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Critic's Review
William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Having given up on studio work after the disaster of Go to Heaven, the Grateful Dead recorded a series of concerts in New York and San Francisco in October 1980 for two live albums. Reckoning is the first, with a set of acoustic material that will remind many listeners of the rustic feel of the classic Workingman's Dead and American Beauty albums, although much of it consists of traditional and bluegrass material favored by Jerry Garcia. [In 2004, Rhino released a remastered, expanded edition of Reckoning as part of the exhaustive 12-disc box Beyond Description (1973-1989); in 2006, this expanded CD was released separately. The expanded Reckoning spanned two discs and contained the full studio album -- including "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" which was eliminated for space concerns from initial CD pressings of the album -- plus a whole second disc filled with unreleased, alternate live versions, most taken from the same concerts as the original Reckoning,]
