Video: Jerry Garcia & John Kahn – Goodnight Irene

I kicked this week off with a “vintage” live performance, so figure I’d close the week out in the same way. Lately there have been a few Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band discs that have been getting a lot of play time of my iPod, namely the highly recommendable Ragged But Right and Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City – October 31, 1987. Both releases feature Jerry backed by a formidable band that includes John Kahn (bass), David Kemper (drums), Kenny Kosek (fiddle), David Nelson (guitar) and Sandy Rothman (mandolin, dobro). The six-piece band’s repertoire consisted mostly of traditional folk and bluegrass tunes, with the occasional Grateful Dead song and cover thrown in for good measure, with Jerry sounding like he couldn’t be having a better time on stage playing this music.

While there isn’t much in the way of high quality videos, or for that matter any at all of this band floating around, I thought I’d share this one of Jerry and John Kahn from around that same time period performing the folk standard Goodnight Irene, which was first recorded by Lead Belly in 1932, and later made famous by The Weavers in the ’50s. Let’s check it out…