There and Back Again

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

After releasing Love Will See You Through, a live album featuring one-time guests like Jorma Kaukonen, Phil Lesh organized a permanent touring and recording band under the moniker Phil Lesh & Friends. This quintet -- with an instrumentation that replicated the Grateful Dead's except for the inclusion of only one drummer -- featured former Allman Brothers Band guitarists Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring, former Zen Tricksters keyboardist Rob Barraco, and former Bruce Hornsby & the Range drummer John Molo. There and Back Again is this unit's first studio album and, not surprisingly, it sounds like a cross between the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. Lesh has made one other crucial connection, bringing in Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter to write the words for six of the 11 songs. Hunter has a distinctive, wordy writing style, full of allusions, aphorisms, and wordplay that will be familiar to any Deadhead. Haynes, who does most of the singing (though Lesh and Barraco get leads, too), was a careful student of Gregg Allman's throaty style, and his stinging slide guitar work recalls Duane Allman. For the most part, the band keeps their natural tendency to jam in check, placing emphasis on the well-written songs. The result is a surprisingly well-organized and accessible collection that is the best album yet made by a Grateful Dead spin-off band. This limited-edition version of the album, available through mail-order (www.dead.net), includes another full disc containing a studio recording of "Passenger" and live takes of "St. Stephen," "Dark Star," and "The Eleven," all Grateful Dead evergreens co-written by Lesh. The playing on these tracks strongly echoes the Grateful Dead; in fact, in places, even Deadheads might be fooled. Taken together, the recordings reflect Lesh's willingness to take up his old band's standard, perhaps in hopes of regaining their massive following.