On AllMusic, Fred Thomas said, "A particularly loose, appropriately celebratory feeling flows through much of the sets as the band wanders through seemingly completely unrehearsed instrumental interludes... When they do get cooking, it's on extended 12-bar blues vamps in the first set like "It Ain't No Use" and "Pig's Boogie", while the second set tends toward laid-back jams like "Catfish John" or shuffling electric blues workouts like "Tore Up Over You". The band takes some time to truly get in a groove on this date, finally settling into some of the best material near the end of the recording."

In All About Jazz, Doug Collette wrote, "The fact of the matter is everyone in the group gets their own chance to shine, but these abbreviated solo intervals don't interrupt the seamless flow of the collective interaction.... Kudos to Betty Cantor-Jackson for capturing the goings-on with such clarity, but also to Joe Gastwirt who in both mastering and curating this archive title deserves his co-production credit.... It's no small accomplishment to do perfect justice to the towering figure that is Jerry Garcia, even if the content is as deceptively down-to-earth as December 31st, Keystone Berkeley."

Track listing

Disc 1

First set:

1. "Let It Rock" (Chuck Berry) – 13:00
2. "Mother Nature's Son" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 2:00
3. "It Ain't No Use" (Jerry Williams, Gary Bonds, Don Hollinger) – 11:36
4. "God Save the Queen" (traditional) – 0:48
5. "They Love Each Other" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 7:49
6. "Pig's Boogie" (Nicky Hopkins) – 10:41

Disc 2

Second set:

1. New Year's countdown – 1:51
2. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" (Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland) – 8:25
3. "Catfish John" (Bob McDill, Allen Reynolds) – 15:29
4. "Mystery Train" (Junior Parker, Sam Phillips) – 7:08
5. "Drums" -> "New Year's Jam" (Garcia, John Kahn, Hopkins, Greg Errico, Bob Weir, Matthew Kelly, Mickey Hart) – 13:14
6. "Mystery Train" (Parker, Phillips) – 1:48

Third set:

7. "Tore Up over You" (Hank Ballard) – 10:46
8. Tuning – 0:48
9. "C.C. Rider" (traditional) – 8:20
10. "(I'm a) Road Runner" (Holland, Dozier, Holland) – 9:43

Personnel

Jerry Garcia Band

• Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
• Nicky Hopkins – keyboards, vocals
• John Kahn – bass
• Greg Errico – drums

Additional musicians

• Matthew Kelly – harmonica, guitar ("It Ain't No Use", "They Love Each Other", "Pig's Boogie", second and third sets)
• Mickey Hart – drums (second and third sets)
• Bob Weir – guitar, vocals (second and third sets)

Production

• Produced for release by Marc Allan, Joe Gastwirt
• Original recordings produced by Jerry Garcia
• Associate producer: Kevin Monty
• Recording: Betty Cantor-Jackson
• Mastering: Joe Gastwirt
• Liner notes essay: David Gans
• Art direction, design, illustration: Ryan Corey
• Photography: Ed Perlstein, Bob Minkin

References