Blue Incantation

All music © Sanjay Mishra/ASCAP 1995. Published by BMG. All rights reserved. Catalog AM CD 159

Sanjay Mishra with special guest Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead)

"30 years"

Jerry Garcia was dying.

Not metaphorically. Not musically.

Actually dying.

His body was giving out. His energy was gone. He couldn’t tour. Couldn’t stand for long. Could barely breathe.

And yet—he got in his car, drove to the studio, picked up his guitar… and gave me everything.

Every note. Every smile. Every ounce of himself that was still left. just listen to “clouds” on that record…

And he looked at me—this man, this legend, this icon—and said:

“I’ve been waiting 30 years to hear something like this.” Then—true to form—he laughed. Smiled that crooked, boyish smile and added:

“Well… I haven’t exactly been waiting.” That was Jerry. Humble. Honest. Always disarming sincerity with humor.

But make no mistake—he meant it.

And I was floored. Not because he was famous, not because he was Jerry Garcia—but because a man who had spent his entire life surrounded by music… still had the capacity to be surprised. To be moved.

And you know what he said to me?

“I’m good at taking direction.”

Let that sink in. Jerry Garcia—one of the most iconic musicians in American history—walked into a studio and said he wanted to learn. He wanted to explore. He was humble. Curious.

He didn’t come because I flattered him. He didn’t come because we swapped mushroom stories backstage. He came because I brought something new. Something he hadn’t heard before. Something that challenged him. Not because he had to. Because he wanted to.

he came to the studio to make Blue Incantation. Not even the Grateful Dead could get him to do that. call yourself a fan? you’ve never even heard it? That doesn’t just disappoint me—it would have broken his heart.

Because heaven forbid he do something that didn’t include Truckin’ or Casey Jones.

He laid himself bare in that session. Musically. Spiritually.

It was the last collaboration he ever recorded.

when the man had nothing left to prove,

nothing left to give to the scene,

no reason to show up—

he showed up anyway.For this.