As the jolly Captain Trips once mused: ‘All goods things in all good time’. As such, Heads around the world tuned in and took notice when the GarciaLive series made it’s roaring return with the back to back flashbacks, volumes six and seven. Both elegantly recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson (aka Betty Boards) they capture Jerry Garcia in two polarizing side groups just a scant 3 years apart.

Volume 6 lands in the pivotal year of 1973. Having graduated from small venues to cavernous impersonal arenas to appease their rapidly growing fanbase, the Grateful Dead are road warriors to the most ragged extreme. In sharp contrast, here we find Garcia and his musical co-conspirator Merl Saunders posting up at a 200 capacity suburban Bay Area club. Recorded at the Lion’s Share, intimacy and freedom were on the menu that night while outfitting themselves with a wrecking crew of a rhythm section, John Kahn on bass and Bill Vitt on drums. Never one to ease right in, Garcia cuts right to the chase sending the group into overdrive with JJ Cale’s “After Midnight” as the group’s spirited songbook unfolds throughout the evening with jazzy show tunes (“My Funny Valentine”) to Motown staples (“I Second that Emotion” and “How Sweet It Is”). Just a few short days later the same ad hoc group took the stage at the famed Berkeley watering hole, Keystone, to record their epic double lp, Live at Keystone. As such, this new set adds an additional 3 hours to the party that (seemingly) never wants to end.

Jerry Garcia Band :: After Midnight

Fast-forward three years and 1976 finds Garcia more refined and rejuvenated. With a 1975 touring sabbatical, save a couple Bay Area appearances, all members of the Dead began exploring other creative endeavors along with the recording of the monumental Blues for Allah album. Garcia being no exception, his musical relationship with Merl Saunders evolved into the Legion of Mary that added Elvis Presley’s drummer Ron Tutt to the fold before silently mutating into the Jerry Garcia Band sans Merl. By mid 1976 an impassioned Dead were back on the road, and in the days between, the Garcia Band hit the road with a fervor too. With Kahn and Tutt in tow the band was now rounded out with the Dead’s Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux. While the songbook remained similar (i.e. “After Midnight”) the band was tighter as the music swayed and rippled at the edges with a slower, groovier, tempo. They teased and played with dynamics using a venue’s intimacy to their advantage and as the Dead’s archivist Nicholas Meriweather eloquently described within the liner notes, “… an approach that sought out the emotion in every crevice of the melody, in the long and sinewy connections that knitted songs into sets and turned shows into grand narratives, the kind of experience that left both band and fans transformed.”

Volume 7 (November 8, 1976) finds Garcia and co. in the sleepy town of Palo Alto – where the long strange trip began 11 years prior when The Warlocks formed around Dana Morgan’s Music Store. With nearly 70 shows under their belt (in 1976 alone) the band rides mighty high into the evening kicking off with a passionate version of the Temptation’s “The Way you Do The Things You Do”. Not one to ignore Bob Dylan’s massive contribution to modern music Garcia leads the group into a languid “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” that nods heavily to zeitgeist‘s mid 1970s Caribbean fascination, pairing the irie vibrations of “Stir it Up” later in the set. Closing with Peter Rowan’s “Midnight Moonlight” Garcia’s fingers burn up and down the neck of his guitar sending the crowd clambering for fresh air before kicking into the second set. Those hip to Garcia’s game know the second part of the evening is where the real fireworks are always set off. Not to be outdone and never one to let the crowd truly have a break, Garcia fingers the opening lick to “Don’t Let Go” as he and the band riff at a heavy, glacial, pace for 22 minutes before again nodding to Jamaica with The Wailers’ “Stop That Train”. words / d norsen