Aces Back to Back: The History of the Grateful Dead (1965 - 2013)

Aces Back to Back details the Grateful Dead's history through January, 2014, making it the most precise and up-to-date account of the Dead's history ever written - from the band's inception, through the death of Jerry Garcia, and on to their incarnations as the Other Ones, the Dead, RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends, the Mickey Hart Band, 7 Walkers, and Furthur.

Our biography features a Foreword from Grateful Dead lyricist and renowned civil libertarian John Perry Barlow. The cover is drawn by acclaimed poster artist Steve Johannsen (Grateful Dead, Furthur, Gov't Mule) and the interior features 18 original illustrations by Steve and the gifted Lauren Kroutil. Aces Back to Back recounts the group's history from their earliest roots - the 1960 meeting of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter - and takes the reader right up to the Furthur concerts in Riviera Maya, Mexico in January, 2014. Every vital moment in the Dead's history in-between is covered. This book celebrates the most minute - Weir gets to sing almost all of the songs at two '78 shows because Jerry is ill - and doesn't forget the glory: the Acid Tests, Woodstock, the Wall of Sound, In the Dark, the Deadheads, etc. All the key players are here, too; among them: Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Robert Hunter, John Barlow, Bill Graham, Jerry's guitar history with luthier Doug Irwin, the Egypt shows, the Family Dog, Winterland, Augustus Owsley Stanley III, and so on