[st. stephen]

i listened to gdradio yesterday and it was a typical show from '69 but then there was this dire wolf with jerry on pedal steel i guess and bobby took the vocals...
very unfamiliar to say the least, but i liked it. Are there more versions like this one?

[unclebrando]

workingman's dead bonus track is one

[poicephalus]

Those were done in the summer of '69, June I think. I know of at least a few versions. One was from Santa Rosa (Workingman's bonus mentioned above), and there is another from Fillmore West from close to the same time. The Weir versions all have Jerry on pedal steel.

[b weird]

Yeah, the Dire Wolf bonus track on Workingman's Dead is from 6/27/69 in Santa Rosa. IMHO it does not compare to the studio cut, but Jerry's pedal is top notch as usual. To bad he retired it. What year did he actually retire the Steel, I've never been sure?

[nicolasalk]

Jerry was good at it

[poicephalus]

What year did he actually retire the Steel, I've never been sure?

The early '70s were Jerry's biggest years for Pedal Steel. When he was in New Riders, of course, he played it extensively.

He didn't really "retire" it, though, until the mid '80s. He played it at some of the Dylan/Dead shows (I have video of one show where he plays pedal steel). He didn't play it much during these shows, though. Kind of like how it took it along on the Europe '72 tour to play on Looks Like Rain.

As far as playing it the '90s, I can't comment. My Dead days were mostly over by then.