The standard line on the Grateful Dead is that they were all about the live shows, the best recordings are live, and the studio albums are secondary, providing relatively straight and uninspired versions of songs that came to life in myriad forms on stage. In general this may be true, but you'd never guess it listening to _American Beauty_, one of their earliest and finest studio albums. It's a beautifully warm and organic album with consistently top notch writing, playing, and singing, all gorgeously arranged and recorded. A must-have not just for Dead fans but anyone into the psychedelic-folk-rock side of the classic rock era.