Review: LP Giobbi

Thanks to her parents, Austin-based Leah Chisholm has been a Deadhead since before birth. Destiny would see her feed those jam band legends to the new gen, but only after earning a Berklee jazz piano performance degree. When she untangled that intellectualization to make house music, deserved plaudits for her chops arrived in spades. A hurricane of energy behind the decks as she plays keys live, the label owner and producer's work is big, bright, and uplifting. Giobbi scintillates with boom and bouncy bass, a calling card as much as her piano house sound. Often dressed in vintage Grateful Dead tees, she noticed her fans did the same, though admitted to never having heard any songs by the band. They'd come close, as Giobbi previously mixed the Dead's music into her sets while streaming daily on Twitch and hosting on Sirius XM – enough to get invited to Playing in the Sand festival and now, to remix Jerry Garcia's first solo album, Garcia, for its 50th anniversary. Joined sometimes by Le Chev and DJ Tennis, the remixes keep the late songwriter's vocals, and his slide and steel twang. Effort highlight "Late for Supper," variously billed as the original album's low point, adapts to left-field greatness via layered space disco. "Sugaree" overprocesses the vox, but otherwise twinkles with the organic warmth of a DJ Koze track. "The Wheel" soars and chimes, reflecting the original material's metallic instrumentation. Garcia (Remixed) respectfully tempers Giobbi's usual bombast to match the honoree's tone. Deadheads born in another time, after all, might have been ravers.