As they were prepping for the summer release of their first studio album in two years, Terrapin Station (a Top 40 Billboard album), the Grateful Dead blew the roof off Connecticut's Hartford Civic Center on the closing night of their spring '77 tour. A show long sought after by Dead fans, the set features inspired versions of songs that would soon come out on Terrapin, including 'Estimated Prophet,' 'Passenger,' and the title track. Epic jams also include, of course, 'One More Saturday Night,' 'Jack Straw,' 'Candyman,' 'U.S. Blues,' and takes on 'Tennessee Jed' and 'Sugaree' that many fans claim are as good as any ever recorded. Released in celebration of the Dead's '09 tour which plays Hartford and presented in HDCD, the recordings from this previously unissued show were mastered from the original two track master analog tapes.

2009-06-22 -- 4/5:: Solid release - good add to most GD collections
To Terrapin is a solid GD vault release and a good addition to most collections. If you really want a couple of shows from the 1977 period I'd personally recommend picking up Dicks Picks 10 or 29 first. Anyway you go on any of these releases the band is is fine form. Latvala!

2009-05-20 -- 2/5:: one outa' three..
I'll get to the point.
Disc three is very good.
Disc's one and two are lethargic.
Bobby ruined Minglewood by forgetting the verse"with a couple more shots of whisky".
I'm rating it a 2.
If you want this for some historical purpose ok. But If you want a fluid Dead show with them "in the Soup" with reckless abandon with spot on vocals and delivery, Listen to something else.
There are hundreds of dead shows out there on disc much better than this one.

2009-05-20 -- 5/5:: Great Memories
Really enjoy this CD. In 1977 I was graduating high school. The Grateful Dead was at their best. The sound quality and the music captured in this CD are priceless! Let's see more material released like this in the future!

2009-05-14 -- 5/5:: I've got an A+ soundboard of this, and highly recommend this show
I've got a low generation Bettyboard of this show and can't see spending the money for the slight improvement in audio quality.

However, if you aren't a tape/CDR trader (I have EVERY show from 1977, including the tiny snippet of Albuquerque, and some 800 Dead shows in all) I highly recommend this.

An earlier poster is right: this show gets overlooked because there were so many gems in 1977. (And 1978 was pretty hot, too!) I recommend this with all five stars. Sugaree clocks in at almost 20 minutes in surely one of the all-time best versions. EVERYTHING is great. The only thing that would have made this show even more awesome would have been a nice Dark Star. Oh, well, you can't have everything.

Take it from someone who knows the Dead's catalog inside out, this is good stuff and if you don't have it, what are you waiting for? Download it and ENJOY!

2009-05-12 -- 5/5:: Excellent addition to the Dead's live CD catalogue
There have been so many "releases from the vault" from the Grateful Dead's illustrious career that sometimes it is hard to tell one is really, as in REALLY, worth it, but this one surely is one of them.

"To Terrapin: Hartford '77" (3 CDs; 21 tracks; 172 min.) brings the last show of the Dead's Spring 1977 tour, and the band is at the top of its game. In some corners of deadhead fandom, the era with the Godchaux (keyboardist Keith and vocalist Donna) is not the best of the Dead, even suspicicous, but I'm not one of those. I've always had a weak spot for that era, and it couldn't be more vindicated by this release. CD1 starts off with a delicious 30 min. Bertha>Good Lovin'>Sugaree. CD2 contains a lot of shorter songs, including a delightful "Brown-Eyed Woman". CD3 brings the best of this release, an hour-long journey starting with the then-new "Estimated Prophet", then morphing into "Playing In the Band" and on and on, just fabulous. The set ends with an exuberant "One More Saturday Night" and the closer "U.S. Blues". Wow. This is an essential live CD release for any Dead fan, period.

I just came back from seeing the revived/revamped Dead at the Forum in LA and the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on its 2009 Spring tour, after a 5 year lay-off, and I am here to tell you that my expectations were surpassed, and then some. Over those two nights, the band played a number of songs found on this release, including Bertha, Sugaree, Good Lovin', One More Saturday Night, and Wharf Rat, but a bunch of other jems like Viola Lee Blues, Slipknot! and a Rolling Stones cover each night. The band sounded really tight, and came across interested and engaged. It's great to see the band back on the road, playing great, and I hope that they will continue touring. Meanwhile, "To Terrapin" is HIGHLY recommended!