Jerry Garcia Band - Jerry Garcia Band

good stuff, but far from the best JGB recording

If you want primo Jerry Garcia live, buy Live at the KeyStone vol 1 or vol 2 and hear Jerry G and Merle Saunders in 1973 in their prime. I loved going to see Jerry's band in many incarnations throughout the 1980s, but his voice and his energy gradually decreased into the 1990s. Years of touring took their toll. His voice on much of this JGB release is very weak and rough compared to his earlier years, and these band members are no match for the great JG Bands of the mid 1970s. Really, skip this one and buy the KeyStone recordings. There is no comparison. May 7, 2007

Some great tracks

This CD comes from a series of shows the "Jerry Garcia Band" did at the Warfield in Sam Francisco in 1990. It is 140 minutes and the sound quality is very good. The band consists of John Kahn on bass, Melvin Seals on organ, a drummer and two back up singers.

There are some great tracks on this CD. Garcia and the band are at the best when they do long, enegetic, flowing tunes, like Dear Prudence and Don't Let Go. Dear Prudence is the Beatles tune and is done in that long jam style of the late sizties. It just moves and flows in a marvelous way.

Don't Let Go is a 1950's R&B tune that Jerry Garcia has been playing since 1976 in the various incarnations of the Jerry Garcia Band. By the time this album was released, he had been playing the song for 15 years and has really fine tuned it into a 17 minute masterpiece.

The one Grateful Dead tune the band does in Deal. Even though the Dead has done this song much better, this version of Deal is still very good, with a blistering guitar solo.

As for the rest of the songs on the album, they are all covers of other peoples music. In most cases, the originals are better than Garcia's (except for the nice Garcia solo thrown in here and there).

For instance, Garcia's version of the Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, isn't as good at The Band's original version, or the two live versions the Band has out on record. Garcia's version of Los Lobos' Evangaline is especially weak. I would rather hear the Los Lobos version any day. It is played with much more energy and is much more interesting. And, I still prefer Peter Tosh's version of Stop That Train.

Dylan and Dead just don't go together. I don't know why, but 2 of the most important artists in rock history just do not meld. The Dylan and Dead live album is just a horrible mess. And here, Garcia does not do justice to the 4 Dylan songs he plays. The only one that comes off decent is Tangled Up In Blue. But that song from early in Dylan's career is so good, it is almost impossible to mess up.

I know people are going to be mad at me (at mark my review as "not helpful") for saying some derogatory things about Garcia. There are some excellent tracks on this set, but it shouldn't be ignored that there are some songs that aren't as good as the original versions by the original artists, and at times they can be a little boring and tedious.

This CD is currently out of print (in 2007), but I think a new "special edition" will be available soon. April 25, 2007

a big mix of nice songs

I like Dylan so much that having four of his songs in a live performance is more than I need to be pickled pink. Jerry Garcia is playing the guitar solos on all these songs, with just drums, a bass guitar, organ or keyboards, and two backup singers to back up his lead vocals, but the skill with which the music just keeps coming, song after song, is impressive. The vocals are geared to saying what he means with a bit of variation from tunes that I am familiar with, but his voice is something I've grown used to, the price I pay to find out what all these songs are about. The guitar is a great instrument when someone really knows how to play it, which Jerry did well. He added a lot to these songs. When you want a beautiful part to come along, just wait for it. February 10, 2007

I can't stop listening

This album just keeps getting better from beginning to end. The band tightens up as the show progresses and you can tell they're really feeling the music. Jerry's voice is pretty damn good here considering the time period. There's not one song on this album I don't love. It's a lot more mellow than The Dead, but you'll fall right into the groove, especially if you've smoked a little something. I have to say, the backup singers are the MVP's of this album. February 5, 2007

A gift from Ol' Saint Jerry

Right before Christmas last year, my oldest daughter was not yet four, I pointed out a big picture of Jerry Garcia on the cover of a book at Barnes and Noble. She said, "Hey, Jerry Garcia looks just like Santa Clause." Then she asked if we could either visit Santa Clause or Jerry Garcia before Christmas next year. I replied, no, we couldn't, because Jerry Garcia is dead and "some people believe Santa Clause is just make believe," or words to that effect. It probably was not my greatest moment in parenting, but I try not to lie to my kids and I have mixed feelings about the Santa Clause thing for reasons I won't go into here. There was a pregnant pause, and I worried I had traumatized her with my bluntness, but she seemed unfazed. A moment later, studying the picture again, she amended her observation: "Actually, Jerry Garcia looks different than Santa Clause because Santa Clause has a hole in his beard where his mouth is." Fair enough.

The Grateful Dead were a unique and special thing, but by the eighties, it had grown too large, taken on a life of its own. Too many people were making too much money, and too many lives depended on the touring. So, on inertia and psychedelic fumes, the band played on. And the kids, they dance and shake their bones. But Jerry Garcia's heart was not in it. There were sporadic great shows, nights where all the individual streams came together just right and the magic happened. But you had to listen to a lot of mediocre jamming to get to those moments. You had to accept that you were there for the experience, and the band was there to provide the accompaniment. Any higher expectations and it was a set-up.

When you listen to the Jerry Garcia Band, you can hear the difference. Not that there still weren't off nights. But freed of the burden of the Dead, the Dead scene and the Dead repertoire, the alchemical magic was bubbling through the music. Jerry could take a melody and make it something different, something special. The ensemble he put together in the late eighties and early nineties played some great, soulful and beautiful music, and this compilation is a nice example of the best of it.

Melvin Seals is terrific on the organ and Kahn does a good job on the bass. You also get quality background singing, something noticeably missing from the Grateful Dead since the band cleared puberty. The Way You Do the Things You Do, Dear Prudence, Deal, My Sisters and Brothers, and an exuberant Tangled Up In Blue are my personal favorites. There are also plenty of those slow, sad ballads that Jerry does so well.

Buy this, listen to it often, have fun, be safe.
October 3, 2006

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