LN jg1973-07-21.oaitw.early.sbd-smith-boswell.113805.flac1644

ad for Keystone, Berkeley, July 19 - August 1, 1973; Berkeley Barb (7/19/73-8/1/73), p. 21

Let me just make a few points to head up these listening notes for this newly-circulated version of these rehearsals. They are very, very important.

First, the provenance of the tape is awesome. Thanks to the Pacific Northwest Crew for this one.

Second, there's evidence on the tape that lends near-perfect credibility (for me) to the date/time/place/personnel ascribed to this. I totally believe this is 7/21/73 in the afternoon at the Lion's Share, in between two shows at the Keystone, Berkeley which, I am coming to believe, served as the introduction of Vassar Clements to the Bay Area. I also list a show at the Inn of the Beginning in Cotati midweek (Wednesday, July 18), which would have been a good place and time to warm up the act in public, but without a big crowd, before heading to the (relatively!) bigger deal weekend gigs at the Keystone. Anyway, long-winded way of saying, again, that I completely believe that this is exactly 7/21/73 in the afternoon at the Lion's Share. You could call this (presumably part of) the "Vassar Clements rehearsals".

Third, related, I need to go foresensically through the OAITW rehearsal tapes that are around. There are a shitload of filesets out there. While they have been much-collected, I think they are little-auditioned and remain almost entirely unanalyzed. I wouldn't be surprised to find more "Vassar Clements rehearsals", as well as some "Richard Greene rehearsals". (I doubt there are Hartford or other pieces, but who knows?)

Fourth, having confidence in this date/time/location/configuration gives me more confidence that the evening's show from Berkeley, which the Pacific Northwest (PNW) crew has also recently dropped (shnid 113845), is correctly dated. I know that the material is the same as what has long traveled as Monday, July 23, 1973 at the Boarding House, 960 Bush Street, San Francisco, 94109. I am going to revisit it soon, hopefully today, but my working hypothesis is that the 7/21/73 dating is probably correct. I'll report back.

Update: Done!

Fifth, for my taste this source deprecates a bunch of filesets:

• shnid 6386
• shnid 11462
• shnid 20507
• shnid 21835

There may be other bits and pieces of this same material floating around amongst the undated OAITW rehearsal snippets, but figuring that out is a project.

Old And In The Way
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA, 94960
July 21, 1973 (Saturday), afternoon rehearsal
PNW sbd shnid-113805

(22 tracks, 78:15)
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t01. (1) [0:28] Little Bessie [3:42]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t02. talk [0:09], % On And On (false start) [0:43]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t03. On And On [3:39]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t04. tuning and talking [1:15]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t05. Lonesome Fiddle Blues [2:59] %
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t06. tuning and talking (2) [1:39]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07. Land Of// The Navajo [6:#59]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t08. talk and tuning [0:20] % [0:25], Going To The Races [2:33]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t09. Land Of The Navajo [8:25]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t10. talk (3) and tuning [1:14], Cedar Hill [3:37] [0:03], randomness [0:02]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t11. dead air, fiddle/bass jam, tuning and talking [1:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t12. High Lonesome Sound [3:42]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t13. false start [0:21] % Hobo Song [4:58] [0:03]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t14. [0:06] % /Wild Horses [4:34] [0:04]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t15. Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:29]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t16. tuning and talking, Pig In A Pen chorus practice [2:05]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t17. Pig In A Pen [3:04]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t18. tuning and talking (4) [2:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t19. Kissimee Kid [2:56]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t20. Kissimee Kid [3:07]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t21. tuning and talking (5) [1:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t22. Midnight Moonlight [4:50], talk (6) and silliness [0:15], dead air [0:07]

! Band: Old And In The Way
! Lineup: Peter Rowan - ac-guitar, vocals;
! Lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
! Lineup: Vassar Clements - fiddle;
! Lineup: John Kahn - ac-bass.

JGMF:

! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/963.

! db: shnid -113805 (this source).

 ! R: MR @ 7.5ips (Recorded by Betty Cantor on her Nagra) > R @ 3.75ips (Jerry Garcia's copy) > R @ 3.75ips (Will Boswell's copy). Transferred and mastered by Matt Smith 5/11. CD > flac using dbpoweramp, checksums created with TLH by gballen 05-28-2011. JGMF copy: files renamed and tagged with foobar2000.

! R: we can call this a soundboard if we'd like, but I have to think that'd be a misnomer. Presumably there were no lines anywhere, and these guys were all acoustic. So this recording would have been an ambient recording, n'est-ce pas?! R: Matt Smith's notes: "This (7-21-73) is from the famed "Debbie Stash" that Will copied back in early 1979. The rehearsal has circulated but the late show from the Keystone has never surfaced until now. The real cool thing about this is that it gives the listener the whole scope of a typical day for Jerry back then. You know, get up, go to the GD office maybe, then rehearse with your bluegrass buddies then decide you are going to do a gig at the Keystone that night!! This time period was probably a very happy time in his life and it comes through in his playing here."

! Technical: since there is no clear set distinction here, I renamed the tracks from the "dxtxx" format to a continuous naming. If you want the original disc splits they were between t10 and 11, though of course with this total time there'd be no need for disc splits at all (unless one could track down some 74-minute CDs!).

! (1) dead air [0:10]; @ 0:xx: ??: "Wanna try that 'Little Bessie' that we were doin' in G last night?" I think this reference to "last night" is important in time-stamping this. The ad in the Berkeley Barb makes a fair amount of "Special Guest Fiddler from Nashville Vassar Clements". This seems to have been billed as Vassar's introduction to the Bay Area as a member of OAITW. Why is that relevant here? Because it makes sense that they'd be rehearsing this stuff in between the two billed shows. It's just a little detail that fits the given date/time of July 21, 1973 in the afternoon (in a little place they've gigged, just down the road from Stinson where Rowan, Grisman and Garcia lived) with absolute perfection.

! setlist: jg1973-07-21a-smith-t01 was listed as "Someone Calling My Name", but its correct title is "Little Bessie". Verified from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=14718! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t06 (2) Jerry talking about his banjo: gives the names/model, bought it last week. It's brand new.

! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07 LOTN influenced by Kaw-Liga?

! R: jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07 LOTN splice/jump @ 4:18

! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t10 (3) @ start JG about LOTN #2: "That wasn't as good as the first one."

! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t11: DIME comment #4763536 by randomando at 2011-05-31 21:41:33 GMT: "Vassar teaching somebody the jazz tune "Move" on disc 2 track 1 [i.e., t11] is stunning. Dawg did the tune in the early years of the DGQ (75-76)."

! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t18 (4) JG, cutting up (but precisely how is hard to say without physical or visual correlate): "OK you guys, I'm ready to cut another track." Talk about where they can position themselves. DG: "Wanna try White Dove?" Then they are gonna do "Vassar's tune", and JG is enthusiastic. More cutting up about doing whatever that's called. DG: "Wanna play 'Find Your Name Written There'? JG: "Why don't we just do that tune of Vassar's." I notice that Grisman rarely gets to call the tune. Garcia's assent is always required.

! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t21 (4) ?PR?: "All I know are words. I'll just play with words."

! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t22 (6) JG: "That was all right."