POP and JAZZ REVIEWS : Garcia Draws Deadheads in Droves

The County Fairgrounds raceway here is just a field of dirt, a place normally home to demolition derbies or midget car races. But when the Jerry Garcia Band played Saturday evening, it became the Grand Ballroom of Club Dead.

With the other stops on Garcia’s swing through Southern California at more traditional venues, the colorful Deadheads turned this into a holiday-like party.

Many arrived early, playing Hacky Sack and socializing on the beach just outside the venue, losing themselves in the scene until Garcia and his five-member group started playing and the throng rushed into the arena to dance and spin in the inimitable Deadhead way.

The Garcia Band has become a solid and consistent attraction--perhaps even more so than the Dead--in the last several years of touring.

It’s a place for Garcia to shift the focus away from his own writing and onto his influences, and with each show he digs deeper into the treasure trove of (mostly) American music: soul, gospel, country and blues providing most of the material.

Selections ranged from Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” to the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” each song rising and falling along the shifting dynamics of Garcia’s trademark, fluid guitar soloing.

And with each show, it seems, the JGB becomes more truly a band in its own right, rather than just a side-trip for Garcia. Keyboardist Melvin Seals is an especially strong asset, his soulful, churchy Hammond organ solos fueling the excursions as much as Garcia’s guitar.

The soul-gospel undercurrent is furthered by the background vocals of Gloria Jones and Jackie LeBranch, while longtime Garcia bassist John Kahn seems to follow the leader’s instrumental flights with a sixth sense, and new drummer Donnie Baldwin (a former member of the Starship) gives the band a kick it often lacked in the past.

In fact, with its relative focus and compactness (i.e. no “drums and space” free-form digressions), the JGB might even appeal to non-Deadheads. They’d probably still not loosen up to the point of doing the Deadheads’ goofy air-grab dancing, but they’d be able to sing along to many of the classic songs and might have a good enough time to be tempted to buy the latest souvenir: “Grateful Fred” T-shirts being sold in the parking lot, sporting an illustration of Mr. Flintstone all decked out in tie-dye.

Well, with its grounding in American music, this is bedrock ‘n’ roll.

* The Jerry Garcia Band plays Tuesday and Wednesday at the Starlight Bowl, 20007 Pan American Way, San Diego, 7 p.m. $25 in advance, $26.50 at the door. (619) 570-1222.