Kicking off in 1973 with Merl Saunders and moving through Legion of Mary and the early Jerry Garcia Band lineups, the first disc gives us the confident, exuberant young Jerry, throwing in extra guitar choruses and vocal shouts because he can. Spanning 1973 to 1995, this is both a two-CD set and something of a two-act play. With Garcia front and center for an entire set, though, we can hear how Dylan’s work resonated with one man in changing ways. That CD, though, had a bit much of Weir and Lesh’s 80’s brand of arena-rock vocalizing to give a convincing portrait of the band at its best. Granted, there has already been a Dead-play-Dylan compilation, 2002’s Postcards of the Hanging. Since Garcia channeled most of his songwriting into the Dead, what better way to shoot for a solo-Jerry overview than to put together two CDs of his Dylan covers? The two of them were mutual fans, and both had the kind of talent which still makes otherwise sane people want to check into every day’s musical activity of theirs.
Jerry garcia band positively 4th street archive#
Lately even the most devoted Deadheads might be straining to find shelf space for more Dead vault releases, but the Garcia solo archive hasn’t been so thoroughly explored.