Pacific High

During the early seventies Garcia began a number of secondary projects parallel to The Grateful Dead. One such collaboration was with keyboardist Merl Saunders. Along with bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Vitt the band recorded and released one album which consisted of songs recorded live at the Keystone venue in San Francisco. The album was originally a double vinyl album although it was subsequently reissued as two double albums with a re jigged track listing. The band featured a more mainstream approach than that of the Dead and Garcia’s playing was also in a different style to that which he played as a member of The Dead This recording was made at the Pacific High Studios as part of KSAN’s Live Weekend feature and as such the performance here was recorded on a Sunday Evening in February 1972. This Live broadcast also features the Grateful Dead’s drummer Bill Kreutzmann depping for the bands original drummer Bill Vitt who was unavailable for this broadcast. This broadcast was also the first time Jerry Garcia had been featured away from the Grateful Dead and so in that sense it is a historic recording. The songs featured here include covers of John Lennon’s Imagine and other covers including Motown covers (How Sweet It Is and I Was Made To Love Her) and Bob Dylan (It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry and When I Paint My Masterpiece) Includes songs not released on Previous Releases.