Press Release :
It’s hard to imagine what the musical landscape of the late 20th Century would have been like without Bob Dylan. Dylan’s astonishing body of work revolutionized the art of songwriting, influencing countless musicians in the process, and Jerry Garcia was no exception. From the Warlocks on, there were Dylan songs in the repertoire of every incarnation of the Grateful Dead, as well as Garcia’s various solo and side projects, and Jerry would go on to become one of Dylan’s most eloquent interpreters (as well as a friend and collaborator). Now from the Jerry Garcia Estate and Rhino Records comes a new two-CD set called Garcia Plays Dylan, which gathers some of Jerry’s finest performances (all but one never before released) of Dylan songs, with the Grateful Dead, the Garcia-Saunders Band, Legion of Mary and various configurations of the Jerry Garcia Band. A span of more than twenty years is covered, from 1973 to the penultimate Grateful Dead show at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1995. Whether tackling Dylan’s more acerbic and surreal material or his most poignant and personal works, Jerry inhabits these songs with effortless grace and makes them his own. Garcia Plays Dylan is a fitting tribute to Dylan’s art and an important addition to Garcia’s recorded legacy.