Wally Heider's, July 1971

Of course, we already knew that Jerry was recording Garcia in July of 1971 (though I have never been able to find any precise dates, and Bob Mathews won't answer my queries). We also already knew that Heider's was absolutely happening. I keep hoping that someday Steve Silberman will write a book about the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (PERRO) scene, because while we have a lot of the fragments it really hasn't been put together comprehensively, either in terms of the empirics or in terms of an analysis, e.g., in terms of San Francisco music.

Anyway, this little mention from Billboard just reminds me. Presumably the Airplane album referenced is Sunfighter, the GD album is Skullfuck, and of course Jerry's is Garcia (1972), with all of which Jerry would have been involved.

The rest don't involve Jerry playing directly, but of course there are a million connections. Pretty remarkable that Jerry and Van never seem to have played together, given how intense the overlap is between their scenes (in terms of venues and players -- there's a long post to be done about that). (Playing as I type, serendipitously: "Tupelo Honey" by Garcia & Saunders, 1/15/72.) Mike Finnegan would later play with Maria Muldaur, perhaps at the same time as John Kahn. Brewer & Shipley of course had hosted Jerry for Tarkio and all the rest.

Again, nothing we didn't already know, but just a small snapshot into a seemingly healthy, relatively happy, and certainly productive time in Garcia's life.