CD Review: Jerry Garcia - Garcia Plays Dylan

By guest reviewer Fumo Verde

As most of you can tell, I, Fumo Verde, am a Jerry freak, but what you might not know is that Bob Dylan is one of the many people, along with El Diablo, to whom I have pledged my soul, so when I got word that Garcia Plays Dylan was coming out, I immediately told El Bicho that I had to do the review. El Bicho is a good man. This is a two-CD set that has Jerry winding his voice through the tales of the legendary Dylan with accompaniments by The Jerry Garcia Band, Legion of Mary, and of course, the Grateful Dead.

Dylan's words not only transcend generations but music genres and artists alike and Jerry was no exception. This set is comprised of songs sung by Jerry and played by the bands he roamed with over between the years of 1973 to 1995, which included Legion of Mary, The Jerry Garcia Band, who appear on most of the album’s selections, and obviously The Grateful Dead.

Disc One features The Garcia Band playing on five of the seven tracks. "Positively 4th Street", that anti-establishment rant of the ‘60s is given a new form, a hard R&B touch that brings out the pain of loss and the hope of a new start. On "Simple Twist of Fate" and “Knockin' On Heaven's Door", Jerry delivers a gut-wrenching outpouring of his soul as his voice takes you through the tales of love and impending death that Dylan first told us so many decades ago. "I Shall Be Released" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", a Garcia/Merl Saunders duet, are two tracks on Disc One that have more of a gospel air to them with the former offering more of a glimpse of hope to its story.

Disc One is dedicated to the darker side of Dylan, proven by the emotions of the stories told. On Fumo Verde's scale of "Blue-ness", this disc is deep, deep blue, and it's not just the JGB droppin' the blues on you. The Legion of Mary puts a haunting twist to "The Wicked Messenger", allowing Jerry's guitar to go off on trip of pain and sorrow.

Article Author: El Bicho

El Bicho writes for a number of movie web sites, including Cinema Sentries, which he runs for the geniuses of Forwerd Media. He also occasionally cleans up around here. Follow at twitter.com/ElBicho_CS

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