Though he was chiefly known as the leader of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia was much more than that. For many, he was the embodiment of the freewheeling artistic spirit of the 1960s. A masterly guitarist and songwriter, and a highly underrated vocalist, Garcia was a true music lover, involving himself in numerous non-Dead projects over the years. His acoustic band was active during 1987-1988, producing one album during its lifetime and several more afterwards. In 1987, Garcia was fresh off the double-platinum success of In the Dark and its Top Ten single, "Touch of Grey." After touring to support the album, Garcia did a special series of shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Broadway in New York City, leading an acoustic string band in the first set and the Jerry Garcia Band in the second. The shows resulted in a live album, Almost Acoustic, credited to the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, featuring David Nelson on guitar, Sandy Rothman on mandolin and Dobro, John Kahn on bass, Kenny Kosek on fiddle, and David Kemper on drums. Additional releases after Garcia's death in 1995 mined material from the same time period. ~ William Ruhlmann