Ok, so this may be a bit cliche for St. Patrick’s Day, but I remember picking up this box set and seeing Whiskey In The Jar on the track listing and being very intrigued. This was during a period where I was really in to Celtic Rock music and had heard some very interesting versions of this tune complete with electric guitars, drums, bass, and bagpipes (Highland pipes, not Uilleann pipes to be precise). This would have been in the early aughts, and I wasn’t as familiar with the extent of the Dead’s acoustic repertoire at that point so I was expecting a rocker.

Well this isn’t a rocker, but it is a cool take on the song. I remember seeing a program somewhere that Jerry Garcia and Paddy Maloney from the Chieftains were acquaintances. This revelation has come within the past 2-4 years, and it doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, I only wish that Jerry would have had an opportunity to collaborate with the Chieftains or similar Irish traditional musicians just to see what they would have come up with. Van Morrison did the Irish Heartbeat album with the Chieftains so it would not have been outside the realm of possibility for a similar collaboration with the big man (of course, Van being Irish himself, hailing from Belfast, made that pairing a bit more natural)… if only….

Regardless of how you tally the score, this song combines two things that I find very interesting and care a lot about: Ireland and the Grateful Dead.

This one fades in to Jerry singing the chorus and last verse, and only a single drummer accompanying – I assume Billy. Jerry stops and he and Bobby get into a brief discussion about the song. Jerry remarks that the song has great lyrics, and Bobby seeks to clarify “whack fol the daddy-o”? Bobby says he assumes the song is Irish to which Jerry replies “I hope so!” and someone cackles loudly in the background Jerry starts singing again and everyone else slowly figures out where the song is going and join in as well. Jerry takes a quick solo that revolves around the melody line. He forgets some of the words in the next verse, and then instructs everyone to slow down a bit. The tale of Colonel Pepper continues to roll on. By the time the final verses come around everyone seems to be pretty much locked in. Vince is adding some keyboard sustain that I’m not used to hearing in this tune. The whole thing comes to a close and you can hear the guys discussing the tune further. If nothing else, it’s neat to hear what a Grateful Dead rehearsal sounded like. Searching for the sound indeed.

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