May 1979 finds the Grateful Dead in a particularly fertile stretch of the post-Keith-and-Donna era. Brent Mydland had joined the band just months earlier, bringing a bluesy Hammond B-3 swagger and a more muscular vocal presence that was already reshaping the band's sound in real time. This was a band in transition but not in flux — Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and the Hart-Kreutzmann drum tandem were playing with seasoned confidence, and the addition of Brent gave the whole thing a renewed charge. The spring 1979 tour caught the Dead at outdoor venues and arenas across the country, leaning into the warm-weather looseness that always seemed to sharpen their improvisational instincts. Alumni Stadium at UMass Amherst is the kind of venue that sits in the background of Dead lore — not a storied theater with legendary acoustics, but a big outdoor college setting in the heart of New England, where the Dead always had a passionate and knowing crowd. The Pioneer Valley had been fertile Deadhead territory since the early 1970s, and a spring afternoon show on a university campus carried its own kind of electric atmosphere: students, locals, and travelers converging on the grass with that particular end-of-semester energy that could push a band to stretch out.
Of the songs represented in the database here, Not Fade Away into They Love Each Other is exactly the kind of pairing that makes the Dead's setlist logic such a pleasure to trace. Not Fade Away, Buddy Holly's declarative stomp, was a Dead staple that could range from compact and punchy to sprawling and hypnotic depending on where the night was going — and leading it directly into They Love Each Other, that warm Garcia-sung valentine with its easy, rolling groove, suggests the band was in a generous, song-song connective mode. Friend of the Devil, one of Garcia's most beloved acoustic-era compositions even as the Dead were long past playing it on acoustic instruments, tends to take on a slightly more relaxed, sun-dappled quality in outdoor settings like this one, Garcia leaning into its waltz-time wistfulness. The recording listed here appears to be a circulating source worth a listen for fans filling out their picture of the early Brent era. Press play and pay attention to how Brent's organ sits under Garcia's leads on Friend of the Devil — there's a different warmth to the band's texture now, and spring 1979 is a fine place to hear it finding its footing.