''Live at Keystone'' is an album by

Merl Saunders Merl Saunders (February 14, 1934 – October 24, 2008) was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ. Biography Born in San Mateo, California, United States, Saunders attended Polyte ...

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

John Kahn John Kahn (June 13, 1947 – May 30, 1996) was an American electric and acoustic bassist. From 1970 to 1995, Kahn was Jerry Garcia's principal musical collaborator outside of the Grateful Dead. Biography John Kahn was born in Memphis, Tennessee ...

, and Bill Vitt. It was recorded live at the Keystone in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

on July 10 and 11, 1973, and released later that year as a two-disc

vinyl LP The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and ...

. It was re-released in 1988, with additional tracks, as two separate

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

, called ''Live at Keystone Volume I'' and ''Live at Keystone Volume II''. From February 1971 to July 1975, Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia often played live shows together when the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

were not on tour. For many of those concerts, their band had the lineup featured on this album — Saunders on keyboards, Garcia on

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

and

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

, John Kahn on

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gu ...

, and Bill Vitt on

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

. One track of ''Live at Keystone'', "

Positively 4th Street "Positively 4th Street" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, first recorded in New York City on July 29, 1965. It was released as a single by Columbia Records on September 7, 1965, reaching on Canada's ''RPM'' chart, on the U.S. ''Bi ...

", also includes

David Grisman David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

Critical reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

, Lindsay Planer wrote, "... let the music speak for itself as ''Live at Keystone'' is chocked with inspired covers, each respectively extended and collectively improvised by co-instrumental leads Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals) and Merl Saunders (organ) with Bill Vitt (drums) and John Kahn (bass). This was an ad-hoc configuration, as opposed to the organized touring unit that Garcia developed as the

Jerry Garcia Band The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly tour ...

. From December of 1970 until the spring of 1974 — prior to the combo evolving into the

Legion of Mary The Legion of Mary ( la, Legio Mariae, postnominal abbreviation L.O.M.) is an international association of members of the Catholic Church who serve it on a voluntary basis. It was founded in Dublin, as a Marian movement by the layman and c ...

— the guitarist could often be found performing sporadically in and around San Francisco between engagements with the

. The quartet ably fuse rock with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

in their spacy unfettered jams. These emerge from an eclectic composite of R&B and blues to seminal rock oldies and even popular standards."

More Keystone albums

In 1988, Fantasy Records released two single-disc LPs with more music recorded at the shows of July 10 and 11, 1973 — ''Keystone Encores Volume I'' and ''Keystone Encores Volume II''. They also released a single-disc CD, ''

Keystone Encores ''Keystone Encores'' is an album by Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, and Bill Vitt. It was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California, on July 10 and 11, 1973, and released on CD by Fantasy Records in 1988. It was also relea ...

'', containing six of the eight tracks from the LPs. In 2012, the label released a four-CD album called '' Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings''. This contains remastered versions of all the tracks from the ''Live at Keystone'' and ''Keystone Encores'' albums (except for the track titled "Space"), plus seven previously unreleased tracks from the same dates. The songs on ''Keystone Companions'' are presented in the order they were performed in concert.

Track listing

''Live at Keystone'' LP

Side 1 #"Keepers" (

) – 6:38 #"

" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) – 7:45 #"

The Harder They Come ''The Harder They Come'' is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world". ...

" (

Jimmy Cliff James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...

) – 6:20 Side 2 #" It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" (Dylan) – 7:03 #"Space" (Saunders,

, Kahn, Bill Vitt) – 3:53 #"It's No Use" ( Jerry Williams,

Gary Bonds Gary U.S. Bonds (born Gary Levone Anderson, June 6, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, known for his classic hits "New Orleans" and " Quarter to Three". Career Born in Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a ci ...

, Don Hollinger) – 9:34 * Side 3 #" That's All Right, Mama" (

Arthur Crudup Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs " That's All Right" (1946), " My Baby Left Me" and "So G ...

) – 4:18 #"

My Funny Valentine "My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart coming of age musical '' Babes in Arms'' in which it was introduced by teenaged star Mitzi Green. The song became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 ...

" (

Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American ...

Lorenz Hart Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include " Blue Moon", " The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", " Bewitched, ...

) – 18:06 Side 4 #"Someday Baby" ( Sam Hopkins) – 10:13 #"Like a Road Leading Home" (

Don Nix Don Nix (born September 27, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American songwriter, composer, arranger, musician, and author. Although cited as being "one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock", he is a key figure in ...

Dan Penn Dan Penn (born Wallace Daniel Pennington, November 16, 1941) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s, including " The Dark End of the Street" and " Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" ...

) – 10:58 * In the album liner notes the song is credited to

Gene Clark Harold Eugene Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter and founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best ...

and

Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As ...

, but they wrote a different song of the same name, which appears on

the Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole con ...

album '' Mr. Tambourine Man''."It Ain't No Use"
''Grateful Dead Family Discography''. Retrieved October 17, 2016.

''Live at Keystone Volume I'' CD

#"Keepers" (Saunders, Kahn) – 6:38 #"Positively 4th Street" (Dylan) – 7:45 #"The Harder They Come" (Cliff) – 6:20 #"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" (Dylan) – 7:03 #"Space" (Saunders, Garcia, Kahn, Vitt) – 3:53 #"It's No Use" (Williams, Bonds, Hollinger) – 9:34 #"Merl's Tune" (Saunders, White) – 13:35 – CD bonus track

''Live at Keystone Volume II'' CD

#"That's All Right, Mama" (Crudup) – 4:18 #"My Funny Valentine" (Rodgers, Hart) – 18:06 #"Someday Baby" (Hopkins) – 10:13 #"Like a Road Leading Home" (Nix, Penn) – 10:58 #"

Mystery Train "Mystery Train" is a song written and recorded by American blues musician Junior Parker in 1953. Originally performed in the style of a Memphis blues or rhythm and blues tune, it was inspired by earlier songs and later became a popular rockabil ...

" (

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis ...

Junior Parker Herman "Junior" Parker (March 27, 1932November 18, 1971) Li ...

) – 11:32 – CD bonus track

Personnel

Musicians

– keyboards *

–

* Bill Vitt –

–

on "Positively 4th Street"

Production

*Produced by Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Bill Vitt *CD bonus tracks produced by Merl Saunders, John Kahn *Recording:

Betty Cantor Betty Cantor-Jackson (born 1948) is an American audio engineer and producer. She is best known for her work recording live concerts for the Grateful Dead from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, including the '' Cornell 5/8/77'' album. She is not ...

, Rex Jackson *Engineering: Danny Kopelson *Mastering: George Horn *Photography:

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...

*Design: Tony Lane

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Live at Keystone Merl Saunders albums Jerry Garcia albums 1973 live albums