Jerry Garcia concert CDs from 1977 issued

The breadth of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s musical tastes can be heard in a series of concert recordings being released in the wake of a solution to the legal wrangling that arose after his 1995 death.

“He had a phenomenal knowledge of all popular American music,” the Dead’s official historian, Dennis McNally, told Reuters.

When he wasn’t at one of the 80 or so shows the group averaged each year, Garcia often performed solo, and his archives hold about 550 tapes from those concerts. The first, titled “Pure Jerry,” is a three-disc set drawn from July 1977 concerts, with songs ranging from rock and reggae to gospel and American pop standards. It’s available at www.jerrygarcia.com.