Comprising 51 tracks and 35 unique titles, Bare Bones confirms Jerry Garcia and David Grisman did their finest work as an unadorned duo. 

Freed from Grisman’s vault after more than three decades, the three volumes – Master Takes; Other Tunes & Arrangements; and Alternate Takes – capture the Grateful Dead leader Garcia and his former Old & in the Way bandmate laying down tracks that would appear with full-band accompaniment on the duo’s studio albums – Garcia/Grisman, Shady Grove, Not for Kids Only and Been All Around this World – and songs from across their respective repertoires. 

Garcia is on acoustic guitar, occasionally picks up a banjo and sings lead on virtually all the tracks. Grisman is on mandolin, co-lead and harmony vocals and takes over the mic here and there. They banter about takes, laugh like the old friends they are and wring out the music their spongy personalities had absorbed over the years on “Man of Constant Sorrow,” “The Handsome Cabin Boy,” “Two Soldiers,” “Whiskey in the Jar” and other tunes. 

Vol. 1 reveals much the aforementioned LPs pre-adornment. Vol. 2 finds Garcia playing a lot of rhythm guitar and strumming his instrument in an atypical way that reveals another side of his approach to the instrument. Vol. 3 is the most-polished of the bunch and is where the repeats and multiple takes lie; this, however, detracts nothing from its import. 

There is no overkill here – every note qualifies as must-hear material. Yet it is the pure joy dripping from the Not for Kids Only cuts that is perhaps the most gratifying as the old pals rekindle their long-dormant friendship and Garcia paints himself as a kind of psychedelic Raffi.