Melvin Seals and JGB – Welcome To Our World

Welcome To Our World (For Members Only)

JGB

Initial release : March 1998
House Of Blues 51416 1364

"In 1996 the remaining members of the Jerry Garcia Band reunited as JGB to keep the music and spirit alive". Includes Mission In The Rain and Dark Star.

Tracks
Knocking On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan)
Not Fade Away (Charles Hardin / Norman Petty)
Don’t Let Go (Jesse Stone)
Mission In The Rain (Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter)
Tangled Up In Blue (Bob Dylan)
I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan)
Gospel Medley: My Sisters And Brothers; Will The Circle Be Unbroken; I Got A Feeling (Charles Bishop Johnson; Traditional; Traditional)
Dark Star (Instrumental) (Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter)

Musicians
Melvin Seals – keyboards, vocals
Jackie LaBranch – vocals
Gloria Jones – vocals
Donnie Baldwin – drums
Armin Winter – saxophone, vocals
Pete Harris – guitar, vocals
Elgin Seals – bass
Judah Gold – guitar

Credits
Producer – Melvin Seals
Arranger – Melvin Seals
Executive producer – Bill Gilbert, Steve Devick
Remote truck – Le Mobile
Engineer – Cui Charbonneau
Mixing – Melvin Seals at MS Studio
Editing, sequencing – Bob Olhsson, Melvin Seals
Art Direction, design – Conni Treantafeles, Pennie Moore
Photography – Mel Hill

Notes
Recorded live at The House Of Blues, Los Angeles, California on October 31, 1997.

A year after Garcia’s death the remaining long term members of the Jerry Garcia Band decided to continue performing. The bands name was changed to JGB. Initially the impetus was provided by John Kahn but that was sadly halted by his death in 1996. Melvin Seals was determined to keep the spirit of the group alive. In an interview with Music Box in 1998 he said;

I was kind of like the next in line. …. the next person that had been with [Jerry] the longest ….. So I started looking at what has been happening — what Bob Weir’s doing, what Mickey Hart’s been doing. I saw an interview [with] Jerry and they asked Jerry ‘well what do you think when it’s all over?’ And Jerry commented, ‘what when I die or something? Well I’d like to believe that the music is bigger than me, and it will live on.’ And I kept rewinding the video and looking at it…I kept rewinding it, and I kept looking at what was happening. Bob Weir changed his style. He went out and was doing something totally different. He wanted to get away from it. Mickey had the drum thing. It was totally different. The thing John Kahn wanted to do is totally different. And no one is doing it. I said, ‘I want to go back out and do exactly what we used to do with Jerry. Not change any of it. Go back and make it as close as possible to the real deal. When I got into that band they taught me a lot. Let me put it back.’

So I started getting some musicians together — the ones that were remaining (Jackie LaBranch, Gloria Jones, and Donny Baldwin). [We] rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed and listened to Jerry tapes and just tried to make it just the way it was. Of course we don’t have Jerry, and we know that. But if you can get past that and close your eyes and just remember, I think you will feel something.