ROBERT HUNTER
Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition)
Career-Spanning Archival Series Launches With Songwriter’s 1974 Solo Debut Remastered And Expanded With Unreleased Music
In Celebration Of Its 50th Anniversary
2-CD And 2-LP Versions Available From Rhino On June 7
LOS ANGELES – Rhino is launching a new career-spanning archival series honoring Robert Hunter’s work as a solo artist with a deluxe reissue of his 1974 debut, Tales of the Great Rum Runners. While Hunter is widely revered as the primary lyricist for the Grateful Dead, this series will explore the depth of his solo work, offering a renewed appreciation for his exceptional artistry.
Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition) will be available on June 7 from Rhino on 2-CD and 2-LP.
This Deluxe Edition introduces a freshly remastered version of the original album alongside 16 previously unreleased recordings, including alternate versions of album tracks and several session outtakes. All the music has been remastered from the original master tapes by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer David Glasser using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction.
Originally released in spring 1974, Tales Of The Great Rum Runners marked the inaugural release on Round Records, an offshoot of the newly formed Grateful Dead Records. Among its 13 tracks were several destined to become staples of Hunter’s live repertoire, like “Boys In The Barroom,” “Rum Runners,” and “It Must Have Been The Roses.”
Recorded at Mickey Hart’s converted barn studio in Novato, California, the album reveals Hunter’s multifaceted talents and features him singing and playing various instruments, including guitar, tin whistle, and bagpipes on “Children’s Lament.” He was accompanied by a revolving cast of Bay Area musicians on the album, including Jerry Garcia, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, and Mickey Hart of the Dead, as well as guitarist Barry Melton (Country Joe & The Fish), bassist David Freiberg (Quicksilver Messenger Service/Jefferson Starship), and pedal steel guitarist Buddy Cage (New Riders Of The Purple Sage).
Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition) comes with 16 previously unreleased bonus tracks, offering new insight into the album’s evolution. Among these are alternate versions of six songs that made the album (“Keys To The Rain” and “It Must Have Been The Roses”), plus ten gems that did not (“The Word,” “Buck Dancer’s Choice,” and “Elijah.”)
In the collection’s liner notes, Jesse Jarnow (author, DJ, and cohost of the “Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast”) deftly captures the essence of the album: “The music was as warm and handmade as the tapestries and tie-dyes adorning the Barn studio walls, an idiosyncratic continuation of the cosmic folk vocabulary that Hunter and Dead explored on Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. In an era when the Dead’s own studio albums were growing slicker, Rum Runners doubled down on organic earthiness.”
On October 8, 2024, Hachette Books will publish The Silver Snaling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead—The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter, which was penned by legendary Dead lyricist Robert Hunter in the early 1960s, but left unpublished in his attic. For decades, passionate fans of the Grateful Dead have discussed the existence of a “lost manuscript”—a sort of holy grail—the novelistic origin story of the band. The book will feature a foreword by John Mayer, an introduction by Dennis McNally, and an afterword by Brigid Meier, a close friend of Hunter’s. Fans will experience the early days of Hunter, Jerry Garcia, and their cohorts, following them into the stacks at Kepler’s Books, to rent instruments at Swain’s House of Music, and through the countryside on road trips. Readers will witness impromptu jams, inspired intellectual pranks, and dialogue that is, by turns, amusing and brilliant and outrageous. The Silver Snarling Trumpet illustrates how Hunter’s psychedelic expression and wordplay became the soul of the Dead. The book will be available wherever books are sold and can be pre-ordered now at your favorite local bookstore or online. Pre-Order HERE.
Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition)
2-CD Track Listing
Disc One: Original Album (2024 Remaster)
- “Lady Simplicity”
- “That Train”
- “Dry Dusty Road”
- “I Heard You Singing”
- “Rum Runners”
- “Children’s Lament”
- “Maybe She’s A Bluebird”
- “Boys In The Barroom”
- “It Must Have Been The Roses”
- “Arizona Lightning”
- “Standing At Your Door”
- “Mad”
- “Keys To The Rain”
Disc Two: Bonus Tracks (2024 Remaster)
- “Boys In The Barroom” – Alternate Version *
- “Elijah” *
- “The Word” *
- “Rum Runners” – Alternate Version *
- “It Must Have Been The Roses” – Alternate Version *
- “Road Hog” *
- “Green Briar Song” *
- “Reelin’ And A-Pitchin’” *
- “Briney Deep” *
- “Children’s Lament” – Alternate Version *
- “Lady Simplicity” – Alternate Version *
- “Southern Fried Shuffle” *
- “West Virginia Steel Guitar” *
- “Buck Dancer’s Choice” *
- “Boats” *
- “Keys To The Rain” – Alternate Version *
Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition)
2-LP Track Listing
Original Album (2024 Remaster)
Side One
- “Lady Simplicity”
- “That Train”
- “Dry Dusty Road”
- “I Heard You Singing”
- “Rum Runners”
- “Children’s Lament”
- “Maybe She’s A Bluebird”
Side Two
- “Boys In The Barroom”
- “It Must Have Been The Roses”
- “Arizona Lightning”
- “Standing At Your Door”
- “Mad”
- “Keys To The Rain”
Bonus Tracks (2024 Remaster)
Side One
- “Boys In The Barroom” *
- “Elijah” *
- “The Word” *
- “Rum Runners” – Alternate Version *
- “It Must Have Been The Roses” – Alternate Version *
- “Road Hog” *
- “Green Briar Song” *
- “Reelin’ And A-Pitchin’” *
Side Two
- “Briney Deep” *
- “Children’s Lament” – Alternate Version *
- “Lady Simplicity” – Alternate Version *
- “Southern Fried Shuffle” *
- “West Virginia Steel Guitar” *
- “Buck Dancer’s Choice” *
- “Boats” *
- “Keys To The Rain” – Alternate Version *
* previously unreleased