See, from my standpoint, you can't specialize in the dead, and any person who listens to the dead would agree, since they take pretty much every genre (from Blues to Bluegrass to Country to free from improvisation...etc). I listen to other stuff too, alot of Wes Montgomery, Bill Monroe, Trey Anastasio Band, String Cheese Incident, etc, but i just don't think any of them have that same thing the dead had...
see, you wouldn't have even answered my post if it wasn't for the one time i mentioned "Jerry Garcia", if i took that part out it could be 'any guitar player', i just used him as an example of somebody with great phrasing.