I just finished David Browne’s So Many Roads: The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead. While it was certainly a definitive story of the band from start to finish (along with references to their current iterations post-Jerry Garcia), it also followed a more unique structure. For each chapter, Browne selected a monumental date in the band’s history and devoted the contents of that chapter to the events surrounding that vital period in the band’s history. From their early beginnings in Menlo Park and Palo Alto as The Warlocks to their European tour of 1972, to their taking over Radio City Music Hall in 1980 to the making of their first music video (their biggest radio hit, “Touch of Grey”), to the gate-crashers in Noblesville in 1995 that seemed to serve as a premonition for the early demise of Jerry a few weeks later, the book manages to cover so much ground while also highlighting the pertinent moments in their history. Written clearly from the perspective of a “Deadhead,” but also managing to be objective and never prone to hiding the band’s warts-and-all journey, Browne delivers a compelling and fascinating narrative on one of the most unique bands ever to grace a stage. I highly recommend the book for anyone who loves the Dead, the first “jam” band that influenced so many others to come (including my beloved Phish).