Positively Garcia Presents: The Twelve Greatest shows

If you believe the  Grateful Dead were the greatest touring band ever, than you're likely to believe that the Jerry Garcia Band is one of the greatest traveling bands of its time. Yet, until the  publication of  Positively Garcia, there were no books dedicated to the music of the JGB.  This legendary group should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Merl Saunders and  Melvin Seals should be enshrined and honored in Cleveland. This lack of recognition is mind boggling! That's why I had to write Positively Garcia. In addition to my personal recollections of seeing the band in the early '80s, I ranked the twelve greatest JGB shows and dedicated a chapter to each performance. Since the Jerry Garcia Band was purely a musical venture without superfluous hoopla, Positively Garcia tells the tales of the band's timeless ballads and jingles, and it romances the transcendent moments and epic jams. As I came up with my list, most of my choices were from the years 1972 - 1984, and therefore, I decided to exclusively focus on those years in the book. All lists are subjective, so let the conversation begin.

Here's the best of Positively Garcia:


1) 2-6-72 Pacific High Studio
Highlights: Expressway, That a Touch I Like, Lonely Avenue,When I Paint My Masterpiece

2) 5-28-83 Cape Cod
Highlights:Don't Let Go, Dear Prudence, Tangled Up in Blue,
Midnight Moonlight

3) 6-16-82 Music Mountain
Highlights: How Sweet it is, Catfish John, Let it Rock, Love in the Afternoon

4) 2-17-80 Oswego
Highlights: Positively 4th Street, Money Honey, Let it Rock, After Midnight > Eleanor Rigby > After Midnight 

5) 7-4-75 Great American Music Hall
Highlights:Tough Mama, Every Word You Say, That's Alright Mama

6) 11-4-81 Albany
Highlights: Mission in the Rain, Deal, Road Runner 

7) 5-31-83 Roseland
Highlights: They Love Each Other, That's What Love Will Make You Do, Mississippi Moon, Harder They Come

8) 5-5-82 Oregon State Prison
Highlights: Reuben and Cerise, Ripple, Friend of the Devil, Run For the Roses

9) 7-24-80 Bushnell
Highlights: I'll Take a Melody, Tangled Up in Blue, Russian Lullaby,  Dear Prudence

10) 6-30-72 Keystone Korner
Highlights: It Takes a Train to Cry, One Kind Favor, Are You Lonely For Me, Baby? The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down


11) 12-13-83 Kean College (Late Show)
Highlights: Cats Under the Stars, Catfish John, Someday Baby, Rhapsody in Red

12 A) 2-5-81 Lehigh
Highlights: Sugaree, Harder They Come, When I Paint My Masterpiece

12 B) 8-20-81 Keystone
Highlights: Lonesome and a Long Way From Home, Tough Mama, The Way You Do the Things You Do,  Don't Let Go


Preview POSITIVELY GARCIA

Howard Weiner presenting the first copy of Positively Garcia to Melvin Seals on July 22, 2014 in Garcia's at the Capitol Theatre.


Listen to the best of Positively Garcia on YouTube 

Positively Garcia Available August 1

Jamming in the shadows of the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band thrilled devoted fans for three decades with an alchemist’s brew of blues, rock, jazz, and gospel, as well as Motown and Dylan covers. Positively Garcia is the story of the rise of the Jerry Garcia Band from their early California club gigs through the band’s glory days in the early ‘80s. Author and Garcia aficionado Howard Weiner ranks JGB’s greatest shows, and explores the sublime solos and transcendent moments from those performances in essays that are accompanied by rare concert photos. JGB left behind an unprecedented trail of sonic inspiration, yet this rich musical legacy is largely unheralded. The chronicles of Positively Garcia shine a new light on an intimate and essential slice of Garcia’s prolific career. In the second part of this book, Weiner—a veteran of sixty JGB shows—recalls all the joys and madness associated with extreme touring. For Weiner, pursuing JGB was all business, and he took it very personally.

Howard Weiner is the author of the memoir Tangled Up in Tunes: Ballad of a Dylanhead, and he created and hosted Visions of Dylan, a series of programs that aired on 99.5 FM, WBAI, New York. These days, Howard resides near the Bronx Zoo.