Outfitted with a previously unreleased concert recording from 1971, Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) showcases a band in the midst of a metamorphosis. 

The original 1970 album finds the Grateful Dead renouncing psychedelic studio trickery in favor of homegrown, Americana sounds and features such quintessential tracks as “Uncle John’s Band,” “Dire Wolf” and “Casey Jones.” It’s one of the – if not the – band’s best albums. 

The Feb. 21, 1971, concert finds further evolution taking place as Mickey Hart had decamped days prior and the remaining musicians settled into a more down-to-earth routine. On this night, Pigpen fronted four tracks – “Easy Wind,” “Next Time You See Me,” “I’m a King Bee” and a marathon “Good Lovin’.” 

Between those longtime (save for Workingman’s’ “Wind”) favorites, the group trotted out early versions of songs that would become mainstays including “Loser,” “Playing in the Band” and “Greatest Story Ever Told,” the latter with incomplete lyrics and an embryonic arrangement.

Even without the curiosities and Pigpen-on-harp blues, this is a well-executed show. Bill Kreutzmann is learning how to drum alone again. Bob Weir’s wacky sense of rhythm guitar is beginning to emerge. And Jerry Garcia plays with a soon-to-be-abandoned dirty tone which is extra-effective on numbers such as “Johnny B. Goode.”

There’s a delightful – and rare – electric “Ripple” replete a false start. Weir asks the crowd to participate in a coyote-call contest prior to “China Cat Sunflower”->”I Know You Rider.” The band sings relatively well. And the record-buying public gets a show that should’ve been out officially long ago. 

The studio stuff is pretty decent, too.