''Ragged but Right'' is the second live album by the

Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (JGAB) was a band formed by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. They played a number of concerts in 1987 and 1988, and subsequently released two live albums. Band members *Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals * David ...

. It was recorded in October and December 1987 at the

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, originally the Globe Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 205 West 46th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1910, the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was designed by C ...

in New York City, the

Wiltern Theatre The Pellissier Building and adjoining Wiltern Theatre is a 12-story, Art Deco landmark at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, California. The entire complex is commonly referred to as the Wiltern Center. Clad i ...

in Los Angeles, and the

Warfield Theatre The Warfield Theatre, colloquially called The Warfield, is a 2,300-seat music venue located in the Theatre District in downtown San Francisco, California, United States. It was built as a vaudeville theater and opened as the '' Loews Warfield'' ...

in San Francisco. It was released on November 16, 2010, twenty-two years after the band's first album, ''

Almost Acoustic ''Almost Acoustic'' is a live album by the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. It contains songs that were recorded from late November to early December 1987 at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco and the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. It was relea ...

''. The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band existed from the summer of 1987 to the summer of 1988, and played fewer than 30 concerts. Led by

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 196 ...

of the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

, the band included three members of the 1964 bluegrass band the Black Mountain Boys — Garcia on

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, David Nelson of the

New Riders of the Purple Sage New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969 and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. The band is sometimes referred to ...

on guitar and vocals, and

Sandy Rothman Sandy Rothman (born January 30, 1946, Miami, Florida) is an American, San Francisco Bay Area bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He plays mandolin, dobro and banjo, and he also sings. Rothman was a friend and colleague of Grat ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, and vocals — plus long-time Garcia collaborator

John Kahn John Kahn (June 13, 1947 – May 30, 1996) was an American 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. Adopted at birth by ...

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

Kenny Kosek Kenny Kosek (born 1949 in The Bronx, New York), is an American fiddler who plays bluegrass, country, klezmer, folk music and roots music. In addition to his solo career, he has performed with many other well-known performers and contributed to ...

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, and

David Kemper David Law Kemper (born 1947/8 in Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 Unit ...

snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...

. Three other albums contain music by the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band as well as by the electric

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 ...

. They are '' Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, October 31, 1987'', with two out of four CDs by the Acoustic Band, '' Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, The Best of the Rest, October 15–30, 1987'', with one out of three CDs by the Acoustic Band, and '' On Broadway: Act One – October 28th, 1987'', with two out of three CDs by the unplugged ensemble.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, William Rhulmann wrote, "Garcia, Nelson, and Rothman sing in three-part harmony, enthusiastically essaying songs associated with the likes of

Riley Puckett George Riley Puckett (May 7, 1894 – July 13, 1946) was an American country music artist, best known as a member of Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers. His dynamic single-string guitar playing, featuring dramatic bass runs, earned for him an ...

, the Stoney Mountain Boys,

Charlie Monroe Charlie Monroe (July 4, 1903 – September 27, 1975) was an American country and bluegrass music guitarist. Charlie performed with his brother, Bill, as part of the Monroe Brothers. He later formed his own group, Charlie Monroe & the Kentucky ...

, and

Ralph Stanley Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. He began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of The ...

, among others.... 'Ragged but right' is a good description of the contents. Grateful Dead fans may take special interest in the version of 'Goodnight Irene,' which is rearranged so differently from familiar renditions that it's practically a different song, at least in terms of the music; it sounds like it could have been on Garcia's first solo album from 1972." On Jambands.com, John Patrick Gatta contrasted ''Ragged but Right'' with its predecessor, saying "The main difference between the two can be found in the warm quality of ''Almost Acoustic'' versus the soundboard/audience matrix-like sonics heard on ''Ragged''. It's not a slam, but a necessary point because the newly released album has a much different sensibility.... Feeding off the rowdy atmosphere, it's a high-spirited performance. Offering an indication of the looseness of the performance, Garcia jokes to anyone that skipped work for the early show that he's going to call their bosses. Despite this, there's, obviously, a respect for the songs and disciplined interaction between the players." ''Glide'' magazine listed ''Ragged but Right'' as one of the ten best archival releases of 2010, saying "This year's Jerry Garcia archival release featured the short-lived, but most-excellent Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. Not only did Jer's family put out a remastered version of 1988's ''Almost Acoustic'', but they also released a fine album of unreleased live material called ''Ragged but Right'' which contained the other 14 songs in the JGAB's repertoire lovingly assembled by band member Sandy Rothman."

Track listing

#" Ragged but Right" (traditional) #"Short Life of Trouble" ( G. B. Grayson) #"

I Ain't Never "I Ain't Never" is a song co-written by American country music artists Webb Pierce and Mel Tillis. Each co-writer recorded the song separately, with both Pierce's (1959), and years later Tillis's (1972, although Tillis had previously recorded th ...

" (

Webb Pierce Michael Webb Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was an American country music vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number-one hits than any other country and western pe ...

Mel Tillis Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of the outlaw country movement, ...

) #" Trouble in Mind" (

Richard M. Jones Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones (sometimes written Richard Mariney Jones), (June 13, 1892 – December 8, 1945) was an American jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, includ ...

) #"Drifting with the Tide" (traditional) #Band introductions #" Deep Elem Blues" (traditional) #"Rosa Lee McFall" (traditional,

Bill Monroe William Smith Monroe ( ; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its n ...

) #"Two Soldiers" (traditional) #"If I Lose" (traditional,

) #"Bright Morning Stars" (traditional) #"

Goodnight Irene "Goodnight, Irene" or "Irene, Goodnight," ( Roud 11681) is a 20th-century American folk standard, written in time, first recorded by American blues musician Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter in 1933. A version recorded by The Weavers was a #1 hit ...

" (traditional) #"It's a Long Long Way (To the Top of the World)" (Don Wayne) #"Drifting Too Far from the Shore" ( Charles E. Moody) #"Turtle Dove" (traditional)

Personnel

Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

–

* David Nelson – guitar, vocals *

–

, vocals *

–

Production

*Sandy Rothman – producer, liner notes *John Cutler – recording *Joe Gastwirt – mastering, editing *Brendan Doyle – editing *Steve Silberman – essay

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragged But Right Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band live albums 2010 live albums