#jaclyn labranch

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “The Way You Do the Things You Do” (Live, Feb. 28, 1991)

Unreleased for 33 years, the Jerry Garcia Band’s Feb. 28, 1991, performance of “The Way You Do the Things You Do” is finally out.

And it’s a doozy.

Every Dead Head has heard JGB do “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” But few Dead Heads have heard JGB do “The Way You Do the Things You Do” quite like this. Ten minutes of tie-dyed gold.

The Garcia Estate released the number, recorded in San Francisco, Aug. 1 to mark the 82nd anniversary of Garcia’s birth.

Often played and often similar, this “Do” is different with Melvin Seals experimenting with piano sounds alongside his more-familiar church organ. It seems a small difference, but the difference is huge. Seals plays low notes that send the song in a new direction as Garcia spirals out into his lengthy guitar solo and the Band takes on the swing of a jazz combo in a house of worship.

The piano is so dominant, it sounds as if a guest player was on stage. But a quick search of the Googles says there was not.

There was no mention of a larger release with this surprise birthday gift. But if a full recording of the show exists, and if this opener is any indication of what transpired on that evening, then this gig seems a no-brainer for the GarciaLive series.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “The Way You Do the Things You Do” (Live - 2/28/91) - A+

8/1/24

[rgray34]

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 13

If Clarence Clemons didn’t make the Jerry Garcia Band better with his saxophone - but he did - the Big Man’s presence was enough to get the Fat Man rocking.

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.”

Garcia is aflame across the two-and-one-quarter-hour performance, burning through Chuck Berry’s “Let it Rock” and committing aural arson on Los Lobos’ “Evangeline.”

Clemons’ ability to fit right in and play means organist Melvin Seals has fewer solos than usual; however, “Think” features a round robin between the three lead players as JGB becomes a low-down-and-dirty blues band. Later, Clemons and Garcia wrap each other in a tight musical embrace on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

With the glut of Garcia/Grateful Dead releases in the market these days, fans have reason to be choosy. But quality recordings of Garcia’s extracurricular band are tough to come by outside of officialdom and this tour with Clemons was a special event that lived up to expectations, making Volume 13 a must for any self-respecting fan, even if you weren’t there.*

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 13 - A

* Full disclosure, Sound Bites was a fortunate attendee of this concert

5/14/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band feat. Clarence Clemons - “Let's Spend the Night Together” (Live, Sept. 16, 1989)

The Big Man and the Fat Man rock and roll(ing) Stones.

Among the gems played on the 1989 Jerry Garcia Band tour that featured Clarence Clemons as a full-time accompanist were the Stones’ “Let's Spend the Night Together,” one of which was performed Sept. 16, 1989, in Illinois, and is the second single to emerge ahead of the April 24 arrival of GarciaLive Volume 13, which captures the concert in its entirety.

Running 11 minutes and featuring plenty of the Big Man’s blowing and the Fat Man’s fanning o’ the strings, this relatively rare cover doesn’t mess around. And while Garcia and his guest are the star attractions, JGB’s rhythm section and female backing vocalists are, as per usual, key components in making this specimen worthy of release 31 years after the fact.

The energy is so infectious, you can hear it in Garcia’s voice as he announces the set break and promises: “We’ll be right back.”

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band feat. Clarence Clemons - “Let's Spend the Night Together” (Live - 9/16/89) - A

3/31/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” (Live, Aug. 10, 1991)

The Jerry Garcia Band twisted up elements of “Run for the Roses” and “Cats Under the Stars” to create its arrangement of “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love.”

The group’s Aug. 10, 1991, rendition of Solomon Burke’s number - originally released on 2018’s Electric on the Eel - was reissued as a single by Jerry Garcia Music Arts, alongside a Garcia sketch titled “Merry Christmas,” with watercolor added by Keelin Garcia, president/founder of Music Arts.

“We're honored to help present a gift of my father's music this holiday season," she said in a statement. "His music lives on for all to enjoy and celebrate."

So does the music of organist Melvin Seals, who solos throughout the 10-minute performance, and drummer David Kemper, who apparently has six arms. For his part, Garcia shares the vocals with Gloria Jones and Jaclyn LaBranch and peels off a fiery solo of his own. But Seals and Kemper are the keepers of the wow factor on this one, which is available for 10,000 free streams.

Don’t be No. 10,001.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” (Live - 8/10/91) - A-

12/26/19

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 11

Anyone who thought Jerry Garcia was washed up by late 1993 need only to hear GarciaLive Volume 11 to recognize the error of their thinking.

Recorded Nov. 11, 1993, in Rhode Island on what turned out to be the Jerry Garcia Band’s final East Coast tour, this two-disc, full-concert set finds the Grateful Dead leader and his eponymous side group doing what they did best - playing a wide swath of American music with a few originals tossed in for fun - and doing it very well.

Given the late date, there are a couple of stumbles. The opening “Cats Under the Stars” is just off and seems - incorrectly - to bode ill for the show. Meanwhile, the closing cover of Peter Rowan’s “Midnight Moonlight” is so fast as to be sloppy.

But everything that comes in between on the 13-track, 130-minute set is shimmery gold.

Drummer David Kemper and keyboardist Melvin Seals are Garcia’s brightest co-stars here as the band offers up a couple of rarities to go with more typical fare.

On Van Morrison’s “He Ain’t Give You None,” the group weaves the song’s complex tempo changes with ease. And the Marveletts’ “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game” is super-smooth in part due to backing vocalists Gloria Jones and Jaclyn LaBranch, who give both tracks - indeed the band’s entire repertoire - a shot of gospel flavor.

Oft-played numbers such as “Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox” and “My Sisters and Brothers” are their typical, glee-inducing selves. And Garcia spices up a 16-minute “The Way You do the Things You Do” with ad-libbed vocals on the fade and keeps “Don’t Let Go” engaging across its 13-minute runtime by eschewing a space jam in favor of blues-rock soloing during the long instrumental break.

With the seemingly non-stop onslaught of archival Garcia and Grateful Dead releases pouring forth recently, it’s understandable that some of them must be ignored. GarciaLive Volume 11 mustn’t be.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 11 - A-

7/25/19

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia - My Sisters and Brothers

Jerry Garcia’s spiritual side is front and center on My Sisters and Brothers, a compilation of material from outside the Grateful Dead universe.

The digital-only LP - sporting Garcia’s “California Mission” watercolor on the cover - comprises six Jerry Garcia Band cuts, one solo track and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band’s take on “Turtle Dove.”

Split evenly between live recordings and studio tracks (three 2004 Cats Under the Stars bonus cuts plus the Garcia version of “The Wheel”), the LP benefits MusiCares, WhyHunger and the International Bluegrass Music Association Relief Fund. And given there’s no previously unreleased material, that’s the main reason to spin My Sisters and Brothers, though the title track, “Turtle Dove,” “I’ll be with Three,” “Magnificent Sanctuary Band” and “Palm Sunday” are always a treat.

The disco arrangement of “Mighty High” and a plodding live version of “Who Was John?” are mere filler.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia - My Sisters and Brothers - B-

8/17/20

[krispyweiss]

Quarter Notes: Blurbs & Briefs from Sound Bites

GARCIA(FACEBOOK)LIVE: The Jerry Garcia Family will stream GarciaLive Volume 13 on Facebook at 8 p.m. Eastern April 23.

Out April 24, the two-CD set captures the Jerry Garcia Band’s Sept. 16, 1989, concert with Clarence Clemons in Illinois.

WE ALL SING IN A YOUTUBE SUBMARINE: The Beatles will air “Yellow Submarine” on their YouTube channel at noon Eastern, April 25, in what’s dubbed a “sing-along watch party.” More info here.

AOIFE AT HOME: Singing from her New York City home, Aoife O’Donovan will host an online concert and fundraiser for Brooklyn’s CHiPS Soup Kitchen & Women’s Shelter at 9 p.m. Eastern, April 25. Watch and make a donation here.

ONE WORLD: TOGETHER AROUND THE STEREO: One World: Together at Home, The Album is now available on streaming platforms. It collects all 79 performances from the April 18 worldwide event and proceeds benefit the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

4/22/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band feat. Clarence Clemons - “They Love Each Other” (Live, Sept. 16, 1989)

For whatever reason, Jerry Garcia didn’t allow taping at his solo concerts, leaving fans to listen to mostly shitty bootlegs - as Sound Bites has done for the past 31 years - of shows they attended.

For those of us who saw the band at Illinois’ Poplar Creek with Clarence Clemons on Sept. 16, 1989, the wait for a stellar recording ends April 24 with the release of the full-show GarciaLive Volume 13. And the lead single, “They Love Each Other,” lands like a bomb.

At eight minutes, there’s plenty of room for the E Street saxophonist to blow his own horn and the Big Man stays busy throughout. Garcia cedes one guitar solo to his guest - who played the entire tour - and Clemons’ wrangling with keyboardist Melvin Seals is legendary stuff.

Clemons might’ve seemed an odd dude to land in the Dead’s camp, but performances such as this (not to mention his sit-ins with Garcia’s main gig) quickly wiped away any doubt that the intersection of E and Shakedown streets was a good place to be.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band feat. Clarence Clemons - “They Love Each Other” (Live - 9/16/89) - A

3/10/20

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 8: November 23rd, 1991, Bradley Center

If you were one of the lucky ones inside Milwaukee’s Bradley Center with the Jerry Garcia Band on Nov. 23, 1991, it can now be confirmed that the concert was as outstanding as you remember it to have been.

GarciaLive Volume 8 presents that show - 15 songs in 130 minutes - in sparking, soundboard glory and it is nothing short of magnificent. If you weren’t there, this recording’ll make you wish you had been.

These Garcia Band archival releases are in many ways more important than similar releases by Garcia’s other group, a little outfit known as the Grateful Dead. Because unlike the Dead, JGB was not taper-friendly, which means circulating recordings were made surreptitiously and often came out sounding muddy and unfulfilling.

This is not that.

What’s striking about this edition of the Garcia Band is how much noise it made with just the namesake guitar, Melvin Seal’s churchy organ and the rubbery rhythm section of John Kahn - every bit as non-traditional a bassist as Phil Lesh - and drummer David Kemper, whose just-off-the-beat drumming resembles Ringo Starr’s best work and gooses this music along to great effect. Backing vocalists Jackie LaBranch and Gloria Jones add to the fullness and Garcia, even though he had to work harder in this slimmed-down outfit, seems more satisfied that he did with the contemporaneous Dead. He plays and sings with gusto, eschewing the MIDI effects he favored in his full-time gig and employing his vibrato when the songs moved him, which they often did in this setting.

Featuring just four Garcia-Robert Hunter originals, Volume 8 reads like a musical biography of what made Garcia, Garcia. Songs by Van Morrison (“Bright Side of the Road”), Bob Dylan (“Tangled up in Blue”), Bruce Cockburn (“Waiting for a Miracle”) and many others make appearances and are played so enthusiastically that you can hear LaBranch and/or Jones clapping along on some of them.

Whether bouncing his way through Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally,” meandering his way across the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” or grinning his way through Norton Buffalo’s “Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox,” Garcia sounds like Garcia, even when playing what casual fans might thing of as un-Garcia-like music.

But if Garcia was anything, he was a sponge who soaked up and wrung out music of all kinds. That’s why gospel-flavored tracks like “My Brothers and Sisters” and “That Lucky Old Sun” - in which Seals’ organ solo seems to come straight out of a Baptist service - sound right at home against secular originals like “Cats Under the Stars,” the grungy blues of “Think” and the urban soul of the Manhattans’ “Shining Star.”

There are many reasons some Dead Heads - including Sound Bites - find the Garcia Band more satisfying than the Dead.

GarciaLive Volume 8 has 15 of them.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Volume 8: November 23rd, 1991, Bradley Center - A

Track list: Cats Under the Stars; They Love Each Other; Lay Down Sally; The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down; Reuben and Cherise; Money Honey; My Brothers and Sisters; Deal; Bright Side of the Road; Waiting for a Miracle; Think; Shining Star; Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox; That Lucky Old Sun; Tangled up in Blue

3/13/17

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Shining Star” (Live - Nov. 23, 1991)

Jerry Garcia rarely sang purely romantic songs either with his own band or with the Grateful Dead.

But when he did, as on Nov. 23, 1991, the results were often - surprisingly - effective.

The Manhattans’ “Shining Star” was one of the many seemingly out-of-character songs Garcia brought to his band over the years, along with forays into gospel, blues and British rock. A newly released version - the third single to appear in advance of the March 10 release of GarciaLive Volume 8 - proves the Dead man of peace and love to also be a man of piece and love.

Long - 13 minutes - slow and laid back, this “Shining Star” is mostly about the harmonies between Garcia, Gloria Jones and Jaclyn LaBranch. There are low-key, between-verse guitar solos, but vocals are what make this song sparkle.

That Garcia enjoyed singing this unusually sappy song is evident in how his voice quivers on the verses, his soulful approach to the choruses and his ad libs on the coda. It’s not the kind of song that comes to mind when someone mentions the Jerry Garcia Band.

And that’s part of its appeal.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Shining Star” (Live - Nov. 23, 1991) - A

Read Sound Bites’ previous coverage of Volume 8 here: http://krispyweiss.tumblr.com/post/157242834623/song-review-jerry-garcia-band-rubin-and

2/27/17

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Lay Down Sally” (Live Nov. 23, 1991)

Filtered though the Jerry Garcia Band’s prism, Eric Clapton’s funkiest song comes through funkier still.

“Lay Down Sally” is the first single from the forthcoming GarciaLive Volume 8, recorded Nov. 23, 1991, at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center and due March 10.

A clean, sparking recording and a crisp, sprightly performance, this tune is stretched to eight fabulous minutes, a huge chunk of which is devoted to Garcia’s string-bending, body-shaking second solo. The source tape is so pristine, you can hear one of the band’s backing singers - whether it was Jaclyn LaBranch or Gloria Jones may never be known - clapping along on the intro.

Melvin Seals punctuates the whole thing with churchy organ fills that punch through the solid-rock foundation laid down by bassist John Kahn and drummer David Kemper. Despite scrambling a few words, Garcia nails the verses, and he, LaBranch and Jones faithfully capture the charismatic soul of the choruses as Clapton recorded them for 1977’s Slowhand, and later captured on Just One Night.

This is one of only a handful of Garcia Band shows Sound Bites, a native Midwesterner, was able to catch in his long, strange Grateful Dead career. He remembers this show generally - and this song specifically - as euphoric. This initial release proves the memory to be accurate.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Lay Down Sally” (Live Nov. 23, 1991) - A

Hear it here: https://www.jambase.com/article/exclusive-premiere-jerry-garcia-band-covers-lay-sally-garcialive-vol-eight

Track list: 1: Cats Under the Stars; They Love Each Other; Lay Down Sally; The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down; Rubin and Cherise; Money Honey; Deal 2: Bright Side of the Road; Waiting for a Miracle; Think; Shining Star; Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox; That Lucky Old Sun; Tangled Up in Blue

2/2/17

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band - “Rubin and Cherise” (Live, Nov. 23, 1991)

About a half-step slower than sprightlier renditions but featuring plenty of fat wah-wah on the extended instrumental coda, Jerry Garcia Band’s Nov. 23, 1991, performance of “Rubin and Cherise” finds the namesake frontman remembering all of Robert Hunter’s many lyrics and the band, sans backing singers, laying down an elastic rendition of the track from 1978’s Cats Under the Stars.

Following “Lay Down Sally,” it’s the second song to emerge from the forthcoming GarciaLive Volume 8, recorded at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center and due March 10.

The sound quality is superb. Drummer David Kemper is particularly acrobatic, adding extra fills to drive the tune along. And Melvin Seals colors the song about the painted mandolin with B3 textures and bits of synth tossed in for authenticity���s sake.

Most remarkable is Garcia’s simultaneous lead and rhythm work, which he pulls off while singing - a feat any guitarist will tell you is no small deal.

Garcia’s other group, a little outfit called the Grateful Dead, took four hits at this number in ‘91. But as this version makes, clear, “Rubin and Cherise” sounded best in the Garcia Band’s hands.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - “Rubin and Cherise” (Live, 11/23/91) - A-

Read Sound Bites’ review of “Lay Down Sally” here: http://krispyweiss.tumblr.com/post/156713324833/song-review-jerry-garcia-band-lay-down-sally

2/14/17

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jerry Garcia Band feat. Clarence Clemons - “Waiting for a Miracle” (Live, Sept. 16, 1989)

Clarence Clemons wasn’t a member of the Jerry Garcia Band. But he sure sounded like one.

Bruce Springsteen’s Big Man toured with JGB in the fall of 1989 and as a newly released version of Bruce Cockburn’s “Waiting for a Miracle” demonstrates, he sounded like he’d always been there even as he’d only just arrived.

This third single from GarciaLive Volume 13, out April 24, follows “They Love Each Other” and “Let's Spend the Night Together” and finds Clemons fitting in seamlessly between Garcia’s guitar solos and the band’s other instrumentalists and vocalists. Fully immersed inside the group, he’s so omnipresent that when Garcia starts one of his solos, it’s difficult to discern at first whether it’s him or Clemons who’s about to go to town.

Garcia reveals himself by the second note, but that little seed of doubt says a lot about how much a part of the band Clemons was even if his Dead time was short-lived.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band feat. Clarence Clemons - “Waiting for a Miracle” (Live - 9/16/89) - A

4/13/20

[krispyweiss]

Frightful Flashback: Jerry Garcia Band - “Werewolves of London” (Live, Oct. 31, 1992)

The ghosts of Halloweens past are alive and howling thanks to the magic of YouTube.

Twenty-five years ago today, on Oct. 31, 1992, Jerry Garcia returned to the stage after his second near-death health crisis in six years to perform with the Jerry Garcia Band in Oakland. At the end of the night, Garcia and his supporting players retook the stage after a strong comeback show for an appropriate encore, a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” a song that had been popping up in the Grateful Dead’s setlists periodically since 1978.

The song works better in JGB’s hands, with Melvin Seals goosing it along with regular spurts of sound from his Hammond B-3 and Jaclyn LaBranch and Gloria Jones adding background vocals to make the chorus more harmonious than GD versions ever were.

This grainy, fan-shot video shows its age, causing the band to appear like specters on the stage. Still, the performance is spook-tacular, with Garcia firing off a gritty guitar solo that causes him to temporarily forget the words to the little old lady got mutilated late last night verse before recovering nicely.

The not-so-fat man is clearly enjoying this number, singing a few high-pitched a-whoooos on the coda, interacting with bassist John Kahn in the middle of the song and moving around on stage much more than he had earlier in the year before the aforementioned health crisis forced him and the Dead off the road for a spell.

Garcia eventually returned to the Dead. But on this night, as he had after his 1986 health scare, Garcia revived that old black-T-shirt magic first with the JGB, kicking off one last burst of activity that would continue through the Dead’s so-called final Tour From Hell in 1995.

10/31/17

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jerry Garcia Band - Electric on the Eel

Electric on the Eel, a sprawling, six-CD set compiling three complete Jerry Garcia Band concerts at French’s Camp in 1987, ’89 and ’91, follows the arc of the namesake guitarist’s post-coma recovery.

Only the 1989 show would have merited a stand-alone release; however, because these concerts took place in a bucolic setting near the banks of the Eel River in Piercy, Calif., they were packaged together. And all have their moments, even if the intangibles - the atmosphere and the thrill of hearing rarely played songs - don’t come across on tape.

In ’89, the Garcia Band, like the Grateful Dead, was experiencing a late-career peak. On Eel, Garcia plays and sings with enthusiasm typical of the time; however, some of his solos are too low in the mix, particularly as he digs into the blues on numbers like “Think.” This is especially disheartening as the grungy playing is fantastic, uncharacteristic of Garcia’s usual tone and begs to be at the forefront.

One year removed from his diabetic coma, Garcia in 1987 was healthier than he’d been in ages but often tired. His lethargy evident in the first concert, as his voice quavers, he muffs some vocals and cues and lags behind singers Gloria Jones and Jaclyn LaBranch.

The year 1991 was Garcia’s last consistently great period and the band cooks on this concert, which finds organist Melvin Seals experimenting with synth sounds and the band exploring rarely played and/or never-before-released numbers such as Eric Clapton’s “See What Love Can Do,” Chuck Berry’s "You Never Can Tell (C'est La Vie),” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy Bones” and Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love.” Their rarity makes these songs special and it also renders some of the performances wobbly as the band - which also included bassist John Kahn and drummer David Kemper - is relatively unfamiliar with the material.

There’s six hours of music here, making Electric on the Eel for Dead Heads - or JGB Heads - only. But it’s a nice cross section of Garcia’s favorite covers including Van Morrison’s “And it’s Stoned Me” (’87 and ’91), “My Sisters and Brothers” (’89 and ’91) and Los Lobos’ “Evangeline” (’87 and ’89); originals such as “Gomorrah” (’87), “They Love Each Other” (’89) and many others.

Grade card: Jerry Garcia Band - Electric on the Eel - B+

3/27/19