No resolutions, a bunch of hypothetical scenarios and rambling opinions about our society from just random people. With the success of Disgraceland, I am surprised Jake Brennan is involved with this podcast.
I like this podcast for so many reasons it is hard to list on this review. The narration and subject matter are something to behold. As a Deadhead it is cool to hear the story although it breaks my heart at the same time. What a magical experience the Dead culture brings to our society and as Jerry once stated there are always “wolves among us”. Keep doing what you do boys and don’t stop trucking.
I think your investigative journalism
Is excellent.
So when I heard your add for this series I was excited.
My one and only hang up is the bio on the Grateful Dead by your co-host it was a little much
Explaining the sub culture or complete history and bio of the dead?
It gave me the sense of two totally different shows just stepped together
The interviews give the listener a clear enough insight to what that scene was all about.
Keep up the amazing work man!
Stay safe
I’ve enjoyed both of you separately and now together my mind is blown or maybe it’s more melt your face kinda vibe. I’m a gd fan in oregon and there’s a good chance you could suss some witness out of the wood work. I know some bands- who have strong followings here, I bet you there’s a good chance you meet other witnesses. A shows a great place to start…
Jake was so awful to listen to I had to stop. The story line jumped around and confused me. Too bad because the topic is interesting and I would have like to listen but just can’t stand it! I’ve like other things Payne has done but the addition of the other narrator was just cringe
I know some of the folks in this podcast. I hope this leads to more action on these cases. Can you look into the whereabouts of Brad Ferrinton? He’s been missing for several years now, he was my road dawg! My number is (740)541-0534
First season was pretty great. I remember enjoying it and having very few hangups. Overall, I would give S1 five stars.
Unfortunately, season two missed the mark. Bad. I would give S2 one star. Its structure is staggered and off, lacking any flow.
Honestly though, my biggest qualm is with Jake Brennan’s role in the show. He drives me nuts. It’s impossible to listen to his opening lines without rolling your eyes (and eye rolls have never been in my repertoire). His writing reminds me of an overly dramatic fresh/soph high schooler who’s doing a research project, lazily weaving elaborate stories around each fact they read, and giddily patting themself on the back each time they come up with cutesy wordplay. His delivery reminds me of a fresh/soph Sarah Lawrence student who’s chain smoking their first pack of cigarettes in the shadows of a party, waiting for girls to walk up just so he can tell them he almost didn’t come because nowadays he “finds more connection in Nietzsche.”
Phew…after hours of listening to that guy, it felt good to write something. Anyways, his role in the first season was understood, just overdone…he wanted to depict the Dead culture for any unfamiliar listeners. I think that job was done pretty early however, and could have been stopped, or at least limited thereafter. Eventually his segments were unnecessary and reeeally overdrawn. I think they could have easily weaved the necessary information into Payne’s segments or gotten enough cultural depiction from their actual deadhead guests.
First season was pretty sweet, second season was sort of exhausting…I would love to give season three a listen if it is made, but would need to see changes in order to finish.
I loved season 1 but season 2 was hard to follow and narratively confusing. He would talk about a story, skip around to other stories, and then go back with no clear beginning or endings. Please don’t do this in season 3.
I have to stop listening to anything Jake Brennan narrates. Dear Lord, can we be more dramatic and overly-acted?
This podcast is so all over the place, too. It’s hard to stay focused.
I love The Dead and I love podcasts, but this is just terrible. Season one was pretty good (Payne’s narration is kinda tough to take, but otherwise…)so I was excited for this.
It’s just so disjointed. The editing is terrible, there is no clear direction to the stories. It’ll just veer off into some weird direction, and at least a dozen times I’ve had to rewind to see what I missed to make the transition make sense, but it just doesn’t make sense.
The attempts to try to weave it all together are incredibly bad. Like the narrator took acid and thought that all these grand notions he’s making were somehow profound and intelligible.
I still don’t know what story they were trying to tell. I pray they don’t make a Season 3, I don’t want to have even the smallest temptation to listen to anything like this ever again.
The really is some sensationalism in podcast. Hard reach through out the show bc there’s barely a story here. I can’t help but laugh at how cheesy this is and how it try’s to paint the culture of the grateful dead as dark and shrouded in violence. Don’t waste your time.
This podcast is everything true crime mixed with pop culture should be! A dark journey of tales of the dead and gone. All the while giving you a taste of the long, strange trip of the Grateful Dead. Very good stuff!
Bummer man! This was a good podcast until the final episode and the podcasters totally copped out. I’m sad this ended so poorly. There is something gross and exploitive about this show that really bugs me. Scattered and unfocused. Tenderfoot shows are so hit or miss.
I can’t do it. Jake’s voice is like one of those douchey guys who thinks he’s cooler than everyone else in the room and wants to make sure you know it.
Season one was great. Lots of interviews with people involved and facts. Season 2- especially the case that takes up the first few episodes, is very narrative and speculation where they had the bad guy they chose from the start. Very little facts and no looking into the guy being hit by a car despite head trauma and being found in the middle of the road? First season is 4.5 stars but second season brings it to 3 for me
I will say the topic of this show is great and I’m enjoying that aspect of it. The interviews are fine. What I do have to say is the series narration is horrible. The canned phony voice is just irritating and the constant attempt at being clever by slipping in Grateful Dead lyrics into the commentary just comes across as dumb. Whoever writes the narrative clearly knows nothing other than stereotype of the Dead scene and Dead Heads. He clearly knows nothing about the members of the band or the scene other than what he googled. Really brings the whole series down. Just awful.
After finishing Season Two, I had to rate the show even lower than I’d originally done. Season One was very good but Season Two was disjointed, aimless and often senseless. That’s in addition to the utterly vapid narration. The canned narration with a voice too phony to be believed making dumb allusions to Dead lyrics every other sentence was just painful but what is sadder is that unlike other Tenderfoot shows the investigative work on the season just failed and fell flat. Very disappointing.
Payne and his team are great at keeping listeners hooked. I have enjoyed dead and gone just as much as up and vanished, and can’t wait to listen to more.
I love the podcast itself. However I pay to listen to these episodes, and they never work. They are always currently unavailable or simply buffer without playing. I have contacted tenderfoot tv via their website three times with no response.
Season one is much better than season two. Season two seems like a small amount of facts with a lot of filler. Love Paynes work in all his shoes but please remove Jake Brennan. His made up stories take away from the cases and I just end up fast forwarding through when I hear his voice. It’s the same as his other show Disgraceland. The facts of the bands he presents are great, but his made up elaborate stories are bad. Maybe it’s just me.
The thread that holds this season together is tenuous at best. I mean, I bet 15% of the people who died this year were Rolling Stones fans, is that worth a podcast? No. If you have a band of 100 thousand roaming Gypsies and drug users, some of them will die. It’s just a numbers game.
Last season was cool and focused. This season has too many detours and scattered plots to hold my interest. The parts about the dead specifically are cool, the rest just meanders into a fog of blah
Season one great !!! Season 2 with the dude trying to be Jim Morrison with his long monologues over explaining the mood …. awful …. and the political agenda politics speeches are contrived and unnecessary to the story . The content of the cases is very solid , wish there was more ….. but that Jim Morrison wanna be ….. on my , Payne your better than this . We want to hear you and your investigative skills .
One of my favorite podcasts, and I love the story telling it’s like old radio really paints a visceral picture in my mind, I do hope some of these cases will be resolved and the surviving family members will have some closure. Keep it up I look forward to the next season
“Experts” make a lot of opinions about race that do not add to the story or cases. I tried to overlook it but it too much when it doesn’t have to do with missing people. In season 1 it was valid but season two is trying to make a point of nothing. The broad strokes of anti police are too much as well.
robert durst was most assuredly a bad guy, but he was convicted of killing his friend, susan berman, not his wife kathie. come on, guys. what else isn’t fact-checked?
The storyline of season 1 was compelling and entertaining, but season 2 is lacks a cohesive arch. The story is all over the place, even within a single episode, and it’s hard to get into. Jake’s great, but I miss Payne.
…. Was great. Loved it! I was eager for season two but it just doesn’t compare. I think the team really does great investigating into meaningful issues, but that’s not what I’m here for. The episode about homelessness- again, great research. Not great Dead and Gone material. Let me repeat- there is a great team behind this podcast and I truly enjoy some of their other work. I just don’t love season two.
I love the podcast & Payne but Jake your storytelling is SUPER cheese. Stop with the use of Dead lyrics to tell your story. It’s not cool, you seem to be mocking the Dead 👎🏼
OMG… I can’t express how annoying Jake Brennan’s voice is!!! I had to stop listening to Disgraceland because I just couldn’t handle it. This podcast serves up that low, breathy, too-cool mumble in smaller doses thankfully. Like, dude, do you have a pulse?! Did you eat all the edibles?! Sleepy?! Why are you trailing off constantly? Anyway… pro tip, just fast forward thru those parts because it’s not relevant to the actual story.
