Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders – GarciaLive Volume 22: September 25th, 1971 Lion's Share (2-CD)
Review
It was a jam-session atmosphere on Sept. 25, 1971, when an unnamed-but-well-known quintet performed two shows at San Anselmo’s Lion’s Share.
The emcee introduces the band as Jerry Garcia, Tom Fogerty, Merl Saunders and Friends. Garcia quickly pipes in to clarify John Kahn (bass) and Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann are the friends.
All but one song from the gigs is out as GarciaLive Volume 22, credited to Garcia and Saunders and featuring 90 minutes of the sound of Garcia transitioning away from his role as solely the Dead’s frontman and toward the polymathic approach that would carry him toward Old & in the Way, Legion of Mary and the Jerry Garcia Band as the ’70s unfolded. And hearing him play alongside a traditional rhythm guitarist in the form of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fogerty is revelatory on its own as Garcia develops mainstream rock ‘n’ roll chops on the fly.
Fogerty shares co-lead vocals with Garcia on “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” delivered in a slow shuffle not dissimilar to “Deal.” Saunders, meanwhile, is the bandleader on originals like the instrumental “Save Mother Earth,” which segues into a wordless reading of John Lennon’s “Imagine” that is nearly impossible to identify as John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Garcia, Fogerty, Saunders, Kahn and Kreutzmann sound most like a working band on the slow-build balladry of “Biloxi,” which closes show No. 1 and show No. 2 opener “Hi-Heel Sneakers,” which previews the arrangement of “Big Boss Man” Garcia would bring to the Dead the following decade.
Another Saunders instrumental, “Man-Child,” foreshadows “Space” before dropping into “Summertime.” Like “Imagine,” it’d be difficult to peg this as the Gershwin number if not for the title, but it proves these cats could play the blues with authority.
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— Kristopher Weiss, jambands.com
Product Details
Before Garcia found his footing with the Jerry Garcia Band, he was a regular at small Marin County rooms like the Lion's Share, working out a shared musical language with Merl Saunders rooted in R&B, gospel, and loose improvisational conversation. This September 1971 date captures that chemistry in its earliest form, nearly a year before the two appeared together on record, when these sets were pure community happenings with no commercial stakes attached.
GarciaLive Volume 22 showcases almost every note of music played during the early & late shows at San Anselmo’s cozy Lion’s Share. While the evening’s closing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” seemingly went unrecorded, and “Biloxi” suffers from tape degradation, the rest stands as a rare slice of transcendent two-guitar Garcia/Saunders alchemy. Listen comfortably with our promise that every effort was made to produce this release in a manner which honors the spirit of its creation.
Tracklist:
EARLY SHOW
- BAND INTRODUCTIONS
- SAVE MOTHER EARTH>
- IMAGINE
- ONE KIND FAVOR
- I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER
- BABY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?
- BILOXI
LATE SHOW
- HI-HEEL SNEAKERS
- MAN-CHILD>
- SUMMERTIME
- THAT'S A TOUCH I LIKE
- ANNIE HAD A BABY>
- W-P-L-J
UPC: 880882691226
Label: Round Records (rr0)
Release Date: 5.1.26
Format: CD