I sang a little while and then flew on.

Definitely my favorite version of this song for many of the reasons stated above. Great reading and nice guitar work.

1st set is sort of a jumbled mess.
But first off the sound quality on this one is a thing of beauty. I think Charlie is starting to get the hang of this mastering thing.(just a joke) I'm sure you were the shiat from out of the gates Charlie. Okay enough praise, cause his head is probably big enough from all of the worship we bestow upon him. Now to the music.
From right off you can tell this board has that perfect mix. Was Healy still around in '89 I wonder? It's a shame they fired him cause he knew his shit unlike any other sound man. I think Bobby had enough of him toying around with his vocals too much during '87 and '88.
The show starts off with some incredible energy. A fun and well played Bertha followed by the always well placed Greatest Story. Then things get a little sloppy IMO. Candyman is weakly played and uninspired. Jerry certainly wasn't feeling it for sure. I wouldn't call it horrible but it's certainly nothing I want to listen to over again. Walkin' Blues is walkin blues. pretty standard stuff IMO. not a favorite song of mine and this version is aptly played, albeit without much hoopla. I use the Walkin' Blues from 4/1/90 as a benchmark. My favorite version of this song.
Jerry definitely makes up for the weak Candyman with one of the best Peggy-O's I have heard. His reading of this version really does the song justice. Listening to it, you can really get a good feel for the way it was meant to be sung. This is a duet song people, and should be sung duet style with a man and woman singing their respective parts. Maybe not the best choice of songs for '89 GD. Not much to say about Queen Jane besides that it is my least favorite of the Dylan covers. I suppose it's well played. Didn't pay much attention to it. We Can Run really shows off Brent's talents, but IMO the song does not fit well anywhere in a GD set list. Maybe as a 2nd set opener. This version is good, but I don't have much to compare it too as I rarely pay much attention to this song. Most Deadheads know how screwed up the world is. We don't need to be reminded of it when trying to boogie to Jerry licks. At least they follow up We Can Run with a good choice of tunes in Bird Song. This version is not jammed out to the point I like, but is still a nice version. Short but played with purpose.
Now right away from the start of the 2nd set you can obviously tell this source is inferior to that of the 1st set. Oh well, we can't have heaven on earth, now can we. Foolish Heart is a bit sloppy and I hate the keyboard sounds that Brent uses during '89 on this song. Makes it sound cheesy. Good transition into Victim, which is short and to the point like it should be. I almost don't remember even hearing it. So that leads me to believe it was a good version as it just was background music to my ears. The Crazy Fingers sure is crazy to say the least. There is a cut/splice in this source tape as well. It happens right as Jer loses his place in the song. So at least all of the fuck ups are nicely grouped together. This Fingers starts out very nice and even with the glitch and major fuckup by Jerry, maybe the rest of the band too, it is still a good version. Hard to find much wrong with CF when Jer is in the mood to sing it. Which he was on this night, IMO.
Outstanding version of Truckin'. One of the best I have heard! Perfect transition into Smokestack as well. Bobby really shines on this pairing and the band is really playing off of each other so well now following the near disastrous fuckup during C Fingers. The jam into Smokestack is top notch. Smokestack is quite the blues nugget. Jerry's leads really shine throughout. The ending jam does fizzle though. Started fantastic then became disjointed. Same with drums. It started great with all sorts of funky rhythms. Albeit short, I'll still say a good drums. space was very disjointed. The band never came together with the same idea. China Doll has one hella a cool jam part after the first verse. Otherwise nothing much to say about it. I've heard more inspired versions. In fact the same goes for the rest of this show. So I will stop here. Really not much more to comment on. Audience was surprised to hear Stella, but it didn't quite take off like many '89 Stellas do. Brokedown was played OK, but again nothing post drums was as good as the rest of this show.
Get this for the incredible sound quality of the first set. Best song from this show is Truckin', followed by Peggy-O, Bertha, and China Doll(cause of the jam). Low points are Candyman, Watchtower, and Space. I can't fault the CF too much because it was fine other than the major flub.
4 stars for sound quality.
3 stars for show quality.
1st set SQ and the top notch Truckin and Peggy-O almost push the total to 4, but 2nd set SQ and lack of post drums standouts(except for the China Doll jam) keep it at 3.