Although technically this was their second consecutive "live" release (and third since 1969), Europe '72 was intended to serve as a "studio" album, introducing a slew of new, mostly country-inflected songs to their catalog. With their Old West imagery and distinct twang, Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter compositions like "Ramble on Rose," "Brown Eyed Women," and "Tennessee Jed" (plus the Hnter-Pigpen atom "Mr. Charlie" and the Hunter-Bob Weir saga "Jack Straw") all fit together superbly as a kind of Americana song cycle, giving the set a welcome cohesiveness. There are also vibrant, extended readings of earlier favorites like "Sugar Magnolia," "Truckin'," and "China Cat Sunflower"/"I Know You Rider." It's an indispensable document of a band at a particularly fertile place in their history, performing some of their most memorable material.