Open-Air Vasseur: JGB at Shoreline, July 26, 1992

LN jg1992-07-26.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.141462.flac1644

Brief listening notes.

Vasseur Warfield tapes are incredible. Vasseur Shoreline tapes are ... incredible. So much air in this mics. Wow.

Jerry does some extra percussive stuff in a few places that I found noteworthy.

Guy who called out "Reuben!" and got it must have been pretty fired up. I would have been. I lament that Jerry missed the "Cherise was dressing as Pirouette in white" line, but whaddya gonna do? Did you ever notice that "Reuben And Cherise" sometimes touches on "Terrapin" territory? I heard it somewhat late in this version, let's say right around late 7 over 8. Nothing explicit, it just came to mind. I find Jerry three or four times trying to step out from the assigned chords of the song into some other space. He hits some interesting allusions, but he just can't see it through. I can *almost* here possibilities of hte song opening up a good deal more, what it might sound like.

Reuben, Gomorrah: that is definitely some "don't look back" thematic consistency there. Both Orpheus and the wife of Lot could have used the reminder.

Not bad, I'd say average for the period.

Jerry Garcia Band
Shoreline Amphitheatre
1 Ampitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
July 26, 1992 (Sunday) - 2 PM
Vasseur shnid-141462

--set I (7 tracks, 55:52)--
s1t01. (1) [0:29] Cats Under The Stars [9:01] [0:52]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:52] [0:37]
s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:30] [0:15]
s1t04. Let It Rock [6:10] [1:20]
s1t05. Run For The Roses [5:40] ->
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:08] [0:04]
s1t07. Deal [8:42] (2) [0:22]

--set II + encore (9 tracks, 75:18)--
--set II (8 tracks, 66:21)--
s2t08. [0:05] Stop That Train [7:50] [0:18]
s2t09. You Never Can Tell [5:28] [0:16]
s2t10. Lay Down Sally [8:59] [0:33]
s2t11. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [10:07] [0:31]
s2t12. (3) Reuben And Cherise [9:00] [0:38]
s2t13. Gomorrah [6:37] [0:12]
s2t14. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:58] [0:14]
s2t15. Midnight Moonlight [6:13] (4) [0:12] %
--encore (1 track, 8:54)--
s2t16. [0:10] What A Wonderful World [8:31] (5) [0:13]

! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19920726-01

! db:

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/shoreline-amphitheater-1-amphitheatre.html

! Sue: 6,850 tix @ $22.50, 13,150 @ 18.50 (20,000 total capacity), GP $397,400, surcharge of 10%, so net gross potential of $357,660. Band guarantee $35,000 plus various percentage provisions.

! R: field recordist: Chuck and Janet Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter)

! R: Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: Source Notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark

! R: No audible bass for first four minutes, vocals low, but this is a really nice tape, simultaneously spacious and punchy. The guitar sounds incredible, the drums sound great.

! s1t01 (1) taper, or neighbor: "Resplendent." Yell to stage: "Were's those ties, Jerry?"

! P: s1t01 CUTS a little lyrical uncertainty. Adjusting mix starts getting John, and he announces himself with a nice little run 4:03. Kemper bangs his way to the satin blouse break very assertively, leaving no doubt as to where the band needed to go. Effect to some feedback that Jerry nicely rides at 6. Love this tone!

! P: s1t02 TLEO @ 5:45 voice a little phlegmy.

! P: s1t03 STOF bass thing 6:10ish

! P: s1t04 LIR solo 2:30ff more percussive than fluent, but kind of interesting. Ol Jer did love him some rock n roll guitar. @ 3:13 he puts some sustain on it.

! P: s1t07 Deal excellent brief fanning action late 5.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "Be back in a few minutes."

! s2t12 (3) a crowd member yells "'Reuben And Cherise', Jerry!" and then Jerry drops into it. Good call, fella.

! P: s2t12 RAC he morphs the "Cherise was dressed as Pirouette in white" line into a "Reuben, Reuben", but he recovers. Muffs second verse start before "the breeze". Some reasonably interesting stuff, in the Terrapin space for a minute. He tries to explore some unusual spaces, changing key some, but can't quite get his ideas to extend, e.g., late 7 over 8. Goes around a little too long. @ 8:43 JG drops off for a measure to key in the close.

! P: s2t13 Gomorrah you can really hear his voice being gravelly to start this off.

! P: s2t14 ANBITB some really nice percussive stuff in the 6 minute range, never heard Jerry do it quite like this, Kemper also on it.

! s2t15 (4) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

! P: s2t16 WAWW bass feature 6ff.

! s2t16 (5) JG: "See y'all later."

Donny's Debut: JGB at the Warfield, February 4, 1994

LN jg1994-02-04.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.146010.flac1644

Friday, February 4, 1994 through Sunday, February 6, 1994 are super interesting, for reasons that may not be independent. The amazing drummer David Kemper was let go at some point between the end of the fall '93 tour and the first night of this run, for reasons that seem unclear even to him. After over ten years in the chair, they didn't give him so much as an explanation. It is well established from the historical record, and has been repeatedly stated by those who knew him best -- I am not going to cite chapter and verse here, so if you want to imagine I am going beyond my paygrade, sure, fine, whatever -- that Garcia's greatest personal failing involved an unwillingness to tell (former) lovers and (former) bandmates that they were out. He seemed more inclined to have Big Steve deliver hard news. So, first, this inaugural set of 1994 shows featured the debut of Donny Baldwin, from the Starship orbit and also a veteran of the Elvin Bishop Group. I imagine, but don't have it pinned down, that this latter connection between Donny and Melvin facilitated the drummer's entry into the Garcia Band. Second, as astute student of the music Nick has framed it, the run provides "one last flash of greatness" for Jerry and friends. This is most obvious in the 2/6/94 "Don't Let Go", which my memory tells me is a true monster that stands up to any versions that Jerry ever played. I have found a lot to love in '94 and '95 Jerry Band over the last few years, but I agree that he never again played anything so great as that "Don't Let Go".

Indeed, I have often held February 14, 1994, eight days after that show, to augur Garcia's irreversible (though not monotonic) physical decline. The game of trying to pin such things too precisely doesn't get us very far. I might point to GD keyboardist Brent Mydland's passing on July 26, 1990 as signaling Garcia giving up the emotional ghost, and impresario Bill Graham's death on October 25, 1991, as removing all doubt. (See how this game works?) We can point to plenty of pictures from before Valentine's Day '94, the day on which Jerry married Deborah Koons, showing him looking haggard. But, after that day, he never looked anything but like a man shambling toward death's door. Deadheads held no love for Garcia's "Black Widow", who certainly treated the legendary Mountain Girl and all of the other women in Jerry's life very badly during the probate and other proceedings that followed his death, whose taste in music (no "Reuben And Cherise"??) and cover art (Shining Star - what in the almighty fuck?!??) affronted fan sensibilities, who allegedly either passively accepted or actively abetted Garcia's hard drug use, and whose love of tasteless licensing and merchandising strikes us, from the vantage of 2021, as decidedly Trumpian. Be all of that as it may, the observation I just cannot shake is that Garcia's decline accelerated markedly after those nuptials.

All of which makes the triumph of the February 4-6, 1994 shows so remarkable. Nick speculates that the band actually, y'know, rehearsed some with the new guy. The older pattern would have been to break him in on an off-night, off-the-beaten path, or both. Just about every new addition to the Garcia Band prior to Donny was afforded this possibility. So, they may or may not have gotten any rehearsal time, but they did get a gig. But, by 1994, as Bob Barsotti reported a few years later, "the only place [Garcia] could get it together physically to play with the Jerry Garcia Band was by getting in his car and driving for a half an hour to the Warfield" (Greenfield1996, 300, cited in context on my post on 3/4/95). So we might imagine that there were some rehearsals, and, indeed, as Nick points out, Jerry sounds generally together and the band sounds quite tight, consistent with some rehearsal. I have no data to that effect, but it seems likely.

So, onto my sense of Donny's Debut, 2/4/94. He's good, and it's good. Jerry sounds especially together in the first set, sprightly for the very common --indeed, statistically modal-- How Sweet -> Stop That Train opener, and working some great strong grunge into "Lay Down Sally". Nick elaborates:

The one major [2/4/94] high point is a steaming Lay Down Sally jam: Garcia's chugging along, sounding fine, and then decides to hit his distortion pedal and something clicks into place.  The audience feels it, Garcia responds, and you get one of those brief moments of aud-tape perfection as everything clicks into place.  Nice work, old man!

Jerry fades pretty hard at the end of set I (Deal) and through much of set II, sundowning especially noticeably in "The Maker", where I swear he departs from the lyrics and sings @ 1:40 "cannot see for the pain in my life". "Don't Let Go" is the other relative highlight of the show. It's a compact version, 12 minutes, and you'd think they might have held off on it to let the new guy get up to speed. But Donny plays very strongly. True, Jerry does no vocal-instrumental doubling on either the front or the back end of the song, which could often provide him a rare opportunity to engage in true vocal improvisation. But, even listening for limitations, I find a lot to like in this version, and a foreshadowing of the monster that'd spring forth two nights later, before the tune mostly faded into a shadow of its former self in its remaining fourteen months.

All in all, then, a nice show from a characteristically gorgeous Janet and Chuck Vasseur aud pull with the vintage Neumanns. Check it out if you can. If you are feeling impatient, go straight to 2/6/94 - do not pass Go, do no collect $200. If it's as good as I remember it being, and as (more reliably) Nick says it us, you can thank us later.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Melvin Seals sounds awesome this night, all big loud joyful swirly energy.

Listening notes follow.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 4, 1994 (Friday)
Vasseur shnid-146010

--set I (7 tracks, 53:29)--
s1t01. [0:05] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:00] [1:04]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:11] [1:16]
s1t03. You Never Can Tell [6:41] [0:08]
s1t04. Lay Down Sally [10:01] (1) [1:39]
s1t05. Struggling Man [6:25] [0:42]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:56] ->
s1t07. Deal [8:11] (2) [0:09]

--set II (7 tracks, 61:16)--
s2t01. Shining Star [15:24] [0:13]
s2t02. Money Honey [6:31] [0:13]
s2t03. Wonderful World [4:29] [0:15]
s2t04. The Maker [7:10] [0:11]
s2t05. Don't Let Go [11:45] [0:15]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:41] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:04] (2) [0:07]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19940204-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15602; https://etreedb.org/shn/94747; https://etreedb.org/shn/95234; https://etreedb.org/shn/146010 (this fileset). Every one of these derives from the Vasseur master.

! band: JGB #23 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! ref: Nick, "Feb 94 JGB: one last flash of greatness", URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2017/11/feb-94-jgb.html.

! personnel: Donny Baldwin's first show in the drum chair, succeeding the impossible-to-replace David Kemper. I am typing this listening to Don't Let Go - you have to give the guy his due, because this cannot have been easy.

! R: field recordist: Janet and Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: Source Notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark

! P: s1t01 HSII Jerry sounds stoked. Melvin swirls up huge peaky feature late 3.

! P: s1t01 STT everyone sounds good. Donny hits nicely. Jerry bending some pitch.

! P: s1t03 YNCT Melvin, 3:30 I am typing, is on fire this night. He really sounds enthusiastic.

! P: s1t04 LDS oh man, what a killer grungy tone on LDS in the 7 range. A little modal, very firey. Nick: "The one major high point is a steaming Lay Down Sally jam:  Garcia's chugging along, sounding fine, and then decides to hit his distortion pedal and something clicks into place.  The audience feels it, Garcia responds, and you get one of those brief moments of aud-tape perfection as everything clicks into place.  Nice work, old man!"

! s1t04 (1) JG: "The new guy is, uhh, Donnie Baldwin. Playin' drums."

! P: s1t05 Struggling Man is done peppy - very good. Late 1 it slows down a little bit.

! P: s1t07 Deal a number of lyrical miscues. He is sounding a little tired.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "... take a break for a little bit ..."

! P: s2t04 The Maker he sounds pretty wobbly on the lyrics. @ 1:25 trying to get to second verse, mumbles. @ 1:40 sounds like he says "cannot see for the pain in my life". Goes across the great divide to Jean-Baptiste here early on. @ 2:09 "Body | is bent and broken". Donny nicely triggers Garcia's feature at 3ff.

! P: s2t05 DLG he doesn't do any vocal doubling at all. So by 3:15 he has already stepped back and away from the mic. But I confess that this is just perfectly good Jerry Garcia guitar work happening, e.g., around 6:30, when it has a real edge. I think I came into this listen of this wanting to hear its limitations. They're there, because this is not Eden. And I keep looking at the clock realizing that this is only going to run 12 minutes. But the quality is high. He strums it without quite such thick effects, Melvin swirly, Donny nicely picks up the pace. 8:15 Jerry definitely signals a connection to the tune. 9:20 assertively back to the tune, Donny be damned. Fully back to tun 10:12, no doubling.

! s2t14 (2) JG: "See y'all later."

Rocks, Bottles, and a Tired-Sounding Jerry: JGB at the Warfield, February 27, 1993

Apparently 12 people were arrested after this Saturday night show, allegedly for throwing rocks and bottles at police. Ten months earlier had seen unrest in the area, not necessarily caused by Jerry's kids, but related instead to acquittal of the cops in their trial for beating Rodney King in LA. No idea what might have triggered this early '93 issue.

Janet and Chuck Vasseur pulled an absolute masterpiece of a tape this night, as so many others. The show has its moments, including a nice easy start with "I Second That Emotion" (a tune I don't generally favor) and, especially, Old Jerry heart-feeling "I Shall Be Released". "Simple Twist" is also super-gentle. Lots to like in the set II song selection, especially, for me, "Reuben And Cherise". But I spun it three times and didn't get many sparks.

But Jerry sounds exhausted all night. I take to heart Mr. Completely's advice to avoid drug determinism, and I don't think it would be engaging in that fallacy to note 1) that Jerry sounds exhausted, and 2) we know, via Barbara Meier, that he was using in this period. It's not deterministic, but neither is this pure coincidence, IMO, YMMV.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 27, 1993 (Saturday)
Vasseur shnid-141455

--set  (8 tracks, 72:43)--
s1t01. I Second That Emotion [9:48] [0:52]
s1t02. I Shall Be Released [9:12] [1:15]
s1t03. Mission In The Rain [8:22] [1:16]
s1t04. [0:07] Simple Twist Of Fate [10:15] [0:26]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:12] [0:50]
s1t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:34] %
s1t07. /My Sisters And Brothers [#4:26] ->
s1t08. Deal [8:00] (1) [0:08]

--set II (7 tracks, 62:10)--
s2t09. Shining Star [13:34] [0:26]
s2t10. Tore Up Over You [7:30] [1:10]
s2t11. Wonderful World [4:38] [0:09]
s2t12. The Maker [8:05] [0:11]
s2t13. Lay Down Sally [9:24] [2:05]
s2t14. Reuben And Cherise [8:24] ->
s2t15. Midnight Moonlight [6:30] (2) [0:05]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19930227-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/13036; https://etreedb.org/shn/29344; https://etreedb.org/shn/141455 (this fileset). As far as I can tell without A-B'ing, these are all from the Vasseur master.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! expost: "12 arrests at Garcia concert," Argus-Courier (Petaluma, CA), March 2, 1993, p. 2, allegedly for throwing rocks and bottles at the police.

! R: field recordist: Janet and Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: This is a masterpiece of field recording.

! R: seeder notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, here they are! --Shark

! P: s1t01 ISTE It's well known that I don't love this song. But I like how this feels coming out of the gate, despite the fact that Jerry definitely sounds vocally fragile.

! P: s1t02 ISBR I hadn't really grokked that he played this as consistently in the 90s as he did. This comes in sounding absolutely wonderful. Old Jerry.

! P: s1t03 MITR Garcia sounds quite wasted.

! P: s1t04 STOF bass feature late 5 is almost entirely inaudible, goes to about 7:10. This is a remarkably gentle version of STOF.

! P: s1t06 TNTDODD Melvin bg swirly feature over 6

! R: s1t07-08 strange to have a discontnuty and a clpped start w a DAT master.

! s1t08 (1) JG: "back in a couple minutes"

! P: s2t02 TUOY some good guitar 5:30ff.

! s2t15 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot."

Jerry, tògòtigi - JGB at the Warfield, Wednesday, March 9, 1994

Marquee for Jerry (who?) at the Warfield, March 9, 1994. I would LOVE to find out who the photographer is and give credit.

I love the image above, of the Warfield marquee reading just "Jerry" for the March 9, 1994 JGB show, because, assuming his last name is not photoshopped out, it speaks to who Jerry had become by the last year of his life. In the Bamana language of the Mandé culture of West Africa, he had become a tògòtigi - "proprietor of his own name" (Skinner 2004, 157). "In Mandé social thought," musicologist Ryan Skinner has elaborated,

the purpose of these acts of self-making is to make a name for oneself (ka tògò sòrò, literally “to find one’s name”) and become what people call a tògòtigi, or an individual who is the owner (tigi) of his or her given name (tògò)".  Malian literary critic and cultural theorist Chérif Keïta summarizes that "The togo is the axis of individuality and desire for personal distinction" (Skinner 2015a, 22).

The concept applies across artistic fields in the Mandé world, especially among griots "expert hereditary professional" (Dubois 2016, 32) storytellers --musicians, poets and artists-- charged with carrying forward the collective knowledge embodied especially in the oral tradition (but see Chérif Keïta 2005). In the musical realm,

the artist who improvises a running solo, incites the dance with a syncopated rhythm, and makes his instrument sing with a novel melody asserts his dynamic and creative agency as a performer. He claims his individuality, a distinctive subjectivity symbolized by his first name, or tògò, and the status and identity of being a tògòtigi the achieved state of making a name for oneself, of being an owner (tigi) of one's name (tògòtigi ) ... There is an existential risk in such acts of musical distinction and innovation (Skinner 2015a, 88).

Anyway, not that, in certain circles, people didn't know who just-Jerry was before 3/9/94, but I have always loved this marquee for capturing it, the culmination of the name-claiming journey which began on a seasonal May day in 1968, when the name "Jerry Garcia" appeared on a sheet of paper billing a musical event for the first time since the formation of the Warlocks. Over decades of gradual assertion and musical differentiation, and eventual commodification, he had successfully made his name. That progression is probably the main arc of Fate Music, where I'll get into it hopefully more artfully and definitely at greater length.

The show is off-pattern in a few other ways. First, it was a single-shot on a Wednesday night. While midweek Warfield gigs were not unheard of, they almost always took the form of multinight runs. Indeed, though I have not gone and checked, I can't think of another Warfield one-off like this one in the Wolfgang-Warfield era (December 1989-April 1995). Second, the handbill is especially lame.

I wonder if this show was pinned down late, and/or if ticket sales were slow, or if BGP was just on a tight budget, but this is about as basic as it ever got.

Third, as to the show, it's fine, but what jumps out at me is that there is not a single Garcia-Hunter original here - it's all covers. Jerrygarcia.com makes this relatively easy to see, since the originals have hyperlinks and the covers do not. I spun through '93-'95, I think, and didn't see any other shows without at least a "Deal" or a "Run For the Roses" or something else. If I find time and motivation I might dig deeper, though I understand that this has no particular importance, it's just a curiosity. But it's a Garciaverse curiosity, which is kind of the bread and butter of JGMF, so there you go.

An hour first set was just about what he seemed to be going for, and 75+ minute second set is nothing to sneeze at. Chuck Vasseur pulled a typically great tape. The performance is fine, all pluck and less fire, which was his style at the time (no onion on his belt, as far as I know). Donny does some nice hard trapping in Don't Let Go, and everyone sounds just fine. Well, John doesn't "sound" much at all, but that was pretty much par for the course in this timeframe, too, and it's all good by me.

Listening notes below the fold.

I actually had to FF: JGB at Portland Meadows, 8/8/93

LN jg1993-08-08.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.145607.flac1644

Nick thought the titular show was OK, but the vocals were so catastrophically bad that I actually couldn't really listen to this. The only other show that has revulsed me in the same way was 11/23/72, and that was as much about the recording (overloaded, especially on the vocals) as it was about the performance (which I would actually like to revisit). But 8/8/93 JGB at Portland Meadows is just a man without a voice insisting, nevertheless, on singing. I bet the crowd would have thought it cool if he had just said "My voice is shot, we'll try to do some tunes as instrumentals", but for better or for worse the protagonist keeps singing.

These are the worst vocals since pre-coma, and among the worst ever. They had played the day before in Seattle, but before that he hadn't played in six weeks or so, having spent some time in Ireland around the month of July (Greenfield 1996, 291). Maybe he was jet-lagged. I don't mean to sound too critical - voices are sometimes lost. My judgment here is purely aesthetic - I just can't listen to this.

The Maker is nice. The show has a few other moments. But, overall, a forgettable afternoon show (unless you were there, in which case maybe it was awesome).

Jerry Garcia Band
Portland Meadows
1001 N. Schmeer Road
Portland, OR 97217
August 8, 1993 (Sunday)
Vasseur shnid-145607

--set I (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 55:53)--
s1t01. [0:21] Cats Under The Stars [8:35] [0:22]
s1t02. [0:53] Mission In The Rain [7:04] [0:50]
s1t03. [0:32] That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:02] [0:11]
s1t04. And It Stoned Me,
s1t05. ambience [1:05]
s1t06. The Maker [7:19] [0:11]
s1t07. Money Honey -5:42] [0:05]
s1t08. My Sisters And Brothers

--set II (7 tracks, 63:42)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do
s2t02. Wonderful World
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [7:42] [0:46]
s2t04. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:05] [0:06]
s2t05. Reuben And Cherise [7:52] [0:15]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:11] ->
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [12:17] (xx) [0:10]

! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [mm:ss] = 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 [mm:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19930808-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1993-08-08

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6343 (Schoeps MK4 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/13134 (DAUD shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/34588 (Bearpalm MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/78974 (Gindoff MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/90483 (Severson MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/145607 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/145996 (Primo Williams's MAC).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/nyuwi57rKey

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/portland-meadows-1001-n-schmeer-road.html

! band: THE Jerry Garcia Band, JGB #21b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! ref: Nick, "Aug 93: JGB up north and at home," URL http://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2018/05/aug-93-jgb-up-north-and-at-home.html.

! R: field recordist: Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: seeder's Source Notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark

! R: great tape

! P: s1t01 CUTS sluggish out of the gate. Nice tone late 4 over 5. Managed to finish it without going around too many times, which is always good.

! P: s1t02 MITR IMO JG sounds absolutely terrible.

! P: s1t06 Maker is excellent. The guitar work mid-4 is very thrilling. He remembers most of the lyrics.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD off key and reedy. He screws up second verse, turns it into a nice little guitar piece.

! P: s1t07 Money Honey completely croaking by the end.

! P: s1T08 MSAB his voice is as croaky here as it ever was in 84-'85.

! P: s2t01 TWYDTTYD his voice did not get better over the break

! song: s2t02 WAWW is the Sam Cooke "don't know much about history" one.

! P: s2t03 TUOY coming back to this a few days after hearing the first part of the show. God, his voice is painful to hear. But TUOY finds Melvin bringing some great energy and color, and Garcia tearing it up in the 5 minute mark. The guitar isn't loud in the mix - wish it were louder.

! P: s2t05 RAC he forgets half a verse in mid-2. Man, his voice. I can't wait for this listen to end.

! s2t07 (xx) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Jerry Has Fallen, and He Can't Get Up

OK, maybe I am feeling a little bit cranky. I have been doing some late era listening, and it's not always easy.

Wednesday, April 20, 1994 at the Warfield, for example, has a "Don't Let Go" - which is good! - but it falls into quite a remarkable rut. From 3:22-6:03 of this lovely Vasseur tape, he sings "Hold me tight and don't let go" no fewer than thirty times, by my count. Now, if he were embellishing more, if he were varying his vocal attack, if he were pairing it with guitar expressions, I would, in principle, be fine with that. He'd be feeling it. But, in this case, he seems to be feeling a little lost, a little stuck. There is a bit of variation in how he sings the line, but not much. There's almost no interplay between the voice and guitar, which could make "Don't Let Go" from any era pretty compelling, since it's not something he did much of on any other song. It's like he's trying to remember how he exits into the jam part of the song, but can't bring it forth.

The show's not as bad as 8/14/94. Married about nine weeks to Deborah Koons, he played "Get Out Of My Life Woman" with some nice burn and real conviction. But the penultimate "Señor" suffers for lack of steady drumming, and in any case the "tail of the dragon" is smelling dangerously strong at this point, so perhaps best to put it to bed. The closing "Midnight Moonlight", I note, "is a little hard to hear."

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
April 20, 1994 (Wednesday)
Vasseur shnid-141480

--set I (7 tracks, 65:07)--
s1t01. [0:14] I'll Take A Melody [10:59] [0:54]
s1t02. Get Out Of My Life Woman [9:23] [1:41]
s1t03. Forever Young [10:50] [0:23]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:50] [0:15]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [10:22] [0:04]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:58] ->
s1t07. Deal [9:56] (1) [0:09]

--set II (6 tracks, 74:36)--
s2t08. Shining Star [21:31] [0:23]
s2t09. Think [8:09] ]0:10]
s2t10. Señor [7:34] ->
s2t11. Don't Let Go [14:49] [0:39]
s2t12. Mississippi Moon [8:35] ->
s2t13. Tangled Up In Blue [12:40] (2) [0:06]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19940420-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/21299 (Vasseur shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/141480 (this fileset).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! R: field recordist: Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: Source Notes: "Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all
of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark"

! R: tape sounds so great

! R: s1t01 ITAM splice 0:32-0:43, repeated section, a bit missing. Lame.

! P: s1t01 ITAM 3 range he is just making sounds, having forgotten the words.

! P: s1t02 GOOMLW the vocals are low but the guitar is nice and grungy, e.g., in the 4-minute range. Nice playing. Crowd stoked 5:40ff, and for good reason - good stuff. Melvin feature 6:35ff.

! P: s1t03 FY he puts the pitch-bender to work 7:49ff. DB doesn't really know how to end it, but they get there.

! P: s1t04 RFTR sounds half-speed

! s1t07 (1) JG: "Back in a little while."

! P: s2t10 Señor Donnie doesn't seem to know how to drum for this. Nothing much happens in this version.

! song: Señor (s2t10) penultimate version of this song (4/25/94).

! P: s2t11 DLG he doesn't really know the words. In 4 he's just repeating "hold me tight and don't let go" without much interesting vocal variation or guitar accompaniment, so it just feels a little stuck. I count thirty iterations between 3:22-6:03, which would be fine if he were embellishing, mixing it up. He is a little bit, on the margins. But mostly it just feels like he's fallen into this rut, and he can't get up.

! P: s2t12 Miss Moon is a little hard to hear.

! s2t13 (2) JG: "See ya later."

A Second Triumphant Return: JGB, Halloween '92

LN jg1992-10-31.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.141463.flac1644

Almost six years to the day after Jerry's "Triumphant Return" from death's door with the Garcia Band at the Stone, on October 31, 1992 he made a second comeback from a major health scare, playing with the JGB in the less homey Oakland Coliseum Arena less than three months after collapsing at home that summer.

I don't have time today to put it together, but in the book I will follow the redemption (1991 through 8/1/92) - fall (8/3/92) - redemption (10/31/92) narrative that the media built up for Jerry over a scant year or so. Of course, a longer, slower, and final fall would follow all of that. But these are things for me to try to tackle another time. For now, just some listening notes.

Bottom line: yes, Jerry sounds glad to be back. There are some fine moments, and almost no bad ones. It was probably fun to attend, and 14,000 fans did so - twenty times more than the teary-eyed who packed the Stone six years prior. 10/31/92 circulated relatively early from decent soundboard tape, adding to its popularity. The "Tangled Up In Blue" was selected for official release on Garcia Plays Dylan, which is a little surprising, but no big deal. "Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox" is the real surprise, totally shredding, and well warranting its officialization on Shining Star. "Werewolves Of London" was always fun, and Halloween is always a good timeThis is a good Garcia Band show. Oh yeah, and the handbill is surprisingly lame - I guess BGP was still figuring things out after Wolfgang's demise almost a year to the day prior to this gig.

Jerry Garcia Band
Oakland Coliseum Arena
695 Hegenberger Road
Oakland, CA 94621
October 31, 1992 (Saturday)
Vasseur shnid-141463

--set I (7 tracks, 54:49)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:28] [1:20]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:12] [0:40]
s1t03. The Maker [6:34] (1) [0:53]
s1t04. You Never Can Tell [6:54] [0:31]
s1t05. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:10] [0:05] %
s1t06. Lay Down Sally [7:08] [0:05] %
s1t07. Deal [7:35] (2) [0:15]

--set II + encore (9 tracks, 8 tunes, 79:31)--
--set II (7 tracks, 71:35)--
s2t08. dead air :05, //Shining Star [#11:45] [0:29]
s2t09. And It Stoned Me [7:14] [0:23]
s2t10. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [9:45] [0:38]
s2t11. What A Wonderful World [8:03] [0:44]
s2t12. Tore Up Over You [7:38] [0:48]
s2t13. Waiting For A Miracle [5:46] [0:26]
s2t14. My Sisters And Brothers [6:03] ->
s2t15. Tangled Up In Blue [11:40] [0:08] %
--encore (2 tracks, 1 tune, 7:55)--
s2t16. ambience [0:54]
s2t17. Werewolves Of London [6:53] (3) [0:09]

! ACT1: THE Jerry Garcia Band (JGB #21b)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19921031-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/4351 (Schoeps MK4 shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/13230 (sbd shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/76460 (s2 Schoeps CMC54); http://etreedb.org/shn/83474 (Litzenberger MAD); http://etreedb.org/shn/97988 (s2 unknown taper Schoeps CMC34); http://etreedb.org/shn/102196 (same source as shnid-97988, complete); http://etreedb.org/shn/107738 (mtx of shnid-13230 and shnid-102196); http://etreedb.org/shn/107741 (DTS of shnid-13230 and shnid-102196); http://etreedb.org/shn/132279 (Dupree aud); http://db.etree.org/shn/141463 (this fileset).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/oakland-coliseum-arena-and-oakland.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/NLizLAqo1652

! official: Jerry Garcia - Garcia Plays Dylan (Rhino, R2 73263, 2005) (d2t04-TUIB); Jerry Garcia - Shining Star (Grateful Dead Records 4079, 2001) (d2t05-Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox).

! review: Laskey 1992. She notes the prelude: "Before his illness, Jerry seemed tired and unenthusiastic about playing ... it really seemed that his spirit was escaping him." She found this down "spunky" and enjoyed the show.

! expost: Dunham 1992

! R: field recordist: Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter)

! R: Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: Source Notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all
of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark

! R: recording is strangely hissy, e.g., after STT. It sounds to me like there's a cassette gen here, but what do I know?

! P: s1t02 STT Garcia sounds nicely mournful and sincere in delivering his lines - "though I try | to do my very best | I can't seem to find | no happiness".

! s1t03 @ 7:05 (1) JG: "So ... how y'all doing?"

! s1t07 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a little break, and we'll be back in a few minutes."

! s2t08 SS cuts in

! P: s2t10 ANBITB Garcia shreds some 6:20ff. Interesting and powerful. Straining and pulling 6:50. I don't remember this song cooking like this. I see why it was officially released!

! s2t11 WAWW is the Louis Armstrong

! P: s2t14 MSAB he repeats the "this world is not our own" verse.

! P: s2t15 TUIB: I guess I can see why they chose this for the release - it's clean, and the last big guitar piece from 9:30ff presents some very thoughtful melodic ideas. It doesn't burn like some versions could, but it's clean and, for a couple of minutes, interesting.

! song: "Werewolves Of London" (s2t17). Jerry seemed to enjoy singing this Warren Zevon classic. The Dead did nine super-enthusiastic versions in 1978, including one allagedly mescaline-drenched version on May 11 and a growly, coked-to-the-gills classic at Red Rocks on July 8, both of which have been officially released. It came back with the Dead Halloween '85 in Columbia, South Carolina as a show opener out of space, the first of eight consecutive All Hallows Eve's appearances through 1993. I saw the JGB version in '89 and the Dead version in '90 in, appropriately anough, London - good times.

! P: s2t17 WOL Garcia does some uncommonly high pitched "whoo"ing after 6. This version never goes bonkers, but it's good.

! P: s2t17 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

Cities Burn and The Show Goes On: JGB at the Warfield, April 30, 1992

jg1992-04-30.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.141475.flac1644

On April 30, 1992, as on other Thursdays before, at least a couple American cities were in flames as protests over racial injustice turned violent and disorderly in the aftermath of a Simi Valley jury's acquittal of four LAPD officers accused in the March 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King.

The Garcia Band played the Warfield, part of an extraordinary run of 11 Jerry appearances there with three different bands in 13 days: JGB April 29-May 3, Bob Dylan on May 5th, and Garcia-Grisman from the 7th to the 11th. Selvin provided some context:

With looters and police clashing on the street outside the theater, for the Jerry Garcia Band at the Warfield Thursday night it was business as usual. Background vocalist Gloria Jones traveled from her East Bay home on BART and, with Market Street stations closed, was forced to exit on 16th Street and take a bus back downtown, barely making it before show time.

An attendee posting at JGC remembers, too:

Riot police surrounded the theatre and there were reports of gunshots in the streets. An announcement was made from the stage warning patrons not to leave the theatre.

As Selvin titled his piece, "The Show Goes On."

I have historically thought that 1992 was absolutely the worst, most boring and useless year for the JGB. I remember *hating* 2/7/92 at one time, despite a luscious Marcus Buick tape. I might still think the year is the most boring, but it's not all bad. 8/1/92 pleasantly surprised me. On a first listen, this 4/30/92 didn't move me much, but then I revisited it and I found plenty to like. As has been the case lately, I find myself especially fond of the second set. My bottom line note reads as follows:

Garcia sounds tired, but he probably *was* tired. After his August collapse, he described his state earlier in the year: "I wasn't ill. There was no pain. I just had zero energy. I was always tired. I'd always been able to get through a concert, but now it was getting hard. I hadn't realized how run-down I'd got" (Carroll 1992). As was often the case for late era Jerry, weariness suits the material pretty well. This isn't one you'd give to a newbie to turn them on to JGB, but aficionados may just be able to appreciate the OG perspective is really setting in at this point. The segment that goes R&C, Gomorrah, DLG and The Maker is quite excellent. First listen DLG didn't kill me, but this time I found it to be very strong.

There are a few songs at interesting points in their lives: last "Throw Out the Lifeline" (with a spotty performance history note"), penultimate "Let's Spend The Night Together" (5/2/92 the last, IIRC), newly arriving, the third "Maker", which would become a late-era favorite. I also note Our Hero playing some slide in "Gomorrah", which I don't recall having heard before, which is not to say it wasn't always there.



Anyway, not bad, old timer. Not bad. Listening notes after the jump.

4/23/93: great setlist, low energy

LN jg1993-04-23.jgb.all.aud-neumann.15923.shn2flac

Great setlist, low energy. At least that's how I hear it.

Jerry Garcia Band
Warfield Theater
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
April 23, 1993 (Friday)
Neumann KM54 MAD shnid-15923 shn2flac

--set I (7 tracks, 56:56)--
s1t01. ... Cats Under The Stars [#8:13] [0:47]
s1t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [10:15] [0:26]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:13] [0:12]
s1t04. He Ain't Give You None [8:00] [0:41]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [7:45] [0:14]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:00] ->
s1t07. Deal [7:59] (1) [0:11] %

--set II (8 tracks, 62:50)--
s2t01. /The Way You Do The Things You Do [#9:24] [0:12]
s2t02. The Maker [#8:48] [0:19]
s2t03. Money Honey [6:40] [0:20]
s2t04. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game [7:20] [0:12]
s2t05. Lazy Bones [7:47] [0:08]
s2t06. Reuben And Cherise [8:07] [0:42]
s2t07. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [6:39] ->
s2t08. Midnight Moonlight [6:02] (2) [0:10] %

! ACT1: JGB #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19930423-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15923 (this source tape, shnf, presumably deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/145502 (this fileset)

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! band: THE Jerry Garcia Band, JGB #21b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! official: Both s2t02 "The Maker" and s2t04 THGCBTG were released on 2001's Shining Star (see http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-dates-of-all-of-tracks-on.html).

! field recordist: [presumed] Chuck and Janet Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann MK54 > unknown DAT deck

! R: field recording location: FOB

! R: transfer: DATx > CDRx (via S.Aserkoff) > DAE (EAC 0.9 beta 4, offset corrected, secure mode) > tracking (cdwave) > SHN (shorten 3.4) > FTP via C.Ladner/candyman FTP. "Another installment of the MisSHN in the Rain."

! R: seeder comment: "Fantastic recording and performance." JGMF comment: hm. Recording has a weird quality to my ears, like there's a frequency that's too low in there somewhere. The vocals are pretty low, which could well be how JG wanted to be mixed this night, since, as I note below, he sounds a little rough around the edges.

! P: Vocals sound a little tired.

! R: s1t01 CUTS fades in

! P: s1t04 HAGYN very enthusiastic vocals.

! P: s1t07 Deal very good, some very big stuff. Even some wah 6:25ff.

! s1t07 (1) JG: "We'll be back in a little while."

! R: s2t01 TWYDTTYD clips in, not much missing.

! P: s2t02 Maker @ 6 ish he starts the "Brother John" line hard and high, almost like the "body .... bent and broken" verse, but then drops down into another key.

! P: s2t04 THGCBTG - wow. Jerry sounds old, but that makes this all the more powerful. Rarity! All 90s versions: 4/20/91, 4/21/91, 5/22/91, 11/13/91, 4/23/93, 11/11/93, that's it. #songs-H

! P: s2t05 Lazy Bones this is a cluster to start. This is another one that got only infrequent play.

! s2t08 (2) JG: "Thank you. See ya later."

Body ... Bent and Broken

LN jg1994-09-10.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.23791.shn2flac

Man, these late era shows are really changing my understanding of Old Garcia. I have been saying it in these recent posts: his lacks lung-power, his voice is weak, his muscles are atrophied and his wrists are sore. He is prone to forgetting lyrics.

These physical limitations dictate his vocal and instrumental approaches. Vocally, we find clearer enunciation and articulation. He wants to be in key, unlike Dylan, but this is interpreted pretty liberally. The grooves are slower and deeper, but a light swing touch can also work. He can still bop his head and swing his shoulders, even if he can't dig in, ass and hips and all, like he used to with his guitar, with respect to which expressiveness trumps power, and, really, the latter doesn't make much of an appearance through the whole show.

It's deeply flawed stuff, but if you know and love Jerry it's really, really good. The post title is a little dark, but he delivers that line from "The Maker" so amazingly, I just couldn't resist.

Random thoughts from the notes below:

! song: "Johnny Too Bad" and #death: He sings it as "one of these days "gonna hear a voice a say come" is JG, instead of "when you hear". I am certainly parsing too finely, his expressive variations were mostly driven by lips, mouth, lungs and brain, but I like it. "Gonna", as a declarative, penetrates more deeply in a probability sense, while the passive "when" leaves some space for at least momentary human delusion and denial, suspending the certainty of the outcome if only for a flash. For ol' Jer, it's gonna happen, And That Right Quick. And Johnny Too Bad, in my mind's eye, ends more The Lord Of The Flies than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: there is, as the song reminds us repeatedly, no rock. Might as well play some reggae.

! song: "That Lucky Old Sun" and #race #musics and Old Garcia: As you might imagine with decrepit Jerry, "Lucky Ol' Sun" offers some real possibilities, and he takes especial advantage on "fuss with my woman | toil with my kids | sweat till I'm wrinkled and grey". As commenter Nick and others have helped me understand, Tin Pan Alley tunes like this derive from jazz but crossed the racial divide, with whites appropriating and deploying black tropes and affectations - not unlike good old rock 'n' roll itself. On the other hand, crossing over is his American birthright, and ol' Gar owns it lovingly, inclusively, the tender vocal delivery full of feeling, the band providing a spare backing for Jerry's gentle drop-sparkle string work. These tunes can really evoke Garcia's painting of himself and John as old Mission Street players, even from the loftier confines of the Warfield balcony or an 8,500 set amphitheatre on a hot Reno evening.

Jerry Garcia Band
Reno Hilton Amphitheatre
2500 East Second Street
Reno, NV 89595
September 10, 1994 (Saturday)
?Vasseur? shnid-23791 shn2flac

--set I (8 tracks, 50:15)--
s1t01. crowd [01:00]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [5:45] [1:17]
s1t03. Stop That Train [7:06] [0:33]
s1t04. Get Out Of My Life Woman [7:27] (1) [2:13]
s1t05. Run For The Roses [05:14]
s1t06. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [08:04]
s1t07. My Sisters And Brothers [03:54]
s1t08. Deal [07:42]

--set II (7 tracks, 61:37)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do [10:14] [0:22]
s2t02. The Maker [12:29] [0:10]
s2t03. What A Wonderful World [4:44] [0:19]
s2t04. Johnny Too Bad [11:05] [0:20]
s2t05. Don't Let Go [12:22]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [04:21]
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [05:10]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19940910-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1994-09-10

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/23791 (this fileset, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/97863 (absent from my archive).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/fAbuJCQB6zt

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/reno-hilton-amphitheatre-2500-east.html

! R: field recordists: [presumed] Chuck Vasseur and Janet Vasseur.

! R: source: MAD (Vintage Neumanns) > D > C > CDR > WAV > SHN; shn2flac jgmf 5/23/2017.

! R: seeder comments: [INCORRECT: "First public performance of 'Johnny Too Bad'"] -- the 3rd song off the "Harder They Come" soundtrack that Jerry would play with JGB (others are "Harder They Come" and "Sitting In Limbo"). This is the second of five times out for JTB (9/1/94).

! R: seeder note: "Minimal hiss, more distant sounding than the typical Vasseur Warfield."

! R: lineage: DAE (EAC) and sbe-free SHN encoding by C.Ladner, May '04.

! R: something swishy and wonky about this tape, panning or something out of phase. By the time I am in "The Maker", it is sounding downright good.

! s1t01 HSII starts with "opened my eyes at night" in06-s2t07 stead of "I needed the shelter". He comes back to it for the second verse - attaboy, Jer! 2-3 he has done some very fluent guitar playing, sounds energetic. Melvin steps up to his big swirling-sweeping piece 3:30, Garcia sounds happy to comp 3:45 behind him. Jerry remembers the next verse, 4:40 ish Melvin provides tasty piano accompaniment with a barrelhouse feel, more after 5.

! s1t04 (1) JG: "We have a little technical problem," as things are being pounded. Melvin hits a little piano thing, JG signals RFTR. FF to s2t01.

! P: s2t01 TWYDTTYD right at end of 5 he puts on his Grateful Dead guitar, wahh-ing in a way that was very uncommon for JGB. Long vocal piece with the ladies out front, him emphasizing behind.

! P: s2t02 Maker John is doing some bowing-type stuff at the very start. Overt religiosity. @ 0354 "oh my body is bent and broken" with feeling. Fragile stuff, glorious. Big pitch-bendy stuff 6.

! song: "What A Wonderful World" (s2t03): this is the Sam Cooke ("don't know much about history", etc.).

! P: song: "Johnny Too Bad" (s2t04): second live version (9/1/94). He sings it as "one of these days "gonna hear a voice a say come" is JG, instead of "when you hear". I am certainly parsing too finely, his expressive variations were mostly driven by lips, mouth, lungs and brain, but I like it. "Gonna", as a declarative, penetrates more deeply in a probability sense, while the passive "when" leaves some space for at least momentary human delusion and denial, suspending the certainty of the outcome if only for a flash. For ol' Jer, it's gonna happen, And That Right Quick. And Johnny Too Bad, in my mind's eye, ends more The Lord Of The Flies than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: there is, as the song reminds us repeatedly, no rock. Might as well play some reggae. ^P This has lots of interesting pieces, and credit ol Jer for working it, but the band keeps expecting it to end, and he croaks another go-round. The song is quite repetitive, and that's part of what's so compelling but also challenging about it - huis clos. A for effort, lower for execution.

! P: s2t05 DLG nice to see the ambition. He mumbles first verse. Baldwin sets a fine pocket here. 4 very cool little song-voice piece, set to the weak lungs, allowing him to just not strain. 4:20ff some very plucky plucking. Garcia 4:40ff in a bassier tone, keys are right on it, bass has been inaudible. Heading over 5, it has that worried urgency that an earlier tune with Merl, "She's Got Charisma", also provided in spades. It's a game effort, doesn't knock me out on two listens.

! P: s2t06 "That Lucky Old Sun": As you might imagine with decrepit Jerry, "Lucky Ol' Sun" offers some real possibilities, and he takes especial advantage on "fuss with my woman | toil with my kids | sweat till I'm wrinkled and grey". For book, should probably write Tin Pan Alley up here at the end. Sort of a crossover genre in that it seems to have been whites appropriating and deploying black tropes and affectations - not unlike rock 'n' roll. On the other hand, ol' Gar owns this stuff fully, bringing sincere love and tenderness to the vocal delivery, full of feeling, over a spare band arrangement that lets him play his display a little gentle drop-sparkle string work, too. These tunes can really evoke Garcia's painting of himself and John as old Mission Street players, even from the loftier confines of the Warfield balcony or an 8,500 set amphitheatre on a hot Reno evening.

! P: s2t07 MM I love that Jerry loved this song. At this point, he must have had a real Skinnerian involvement with it, since MM = end of show = nicotine = whatever else. Not that he deprived himself before or during, mind you, but the chance to sit down in a comfy chair and unwind, change your sweaty shirt, soundsl ike a nice prospect, too. So the San Franciscan plays Pete Rowan's paen to another city with a Mission, San Antonio, good music. This version delivers nothing special, and September 10, 1994 goes on its merry way.

JGB at the Warfield: April 21, 1995

LN jg1995-04-21.jgb.all.aud-vasseur-ladner.21900.shn2flac

Third to last JGB gig, on the home court. A little bit of historical background, some analysis of the musics figuring in the setlist, and a brief note on "Johnny Too Bad" ("my God, this is just great, so full of feeling") will figure in the listening notes below.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
April 21, 1995 (Friday)
Vasseur shnid-21900 shn2flac

--set I (7 tracks, 56:08)--
s1t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do  [10:10]
s1t02. Forever Young  [10:38]
s1t03. Money Honey  [07:35]
s1t04. Run For The Roses  [05:26]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox  [08:48]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers  [04:52]
s1t07. Deal  [08:36]

--set II (5 tracks, 59:00)--
s2t01. Shining Star ->  [22:39]
s2t02. Johnny Too Bad ->  [7:07]
s2t03. Don't Let Go  [13:32]
s2t04. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)  [09:36]
s2t05. Midnight Moonlight  [06:04]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19950421-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1995-04-21

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! db: shnid-21900 (Vasseur shnf, this fileset)

! band: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! historical: This is Garcia's third-to-last Garcia Band GOTS gig, and knowing this, and that he'd be dead in three and a half months, naturally biases the llistening experience. Blind randomization of listening would be the way to do it, but who was time to genuflect before the infererence gods? Anyway, it's good to do. Chris Ladner's misSHN comments also informed my listen. I only listened to set II, featuring the 40 minute Shining Star -> Johnny Too Bad -> Don't Let Go medley. It's not great in any conventional sense. Garcia can't sing very powerfully, and his whole body is frail, his wrists are sore. He probably doesn't weigh as much as you'd think, because he's bloated and his muscles have atrophied. He was still diving as of February, whether or not you believe he last-minute canceled the February 10th show from an encounter with a jellyfish, and Bay Area Deadheads of the day harbored some doubts, and diving would be like the only physical activity he'd engage in to confuse his muscles from playing, sitting around, driving around in his day-to-day. He was mostly struggling against an enlarged heart, diabetes, a forty-year several-pack-a-day smoking habit, etc. etc.

! P: Garcia gives the fans an honest's night music, especially in view of the fact (that we only know for sure ex post) that the man is dying. He offers up a tasteful selection of postwar American music. The Garcia Band gave Jerry the chance to play R&B, which the Dead just didn't do. The show opens with TWYDTTYD, the scrappy Great Migration lament "Money Honey" gives the old man a chance to belt a little, while the second set-opening "Shining Star" calls forth the rituals of the Warfield and of the Garcia Band at the end, church is in service, nice and easy call-and-response, Jerry gets the chance to sit back, lovingly play with sound, make some music for the assembled, trusting the band to frame it while he paints. "Don't Let Go" was JGB's "jam vehicle", such as it was. This one shows plenty of verve, nothing really to complain about (except maybe the singing, but I discount very heavily since it's near the end).

! setlist: So: 4 R&B (TWYDTTYD, Money Honey, Shining Star, Don't Let Go); 3 white contemporary Americana (Dylan-Forever Young, Norton Buffalo - Breadbox, Pete Rowan's Midnight Moonlight); 2 Garcia originals: Run For The Roses, Deal; 1 traditional gospel: MSAB; 1 reggae: JTB; 1 other: "That Lucky Old Sun". Written by white guys (Haven Gillespie and Beasley Smith), first done by Frankie Lane, lots of black and white greats did it. Written 1949 - what would we name the musical genre? answer: Tin Pan Alley.

! R: field recordists: Chuck Vasseur and Janet Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: lineage: DATx > CDx > DAE (QPS QUE 2410 EAC0.9 offset corrected secure mode) > editing as above (SF6) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN (mkwact) via Chris Ladner. shn2flac jgmf 5/19/2017.

! R: seeder comments:  Highly listenable audience recording with relatively minimal close up chatting.  Rates a 2.4 on the "Hey Dude" index.  Charged first set with beautiful Forever Young with Jerry wailing it out, hard drivin' Money Honey (this is not your teleprompter Jerry).  Second set kicks off with a stellar Shining Star that instead of dying off into a lagging audience chant Jerry keeps Shining Star going with a reggae beat and drops perfectly into "Johnny Too Bad" which drifts right into the self-explanatory Don't Let Go - over 43 minutes of continuous jamming.  Not what you'd expect for the 3rd to last JGB show.

! R: seeder comments: Thanks to Jim Powell for the source CDR. misSHN in the rain, 1/2004.

! P: s2t02 JTB my God, this is just great, so full of feeling. John doing some interesting things 7, Jerry switches gear real fast to DLG.

! P: s2t03 DLG voice totally shot.

Il lui manque du souffle

LN jg1995-04-15.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.94692.flac1644

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
April 15, 1995 (Saturday)
Vasseur flac1644 shnid-94692

--set I (5 tracks, 47:32)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars
s1t02. And It Stoned Me
s1t03. He Ain't Give You None
s1t04. Dear Prudence
s1t05. My Sisters And Brothers

--set II (7 tracks, 68:03)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do
s2t02. You Never Can Tell (C'est La Vie)
s2t03. [0:09] Rubin And Cherise [:10-
s2t04. What A Wonderful World
s2t05. Don't Let Go
s2t06. Positively 4th Street [7:59] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19950415-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1995-04-15

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/21825 (same source tape, shnf, deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/94692 (this fileset).

! band: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! R: field recordists: Chuck Vasseur and Janet Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > Casio DA-7?

! R: lineage: DAT MASTER > DAT; Sony DTC-A7 > Sony TCD-D10PROII, Tascam DA-30MKII > Sound Devices 702 > Soundforge 9 (Fades, Sample Rate Conversion) > CDWAV > FLAC.

! P: s1t01 CUTS muffs first verse, confused all throughout the start, solidifies after a bit.

! P: s2t03 RAC everyone but Deborah Koons loves this tune, but it's striking out of the gate how slow this is. Never heard it like this. Vocals are *brutal*, he can't get anything out. Croaking "painted mandolin" isn't working. Croaking. Extremely repetitive, over long without much new happening.

! P: s2t05 DLG lyrics are a little nonsensical, but he just goes with it.

! P: s2t06 4th St flubs first verse. He just has no oomph to his singing. Here in a long central piece he is doing very well with the lyrics, making up in relative clarity what he lacks in aspiration. Whatever verses he meant to deliver late 5 early 6 didn't come through. "Stand inside my shoes" is well delivered ... "and for just that one moment, I could be you" ... sounds wistful. Nice energy, warts and all.

Never Get Yo Cornbread Made

LN jg1995-01-13.jgb.all.aud-vasseur-ladner.21484.shn2flac

I almost never listen to 1995. I mean to. And then I did. But then, it turns out that I had already listened to the second set of this show, so the novelty factor was reduced by half.

On the flip side, the "study in contrasts" possibilities are wide; in this case, it looks like a November 2015 listen found me, not dissatisfied, but resigned:

I enjoyed this, overall. It was not a ripoff. Jerry's guitar play is fine, if mixed very low. The arrangements are pretty interesting, but the execution suffers without David Kemper in the chair. Garcia is flubbing like 50% of the lyrics, and there are a few moments where he seems completely to lose himself.

On this listen, I find myself appreciating some creative success in "Don't Let Go" and noting that he probably remembers more of the words to 4th Street than I do.

Old Jerry singing "never get yo' cornbread made" just destroys me - a gentler, faux-blacker version of Dylan's "sure got a lot of gall | to be so useless and all" rant in "Visions Of Johanna".

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
January 13, 1995 (DOW)
Vasseur shnid-21484 shn2flac

--set I (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 65:48)--
s1t01. crowd [0:41]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:53] [0:15]
s1t03. They Love Each Other [10:47]
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [13:09]
s1t05. Run For The Roses [06:34]
s1t06. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [14:41]
s1t07. My Sisters And Brothers [03:55]
s1t08. Deal [8:51]

--set II (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 65:02)--
s2t01. crowd [1:34]
s2t02. Harder They Come [10:33]
s2t03. And It Stoned Me [9:53]
s2t04. Evangeline [5:51]
s2t05. Don't Let Go [14:11] [0:07]
s2t06. Lazy Bones [8:45] ->
s2t07. Positively 4th Street [7:58]
s2t08. Midnight Moonlight [6:07]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19950113-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/21484 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/79638 (s2 Schoeps).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! band: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! historical: First shows of 1995, let's see how ol' Jer sounds.

! R: field recordists: Chuck Vasseur and Janet Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: lineage: DATx > CDRx > WAV > SHN (1/2004) > shn2flac (5/14/2017).

! R: seeder Comments: Another outstanding audience recording from the Vasseurs - Jerry fans for all eternity thank you Chuck and Linda [sic] :-)

! R: seeder comments: Strong performance of the seldom played (4th performance post-1980) and often cat-called, "Positively 4th Street" which JGB pulls out of the proverbial playlist closet. I can see Jerry sneering when he spouts "what a DRAG it is ..." Sublime final performance of another relative JGB rarity, Lazy Bones.

! R: seeder comments: There were a few millisecond dropouts before the start of a few tracks which were removed using SF6.

! R: seeder comments. Thanks to J.Powell for providing a lineaged CDR source. DAE (EAC0.9b4,offset corrected, secure mode, track quality > 99.9%) > removal of silence at set boundaries (SF6.0) > tracking (cdwav) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN(shorten3.4) via C.Ladner. misSHN in the rain, 1/04.

! P: s1t02 HSII - Listening in 5/17, when I don't listen to much 1995, I hear the appeal of this stuff for all involved. His guitar lacks power, his voice is way down in the mix, but still functioning.

! P: s2t02 HTC always a litmus test, because it's mostly always there. Il manque son souffle. Flubbing lyrics after singing this tune like 300 times. What are you gonna do? Now going to FF to Don't Let Go about 2 minutes in.

! P: s2t05 DLG there is absolutely nothing wrong with this DLG. It's a creative success. It has all kinds of range, the guitar isn't burning off both my ears with pure power, but the tones are appropriately, at turns, gritty, spacy, driving, etc. Nice chunka-chunnka-ing 10ff, a step closer to DLG theme with little crosscut sawing happening. NB that John hasn't done much that's audible. I sure would love to hear a stage monitor perspective, because I imagine he was just playing for Jerry at this point? I have no complaints with Donny Baldwin's drumming, either.

! P: s2t06 LB: I am expected to love this, and I want to. But, out of the gate I cannot. The guitar approach 3 is interesting, but I am not compelled, it felt a little awkward. @ 6:44 corn bread verse starts off warbly, but he delivers it beautifully, tellingly, knowingly. "Never get yo cornbread made | sleeping in the evening shade". He sings the break, but he's not particularly audible. Same with the next verse: "Lazy bones | talkin' in the shade | how you spect to make a dime that way? | Never make a dime that way" - old, tired Jerry is great on those lines.

! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t07): 2/23/80, then 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95. Jerry had to reach up to the top shelf to grab Dylan's snide and splenetic rant - I hadn't been aware when it started that it had become such a rarity. He'd try it again on March 4 and April 15, 1995 - I'd like to check those out (update: done! 3/4, 4/15). Positively 4th Street is one of those that Garcia loved and never gave up on - Tough Mama being a 70s Dylan analog.

! P: s2t07 4th Street: As Chris Ladner notes, this was a breakout after almost two years, and the hometown crowd knows it. It's a little off between guitar and vocals out of the gate, he has just started with some random verse as far as I can tell - very late Dylanesque! The combination of him just singing scraps and the vocals low in the mix --not unrelated-- makes it hard to hear the lyrics, but whatevs. This feels like bonus time with ol' Jer. Flubs next attempt at a verse, late 2. He remembers a lot more of the words than I would.

Da Weez

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-04-23.117598.Sennheiser421.daweez.d5scott.flac16

! db: shnid-117598
! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 microphones > Sony TC-D5M
! R: field recordist: Da Weez
! R: transfer: Sony TC-D5M (original record deck) > Pre Sonus Inspire GT > Sound Forge > .wav files > Trader's Little Helper > flac files, by D5scott.

I have no idea who these gentlemen are, but taper Da Weez never made a bad tape, and the good taste in gear suggested by D5scott's name is exceeded only by the straightforward beauty of his transfers of Da Weez's masters. They all come tagged "R.I.P. Sandy - aka 'Bigfoot'", which adds a sad human note to these revelatory sonic documents.

People sometimes imply that there are no more histories to write of the Grateful Dead and affiliated phenomena, but I totally disagree (beyond my own interest in asserting the contrary). There are tapers' histories to write for example, from socio-, Cleo-, musico-, and psychoacousticotechnicoothero-metric lenses. Just think of Flashback Charlie, that even hard-edged Brooklynite Jerry Moore might have recommended for a little meditation outside the Bottom Line, or finding a backdoor broom--closet way into the Academy of Music, just down the street from the Hells Angels' clubhouse in rough mid-70s NYC, or besuited east coaster Barry Glassberg. In the Bay Area, technical genius Jaime Poris, was were joined by James Olness (later a Bill Graham archivist and printer) in the 80s, joined later by Bu and the DAT Brats (working The Rail at the Warfield), then Chuck and Janet Vasseur with the four-digit, vintage Neumanns, a pierrine digital setup and upfront acumen. There's a book right there.

I just wanted to take a minute to give a thought to all involved. Da Weez went to the show and taped, not a cheap or trivial proposition. Sounds like Sandy (RIP) was around. At the very least, D5scott has taken the time, lending gear and skill to transfer the tapes. Tom Anderson's db.etree and Brewster Kahle's archive.org, helped along by casts of countless volunteers, help us fingerprint the fileset and hear it at any time from wherever you are. Deadlists keeps a canonical reference from The List of ca. early 2000s. The ArcHIVE, consisting of thousands of decentralized copies held by fans and collectors everywhere, relentlessly propagates itself, inter alia through "eternal flame reseeds at the torrent site Lossless Legs (shnflac.net). And, literally, on and on It goes: the parameter I'd use to state Its temporal limit asymptotically approaches the limit of humanity itself.

In other news, "Alabama Getaway" sprints out all flared nostrils and deep, grungy guitar from the first break, coked-out and scatterbrained. There's an "Funniculi Finnicula" tease before "Candyman", and Jerry sounds frisky.