Jerry Garcia makes the grade with 'After Midnight'

LOS ANGELES (Warner Music) - Some nine years after the iconic artist's death, Rhino Entertainment unearths an outstanding 1980 Jerry Garcia performance captured at Kean College in Union, New Jersey. The three-disc AFTER MIDNIGHT finds the Jerry Garcia Band covering Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," and the Bob Dylan classics "Simple Twist Of Fate" and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."

AFTER MIDNIGHT (Jerry Garcia Estate LLC/Rhino Entertainment) will be available September 28 at all retail outlets and at www.jerrygarcia.com and www.rhino.com for a suggested retail price of $29.98.

Mixed by Tom Flye from 24-track masters and mastered by Joe Gastwirt, this three-CD set has impeccable audio fidelity, featuring Garcia in top form. Clocking in at around 2 hours and 45 minutes, the 16-track AFTER MIDNIGHT finds Garcia backed by keyboardist/vocalist Ozzie Ahlers, bassist John Kahn, and drummer Johnny De Foncesca. Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who contributes liner notes, takes lead vocals on a pair of his songs, "Tiger Rose" and "Promontory Rider."

Virtually ignoring his Grateful Dead work, Garcia leads sprawling, jam-infused covers of songs by J.J. Cale ("After Midnight"), Allen Toussaint ("I'll Take A Melody"), and Hank Ballard ("Tore Up Over You"), among others.
"Simple Twist Of Fate" is an epic, 17-minute, 27-second journey, while "The Harder They Come" clocks in at nearly 13 minutes. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and Garcia's solo classic and album-opening "Sugaree" both linger near the 14-minute mark. On Disc Two, Garcia follows the classic "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You" with "After Midnight," which he reprises following the band's rendition of "Eleanor Rigby."

There are no backup singers here-this band is all business. "Jerry was in top form vocally and instrumentally, playing lead and backup guitar at the same time," Hunter says in the liner notes. "And there is an energy to Jerry's whole performance that shows him at his very peak."