Magical Moment Photos

Psychedelic Jerry Art by Ben Upham.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MAGICAL MOMENT GRATEFUL DEAD PHOTOS
or
CLICK HERE TO SEE MAGICAL MOMENT JERRY GARCIA BAND PHOTOS
or
CLICK HERE TO SEE JERRY GARCIA FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
or
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE “GARCIA” CD

REVIEWS:
#1-
“Cause for Celebration” by John Stodder
May 11, 2005
With the release of Jerry Garcia’s first solo album on CD for the first time in many years — complete with a wonderful remastering and a generous supply of alternate takes (really more like demos, but they are well performed) — it is now possible to hear all the best of the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter collaboration. For about three years, these two turned out some of the most beautiful, evocative songs about America ever written. From “Workingman’s Dead” in 1970 through “Wake of the Flood” in 1973, Jerry and Bob filled the album tracks with portaits of working men, gamblers, gunfighters, visionaries, lovers and losers, and crafted a mythical vision of the American soul that is only rivalled in artistry by The Band, and that would make Mark Twain smile. All of this set to the most gorgeous melodies and inventive musicianship that reflected the fullness of the American folk, country and blues traditions, while maintaining an experimental edge.

Long unavailable, “Garcia” features some of the best songs and richest performances from this fertile period. Garcia plays all the instruments except for drums, and takes full advantage of the freedom the solo format gave him. Some of the tunes sound much like the Dead–”Sugaree” and “Deal” could have fit easily on “American Beauty”–but he becomes a musical painter on other cuts like “The Wheel,” “To Lay Me Down,” and “Loser,” which feature layers of guitars and piano. The album also has a few instrumentals, some of which seem like stoned noodling, but at least one of which is a fine song, “Eep Hour.”

The demos are thoroughly enjoyable, but they are similar performances to the official versions, with the layers of instruments stripped away. It’s not why you’d spend money on this disc.

If you are a fan of “Workingman’s Dead,” “American Beauty,” or “Europe ’72,” then you will be thrilled to hear “Garcia.”
#2-
“Great under-rated album full of classic Garcia/Hunter songs”
by R. Hutchinson
July 21, 2005
This album contains several classics of underground radio (The Wheel, Sugaree, Deal), but I wonder how many people have ever heard the whole thing? It belongs right next to the Grateful Dead’s WORKINGMAN’S DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY, their turn to folk/blues, as well as EUROPE ’72, which contains several great Garcia/Hunter songs from the same period never recorded in the studio (much to Robert Hunter’s regret). In addition to the three mentioned already, GARCIA contains Bird Song, Loser and To Lay Me Down, so the album includes SIX of the best songs Garcia and Hunter ever wrote! But GARCIA is more than just a collection of great songs, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. After the first side’s conventional bluesy songs (with the exception of the haunting, bittersweet Bird Song), the second side gets DEEP. Late for Supper is the ominous opening of some sort of bad trip. Spidergawd features the recorded voices of newscasters talking about real-life apocalyptic events related to the potential for nuclear war. EEP Hour is a strange and beautiful instrumental with Garcia on piano, organ and pedal steel, which leads into the sad and nearly terminal To Lay Me Down, a memory of lost love. I believe this song offers as clear a glimpse into Garcia’s troubled soul as he ever recorded, though the feelings are universal. Finally, An Odd Little Place represents a turnabout, back toward the light.

And then, with a bang, comes The Wheel, redemption through grace! (The lyric includes the line “big wheel turn by the grace of God,” which of course is from Ezekiel.) The song is powerful, and euphoric enough on its own, but only by listening to it at the end of this album do you realize its full implication. 1972 turned out to be the last year of the 1960s. Garcia and the Dead kept truckin’ for many years, but they could not totally defy the shift in the times. This album is one of the last transmissions from that utopian moment, the counterculture dream, filled with the recognition that it was passing…

This Rhino reissue disc is nicely done. The only thing missing from the old 1988 CD release is the lyrics. But on the plus side, the booklet notes are by none other than Robert Hunter, and he describes how he came to write those lyrics. Also, there are six photos of Jerry in the booklet in addition to the one with his eyes closed that was included with the original vinyl release — that original photo is in the inset under the disc. One of the best of the added photos shows Jerry playing pedal steel in the studio. Another nice touch is restoring the “computer” font from the original vinyl to the spine of the jewel-box. As for the bonus musical material, unfortunately there isn’t anything really fantastic. None of the alternative takes are very good. The best are tracks 17 & 18, a studio jam with Jerry and Bill, and something called “Study for ‘The Wheel’.”

See my complete lists of Dead recordings on this site for 1968>1969 (PRANKSTERS & OTHER ONES), 1970>1972 (COSMIC COWBOYS), 1973>1974 (EYES OF THE WORLD), and 1975>1977 (ESTIMATED PROPHETS). I’m gradually reviewing my picks of the Dick’s Picks, so look for those as well.
#3-
“A Brilliant Yet Dirty Gem Of An Album”
by Mike
May 19, 2006
“Garcia” offers an interesting counterpoint to Bob Weir’s “Ace”. Where “Ace” offers mostly straight-laced tunes, “Garcia” offered more experimental arrangements. It would be hard to imagine a song with such celestial soundscapes like “Bird Song” or “The Wheel” on “Ace”.

This album features 6 songs that were assimilated into the Dead’s Live Reportoire.

“Deal” and “Loser” are songs very relative to those on “American Beauty” and “Workingman’s Dead”, which deals with people living the hard life, in this case, gamblers.

“Bird Song”, a tribute to Janis Joplin, is filled with a smattering with guitars and organ that just echo a certain pain that Garcia must’ve felt.

“Sugaree” is somewhat based on an old folk tune with similar titles. This song probably has the sparsest arrangement on the album, with only acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and electric guitar fed into a Leslie Speaker.

“To Lay Me Down” is subliminal in it’s subject matter. It could be about lost love, or the death of the 60′s dream, choose your own interpretation.

“The Wheel” however feels like a solution to the pain and suffering presented throughout the other songs. But the solution could be different for everybody.

The other songs on the album are little snippets of electronic sound experiments that bridge between the 2 sides of the album.

“Late For Supper” and “Spidergawd” work well as an introduction to “Eep Hour”. “Eep Hour” being an instrumental “song” on the album, it works well as transition back to Earth for “To Lay Me Down”, but for some strange reason, there’s no bass in the song. The only bottom end one hears is Kruetzmann’s bass drum, but it’s just not enough? How come there isn’t any bass, did Garcia ever get asked about it and have a good answer for it? ‘Cause I’d Like To Know.

JERRY GARCIA DISCOGRAPHY:
1971 Hooteroll? (w/ Howard Wales)
1972 Garcia
1973 Live at Keystone (w/ Merl Saunders)
1974 Compliments
1976 Reflections
1978 Cats Under the Stars
1982 Run for the Roses
1988 Almost Acoustic (Live)
1991 Jerry Garcia Band (Live)
1991 Garcia Grisman
1993 Not For Kids Only (w/ Grisman)
1996 Shady Grove (w/ Grisman)
1997 How Sweet it is (Live)
1998 So What (w/ Grisman)
2001 Dont Let Go (Live)
2001 Shining Star (Live)
2004 After Midnight (Live 1980)
2005 Garcia Plays Dylan (Live)
2009 Let it Rock (Live 1975)
CLICK HERE TO SEE JERRY GARCIA FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
or
CLICK HERE TO SEE MAGICAL MOMENT GRATEFUL DEAD ART
also
jerry garcia art

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE RARE AND UNUSUAL GRATEFUL DEAD AND JERRY GARCIA PHOTOS AND ARTWORK:
FINE ART AMERICA GRATEFUL DEAD AND JERRY GARCIA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
and
GRATEFUL DEAD MAGICAL MOMENT PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
and
JERRY GARCIA BAND MAGICAL MOMENT PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
and
GRATEFUL DEAD AND JERRY GARCIA MAGICAL MOMENT PHOTO/ARTWORK BY BEN UPHAM
and
PURCHASE GRATEFUL DEAD CD’S AND DVD’S
******************************************************************************************************
GRATEFUL DEAD DISCOGRAPHY:
1967 The Grateful Dead
1968 Anthem of the Sun
1969 Aoxomoxoa
1969 Live dead
1970 Workingman’s Dead
1970 American Beauty
1971 Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)
1972 Europe ’72 (Live)
1973 History of the Grateful Dead (Bear’s Choice)
1973 Wake of the Flood
1974 Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel
1975 Blues for Allah
1976 Steal your Face (Live)
1977 Terrapin Station
1978 Shakedown Street
1980 Go to Heaven
1981 Reckoning (Acoustic Live)
1981 Dead Set (Electric Live)
1987 In the Dark
1989 Dylan & the Dead
1989 Built to Last
1990 Without a Net (Live)
******************************************************************************************
JERRY GARCIA BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1971 Hooteroll? (w/ Howard Wales)
1972 Garcia
1973 Live at Keystone (w/ Merl Saunders)
1974 Compliments
1976 Reflections
1978 Cats Under the Stars
1982 Run for the Roses
1988 Almost Acoustic (Live)
1991 Jerry Garcia Band (Live)
1991 Garcia Grisman
1993 Not For Kids Only (w/ Grisman)
1996 Shady Grove (w/ Grisman)
1997 How Sweet it is (Live)
1998 So What (w/ Grisman)
2001 Dont Let Go (Live)
2001 Shining Star (Live)
2004 After Midnight (Live 1980)
2005 Garcia Plays Dylan (Live)
2009 Let it Rock (Live 1975)
***************************************************************************
BOB WEIR BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1972 Ace
1976 Kingfish
1977 Live & Kickin’ (Kingfish)
1978 Heaven Help the Fool
1981 Bobby & the Midnights
1984 Where the Beat meets the Street
1998 Weir & Wasserman Live
2000 Evening Moods (Ratdog)
2001 Live at Roseland (Ratdog)
2004 Weir Here (compilation)
************************************************************************************************************************

TO SEE RARE PHOTOS & ARTWORK OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD & JERRY GARCIA CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
GRATEFUL DEAD & JERRY GARCIA FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
AND
GRATEFUL DEAD & JERRY GARCIA PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
*******************************************************************************************
GRATEFUL DEAD DISCOGRAPHY:
1967 The Grateful Dead
1968 Anthem of the Sun
1969 Aoxomoxoa
1969 Live dead
1970 Workingman’s Dead
1970 American Beauty
1971 Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)
1972 Europe ’72 (Live)
1973 History of the Grateful Dead (Bear’s Choice)
1973 Wake of the Flood
1974 Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel
1975 Blues for Allah
1976 Steal your Face (Live)
1977 Terrapin Station
1978 Shakedown Street
1980 Go to Heaven
1981 Reckoning (Acoustic Live)
1981 Dead Set (Electric Live)
1987 In the Dark
1989 Dylan & the Dead
1989 Built to Last
1990 Without a Net (Live)
***********************************************************************************************
JERRY GARCIA DISCOGRAPHY:
1971 Hooteroll? (w/ Howard Wales)
1972 Garcia
1973 Live at Keystone (w/ Merl Saunders)
1974 Compliments
1976 Reflections
1978 Cats Under the Stars
1982 Run for the Roses
1988 Almost Acoustic (Live)
1991 Jerry Garcia Band (Live)
1991 Garcia Grisman
1993 Not For Kids Only (w/ Grisman)
1996 Shady Grove (w/ Grisman)
1997 How Sweet it is (Live)
1998 So What (w/ Grisman)
2001 Dont Let Go (Live)
2001 Shining Star (Live)
2004 After Midnight (Live 1980)
2005 Garcia Plays Dylan (Live)
2009 Let it Rock (Live 1975)
***********************************************************************************************************************
HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO VERY RARE LIVE GRATEFUL DEAD PERFORMANCES:
GRATEFUL DEAD- FROZEN LOGGER SONG
AND
THE GRATEFUL DEAD- FRIEND OF THE DEVIL IN SPOKANE ON 6-14-80
AND
JERRY GARCIA BAND- SHINING STAR IN SEATTLE 8-7-93
******************************************************************************************************************

See The Grateful Dead performing their #1 Hit “The Frozen Logger”@
GRATEFUL DEAD FROZEN LOGGER VIDEO
Please check out more of my Exciting and Unusual video clips featuring a huge variety of Musical Artists and lots of my Photography & Artwork on My you-tube Channel @
TroutVoice Video Channel
Also check out my Grateful Dead Pictures at: GRATEFUL DEAD PICTURES BY BEN UPHAM
AND
GRATEFUL DEAD FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
Thank You and have a Magical Day!

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF BOB WEIR & THE GRATEFUL DEAD:
GRATEFUL DEAD FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
and
BOB WEIR BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM

RATDOG-
“BRINGS NEW LIFE TO DEAD SONGS”
BY MARK BIALCZAK
THE POST STANDARD
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
MARCH 27, 1998

As a mainstay of the Deadhead favorite get-together, The Further Festival, during the past two summers, the band Ratdog was granted a 60-mmute set each evening. So things will be radically different when guitarist Bob Weir and bass player Rob Wasserman lead their band into the Landmark Theater Monday night. The headliner outfit gets more than two hours to show off its stuff after A&M Records opener Sixteen Horsepower bares its hillbilly howl and stark, dark heart.
But the Ratdog set list will not be twice as long. Spend your bread to get in, and you’ll get to enjoy Ratdog’s jams. “This band features some of the best improvisers,” Wasserman says during a recent phone conversation from Austin, Texas, where Ratdog is on the first week of this late winter-early spring jag. “It’s not any problem stretching out with this group,” Wasserman says. “I see some tunes going on for half an hour, if we don’t have any time constraints. There’s such a great level of improvisations.”
Weir is the longtime guitarist and songwriter for The Grateful Dead. Wasserman is considered one of the finest bass players, upright and electric, in the world Their collaboration started early this decade, a side project for Weir to fill in the down times when the Dead wasn’t touring. As a duo, Weir and Wasserman showed off their sharp acoustic stalls to happily dancing crowds at the state fair’s court in 1991 and 1992.
After Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia died in 1995, Weir turned to Wasserman for a new permanent musical foundation. They enlisted San Francisco Bay area drummer king Jay Lane and harp player Matthew Kelly, a co-founder of the band Kingfish. For that first Further Festival summer, Ratdog’s special guest was bluesman Johnny Johnson “So that first year, Ratdog was more or less playing the blues,” Wasserman says. Johnson did not return to the second year of Further Festivals. Instead, the band brought on keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and saxophonist Dave Ellis.
“And Bobby (Weir) decided he wanted to sing some of the Dead songs because he missed them,” Wasserman says. For instance, a Ratdog set in June 1997 included “Hell in a Bucket,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Playin’ in the Band” and “Touch of Gray.” At the Landmark, even more Dead favorites are likely to make the list. That’s bound to make Deadheads happy. And it doesn’t bother Wasserman a bit. He thinks that no matter what band played the song first, Ratdog can stamp it with its own identity.

BOB WEIR BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1972 Ace
1976 Kingfish
1977 Live & Kickin’ (Kingfish)
1978 Heaven Help the Fool
1981 Bobby & the Midnights
1984 Where the Beat meets the Street
1998 Weir & Wasserman Live
2000 Evening Moods (Ratdog)
2001 Live at Roseland (Ratdog)
2004 Weir Here (compilation)

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE BOB WEIR BAND & GRATEFUL DEAD PHOTOS:
GRATEFUL DEAD FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
and
BOB WEIR BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE MORE GRATEFUL DEAD PHOTOS & ART:
GRATEFUL DEAD PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
JERRY GARCIA BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
GRATEFUL DEAD ART BY BEN UPHAM
AND
GRATEFUL DEAD FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

THE GRATEFUL DEAD-
“CLOCK TWISTS BACKWARD AS DEADHEADS BOOGIE”
BY KIM CROMPTON
SPOKANE DAILY CHRONICLE
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON
JUNE 16, 1980

The “Dead” were resurrected at the Coliseum Saturday night, but they didn’t seem nearly as grateful as the audience which came to life with them.
The Grateful Dead, one of the old­est and most unique rock and roll groups of the past two decades, treated a relatively small but enthu­siastic crowd to three full hours of enjoyable music.
The diverse group of fans who came to see the group were almost as interesting, as the band itself. ­”Flower Children,” “Hippies,” mem­bers of outlaw motorcycle gangs and other societal outcasts of the Vietnam era were there, mingling freely and comfortably with others from that generation who have since conformed to more contemporary norms.
The Coliseum lights came on dur­ing a 45-minute intermission, re­vealing a scene similar to those at Woodstock, Blue Mountain and doz­ens of other outdoor rock concerts of that period in time.
One young woman with long blond hair moved slowly through the shifting bodies on the Coliseum floor, smelling a long-stemmed ­flower while holding aloft a sign which read, “I need a ride to L.A.” Wearing a long flowered skirt, she resembled many of the other wom­en from that era who were attracted to Spokane to hear their favorite group Saturday night.
Similarly, the men were scantily clad, for the most part, wearing no shirts and shoes, and many with beards and hair that reached to the middle of their backs. The crowd, overall, contrasted sharply with the group of teen-agers and young adults which gathers for most Spokane rock concerts. Members of this audience were older, ap­pearing more content on enjoying themselves than on impressing each other.
An example was the group of fans which normally stands at the rear of the Coliseum floor. Concerts featuring rock groups which appeal to a younger clientele generally cause that area of the floor to turn into a traffic zone with adolescents milling continually back and forth looking for someone they know or someone they would like to know.
The scene was different Saturday night, however, as rockers from the ’60s and late ’70s utilized that area as a gigantic dance floor. Grateful Dead fans, overcome with musical rapture, danced all evening and most of them were dancing alone.
The band’s music gave them ample reason to boogie, as The Dead were right on target with their inter­mingling of nostalgic numbers with newer songs. Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was excellent throughout the night and was complimented by the back-up fingerings of rhythm gui­tarist Bob Weir. They thrilled the crowd with their performances on songs like “Alabama Getaway” and “It Looks Like Rain” and with their vocals on slower songs like “Ship of
Fools.”
Drummers Billy Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart also were good and awed the crowd with a five-minute duet involving a large drum set-up at the rear of the stage. The entire crowd standing on the Coliseum floor bounced to the rhythm of most of the band’s songs, cheered loudly after each one and eventually called the group back for a single encore song, “One More Saturday Night”.
If the band were to be criticized it would be for its lack of response to the crowd. Members of the group refused to acknowledge the crowd’s applause, took long breaks between each song and acted as though they were rehearsing inside an empty hall. The fans, known as “Deadheads” didn’t seem to mind, however, as they appeared caught up in their own nostalgic rock revival.

Grateful Dead Setlist from the Spokane Coliseum show on June 14, 1980:
Set I-
Alabama Getaway
Promised Land
Friend of the Devil
El Paso
Brown Eyed Women
Me & My Uncle
Big River
Far From Me
Big Railroad Blues
Looks Like Rain
Don’t Ease Me In

Set II-
Feel Like a Stranger
Ship of Fools
Estimated Prophet
Eyes of the World
Drums/Space
Lost Sailor
Saint of Circumstance
Stella Blue
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
Good Lovin’
Encore: One More Saturday Night

GRATEFUL DEAD DISCOGRAPHY:
1967 The Grateful Dead
1968 Anthem of the Sun
1969 Aoxomoxoa
1969 Live dead
1970 Workingman’s Dead
1970 American Beauty
1971 Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)
1972 Europe ’72 (Live)
1973 History of the Grateful Dead (Bear’s Choice)
1973 Wake of the Flood
1974 Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel
1975 Blues for Allah
1976 Steal your Face (Live)
1977 Terrapin Station
1978 Shakedown Street
1980 Go to Heaven
1981 Reckoning (Acoustic Live)
1981 Dead Set (Electric Live)
1987 In the Dark
1989 Dylan & the Dead
1989 Built to Last
1990 Without a Net (Live)

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW FOR GRATEFUL DEAD PHOTOS & ART:
GRATEFUL DEAD PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
JERRY GARCIA BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
GRATEFUL DEAD ART BY BEN UPHAM
AND
GRATEFUL DEAD FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM