It’s about relaxing and breathing, giving it space and then diving in there. That loosened me up so I didn’t have to be so precise and tight. “Something else I learned,” Seals adds, “is that it’s not about how perfect something might be, it’s about what leaves your heart-the vibe and feel and tone. Even when I went to his house he had a guitar in his hands and while he would talk to me he was running scales, which is how he was so fluid.” He was constantly playing scales in the dressing room, in the lunch area. He mesmerized me with a different type of guitar playing. The sounds and the tone were all new to me but I knew this guy could really play. Seals didn’t know who Garcia was when they first met at a rehearsal one Friday night in 1980, but soon discovered, “Jerry did things that most of the people I played with never did. In addition to Clemons, the show’s personnel includes the classic incarnation of JGB-Garcia, bassist John Kahn, keyboardist Melvin Seals, drummer David Kemper, and vocalists Gloria Jones and Jacklyn LaBranch-which Seals has dubbed “the magic band.” The performance at Poplar Creek features stand-out takes on the Garcia-Hunter originals “Cats Under the Stars” and “They Love Each Other,” as well as spirited covers of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and The Rolling Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” 16, 1989, during the final night of the two-week tour. GarciaLive Volume 13 finds the group and their special guest at Poplar Creek Music Theatre just outside of Chicago on Sept. Volume 13 of the GarciaLive series travels back to September 1989, when the Jerry Garcia Band played a string of dates with Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons. It is followed by an archival interview with Jacklyn LaBranch, another Jerry Garcia Band alum, who joined the group in 1982, at Seals’ suggestion. ![]() Melvin Seals and Jacklyn LaBranch with the Jerry Garcia Band (and Ashley Judd) recording a music video for “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” from the Wayne Wang film Smoke at Tosca Cafe in San Francisco, 4/17/95 (Photo credit: Jay Blakesberg)Īs we continue our Days Between celebration of Jerry Garcia at 80, we share a previously unpublished expanded version of a spring 2020 conversation with Melvin Seals, who began performing with the Jerry Garcia Band in 1980.
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