This is my favorite. The Eleanor Rigby/after midnight is an all time highlight but I think Ozzy Oilers on the Keyboard was amazing. He was in the band for less than a year but his keyboard was just a great addition.
Along with Garcia and I know that they arent purely solo albums buy I really like So What and Garcia/Grisman.
Jerry didn't really have a solo "period." He had two parallel careers. One with the Dead, and one apart from the Dead.
I wasn't a huge fan of this when it came out but the MoFi release is the one of the best sounding records in my collection.
This was recorded after the Wilkins Theater show (I don't know if there was a show in the middle, 1980 was a leap year). I love it.
the first Garcia non dead show I saw was in early 1972 with howard wales after hooteroll came out. it was very good but not quite there. Garcia didn't even play the whole show which I heard later was how all of those shows were. he said later he did that tour to help out wales and get his name out there. the next non dead Garcia shows I saw were with saunders at the tiny lion's share club near s.f. in December of 1972. we got to hang out with the band since my brother's friend knew them a bit. that was the first time I met jerry. I think it was 3.50 to get in.
From my own perspective I have too many favorite releases to single out one or two but I really like the studio albums-even Run for the Roses-yes, it's true and the 2 CD Arista set plus Don't Let Go and the After Midnight releases but, oh yeah and then there's the...oh well I think I pretty much got to have all of them...and what's next on the release schedule
I love my 6 CD box set of All Good Things, which collects all his solo studio albums along with plenty of bonus tracks. Unfortunately, the set (along with the individual remastered albums) go for big bucks used. Surprised this music s OOP!
With only one musician with the name Jerry, I guess it makes sense not to put that in the title of the thread.
When I bought that set I only had Jerry's first solo album. The happiness I felt while discovering all those other records which were new to me is impossible to describe, and to forget .
Thank you Ray S for the Capitol Theater video. I was at that Garcia show, Capitol Theater on 3/17/78. Third row direct center. In fact I am quickly shown in that video sitting with a camera perched near my chest waiting for the perfect shot of Jerry (see me sitting on the aisle around 3:27 in the video - two seats away from those girls that jump up even though I appear to be right next to them (who weren't with my - my girlfriend was, but you can't see her in the video at that point - although I watched the whole show once before and she is shown other times when the video camera shows the audience). Mission In The Rain (in any form -live, studio, etc) is probably one of my favorite solo Jerry songs, and that Capitol version smokes. A bit of a sad story about taking pictures at that show. I had a totally manual Nikon camera at the time, and I was using very fast speed black and white film (used for some photography courses taken in college at the time).... anyway, I probably!! got some great shots of Jerry at that show, and in fact at one point I stood up (while everyone else was sitting) and Jerry mugged for the camera - lifting his guitar a bit and looking right into the lens. People around me were giving me high fives for getting Jerry to interact a little with the shot I was taking. Anyway, as I always did, after the one roll of film was used up, I manually rewound the film (this camera was a total manual load and rewind - as well as manual focus/aperture, etc), with the little lever that spun around on the bottom of the camera. As I'm beginning to rewind the film I hear a ripping sound, and in a panic I open the camera to see the film shredded in pieces. In retrospect, I should never have opened the camera but taken the camera with loaded film to a camera shop where they probably could have salvaged whatever pictures still remained - but I didn't. So there I am in the bright light (the show was over at this point in time) with exposed film ripped in pieces (now ruined as it has been exposed to bright light outside the camera). I nearly cried since I lost what would have been a masterful picture taken from the third row of Jerry posing just for me (as well as other pictures from the show). The craziest thing was I had taken probably dozens, if not more, rolls of film with that camera and never had an issue, so imagine my dismay when this specific roll of film ripped when rewinding it. Water under the bridge, and now I can watch the whole show (not just that smoking Mission in the Rain) on you tube anytime I want!! (here's hoping they never take it down).
I love that album! I've never been able to find it on CD (yet), but luckily I have a nice green-label LP. Side 1 in particular is right up my street.
I recently ordered the re-issue vinyl LP of "Garcia" (black vinyl, otherwise like the RSD re-issue from the jerrygarcia.com website. Great re-mastering, pressing, and sound. Jerry's first solo studio album simply titled Garcia. The album was re-mastered for vinyl release by Joe Gastwirt using the original 30ips 1/4" mix master reels and pressed to 180 gram black vinyl by RTI. Includes an MP3 download card. Get a free limited edition 10”x10” print with every Garcia LP purchase. Offer valid while supplies last.
The first Garcia solo album, with the hand and the 10 of diamonds, is THE iconic 'solo' Jerry album for me.
I have pretty much all of the solo Jerry official releases, including the expanded Zabriskie Point soundtrack (great Pink Floyd tracks on that one, too) and the bonus discs, with (I think) the only exceptions being the solo greatest hits set with a couple exclusive tracks and the 1-set download only JGB show with Lesh on bass from a couple years ago that you only could get if you bought a t-shirt. Too much of a rip-off for even a diehard like myself. I don't have the Blue Incantations album (I did, but sold it in a purge long ago) and some of the other guest appearances, though, but I have a lot of those. One that is not mentioned much, but I enjoy a lot, is Ornette Coleman & Prime Time's Virgin Beauty album (1988), which has Jerry on 3 tracks. It was a treat to hear Garcia come out and play one of the songs from this release (3 Wishes, IIRC) when Ornette opened for the Dead in '93. Edit: I forgot that I never got the "Extra Large" version of the Pizza Tapes when it was briefly available on CD, or the Garcia Plays Dylan album and bonus disc.
I always enjoy hearing a good "war story" , especially from before my time (Although that show was about 15 minutes from my house, I was only in 8th grade at the time.) Saw that show on YouTube and fell in love with it.
This is another release that I really enjoy. Great "out" playing-good for long jogs in the woods. I also dug out the old "Smoke" movie soundtrack from 1995 which had two songs on there by the Jerry Garcia Band. They were "Cigarettes and Coffee" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". These were some of the last recordings along with "Blue Yodel #9" for another project. The Ornette Coleman post prompted me to remember these recordings. Another relatively obscure recording was the one Jerry did with Edie Brickell and Dave Wasserman for the "Trios" that was done after the "Duos" album.
I've always loved "Reflections", a great mixture of new songs like the beautiful It Must Have Been The Roses (a really typical Robert Hunter song), old-timer Catfish John reworked with a reggae beat, Allen Toussaint's I'll Take A Melody and a Hank Ballard number (Tore Up Over You). Most of the Dead are in the band (except Pigpen), there's no Grisman, but it's all really great.
