Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings
| Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings | ||||
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Live album by Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia |
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| Released | September 25, 2012 | |||
| Recorded | July 10 – 11, 1973 | |||
| Genre |
Rock, jazz-rock, rhythm and blues |
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| Label | Fantasy | |||
| Producer |
Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Bill Vitt |
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| Jerry Garcia chronology | ||||
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| Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Blues Review | 8/10 |
| Rolling Stone |
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Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings is a four-CD album by Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia. It was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California on July 10 and 11, 1973, and released by Fantasy Records on September 25, 2012.
From February 1971 to July 1975, Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia played many live shows together when the Grateful Dead were not on tour. Their band's lineup for the July '73 shows at the Keystone was Saunders on keyboards, Garcia on guitar and vocals, John Kahn on bass, and Bill Vitt on drums.
Some songs from the July 10 and 11, 1973 Keystone concerts were released as the 1973 album Live at Keystone, and others were released in 1988 as Keystone Encores. Keystone Companions includes all of the songs from the two earlier albums, along with seven previously unreleased tracks. All the songs were remastered for the new album, and are presented in the order that they were played in concert.
Keystone Companions is packaged as a box set, and includes a booklet with photos and liner notes, a poster, and a button, among other extras.
In Rolling Stone, Patrick Doyle wrote, "What's most remarkable about this four-disc set, which compiles two 1973 dates, is the range: They jam on Rodgers and Hart as well as Jimmy Cliff, and turn out the Funkadelic-like instrumental 'Keepers'; Garcia also croons an unexpectedly sweet version of 'Positively 4th Street' amid soaring, melodic guitar solos. There are no rules — just four luminaries testing their own boundaries."
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Wikipedia