Record production and supply chain issues aside, 2021 overall was a pretty great year for gathering music. This time, it's another stellar reissue from the Grateful Dead / Jerry Garcia archives, and a don't-miss new release from The Bangles' singer and songwriter.
*Jerry Garcia Band – Getting my hands on one of these is a story of what it was like to be a vinyl consumer in 2021. I knew when it was announced it was going to require a little planning to add one to the stacks, the beautiful reissues from the Grateful Dead / Jerry Garcia archives tend to be made in limited numbers. I figured I had about a 50/50 shot of seeing this one in my local stores (haven't seen one locally so far). Jerry Garcia Band was announced as a Record Store Day release in July, but postponed when the Garcia folks overseeing the project rejected the first batch of test pressings. They always want their releases to be perfect, and apparently that first batch wasn't. Plan B was to release it on Record Store Day Black Friday instead, but that deadline was cancelled when production capability at record pressing plants became scarce (thanks, Adele). The only record I've ever pre-ordered, I put my name on the list at the earliest opportunity and waited for many weeks. It finally saw the light of day on December 3rd, and was absolutely worth the wait.
Jerry lived to play his guitar in front of an audience. For most of their life as a band, the Grateful Dead did two major tours per year, hopped over to Europe to play every once in a while, and tossed in some special gigs around the holidays on their beloved San Francisco home turf. For Jerry, that wasn’t enough to satisfy his insatiable craving to play live. There were various lineups of the Jerry Garcia Band in existence from 1975 on, some rock-based, some jazz-leaning, and some straight up bluegrass and old folk songs. The JGB filled in the gaps in Jerry's life when the Dead weren’t on the road and he used the various band iterations primarily to play other people’s songs. The Dead repertoire was left out of the setlists in favor of all the music Jerry and long-time bassist John Kahn loved – Dylan, Beatles, The Band, Bruce Cockburn, Chuck Berry, Bob Marley, and countless others. They were the world’s greatest cover band.
The lineup on this recording is easily my favorite version of JGB, 1990-era with Kahn, drummer David Kemper, Jackie LaBranch and Gloria Jones on backup vocals, and gospel-tinged keyboardist Melvin Seals. Their playing was lush, warm, soulful and extremely focused, given the exploratory nature of Jerry’s playing. Unlike some infamous Dead shows, this version of JGB never got lost in the ether while Jerry stretched out the songs. They let him do his thing, accompanying him brilliantly, but were always able to snap the song right back into focus when the time came, a highwire act that never failed to amaze. Unlike Grateful Dead shows, there are no songs jammed at great length into other songs, no extended drum solos, every tune is a discrete performance of stated theme, improvisation, and return to theme, not unlike a jazz concert.
This particular release wasn’t new to me, I bought the CD version when it came out in 1991 and played it to death. Four epic Dylan covers, the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” some Smokey Robinson and Robbie Robertson, Los Lobos, and a visit to New Orleans and Jamaica. Every track is a brilliant choice, beautifully played. It was reissued in 2021 as a beautifully designed 5-LP box set, in stunning sound quality, and has become one of the jewels of my collection.
It’s important to note that 1990, when Jerry Garcia Band was recorded, was a very good year for Jerry. He had recovered from a diabetic coma, kicked heroin, lost weight, and was receiving physical therapy; healthier (and by all accounts happier) than he had been in decades. The Dead shows from that year were also some of their finest. His playing on this record is wonderfully melodic, exploratory but disciplined, and joyous. Jerry’s singing voice is as nuanced and strong as the Dead’s earliest days thanks to his new-found discovery of the benefits of good health. Sadly, his demons would return within a couple short years, and he passed too young. But we're left with this document of his glorious latter-day renaissance, a testament to his brilliance as a performer and bandleader.
EARWORM: “Deal” (1971) – Not a Grateful Dead song per se, although they played it often. It’s the leadoff track from Jerry’s 1971 solo album Garcia. The only non-cover song on Jerry Garcia Band, a prime example that this band could rock out spectacularly when called upon. Jerry’s playing is all brilliant focused energy.
Susanna Hoffs, Bright Lights – Talk about under-the-radar. Susanna’s 2021 release didn’t even show up on 2 of the 3 weekly new release lists I check regularly. Not only did it not have a vinyl release, there’s no CD either. Streaming only for this one. Considering the chart-topping dominance of The Bangles in their day, Bright Lights is an unfortunate example of how time, and musical relevance, move on.
And that’s a damn shame, this record is one of the finest I heard in 2021. She didn’t write any of the songs this time around, but she chose an eclectic assortment of brilliantly esoteric tunes, an embarrassment of riches for music history-diving obsessives like me. British folk rocker Nick Drake’s obscure beauty “One of These Things First” sits next to the equally obscure, and equally lovely, “You and Your Sister,” from Chris Bell’s (formerly of Big Star) only solo album. Mike Nesmith’s fabulous Monkees-era “You Just May Be the One” follows the seminal “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” by Richard and Linda Thompson, and so on. Badfinger, The Velvet Underground, Paul Revere & the Raiders, and Prince all have songs on the setlist, all compellingly interpreted.
Instead of sounding like their widely disparate sources, the album is a remarkably cohesive piece of work. Susanna keeps the core band simple – voice, guitar, drum, bass – with just enough perfectly placed keyboard and string accents to lift every song to a higher level. Her singing still has the girlish timbre that was so instantly recognizable on hits like "Manic Monday," but age has made her voice richer and more supple. An exquisite instrument that draws me in completely.
The irrelevance of Bright Lights to any part of the current musical landscape is indeed a shame, but that’s the state of our current piecemeal, exclusively personal listening habits. I’ve been doing my best to get the word out because it’s a killer listen. And no, you don’t have to be familiar with the original versions of the songs to thoroughly enjoy it, every performance stands on its own. I’ve said this before, but here’s one last push before the year ends: do your ears a favor and give this wonderful album a listen.
A final note: There's one completely unexpected benefit of Bright Lights being a streaming only album. I’ve listened to it many times on Qobuz, my hi-res streaming service of choice. Qobuz will keep going with a “suggested listening” playlist if you let it play on after your selection's done. The suggested songs following Bright Lights were spectacular, heavily weighted to non-mainstream contemporary female rock artists, a genre that doesn't get a lot of airplay these days. I ended up not choosing another album that night and listened to what it was suggesting for a couple of hours. I ended up with a list of songs and made my own Qobuz playlist from them that I’ve revisited with great pleasure.
EARWORM: “Take Me with U” (1984) – The last single released from Prince’s Purple Rain. Beautifully sung, with fascinating, stabbing string arrangements.
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