Last updated: April 29, 2026
The Shakedown Archives covers the history of the Grateful Dead, the music they made, the people who built and toured with the organization, and the broader counterculture they emerged from and shaped. This page describes the editorial standards under which our articles are researched, written, and corrected. We publish it so that readers, advertisers, and the subjects of our coverage can hold us to a known process.
Editorial Voice
The Shakedown Archives is a small editorial operation run by a lifelong Deadhead working with a small group of researchers and reviewers. Articles are reviewed before publication for accuracy against their underlying sources. Where opinion or interpretation appears in an article, it is the view of the editor based on the documentary record at the time of publication.
Source Hierarchy
We rank sources from strongest to weakest as follows:
- Primary documents and recordings. Audio and video recordings of the band’s performances (especially soundboard tapes), official setlists, contracts, business records, court filings where applicable, and unpublished archival material from the Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz (gdao.org).
- Contemporaneous reporting from established music and news organizations. Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, and other publications with editorial standards and a record of corrections.
- Long-form investigative and biographical reporting. Book-length works by reporters and biographers with track records on the band and the Bay Area scene (for example, Dennis McNally, Blair Jackson, Robert Greenfield, David Browne, Peter Richardson).
- Academic histories. University-press monographs, peer-reviewed musicology, and the Grateful Dead Studies journal.
- Memoirs and first-person accounts. Used carefully and never as the sole source for a factual claim about another person, because memoirists have incentives to shape their own story. Memoirs by Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Rock Scully, and others are valuable but are weighed against contemporaneous evidence.
- Aggregator sites and unsourced internet articles. Used only to locate primary sources, not as a source themselves.
Verification
Every factual claim about a real person — what someone played, said, did, was paid, or was credited with — is required to trace to at least one source from category 1, 2, or 3 above. Claims supported only by category 5 (memoir) are flagged in the article as such. Where two sources conflict, we present the conflict rather than picking the one we prefer. Where the record is genuinely ambiguous, we say so rather than papering over the ambiguity with confident prose.
Attribution
Sources are listed at the end of every article in a Sources block. Where a source is quoted directly, the quotation is presented in the body of the article with attribution. Books are cited by author and title. Live performances are cited by date and venue, with archive links to the underlying soundboard or audience recording where possible (typically Archive.org or Relisten). Songs are cited by title and album, with composer credit. We do not invent sources, and we do not cite sources we have not actually consulted.
Quotations
Direct quotations are reproduced from the source as written or transcribed. We do not alter quotations to fit narrative needs. Where a quotation is reconstructed (for example, dialogue reported in a memoir rather than transcribed verbatim), we make that clear in the surrounding text.
Statements About Real People
Statements about identifiable real people are made with the documentary record as the controlling reference. Where a person was credited but not paid, the article says so. Where a contractual arrangement was alleged but never confirmed, the article says so. We do not assert factual claims beyond what the documentary record supports, and we do not characterize a person’s motives or interior life beyond what we can support from a source.
Use of AI-Assisted Tools
We use software tools, including AI-assisted writing and research tools, in our editorial workflow. Tools are used to locate sources, summarize long documents, draft and revise prose, and check copy for clarity. Every claim that appears on the Site is reviewed by a human editor against its source. We do not publish material that has not been reviewed against its underlying source. The use of tools does not relax our verification obligation.
Conflicts of Interest
The Shakedown Archives has no financial relationship with the Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead Productions, Rhino Entertainment, or any of the surviving band members, family members, estates, or business affiliates of subjects we cover. We do not accept payment, gifts, or other consideration from subjects or their representatives. We participate in standard advertising programs (Google AdSense) that display third-party advertisements unrelated to article content. Editorial decisions are not made based on advertiser preferences.
Corrections Protocol
Errors of fact are corrected promptly when brought to our attention. The correction protocol is as follows:
- The reader emails inquiries@theshakedownarchives.com with the article URL, the specific passage in question, and any source they want us to consider.
- An editor reviews the documentary record.
- If the record supports the correction, we update the article in-line and append a dated correction note at the bottom of the article describing what was changed and why.
- Minor copy-editing fixes (typos, broken links, formatting) are made silently without a correction note.
- We do not delete articles in response to coverage we later regret. If an article is materially flawed, the article is rewritten with a prominent correction note rather than removed.
Right of Reply
Identified subjects of an article, or their authorized representatives, may submit a written response to coverage. Where the response addresses a specific factual claim, we will review the underlying record and correct as warranted. Where the response is a disagreement with our analysis or framing, we may publish the response (in whole or in part) at the bottom of the relevant article.
Comments
Reader comments are moderated. Comments that violate our Terms of Service — including defamation, harassment, doxxing, or spam — are removed. We do not remove comments that disagree with our coverage so long as they comply with the Terms.
Contact
Editorial inquiries, corrections, and right-of-reply submissions should be sent to inquiries@theshakedownarchives.com.