2018 marks the 30th Anniversary of the release of Almost Acoustic, the out of print 1988 live classic from The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. In honor of this milestone Almost Acoustic will receive a special limited-edition reissue for Record Store Day 2018 on November 23rd. The album will be made available on CD and as a double LP on 180-gram vinyl for the first time. The vinyl package will include two green and black marbled LPs with individually numbered foil-stamped gatefold jackets. Only 5000 copies of this limited-edition run will be available.
Recorded in 1987 at The Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles and the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, Almost Acoustic features Garcia (guitar & vocals) performing with some of his closest pre-Dead friends and collaborators from the early 1960’s – Sandy Rothman (mandolin, dobro & vocals) and David Nelson (guitar & vocals). Joining in were Kenny Kosek (fiddle) and long-time Jerry Garcia Band alums John Kahn (upright bass) and David Kemper (snare drum). Songs include influential folk traditionals, such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, “Blue Yodel #9” and “Diamond Joe”. The album also highlights songs that were consistently woven in and out of Garcia’s career as both a solo artist and with the Grateful Dead, including “Deep Elem Blues”, “Oh, The Wind And Rain” and the Garcia/Hunter classic, “Ripple”.
Much of 2017 and 2018 saw the year-long celebration of Jerry Garcia’s 75th birthday, which culminated with the release of the historic and critically acclaimed boxed set Before The Dead. The 4-CD/limited-edition 5-LP collection shed a new light on the earliest period in Garcia’s journey starting as a young, raw and developing multi-instrumentalist coming of age during the early 1960’s folk-revival, to becoming one of the most revered and groundbreaking artists of the rock ‘n roll era. By the time The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band formed, Garcia had become a master of his instrument. Recorded and released during the apex of the Grateful Dead’s popularity, Almost Acoustic features the artist coming full circle by going back to his acoustic roots where it all began.
