#garcialive volume 21

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 21

There are some historic moments - and a dude who screams at some point during most every song - on GarciaLive Volume 21.

Recorded Feb. 13, 1976, at the Keystone, months before the Grateful Dead ended their hiatus, the LP finds guitarist Garcia accompanied by his Grateful companions Keith (piano) and Donna Jean (vocals) Godchaux, loyal bassist John Kahn and moonlighting Elvis Presley drummer Ron Tutt.

Like the Dead in ’76, this Garcia Band lineup was just getting warmed up for the years to come as the three Gratefuls prepare for the Dead’s return with “Mission in the Rain” and “They Love Each Other” and the rhythm section keeps everything on track.

Capturing the entire gig - save for the opening “How Sweet it Is (To be Loved by You),” which is lost to the ether - and two filler cuts from Feb. 15, the album finds the JGB in a mostly laid-back groove, performing the first-known versions of the Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile,” J.J. Cale’s “After Midnight,” Ray Charles’ “Talkin’ ’Bout You” and the Sensational Nightingales’ “My Sisters and Brothers,” the latter in a low-key arrangement that would change mightily over the years. A stunning, equally subdued, “Who Was John?” adds to the gospel shadings of the LP.

Garcia and Keith Godchaux are locked in tight across songs both uptempo and downbeat, while Donna Jean Godchaux struggles to stay in key on the rockers and sings beautifully on the ballads.

The recordings are pristine, picking up the ambiance of the small rooms and giving the screaming dude his 15 minutes of fame. Here’s hoping he’s still alive - and given Donna Jean Godchaux is the only surviving musician from this recording, there’s no guarantee - to hear it and relive what was obviously a monumental experience for him.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 21 - B-

6/26/24

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “The Harder They Come” (Live, Feb. 13, 1976)

“The Harder They Come;” Feb. 13, 1976; on which the Jerry Garcia Band stretches Jimmy Cliff’s tune to one-third of an hour without resorting to aimless musical wanderings.

Out to announce the full-show - save for the lost “How Sweet it Is (To be Loved by You)” opener - release as GarciaLive Volume 21, this version is loose-fitting and slow-to-unfold, leaving plenty of room for John Kahn’s riffing on bass and Garcia’s similarly low-end solos to bubble to the surface. Keith Godchaux, meanwhile, opts for high piano sparkling on the sonic water.

After choruses from Garcia with Donna Jean Godchaux on harmony, the song moves into a long instrumental section before drummer Ron Tutt wills a climax around the 12-minute mark. More vocals follow before Tutt and the band spend the final 90 seconds doing it again.

The sound quality is pristine and with the music so subtle, it’s fun to hear an out-of-his-head fan yelling, whoooo! over and over.

Out June 14, GarciaLive Volume 21 will include “How Sweet it Is” and the first-known performance of “My Sisters and Brothers” as recorded Feb. 15, 1976, to round out the LP.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “The Harder They Come” (Live, Feb. 13, 1976) - A

4/24/24

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Live, Feb. 13, 1976)

If the Grateful Dead played “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” as a lament - and they did - then the Jerry Garcia Band rendered its early takes on the Bob Dylan number as a death march.

The version in question dates to Feb. 13, 1976, before JGB added the reggae chorus, and drags on for 19 minutes of funereal balladry that recedes briefly around the 12-minute mark when Garcia’s guitar hits on a spiraling motif that Keith Godchaux mimics on piano.

This beauty-in-subtlety moment is, alas, fleeting as the music wanes and Donna Jean Godchaux opts for some off-key wails on the final refrain. It’s not JGB’s finest moment.

“Knockin’” follows “The Harder They Come” ahead of the June 14 release of GarciaLive Volume 21.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Live - 2/13/76) - C-

5/15/24

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “My Sisters and Brothers” (Live, Feb. 15, 1976)

Jerry Garcia’s relationship with “My Sisters and Brothers” began Feb. 15, 1976, with his eponymous Band’s debut performance of the Sensational Nightingales’ gospel number.

One of two filler tracks set to appear on GarciaLive Volume 21, which arrives June 14 and captures the group’s Feb. 13, 1976, gig, it’s slow and deliberate with Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux and someone else - John Kahn, perhaps? - on bass vocals singing:

We can all be together/forever and ever when we make it to the promised land

This version is tentative, with Keith Godchaux adding choppy chords on his piano, Garcia threading in between and the singers gingerly approaching the mic. It’s a far sight from what the song would become, but also an auspicious premiere.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “My Sisters and Brothers” (Live - 2/15/76) - A-

Read Sound Bites’ previous GarciaLive 21 coverage here

6/12/24

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Catfish John” (Live, Nov. 12, 1976)

Jerry Garcia was the name that sold the tickets, but his eponymous group was, indeed, a band in the truest sense of the word.

On “Catfish John,” out ahead of the Nov. 12 arrival of GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76, Garcia sings lead and, of course, plays lead guitar.

But Donna Jean Godchaux’s vocals are just as essential, as is Keith Godchaux’s acoustic piano - he solos nearly as much as Garcia. And John Kahn, bless his heart, plays lead bass throughout, while Ron Tutt, rest his recently departed soul, makes toggling between Elvis Presley and Garcia’s bands sound easy, which it assuredly was not.

The year 1976 was a good one for the Grateful Dead and - as this 11-minute slice of baked reggae, and the preceding “Sugaree,” remind us - a good year for the JGB.

With Tutt’s death last week, Donna Jean Godchaux is the only surviving musician on this recording, making its existence and impending release all the more important.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Catfish John” (Live - 11/12/76) - A-

10/19/21

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Sugaree” (Live, Nov. 13, 1976)

As his eponymous band neared the end of a 14-minute “Sugaree” on Nov. 13, 1976, Jerry Garcia dug in to one of those solos that added a “very” to an otherwise-solid performance.

The track heralds the Nov. 12 arrival of GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76, a three-disc set that pieces together surviving recordings of the band’s Nov. 7, 12 and 13 concerts along with a take on “Mighty High,” whose origins are unknown, but “we suspect was made around this time.” The keepers of Garcia’s vault eschewed a traditional full-show release because of “a myriad of challenges from reel damage to tape loss and other assorted technical difficulties,” per a statement.

The band at this time featured the rhythm section of bassist John Kahn, drummer Ron Tutt and guitarist/vocalist Garcia and his Grateful Dead bandmates Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux on piano and vocals, respectively.

On “Sugaree,” Kahn plays with enough enthusiasm to rattle the ol’ hi-fi 45 years down the line while Garcia bookends another of Keith Godchaux’s typically fluid and pretty solos.

But it’s that final Garcia showcase that puts it over the top.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Sugaree” (Live - 11/13/76) - B+

9/29/21

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 16

The Jerry Garcia Band clearly enjoyed - and made the most of - its Madison Square Garden debut.

Not only is the sextet’s Nov. 15, 1991, performance, as released on GarciaLive Volume 16, superlative, it runs an extraordinarily long 154 minutes and features a rare encore from the group, which typically eschewed such formalities.

That the final song happened to be a gospel-cum-reggae-with-hints-of-“Dear Prudence” rendition of “(What A) Wonderful World, makes clear the X factor was present lo those many years ago in NYC’s MSG

This iteration of the JGB had been together for eight years at this point and typically ran as smoothly as the Grateful Dead - and sometimes more so.

As it goes, 11/15/91 was one of those more-so times with every musician - guitarist Garcia, organist Melvin Seals, bassist John Kahn and under-appreciated drummer David Kemper, who swung like no one else - in top form as demonstrated by the band adroitly fading out numbers like the Miracles’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and the slow-jam soul of the Manhattans’ “Shining Star.” Singers Jacklyn LaBranch and Gloria Jones, meanwhile, cushion Garcia’s quavery vocals and complement Seals’ gospel stylings on tracks such as “My Brothers and Sisters” and “That Lucky Old Sun.”

This show features the double-deluxe whammy of how it’s performed and what’s performed, with rarely played, but flawlessly executed, versions of Jimmy Cliff’s “Struggling Man,” Van Morrison’s “He Ain’t Give You None” and “Bright Side of the Road” and Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally” appearing alongside more-standard fare like Norton Buffalo’s “Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox” and “Deal,” the only original in the 16-song set.

Because of its sparse touring schedule penciled in around the Grateful Dead’s thrice-annual treks, the Garcia Band tended to play relatively static sets and occasionally lacked the elasticity of Garcia’s main gig. With neither of those issues apparent on Volume 16, the three-disc set falls into the must-have category, which is no small feat for a man recorded as much as Garcia was recorded.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 16 - A

7/8/21

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders feat. Martin Fierro - “Keystone Korner Jam” (Live, May 21, 1971)

Form and formlessness; rock ‘n’ roll and jazz; and Jerry Garcia and Martin Fierro face off in a 16-minute musical one-off now known as “Keystone Korner Jam.”

Named for the venue in which it was created, this improvised piece follows “The Wall Song” as track No. 2 previewing GarciaLive Volume 15‘s Dec. 4 arrival. It’s a testament to the wisdom of recording everything, as guitarist Garcia, sax man Fierro, keyboardist Merl Saunders and drummer Bill Vitt’s monumental May 21, 1971, club jam could have just as easily faded into the ether after Vitt’s snap of the hi-hat brings it to a close.

The creative tension is palpable as Fierro squawks ferociously and lays out completely, leaving Garcia to pick spaces to complement or dominate. The music toggles between near collapse and fully formed melody as hints of not only the Grateful Dead - but the Rolling Stones and the Doors - bubble to the surface and break on through.

The track - like the show and the album - is credited to Garcia and Saunders, but all four players are essential. It’s said bassist John Kahn missed this gig; however, someone - presumably Saunders on pedals - is holding down the deep end.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders feat. Martin Fierro - “Keystone Korner Jam” (Live - 5/21/71) B+

11/10/20

[krispyweiss]

Sound Bites’ Favorite Grateful Dead - and Family - Releases of 2020

The year of fresh hell was a grate year to be Dead.

With the 50th anniversaries of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty to go along with the long-running Dave’s Picks and GarciaLive series of concert releases, the Grateful Dead were quite active in 2020 - particularly given the band broke up in 1995.

Here, then, are Sound Bites’ favorite releases from the Dead - and family - in 2020. 

Dave’s Picks 36

Four discs, two complete concerts, one very lively Grateful Dead album.

Recorded on the band’s first East Coast tour after Jerry Garcia’s 1986 near-death crisis, Dave’s Picks Volume 36 captures the Dead on March 26 and 27, 1987, in Hartford, Conn. And the recordings can barely contain the excitement that bursts forth on the opening “In the Midnight Hour” and burns through the finale, “Johnny B. Goode.”

The crowd is juiced and in turn juices the band, which responds with such exuberance it sometimes results in flubbed lines or missed cues. Imperfections aside, these are the moments that made Grateful Dead concerts the only-in-this-time-and-this-place moments unlike anything before or since. And Dave’s Picks Volume 36 is one of those recordings that makes one long for a time machine.

GarciaLive Volume 13

What makes the Jerry Garcia Band even better? Clarence Clemons.

The evidence is all over GarciaLive Volume 13, a soundboard-quality recording of JGB’s Sept. 16, 1989, concert at Illinois’ Poplar Creek Music Theatre with Clemons a member of the group. The electricity Clemens generates is clear when Garcia excitedly counts off the opening “Cats Under the Stars;” it’s there in his grungy, exuberant playing throughout; and in his enthusiastic we’ll be right back after the Beatles-Stones set-one-closing sequence of “Dear Prudence” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together.”

Sound Bites was lucky enough to be in attendance for this one. Hearing a high-quality recording all these years later was a real treat.

Dave’s Picks Volume 33

On any given night in 1977, the Grateful Dead were liable to play a show that would become famous. Oct. 29 in DeKalb, Ill., was a given night and the concert that evening at Evans Field House became so famous it was released as Dave’s Picks Volume 33. The only drawback is the massive amount of empty space on Disc 2, which runs just 24 minutes and begs for filler.

American Beauty: The Angel’s Share (Demos)

Featuring nine of 10 tracks that made up 1970’s American Beauty - with “To Lay Me Down” subbing for the MIA “Box of Rain” - this collection of fully formed, unplugged, studio performances is simply splendid. It’s the sound of the Grateful Dead planting the seeds of what would become Americana music.

American Beauty (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Fans who attended the Grateful Dead’s Feb. 18, 1971, concert saw the band debut five originals that would become warhorses; witnessed Mickey Hart's last appearance until 1974; and were treated to extra keyboards from Ned Lagin.

Circulated but never officially released, the show was included as bonus material on American Beauty (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition). The remastered 1970 LP is outstanding, more like a subtle remix than a remaster, with classic after classic shimmering in exquisite sound quality.

Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Outfitted with a previously unreleased concert recording from 1971, Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) showcases a band in the midst of a metamorphosis.

The original 1970 album finds the Grateful Dead renouncing psychedelic studio trickery in favor of homegrown, Americana sounds and features such quintessential tracks as “Uncle John’s Band,” “Dire Wolf” and “Casey Jones.” It’s one of the - if not the - band’s best albums.

The Feb. 21, 1971, concert finds further evolution taking place as Mickey Hart had decamped days prior and the remaining musicians settled into a more down-to-earth routine. On this night, Pigpen fronted four tracks - “Easy Wind,” “Next Time You See Me,” “I’m a King Bee” and a marathon “Good Lovin’.”

Workingman’s Dead: The Angel’s Share

Dubbed Workingman’s Dead: The Angel’s Share, this streaming-only album presents rehearsals, demos and false starts from the LP’s eight songs presented in the finished album’s running order. The 64 cuts - which sound nearly pristine despite their age and the fact they’ve been sitting in unmarked boxes for the past half-century - include 15 versions of “Easy Wind,” but only one incomplete stab at “Cumberland Blues.” If too much of everything is just enough, then this is just right.

12/29/20

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders - GarciaLive Volume 15

Never circulated, the concert that comprises (Jerry) GarciaLive Volume 15, casts the reluctant Grateful Dead leader in another light entirely.

On this night, Garcia was a jazz man, a blues man, a funk man, a rock ‘n’ roll man, but not a frontman. He was simply one of three - and sometimes four - guys chasing the muse inside a tiny club in their hometown.

Recorded May 21, 1971, at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner, the set features the core trio of guitarist Garcia, keyboardist Merl Saunders and drummer Bill Vitt, augmented by sax man Martin Fierro, who flits on and off stage as the evening progresses.

Made up of originals (Saunders’ instrumental “Man-Child”) and covers ranging from Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her,” also instrumental, to Crosby and Nash’s “Wall Song,” with vocals, the album is an adventurer’s dream.

The two-hour sets features but 10 songs, most of which were not in Garcia’s oeuvre for long. This makes issues with the source tape - Saunders often sounds like he’s playing out on the street - forgivable.

The made-up-on-the-spot “Keystone Corner Jam” unfolds over 16 minutes of jazzy, funked-up improv and the musicians seem to know what they’re going for the entire time. Ditto Saunders’ 25-minute-plus “Save Mother Earth,” another wordless excursion where Fierro briefly quotes War’s “Low Rider” deep into the track as the players gamely stretch out, but never noodle.

While he plays with fire, Garcia’s doesn’t have a great night at the mic. And with no vocal support, the harmony-rich “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” suffers accordingly, though blues such as “One Kind Favor” and “I Know it’s a Sin,” fare much better.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders - GarciaLive Volume 15 - B+

12/7/20

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76

Sequenced to resemble a single concert, but actually cobbled together from bits of three shows, GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76 paints the then-new-look Jerry Garcia Band in a kaleidoscope of technicolor hues.

Culled from usable portions of tape from the band’s Nov. 7, 12 and 13, 1976, concerts, plus an “encore” of “Mighty High” from an unmarked reel, NorCal ’76 is a gem, despite occasional audio issues when recording levels spike and fall.

Reassembled around Garcia, his Grateful Dead bandmates Keith (piano) and Donna Jean (vocals) Godchaux; his loyal bassist John Kahn; and Elvis Presley drummer Ron Tutt, this JGB was every bit as rejuvenated as the recently unretired Dead, who had taken a late-’74-mid-’76 breather.

In fine voice and fleet of fingers, Garcia converses in song with Donna Jean Godchaux and in music with her husband, Keith. Kahn and Tutt, meanwhile, are as forceful as a rhythm section can be without intruding; Kahn even takes a tasteful solo in Irving Berlin’s “Russian Lullaby.”

Garcia knocks on the Dead’s door with “Friend of the Devil,” drops in on Old & in the Way on “Midnight Moonlight” and cedes lead vocals to Mrs. Godchaux on a wafting bit of Bob Marley’s “Stir it Up.”

Keith Godchaux is in his prime, like a prodigious recitalist proficient in jazz, classical and rock. He sings some backgrounds on “The Way You Do the Things You Do” as serves as Garcia’s crucial foil on tracks such as “Catfish John,” “I’ll Take a Melody” and “Mystery Train,” during which he hints at “Cumberland Blues” repeatedly.

This was the JGB at its most Dead-like. And perhaps its mostly lively as well.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76 - A-

11/18/21

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “I’ll Take a Melody” (Live, Nov. 7, 1976)

The Jerry Garcia Band could take a melody through innumerable twists and turns in the course of a single song.

One of the best vehicles for such audio stunt work was their cover of Allen Toussaint’s “I’ll Take a Melody,” a 17-minute version of which was just released ahead of GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76’s Nov. 12 arrival. It was preceded by “Sugaree” and “Catfish John.”

Garcia sings in close harmony with Donna Jean Godchaux and engages in musical conversation with her pianist husband, Keith, who colors the reggae arrangement with classical-cum-jazz stylings. The entire canvas is a license for bassist John Kahn to solo endlessly while assisting drummer Ron Tutt in making the paint stick.

Ostensively a ballad, “Melody” kicks briefly into high gear at the five-minute mark, before quieting down for another pass at the chorus and launching into a lengthy instrumental that doubles as a tutorial in focused jamming.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “I’ll Take a Melody” (Live, Nov. 7, 1976) - A

11/9/21

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders feat. Martin Fierro - “The Wall Song” (Live, May 21, 1971)

As rarities go, Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders’ performance of “The Wall Song” is so rare as to be unique. And while that makes it interesting, that doesn’t make it essential.

The single announces the Dec. 4 arrival of GarciaLive Volume 15, capturing Garcia and Saunders’ May 21, 1971, gig at Keystone Korner.

Garcia obviously can’t - and does not - sing it as well as its author, David Crosby, did. In fact, the vocal section is quite poor, though Garcia, who played on the studio version, has the music down.

But guest saxophonist Martin Fierro, who comes on board at the five-minute mark and leads the bass-less band - guitarist Garcia, keyboardist Saunders and drummer Bill Vitt - through the remaining seven instrumental minutes does take “The Wall Song” to other spaces.

And out-therein lies the magic as Fierro turns Garcia’s wobbly Crosby and Nash cover into a free-range bit of jazzy exploration that exists only because of Garcia and the Grateful Dead’s habit of recording everything. It’s worth hearing. But it isn’t something fan’ll be putting on repeat for years to come.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders feat. Martin Fierro - “The Wall Song” (Live - 5/21/71) - C+

10/21/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders - “The Harder They Come” (Live, Aug. 11, 1974)

It took Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders almost 20 minutes to play Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” at Berkeley, Calif.’s, Keystone on Aug. 11, 1974.

It’s not that the duo were having a hard time remembering the song. It’s that they and their bandmates for the evening - saxophonist Martin Fierro, bassist John Kahn and Garcia’s Grateful Dead compatriot and drummer Bill Kreutzmann - were taking the song to places only this unique band would go with it.

While Saunders, Kahn and Fierro often joined Garcia in his extracurricular activities, Kreutzmann (the only one of the band members still living) rarely did. But given that the Dead were on hiatus during this period, he must have decided to join in.

The result is something that sounds more like Legion of Mary, less like the Jerry Garcia Band and nothing like the Grateful Dead.

The just-released track is the first to emerge from GarciaLive Volume Nine. The two-CD set features the complete show - just nine tracks, including “That’s What Love Will Make You Do,” the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train” and the Four Tops’ “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got).”

It’s out July 28.

The first four minutes are relatively straightforward and devoted to the vocals.

But then, the quintet embarks on a jazzy excursion that leaves plenty of room for Garcia and Fierro, who’s playing through some type of filter that gives his sax an extra funky sound, to trade solos as the rhythm section holds it all together. Kahn is particularly slippery, playing fat lines that bubble up to the surface and threaten to turn the bass into a lead instrument.

Saunders is uncharacteristically restrained; meanwhile, Kreutzmann shows off the chops that made so many Dead Heads love the one-drummer incarnation of his regular group.

There’s a quick return to the vocals around the 15-minute mark. And while Garcia’s in great voice, the instrumentals are what makes this “The Harder They Come” so easy to digest.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders - “The Harder They Come” (Live - 8/11/74) - A

6/21/17

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders feat. Martin Fierro - “I Was Made to Love Her” (Live, May 21, 1971)

Jerry Garcia was a terrific jazz musician.

His never-circulated, live, instrumental version of Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her” with keyboardist Merl Saunders, saxophonist Martin Fierro and drummer Bill Vitt proves it.

Recorded May 21, 1971, and set for release Dec. 4 on the full-show GarciaLive Volume 15, this third single is a humdinger, the best of the lot, marred only by the fact Saunders’ solo sounds as if it was played on the moon. But that’s simply a function of a 49-year-old source tape of a club concert and the remaining members of the quartet are up-front and wailing on this 10-minute foray into the depths of jazz and funk.

Come to think of it, Garcia was a terrific funk musician, too.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders feat. Martin Fierro - “I Was Made to Love Her” (Live - 5/21/71) - A-

12/1/20