Jerry Garcia – How Sweet It Is (1997 CD & 2023 Vinyl for RSD)

I have a pretty good collection of Jerry Garcia’s solo work and projects outside the Grateful Dead, so I have no idea how I missed this album when it came out on CD in 1997. How Sweet It Is was culled from shows that also make up 1991’s Jerry Garcia Band – an album in my personal hall of fame. So I was pleased to see it on the 2023 Record Store Day (RSD) list. It doesn’t take much to please me with regards to Garcia and RSD. I dutifully buy the RSD Garcia releases and I am never disappointed.

How Sweet It Is, like Jerry Garcia Band, is from the band’s live shows in the spring of 1990 at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. The band consists of Jerry (guitar, vocals), John Kahn (bass), Melvin Seals (organ, keyboards), David Kemper (drums), Gloria Jones (vocals), and Jackie LaBranch (vocals).

As is typical of the Jerry Garcia Band, their repertoire is a brilliant combination of originals and covers. It is not significantly different from the 1991 Jerry Garcia Band album. The recording/mixing/mastering sounds a touch more intimate on How Sweet It Is versus Jerry Garcia Band.

This is not as essential in the Garcia catalog as Jerry Garcia Band, but it is a nice augmentation of that album – no songs from that album are repeated here. So it serves as a deluxe edition of that classic album.

Track list:

SIDE A:
1. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
2. Tough Mama
3. That’s What Love Will Make You Do
SIDE B:
1. Someday Baby
2. Cats Under the Stars
SIDE C:
1. Tears of Rage
2. Think
3. Gomorrah
SIDE D:
1. Tore Up Over You
2. Like a Road