By April 1990, the Grateful Dead were deep into what would prove to be one of their final stretches of peak creative output. Brent Mydland had been behind the keys for over a decade at this point, and his bluesy, soulful presence had fully matured into the band's sound — giving the '89 and '90 shows a harder, more muscular feel than the melodic warmth of the mid-'80s. Jerry Garcia, despite ongoing health concerns that had nearly claimed him just a few years earlier following his 1986 diabetic coma, was playing with a kind of focused urgency in this period. This spring 1990 run caught the band in fighting shape before the unthinkable losses that would redefine the year — Brent's death in July was still months away, and there's an unknowing vitality to these shows that makes them bittersweet to revisit now. The Omni in Atlanta was a serious rock and roll room — a multi-purpose arena that opened in 1972 and became one of the Southeast's premier concert venues through the '70s and '80s. Atlanta had long been good Dead territory, and the Omni crowds brought real energy. The building had that live, slightly cavernous quality that could either work for or against a band depending on the night, and when the Dead locked in, the sound could fill the place in a genuinely immersive way.
The two songs preserved in our database from this date tell an interesting story on their own. "To Lay Me Down" is one of the most achingly beautiful songs in the entire canon — a Robert Hunter lyric of almost unbearable tenderness, and a vehicle for Garcia to pour out something deeply personal through his singing and phrasing. When this song works, it works on a level that few other Dead songs even attempt. Paired with "Walkin' Blues," the old Robert Johnson number that the band had been working into rotation, you get a sense of the span the Dead could cover — from Garcia's most intimate balladry to a raw, roots-deep blues stomp that let the band stretch out with grit and swagger. Brent's Hammond-driven push on a blues number like this is something worth savoring. The recording quality for this show should be evaluated against the known circulating sources — check the taper notes before diving in — but whatever the fidelity, the performances here deserve your attention. Press play and let April 1990 Atlanta remind you what this band was still capable of.