Receive God's Best, Jerry

Even among Deadheads, there's always been a sense that Jerry Garcia's studio albums have been somewhat ignored. Part of this ties back to the often repeated urban legend that the Grateful Dead were never as good in the studio as they were live – an argument that has some truth but tends to downplay the merits of the studio albums, which had their own distinct attributes. This also applies to Garcia's studio records, but as a whole they're more problematic than the Dead's catalog…

There have been so many Mungo Jerry collections available (and every one of them features "In the Summertime") that it's difficult to say where to begin, but The Early Years isn't a bad place to start. Its 17 songs are drawn primarily from the group's first three albums and the "Baby Jump" and "Open Up" maxi-singles (issued at a point when legal difficulties prevented Ray Dorset from releasing LPs). The expected hits are represented, along with the best of their LP and EP cuts right up through 1974, including songs by Paul King as well as Ray Dorset. The real treat among them is a pair of live cuts, "Midnight Special" and "Mighty Man," that give a good account of the group's appeal on stage.

Due to its unfortunate timing - arriving in stores about two months after the passing of his former bandmate, Layne Staley - it may be impossible not to view Jerry Cantrell's second solo album, Degradation Trip, without hearing it through the prism of the demise of Alice in Chains and the death of Staley. First of all, the sound is instantly reminiscent of Cantrell's former band because, of course, he was instrumental in creating the slow, brooding minor-key grinds topped with flat vocal harmonies that were the group's stock in trade. Second, if you dig through the lyrics, it's easy to speculate that some of them are about the addiction that sunk Staley. These two qualities are so prominent that some may have a hard time getting around them, but serious listeners and longtime fans will find it much easier to get past the surface and appreciate the album as Cantrell's best record since Dirt…

Grateful Dead guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia and keyboardist Merl Saunders performed live at the Keystone in Berkeley, CA together on July 10th and 11th, 1973. Although components of this memorable show have been previously released, this is the very first time that the concert has become available in its entirety. This 4 disc box set assembles the full set list, all remastered, and in the order in which the songs were performed. The repertoire spans blues, rockabilly, jazz, funk, Broadway, Motown, two Bob Dylan songs, and Jimmy Cliff's immortal The Harder They Come.
The recordings that made up the original Live at Keystone albums by Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, John Kahn, and Bill Vitt took place over two nights in July of 1973…

1979's The Great Train Robbery has long been one of Jerry Goldsmith's most unusual projects, both in terms of his overall output and in particular as one of his collaborations with filmmaker Michael Crichton. With the exception of The Great Train Robbery and The Thirteenth Warrior, all of the Goldsmith/Crichton collaborations (Pursuit, Coma, Runaway, Congo and Timeline) have fallen into the techno-thriller genre, and stylistically, the buoyant comic energy of The Great Train Robbery lies far afield of the darker-edged work that in general defined Goldsmith's career. For the film, Crichton adapted his own historical novel and cast Sean Connery as dashing Victorian criminal Edward Pierce. Goldsmith's score establishes the movie as a lighthearted romp from its opening downbeat and thereafter cheerfully varies between churning, steam locomotive drive and breezy elegance; the jaunty main title tune is unpredictable and boasts one of the best bridges Goldsmith ever wrote.

Whenever he was asked to name his own personal favorite within his long and distinguished oeuvre, Jerry Goldsmith inevitably cited his work on 1977's obscure Ernest Hemingway adaptation Islands in the Stream. A lush, often melancholy score evoking both the serenity and the treachery of the sea, it is undoubtedly Goldsmith's most intimate effort, eschewing the larger-than-life drama and suspense of his best-known soundtracks. Islands in the Stream is above all a showcase for the composer's consummate ability to vividly communicate both the physical and emotional landscape in such simple yet precise strokes – employing little but a lone French horn, Goldsmith's main theme captures the immense loneliness and solitude of George C. Scott's protagonist, while gentle woodwinds suggest the ocean waves lapping the shore of his island home.