On Accuracy

The recent June 5th brought out more than a tiny number of people to recognize the Oregon State Penintiery show on the anniversary of its performance -- June 5, 1982 -- rather than on the date given by the old bootleg tape. Because the bootleg was one of the mostly widely held Garcia recordings in the CD era, the spurious date of May 5, 1982 --imagine bootleggers getting something wrong!-- has been persistent and hard to uproot. Bad information crowds out the good even years after the latter has been established with 100-ε% certainty. Certainly the last decade of politics has demonstrated the dark underbelly of the availability heuristic, as the simple (but relentless) repetition of untruth persuades people to believe it. (Note to self: Kahneman 2011, 62, 66, 67).

And it is now 100% established that May 5, 1982 is incorrect, and June 5, 1982 is correct. latter is now the case here. I first established the correct date of June 5th based on the tour itinerary hidden in the GD Archives at UCSC. I learned more in a piece about Steve Stilling, the OSP prisoner who put the Garcia-Kahn event and a number of other notable gigs on. Dick Latvala's Scrapbooks supplied a picture of the event from a local newspaper! Most of this is pinned at Jerrybase, natch. But there is really no doubt about this, beyond the epsilon (ε) I always reserve on metaphysical grounds

So I want to express my appreciation not only for those who are open to updating their beliefs about this sort of thing, but for those who endeavor to use accurate information, even in relatively casual conversation, when it comes to Jerry Garcia's musical life and activities and the rest of the stuff we are passionate about.

Accuracy matters, even in this "hobby" space, this "amateur" space which, Steve Silberman reminded us years back in one of the Taping Compendiums, simply means "lover" or "lover of". I am fully bought-in to Umberto Eco's view that we make lists in a vain attempt to tame infinity in a vain attempt to live forever -- together. Any efforts along these lines should never be described with the pejorative "obsession", IMO. I greatly prefer the label "passion". And why not? We are dying, after all! We've got work to do!

I get that not everyone cares, and I am not going to try to police their usages ... too much. Maybe a nudge, providing the correct information. Maybe an implicit plea for them to use the correct information as much as possible, not because they care, but because I (and lots of us) care. In that specific form of community known as culture, pinning down our past helps us live together in the present and feel just a little calmer about the future, since at least this piece of infinity has been tamed.

Wabbit Hunting with Garcia and Kahn in Oakland and Guerneville, August 17-18, 1985

I shouldn't be mean. But posterity might not recall that many characterized Jerry's vocal sound in 1985 as resembling Elmer Fudd, so I am doing it for future generations. You can thank me later.

Not much to report. While the Dunsmuir House and Gardens maybe have been a cool place to see Jerry on an August afternoon ... 

Jerry and John in dappled sunlight on the grounds of the Dunsmuir House, Oakland, August 18, 1985. Photo credit: Tim Schonholtz

... he sounds quite bad on this August 18th while delivering two sub-40 minute sets.

The night before, at the sweet little River Theater in groovy Russian River town of Guerneville, is a little bit stronger, to my ears.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
River Theater
16135 Main Street
Guerneville, CA 95446-8301
August 17, 1985 (Saturday) - 9 PM
Corley MAC shnid-20898 shn2flac

--set I (6 tracks, 42:48)--
s1t01. Deep Elem Blues [7:29] [0:08]
s1t02. Little Sadie [4:57]
s1t03. Valerie [6:14] [0:37]
s1t04. Friend Of The Devil [7:31] [0:08]
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [10:33] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:50] (1) [0:22]

--set II (6 tracks, 40:12)--
s2t01. [0:46] When I Paint My Masterpiece [7:19] [0:10]
s2t02. I've Been All Around This World [6:15] [0:06]
s2t03. Jack-A-Roe [4:27]
s2t04. Bird Song [11:23] [0:07]
s2t05. Gomorrah [5:08]
s2t06. Ripple [4:23] (2) [0:07]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m: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 [m: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/19850817-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-08-17

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/20898 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/dYyvu55qka62

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/river-theatre-16135-main-street.html

! R: field recordist: John Corley

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > Sony TC-D5M

! R: lineage: MAC > ? CD > DAE (EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode QPS QUE2410) > editing (SF6) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN (shorten3.4) via C.Ladner. Thanks to J.Powell for the source CDR. misSHN in the rain, 12/03.

! R: seeder comments: Very clean recording without any significant flaws other than intermittent loud close up audience noise. s1t01 - master recording levels during the first 25 seconds were extremely low, i applied a +10 dB gain to this small segment using SF6 to bring it line with the remainder of the recording.

! P: s1t01 DEB voice already sounding rough

! P: s1t02 Sadie second verse he sings "standing on a corner" twice, then gets to "oh yes, sir", so a flub but a recovery.

! s1t06 JG: (1) We're gonna take a little break. We'll be back in a few minutes."

! P: s2 Elmer Fudd most definitely in the house. Almost can't sing Bird Song at all. Ouch.

! P: the set II vocals are ... not good. But, then again, you knew that.

! s2t06 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Dunsmuir House and Gardens
2960 Peralta Oaks Ct.
Oakland, CA 94605
August 18, 1985 (Sunday) - 3 PM
Menke MAC MOTB #0210 flac2496

--Set I (6 tracks, 35:00)--
s1t01: [0:05] Deep Elem Blues [6:56] [0:02]
s1t02: Friend Of The Devil [6:25] [0:08]
s1t03: [0:17] Little Sadie [6:51]
s1t04: Valerie [6:15] [0:03]
s1t05: I've Been All Around This World [4:59] ->
s1t06: Run For The Roses [4:49] [0:11]

--Set II (6 tracks, 38:25)--
s2t01: [0:30] When I Paint My Masterpiece [6:02] [0:04]
s2t02: Jack-A-Roe [4:31] [0:09]
s2t03: Bird Song [9:52] [0:04]
s2t04: Gomorrah [5:37] ->
s2t05: Ripple [4:19] (2) ->
s2t06: Goodnight Irene [6:52] (3) [0:25]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

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/19850818-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-08-18

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/13520 (this master, shnf, deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/88019 (Holtz Nak 100s MAC flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/88020 (Holtz Nak 100s MAC flac2496); https://etreedb.org/shn/98629 (Taz Yamaguchi and Jamie Poris MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/141508 (supposed CSBD); https://etreedb.org/shn/141509 (supposedly Sandy Troy MAR); https://etreedb.org/shn/149863 (Jonathan Mow MAC flac1644), https://etreedb.org/shn/149864 (Jonathan Mow MAC flac2496).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/93RVX3dF7812

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/dunsmuir-house-2960-peralta-oaks-court.html

! R: field recordist: Bob Menke

! R: field recording location: 15' from stage slightly off-center

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi CM 700 > Sony TC D5M

! R: field recording media: Maxell MX 90

! R: Analog Sound Preservation: MAC > Nak DR-1 > Korg at 5.6 mhz. Transfer By: Bob Menke. Mastering By: Derek McCabe.

! R: MOTB Release: #0210 24/96, release date 2012-08-19. Note: "flacs are tagged, enjoy!"

! P: s1t06 RFTR is deeply painful to listen to. Garcia absolutely crashes as this song begins, and he barely brings it to the finish line.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a few minutes, come back. Tune up, and stuff."

! P: s2t03 Bird Song in the 4-minute mark, Kahn is doing some really interesting and unusual modal-sounding stuff. As they round the 5-minute mark, he's still playing very creatively. I am not sure he's pulling it off, mind you, but he's trying. In the first half of the five-minute mark, Jerry hits several clammy notes, to my ears. Not that they don't work with what John's doing, but that they don't work with what Jerry's doing. 

! R: s2t03 are those speed warbles in the 6-minute mark, or is Jerry really playing that shit? E.g., 6:58-6:59?

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot."

! song: Goodnight Irene (s2t06): I have always wondered if, in singing the "jump overboard in the river and drown" line, Jerry became 4 year old Jerry, little Jerry, and replayed his father's drowning in the Russian River. One would think not, because that would seem a little morbid, to say nothing of painful, for our boy. But maybe he didn't go there. Or maybe he went there and he was OK. But it's hard to imagine that a person imprinted with that memory, that vision, wouldn't go there. Who knows.

! P: s2t06 GI The acoustic setting lets Jerry not oversing too badly, as of course he'd have to do with the Grateful Dead, and to a lesser extent, with his electric band. In that sense, and because the tape is so clean, we get another view on Garcia's voice in August 1985. He sounds better than he did in the GD, that's for sure. But it ain't entirely pretty. He is very limited, and his talking and singing voice both have the nasally, I-just-shredded-my-already-bleeding-sinuses timbre characteristic of Crosby's voice during this same time period, as well as a certain wascawwy wabbit huntew. Just Say No to Cocaine, Kids.

! s2t06 (3) "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

! P: Total show time 73:26. Brutal, Jer.

Kabuki Acoustics

LN jg1982-08-23.jgjk.early-late.aud-menke-connor.12586.shn2flac
LN jg1984-06-03.jgjk.all.sbd-unknown.81273.shn2flac

Bill Graham ran the Kabuki Nightclub in Japantown for a few years in the early 1980s, and Garcia played twice, both times acoustic with ol' buddy John Kahn. I am not a huge fan of the Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet, and these shows do nothing to move me from that basic position. Jerry still sounds somewhat youthful in '82, not at all the case two years later. Not much to report either way, though I did like the "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" from the '82 late show.

BTW - did Garcia (JGJK? JGB?) really play the Warfield on Saturday 8/21/82?


Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Kabuki Nightclub
1881 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
August 23, 1982 (Monday) - early (7:30 PM) and late (11 PM) shows
Menke MAC early-1, late shnid-12586 shn2flac

--early show (8 tracks, 1 tune missing, 54:37)--
e-t01. [0:19] Deep Elem Blues :20-
e-t02. Friend Of The Devil [7:06] [0:24]
e-t03. Little Sadie [3:34] [0:08]
e-t04. I've Been All Around This World [4:12] [0:41]
e-t05. Valerie [8:19] (1) [0:49]
e-t06. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:42] % [0:01]
e-t07. Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie [6:22] [0:04]
e-t08. Run For The Roses [4:23] (2) [0:17]
[MISSING: Ripple]

--late show main set + encore (11 tracks,
--late show main set (10 tracks,
l-t01. //It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry [#5:24] [0:08]
l-t02. Dire Wolf [3:02] [0:20]
l-t03. To Lay Me Down [7:06] [0:18]
l-t04. Bird Song [8:25] [1:02]
l-t05. Going, Going, Gone [4:17] [0:03]
l-t06. Jack-A-Roe [4:40]
l-t07. Gomorrah [5:44]
l-t08. Run For The Roses [4:56] [0:12]
l-t09. Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie [5:44] ->
l-t10. Ripple [3:54] (3) [0:47]
--late show encore (1 track, 6:26)--
l-t11. Reuben And Cérise [6:11] (4) [0:15]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

JGMF:   

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m: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 [m: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/19820823-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19820823-02 (late)

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-08-23 (early); https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-08-23-kabuki-theater-san-francisco-ca-2/ (late)

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/12586 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/106691 (early Jaret MAC)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tmuZ7bWNniw

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/01/kabuki-theater-1881-post-street-at.html. He lists capacity 700, but I show 1,400. Ticket calls it Kabuki Night Club, ad calls it Kabuki Nightclub at Japan Center Theatre.

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, August 15, 1982, p. 28

! historic: comedienne Paula Poundstone opened the late show. These were the first Bay Area JGJK shows. First time for Garcia playing the Kabuki - only other time was two years later (6/3/84, also JGJK).

! R: field recordist: Bob Menke

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > Sony D5M

! R: field recording media: 2x (presumed) Maxell metal cassette, Dolby B

! R: field recording location: 25' from stage DFC

! R: Transfer: Cassette Master > Echo Event Gina A/D > Sound Forge 4.5 > CDR > EAC (secure mode) > CDWave (retracked on sb's) > SHN (MKWACT). Analog > Digital transfer by Bob Menke, EAC/Shn'ed by Charlie Connor.

! R: seeder notes: Seeded to fungus, and abgd 10/20/02. Correct sector boundaries verified with Shntool. Flaws: d1t06 - dropouts at 11:05 & 11:07; d2t03 - dropout at 1:32; d2t07 - dropout at 1:41; The dropouts were tightened up using Steinberg's Wavelab 3.0.

! e-t05 (1) JG, as if surprised to see the crowd in front of him: "Hi!"

! P: e-t06 STOF bass feature 6:27ff

! e-t08 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. [inaudible]"

! P: l-t09 OBIANL maybe I am just in the mood for it, but this sounds especially heartfelt to my ears

! l-t10 (3) JG: "Thank ya."

! P: l-t11 RAC late 2 he has to ta-da-da through a verse, having forgotten it.

! l-t11 (4) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Kabuki Nightclub
1881 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
June 3, 1984 (Sunday) - 9 PM
sbd shnid-81273 shnf2flac

--set I (6 tracks, 36:19)--
s1t01. //Deep Elem Blues [#6:30] (1) [0:12]
s1t02. Friend Of The Devil [7:29] (2) [0:10]
s1t03. Dire Wolf [3:25] (3) [0:03]
s1t04. Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie [6:06]
s1t05. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [7:26] (4) [0:02]
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:40] (5) [0:17]

--set II (6 tracks, 45:56)--
s2t07. Little Sadie [4:25] (6) [0:07]
s2t08. To Lay //Me Down [7:#51] (7) [0:02]
s2t09. Valerie [8:05]
s2t10. Bird Song [13:40]
s2t11. Goodnight Irene (8) [6:54]
s2t12. Ripple [4:40] (9) [0:12]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

JGMF:   

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m: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 [m: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/19840603-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-06-03

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/8912 (sbd, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/10134 (sbd, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/81273 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/93922 (Abrams Nak 300 MAC, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/108054 (Greeney55 MAC, flac1644).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tmuZ7bWNniw

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/01/kabuki-theater-1881-post-street-at.html. He lists capacity 700, but I show 1,400 (Selvin 1996), while Golden Road brief review of this show pegs it at 1,100.

! historic: Robert Hunter opened for this second of two Garcia dates at the Kabuki (the other being 8/23/82, with early and late shows).

! official: More of the Best [3 track bonus CD that was distributed with pre-ordered copies of The Very Best Of Jerry Garcia] (Rhino, 2006) (t03-Dire Wolf)

! review: "Deadline," Golden Road no. 03 (Summer 1984), p. 6. "Garcia had slight problems projecting his vocals, and Kahn seemed utterly lost on the Dead material" (GR03 p.6).



! R: SBD -> Cm -> Dat -> CD -> EAC -> SHN

! R: s1t01 DEB cuts in

! s1t01 (1) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t02 (2) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t03 (3) JG: "Thank you."

! P: s1t04 OBIANL John sounds lost at the start of this.

! s1t05 (4) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t06 (5) JG: "Thank you. We're gonna take a little short break, and we'll be in ... a little later."

! s2t07 (6) JG: "Thank you."

! R: s2t08 TLMD splice @ 6:22.

! P: s2t08 TLMD some interesting extended vocal work at the end. No biggie, but not nothing.

! s2t08 (7) JG: "Thank you."

! P: s2t09 Valerie interesting work late 4, different tone that I recall having heard on other acoustic versions of this tune.

! s2t11 (8) JG: "Thank you."

! s2t12 (9) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

Jerry Garcia at the Warfield - August 21, 1982??

What a strange thing this is.

SFC listing for Jerry Garcia at the Warfield, August 21, 1982.

It almost certainly wasn't JGB: that band had last played June 24 out east, and wouldn't play again (in a new configuration) until October 13th.

It was almost certainly planned to be the Garcia/Kahn acoustic duo, two days before they'd play the Kabuki Theater a mile and a half away.

But it almost certainly didn't happen. This is the only whiff of this I have ever seen, and it's just so random ... yet it didn't come from nowhere. Someone in Garcia's orbit called the Chronicle and told them about this. Weird.

I don't know whether to call this is a phantom or a cancellation. Anyone?

Santa Cruz Blues

LN jg1985-10-16.jgjk.all.sbd-Miller.139756.flac1644

One of the most widely bootlegged Garcia performances, alongside the '82 Oregon State Penitentiary gig, is another Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet performance from the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on October 16, 1985. As with other beautiful recordings from this venue, an enterprising insider made a 4-channel tape combining stereo sbd feed and stereo ambient mics hung over the stage, and partly insofar as sound quality colors our perceptions of performance quality --and it does to a considerable extent, by what I think of as the Cornell Effect-- lots of people think highly of the performance, too.

The performance feels pretty standard to me, which is to say, since it's Garcia-Kahn in the Rock Bottom era, it's mostly OK, sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

I am more interested in drawing your attention to a review in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Spotlight by Dave Gingold. In this telling, the "fat man" made his fawning followers, who had been sprawling around town all day long keeping the bugs down with their characteristic homebrew of smoke and patchouli, waiting for more than two hours to start the early show.  Opener Paul Mehling claimed car problems, but "some cynics attributed the delay to nostril, rather than engine, trouble." Gingold liked the music, but then,

Poof! It was over. The audience was stunned at the barely 40-minute set, and took to 20 minutes of irate shouting and stomping to bring their deity back ... 'A dollar a song!', some muttered ...

Then, adding insult to injury, the operators turned the house, which Gingold calls nothing less than a "betrayal".

Maybe ol Jer just didn't want our intrepid recorder to have to flip his tape? Sheesh, take it easy on the guy.

Regular readers will, of course, recognize this dynamic from a Beverly Hills gig four and a half months earlier., when Jerry and John mailed in a sub-40 minute first show, eliciting angry chants of "Bullshit! Bullshit!" from the SoCal Deadheads, savvy enough about the biz to understand they'd been ripped off. Short sets were a key feature of Jerry's Rock Bottom period, of course. Hometown fans might raise legitimate questions --"awww, no last song?"-- or offer some heady wisdom --"Jerry's gotta clean up his act, man"-- , but often they'd just dance their asses off and sing along, knowing Jerry'd be back at the Stone soon enough, likely as not. Even as far away as Santa Cruz, though, visits were rare enough that even dready gon' raise a ruckus when things aren't right. When even the Santa Cruzers are irate and stomping, you know you've crossed the Minelli Line.

Sadly, Jer and John either didn't get the message, didn't care, or were too far gone to care, and the late show attendees got a mere 38 minutes. Deadheads are a very understanding and compassionate lot, but I conjecture that at least a few left shaking their manes, glad for the music but maybe worried about ol' Jer. He may even have lost a few fans this night, despite getting a "Ripple".

A few other random bits.

• I wonder if the idea for "The Fat Man Is Back" poster from Jerry's next Santa Cruz stop (2/24/87) was a "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" reply to Mr. Gingold's earlier characterization? I know the phrase, which became a t-shirt and parking lot meme for the time, also appeared on posters for the Reno gig, but I do have to wonder of the Santa Cruz review didn't provide some inspiration.
• John Kahn picks a little bit of Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" at the start of the late show, which almost redeems his otherwise-forgettable night for me.

Listening notes below the fold.

Acoustic Sing-Along at the Stone: Garcia and Kahn, September 27, 1985

I don't have a ton to say about this - it's about what you'd expect. Two sets below the 45-minute Minnelli Line, voice bad to start and shot by the end. But, besides the fact that this was taped by the lovely Don Dearth, who was my third grade teacher, the best part about this is the fact that the audience is just singing along enthusiastically with like every song. It has a real homey feel. They don't care too much about the vocals or whatever. It's a Friday night in late September in The City, probably a warm one that time of year, and Jerry's playing and the drinks are flowing and folks are singing and probably dancing and having a good old time.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
September 27, 1985 (Friday)
Don Dearth MAC shnid-84821

--set I (5 tracks, 38:51)--
s1t01. [0:29] Jack-A-Roe [4:56] [0:03] % [0:14]
s1t02. Deep Elem Blues [7:36] [0:12]
s1t03. Friend Of The Devil 7:25] [0:11]
s1t04. When I Paint My Masterpiece [7:06] ->
s1t05. Little Sadie [5:10] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [5:20 [0:09] %

--set II (5 tracks, 44:20)--
s2t01. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [7:45] ->
s2t02. Reuben And Cérise [6:40] [0:07]
s2t03. Gomorrah [5:57] [0:05]
s2t04. Bird Song [10:02] ->
s2t05. Ripple [4:11] ->
s2t05. Goodnight Irene [9:27] [0:05]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

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.

! JB: https://jerrybase.com/events/19850927-02

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-09-27

! db: this fileset

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

! R: field recordist: Don Dearth. He was my 3rd grade teacher at Burton Elementary School in Lafayette. I saw him at one of the 12/87 Dead shows and hung out with him, so I knew then he was a Deadhead, but it still tickled me years later to learn that he was also a casual taper.

! R: field recording gear: Sony D6C with Sony stereo mic

! R: field recording media: MaxellXL2S90 (one tape would have done it).

! R: transfer Nakamichi CR3A playback (no Dolby) > HP computer > Sound Forge Vol@ 5.5DB and normalized, CD Wave to make tracks->Flac7->You! Transferred by John Moses.

! R: not high fidelity. I would track a little earlier than seeder has, in many cases.

! P: this is a full-on singalong all night long. I have never quite heard anything like this - neat. Garcia's voice is characteristically raggedy.

! P: s1t06 RFTR a few missteps in his guitar playing here.

! P: s2t05 GI at this point his voice is a totally shot.

The Roving Gambler: JGJK, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, February 2, 1986

Nine days after kicking off a lucrative little acoustic tour with the D.A.R. in D.C., Garcia and Kahn closed things off at the Orpheum in Boston. The main point of interest is "The Roving Gambler", which makes its only known public appearance in the GOTS era (what some might call the Grateful Dead era) of Garcia's career. It's well-rehearsed and peppy. I don't know what inspired it - maybe Bill Walton, who attended, requested it. No idea why they dropped it, either.

update 2025: my guess was surprisingly close - bsky user "Exorbitant Rosin Violation" noted that the lyrics of the song refer to "Uncle Bill in Portland", which is definitely a Walton reference. I hadn't put those together because the versaion of "Roving Gambler" that I know best, from a Ramblin' Jack Elliott live release, does not hit that verse that way (I think). That's a fun little thing. Good, clean fun.

LN jg1986-02-02.jgjk.all.aud-koucky.79935.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
February 2, 1986 (Sunday)
Koucky MAC flac1644 shnid-79935

--set I (6 tracks, 33:42)--
s1t01. [0:38] It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [6:47] ->
s1t02. Friend Of The Devil [6:27] (1) [0:07]
s1t03. I've Been All Around This World [5:13] (2) [0:06]
s1t04. The Roving Gambler [2:57] ->
s1t05. Valerie [6:37] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:29] (3) [0:21]

--set II + encore (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 50:25)--
--set II (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 42:36)--
s2t01. tuning [0:28]
s2t02. Deep Elem Blues
s2t03. Spike Driver Blues
s2t04. Jack-A-Roe
s2t05. Gomorrah
s2t06. Bird Song
s2t07. Ripple
--encore (1 track, 7:49)--
s2t08. Goodnight Irene

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - ac-bass.

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/19860202-01

! JGC: jerrygarcia.com/show/1986-02-02

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/15881 (unk aud, shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/79935 (this fileset).

! metadata: the text file called these early and late shows, but the review in the Boston Globe clearly identifies two "40-minute sets that ranged from fairly good to fairly terrible" (Morse 1986).

! review: Morse 1986. "Garcia was all over the place, hitting a few highs... but some pronounced Jerry-atric lows that not even the presence of that ultimate Dead Head, the Celtics' Bill Walton, could prevent. And as a flatpicker, Garcia was no threat to Doc Watson, though his soul and improvisational ability occasionally saved the program. Still, one expected more from the Captain Trips of the '60s than this." Steve Morse had been covering the Dead steadily for a long time, and this is pretty significant criticism. "Jerry-atric lows" is a well-turned phrase.

! R: field recordist: Bill Koucky

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 441 > D5 (Steve Adelman's gear)

! R: field recording location: orchestra

! R: field recording media: Maxell MX-S

! R: transfer: playback on Nakamichi DR2 > Presonus Firebox > firewire/PC XP Pro > Wavelab 5.0, recorded as 24 bit/96 KHz PCM WAV > Waves L3 Multimaxmizer (threshold -3.5, ceiling -0.1, type I dither, ultra shaping) > 16 bit/44.1 KHz PCM WAV > CDWAV 1.9 > FLAC (level ). Transfer / mastering by C. Ladner.

! R: solid tape.

! R: s1t02 FOTD burp of some kind around 1:20.

! s1t02 (1) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t03 (2) JG: "Thank you."

! song: "The Roving Gambler" (s1t04): played in early '60s. I like Ramblin' Jack version essential RJE. This is a #singleton inside the GOTS empirical frame. Clearly rehearsed it, but played it this one night only.

! P: s1t04 Roving Gambler is a little cursory, but it's punchy.

! P: s1t06 RFTR sounds very lucid, with nice energy.

! s1t06 (3) JG: "We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be back pretty soon." Sounds like a set break announcement, not a show-closer. update: indeed, Morse confirms single two-set show.

Kicking off the January '86 Garcia/Kahn acoustic tour

LN jg1986-01-24.jgjk.all.aud-CC.138168.flac1644

A huge bulge of heretofore elusive Garcia tape from the late 70s and especially the 80s has been hitting cyberspace. I don't have much time for this, just a few scattered notes laying down some markers for eventual discussion of the tour.

First, a tour snapshot.

Snapshot of the January '86 Garcia/Kahn acoustic east coast tour

Then, listening notes from newly-circulating closet call material from the first night out. For some reason, two short sets for JGJK seems fine - it's not always easy to listen to.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
D.A. R. Constitution Hall
1776 D St NW
Washington, DC 20006
January 24, 1986 (Friday) - 8 PM
CC shnid-138168

--set I (7 tracks, 37:13)--
s1t01. /Deep Elem Blues
s1t02. Friend Of The Devil
s1t03. When I Paint My Masterpiece
s1t04. Little Sadie [4:19] ->
s1t05. Spike Driver Blues [4:26] ->
s1t06. Jack A Roe
s1t07. Run For The Roses

--set II + encore (6 tracks, 38:52)--
--set II (5 tracks, 31:07)--
s2t01. Dire Wolf
s2t02. To Lay Me Down
s2t03. I've Been All Around This World
s2t04. Bird Song
s2t05. Ripple//
--encore (1 track, 7:45)--
s2t06. Goodnight Irene [7:37] (1) [0:08]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn [JGJK]
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19860124-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/138168 (this fileset). Nothing in digital circulation prior to 4/17. Probably very few copies of this show were traded.

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/constitution-hall-311-18th-st.html. Notes the following gigs in a room in which "every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended events": 11/2/75 Jerry Garcia Band; 11/27/83 Jerry Garcia Band; 8/8/84 Jerry Garcia Band; 11/20/84 John Kahn (acoustic); 1/24/86 John Kahn (acoustic).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/8FVYgH5QiCK2

! ref: Billboard, February 8, 1986, p. 37.Ticket I see went for $14.50. Show did well, selling out 3,741 for reported gross of $53,288.

! R: AUD (marked 2nd Gen) kindly provided by wk & http://jgmf.blogspot.com/

! R: transfer: TDK SA90 > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transfer by Andrew F. 04/2017

! R: s1t01 DEB enters in progress, not much missing. PA mix improves about a minute in, and tape follows.

! historic: The January 1986 Garcia/Kahn acoustic tour --seven shows in nine days for John Scher in interesting, core northeast halls-- was a lucrative proposition for the two partners. Billboard reported this show as a 3,741 sold sellout grossing more than $50,000.

! song: "Little Sadie" (s1t04): Every Deadhead of this era knew the tune from the amazing and massively circulated 2/13/70 Fillmore East tapes, but of course it's draws in several great American song forms and traditions. See http://www.deaddisc.com/songs/Little_Sadie.htm.  "Sadie" presents a character fragment of the sort that avowedly drew Garcia in, illiterate antihero Lee Brown having shot the titular girl in the street for no apparent reason, slept soundly, and rather ineffably turned himself in to get "41 years to wear the ball and stripes".

! P: s1t04 LS @ 1:20, 1:35 very good guitar work at these instances and around. Very solid. There are moments here that sound as engaged as the later work with Grisman, very nice acoustic guitar, John also holding things down well. @ 3:30 Garcia revisits the first verse, then closes the song. There was a little fumbling around the end, but he was decisive and mostly hit it. This was an *excellent* Little Sadie.

! song: "Spike Driver Blues" (s1t05): Garcia didn't do many work songs, but this one is fun.

! P: s1t05 SDB: The acoustic setting is really good in letting him just sing vocals without too much strain. That helps him give more expression. "This is the hammer | that killed John Henry" is done with great around-a-fire-in-a-holler feeling and movement.

! P: s1t06 JAR here's another one that the show-attending Deadheads would have known, from Reckoning. But, yikes, the vocals are too much, first half of 2.

! R: s2t05 Ripple cuts out at "there is a fountain".

! P: s2t06 GI I am coming to this after having FF >> from Jack A Roe to here, not necessarily compelled to hear set II. 

! song: "Goodnight Irene" (s2t06): This is a favorite of mine. "Gonna take another walk downtown" is Garcia alchemizing New Orleans and his beloved San Francisco, and of course "jump overboard in the river and drown" is a mighty close reference to his own father's death. He played it with the Dead on 12/31/83, the night he and MG finally married after 17ish years.

! P: s2t06 GI @ 2:37 he does "sometimes I live in the country" -- but did he miss the "ramblin | stop all that gamblin'" verse? A little voice scratch early 3. I expect he'll want to play his guitar. He digs in with gusto, fluid and dextrous and with great energy. Good stuff. The vocals are too rough to really make this one to recommend to a novice. @ 4:20 he hits ramblin' / gamblin' ... "come home to your wife and children" all given great feeling. Shaky vocals late 4. 5:10ff he really swings and digs into his guitar pieces here, which I really like. 5:35ff drops into a jazzier swing, John not all there with him. Now John walking it up over 6, but I find him mostly not quite where I want him.

! s2t06 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Acoustic at the Denver Rainbow - JGJK, May 23, 1985 (late show)

LN jg1985-05-23.jgjk.late.aud.137966.flac1644

These shows have been very elusive, and the early show still has not made a digital appearance.

Standard "Rock Bottom Era" take: croaking vocals and very good (acoustic) guitar picking. The one plus of the acoustic setting is that he can sing quietly, which works well on a relative rarity like "She Belongs To Me". The first set might be incomplete, but either way this show is pretty well below the Minelli Line.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Rainbow Music Hall
6358 East Evans Avenue
Denver, CO 80222
May 23, 1985 (Thursday) - late show (10 PM)
AF shnid-137966

--set I (4 tracks, 25:16)--
s1t01. /When I Paint My Masterpiece [#5:34] [0:08] (1)
s1t02. I've Been All Around this World
s1t03. Bird Song
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:26] (2) [0:12] %

--set II (5 tracks, 32:01)--
s2t01. Simple Twist Of Fate
s2t02. Dire Wolf
s2t03. She Belongs To Me
s2t04. Goodnight Irene
s2t05. Ripple

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m: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 [m: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/19850523-02

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/137966 (this fileset). Nothing in circulation before 2017, and still nothing circulating for the early show.

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

! JGBP: Rainbow Music Hall, East Evans Avenue and South Monaco Parkway, Denver, Colorado. Jerry's Brokendown Palaces, October 29, 2012, URL http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/rainbow-music-hall-east-evans-avenue.html, consulted 11/17/2014.

! P: overall: Jerry's voice is in pretty bad shape here. First set material clocks in at 25 minutes - we may be missing at least a song or two, otherwise (and perhaps in any case) this set falls *way* below the Minelli Line. See also set II, at just over a half hour one of the shortest sets on record.

! R: source: Unknown AUD kindly provided from the collection of DL.

! R: transfer: Maxell XLII > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transfer by Andrew F. 03/2017.

! R: seeder Note: The tape was not marked "early" or "late", appears to be the 1030PM late show since there's an annouced set break after Run for the Roses. [JGMF: I agree with AF's judgment, though we can't be 100% sure.]

! R: s1t01 WIPMM enters in progress. Nice tape.

! P: s1t01 WIPMM Garcia's voice is nasal and scratchy right out of the gate.

! s1t01 (1) "Thank you."

! P: s1t04 RFTR Garcia's guitar work is crisp, and the recording is loving the sound of the acoustic instruments.

! P: s1t03 Bird Song - my goodness, he is *croaking*. This is a pretty grim listen. Around 3 minutes in Jerry takes a nice guitar departure, and Kahn makes himself heard (or, I hear him) for more or less the first time on a somewhat background  listen. Ain't nothing wrong with Garcia's guitar playing here.

! s1t04 (2) [excuse-me cough] "Thanks a lot. We're gonna take a little, short break, and we'll be back [inaudible].

! P: s2t01 STOF very nice, low-down feel to this

! P: s2t03 She Belongs To Me is a relative rarity, and this is a fragile, interesting take.

Bill Cooper Interviews Jerry Garcia, May 1982

Here's a nice companion piece that really resonates with "Bob Coburn Interviews Jerry Garcia, November 8, 1982".

My notes/transcriptions are little sketchy, but here's what jumps out to me.

On Run for the Roses, with some anti-marketing:

I’ve been working on it for quite a long time. I’ve had to squeeze it in amongst and between lots of other projects. It’s been the project with the least [sic] priority of the things I’ve been working on, so I strung out the actual work on it over three years, which creates certain problems.” Does some work, comes back six months later, and thinks critically “I would just as soon do all of this over.” This project is one of those things that’s so far from what I originally started …
...
Select tunes, discarded them, I haven’t been working on it steadily. I’ve been working on it in an extremely fragmentary fashion. But it’s interesting for that, too. It hasn’t worked to the disadvantage of the music. On some levels it’s nice to be able to have the luxury to deal with something over a long period of time because your sense of perspective sometimes improves … So the record is pretty nice. … Because the tracks all come from different times and places … well, actually, they’re all from the same place, pretty much, but … that adds a certain textural variety to it which is, I think, OK. It has quite a range, from things that have an acoustic flavor, to … I have one thing that’s got a big massive horn piece, a big section of highly arranged sort of things. It has a lot of range as far as emotional content as well. To me that’s a nice quality for an album to have.

 On John Kahn: "All of the things that you hear of that are called the Jerry Garcia Band are, in reality, the John Kahn and Jerry Garcia Band” … simpatico, “with just enough difference to make it interesting”. That first line echoes something that Corry has said repeatedly - well done!

More on anti-marketing: "I’ll be coming east, and I’ll be promoting the album more or less incidentally, but not … I don’t really do the straight show biz formula, where you put out a record and then do a promotional tour"

Because of the priority of the GD over JG: "my solo career is not my primary thing. The GD is really the thing that I’m primarily involved in. My solo career is kind of like, it has to get what it can get. So, when time and space allow the opportunity, then I go out with whatever’s comfortable."

On the acoustic shows of the period:

I’ll also be doin’ some things that are solo concerts, just me and my friend John Kahn. 0550 I did a couple of them recently on the east coast, one at the Capitol Theatre and one at … [can’t remember the Beacon] the format was that the one at the Capital played all by myself, just me and my acoustic guitar. That’s a little too stark for me. I like the thing of having one other musician, at least. The bass gives me a little bit more room. But I had such a good time, and it’s something I’ve done very little. I’ve never really been a solo performer before. 0640 It’s something that’s exciting for me, and it’s challenging, and it’s also a chance to play around with acoustic guitar, which I’ve been doing at home a lot, but it hasn’t been my primary ... 0655 It’s really quite different from electric guitar, and so this is a chance to push off in that direction

Interesting contrast with how he'd feel about the GD nine years later: The Dead “hasn’t really affected my life in any negative way, to tell you the truth. It’s been really … It doesn’t impinge. I don’t feel in any way fettered or anything." 0955


Why? “Playing is my life. That’s what I want to do. If anything, I would play more. … It’s what I love to do. Personally, I can’t get enough of it.”

Listening notes, with other interesting tidbits, below the fold.

Elizabeth Cotten

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (née Nevill) (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987) was a profoundly original American folk musician, vectoring between the music of isolated early 20^th century North Carolina and the multimodal hypersounds of the present – check her out playing in crystal clear black and white on your youtube. A southpaw church and porch picker, Ms. Cotten played a righty-tuned guitar upside down and sang the folk and blues of a self-possessed and sassy little girl, who are known to come in all genders, ages, and sizes, Scout Finch a few decades earlier and from the unscripted side of town. 

Ms. Cotten's musical family and environs might have foreordained her, but that destiny nearly passed her by. She mostly stopped playing around 1910, when she became a single teenaged mother in Chapel Hill. Then, "In the mid-1940s, [she] chanced to meet composer Ruth Crawford Seeger at a department store. They began to talk, and Seeger soon hired Cotten to work in the Seeger household. It was here that Cotten became motivated to pick up the guitar again" (cite). Mike Seeger recorded her on reel-to-reel tape and projected her through barriers of race, class, gender through the folk revival and into national memory.

Her first record, Folksongs And Instrumentals With Guitar, appeared on Folkways (FG 3526) in 1958 (youtube), and it introduced the world, including eager young white (wannabe or legit) folkies with turntables and a bit of disposable income, to a totally localized and yet probably universally appealing "country ragtime" style and a set of songs like a bracing draw from a cold spring. Cotten's repertoire tapped timeless British Isles-meet-Africana –i.e., American—stock such as "Going Down The Road Feeling Bad", a bunch of honeybabe songs and, of course, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" (discogs), but her biographic originals are what will slay you.

She was on in years by the time she was "discovered", but this suited her frailing country voice just fine, a spirited gem coming through loud and clear on Folkways vinyl, which rescued many a prospective legend from the obscurity that befell those who never got wire-recorded and waxed in. But it's not just that, it's also the great store of the written word, promising extended-if-not-eternal life for those it picked up and, in the absence of vinyl, utter obscurity for those it missed. "Cut off by the cataclysms of the Great Depression and the Second World War and by a national narrative that had never included their kind," Greil Marcus wrote of many of the musicians appearing on the Harry Smith's Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), "they appeared now like visitors from another world, like passengers on a ship that had drifted into the sea of the unwritten" (Marcus 1997).

Cotten was double-lucky, because not only was she recorded, but she also found pulp-and-glue permanence when Mike Seeger and John Cohen included two of her originals in their New Lost City Ramblers Songbook (1964).

Garcia fell in love with both "Freight Train" and "Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie". Both are utterly haunting, based in Ms. Cotton's childhood and expressing a yearning place-boundedness that has been the fate of most everyone who has ever lived, statistically speaking, yet a world that nevertheless can remain alien and estranged. Ms. Cotten explained OBIANL:

That's the song I wrote about a lady who lived next door to us. My mother had to go to work and this lady would teach children. She told my mother something: made my mother punish me. They hurt me all the day. 'Cause I know what she told my mum was not true. That song's 'bout me getting punished. My feelings got hurt, 'cause I did not do what Miss Mary said I did. And I used cry in a bed, and a little verse came to me, a pretty tune came to me, and I made a little song, a little tune I love.

One old woman, Lord, in this town
Keep a-telling her lies on me
Wish to my soul that old woman would die
Keep a-telling her lies on me

Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
You know this life I'm living is [mighty] high

If OBIANL is a wise child's lament at a world dark with injustice, "Freight Train" provides the dream of escape. Ms. Cotten:

We used to watch the freight train. We knew the fireman and the brakeman, and the conductor, my mother used to launder for him. They'd let us ride in the engine, put us in one of the coaches while they were backing up and changing ... That was how I got my first train ride. We used to walk the trestle and put our ear to the track and listen for the train to come. My brother, he'd wait for this train to get real close and then he'd hang down from one of the ties and swing back up after the train had passed over him.

No wonder this one, too, brings ample morbidity – that kind of shit can go really wrong in a hurry.

When I'm dead and in my grave
No more good times here I crave
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all I've gone to sleep

When I die, oh bury me deep
Down at the end of old Chestnut Street
So I can hear old Number Nine
As she comes rolling by

Garcia tried on both tunes for an abortive Arista album project during November 1976 sessions at Elliot Mazer's His Master's Wheels (HMW) Studios (OBIANL features on All Good Things, disc 3, track 11). (For more on the '76 studio work, see.) They would have fit perfectly. OBIANL found the more fulsome later live expression, appearing in every Garcia acoustic configuration of the 1980s, from the Dead's September-October 1980 treatment (immortalized on Reckoning, Arista A2L-8604, April 1981), to Amsterdam with Bobby Weir (10/11/81), Garcia's only solo engagement after 1965 (4/10/82), to the many Garcia-Kahn and Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (JGAB) gigs later in the decade. "Freight Train" had preceded OBIANL at the solo acoustic show, but Garcia couldn't remember the words and shelved it, as a known and public proposition, for over a decade. He took it back up with Grisman, and it appeared on their Not For Kids Only (Acoustic Disc ACD 9, 1993) chock full of New Lost City Ramblers Song Book chestnuts. By that time, and when it appeared as an acoustic one-off during an electric JGB equipment failure at the Knickberbocker Arena in Albany (11/3/93), but especially on its two 1994 public voyages, the song's lullaby came across a sad Siren's song, a stone being laid at Garcia's own pleading head and feet, buried deep under ol' Chestnut Street.

In response to a fan's concern that the Dead had ripped Elizabeth Cotten off with its "Sugaree" (evoking, as it did, her "Shake Sugaree"), manager Richard Loren said in May 1981 that she was a "great hero" to Garcia (1). When she died, Garcia took to dedicating OBIANL to her memory, the only artist he ever consistently recognized in this way, as far as I know. At many of these shows, these were the only words he spoke to the audience, a testament to the high esteem in which he held her.

! ref: (1) Grateful Dead Archive, MS332, Business Papers, Second Accrual (preliminary), Box 1008.

New Lost City Ramblers Song Book

Seeger, Mike, and John Cohen, eds. 1964. The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book. New York: Oak Books.

Here's a brief list of tunes in the NLCR songbook that Garcia is known to have played. This does not include the Elizabeth Cotten tunes (I have considered them separately) and has not been carefully vetted, since pre-Dead is beyond my ken. Sharp-eyed readers may spot more.

I Truly Understand

When First To This Country

Red Rocking Chair

Little Maggie

Billy Grimes, the Rover

Nine- Pound Hammer

Walking Boss

Hopalong Peter

Man of Constant Sorrow

Hot Corn

Three Men Went A-Hunting

I'll Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms

Salty Dog Blues

Shady Grove

Crow Black Chicken

Arkansas Traveler

Ain't No Bugs on Me

White House Blues

Note also:

Lady of Carlisle

Hog-eye

Don't Let Your Deal Go Down

I am not saying the NLCR Song Book, records or combination of them was the only source that Garcia would have encountered for lots of these songs – everybody knew and did a bunch of these. In my rummaging around some, well, folkways, I have come across all kinds of "floaters", fragments of idea, characters, narratives, or scenes that appear and reappear throughout the folk tradition. But an awful lot of Garcia et al.'s pre-Dead repertoire is reflected in the NLCR Song Book, a lot more than the Smith Anthology. Whether it was Hunter, Nelson, Leicester, Pigpen, Garcia, any or all of them together, they were certainly drawing from this source.

They'd continue to do so: David Grisman had a copy handy when he and Jerry were working up the material that would appear on Not For Kids Only (Acoustic Disc ACD 9, 1993): of the twelve songs on that release, one of the finest explicitly white roots engagements of Garcia's career, seven figure in the list above (see Smith 1994 for Grisman discussing this). But, really what we see here is the core of Garcia's acoustic repertoire, as played from folkie days before the Dead through Old And In The Way, Great American Music/String Band, Garcia-Kahn, Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (JGAB), and Garcia-Grisman.

BTW, love these headings: Old Love Songs, Dance Tunes, Take Warning, News & Occupational Hazards, Lonesome Blues, Bible Tales, Wild Men & Murder, Songs, Whoop 'Em Up, Rave On, The Great Depression.