Big Brother And The Holding Company Live At The Carousel Ballroom 1968

The first entry in the Bear's Sonic Journals series is, without question, a stunner. "Bear" (Augustus Owsley Stanley III), the Grateful Dead's live soundman, built and manned the sound system at the Carousel Ballroom. He personally supervised this previously unreleased effort (items from it have appeared on the Joplin box with crummy sound) shortly before his untimely death in an automobile accident in 2011. (He even provides listening instructions via a brief liner essay -- one of a number of them -- including an excellent historical one from Jaan Uhelszki). There were no stage monitors then (something Bear would later pioneer); the band had to listen to the echo back from the room, the P.A., and amplifier sound to cue pitch. Here, vocals and drums are in the left channel, guitars and bass in the right -- no melding. The effect is electrifying; it's exactly what one would experience as an audience member. The sound is warm, immediate, raw; full of intricacies, small flaws, and rough s