Jerry Garcia Solo/JGB/Grisman/etc. - S/D

Didn't I read somewhere that his first solo record is (partly? mostly? all?) electronic/collage/musique concrete?

(I'm brand-new to the Dead, and am treading lightly through their discography...no missteps so far...)

yeah, most of the 2nd side of his first album is far out abstract.. but the winner on side two is the final track "the wheel", one of my favorite jerry songs.

love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgH3vGeL_iY

Nice. Rad. I gotta say, my first exposure to solo Garcia was in a record store, where the clerk and I agreed that it was "the album Grandpa released" (as referenced in the Simpsons episode "Homer & Apu"), but this has me intrigued.

Search the 1990 live album Jerry Garcia Band. Band as a whole sounds way tighter than GD ever did in the 90s, and Garcia is on-point from start to finish. Nice understated background vocals from Gloria Jones and Jackie LaBranch, too. It's basically all covers, save a really energetic performance of "Deal." Never understood why more people didn't love the hell out of this release.

Highlights for me are "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKH76BL71BI

Don't Let Go bootleg (76) - up there with May 77 and Europe 72 Dead. But I love Keith and Donna (who play on it), so grain of salt. But it's so awesomely mellow in places, and the playing is astounding.

CompuPost OTM re: that Jerry Garcia Band live album. By far, one of my favorite Dead related things from the 1990s.

Not uncommon for a people in the early 90s to have Without a Net and that Jerry Band release, and agreed that the latter is good.

Also this is awesome. Nicky Hopkins plays very well w/ Jerry.

http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/jerrycover.jpg

Esp. the "Sitting in Limbo"

Thirding Compupost's love for JGB. That record was my gateway into what Dead I do enjoy. Love it tons more than any actual Dead.

Come on, Without A Net isn't that bad! Good "Mississippi Half-Step," if nothing else...

Oh I agree, I listened to it into the ground during that time. The "Eyes of the World" w/ Branford is also awesome.

Yes! That's the most 'recent' Dead boot I own, but I like it quite a bit.

Come on, Without A Net isn't that bad! Good "Mississippi Half-Step," if nothing else...

Wow, been a while since I listened to Without a Net. Forgot how incredible that second disc was, Chinacat -> Franklin's, especially the last halves of "Looks Like Rain" and "Victim or the Crime."

merl saunders collab OTM

Really, really great interview with Jerry Garcia here - the intro makes you figure he's gonna spout a lot of bullshit, because he's at doing-it-in-front-of-strangers level of coke addiction, but when he's talking about his musical ideas, wow: just illuminating, great stuff. Weird to me that he's pretty "eh, whatever, the important thing is the electronics" about his acoustics, but - anyway, if you're into his music, this is a great read

Dammit, have to run out, but bookmarking that interview aero mentioned. It took place in '85, the year before he went into that coma and had to kind of relearn how to play guitar, and that was around the time dude was gorging on steak and lobster and his lower legfat would double over his sock, so not surprised that he's already in idgafuck mode :/ Love reading him talk aimlessly about other musicians/songs, though-- dude was a lil encyclopedia.

2nd ¶, yikes: I’ve never been a Deadhead, but friends who are tell me that my meeting with Jerry took place during one of the lowest points of his life. Garcia, unwashed and disheveled, shuffled slowly into the living room, his black T-shirt sprinkled with white powder. His fingertips were blackened in a manner consistent with “chasing the dragon,” as smoking heroin was commonly referred to in the Bay Area. Ten minutes into our interview, Garcia nonchalantly chopped a large rock of cocaine into about twenty lines and consumed all of it during the next hour.

check this guy's stuff while you can--his graphics can be confusing, but if nothing else, keep scrolling down the right margin, he's got a link for the list of all his Dead/JGB etc links, re-gathered in one (more) re-post,
http://smadacounty.blogspot.com

All his sets I've heard are well worth checking, though you may have some

Haven't made my way to the GD/JGB stuff yet-- got side-tracked by some of those fantastic-sounding Lou Reed shows. Thanks, dow.

https://search.mog.com/v2/albums/73644387/image.jpeg?size=800
this thing is out today, streaming it now, good times. not sure how much is actually unreleased or whatever, but cool to have all of these bundled up in one place.

it's great there are photos where jerry isn't the most stoned looking person in them

I thought this had Garcia on it, but no--just Grisman and Doc Watson. In any case, pretty great:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_%26_Dawg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/de7c3faee0d0fa7628d20a24ff4a89c8/tumblr_mh3uhcGJKS1qzliefo1_400.jpg
kind of want to listen to this
http://solarflares.tumblr.com/post/41381746443/nicki-scully-with-roland-barker-jerry-garcia

damn, this is amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZVO09NPo4&feature=youtu.be

so good

love reuben so much...such a happy song

Would like to check this one-mic, apparently one-take Hart Valley Drifters set (now with pretty good sound apparently, unlike the bootlegged bits I've heard):
Editorial Reviews
This release, a previously unheard studio recording of Jerry Garcia at age 20, fills in a nearly empty slot of his musical canon, and is the earliest known studio recording of Garcia. One day in late 1962, Garcia and four band mates walked into Stanford University's KZSU radio station to make this recording. They called themselves the Hart Valley Drifters, and the spoken introduction tells us that the band included Jerry, future Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and guitarist David Nelson, who would later form the New Riders of the Purple Sage with Garcia. They were joined by Ken Frankel, another early musical partner of Jerry's, and Norm Van Maastricht. The Hart Valley Drifters was one in the long line of groups that Garcia put together during the folk revival of the early 1960s, but it was perhaps his first band to present a professional level of musicianship and vocal harmony. The session captures an early moment in Jerry's career when he'd become well educated in American roots music, and showcases influences from which Garcia and Hunter would later draw on for the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.
Reviews by Verified Purchasers dig it, while also reporting that if we're not into bluegrass, we're shit out of luck here, but we knew that--more info:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M4M7ZWT/ref=pe_848020_216438530_em_1p_6_des

haven't heard that one, but it looks enjoyable.
convo with bill vitt here: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2016/11/23/merl-saunders-jerry-garcia-the-keystone-companions-1973-a-conversation-with-bill-vitt
also! i put together this comp of Garcia's very busy november 1973: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/153563268767/summer-of-dead-garcia-november-1973-the-summer

^^^^^ nice '73 mix, tylerw

Love those Jerry Rolling Stone magazine covers

Just listened to xpost Hart Valley Drifters' album on Spotify (they've got a lot of JG sidetrips---the whole GarciaLive series to date, for a start---and even more Dead). Relaxed vocals, not nasal or otherwise trying to sound mountain-y---maybe a little too relaxed at times--but the picking is sharp and vivid, also without trying too hard, as Garcia trades off guitar and banjo with Frankel; Nelson's rhythm guitar and Hunter's bass keep chugging along, and things get more engaging when the fiddle shows up for all of the second half (not much dobro that I've noticed, but Norm Van Maastricht gets bonus points for his name). Bluesier on "Sugar Bandy" and then, right at the end, Mississippi Sheiks' "Sitting On Top Of The World", cool and bouncing us to another, contiguous world, just down the mountain aways, where Garcia has no prob suggesting Mississippi John Hurt sitting in with the Sheiks. I'd put this track in a Garcia acoustic comp (he's already the star here, but never ever hogging the spotlight, not that there is one).

"Sugar *Baby*", that should be.

Frankel plays the fiddle.

No release date or track list yet, but incl. the above Hart Valley Drifters live-in-the-campus-station set, ---anyway a great story, incl. the collector's vision---"Jerry was just one guy," and this box is just one speck of early-mid-60s Bay Area Godhead rising, man:
https://www.relix.com/articles/detail/bluegrass_boy_inside_the_new_box_set_exploring_jerry_garcias_early_acoustic_era

"On the heels of a diabetic coma," jeez---but may-be:
(more info/audio: http://mgtrk.musictoday.com/m/1/17126418/02-b18016-cecc78238eef472ca3b92a69009a1891/29/711/8654fe14-b467-478b-b30c-486374d93158)
We are pleased to announce the tenth installment of GarciaLive due for release on February 23rd! GarciaLive Volume Ten documents the Jerry Garcia Band's May 20th, 1990 performance at the Hilo Civic Auditorium in Hawaii. On the heels of a diabetic coma in 1986, Bill Kreutzmann encouraged Jerry to find peace and healing in the pristine blue waters of the Big Island's reef system. What was initially a hobby became a passion for Garcia as he later publicly advocated for the protection of Hawaii's natural areas and directed earnings from this show, held in the modest Hilo Civic Center, to The Ocean Recreation Council of Hawaii.

In this relaxed setting complete with leis on stage, it's no wonder that the music from this show shines so brightly - both in Garcia's strong vocals and guitar playing but also the joie de vivre setlist spanning some of Jerry's favorite corners of popular music - Dylan, Motown, Reggae, and Rock & Roll. Spurred on by the ever steady rhythm section of Dave Kemper and John Kahn, the Garcia Band this night seemed to pull out all the stops complete with the celestial sounds of Melvin Seals' organ and the background vocals of Gloria Jones and Jacklyn LaBranch.

The sum of these parts that defined the 1990s Garcia Band sound would make for a magical Sunday night that first kicked off with the Holland-Dozier-Holland favorite "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" followed by an idyllic "They Love Each Other" - LISTEN NOW. Sprinkled in throughout the night are five Dylan covers including powerfully delivered vocals on versions of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," "Forever Young" and a positively soaring "Tangled Up In Blue" as the encore. Along the way, covers like "Stop That Train," "Waiting For A Miracle" and "Evangeline" ably accent originals like "Deal" and "Run For The Roses."

GarciaLive Volume Ten: May 20th, 1990 Hilo Civic Auditorium is now available for pre-order at Garcia Family Provisions in advance of its February 23rd release date. The 2-CD set or digital downloads are available on their own or bundled with an exclusive t-shirt and/or a limited edition screen print by Nathaniel Deas signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 500.

During the pre-order period, we are pleased to offer a reduced shipping rate of $4.99 on the GarciaLive Volume Ten CD and bundles. Additional items added to your order will result in additional shipping fees. Use code USGL10 for domestic and INTGL10 for international orders at checkout to apply.

Disc One // Set One:
1. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
2. They Love Each Other [Listen Now]
3. Tough Mama
4. Like A Road Leading Home
5. Run For The Roses
6. The Way You Do The Things You Do
7. My Sisters And Brothers
8. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
9. Deal

Disc Two // Set Two:
1. The Harder They Come
2. Forever Young
3. Stop That Train
4. Tore Up Over You
5. Tears Of Rage
6. Evangeline
7. Waiting For A Miracle
8. That Lucky Old Sun
9. Tangled Up In Blue

Finally a date for the pre-Dead box, and a couple tracks:
https://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/hear-jerry-garcia-perform-deep-elem-blues-from-new-box-set-w519039 Also, the aforementioned legit released Folk Time(good 'un) will be in there, and prob the early sets here, or others from the same era (he's got a bunch of JG, much more Dead, more quite a few other artists)
http://www.ousterhout.net/mp3/jg.html Also has flacs for everything.

DJ McGriddle mentions, in the intro to his seemingly astute, track-by-track review of xp Folk Time(named for the KZSU show it was recorded on, rat thar at Stanford), that here young JG "manages the banjo despite his ax-shorn middle finger"---whut, no middle? Is this true?? Thought I knew the man! Whole thing here:
http://zookeeper.stanford.edu/index.php?session=&action=findAlbum&n=1100181

Reminds me that Jagger supposedly bit off the tip of his tongue when punched by a schoolyard bully, which helped the distinctiveness of his vocal style.

https://i.imgur.com/4hekBSL.jpg

That picture is a parable thx

Ah damn
https://www.jambase.com/article/jerry-garcia-band-vocalist-gloria-jones-died

Before I got sidetracked by the death notice< meant to paste these posts from Rolling Country 2019:
...Now I want to check the s/t of the Strange Creek Singers: D&G w Mike Seeger and Tracy Schwarz of the New Lost City Ramblers (also Lamar Grier. maybe better known for playing banjo with Bill Monroe). Also want finally to check the Ramblers---where should I start?

They're namechecked several times by Garcia on Before The Dead, incl. the set prev released sep as as Folk Time, after the Stanford radio show where it was taped. (Already have a couple other inclusions on boot, but BTD=4 remastered CDs for $19.99, so no prob.) The whole thing starts on May 26, 1961, with a hootenanny at Brigid Meier's sixteenth birthday party (she's so excited!) Set is very nice, made distinctive by Garcia's instantly recognizable singing, which, as on most of the rest of the box, doesn't have that high lonesome Dead etc. pitch, but is clear and contemplative and unaffected. Usually with future New Rider David Nelson, pretty often with Robert Hunter, and several guys I really need to look up, he gets more and more into banjo--a bit more than I am, at times---but still got the guitar and those pipes.
Later:
Oops I meant to mention one blemish on Garcia's aforementioned Before The Dead: a set of songs of the American People complaining about marriage/wives, carefully selected* for polished performances with his own first wife (who sounds pretty good), about a week after their wedding (he calls the exact time). She and the audience chuckle when he mentions this, but it reminds me of a bootlegger who claimed that Jerry sold all their wedding gifts to buy a guitar, and I'm sure he played it well. This disenchanted evening's a bummer, man, but at least it's brief.

*Carefully selected, but tiresome as a set.

"D&G":
https://hazeldickensalicegerrard.bandcamp.com/album/sing-me-back-home-the-dc-tapes-1965-1969

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/11/13/jerry-garcia-radio-aquarium-drunkard/

Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard. Our four-hour broadcast airs every third Sunday of the month on Dublab, featuring regular shows, AD friends, and collaborators. Tune in November 15, from 4-8 PM Pacific on Dublab, for this month’s broadcast, featuring a special program, One Kind Favor: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, to celebrate the December 4 release of GarciaLive Volume 15.

The new album documents a complete concert from May 21, 1971 at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, where Garcia and Saunders and drummer Bill Vitt and and special guest Martin Fierro on saxophone. Surf on over to Garcia Family Provisions to get your copy as we share an hour of mostly unheard music, selected by Marc Allan and Kevin Monty on behalf of the Jerry Garcia Family and Round Records, drawn from the new live set and the Garcia Family vault.

Had to go out in the car for a couple of hours today, so I burned the first two Garcia albums, which have been sitting on my computer for a while.

I liked most of Garcia. As someone who was hoping for two albums of "China Cat Sunflower," "Bird Song" is the highlight for me--"Deal"'s very catchy too. Could definitely do without the two pieces of musique concrète, or whatever they're supposed to be. The kind of thing where someone needed to step in and say, "I know this seems like a good idea right now, but looking down the road, not really."

Compliments is only two years later, but whatever drove him to experiment on the first album is gone--the world has changed. Most of it just felt like a tepid, white-folkie attempt at R&B. "Mississippi Moon" does suggest he was paying attention to Randy Newman.

Happy 80th to Jerry — here's a mix I made a few years back that holds up nicely ... https://t.co/nFpaqSwi20 pic.twitter.com/q2ywtIrWxA

— Tyler Wilcox (@tywilc) August 1, 2022

Jerry Garcia
Garcia
50th Anniversary Edition
In Stores Now / From Round Records & Garcia Family Provisions

Garcia celebrates its golden year in 2022! Expanding on Jerry’s first solo release, this 50th Anniversary Edition is a deluxe 2-LP set featuring the original album remastered from the analog mix master reels plus outtakes & explorations from the original sessions pressed to vinyl for the first time. Recorded almost entirely by Garcia with assistance from Bill Kreutzmann and Robert Hunter, six of the songs became staples in the Grateful Dead’s repertoire. Garcia (50th Anniversary Edition) is available on limited edition 180g gold nugget vinyl and includes a liner note essay from David Fricke.

Oooo, sold. This was a significant gateway record in terms of finally getting my head around the dead.

It's funny how solo Jerry works that way. I was at best a casual Dead fan until I got into the After Midnight JGB live album, which was where his playing really fully clicked for me. (Still only a moderate Dead fan I guess, but I feel like I actually hear them now.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcbAMgLNpx0

Setlist:
0:00:00 Intro & tune up
0:01:41 Limehouse Blues
0:05:49 Dawg's Bull
0:05:49 Swing '42
0:15:27 Coloured Aristocracy
0:20:28 Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms (1)
0:26:51 Dawg's Rag
0:32:51 I'll Be A Gambler If You Deal The Cards
0:38:03 Midnight At The Oasis (1)
0:43:29 Sweet Georgia Brown (1)
0:50:30 Will The Circle Be Unbroken (1)

Lineup:
David Grisman - Mandolin
Richard Greene - Fiddle
David Nictern - Guitar, Vocals
Taj Mahal - Bass, Vocals
Jerry Garcia - Banjo
Maria Muldaur - Vocals (1)
unknown trumpet player

SBD MR ~ R ~ CD ~ EAC ~ FLAC

SBD MR (House Source) ~ R (Will Boswell) ~ CD --- Huge thanks to Will Boswell for dubbing a copy from the master at 7.5 IPS --- (R copied @ 7 1/2 ips using Akai GX625) --- Mastered to cd by Matt Smith --- R ~ apogee mini me (24/96) ~ apogee mini dac (monitoring) ~ wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 20/44) ~ CD ~ EAC ~ WAV (shntool confirms no sbes) ~ FLAC (TLH)

AKA Great American String Band, though line-ups may vary

Nothing about Old & In The Way in this thread?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZpwxNutU14

I wanted to bring them up in that Peter Rowan thread you started. First lp is a classic

you should! I mean I posted this song in that thread, but would be good to get more discussion going.

Sometimes I enjoy other Garcia projects more than the Dead themselves. The Dead were so about being this big, sprawling, hairy experience more than just being about the music, and I'm just not all that into the big, sprawling, hairy experience. And I think sometimes the Dead sacrificed the quality of the music for that, whereas you can hear Jerry play with top notch bluegrass guys or top notch session guys and it actually just sounds good.

Wouldn't want to miss his other bands, but also Working Man's Dead and Reckoning are Dead albs w considerable acoustic picker's appeal.

Lots of related stuff here, incl. about Jerry's Before The Dead:
Pickers: a catchall thread for modern bluegrass, nu-old-time music, rootsy americana string bands, etc.

(Although I probably pasted the BTDtakes from this thread)

Jerry's banjo playing on OAITW sounds pretty damn good to me, I wonder how his playing is regarded by serious banjoists

from Jambase:

Jerry Garcia Band – GarciaLive Vol. 20
Jerry Garcia’s archival GarciaLive series continues with its 20th volume featuring the Jerry Garcia Band’s performance on June 18, 1982 at the Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. In addition to the eight-song set JGB played on June 18, 1982, GarciaLive Vol 20. is rounded out with, for the first time in the series, “filler” from another show. Culled from JGB’s June 1, 1981 concert at The Stone in San Francisco, the bonus tracks include previously uncirculated/unheard recordings of Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting In Limbo,” J.J. Cale’s “After Midnight,” Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue” and Garcia’s “Deal.” Regarding the June 30, 1982 show’s selection for the GarciaLive series, a description of the release follows:

The early ‘80s marked a transitional period for the Jerry Garcia Band. After beginning the decade with the lean & mean quartet showcased on After Midnight and GarciaLive Volume One, Garcia & John Kahn would go on to experiment with personnel configurations expanding the line-up considerably.

By the time the Jerry Garcia Band rolled into the Cape Cod Coliseum co-headliners [with] Bobby & the Midnites, the lineup included Grateful Dead bandmate Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Melvin Seals (organ), Jimmy Warren (electric piano) and Liz Stires and Julie Stafford (backing vocals). While the co-headline format limited each group to a single 90-minute set, Garcia’s eight-song set packed plenty of punch. The requisite “How Sweet It Is” opener wastes no time getting down to business with a galloping tempo punctuated by crisp solos from Garcia, Warren, & Seals.

The relative rarity “Valerie,” marking its first appearance here on an archival release, and extended, show-stopping takes on “Dear Prudence” and “Don’t Let Go” follow to the crowd’s obvious delight. Other highlights from Cape Cod include a poignant take on Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate” and the freshly written “Run for the Roses.”

Nice