[1][2] In the early 1970s, Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia sometimes performed concerts together at small venues in the San Francisco Bay Area.

At the time, their band was Garcia's main musical outlet when the Grateful Dead were not on tour.

Heavy Turbulence features their usual band lineup from 1971 – Saunders on keyboards and vocals, Garcia on lead guitar and vocals, Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, John Kahn on bass, and Bill Vitt on drums.

Since [Fogerty] is such a terrific rhythm guitarist, it is really no surprise that he and Saunders could create such a pumping oil well; this is an album in which the rhythmic feel of each song can never be faulted, no matter how different the approaches might be.

The band is really well recorded, the tones thick and fat, and the grooves trembling from the fine organ fondling.... Lead guitar fills by Jerry Garcia are a musical inspiration, as well as probably stimulating much of the original album's sales.