Janet Ritz: Jerry Garcia as a Side Man: An album 30 years in the making

A few years ago, while visiting a friend, San Francisco singer-songwriter/producer, Bill Cutler, I noticed a stack of two inch reels in an open closet and asked him about them. "Oh," he continued down the hall, "those are some of my songs I recorded with Jerry Garcia." I looked back at the large stack of large multi-track tapes and then followed my friend down the hall and called after him, "Uh, Bill?" Now, a few years (and a great deal of work) later, that stack of two inch tapes is about to be released as a CD entitled: Crossing the Line (Magnatude/Ryko), due out in March and which will include the never-before-heard recordings of Cutler's six original songs with Jerry Garcia, as well as Bob Weir, Jorma Kaukonan, Jerry Miller, Mark Karan, David Nelson, Scotty Quik, Pat Campbell (among others), augmented by eight songs, also penned by Cutler, with many of the same (surviving) sidemen. I received my advance copy this week and have diverted from my normal fare of environmental ... (link)