The singer Jerry Garcia called the best voice in the world: “Something sweet”
While Grateful Dead fans will be able to reel off countless examples of why the legendary psychedelic rockers are the greatest band to have ever walked the earth, it’s very rare that their abilities as vocalists rank as one of the most important reasons.
The band were actually quite well known for having shared the duties evenly, with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh all having a decent amount of credits as lead vocalist between them across their vast catalogue of albums. While this isn’t exactly an unusual thing for a band to do, given how other notable acts of the same period frequently swapped vocalists depending on who had written the songs, it does highlight how versatility was one of their strengths.
However, at the same time, one could argue that this denied them the chance to ever develop an overall identity in this sense, given how different songwriters would take different directions, but at the same time, each individual member clearly had their own characteristics that they would bring to the table.
For Jerry Garcia, while not an outstanding vocalist by any means, he had the right voice for what the band were doing, which was an amalgamation of his jazz, folk, bluegrass and blues influences, and a considerable amount of his influences can be heard in the way he utilised his voice for the songs he took the lead on.
One major influence on him was someone whom he considered to be the greatest vocalist of all time, although this was perhaps explored most in some of his work outside of the Grateful Dead.
In 1973, Garcia embarked on a side project, Old & In The Way, which saw him hone in on his adoration of bluegrass music alongside other notable figures in the genre such as Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements, David Grisman and John Kahn. Given the different approach of the band, Garcia found himself adopting a different vocal style, as well as playing the banjo instead of guitar, and a large amount of this was down to his desire to emulate one of the great bluegrass acts that he had always adored.
During a 1991 interview with Banjo Newsletter, Garcia was questioned on his relationship with the work of the Stanley Brothers, a pioneering duo made up of Ralph and Carter Stanley, and how they’d been one of the primary influences for this project.
“The Stanley Brothers’ songs are the songs I like most,” Garcia enthused, before clarifying, “In terms of if I’m doing somebody else’s songs, I like Stanley Brothers songs. There’s something sweet about them. And Ralph Stanley is also my model for the best voice in the world, too.”
In Old & In The Way’s rendition of the Stanley Brothers’ ‘White Dove’, you can certainly see how this influence rubbed off on Garcia through his impassioned rendition. While from a technical standpoint, there’s not much about Ralph Stanley’s voice that is classically brilliant, much like Garcia, it’s absolutely perfect for what he and his brother did, especially with their use of close harmonies.
