Fresh out of the Grateful Dead vault this month comes “Europe '72 Vol. 2.” Featuring lots of live tracks not included on the first compilation album from this iconic and legendary tour, Deadheads all over the blogosphere have been chatting up this CD's release for weeks. But with so many shows in the band's decades-long roster, why are we still talking about Europe '72?

There are several factors that make this tour unique and important. Europe '72 marked the “last hurrah” of Pigpen, a.k.a. Ronald McKernon, who passed away in the March following the tour from complications arising from cirrhosis. And while it was the last tour for Pigpen, it was the first tour for vocalist Donna Godchaux, wife of pianist Keith Godchaux, himself a fairly recent addition. The '72 tour also marked the band's first full tour of Europe. With the Grateful Dead taking their music overseas, perhaps the winds of change blew a little louder and more people were catching on to what San Francisco hippies already knew: The Grateful Dead was not just an American phenomenon, but a worldwide force steadily gaining speed.

The recently released “Europe '72 Vol. 2” aims to capture the very best tracks from this legendary and important era in Grateful Dead history. With highlights including a twenty-minute long “Dark Star” and a thirty-one minute “The Other One,” recorded live at the Bickershaw show on May 7^th, 1972, this album aims to remind us why we're still talking about this tour, and why we'll continue talking about this tour: the music is simply amazing.