Bluegrass musician here. Jerry Garcia was into bluegrass music and back then the only way for people on the West Coast to hear what East Coast musicians were up

Bluegrass musician here. Jerry Garcia was into bluegrass music and back then the only way for people on the West Coast to hear what East Coast musicians were up to was live tapes (albums being few and far between). So when the Dead took off, Jerry was all about enabling the tape trading because he knew what it meant to fans. (Source: Pete Wernick, conversation at last year's RockyGrass)