Jerry Garcia - All Good Things: Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions

Even among Deadheads, there's always been a sense that Jerry Garcia's studio albums have been somewhat ignored. Part of this ties back to the often repeated urban legend that The Grateful Dead were never as good in the studio as they were live -- an argument that has some truth but tends to downplay the merits of the studio albums, which had their own distinct attributes. This also applies to Garcia's studio records, but as a whole they're more problematic than The Dead's catalog. Every one of them is more tied to the production of the time, sounding like artifacts from their year of release, and apart from 1978's Cats Under The Stars -- his only collection of all-original material (counting a track by Donna Jean Godchaux) and rightly regarded by Garcia and fans as his best album -- it's hard to escape the sense that the guitarist treated The Jerry Garcia Band as a way to relax and unwind from the confines of The Grateful Dead, particularly since it turned into a touring outfit after 1982's half-hearted Run For The Roses. Read More