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Garcia is Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia's first solo album, released in 1972.^[1][2]

Warner Bros. Records offered the Grateful Dead the opportunity to cut their own solo records, and Garcia was released during the same time as Bob Weir's Ace and Mickey Hart's Rolling Thunder. Unlike Ace, which was practically a Grateful Dead album, Garcia was more of a solo effort, as Garcia played almost all the instrumental parts. Six tracks eventually became standards in the Grateful Dead concert repertoire.

Some reprints of the album are self-released.

Track listing[link]

1. "Deal" (Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia) – 3:14
2. "Bird Song" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:26
3. "Sugaree" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:54
4. "Loser" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:10
5. "Late For Supper" (Garcia) – 1:37
6. "Spidergawd" (Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Hunter) – 3:25
7. "EEP Hour" (Garcia, Kreutzmann) – 5:08
8. "To Lay Me Down" (Hunter, Garcia) – 6:18
9. "An Odd Little Place" (Garcia, Kreutzmann) – 1:38
10. "The Wheel" (Hunter, Garcia, Kreutzmann) – 4:12

The album was reissued in the All Good Things box set with the following bonus tracks:

11. "Sugaree (Alternate Take)" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:13

12. "Loser (Alternate Take)" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:06

13. "Late For Supper / Spidergawd / EEP Hour (Alternate Takes)" (Garcia, Kreutzmann)

14. "The Wheel (Alternate Take #1)" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:04

15. "The Wheel (Alternate Take #2)" (Hunter, Garcia) – 2:53

16. "Study for EEP Hour" (Garcia, Kreutzmann) – 3:30

17. "Dealin' from the Bottom (Studio Jam)" (Garcia, Kreutzmann) – 1:25

18. "Study for the Wheel" (Garcia, Kreutzmann) – 3:22

Credits[link]

Personnel[link]

• Jerry Garcia - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass, piano, organ, samples, vocals
• Bill Kreutzmann - drums
• Robert Hunter - lyrics

Production[link]

• Producers & engineers - Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor, Ramrod
• Production assistants - Ramrod, Bill Kreutzmann
• Mixing - Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor, Jerry Garcia
• Cover photo & album design - Bob Seidman
• Garcia photo - Herb Greene

References[link]

Look up García or Garcia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

García or Garcia may refer to:

People[link]

• García (surname)
• Kings of Pamplona/Navarre
  • García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2-882
  • García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931-970
  • García Sánchez II of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 994-1004
  • García Sánchez III of Navarre, king of Navarre 1035-1054
  • García Ramírez of Navarre, king of Navarre 1134-1150
• Kings of León/Galicia
  • García I of León
  • García II of Galicia

Places[link]

• Garcia, Tarragona, a municipality in Ribera d'Ebre, Spain
• García, Nuevo León, a municipality in Mexico
• Garcia, California, a former town in the United States
• Garcia, Colorado, an unincorporated town in the United States

Other uses[link]

• Garcia (plant genus), a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae
• Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, a US Supreme Court case
• USS Garcia (FF-1040), U.S. Navy frigate
• Garcia (album), an album by Jerry Garcia

See also[link]

• Los Garcia, Puerto Rican television comedy show the 1970s
• Garcia Hernandez, Bohol, municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines
• Padre Garcia, Batangas, municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines
• San Pedro Garza García, suburb of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
• Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Indian Ocean used as a major military base by the United States

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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Early record albums were packages of 78 RPM records in book form

An album may be understood as a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution, however the concept is found in printed music dating into the early nineteenth century in works by composers such as Schumann and Mendelssohn.^[1] The word derives from the Latin word for list.^[2]

Today, with the vinyl record no longer being used as the primary form of distribution, the term "album" can still be applied to any sound recording collection, such as those on compact disc, MiniDisc, Compact audio cassette, and digital or MP3 albums.^[3] Cover art is also considered an integral part of the album. Many albums also come with liner notes and inserts giving background information or analysis of the recording, reprinted lyrics, images of the performers, or additional artwork and text.^[4] These are now often found in the form of CD booklets.^[5]

History and Formats[link]

Vinyl records[link]

Two vinyl records with inner and outer album sleeves

Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles, these were often traditionally placed in particular positions on the album.^[3] A common configuration was to have the album led off by the second and third singles, followed by a ballad. The first single would lead off side 2. In the past many singles (such as the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street") did not appear on albums, but others (such as the Beatles' "Come Together" and Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone") were part of an album released concurrently. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as a way of promoting the album. ^[6]Albums have also been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished "demo" recordings.^[3]

Album sets of the past were arranged "in sequence" for phonographs equipped with record changers. In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides 1 and 4 would be printed on one record, and sides 2 and 3 on the other. The consumer would then stack the two records onto a spindle equipped with an automatic record changer by stacking the record with side 1 on the bottom and the record with side 2 directly on top of it. The record containing side 1 would then automatically drop onto the turntable, and the tone arm containing the stylus needle would automatically play the album's side 1. When that side was finished, the tone arm would swing back to allow the record containing side 2 to drop down on top of the record containing side 1 and automatically begin to play. When that was done, the consumer would pick up the stack of records that have already played, flip them over (as a stack, without rearranging), and put them back on the spindle. Sides 3 and 4 would play in sequence without further intervention from the consumer.^[3]Record changers persisted throughout the LP era, but were discontinued after it was discovered that the stacking up of records had the potential to warp them.^[3]

Compact cassette[link]

A blank compact cassette tape and case

The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music in the late 1970's through to the 1990's. The very first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August of 1963 in the form of a prototype.^[7] Compact cassettes became especially popular during the 1980's after the advent of the Sony Walkman, which allowed the person to personally control what they listen to.^[8][7] The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants.^[7] The compact cassette used doubled-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale.^[7][9] The music is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album.^[7]

Compact disc[link]

A compact disc within an open 'Jewel Case'

The Compact Disc's format effectively replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette, to become the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of music albums.^[10] The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music.^[9][10]

Length[link]

According to the rules of the UK Charts, a recording counts as an "album" if either it has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes.^[11] Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as "mini-albums" or EPs.^[12] Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yes's Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. Other artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder refer to their own releases under 30 minutes to bake as "albums" despite the normal distinction.

If an album becomes too long to fit a single vinyl record or CD, a recording artist may make the decision to release a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in a single case, or a triple album containing three LPs or compact discs.

Recording artists who have an extensive back catalog will often re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums, or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets. Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in the form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album.

See also[link]

Look up album in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Music albums

• Album cover
• Concept album
• Compact Disc
• Extended play
• Liner notes
• List of albums
• Long play
• Release (music)
• Single (music)

References[link]

Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia performing in New Haven, CT at the Jerry Garcia WPLR Show.
Background information
Birth name	Jerome John Garcia
Born	August 1, 1942 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	August 9, 1995(1995-08-09) (aged 53) Forest Knolls, California, U.S.
Genres	Folk rock, bluegrass, country rock, jazz, rock and roll, psychedelic rock, rhythm and blues, blues-rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo, vocals
Years active	1960–1995
Labels	Rhino, Arista, Warner Bros., Acoustic Disc, Grateful Dead
Associated acts	Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage
Website	JerryGarcia.com
Notable instruments
Gibson SGs Guild Starfire 1957 Gibson Les Paul Gold-top Les Paul with P-90 Fender Stratocaster "Alligator" Doug Irwin-modified Alembic "Wolf" Doug Irwin Custom "Tiger" Doug Irwin Custom "Rosebud" Stephen Cripe Custom "Lightning Bolt," Martin D-28, Takamine acoustic-electric guitars

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead.^[1][2] Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the group.^[1][2][3][4]

One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire three-decade career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson).^[1] He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.^[5]

Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions,^[3][4] and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.^[2][4]

Childhood and early life[link]

Jerry Garcia's ancestry was Galician (Spanish), Irish, and Swedish.^[6] He was born in San Francisco, California, on August 1, 1942, to Jose Ramon "Joe" Garcia and Ruth Marie "Bobbie" (née Clifford) Garcia.^[7][8][9] His parents named him after composer Jerome Kern.^[7][10][11] Jerome John was their second child, preceded by Clifford Ramon "Tiff", who was born in 1937.^[12][13] Shortly before Clifford's birth, their father and a partner leased a building in downtown San Francisco and turned it into a bar, partly in response to Jose being blackballed from a musician's union for moonlighting.^[14]

Garcia was influenced by music at an early age,^[15] taking piano lessons for much of his childhood.^[16] His father was a retired professional musician and his mother enjoyed playing the piano.^[7] His father's extended family—who had emigrated from Spain in 1919—would often sing during reunions.^[13]

At age four,^[17][18] while vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Garcia underwent amputation of two-thirds of his right middle finger.^[19][20] Garcia was given the chore of steadying wood while his elder brother chopped, when he inadvertently put his finger in the way of the falling axe.^[20] After his mother wrapped his hand in a towel Garcia's father drove him over thirty miles to the nearest hospital.^[19] A few weeks later, Garcia—who never looked at the finger after the accident—was surprised to discover most of it missing when the bandage he was wearing came off during a bath.^[21] Garcia later confided that he often used it to his advantage in his youth, showing it off to other children in his neighborhood.

Garcia experienced several tragic events during his youth. Less than a year after losing the segment of his finger, his father died. While on vacation with his family near Arcata in Northern California in 1947, his father went fly-fishing in the Trinity River, part of the Six Rivers National Forest.^[22] Not long after entering he slipped on a rock underfoot, plunging into the deep rapids of the river. The incident was witnessed by a group of boys who immediately sought help, beckoning a pair of nearby fishermen. By the time he was pulled from the water, he had already drowned. Garcia later claimed to have seen his father fall into the river, but Dennis McNally, author of the book A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, asserts that he did not, instead forming the memory from hearing the story repeated many times.^[11] Blair Jackson, who wrote the biography Garcia: An American Life, lends weight to McNally's claim, citing that the newspaper article describing Jose's death made no mention of Garcia being at the scene—even misidentifying him as his parents' daughter.^[22]

Following the accident, Garcia's mother took over their late father's bar, buying out his partner for full ownership. As a result, Ruth Garcia began working full-time, sending Jerry and his brother to live just down the road with their maternal grandparents, Tillie and William Clifford. During the five-year period in which he lived with his grandparents, Garcia enjoyed a large amount of autonomy and attended Monroe School, the local elementary school. At the school, Garcia was greatly encouraged in his artistic abilities by his third grade teacher: through her, he discovered that "being a creative person was a viable possibility in life."^[23] According to Garcia, it was around this time that he was opened up to country and to bluegrass by his grandmother, who he recalled enjoyed listening to the Grand Ole Opry. His elder brother, Clifford, however, staunchly believed the contrary, insisting that Garcia was "fantasizing all [that] ... she'd been to Opry, but she didn't listen to it on the radio." It was at this point that Garcia started playing the banjo, his first stringed instrument.^[24]

In 1953, Garcia's mother was remarried to a man named Wally Matusiewicz.^[25] Subsequently, Garcia and his brother moved back home with their mother and new stepfather. However, due to the roughneck reputation of their neighborhood at the time, the Excelsior District, Garcia's mother moved their family to Menlo Park.^[25] During their stay in Menlo Park, Garcia became acquainted with racism and antisemitism, things he disliked intensely.^[25] The same year, Garcia was also introduced to rock and roll and rhythm and blues by his brother, and enjoyed listening to the likes of Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Hank Ballard, and, in a few years, Chuck Berry.^[26] Clifford often memorized the vocals for his favorite songs, and would then make Garcia learn the harmony parts, a move to which Garcia later attributed much of his early ear training.^[26]

In mid-1957, Garcia began smoking cigarettes and was introduced to marijuana.^[27][28] Garcia would later reminisce about the first time he smoked marijuana: "Me and a friend of mine went up into the hills with two joints, the San Francisco foothills, and smoked these joints and just got so high and laughed and roared and went skipping down the streets doing funny things and just having a helluva time".^[15] During this time, Garcia also took up an art program at the San Francisco Art Institute to further his burgeoning interest in the visual arts.^[17] The teacher there was Wally Hedrick, an artist who came to prominence during the 1960s. During the classes, he often encouraged Garcia in his drawing and painting skills.^[29]

In June of the same year, Garcia graduated from the local Menlo Oaks school. He then moved with his family back to San Francisco, where they lived in an apartment above the newly built bar, the old one having previously been torn down to make way for a freeway entrance.^[30] Two months later, on Garcia's fifteenth birthday, his mother purchased him an accordion, to his great disappointment.^[15] Garcia had long been captivated by many rhythm and blues artists, especially Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley: his one wish at this point was to have an electric guitar.^[30] After some pleading, his mother exchanged the accordion for a Danelectro with a small amplifier at a local pawnshop.^[31] Garcia's stepfather, who was somewhat proficient with instruments, helped tune his guitar to an unusual open tuning.^[27]

After a short stint at Denman Junior High School, Garcia attended tenth grade at Balboa High School in 1958, where he often got into trouble for skipping classes and fighting.^[32] Consequently, in 1959, Garcia's mother again moved the family to get Garcia to stay out of trouble, this time to Cazadero, a small town in Sonoma County, 90 miles north of San Francisco.^[32] This turn of events did not sit well with Garcia. To get to Analy High School, the nearest school, he had to travel by bus thirty miles to Sebastopol, a move which only made him more unhappy.^[33] Garcia did, however, join a band at his school known as the Chords. After performing and winning a contest, the band's reward was recording a song—they chose "Raunchy" by Bill Doggett.^[34]

Recording career[link]

Relocation and band beginnings[link]

Garcia stole his mother's car in 1960, and as punishment, joined the United States Army. He received basic training at Fort Ord.^[15] After training, he was transferred to Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco.^[35] Garcia spent most of his time in the army at his leisure, missing roll call and accruing many counts of AWOL.^[36] As a result, Garcia was given a general discharge on December 14, 1960.^[37]

In January 1961, Garcia drove down to East Palo Alto to see Laird Grant, an old friend from middle school.^[38] He had purchased a 1950 Cadillac sedan from a cook in the army, which barely made it to Grant's residence before it broke down.^[38] Garcia proceeded to spend the next few weeks sleeping where friends would allow, eventually using his car as a home. Through Grant, Garcia met Dave McQueen in February, who, after hearing Garcia perform some blues, introduced him to local people and to the Chateau, a rooming house located near Stanford University which was then a popular hangout.^[39]

On February 20, 1961, Garcia entered a car with Paul Speegle, a 16-year-old artist and acquaintance of Garcia; Jack Royerton, a poet from Indiana and childhood friend of Garcia; Lee Adams, the house manager of the Chateau and driver of the car; and Alan Trist, a companion of theirs.^[39] After speeding past the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital, the car encountered a curve and, traveling around ninety miles per hour, collided with the guard rail, sending the car rolling turbulently.^[40][41] Garcia was hurled through the windshield of the car into a nearby field with such force he was literally thrown out of his shoes and would later be unable to recall the ejection.^[40] Lee Adams, the driver, and Alan Trist, who was seated in the back, were thrown from the car as well, suffering from abdominal injuries and a spine fracture, respectively.^[40] Royerton suffered a mild concussion and shattered his ulna. Garcia escaped with a broken collarbone, while Speegle, still in the car, was fatally injured.^[41]

The accident served as an awakening for Garcia, who later commented: "That's where my life began. Before then I was always living at less than capacity. I was idling. That was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was like a second chance. Then I got serious".^[42] It was at this time that Garcia began to realize that he needed to begin playing the guitar in earnest—a move which meant giving up his love of drawing and painting.^[43]

Garcia met Robert Hunter, who would become a long-time lyrical collaborator with the Grateful Dead, in April 1961.^[1][7] Garcia and Hunter began to participate in the local art and music scenes, sometimes playing at Kepler's Books.^[7] Garcia performed his first concert with Hunter, each earning five dollars. Garcia and Hunter also played in a band called the Wildwood Boys with David Nelson, a future contributor to some Grateful Dead albums.^[17]

In 1962 Garcia met Phil Lesh, the eventual bassist of the Grateful Dead, during a party in Menlo Park's bohemian Perry Lane neighborhood (where Ken Kesey lived).^[44] Lesh would later write in his autobiography that Garcia resembled the composer Claude Debussy, with his "dark, curly hair, goatee, Impressionist eyes".^[17] While attending another party in Palo Alto, Lesh approached Garcia to suggest that he record some songs on Lesh's tape recorder (Phil was musically trained, though he did not start playing bass guitar until the formation of the Grateful Dead in 1965) with the intention of getting them played on the radio station KPFA.^[17] Using an old Wollensak tape recorder, they recorded "Matty Groves" and "The Long Black Veil", among several other tunes. Their efforts were not in vain, leading to a spot on the show, a ninety-minute special on Garcia. It was broadcast as: "'The Long Black Veil' and Other Ballads: An Evening with Jerry Garcia".^[17]

Garcia soon began playing and teaching acoustic guitar and banjo.^[17] One of Garcia's students was Bob Matthews, who later engineered many of the Grateful Dead's albums.^[45] Matthews went to high school and was friends with Bob Weir, and on New Year's Eve 1963, he introduced Weir and Garcia.^[45]

Between 1962 and 1964, Garcia sang and performed mainly bluegrass, old-time and folk music. One of the bands Garcia performed with was the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, a bluegrass act. The group consisted of Jerry Garcia on guitar, banjo, vocals, and harmonica, Marshall Leicester on banjo, guitar, and vocals, and Dick Arnold on fiddle and vocals.^[46] Soon after this, Garcia joined a local bluegrass and folk band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, whose membership included Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a rhythm and blues fan. Around this time, the psychedelic LSD was gaining popularity. Garcia first began experimenting with LSD in 1964; later, when asked how it changed his life, he remarked: "Well, it changed everything [...] the effect was that it freed me because I suddenly realized that my little attempt at having a straight life and doing that was really a fiction and just wasn't going to work out. Luckily I wasn't far enough into it for it to be shattering or anything; it was like a realization that just made me feel immensely relieved".^[15]

In 1965, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions evolved into the Warlocks, with the addition of Phil Lesh on bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann on percussion. However, the band discovered that another group was performing under their newly selected name, prompting another name change. Garcia came up with the name by opening a Funk and Wagnall's dictionary to an entry for "Grateful Dead".^[15][16][17] The definition for "Grateful Dead" was "a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial".^[47] The band's first reaction was disapproval.^[15][16] Garcia later explained the group's reaction: "I didn't like it really, I just found it to be really powerful. [Bob] Weir didn't like it, [Bill] Kreutzmann didn't like it and nobody really wanted to hear about it. [...]"^[15] Despite their dislike of the name, it quickly spread by word of mouth, and soon became their official title.

Career with the Grateful Dead[link]

The corner of Haight and Ashbury, center of the San Francisco neighborhood in which the Grateful Dead shared a house at 710 Ashbury from fall 1966 to spring 1968.

Garcia served as lead guitarist, as well as one of the principal vocalists and songwriters of the Grateful Dead for their entire career. Garcia composed such songs as "Dark Star",^[48] "Franklin's Tower",^[48] and "Scarlet Begonias",^[48] among many others. Robert Hunter, an ardent collaborator with the band, wrote the lyrics to all but a few of Garcia's songs.

Garcia was well-noted for his "soulful extended guitar improvisations",^[2] which would frequently feature interplay between himself and his fellow band members. His fame, as well as the band's, arguably rested on their ability to never play a song the same way twice.^[3] Often, Garcia would take cues from rhythm guitarist Bob Weir on when to solo, remarking that "there are some [...] kinds of ideas that would really throw me if I had to create a harmonic bridge between all the things going on rhythmically with two drums and Phil [Lesh's] innovative bass playing. Weir's ability to solve that sort of problem is extraordinary. [...] Harmonically, I take a lot of my solo cues from Bob."^[49]

When asked to describe his approach to soloing, Garcia commented: "It keeps on changing. I still basically revolve around the melody and the way it’s broken up into phrases as I perceive them. With most solos, I tend to play something that phrases the way the melody does; my phrases may be more dense or have different value, but they’ll occur in the same places in the song. [...]"^[50]

Garcia and the band toured almost constantly from their formation in 1965 until Garcia's death in 1995, a stint which gave credit to the name "endless tour". Periodically, there were breaks due to exhaustion or health problems, often due to unstable health and/or Garcia's drug use. During their three decade span, the Grateful Dead played 2,314 shows.^[3]

Garcia's mature guitar-playing melded elements from the various kinds of music that had enthralled him. Echoes of bluegrass playing (such as Arthur Smith and Doc Watson) could be heard. But the "roots music" behind bluegrass had its influence, too, and melodic riffs from Celtic fiddle jigs can be distinguished.^{[citation needed]} There was also early rock (like Lonnie Mack, James Burton and Chuck Berry), contemporary blues (such as Freddie King and Lowell Fulson), country and western (such as Roy Nichols and Don Rich), and jazz (like Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt) to be heard in Jerry's style. Don Rich was the sparkling country guitar player in Buck Owens's "the Buckaroos" band of the 1960s, but besides Rich's style, both Garcia's pedal steel guitar playing (on Grateful Dead records and others) and his standard electric guitar work, were influenced by another of Owens's Buckaroos of that time, pedal-steel player Tom Brumley. And as an improvisational soloist, John Coltrane was one of his greatest personal and musical influences.

Garcia later described his playing style as having "descended from barroom rock and roll, country guitar. Just 'cause that's where all my stuff comes from. It's like that blues instrumental stuff that was happening in the late Fifties and early Sixties, like Freddie King." Garcia's style varied somewhat according to the song or instrumental to which he was contributing. His playing had a number of so-called "signatures" and, in his work through the years with the Grateful Dead, one of these was lead lines making much use of rhythmic triplets (examples include the songs "Good Morning Little School Girl", "New Speedway Boogie", "Brokedown Palace", "Deal", "Loser", "Truckin'", "That's It for the Other One", "U.S. Blues", "Sugaree", and "Don't Ease Me In").

Side projects[link]

In addition to the Grateful Dead, Garcia had numerous side projects, the most notable being the Jerry Garcia Band. He was also involved with various acoustic projects such as Old and in the Way and other bluegrass bands, including collaborations with noted bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman. The documentary film Grateful Dawg chronicles the deep, long-term friendship between Garcia and Grisman.^[51]

Other groups of which Garcia was a member at one time or another include the Black Mountain Boys, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. Jerry Garcia was also an appreciative fan of jazz artists and improvisation: he played with jazz keyboardists Merl Saunders and Howard Wales for many years in various groups and jam sessions, and he appeared on saxophonist Ornette Coleman's 1988 album, Virgin Beauty. His collaboration with Merl Saunders and Muruga Booker on the Grammy-nominated world music album Blues From the Rainforest launched the Rainforest Band.^[52]

Garcia also spent a lot of time in the recording studio helping out fellow musician friends in session work, often adding guitar, vocals, pedal steel, sometimes banjo and piano and even producing. He played on over 50 studio albums the styles of which were eclectic and varied, including bluegrass, rock, folk, blues, country, jazz, electronic music, gospel, funk, and reggae. Artists who sought Garcia's help included the likes of Jefferson Airplane (most notably Surrealistic Pillow, Garcia being listed as their "Spiritual Advisor"), Tom Fogerty, David Bromberg, Robert Hunter (Liberty, on Relix Records), Paul Pena, Peter Rowan, Warren Zevon, Country Joe McDonald, Ken Nordine, Ornette Coleman, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan and many more. He was also one of the first musicians to really cover in depth Motown music in the early 1970s and probably the most prolific coverer of Bob Dylan songs. In 1995 Garcia played on three tracks for the CD Blue Incantation by guitarist Sanjay Mishra, making it his last studio collaboration.

Throughout the early 1970s, Garcia, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, drummer Mickey Hart, and David Crosby collaborated intermittently with MIT-educated composer and biologist Ned Lagin on several projects in the realm of early electronica; these include the album Seastones (released by the Dead on their Round Records subsidiary) and L, an unfinished dance work.

Garcia also lent pedal-steel guitar playing to fellow-San Francisco musicians New Riders of the Purple Sage from their initial dates in 1969 to October 1971, when increased commitments with the Dead forced him to opt out of the group. He appears as a band member on their début album New Riders of the Purple Sage, and produced Home, Home On The Road, a 1974 live album by the band. He also contributed pedal steel guitar to the enduring hit "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. Garcia also played steel guitar licks on Brewer & Shipley's 1970 album Tarkio. Despite considering himself a novice on the pedal steel, Garcia routinely ranked high in player polls. After a long lapse from playing the pedal-steel, he played it once more during several of the Dead's concerts with Bob Dylan during the summer of 1987.

Having studied art at the San Francisco Art Institute, Garcia embarked on a second career in the visual arts. He offered for sale and auction to the public a number of illustrations, lithographs, and water colors. Some of those pieces became the basis of a line of men's neckties characterized by bright colors and abstract patterns. Even in 2005, ten years after Garcia's death, new styles and designs continued to be produced and sold.

Personal life[link]

Garcia met his first wife, Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, in 1963.^[17] She was working at the coffee house in the back of Kepler's Bookstore where Garcia, Hunter, and Nelson performed. They married on April 23, 1963, and on December 8 of that year the only child they had together, their daughter Heather, was born.^[53]

Garcia and his fellow musicians were subjected to a handful of drug busts during their lifetime. On October 2, 1967, 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco (where the Grateful Dead had taken up residence the year before) was raided after a police tip-off.^[17] Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were apprehended on marijuana charges which were later dropped, although Garcia himself was not arrested.^[54] The following year, Garcia's picture was used in a campaign commercial for Richard Nixon.^[55]

Most of the Grateful Dead were arrested again in January 1970, after they flew to New Orleans from Hawaii.^[17] After returning to their hotel from a performance, the band checked into their rooms, only to be quickly raided by police. Around fifteen people were arrested on the spot, including many of the road crew, management, and nearly all of the Grateful Dead (except Garcia, who arrived later, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who was not taking drugs at the time).^[17]

During August 1970, Garcia's mother Ruth was involved in a car accident near Twin Peaks in San Francisco.^[17] Garcia, who was recording the album American Beauty at the time, often left the sessions to visit his mother with his brother Clifford. She died on September 28, 1970. That same year, Garcia participated in the soundtrack for the film Zabriskie Point.

Carolyn Adams, also known as 'Mountain Girl', gave birth to Garcia's second and third daughters, Annabelle Walker Garcia (February 2, 1970) and Theresa Adams "Trixie" Garcia (September 21, 1974). Adams and Garcia married in 1981.^[53]

In 1975, around the time Blues for Allah was being created, Garcia met Deborah Koons, the woman who would much later become his third wife and widow.^[17] He began seeing her while he was still involved with Adams, with whom Koons had a less-than-perfect relationship. Garcia and Adams eventually went different ways.

While touring in late 1973 the band began to use cocaine in order to reduce the exhausting effects^{[citation needed]} of constantly being on the road. During the band's hiatus in 1975, Garcia was introduced to a smoke-able form of heroin. Influenced by the stresses of creating and releasing The Grateful Dead Movie in 1977, Garcia's cocaine and heroin use increased. This, combined with the drug use of several other members of the Grateful Dead, produced turbulent times for the band: the band's chemistry began "cracking and crumbling",^[17] resulting in poor group cohesion. As a result, Keith and Donna Godchaux were asked to leave the band in February 1979. With the addition of keyboardist Brent Mydland, the band was reaching new heights. Though things seemed to be getting better for the band, Garcia's health was descending. By 1983, Garcia had lost his "liveliness" on stage. The so-called "endless tour," the result of years of financial risks, drug use and mistakes, also became extremely taxing.

Garcia's use of heroin increased heavily over the years, eventually culminating in the rest of the Grateful Dead holding an intervention in January 1985.^[17] Given the choice between the band or the drugs, Garcia readily agreed to check into a rehabilitation center in Oakland, California. A few days later in January, before the start of his program in Oakland, Garcia was arrested for drug possession in Golden Gate Park; Garcia subsequently attended a drug diversion program. Throughout 1985, Garcia fought to kick his habit while on tour, and by 1986, was completely clean.

Precipitated by an unhealthy weight, bad eating habits, and recent drug use, Garcia collapsed into a diabetic coma in July 1986, waking up five days later.^[3][4] Garcia later spoke about this period of unconsciousness as surreal: "Well, I had some very weird experiences. My main experience was one of furious activity and tremendous struggle in a sort of futuristic, space-ship vehicle with insectoid presences. After I came out of my coma, I had this image of myself as these little hunks of protoplasm that were stuck together kind of like stamps with perforations between them that you could snap off."^[16] Garcia's coma had a profound effect on him: it forced him to have to relearn how to play the guitar, as well as other, more basic skills. Within a handful of months, Garcia quickly recovered, playing with the Jerry Garcia Band and the Grateful Dead again later that year.^[17] Garcia frequently saw a woman named Manasha Matheson during this period. Together they produced Garcia's fourth and final child, a girl named Keelin Noel Garcia, who was born December 20, 1987.^[53] (Jerry, Keelin and Manasha toured and shared a home together as a family until 1993.) After Garcia's recovery, the band released a comeback album "In the Dark" in 1987, which became their best ever selling studio album. Inspired by Garcia's improved health and a successful album, the band's energy and chemistry peaked in the late 1980s and 1990.

During the summer of 1990, keyboardist Brent Mydland died of a drug overdose. Mydland's death greatly affected Garcia, leading him to believe that the on and off stage chemistry would never be the same. Before beginning the fall tour, the band acquired keyboardists Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby. The power of Hornsby's keys musically drove Garcia to new heights on stage. As the band continued through 1991, Garcia became concerned with the band's future. He was burnt out from four straight years of high powered touring. Jerry thought a break was necessary, mainly so that the band could come back with fresh material. The idea was put off by the pressures of management, and the touring continued. Jerry's decrease in both his stamina and his interest to continue touring, may have caused him to use again. Though his relapse was relatively brief, lasting through the summer, the band was quick to react. Soon after the last show of the tour in Denver, Garcia was confronted by the Grateful Dead with another intervention. After a somewhat disastrous meeting, Garcia invited Phil Lesh over to his home in San Rafael, California, where he explained that after the meeting he would start attending a methadone clinic. Garcia said that he simply wanted to clean up in his own way, and get back to making music.^[17]

After returning from the Grateful Dead's 1992 summer tour, Garcia became extremely sick, evidently a throwback to his diabetic coma in 1986.^[17] Refusing to go to the hospital, he instead enlisted the aid of an acupuncturist named Yen Wei Choong and a licensed doctor to treat him personally at home. Garcia recovered over the following days, despite the Grateful Dead having to cancel their fall tour to allow him time to recuperate. Following this episode, Garcia quit smoking, became a vegetarian, and began losing weight.

Garcia and girlfriend Barbara Meier, who had met in December of the previous year, separated at the beginning of the Dead's 1993 spring tour. In 1994, Garcia renewed acquaintances with Deborah Koons, with whom he had been involved sometime around 1975. They married on February 14, 1994, in Sausalito, California. The wedding was attended by family and friends.^[17] Garcia had divorced Adams in January of that year.