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Almost Acoustic

Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

Initial release : December 1988

Concensus Reality / GD Merchandising 4005

JGAB recorded live during their 1987 tour.

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album cover

Tracks

  • Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Traditional)
  • Deep Elem Blues (Traditional)
  • Blue Yodel #9 (Standing On The Corner) (Jimmie Rodgers)
  • Spike Driver Blues (Mississippi John Hurt)
  • I've Been All Around This World (Traditional)
  • I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail (Karl Davis / Harty Taylor)
  • I'm Troubled (Traditional)
  • Oh, The Wind And Rain (Traditional)
  • The Girl At The Crossroads Bar (Bill Bryson)
  • Oh, Babe It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotton)
  • Casey Jones (Mississippi John Hurt)
  • Diamond Joe (Tex Logan)
  • Gone Home (Bill Carlisle)
  • Ripple (Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter)
Musicians

  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
  • David Nelson - guitar, vocals
  • Sandy Rothman - mandolin, dobro, vocals
  • John Kahn - acoustic bass
  • Kenny Kosek - fiddle
  • David Kemper - snare drum
Credits

  • Producer - Sandy Rothman
  • Live stereo recording - John Cutler
  • Digital Editing - Sonic Solutions
  • CD Digital Mastering - Joe Gastwirt
  • Cover Art - John Kahn
  • Photograph - Ken Friedman

  • Recorded live in the fall of 1987
Notes

Sleeve note by Sandy Rothman:

In 1964, twenty three years before these shows were recorded, Jerry, David and I were playing music together in the early Bay Area folk music scene. After all the intervening years, we spontaneously got together again to sing and play. This time, Jerry played rhythm and lead guitar (instead of banjo), David played rhythm and lead guitar (instead of mandolin), and I played mandolin and dobro (instead of guitar) and some banjo (but not on these selections). We don't know why it happened this way. Then, we got together with John Kahn and he played bass. Kenny Kosek joined in on fiddle. David Kemper added some snare drums. It was fun. The music had a rough-hewn, energetic quality to it. Some of the shows were taped, just on two-track stereo DAT - no multiple tracks, no way to change anything. Here's a sampling of how it sounded. We think of this as mostly acoustic, not quite bluegrass, progress report for our friends, our fans, and people who love this music.
David Nelson spoke about the inception of the Jarry Garcia Acoustic Band in an interview. It followed Garcia, Nelson and Sandy Rothman spending some time together socialising and playing old songs;
We really had fun playing that old material, so we played a benefit for Bill Graham's poster artist. Bill got real excited about it and came into the back room. He said, 'I gotta take this somewhere,' and Jerry said, 'Take us to Broadway, Bill!' The next thing we know, we had 18 shows at the Lunt-Fontanne.
Credits above are as given on recording and, in the case of Casey Jones and Oh, Babe It Ain't No Lie, reflect the arrangements of the songs used rather than original composition.

Related releases

The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band released just the one recording.

Issued in the UK in February 1989 on LP by Grateful Dead Records (GDV 4005)

Reissued by Grateful Dead Records on CD and LP in February 1989 (GDCD 40092)

Reissued by Arista in 1995 (14005)

Deep Elem Blues and Ripple were included on;

Another version of Blue Yodel #9 performed by Garcia, John Kahn and David Grisman can be found on;
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