Jerry Garcia's Middle Finger: Maria Muldaur

Showing posts with label Maria Muldaur. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Expressway Day: Garcia-Saunders at the Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, December 29, 1974

I woke up this morning with "Expressway (To Your Heart)" playing in my head.

Not just any Expressway, mind you. But the one played by Jerry and Merl and crew (possibly calling themselves Legion of Mary backstage and such) at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach on December 29, 1974, to end (or just about) the late show. And not just any generic representation of it, but the one captured by "Flashback" Charlie DiSalvo using 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > into his Uher 4400, little 5" reels @ 3.75ips.

You see, way back when my digital home was DeadNetCentral (DNC), and especially the Garcia folder there (shocker). And someone with whom I have just been reconnected, but whose name is eluding my brain right now, either encouraged or brought over legendary East Coast taper Jerry Moore, who brought over his ol show-going pal Flashback Charlie. Or something like that. We also had the great Jimmy Warburton over there at times as I recall, Harvey Lubar maybe on occasion, and other folks. Again, I am foggy on the details, but somehow I got connected with all of those guys. Jerry and I got quite close, and I was lucky to work up the info files for the systematic state-of-the-art digital transfers a group was doing under the "Moore's Masters" moniker.

Charlie had made a tape that made a huge impact on me, and that was this 12/29/74b. Someone, maybe Jerry but not sure, had transferred the tape to DAT, from there it went to CD, from there it came to me, maybe via Sean Cribbs. (At some point Charlie sent me a sweet print of Bob Minkin's pic of the Jerry Band at the Cap, 11/26/77, and a print of his picture of Jerry Garcia and Friends from the Music Hall, 3/25/72, which IIRC Charlie got into by climbing up a fire escape), and I extracted the audio (using EAC with offsets corrected, etc., natch), tracked it using WavMerge and CDWav (guaranteed to cut on sector boundaries, important to us back then), and losslessly compressed it to .shn format using mkwACT. Looks like I forget to make the shn files seekable, which is a major blunder, and someone came along and re-encoded them to make them more usable. I submitted the fileset to the etree database on May 7, 2002 (I presume semester had just ended), where it still lives today as shnid-8643. I assume I circulated it in various ways, and certainly at some point uploaded it to the tol.etree.org FTP server, from where it became forever part of the arcHIVE, the brilliant, massively redundant decentralized repository of bit-perfect clones comprised by all of our collections.

Charlie became unwell, and as far as I know he is still alive, but is not reachable for me. I hope he is OK, because he was a sweet wonderful guy in my experience with him. Jimmy has told me that Charlie's tapes ended up with an ex in a divorce, may still exist, but it's not known how to get a hold of them. If anyone here has any notion of that, please drop me a line!

Charlie said this about taping these shows (DNC Garcia folder post by Sean Cribbs, April 3, 2002):

That machine was a bitch to run! ... I placed one mic in front of Jerry and the other one was passed down to total strangers in front of Martin Fierro. The stereo effect was amazing, almost like setting up in a studio. You can hear the drums go from the left to the right.

Anyway, that tape BLEW MY MIND. It is burned into my DNA. Especially the 16+ minute version of "Expressway (To Your Heart)", which is a great Philly soul number in its own right, but which Garcia and Saunders made into a soul-jazz-funk extravagaganza (typo, but I'll keep the extra syllable in there for fun) that burns, drives, hops and grooves, and makes me want to boogie. I had listened to it a few more times over the years, then in January 2021 the GEMS crew polished it up a little bit, put it together with the early show, and circulated it anew as shnid-151373. This invited --no, practically obligated-- me to revisit the ol' favorite and I did so over a few different sessions earlier this year.

And man does it stand up.

I lack the understanding and vocabulary to do it justice, beyond "jeepers, mister, this is really strong" and whatnot. Here are my real-time listening notes:

I really hear the bassist SHREDDING, e.g., in the 4-minute range and I ask myself if this is really John. Not that he couldn't shred in this period - he could. But man is he on fire here. Martin has been laying pretty low this version so far. There he is, stepping up at 6:25. Tutt is hammering, BTW. Man, this is so good. Revisiting some months later: 4:39 it's just hot hot hot, and this is John all right. Man is this hot. 4:57 inpsired little slide. Hangs a big pull 5:18. John is *feelin' it* to 5:29!!! Listen to Tutt in the 9 min mark! MAN. Martin doing "Red Clay" 10:56, Kahn giant response 11:10, Tutt KILLING, all behind Garcia absolutely tearing it up. Down low and quiet 12:37, such a nice contrast with the preceding insanity. More "Red Clay" over 15.

Anyway, here on the show's 47th anniversary, I invite you to get a killer audio setup to enjoy the big stereo separation from the spread mics, settle in with your cuppa coffee or whatever, listen to Jerry and Merl and KAHN and TUTT and Martin absolutely tear it up. Kahn is especially unbelievable here, but I also find Tutt just slaying over and over again. I am not saying this would be the first 16 minutes of Jerry and Merl I would bring to the proverbial desert island, but if I got 5 such chunks it'd be in the running. Two big snaps up.

Let's all give a big shoutout to Flashback Charlie for pulling a masterpiece out of the fog. As self-appointed mayor of my imaginary Garciaville, I hereby decree December 29th to be Expressway Day in his honor. Turn it up!

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Golden Bear
306 Ocean Avenue
Huntingon Beach, CA 90740
December 29, 1974 (Sunday) Early and Late Shows
shnid-151373 GEMS Remaster and Packaging of SHNIDs 8643 and 93978

--early show (7 tracks, 5 tunes, 83:41)--
e-t01. [0:03] That's A Touch I Like [10:54] [0:07] % [0:16]
e-t02. Favela [16:22] [0:22]
e-t03. ambience [1:35]
e-t04. You Can Leave Your Hat On [16:58] [0:35]
e-t05. Sitting In Limbo [16:26] [0:14] %
e-t06. ambience [1:07]
e-t07. I Second That Emotion [18:32] (1)

--late show (9 tracks, 6 tunes, 93:54)--
l-t08. Mystery Train [14:20] %
l-t09. ambience [1:14]
l-t10. La-La [16:47] ->
l-t11. People Make The World Go Round [428] [0:10] %
l-t12. (I'm A) Roadrunner [15:14] [0:11] %
l-t13. ambience [1:17]
l-t14. Going, Going, Gone [22:07] [0:20] %
l-t15. ambience (2) [1:15]
l-t16. Expressway (To Your Heart)// [16:32#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - electric bass;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute, percussion;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums;
! guest: Maria Muldaur - vocals (e-t05).

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/19741229-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19741229-02 (late)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8643 (late show, same source tape, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/17019 (same as shnid-8643, seekable shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/93978 (early show, same source tape, but via taperpat's 1st gen reel); http://etreedb.org/shn/151373 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/1bJXKA6b1Kv

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/golden-bear-306-ocean-avenue-huntington.html

! listing: Los Angeles Free Press, December 20, 1974, p. 19;

! personnel: the female singer was long identified (e.g., in "Odds and Ends," Dead Relix 2, 1 [January-February 1975], p. 21) as Donna Jean Godchaux, but in seeding this years back I thought it sounded more like Maria. Listening to this again, definitely Maria.

! R: field recordist: [early show] Charlie Disalvo

! R: field recording gear: [early show] 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > Uher 4400, 3.75ips master reels

! R: source tape: [early show] taperpat's 3.75ips 1st gen reel

! R: transfer: [early show] A > D by Matt Smith: Akai GX 625 playback > Apogee Mini ME (@24/96) > Apogee Mini DAC (monitoring) > Wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 20/44) > CD

! R: lineage 1 (ca. 2003): [early show] Track & FLAC (jj): EAC > CD Wave > Sony Sound Forge Studio 7.0 (d1t01 fade-in, d2t01-d2t02 fade-out/in, d2t03 fade-out) > Trader's Little Helper (FLAC8 encoding).

! R: lineage 2 (2020): [early show] speed corrections by Jason Chastain per request of JGMF. Mastering by Jamie Waddell. Track FLAC and Pack by Steve Gravel. Note - Multiple moments of digistatic repaired, most are undetectable but a few major spots were damaged beyond invisible repair, but are much more listenable now. seeded to www.shnflac.net January 4, 2021 16 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC8

! R: recollex: Taper "Flashback" Charlie Disalvo says this about taping these shows (DNC Garcia folder post by Sean Cribbs, April 3, 2002): "That machine was a bitch to run! ... I placed one mic in front of Jerry and the other one was passed down to total strangers in front of Martin Fierro. The stereo effect was amazing, almost like setting up in a studio. You can hear the drums go from the left to the right."

! P: e-t02 Favela Martin takes the first feature, good. Jerry steps in around 6:15 and it's his turn, Martin now shaking some percussion. JG only goes three minutes, now Merl 9:15ff. Merl didn't really do much with his turn. 11:46 some muddle as to who's doing what.

! P: e-t05 SIL Garcia plucks ethereally 10.

! P: e-t07 ISTE I am not a big fan of this tune, and this version captures why, at least up to the 11 minute mark. Garcia just doesn't have much place to go with it. Martin quotes "The Entertainer" at 11:10, a second time. Silly.

! e-t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

! metadata: Late show was previously believed to be set II of a two set show, but the taper confirms that this is the late show.

! R: field recordist: [late show] Charlie Disalvo

! R: field recording gear: [late show] 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > Uher 4400, 3.75ips master reels

! lineage 1 (ca. 2003): [late show] MAR > ? > D > CD. Extraction using EAC, slight re-tracking using WavMerge and CD Wave, and .shn compression using mkwACT. Proper sector boundaries verified using shntool. Seeded by jjoops@attbi.com.

! R: lineage 2 (2020): [late show] speed corrections by Jason Chastain per request of JGMF. Mastering by Jamie Waddell. Track FLAC and Pack by Steve Gravel. Note - Multiple moments of digistatic repaired, most are undetectable but a few major spots were damaged beyond invisible repair, but are much more listenable now. seeded to www.shnflac.net January 4, 2021 16 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC8

! R: The late show tape sounds much smoother than the early show.

! P: l-t10 La-La JG steps up 6:40 or so.

! l-t15 (2) Member of the crowd is asking "Who's on the bass?" And at least a few people recognize Expressway as it starts.

! P: l-t16 ETYH of course, having been primed by the question in note #2, I really hear the bassist SHREDDING, e.g., in the 4-minute range and I ask myself if this is really John. Not that he couldn't shred in this period - he could. But man is he on fire here. Martin has been laying pretty low this version so far. There he is, stepping up at 6:25. Tutt is hammering, BTW. Man, this is so good. Revisiting some months later: 4:39 it's just hot hot hot, and this is John all right. Man is this hot. 4:57 inpsired little slide. Hangs a big pull 5:18. John is *feelin' it* to 5:29!!! Listen to Tutt in the 9 min mark! MAN. Martin doing "Red Clay" 10:56, Kahn giant response 11:10, Tutt KILLING, all behind Garcia absolutely tearing it up. Down low and quiet 12:37, such a nice contrary with the preceding insanity. More "Red Clay" over 15.

! R: l-t16 ETYH cuts out, probably not too much missing, though knowing Jerry I might imagine it dropping into a sweet little How Sweet to wrap up the evening's proceedings.

Friday, November 20, 2020

JGB in Binghamton, November 20, 1977: first night DLG + LAALWFH = 1/2 (two weeks later DLG + LAALWFH)

LN jg1977-11-20.jgb.all.sbd.141495.flac1644

First night of the fall '77 Garcia Band tour (22 gigs in 22 nights), third live gig for young Buzzy Buchanan in the drummer's seat. The great Jerry Moore had some nasty thoughts about him, but I think he sounds fine here. Keeping time for this group could not have been a picnic.

I have covered the Fall '77 tour in a number of posts, and David Davis has done a couple, as well.

Musically, the true segue between "I'll Take A Melody" and "Don't Let Go" is quite interesting. Garcia Band didn't do such things all that often, and it just sounds like Jerry asserts the change and everyone else falls into line.

Also noted is the vast expansion of "Don't Let Go" and "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home". Here, they run14+ and 9+ minutes respectively. By later in the tour (12/3 and 12/9, respectively), they'd each clock in at a much chunkier 27 or so minutes. So Buzzy gets a few iterations to play it pretty straight, but by the end of the tour he's swimming in the deep end.

The recording is fine, with some hiss, swish, wow and flutter, especially from tape 1. AF did yeoman's work, as he always does, marrying it to tape 2 and sharing it out.

Maria is absent, for reasons unknown.

Public debut of LITA.

JERRY GARCIA BAND
West Gym (aka Men's Gym), SUNY Binghamton
1092 Bunn Hill Rd.
Vestal, NY 13850
November 20, 1977 (Sunday) - 7:30 PM
mono sbd composite shnid-141495

--set I (8 tracks, 71:25)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:01] [0:41]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:23] [0:06] %
s1t03. Let It Rock [8:38] [0:17] %
s1t04. [0:14] Simple Twist Of Fate [11:18] %
s1t05. /Stir It /Up [#9:15] [0:31] %
s1t06. That's What Love Will/ Make You Do [9:#06] [0:16]
s1t07. Gomorrah [6:39] [0:02] %
s1t08. Mystery Train [7:52] (1) [0:06]

--set II (7 tracks, 72:57)--
s2t01. [0:07] The Way You Do The Things You Do [8:51] [0:12] %
s2t02. ... Love In The Afternoon [#6:38] [1:07]
s2t03. [0:07] Midnight Moonlight [8:15] [0:25] %
s2t04. [0:39] Russian Lullaby [11:18] [0:07] %
s2t05. [[0:15] I'll //Take A Melody [9:#55] ->
s2t06. Don't Let Go [14:10] [1:12]
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [9:29] (2) [0:05]

! ACT1: JGB #4*
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, vocals;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
[! absent: Maria Muldaur - vocals]

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19771120-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/132097 (s2 sbd flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/132098 (s2 sbd flac2496); https://etreedb.org/shn/141495 (this fileset).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. Maria Muldaur is absent, so this is #4*, a variant Corry doesn't list.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/A3rerZrT2hR4xLkL9

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/west-gym-harpur-college-suny-1092-bunn.html

! seealso: JGMF, "JGB: November-December 1977 East Coast Tour Rarities," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/10/jgb-november-december-east-coast-tour.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "Maria 'Shaking Her Substantial Booty' at Waterbury's 'Decrepit Palace Theater': JGB 11/23/77, Commander aud," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/02/ln-jg1977-11-23jgballaud-commander.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "His voice is fading fast: JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/02/ln-jg1977-11-29jgballaud.html

! seealso: JGMF, "Fall '77 Gig Economics: The Case of SUNY New Paltz (JGB, 11/29/77)," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/01/fall-77-gig-economics-case-of-suny-new.html.

! seealso GratefulSeconds, "The Jerry Garcia Fans Strike Back: Buffalo, November 30, 1977," URL http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2019/03/the-jerry-garcia-fans-strike-back.html.

! seealso: GratefulSeconds, "Another Great 1977 Show: Jerry Garcia Band, Boston December 2, 1977," URL http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2020/06/another-great-1977-show-jerry-garcia.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "A Monster Don't Let Go at Hartwick College, December 3, 1977," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/01/listening-notes-jgb-saturday-december-3.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "A Long Way From Spain: JGB at SUNY Stony Brook, December 9, 1977," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-long-way-from-spain-jgb-at-suny-stony.html.

! historical: first show of the fall 1977 Garcia Band tour, 22 shows in 22 days November 20 - December 11. Ronnie Tutt had left the live band that summer, and young Buzz Buchanan came on board, drumming through the end of the band's run in fall 1978. This is his third show, and he sounds just fine.

! P: overall, the show strikes me as solid but not remarkable. The true segue between ITAM and "Don't Let Go" is the most interesting part, musically, and is really kind of out of the blue. At 14 minutes, DLG is half as long as the monster they played at Hartwick College 13 days later (12/3/77). Size isn't everything, of course, but this version never achieves escape velocity. The following LAALWFH, on only its second spin after more than a year away (9/18/76, then 11/16/77 preceding this version) also has not found its legs - at 9 minutes, it was one-third the length of the 27+ minute iteration at Stony Brook on 12/9/77, which got waaaayyyy out. So this certainly sounds like a band breaking in a new guy on the first night of the tour.

! R: Source: Unknown SBD > ? > CDR, combined with ID-132097, see note below.

! R: Transfer: CDR > EAC > FLAC (2005) > TLH > WAV > Wavelab; and ID-132097 > WAV > Wavelab; both sources: CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. 03/2018

! R: Note: This show was previously listed in etree as having taken place at the Forum Theatre in Binghamton, now listed here with the correct venue. This file-set presents the entire concert together, with thanks to JGMF and Rob Berger for the sources!

! R: JGMF's CDR provides HSII thru TWYDTTYD ("tape 1"), with the balance of the show from ID-132097 ("tape 2"). These appear to derive from the same root (mono) SBD. Both sources were re-mixed a bit to better match each other. Tape-generational hiss remains, particularly in parts of "tape 1" where low-gain sections were raised. There's also some minor tape speed fluctuations & warble audible in the "tape 1" material (STOF & SIR).

! R: Pauses and cuts were left as-is, no cross-fades were added. SIU cuts in near the beginning. There's a fade-to-cut in SIU at 6:51 (from the source CDR) but it appears that no music is missing there. Another fade-to-cut in TWLWMYD at 7:15 with the end of Keith's solo missing. LITA cuts in with about a minute missing from the beginning. Cut in ITAM at 2:13 with about 45 seconds missing. (Small FLAC size is due to mono WAV data.)

! P: s1t01 HSII he flips the first two verses. I tend to appreciate this, becuase while there's an intial flub, he is tuned-in enough to make it better.

! R: s1t05 SIU clips in

! R: s1t06 TWLWMYD fades to splice @ 7:15

! s1t08 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll see y'all later."

! R: s2t02 LITA fades in, swishy sound of a fresh tape side

! song: "Love In The Afternoon" (s2t02): understood public debut.

! P: s2t04 RussLull @ 6:47 John kicks off a little feature.

! R: s2t05 ITAM splice @ 2:13

! P: s2t05-06 ITAM -> DLG a true segue - totally unique

! P: s2t06 DLG nicely paced.

! P: s2t07 LAALWFH not very long, but good power

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Saturday, August 22, 2020

What It Is All About: Jerry Band Monday at the Keystone, August 16, 1976

I love love love the mid-1976 versions of "After Midnight", with Donna seconding on "what it is all about". (Happy 73rd birthday to DJG the day of this post, BTW!) I also like the "Stop That Train"s from this era, both imprinted on my brain from some tape I played the hell out of. This show, Monday 8/16/76 at Keystone, is solid. Maria Muldaur harmonizes some in "Ride Mighty High", this now being her earliest verified (by me) appearance with the Garcia Band (next known to me is 9/12/76).

I had thought of naming the post "Do Me A Favor? Open the Door and Let 'Em In", imaging McCartneyesque Jesus to Gabriel after 17 syrupy minutes of JGB "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". I have a rule, induced after listening to 3/12/76: any version of ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ exceeding 17 minutes in length is too long. But I didn't think that set the right tone for a post about a show which I enjoy, despite the serious issues with this particular warbling tape.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
August 16, 1976 (Monday)
sbd shnid-13041 shn2flac rename to sets

--set I (7 tracks, 86:09)--
s1t01. ambience [0:59], They Love Each Other [7:05] [0:21]
s1t02. [0:12] %% [0:12] After Midnight [14:00] [0:14]
s1t03. [3:50] Stop That Train [13:40] % [0:05]
s1t04. [0:05] Midnight // Moonlight [8:#06] [0:18]
s1t05. [1:32] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:09] [0:31]
s1t06. [0:50] Knockin' On Heaven's Door [17:45] [0:09] % dead air [0:10]
s1t07. The Way You Do The Things You Do [6:43] (1) [0:07]

--set II (5 tracks, 49:56)--
s2t01. //Mission In The Rain [#9:36] [0:03] %
s2t02. [0:30] He Ain't Give You None [11:51] [0:08] %
s2t03. [0:29] Tore Up Over You [11:20] [0:04] %
s2t04. Strange Man 6:58 [0:04] % [0:03]
s2t05. [0:14] Ride Mighty High :15-8:30 (xx)

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux - vocals;
! guest: Maria Muldaur - vocals (s2t05 only).

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/19760816-02

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/13041 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html;

! venue: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html; URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html.

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! ad: SFSECDB19760808p39; SFSECDB19760815p43

! listing: SFSECDB19760815p07

! notes: JGB played Keystone Berkeley Wed 8/11, Mon 8/16 and Sat-Sun 8/21-22 - four shows in ten days, three of them on somewhat atypical nights. He was also at Elliot Mazer's studio working, I guess, on JGB tunes to sell to Arista, including "Ride Mighty High". Very long first set here.

! personnel: Maria Muldaur comes in and adds some "ride mighty high"s to the mix in the 6-minute range. As of 8/22/2020, this is her earliest known JGB sit-in, next one coming 9/12/76.

! R: SBD R/? > CDR > shn; shn2flac jgmf 8/2020.

! R: hissy, running fast, with lots and lots of warble, especially in KOHD, TWYDTTYD, & MITR (especially, especially the last one.

! R: I have flac files dated 10/17/2010, but don't have the original shns. So this was labeled as a .shnf folder, but I am changing it to a .shn2flac.

! P: s1t02 AM In the cassette days I had a tape of 7/9/76, I think, or maybe it was this show or 7/8/76, and I just love the AMs of this era. The vibe is just right, the way Donna adds her "what it is all about" refrain just smites me.

! R: s1t04 Mid Moon cut in Midnight Moonlight at 1:09

! P: s1t06 KOHD this version violates my red-line rule, first articulated in connection with 3/12/76, that "any version of ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ exceeding 17 minutes in length is too long". And Jesus to Gabriel, pace Paul McCartney and Wings: "Do me a favor - open the door and let 'em in."

! s1t07 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little bit later on."

! R: s2t01 MITR cuts in

! s2t01 at the wind-down of MITR, it sure sounds like Keith is noodling around with the chords of "Positively 4th Street", but maybe I am hearing things.

! P: s2t04 ASM very slow and gentle to start, but Donna really oversings as it develops.

! P: s2t05 RMH huge grand finish

! s2t05 (2) JG: "thanks a lot. We'll see y'all later on."

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

A Long Way From Spain: JGB at SUNY Stony Brook, December 9, 1977

LN jg1977-12-09.jgb.all.aud-matera-fix.137736.flac2488

Not much time to post much detail, so some bulleted observations.

1) Keith is playing some classical-Spanish sounding thing at the end of s1t01. Then, @ 7:21 of "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home", I hear John hitting some Spanish stuff, too. Check it out because, while Jerry was Swedish-Irish on his mom's side, his father was, of course, full-blown, born-in-Spain Spanish and, well, that's just fun.

2) I love "Reuben And Cérise" (Hunter's spelling, with French-accent-snob-appeal-to-me), and this one has some great power chords, but they repeat the ending figure a large number of times. I didn't count, but it's too many.

3) This LAALWFH is just amazing. It clocks in at 27 minutes, but, more importantly, it's endlessly interesting. It really gets wide open, not just in a noodly-spacey sense, but always remains musical. I was impressed with what young Buzzy, the studio drummer who often, rather necessarily, played metronomically on this first tour, with new material, with a band lacking in temporal discipline, lays out in this open idiom. The whole band sounds great here.

4) Maria is absent. She was on and off this tour.

5) The previews I reference provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheadism, the purest and ur-ist form of the broader genus Deadheadus Eastcoasticus.

6) About 165 minutes of music on a tightly-edited tape. Second set clocks in at 95+ minutes. Good bang for the six bucks and fifty!

Oh, and I found a pic, uncredited. Happy to supply credit if the identity of the photog emerges.

Garcia at Stony Brook, 12/9/77. Photographer unknown to me at this time.

Jerry Garcia Band
Pritchard Gymnasium, State University of New York
1 Center Drive
Stony Brook, NY 11794
December 9, 1977 (Friday)
Matera MAC shnid-137736 fix shnid-137720

--set I (6 tracks, 68:47)--
s1t01. Harder They Come [12:03] [0:06] % [0:15]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:52] [0:10] % [0:08]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [11:13] [0:03] % [0:08]
s1t04. They Love Each Other [7:11] [0:13] %
s1t05. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [14:22] [0:02] % [0:05]
s1t06. The Way You Do The Things You Do [11:50] (1) [0:05]

--set II (7 tracks, 95:43)--
s2t01. Midnight Moonlight [14:53] [0:07] % [0:06]
s2t02. Gomorrah [8:21] [0:04] % [0:02]
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [9:22] [0:04] %
s2t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [15:30] [0:07] %
s2t05. /Reuben And Cérise [8:58] [0:02] %% [1:08]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:17] [0:04] % [0:04]
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [27:26] [0:09]

! ACT1: JGB #4*
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals.
[! absent: Maria Muldaur - 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/19771209-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/4444 (s2 Nak 300s shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/16859 (reshn of shnid-4444); https://etreedb.org/shn/77713 (pitch-correct shnid-4444, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137720 (Matera flac2488); https://etreedb.org/shn/137721 (Matera flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137736 (Matera flac2488, this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/137737 (Matera flac1644 fix).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. I denote this configuration as JGB #4*, since Maria Muldaur is not present.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/efyWYZ1ew4qmbr4v9

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/pritchard-gym-suny-100-nicholls-road.html

! exante: “Ticketron Gets Garcia Tickets Before Campus,” (SUNY Stony Brook) Statesman, October 28, 1977, p. 3, accessed online;

! exante: Grossman 1977;

! exante: Razler 1977;

! review: [positive] Alkon 1977, who liked the show. Misidentifies drummer as Tutt. That said, he didn't like the "irritating" 75 minute intermission. "Outraged" by a five and a half hour concert (8-1:30) with three hours of music: "When Keith and Donna sat down on the piano bench for a smoke and fifteen minute chat I felt like I was invading their privacy! I realize that a group needs frequent breaks, but the Garcia Band abused the privilege, showed disrespect for their audience, and unprofessionalism."

! seealso: JGMF, "The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystery-of-jerry-garcia-band-112877.html. Wherein I go on at great length about a very small matter of tickets misprinted with the date of 11/28/77.

! pic: URL http://www.dead.net/fanphotos/jerry-stony-brook-1977

! historical: the previews provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheads wanting to camp out for tickets and such. Stony Brook is just about ground zero in the development of campus-based GD mania and the history of the East Coast Deadhead.

! R: field recordist: Phil Matera

! R: field recording gear: unknown mics > unknown cassette deck

! R: lineage: MAC > Reel (Maxell-UD135, 1/4trk @ 3-3/4) > Teac X2000R > Korg MR1000 DSD DFF@ 5.6MHz > AudioGate > 24/88.2 Wave > Wavelab6 > OzoneRx4a > Ozone6A; CD Wave > TLH > Flac24. Transfer by John Hance.

! R: This is a fix of shnid-137720. The last 2 tracks of the second set have changed.

! R: patches from shnid-77713: s2t01-Midnight Moonlight, s2t04-Simple Twist Of Fate and s2t07-Lonesome

! R: seeder note: "Thank you Phil & JJ! Salah Febuary 7, 2017"

! R: very nice recording

! P: overall: voice sounds a little fatigued.

! P: s1t01 KG is playing some Spanish-classical thing at the end of the track.

! P: s1t05 KOHD KD on electric piano

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little later."

! R: s2t05 RAC cuts in

! P: s2t05 RAC is very good. Some huge chords. But it does on too long. Quite a bit too long.

! P: s2t07 LAALWFH. This LAALWFH gets *way* out there. @ 7:21 John is hitting a Spanish theme. I think this is pretty incredible, though hard to characterize. Just great open playing by every player.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

What is the Opposite of a Bat Outta Hell? JGB at Keystone, September 10-12, 1976

I am not a huge fan of the syrupy tempos of 1976 JGB, the ultimate comfort band for Our Hero. There are some great sounding tapes, the occasional killer show (4/3/76b), and some spectacular specific songs ("Right Mighty High", "Moonlight Mile", "Who Was John" and others are some of my faves), but the overall vibe is just too laid back for me. It has been intimated that I lack the patience and sophistication to appreciate this stuff, which is like fine wine or something. Maybe so.

I have been particularly indifferent to the September performances. The Pirates' Ball on 9/15/76 is certainly fun, holds a lot of curb appeal, but the music wasn't the thing for me. The Astor Theatre may have been a deco masterpiece, but Garcia's one show there on 9/20/76 was dull as day-old dishwater. And so on. I haven't felt particularly differently about the hometown weekend on September 10-12 at the Keystone Berkeley. The thing that most interests me is the provenance of the board tapes. They look like Betty Board lineage, but they are not among the tapes lassoed together by the ABCD crew. I suspect that Latvala spun copies for Alligator or Kingbee and they entered the world via those benefactors, but I can't be sure.

Anyway, below I post my listening notes for the three hometown nights, September 10-12, the first of which took place only 5 days after Rex Jackson's passing. Here is the thumbnail.

Friday 9/10

Nick The Greek opened. He'd do so again on 11/15/76 and then he and Jerry wouldn't share a bill, so far as I know, until the 3/18/87 Artists' Rights Today benefit at the Old Fillmore.
Reinhart Hohlwein (sp?) pulled a stunning tape.
"My Sisters And Brothers" grooves low and slinky.
I liked "After Midnight" and this very long version of "I'll Take A Melody".
Mighty High has great energy, but it's a little off-kilter here and there.

Saturday 9/11

Beautiful Betty Board
Sugaree: what is the opposite of a bat out of hell? Whatever it is, that's how they come in on Sugaree. Sloooowww.

Sunday 9/12

Short second set at only 40 minutes. Jerry strums HSII, but it either wasn't taped or it was closing time and it didn't happen.
Maria Muldaur joins along. ~~I need to check, but I think this is my earliest documented case of her joining the JGB. Sociometrists, take note.~~

Listening notes below the fold.

With and Without Maria: JGB at Keystone, August 6-7, 1977

If "without and with" rolled better off the tongue, that'd be the more accurate title, because here we have a pair of summer '77 JGB shows, the first admittedly only partially available, on which Maria Muldaur respectively does not and does make an appearance. I guess I am working toward pinning down her appearances throughout the year, leading up to the fall east coast tour, at which point she was unambiguously part of the band.

These aren't as sleepy as I had feared. I generally don't love '76 and '77 JGB, but these show some pep, and the tapes --Betty's, I presume, though as I note on 8/7/77, where these tapes came from and where they currently live remains a bit of a mystery to me-- the tapes sound great.

Listening notes below, not much to report.

update: of course, the bigger personnel news here is that these are Ronnie Tutt's final live JGB gigs until fall 1981.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA
August 6, 1977 (Saturday)
s2 MSC Miller shnid-106922

--set II (5 tracks, 4 tunes, 46:59)--
s2t01. tuning [1:43]
s2t02. Sugaree [12:35] [2:36]
s2t03. Mystery Train [7:52] [2:12]
s2t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:37] [1:54]
s2t05. Don't Let Go ... [6:31#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, backing vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux - vocals;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums.

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.
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/1977-08-06

! db: all of these derive from the same source cassette: https://etreedb.org/shn/4448 (shnf), https://etreedb.org/shn/83754 (flac1644), https://etreedb.org/shn/106922 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html | http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html | http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). Maria Muldaur makes an appearance during set II the next night, but I don't hear her here.

! setlist: not sure if this is the complete set II (save for most of DLG) or not. Probably, I guess, as next night's set II ran about 45 minutes.

! ad: BAM, August 1977, p. 60.

! ad: SFSECDB19770731p43.

! R: Recording Info: SBD > Cassette Master (Nakamichi 350/Maxell UDXLI90)

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Nakamichi DR-1) > Sound Devices 744T (24bit/96k) > Samplitude Professional v11.03 > FLAC/16 (1 Disc Audio / 1 Disc FLAC). All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, February 22, 2010.

! R: nice recording. Betty.

! historical: Keith is playing electric piano.

! P: old notes: overall: Utter mediocrity, to my ears. Great, amazing tape, dull-as-hell music. New note: that's too harsh.

! P: s2t02 Sugaree comes in a little thin. Nothing like the big full swagger the Dead gave it, especially on the bottom end. Scrubbing over 10, it's nice. Not rushed.

! P: s2t04 STOF is rather a mess. Jerry is a little lost. Not good. The only plus for this SFOT is that there is no bass feature (though, to be fair, in 1977 Kahn could, at times and typically on other songs, be amazing).

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

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
August 7, 1977 (Sunday)
GMB sbd s1ps2 shnid-86045

--set I (4 tracks, 3 tunes, end of set, missing 4 tunes, 37:47)--
[MISSING: The Way You Do The Things You Do]
[MISSING: Catfish John]
[MISSING: Stop That Train]
[MISSING: Let It Rock]
s1t01. tuning [2:06]
s1t02. Russian Lullaby [11:49] [1:55]
s1t03. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [11:50] [1:57]
s1t04. Midnight Moonlight [7:55] [0:16] %

--set II (4 tracks, 45:27)--
s2t01. They Love Each Other [7:25]
s2t02. Tore Up Over You [9:26] [2:05]
s2t03. Simple // Twist Of Fate [10:#33] [1:34]
s2t04. The // Harder They Come [12:#11] (1) [0:22]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, backing vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux - vocals;
! guest/lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals (set II only);
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums.

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.
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1977-08-07-keystone-berkeley-ca/

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6371 (incomplete MSC shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/86045 (incomplete MSC, this fileset); 106923 (complete MSC via Miller).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html;

! venue: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html;
URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html.

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). * Note that Corry shows Maria coming in with JGB #4 on 11/15/77. We now have her showing up on 2/5/77, 7/2/77 and 7/3/77 (the latter without DJG, IIRC), and this show.

! personnel: Maria Muldaur comes in around 7:20 of TLEO, stays on board for all of set II. Hard to know if she is a member of the band at this point.

! ad: BAM, August 1977, p. 60.

! ad: SFSECDB19770731p43.

! R: Source: Soundboard Master Cassette > DAT

! R: Transfer: Panasonic SV-3700 > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 to Wavelab 5.0; mastering with iZotope Ozone 3 > CDWAV1.9 > FLAC (level 8); Transferred, Remastered by B. Koucky and Seeded by Green Mountain Bros. June 2007.

! R: I wonder where this tape came from? It would seem associated with the Betty Boards, but by 2015 the presumed full collection of BB cassettes did not have these 8/77 tapes.

! R: sounds beautiful.

! R: s1t02 RL level drop ca. 3:25

! P: s1t02 RL bass feature 6:15ff-8ish. Good.

! P: s1t03 KOHD peppy for the period. KD some nice pie-anner 6 min range.

! P: s1t04 MM Garcia plays with great fluidity this whole night. MM also has a nice pep in its step.

! s1t04 weird that there is no setbreak announcement

! R: s2t01 TLEO the bass sounds so great!

! R: s2t03 STOF splice @ 5:38

! P: s2t04 HTC Tutt is drumming like he was born to play this tune. Stellar.

! R: s2t04 splice @ 10:58.

! s2t04 (1) JG: "[inaudible: maybe "so long"] - thank you."

Sunday, November 18, 2018

JGB in Chumash Country: Campbell Hall, UCSB, February 5, 1977

In my writeup of the Garcia Band's 11/20/76 gigs at the Pismo Theatre, I noted that Jerry urged the crowd to come see ol' Hoyt Axton in a couple of weeks. "He'll be down here doin' a benefit for Redwind, which is just a good scene, about forty miles from here, a lot of good people workin' real hard."

I elaborated:

The RedWind Medicine Camp was a Native American community, chiefed by the last full-blooded Chumash, Semu Huaute, located in rugged San Luis Obispo County. In correspondence, Bob Sewana Saenz explains: "Jerry visited me in SLO after a show at the Pismo Beach Theater in late 1976. I drove him and a few band members to Semu Huaute's (Chumash) Red Wind Medicine Camp. I showed him a school project that we were in need of funds to develop for the many children there." I presume they went up on Saturday, and came back down in time for Jerry to play his shows. He must have been moved, because he speaks. Even more importantly, he puts his money where his mouth is, headlining a benefit for the RedWind Foundation at UCSB on February 5, 1977 - but I'll get to that later.

Later is now. On 1/19/77, the UCSB Leg. Board approved the benefit gig, to be put on by Bob Sewana Saenz's Band Aid in support of Red Wind. The pre-show publicity doesn't mention this - nothin' in re benefit status of this event. But the documents are clear that the Garcia Band not only played the gig, but lent the promoter $1,000 to help put it on, a pretty righteous thing to do and part of a small inflection in benefits Garcia played in '77 (see also 6/23/77 for the Forest People of Camp Meeker and 8/12/77 for Greenpeace).

The shows don't move me all that much, though the late show "Don't Let Go" has some interesting passages. I find the sociometry more interesting, on three fronts.

First, there is a second guitar player present, playing country style backing licks. As noted on the 11/20/76 post, I know who this is but am holding it back for the book (major scoop! - not really). But, this player was present on nearly every known show from the first half of 1977, raising the question of whether this was a distinct band configuration as opposed to just a guest shot. These are academic questions also impossible to answer, but it's nevertheless interesting that a heretofore unknown aggregation appeared regularly as late as 1977.

Second, Chris Sobik drew my attention to a second female vocalist, and indeed we find Maria Muldaur providing backing vocals for both shows. ~~This is the earliest Maria engagement with the JGB.~~ update: that lasted for almost a day. I have now heard her on 9/12/76. She had sat in with Jerry and Merl several times in '74 (and one night, 10/12/74, the Garcia-Saunders-Fierro-Kahn-Humphrey aggregation backed her for a whole set), and at least once with the Legion of Mary in '75. (This post seems to cover the bases.) But, while Corry has JGB #4, with Maria a full member, emerging on 11/15/77, she had already joined the band onstage at least 9/12/76, this night (February 5th), July 2-3 (without Donna Jean), August 7, August 12 (Greenpeace benefit), and maybe others from this slow period for the JGB.

Oh yeah, one last thing: Deborah Koons made this trip with Jerry. FYI.

Listening notes after the jump.

Come back for Garcia Band. Come back, come back.

LN jg1978-03-10.interview.all.fm-zimmerman.82210.flac1644

I love these March '78 interviews. 3/11/78 is my absolute favorite, all kinds of great stuff. This one has less going on, but still interesting to the likes of me.

Jerry Garcia Band Interview
WCMF-FM Studios
129 Leighton Avenue
Rochester, NY 14614
March 10, 1978 (Friday) afternoon
46 minute Alan Zimmerman FM cassette

(7 tracks, 46:25)
jg19780310d3t001. Reuben and Cherise (album version) [3:45]
jg19780310d3t002. talk (1,2,3) [3:39]
jg19780310d3t003. Rain [5:46]
jg19780310d3t004. talk (4,5,6,7) [15:55] %
jg19780310d3t005. Love in the Afternoon [3:58]
jg19780310d3t006. talk (8,9,10,11,12,13) [10:46]
jg19780310d3t007. Gomorrah [2:40]

! Band: Interview
! personnel: Jerry Garcia
! personnel: John Kahn
! personnel: Donna Jean Godchaux
! personnel: ?? (primary interviewer)

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.

! TJS: none.

! db: shnid 82210 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/4fyWc14xjgm

! seealso: JGMF, "One of the Great Interviews of the Garciaverse," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/11/jg1978-03-11interview45minsfm-gefen.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "The Little Engine That Could," https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-little-engine-that-could.html, for show listening notes. Spoiler: it didn't slay me.

! R: Recordist: Alan Zimmerman; over-air FM broadcast (WCMF, 96.5 FM) > cassette, unknown gear;

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nakamichi Dragon > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > Adobe Audition > flac encoding > FLAC.

! historical: John Kahn sounds zonked.

! t02 (1) talk about having just been in Rochester with the GD a few months prior. JG: "Rochester keeps calling us back. 'Come back for Garcia Band. Come back, come back.'"

! t02 (2) @ 1:14 Q How did Maria get involved with the tour?" JG: "Well, uhhhh ... luck, I suppose. [Donna chuckles sweetly] Actually, what happened was that back when I did an album about 3 or 4 years ago and John produced it and he had Maria come in to do some vocal work on the record. Since then we've worked kind of informally. And John and Maria live together. [He swallows his words a little bit. Asks John, aside, "if that's OK, if you don't mind my mentioning that?" JK: "Oh, it's quite all right."] And so on this album she participated a lot, too, on the vocals and stuff and she's also accompanied us on a few other tours. And it's neat to have her singing with us. Donna and Maria sing really well together and they like working together. So, just, chemically it works out really nicely." DJG: "We don't fly together [?], you know." JG: "And I like having all those pretty girls onstage." [Kahn laughs.]

! t02 (3) DJ: we have a super advanced pressing of your latest album. We heard a test pressing just before we left CA 3 or 4 days ago. Record radio stations will be getting promo copies, in record stores soon. @0250 "What kinds of musical directions are you trying to take on this record? There's a touch of reggae in it--" JG: "Every direction. We don't really have a style, except that it's all us." JK: "It sounds like us, is the direction. It's trying to sound the most like us of anything we've done so far." Song introduction "Rain", written by Donna, orchestration and arrangement by John Kahn.

! t04: DJ (4) Young kids still into the Dead. What do you attribute that to? JG: we've been lucky in having a spotty record career. No real big hits. contra formulaic thing, slam-bang show. Exciting the first time. The theatrics. You realize you're seeing the same thing, that gets to be dull. Audience doesn't want to ... DJ: so when you take the stage, do you have any songs in mind? JG we don't know what we're gonna do. We have a low boredom index. It would be horribly boring for us to do the same shows all the time. Constitutionally incapable of doing it. some times a dud, other times magical, miraculous. Exceptionally high concentration of coincidence. Musical coincidences are occurring way higher than the law of probability would allow them to be. Like magic. People come to that because there's something genuine about it. A mysterious thing. Something that people require. Being encouraged by the audience. Audience is participating. This talk is vague between GD vs. JG. Jerry can't identify great moments per se. completely out of our hands high energy environment ... in this testing situation. people follow all around the country. Maybe they asked him not to mention GD?

! personnel: t04 @ 4:55 JK sounds totally wrecked

! t04 (5) @0846 working with Robert Hunter. JK sometimes Garcia will have pages of words and write music to that. Or sometimes we'll write music that doesn't have words and give that to him. So it goes different directions. JG: All kinds of fine tuning possibilities. I'll have ideas that have vocal phrasing and sing the phrasings to him. We work very freely together."

! t04 (6) domestic scenes. @0956 Do you live and work together. Too many of us to live together. @1030 JG Basically we all have our own scenes and families and so forth ... or whatever. We're all, live near each other, and we hang out an awful lot together, we spend more hours together than we do living anywhere else. @1055 DJG we'll be playing at place called Keystone "Long time, no see." We've chosen to work that way.

! t05 (7) Club Front @11:33 studio setup. @1139 JG This record is the first record from that studio. ... This record is the first thing from that studio, which ... was partly funded ... partly built from the budget that I was allowed to make this record. It's quite well equipped. It has a really nice Neve console, from England, and a really nice Studer machine, Swiss, and it's an excellent sounding room. It's a very large room and it really sounds very pretty. Has very pretty vocal sound, pretty instrumental sound. We're really delighted with the results. We're real happy." #Club Front

! t04 (7) DJ ask John for song intro JK "Influenced by reggae music, which I love a whole lot. Reggae was the most significant thing that happened, for bass players, in ten years maybe." More reggae talk JK: "We might have heard the best reggae records." JG: "I don't think there's going to be some kind of explosion. It's a local thing. It has a limited appeal. But from a musician's standpoint it has some very interesting things that American music could use right now." DJ: "Like what?" JG: "A rhythmic approach, a whole approach to rhythm that has to do with standing on the rhythm in a certain way. The easiest way I can relate to it is to figure about 93 degrees, with about a hundred percent humidity, in the middle of somewhere, just goin' real slow, y'know? [he has a grin]. And it has a steadiness to it that comes from a kind of island life, like the surf, y'know ... and the thing about the bass playing, that John was saying, the sense of the rhythmic ... the holes, the spaces, having rhythmic value, in the same sense of that positive-negative image sense. So, the holes have the same kind of rhythmic values that the notes do, and that gives it a tremendous power, and a lovely kind of rhythmic thing." JK: "as a bass player, a long time ago, especially r and b records, old motown records, the bassline was one of the most important elements, counterpoint to the vocal, and the drums. Music has gotten away from that now. ... music directly related to the bassline has died out in America, and it's an element of reggae music that appeals a lot to me." #reggae

! t04 DJ started spinning Palm Sunday instead, accidentally.

! t06 (8) current music: Elvis Costello JG: "I like it." likes some New Wave. Really like Cheap Trick. What I like about it is the spirit. They're puttin' out. They're trying hard. The heavy duty production trick ... the glib slickness so mechanical and predictable and safe. It's a formula trip. Raw and real nasty, and the players are not very good, but the spirit ... young people can always dig that. JK: I dig it. I'm not young anymore. 5-min mark talking about The Who

! t06 (9) @0645 solo project outside the GD. JG "It's an illusion. The illusion is that these are solo projects, when they're really not solo projects. Like what we do in this band, it's no solo project. It's really a group contribution, and believe me, it's not a matter of my own personal activity. I am involved with people who care about music the same way that I do, we have an affinity for each other, we enjoy working together, and, for me, a group dynamic is way more interesting than the concept of a solo project. I've done one solo project, my first solo record, in which I was foolish enough to try to play everything on it myself and I was really bored with it, fundamentally, because you already know everything that happened, there's no surprises. The thing of working with other people, that somebody's gonna shed a new kind of light on an idea of yours ... it gives you something to work with ... there's electricity, or chemistry, or something like that." #solo vs GD

! t06 (10) @0746 DJ is it true that the banjo was your first instrument? @0747 JG: "Yeah, it was my first serious instrument. DJ: "And then you went to the guitar, and then the electric guitar, because it was more of an extension of--" JG: "Uhh, I've, well, for me, the banjo got to be so, uhhh ... [long pause] [JK: "Swiss watch-like." JG: "Right.] Like a Swiss watch. It was like a cuckoo clock or a Swiss watch. It got to be tremendously mechanical and I, finally just had a tremendous reaction to it, it's like, 'I really can't make music with this instrument. I want something that moves the way a voice moves. I want to be able to play more expressively. ... I just burned myself out on the banjo, really, is what it boils down to." DJG: "It's kind of a one-toned ..." JG: "Yeah, it's got one thing going for it." DJ @0835: Do you ever think about going back doing something like the OAITW record? @0837 JG "For me, it was the music ... [cross talk that John was also involved] And for me, the neat thing, my whole interest in the banjo even was really not so much the banjo itself, but bluegrass music as a style of music. And it's the music that I cared about, rather than the banjo by itself. So it's very hard for me to, say, sit at home and practice the banjo. If the music were there --in other words, if I were out playing with friends, a couple of nights a week-- I could get into it. But really the music matters to me more than the banjo does." JK: "Yeah, really, it's a beautiful kind of music." JG: "It is, it's really neat music." JK: "But, y'know, I couldn't see practicing ... either ... uhhh ... [JG, laughing: "No." Some chuckling, as if the thought of practicing is hilarious.] DJG: "Jerry doesn't think he plays the banjo or the steel guitar" JK: "We're all crazy like that, that's normal" (??). #banjo

! t06 (11) @0927 DJG: "He's talking about his first record, my four year old listens to it three or four times a day." JK: "I like that, too. ... I remember going in there and watching him play bass on that." JG: "Oh Jeez, that was embarassing." JK: "No it wasn't."

! t06 DJ we should wrap things up, get them to soundcheck.

! t06 (12) DJG: "Singing with Maria's great." Stress the point that Maria is part of the band. JG: "Yeah."

! t06 (13) JG introduces Gomorrah. JG: "This is an Old Testament song. Everybody knows about Sodom, but this song is about Gomorrah."

Friday, April 21, 2017

Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?

A little over a year ago, I found a review of a unique-sounding Garcia-Saunders gig, backing Maria Muldaur at the Berkeley Community Theatre on October 12, 1974.

While unique at the gig level, it turns out that JGMS backing John Kahn's then-"old lady" Maria Muldaur, still flying high from a hit record or two, was actually not unique. Indeed, we have known from tape that she fronted the band on a few numbers --along with a drummer identified as "Ringo"-- on 10/27/74b at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, doing ~~Fats Wallers'~~ "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You". update: written by Don Redman, but done by Fats Waller.

It turns out that the latter was a pretty strict reprise, since they all did the same tune at the BCT show and the night after the BCT show, 10/13/74 at the Santa Barbara County Bowl. S.B. reviewer David Rowell didn't find much to like about the Garcia-Saunders set --"What was coming from the stage was, at worst, disdain; at best, a 'stoned' lack of awareness"-- but he liked Maria (who also played some tambourine on the number before her star turn). In hitting the previous link, I see that the sit-in is documented at JGC, but I had been unaware of it.

In previewing the Legion at the Granada on 6/26/75, the Santa Barbara News-Review even published a picture of the event in question.

One last point: the same 6/26/75 preview says Maria also sat-in when the Legion played Venice on 6/14/75, so there's a fourth JG-HOST Shared Stage event with Maria (three in SoCal), before she joined the Jerry Garcia Band in its 1977-1978 configuration.

! seealso: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/09/recently-added-to-tjs-saunders-images.html

! ref: Rowell, David B. 1974. Garcia and Saunders take the back seat. Santa Barbara News-Press, October 14, B2.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Walkin' One and Only: JGMS backing Maria Muldaur, BCT, October 12, 1974

updated with newly-unearthed Phillip Elwood review

Well, well, well ... just found a review of a Maria Muldaur show at BCT on Saturday, October 12, 1974 in the Berkeley Barb (Wikarska 1974). Maria worked with three bands this night.

1) David Nichtern (I presume "and the Nocturnes"): Nichtern, Hank DeVito on steel, Larry Jones on bass, and Claude Pepper on drums. Nicolette Larson sang some.

2) Great American Music Band: Maria sang and played violin with the main band of Richard Greene (fiddle), David Grisman (mandolin), Ellen Kearney (rhythm guitar, vocals), John Carlini (guitar) and Joe Carroll. Martin Fierro sat in for a number with the GAMB!

3) Maria's band: Merle [sic] Saunders, Paul Humphrey, John Kahn, Jerry Garcia, Martin Fierro.

Beyond being new to The List, this is the ~~earliest~~ second-earliest confirmed Garcia-Humphrey shared stage event, supplanting the next night at the Santa Barbara County Bowl. Update: I now have confirmation that Humphrey drummed on 10/11/74 at the Chateau Liberté. Elwood's review provides the following songs from the JGMS set: "Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You," "Lover Man," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Harder They Come," "Sitting In Limbo," and Dan Hicks's "Walkin' One And Only".

JGMS serving as Maria's backing band certainly tickles the imagination.

! review: Elwood, Phillip. 19741014. Goodtime Maria in a mellow mood. San Francisco Examiner, October 14, 1974, p. 23.

! review: Wikarska, Carol. 1974. Maria Muldaur's Body Song. Berkeley Barb, October 18-24, 14.

! seealso: JGMF, "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?", URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/04/gee-baby-aint-i-good-to-you.html.

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Maria 'Shaking Her Substantial Booty' at Waterbury's 'Decrepit Palace Theater': JGB 11/23/77, Commander aud

LN jg1977-11-23.jgb.all.aud-commander-berger.123904.flac1644

I have always had big love for this show. On this listen, the only song that really lights me up is TWLWMYD. (ed.: Blair Jackson points out Mission in the Rain, which is indeed stellar, deep and heartfelt. Good call.) Not sure if that's because I am not in the mood, or this tape doesn't move me the way Jerry Moore's does, or something else. Anyway, not much to report.

Reviewer "Leapin" (see scan) drops some color: "The JGB packed Waterbury's decrepit Palace Theater on the eve of Turkey Day … upon arrival to CT on Wednesday, Mr. Garcia was rather ill, according to several close friends of the attending physician." (That doctor would be in big trouble today, I think.) Leapin makes special repeated mention of Maria Muldaur, who is prone to "shaking her substantial booty", and seems generally to have enjoyed the show.

Jerry Garcia Band
Palace Theater
100 East Main Street
Waterbury, CT 06702
November 23, 1977 (Wednesday)
Commander MAC Berger 1644 shnid-123904

--set I (6 tracks, 61:03)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:30] [0:21] % [0:14]
s1t02. Catfish John [8:37] [0:07] % [0:53]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [10:33] [0:04] %
s1t04. I'll Take A Melody [13:46] %% [0:27]
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [10:14] %
s1t06. Mission In The Rain [7:41] (1) [0:02] %

--set II + encore (8 tracks, 68:53)--
--set II (7 tracks, 57:15)--
s2t01. [0:20] Let It Rock [7:20] %% [0:16]
s2t02. They Love Each Other [7:03] [0:05] %
s2t03. Mystery Train [9:30] [0:01] % [0:46]
s2t04. Love In The Afternoon [8:31] [0:03] % [0:26]
s2t05. Reuben And Cherise [6:13] [0:04] % [0:34]
s2t06. Gomorrah [5:52] [0:04] %% [0:20] [-0:04]
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [0:04+9:36] (2) [0:05] %
--encore (1 track, 11:38)--
s2t08. [0:15] Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [11:06] [0:17] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - ac-piano, el-piano;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
! lineup: Maria Muldaur - 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/19771123-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/4447 (shn, probably Moore master and deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/16204 (shn, Moore master, deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/25622 (uncertain aud, shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/123904 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/123905 (Moore master, flac2496).

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/n5Kvy

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/palace-theater-100-east-main-street.html

! review: review: Leapin. 1977. In Concert: Jerry Garcia Band. unknown publication ca. December 1977.

! R: field recordist: The Commander

! R: field recording equipment: Audio Technica condensor mics > Sony TC-153SD, Dolby B on

! R: field recording media: 1x Maxell XLII-90, 1x TDK SA-C90, 1x Maxell XLI-90 (low bias, encore).

! R: transfer: Nakamichi BX-300 (Dolby B) > Tascam HD-P2 24/96 > PC > Adobe Audition 2.0 > cd wave > flac. organic pitch correction, transfer by taper Chuck (tc3) & Rob Berger feb. 2013.

! R: seeder notes: "good aud from the balcony and has the Lonesome encore that Jerry Moore's (killer) source is missing. Thanks to TC3 for his help and efforts on this one and to the Commander of course."

! R: I have retracked for sets rather than discs.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD this version just totally grooves.

! P: s1t06 STOF This is nice. The crowd really hears what it is and gives a reaction at the first chorus, and especially the titular line. Like so much Dylan, this song could be an imprint of New York, more the cover of "Freewheelin'" than the "Hard Times In New York Town"
(http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/hard-times-new-york-town). It's not perfect. Is Keith playing electric piano at any point here, yes, I believe he is!

! P: s1t06 MITR I will say that Maria is off-key. Ouch.

! s1t06 (1) "We're gonna take a break for a little/"

! P: s2t01 LIR not a good start. Keith is way out front, and it's not clear that the tempos are where people want them. Jerry finally starts laying out the tempo of the song, Buzzy wisely gets behind him. Why they had the new guy setting the tempos to start, I dunno ... I guess he's the drummer, but whatever it is, they don't have their tempos together to start the song, and many songs on this night and during this period. Keith is so heavily percussive. Garcia takes a solo late 4-minute mark and you can hear him really having to dig in (not necessarily a bad thing!) to be heard over Keith.

! R: s2t06-t07 I would have tracked differently, as noted by timings.

! s2t07 (2) JG: inaudible

! P: after hearing the whole show, the second set underwhelms me a little bit. On this listen, only TWLWMYD really lights me up. Funny.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

One of the Great Interviews of the Garciaverse

jg1978-03-11.interview.45mins.fm-gefen-goodbear.retracked.shn2flac

Remember, I am on hiatus until at least March 2013. Having taken this opportunity to remind you of this, as a PSA, let me also leave you something to read.

This is truly one of the great, hilarious interviews in the Garciaverse, chock full of great stuff.

Jerry Garcia Band Interview (by Andy Gefen)
WBRU-FM Studios
75 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
March 11, 1978 (Saturday)
45 minute FM via Gefen-Goodbear shnid 76444 JGMF shn2flac

So, this interview has been circulating forever, but I don't recall seeing a transcription anywhere. So, I did it. It ain't 100% transcribed, but it has the stuff that interests me.

Lots of good direct quotes from Jerry about Cats, Garcia Band per se (and vs. GD, and vs. Weir's side projects), etc. Some snorting and such. Good times.

--(41tracks, 44:34)--
t01. Reuben And Cherise (album version) [5:08]
t02. Andy Gefen Introduction [1:38]
t03. Buzz Buchanan Introduction [1:01]
t04. Ten Grand And A Year in Jail [0:21]
t05. Cats Under The Stars Release Date [0:55]
t06. Is Keith Around? [0:16]
t07. Maria Muldaur [0:44]
t08. Jerry's Day Job and Trouble With Flooding [0:46]
t09. GD Plans [1:01]
t10. GD Movie, TV [1:10]
t11. GD Tour [0:13]
t12. Let's Talk About The Record [0:23]
t13. We Built The Studio [1:50]
t14. I'm Happiest With This Record [0:44]
t15. Jerry Garcia BAND [0:27]
t16. Rhapsody In Red (album version) (fragment) [0:#50]
t17. Mistakes [0:42]
t18. Tour So Far [0:31]
t19. Album Personnel [1:53]
t20. French Horn [0:35]
t21. Scaly And Weird [1:36]
t22. Being Great Is Your Own Thing [1:30]
t23. Stop Looking At That Thing, If It Gives You The Creeps [0:33]
t24. Rain (album version) (fragment) % [0:14]
t25. SNORT [0:45]
t26. Not Too Hard [1:42]
t27. Playing Together Purely Randomly [1:07]
t28. Garcia V. Weir [1:29]
t29. Keith Olsen [1:32]
t30. Station ID [0:54]
t31. Doing Interviews [1:24]
t32. Another GD Question Goes Nowhere [0:32]
t33. It's That Important To Me [1:27]
t34. What Career? [0:12]
t35. JGB Concrescence [3:04]
t36. You Want It To Move You [0:40]
t37. The Taoism And The Path, Featuring Buzzy Buchanan
t38. Amenhotep's Wine [1:35]
t39. The Invisible Landscape [1:33]
t40. Goodbyes [0:28]
t41. The News [0:08]

! Interview: people present:
! personnel: Andy Gefen
! personnel: Donna Jean Godchaux
! personnel: Jerry Garcia
! personnel: John Kahn
! personnel: Buzz Buchanan

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.

! TJS: none.

! db: part of shnid 76444 (Gefen > Goodbear).

! R: PREFM-SBD > ? > Gefen Master ? > GoodBear CD (late 1990s) > shn, part of shnid 76444.

! R: shn2flac via TLH, tracking via CDWave, tagging in foobar2000 by JGMF, 8/6/2012.

! t02 Jerry interrupts him Jerry Garcia Band. JG "Under the stars. Not undah." They are wasted. For those of you who don't enjoy the show tonight, I'd like to apologize on behalf of myself and the members of the band. John Kahn. Let's apologize for Buzzy, too. And Buzzy.

! t03 Ron Tutt's been playing with us. Ron isn't playing with us anymore. The new kid in the band is Buzz Buchanan credit to his race, as far as drummers go. From Los Angeles. What happened to Ron Tutt? Kahn: He went back to Los Angeles unfortunately. Buzz who did you play with before? Studio stuff in LA. The Smothers Brothers, played back east with them at the Great Gorge Playboy Club.

! t04 Someone mutters "shit", and the DJ sounds worried about the ramifications of broadcasting a swear word. "I need ten grand and a year in jail." Garcia, pulling up from an audible snort: "I do. I could use a year in jail. I really think it would straighten me right out. And the $10 grand [fine] would be helpful, too."

! t05 on CUTS release date: That's a good question. If Arista really cooks, they might get it out as soon as the next couple of weeks ... next week or so. Our last really important deadline which we were almost totally convinced we would make was September 10th ... of last year. Unfortunately, we ... slipped up a little right there." JK: "Well, we made the deadline, in a way." DJ: "In a way?" JK: "Yeah. We were mostly dead by then." DJ: "Gratefully ... dead?" JK: "Well, I wasn't all that happy about it, myself."

! t06 Keith Godchaux: This is really harsh. He asks if Keith is around, and they all start snickering. JG: "Not all of us can move, see [laughter] ... sometimes it just doesn't work out right. [hilarity]

! t07 re Maria Muldaur: DJG: "There's somebody else who isn't here. Maria Muldaur is not here. Call John Mr. Maria. JG: "She is now an official member [inaudible]." JK : "The original mistake was "mr." JG: "She is a permanent member of this band insofar as this band is a permanent organization." DJ: "And it's workin' out great." JG: "yeah. Real great." Maria has her own date.

! t08 JG: "We all have to work around each other, know what I mean? Otherwise, y'know, I work at a gas station during the day." John will come back and play with Maria when she comes back to town.

! t09 Q about GD plans. JG: "Yeah, we're gonna be workin' ourselves silly this year. But I don't have a rap to tell you. I don't have any information that's gonna do you any good on the Grateful Dead right now. Right now this is what we're doin, and this is the most important thing that's happening as far as we're concerned." Bob Weir album recording. JF: "We're looking at recording in the May-June-July area, if things go right we'll have an album out in August." Kahn: Just like our album out in September". Jerry: "Well, yeah, right, we're all hippies. Crazed beatniks. Strange people. Foreigners." JK: "I have a junior beatnik card."

! t10 clips of the GD Movie on TV on "Rock Concert" TV people have been pulling on our legs for many years to go on television. William F. Buckley wanted me to go on Firing Line.
! t11 GD tour maybe early spring starting in Florida. JG doesn't really know about it. Garcia cuts this question off.

! t12 Most like to talk about the record. Record has been a great trip for us. "We started working on it last July. Because we're all doing all this other stuff."

! t13 DJG: "And we built the studio that we recorded it in." JG: "Yeah, we built the studio to do it. What was happening was, we were rehearsing, and all of a sudden ... and it's Tutt that plays on these tracks, not Buzz, unfortunately. [Buzz, wake up!] So we were playing in there and we were making cassettes for practice purposes as we were working on the material. And, uh, Tutt ... was he attracted to ... he liked the drum sound in the room. We hadn't really thought about it before. So we whipped the place into a recording studio, took about a month to do it, two months, maybe. This whole record is, fundamentally, on a technical level it's totally homemade. I mean everything that was done, it was done ... right ... it was all done in the same room." JK: "I remember when we were all splicing wires, we actually, literally, ourselves, put it together [inaudible]." JG: "We were cutting wires, and cutting lines and making cables and doing everything ... we actually built the place--" DJ: "From scratch." JG: "Yeah, from scratch."

! t13 @0102 DJ: "Do you intend to use this studio for future Garcia and Dead endeavors?" JG: "Whether the Dead decide to use it or not is a matter of ... that decisionmaking process ... you know, we don't decide like *that* ... for me, it's a thing that's been a long, slow progression of accumulation of equipment, and the desire to have a really good facility for recording. The neat thing about it is that the room we're workin' in, it just sounds beautiful. It sounds better than any studio I've ever worked in, in terms of the room sound. So, the vocal quality, the instrumental quality, the drum sound, all the sounds that are recorded in the room ...; there's horns and strings and things like that there as well ... and everything just has a very articulate and nice sound."

! t14 JG: "I'm happiest with this record, of all the ones we've done. It's neat because it's all original material, all the material is our own stuff." DJ: "Can I who produced this album?" JG: "We all" [crosstalk] DJ question about Keith Olsen and production. JK: "I don't know that we have such a specific plan on that level. Things are changeable, always." JG: "Yeah, right, that's the thing, is that no decision is final, and that no operating ... no way of operating is ever completely always gonna be the thing." Jerry really doesn't want to go onto GD terrain, while Gefen really does.

t15 RIR introduction. DJ: "Give us a chance to relax a little bit, with microphones off." JG, laconically: "That'd be swell." DJ introduces song as by "Jerry Garcia", and Garcia insists "Jerry Garcia BAND".

! R: t16 spliced

! t17 silliness

! t18 tour so far, only two gigs. DJ: "How long have you been rehearsing for the tour?" JK "None". JG: "About twenty minutes." JK, laughing: "That's right, it was twenty minutes." JG: "We try to approach this stuff professionally." JK: "Yeah, right. I do remember that twenty minutes, now that I think about it."

! t19 CUTS album personnel: Kahn mentions harmonica player Dave Burgin on "Palm Sunday". Steve Schuster horn player on "Rain". Two string players one was named Brian (Brian Godchaux and Candy Godchaux, Keith's brother and sister-in-law). Then there was that guy whatshisname from the ... [Kahn: "Musicians' union?" [general mirth]. French horn player his name was whatever it says. Stewart somebody from the Oakland Symphony. JG: "Wonderful player. French horn is a really difficult instrument, this guy ..."

t20 John Kahn writing instrumentation wrote the out about five minutes, on the floor, with manuscript paper, scribble scribble scribble for this french horn player ... and he just played it immediately. He's a remarkable player, remarkable." JG, sound a little grumpy: "Uhh, yeah, we have. We've been movin' each other along and I think an awful lot of what's happening in music is just dull as dishwater, man." DJ: "You're not into any disco or New Wave or anything?" JG: "Of those things, of those choices, the New Wave... the whole punk rock trip, I like it best. I like it best, I think. I like it because it has some energy, it has some spirit." JK: "There's the thing of, new music, people are tyring to play [crosstalk] there's thing, in San Francisco, 'cause that's where I was then, when everybody was just learning to play, there was a thing that was missing --" JG: "The thing of people tryin' real hard. JK: "Tryin' to figure out how to make it work." JG: "Yeah, yeah. It's got the spirit, y'know, that's the thing. The nature of the spirit, if you had to describe the spirit, you could describe the spirit as being a little bit edgy, y'know, maybe sort of a Violent spirit, y'know, sort of scaly and weird, maybe, but it's a spirit, and almost anything else lacks spirit of any sort."

! t21 DJ: "I just want to ask a question about your musical influences. Anybody been moving you along lately?"

! t22 JG: "Who is there around to say what being really, really good on an instrument is. There are guys who don't play ... who can't play many notes, that can move you tremendously with what they do play. Then there are guys who can play gazillions of notes, and nobody can even dig it." JK, sounding very strange: "There isn't any best in the world anymore." JG: "No, it's not like that anymore." JK: "There can't be a best guitar player in the world anymore. There's twenty now. JG: "Say, eighty." [cross-talk] DJG: "Being the greatest is no longer the incentive." JG: "Being great is your own trip." More from JK.

! t23 general weirdness, then DJG asks DJ "Do you want us to stop talking?" He says "No, no", and Garica replies "Well then stop looking at that thing, then, if it gives you the creeps." Too funny! "Play something so *you* can relax." General mirth. "Rain" intro by JG

! t25 DJ mistakenly identifie the song as "Gomorrah", not sure. JG, dismissive: "Uh, it's called 'Rain'. It's the one that Donna wrote?" DJ: "I am getting confused in between--" [--SNIFF-- chuckles] "--John Kahn just noticed his own name on Jerry Garcia's Reflections album." JG: "He's into his name because it rhymes." DJ: "With what?" JG: "With itself. John Kahn. John Kahn." He sounds a littel patronizing.

! t26 question about how the decision was made to have Donna and Keith tour with this band and with the Dead. Gets no response, says "OK ... they don't like that question." Then they affirm him a little bit. Donna: "No, no, I just don't understand it." JK "These things happen more than a decision [inaudible]." JG: "See, here's the thing, I mean, I think it best ... in terms of clarity, I think it's easiest not to confuse the Grateful Dead with *this* band . This band really has its own identity, its own evolution." DJ: "I'm only making the comment because there are three members of the Dead in it, as opposed to one [garbled]." JG: "That is an interesting ..." JK: "Well," [cross-talk DJ, something about Bob Weir] "it's coincidental, that's all." JG: "It's coincidental, almost, yeah." JK "We didn't have a piano player, and Keith was the best guy we could find, and Donna's a fabulous singer." JG: "Yeah, actually, this started quite awhile ago. I mean, Keith and Donna have been with us for two years." DJG: "And they needed a piano player, and another singer would be nice. Keith and I live together. It'd be cheap." [laughter] JG: "Not too hard ... and we're all freaks." [crosstalk] DJG: "--just fell into it really naturally." DJ: "May I ask how you originally got involved with the Dead?" JK: "They probably needed a piano player, too." DJG: "They did. That was exactly what was happening."

! t27 JG: "It's a matter of timing, really." JK: "Those things happen. It's not heavy decisions or anything. That kind of stuff just happens ... somebody shows up, and it's right, and everybody knows it's right." DJ question about Bobby and Kingfish. JG: "I guess, so, that's the way it worked out with him. But for me it's always been the thing of, that, decisionmaking is always, always ... I don't dig it, I'm ... It's more a matter of luck. Like, John and I really were thrown together in a gig. We started playing together purely randomly. And we played together for a looong time before we started even talking very much. But we got along musically." JK: "I had known you for about three years--" [crosstalk] "--the first time I ever really talked to you is when you gave me a ride home from the airport once from somewhere." JG: "Yeah. It's just one of those things. Something happens in your life."

! t28 DJ spoke with Weir the day before (3/10/78), asking about parallels. JG: "He was in a situation where he had a created band. He'd done a record, and the record had a certain musical personality ... and he was really in the position, since Weir, Bobby doesn't spend a lot of time playin' around with other musicians, except when he was working with Kingfish and stuff like that, y'know. So, he went down there [LA] and for him it was a good experience because he was exposed to a lot of good players, met a lot of people, and put himself into that situation of, 'OK, now I have to have a band.'." JK: "He has to cover his album." JG and Donna affirm. JG: "This is a little different." DJ: "What do you think of that album?" JG: "Weir's album?" DJ: "Yeah." JG: "Slick as can be. Weir has always been a very interesting writer to me. He writes the kinds of things that I would never, ever think of writing, musically I mean. And his development as a composer is gettin' to be more interesting and more resolved as the years go by. He's always been an interesting composer. His ideas are ... they're unique. Whether other people are gonna like it or not, I really haven't the slightest idea, but it really sounds smooth, and it sounds nice and finished. Keith Olsen is a very careful and meticulous producer."

! t29 Keith Olsen: "He showed up and didn't freak out." "he's a good cat. He really doesn't belong in LA. He's a good guy to work with. He's the pick of the litter." , Dead with outside producer everybody has their own opinion so firmly, it's like imprinted on yourselves. Very hard for us to all. .. it's helpful to have an objective ear. Dealing with ourselves we can hang ourselves up for months and months and months and months and months. "It's not that we don't dig it, but that's what it is."

! t31 random chatter. Running out of things to say. Now, general mayhem. All talking about things. "Being on the radio beats lying around in the gutter, in the snow. ... It also beats things like taking a shower."

! t32 Jerry directing. JG: "Hey, I know, why don't you play nother cut. ... In that case, do what you want." DJ prods him again about asking about the Dead. Jerry sounding a little grouchy "I am just not into it that much right now." GD we're workin'.

! t33 DJ: Are there plans for another Jerry Band album, this is a permanent entity? JG: "Yeah. This is. It's been going on for some time. It's an idea we have been pursuing for some time. John and I have been involved in developing this thing over this long period of time in a kind of crazy way. It's serious. As a personal, as an individual apart from my relationship with the Grateful Dead, which is an important thing to me, this record, this music and this band is the same thing to me. It's that important to me. I care that much about it. I'm that serious about it. I think that this record is the best record that any of our various scenes --if you want to be thinking in those terms, y'know, sub-groups and all the rest of that stuff, if you want to be thinking in those terms, this record is, I think, the best of any of them so far. I mean, in terms of us feeling really good about it. The material is really good. The lyrics are beautiful, the musical ideas, the performances, the sound ... everything is the way we would want for people to hear it."
t34 DJ: "How do you feel everything is at this point in your career." JG: "what career? I don't care about a career."

t35 Kahn: "I'll tell you, of significant importance [sic] is that we've really become a band. It's not like something that Jerry does in his spare time, or that I do in my spare time, or anything like that. It started out that way." JG, to John: "Gimme that drink." JK: "Oh, no." JG: "Go ahead." [pause all around] JK: "What was I saying? We're a *band*, that's really what's important to know." @0:32 JG: "But that's like a real thing. It's like a marriage, or something. Not only is it a band, but it's a band that has that ... it has thing of of, ummm, consonance. [That's] the best way I can describe it. In other words, we all think similarly musically." DJG: "The hippest folks out there will know what we man by concrescence .. but only the hippest, y'know." JG: "Probably only the hippest, that's right. All you lame people [crosstalk]." DJ: gives him choices. John Kahn wants to do the news, presumably to take another "break". Jerry says they'll go until Robbie freaks out. !1:35 DJ: "Where were we?" JG: "Where, indeed?" JK: We're into something new." JG: "We're into the music having a personality and a life of its own that is something which we all recognize we're a part of. It's like you imagine a music in your head, and you don't even imagine it perfectly, it's not even something ... it escapes your imagination ... it's provocative. And then you run into somebody and you see that what they're doing has some part of that vision. And you recognize it. Y'know what I mean? It's not like you invent it, you recognize it. 'Yeah, that, that, that's it, that's it!" JK: "Right. There's there's the possibility of that dream. And you go further." JG: "Yeah. And then you go further, you go further." [crosstalk: DJG: --that has the same dream."] JG: "That's right, that has the same --[crosstalk]. Dynamically, the interesting difference in this thing is that this band represents a kind of amazing agremement, where, by contrast, the Grateful Dead represents this amazing disagreement, in terms of, that everybody has tremendously different ideas about music, just a ... but that's interesting for other reasons. That's interesting for completely other reasons. This is ... this gets us all off in the same way. The Grateful Dead, when the Grateful Dead gets off, everybody gets off differently. But we all get off."

! t36 Kahn's idea about music: "I don't have any idea about music. What to me it means 'good' which is, it has an effect on people. That's what good means to me." JG: "Yeah, me too." JK: "And, other than that, I don't have any idea. We could play bluegrass music, or jazz, or--" [JG: "Yeah, style doesn't have anything to do with it."] --"it doesn't matter. It's all music. It's just music." JG: "And as long as it has an effect on you. When you hear music, you want it to move you. You want it to ... communicate." DJG: "And this band has expanded on that level." JG: "Yeah. We've been hittin' some ..."

! personnel: Buzz Buchanan: t37 Donna brings up Buzzy how John Kahn found Buzzy Buchanan. "He's allowed us to go into spaces in music that we've never gone to before. He's great." Discussion about how John found Buzzy through a Kmart thing, John says it was the 'Best Hits of the Chinese Fifth Dynasty Greatest Hits'. And the particular track I heard was "The Taoism and the Path, featuring Buzzy Buchanan, and because of that I decided that I thought he'd really work well with us. And, oddly enough, it turned out that he was still alive."

! t38 Kahn: wine bottles in Amenhotep's grave ... 1400 BC ... they are drinking ... DJG: "We found this bottle uncorked it and there was Buzzy." ... SNORT ... DJ: herbicides on dope in Mexico ... JG: "What about that clone story?"

! t39 DJ: "What kind of stuff have you been into, as far as--" JG: "Ideas? There's a fantastic book called The Invisible Landscape, that anybody that wants to have their brain turned inside out should read, that is by the McKenna Brothers, who are ... Terrence and Dennis McKenna, who are a pair of scientists ... and in the book they propose a theory ... a holographic theory of mind and the Universe. They talk about the mechanical and electromagnetic way that psychedelics affect the mind, and the DNA and RNA specifically ... [crosstalk] Then they talk about the I-Ching ..."

! t40 even Buzz says goodbye ... network news.

! t41 the news about a Ku Klux Klan rally

Jerry Garcia's Middle Finger