Dawn of the NRPS

I am sure you have already pre-ordered, as I just did, but just in case, here's link to the upcoming Owsley Stanley Foundation (OSF) release called "Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage". I cannot freaking wait to hear this!

https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/bears-sonic-journals/dawn-of-the-new-riders-of-the-purple-sage/

NRPS-Matrix-1970 04 of 7: LN19700729: Wednesday, July 29, 1970

update 7/18/2026: at Jerrybase I now pin this as 7/27/70 at the Matrix.

NRPS-Matrix-1970: a seven part series discussing New Riders of the Purple Sage (NRPS) gigs at the Matrix, 1970, including listening notes on the circulating tapes, speculation on dates, observations on playing, general pontificating.

1. Introduction
2. LN19700430: Thursday, April 30, 1970
3. LN19700707: Tuesday, July 7, 1970
4. LN19700729: Wednesday, July 29, 1970
5. LN19700730: Thursday, July 30, 1970
6. LN19700902: Wednesday, September 2, 1970
7. Analysis and Conclusions

The 133 minute sbd recording traveling as New Riders at the Matrix on Wednesday, July 29, 1970 has all of the qualities you'd expect at the NRPS-Matrix-1970 intersection. A pretty good tape, largely complete (so it would seem), including tuning and off-mic stage talk. It's a period of NRPS's development that is underscrutinized (beyond the overall neglect of the New Riders) since the tapes don't circulate widely. Both because of tape and east coast bias, more is known about the touring band of the rest of 1970-1971, the one that opened for the GD in medium-sized college rooms and theaters across the land, than this mid-1970 band that's woodshedding in tiny Bay Area joints such as the Matrix, the Lion's Share in San Anselmo, or Mandrake's in Berkeley.

There's also a characteristic shroud of doubt around the date/venue combination. I'll address date and venue in turn.

Regarding dating, first, this recording apparently used to travel dated "7/30/70". Ouch. It helps even less that this set I is the same as "4/30/70, set I." Most confusingly, the evidence from this week at the Matrix is all over the place, and none of it supports the presence of the NRPS at Matrix on Weds.-Thurs., July 29-30. LIA has recapped all of this in his thorough way, so I won't go over the same terrain -- see his post "The Hartbeats - July 1970".

I was hoping that a forensic listening to the recordings of the NRPS Matrix Tapes dated July 29-30, 1970 would shed some light on all of this, but my hopes have been dashed. Here's about the only date-relevant information from 7/29, from John Dawson introducing the New Riders' version of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi":

We're tryin' to do 'Big Yellow Taxi', which was number two in Hawaii when we were there. And Hawaii has this big pink hotel right there on their famous boardwalk, right there on the beach.

Now, Jerry and the Grateful Dead were in Hawaii twice in 1970, in January and in June. But as I understand it, the NRPS only accompanied them in June. (McNally [1999 p. 351] narrates the first trip with no mention of the Riders or any member, and the dog is silent everywhere as far as I know.) If true, that would eliminate the "4/30/70" dating for this material. Hypothesis: 4/30/70 was an erroneous transcription of 7/30/70, the old (apparent mis-) date for this same material. All we can know, then, is that this NRPS set takes place after mid-June. Unfortunately, this doesn't get us any closer to figuring out the late July 1970 dating confusion.

I hear only two things that might shed some light on the venue. The first is Dawson's setbreak announcement: "Thank you, we'll see you after a few weird movies here." Can anyone say whether this would have been the Matrix, the Lion's Share, or somewhere else? Or is it just too vague? The second is that the recording has some of the amplitude changes that I associate with the '68 Matrix Tapes, where the mics seem to be sound- (or maybe pedal-, but I don't think so) activated. Anyone know what I mean by that?

What do I conclude from all of this chasing my tail? My instinct is that the July 29th dating is very approximately right. The contradictory listings for the Matrix this week suggest that there was a lot of fluidity, for whatever reason. Who knows? Under such a cloud of uncertainty, where the contradictory evidence contradicts itself, the tape is likely the best we are likely to do with dating this stuff. So I'd propose on the basis of this analysis that we all ding the "4/30/70" listing and keep 7/29/70.

I won't spend much time on the performance, except to say that it's sloppy. "Big Yellow Taxi" is really the only song of any historical interest, insofar as this would seem to be the first of only two known NRPS renditions.  Inchoate listening notes after the jump.

Near-Miss with the Rubber Duck Mime Band: June 2-3, 1970, Mandrake's, Berkeley, CA

WAS TITLED "NRPS: June 2-3, 1970, Mandrake's, Berkeley, CA"

But Paul Dresher has confirmed that, while Garcia was in the ad, he did not play this night.

So, the Mandrake's ad from the Berkeley Tribe v2 n21 (issue 47) (May 29 - June 5, 1970), p. 16, lists the following for Tuesday & Wednesday, June 2-3, 1970: "The Rubber Duck Mime Band and Jerry Garcia." It looks to me like there was some last-minute rough resetting of the listing. I am going to assume that this is the New Riders of the Purple Sage, probably warming up for the big Fillmore West gigs that would run June 4-7, 1970. That would be the first hometown appearance of the "An Evening with the Grateful Dead" format, and I am guessing they wanted everything to be Just Exactly Perfect (i.e., rehearsed/warmed up). Since COAU doesn't list this, I thought it should be added to our various lists.

It seems that Garcia was used in the advertising, but didn't play this gig with the Rubber Duck (nor was it a NRPS gig). Paul Dresher, commenting chez LIA:

Glen [Frendel] played the Mandrakes show that some think Jerry Garcia also played. I was there, and Garcia did NOT play that evening. I would have remembered that well, as at that point, Jerry was my greatest guitar hero and the Dead my favorite band. While Garcia’s name might have been in the marketing for the show, he didn't play that show, Glen did.