, Grateful Dead Book Reviews exists to help readers separate the wheat from the chaff—whether you’re a seasoned tour rat, a curious listener, or simply looking for the “just-exactly-perfect” gift for the Deadhead in your life.
Writing and publishing a book is exceptionally difficult. To support the author, we encourage you to purchase directly from their website or from your local bookshop. For convenience, on many review pages I include links to the "big ones". If you purchase through these sources, I may receive compensation, at no additional cost to you. With these proceeds, I plan to buy a mansion and a yacht... or pay for my website and buy more GD books.
Please assume good will. I'm a one person show with a career and family. Being slightly below average, I frequently mak misteaks. If you notice a factual error or grammatical blunder, simply let me know and I'll do my best to fix it before Summer Tour.
Me
Stuart Ake has a problem. Raised within a music loving family, some thought Stu may be able to play. Unfortunately, he was lazy, refused to practice and possessed no talent. To avoid the piano and violin, he began to pilfer records from the collections of siblings. Jimi Hendrix led to Muddy Waters, the MC5, Miles and Keith Jarrett. Soon it was Motown, Devo, the Ramones, Bad Brains and progressive rock. In 1984, Stu attended his first Grateful Dead concert. For an unbearable stretch, he became a wide-eyed zealot who spoke only of Jerry, Jerry and Jerry. There was a benefit. This youthful obsession with the Dead opened the ears to early blues, ‘50s gospel, zydeco, western swing, field recordings, funk, soul, the snot nosed snarls of ‘60s garage rock and the intergalactic improvisations of Sun Ra. Next, came Brazilian soul, African funk and Cumbia. As is the path with many record collectors, it was at this stage when things really got out of hand. Stu started fixating on spoken word records which instructed listeners how to play golf, belly dance, train pets or master ESP. The weirder and more obscure... the better.
To bring focus to musical madness, in October of 1997, he collaborated with fellow DJs, record collectors and sound hounds to assemble Soundcircus. For nearly 30 years, Soundcircus has gathered monthly at various locations around the Bay Area to spin obscure, kooky and heavy sounds from across the globe around specific themes.
Stu’s collection of LPs, 45s, 78s, CDs and cassettes are rarely organized and present awkward storage problems. While he preaches keeping ears and mind open, most consider him an intolerable snob.
On the literary front, he founded and facilitated "Reading Between the Vines", an online book group based in Napa Valley for wine professional and authors to discuss fiction and non-fiction winecentric titles. He has penned hundreds of pieces for wineries across Napa and Sonoma and spends 1/3 of each day helping folks realize their dream of crafting custom wine at The Wine Foundry in Napa, California.
We are Devo.