John Coltrane has a spudfactor of 2?

Spudfactor is the number it takes to get from Jerry to another musician, using ties defined as making music together, in person.

Jerry Garcia = spudfactor 0

Anyone who played with him, live or live in studio, even picking in someone's living room, has SF1.

Then everyone they ever played with --same definition-- now has SF 2 (at most). And so forth.

The universe of SF1, when we draw all of the ties between all of the other players, defines the Side Trips Social Network.

Anyway, we were playing around with links out from Jerry to Coltrane, and my amazing commenters have determined that Jerry 0 > Ornette 1 > Coltrane 2.

So much fun. Original question was about John Chambers. We have moved on.

It's my understanding that Hartbeats era Matrix drummer John Chambers played with John Coltrane. I could check, but I wanted to pin this here before I head out to the ol' salt mines.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1292605-John-Chambers-2

Setting Right What Was Rent Asunder

Or something like that.

Forgive me, for I have sinned. I have added entropy to the world. I am here to make amends.

When the Falanga-Menke Stash of Garcia-Saunders tapes from 1974 first came to me, one of them was labeled 8/14/74. I had what I thought was another recording of the show connected to Lou Tambakos. Somewhere along the line, in the first decade of the 21^st century, I decided that the correct date was 8/15/74. Because I was an early source of recording metadata, that dating has really stuck. I even wrote about it once because of a mystery trumpeter.

But I think I was wrong. I now believe that Wednesday, August 14, 1974 is the correct date of this mid-August 1974 JGMS show at the Great American Music Hall.

Three streams of evidence.

8/14/74 JGMS at GAMH has no contrary listings and these confirmatory ones: Bill Alex, "Around Town," San Francisco Examiner, August 9, 1974, p. 23; San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, August 11, 1974, p. 4; Todd Tolces, "Out to Lunch," Berkeley Gazette, August 14, 1974, p. 11; San Francisco Examiner, August 14, 1974, p. 27.

8/15/74 JGMS at GAMH has no confirmatory listings and the following contrary listings: Hayward Daily Review, August 9, 1974, p. 40; Daily Independent Journal, August 9, 1974, p. 20; Bill Alex, "Around Town," San Francisco Examiner, August 9, 1974, p. 23; San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, August 11, 1974, p. 4; Todd Tolces, "Out to Lunch," Berkeley Gazette, August 14, 1974, p. 11. All of these bill John Hartford at GAMH on this date.

Tapes: not only was the Falanga-Menke tape labeled 8/14/74, but so was a beat-up old dubbed cassette the Jerry had in his tape collection.

So, QED. Change your lists. Change your fileset info!

Odd Pair at the Old Waldorf: JGB, Monday, January 11, 1982 and Wednesday, January 13, 1982

LN jg1982-01-11.jgb.all.sbd-gmb.84012.flac1644 | LNjg1982-01-13.jgb.all.aud-GEMS.98706.flac1644

What a weird little pair of shows - an early year Monday-Wednesday pairing at the Old Waldorf. Also an interesting pair of tapes. The 11th is represented by one of the uber-clean early 80s soundboard cassette tapes, which the old rumor had it marched out of "official" possession powered by a Peruvian blizzard. The 13th is represented by an otherwise unlineaged 1st gen aud cassette from the Jeff Knudsen collection which sounds absolutely stunning.

The shows are uneven. I definitely feel like the 13th is stronger overall. Maybe the fact that Phil Elwood was in the house --improbably enough, at this juncture-- supplied a little extra motivation. Elwood saw Blakey and Garcia in the same time frame and wrote a review praising both old timers for still bringing the musical goods. 

Anyway, the 11th has a lot more lyrical flubs and whatnot, though there are a few highlights probably made possible by the super clean tape. The 13th has a little more juice. I *really* like this "Roadrunner" - it's executed almost flawlessly, and just sounds good. The "Don't Let Go" is good, starting off with Billy double-time syncopating on the rim, but it's quite brief. I have never met a bad DLG, though the super long ones from the 70s can drag for me. This one is probably average, which is to say it's a delight.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia Band

Old Waldorf

444 Battery Street

San Francisco, CA 94111

January 11, 1982 (Monday)

MSC > DAT shnid-84012 retrack

--set I (6 tracks, 57:13)--

s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#1:19] [0:13]

s1t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:22] [0:13]

s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [10:49] [0:08] %

s1t04. //Simple Twist Of Fate [#14:21] % [0:02]

s1t05. I Second That Emotion [9:40] ->

s1t06. Deal// [7:07#]

--set II (7 tracks, 59:25)--

s2t01. [0:31] The Way You Do The Things You Do [8:06] %

s2t02. I'll Take A Melody [12:50] %

s2t03. Valerie [6:45] %

s2t04. Harder They Come -18:39

s2t05. //Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [# ->

s2t06. Dear Prudence [12:27] ->

s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue// [2:13#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #14a/c

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - bass;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;

! lineup: Jimmy Warren - keyboards;

! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;

! lineup: Essra Mohawk - backing vocals;

! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals.

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/19820111-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/20687 (same source tape, shnf, deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/84012 (this fileset)

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/old-waldorf-444-battery-street-san.html

! band: JGB #14a/c (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, December 27, 1981, p. 19

! historical: Odd little pair of gigs on Monday (1/11) and Wednesday (1/13) at the Old Waldorf at the start of 1982, in the sense that they'd usually play consecutive nights.

! R: Source: MSC > 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 and Seeded by Green Mountain Bros. April 2007.

! R: seeder comments: Very clean SBD with several pauses between tunes - crossfades were applied to cover. 

! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in, most of tune is missing

! P: s1t02 KOHD Jimmy feature 7:25ff. Basic, but I think it sounds nice.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD Very punchy. Kahn is rumbling around really nicely, though how much of that is the recording, I dunno. But a few times he rumbles and it makes me happy. Melvin's feature in 7:20ff also sounds great. Yeah, big fella!

! R: s1t04 STOF clips in

! P: s1t04 STOF Jerry delivers the lyrics slowly and with care (though not without error). Bass "feature" late 6ff. He is flubbing lyrics hard late 11.

! P: s2t03 flubby lyrics

! R: s2t03 the fileset had Valerie and HTC tracked together. I have fixed this.

! R: s2t05 TNTDODD cuts in, missing first two verses

! P: s2t06 DP BK is having tempo problems, as he had been during HTC as well.

! R: s2t07 Tangled Up In Blue is painfully cut.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia Band

Old Waldorf

444 Battery Street

San Francisco, CA 94111

January 13, 1982 (Wednesday)

1st gen aud gems shnid-98706

--set I (5 tracks, 50:26)--

s1t01. Sugaree [11:13] %

s1t02. /They Love Each Other [#7:38] %

s1t03. Sitting In Limbo [12:09] %

s1t04. Let It Rock [8:26] %

s1t05. Tangled Up In Blue [11:01] %

--set II (6 tracks, 62:18)--

s2t01. [0:13] (I'm A) Road Runner [7:02] %

s2t02. Don't Let Go [13:25] %

s2t03. /Harder They Come [#11:19] %

s2t04. [0:06] Russian Lullaby [11:30] %

s2t05. Dear Prudence [12:08] ->

s2t06. Midnight Moonlight [6:32] (1) 

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19820113-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/95067 (s1s2p aud); https://etreedb.org/shn/98706 (this fileset).

! review: [positive] Elwood 1982. Club was "jammed to overflowing". Amazing that Elwood bothered to see Jerry this late in the game. This was sort of a throwback review, discovering that Jerry and Art Blakey can still bring it.

! R: source: Jeff Knudsen's 1st gen aud cassette: "I taped this but this version is better than mine so I don't have my original anymore. I don't remember who taped this. I knew them but I can't remember their names. The reason I sent this to Matt was the one on LL was missing (I think) the last three or so songs and my copy is complete."

! R: Transfer: MAC(1) > Apogee Mini ME (24/96) > Apogee Mini DAC > Wavelab 5.0 (dithered via 'UV22HR' to 16/44) > CD by Matt Smith. Edits and Mastering: Jamie Waddell (shnflac@gmail.com) on the GEMS Edit Station. Weiss Saracon for POWR-3 Dither. Meta-data with Tag&ReName. 

! seeder notes: "Thanks to Jeff and Matt for the honor to share these". A *GEMS* Production, www.shnflac.net, April 2009.

! R: do not be put off by the generic lineage - this is a really, relaly good aud tape. Update sometime later: really, really, really good!

! P: s1t04 LIR Jerry is doing some truly unique stustained reverby train pulls in late 5. Very intentional stuff!

! P: s2t01 IARR sounds really nice

! P: s2t02 DLG man, is that Billy syncopating on the rim right out of the gate? Sounds cool. Doubling 4:10ff. Melvin pulls a little thing 4:04, 4:15 that just sounds so sweet. 4:23 some putting some sustain on it. I am loving the sound of this band right now - great palette of sound. Nice jam, doesn't get too far out, JG starts nudging back to tune 11:22.

! R: s2t03 HTC clips in

! P: s2t03 HTC peppy. Jimmy feature 5:50ff. Lyrical flub 10:05.

! P: s2t04 Russ Lull John forward 5:44ff. WTF is he doing? I dunno.

! s2t06 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

Unidentified Nicky Hopkins Instrumentals

update: Mark Mattson has identified the number as "Lucky Old Sun" - wow!

There may be others, but I am right now pondering two distinct instrumentals that Nicky does out of "Lady Sleeps" with the JGB in the last month or so of his run with the band.

11/23/75: about 1:38:30ff here --> https://ia600902.us.archive.org/9/items/jgb1975-11-23MackeyAuditoriumBoulderCO/jgb1975-11-23MackeyAuditoriumBoulderCO.mp3

He announces that one before as one of his originals, I think.

12/19/75: about 51:30ff here--> http://www.archive.org/serve/jgb1975-12-19WinterlandArenaSanFranciscoCA/jgb1975-12-19WinterlandArenaSanFranciscoCA.mp3 a little peppier, sounds kind of Beatles-ish to me (though it's not "Mother Nature's Son")

Help!

Peppy: JGB at the Stone, May 31, 1981 (and contemporary data missingess)

LN jg1981-05-31.jgb.s1s2p.aud.137952.flac1644

More spare listening notes, more JGB #12b. I actually like TLEO here (rare), find characteristically strong-for-the-period versions of Sugaree and Tangled Up, enjoy a melodious Simple Twist, pick up some rock-n-roll goodness in Let It Rock, and totally dig the litling beauty of an early Melvin-era Knockin'. Early 80s Knockin's are the best, IMO. Oh yeah, an extremely brisk TWYDTTYD, "about as uptempo as it was ever done", I imagine.

So that's every tune on this truncated recording getting a mention, except for Prudence. In sum, a nice little gig, a random Sunday at the Stone.

Weird how little JGB circulates from this window:

Date	Venue	Notes
1981-05-23 [Sat]	Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA	complete setlist, no circulation
1981-05-24 [Sun]	Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA	complete setlist, no circulation
1981-05-27 [Wed]	Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA	complete setlist, no circulation
1981-05-28 [Thu]	Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA	complete setlist, s2 circulates
1981-05-30 [Sat]	Phoenix Theatre, Petaluma, CA	complete setlist from aud
1981-05-31 [Sun]	Stone, San Francisco, CA	s1s2p setlist from aud [jgmf]
1981-06-01 [Mon]	Stone, San Francisco, CA	no setlist, no circ

So, ask your old analog friends if they have tapes of the missing material. The presence of setlists certainly does not guarantee that tapes were made, but it is suggestive. Please and thank you.

update: AF has supplied images of complete cassettes copies of 5/27-28/81 which went up for sale on Ebay but were won by unknown buyers. Here are analog tapes that have never made the jump to 0s and 1s. Let's get tapes like these digitized and circulating!

Jerry Garcia Band

The Stone

412 Broadway

San Francisco, CA 94133

May 31, 1981 (Sunday)

s1s2p aud via AF flac1644 shnid-137952

--set I (5 tracks, 57:29)--

s1t01. //Sugaree [#11:22] [0:03] %

s1t02. /They Love Each Other [#8:08] [0:10] %

s1t03. [0:14] That's What Love Will Make You Do :15-10:38 -10:41 %

s1t04. /Simple Twist Of Fate [#16:25] [0:02] %

s1t05. Tangled Up In Blue [10:37] %

--set II (3 tracks, incomplete, 38:04)--

s2t01. /Knockin' On Heaven's Door [#16:41] [0:03] %

s2t02. /Let It Rock [#9:30] [0:03]

s2t03. [0:15] Dear Prudence [11:30] [0:02] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #12b

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;

! lineup: Jimmy Warren - el-piano;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;

! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums.

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/19810531-01

! JGC: jerrygarcia.com/show/1981-05-31

! db: etreedb.org/shn/137952 (this fileset).

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

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html.

! band: JGB #12b, http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! R: source: AUD (1st Gen) kindly provided from the collection of DL.

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

! R: seeder Note: "Lo-Fi mono recording of a really hot show. Taper and equipment are unknown, a note on the label says: "First show I taped, well it sure was fun." A big chunk is missing from start of Sugaree, maybe three minutes? Several other songs clip in/out abruptly as the deck was turned off & on. It's likely that one or two songs are missing from end of the Second Set." I'd add that vocals are super back, organ buried, as well.

! R: s1t01 Sugaree clips in

! P: s1t01 Sugaree has great energy.

! R: s1t02 clips in.

! P: s1t02 TLEO I am not usually a big fan of this one, but it's working for me. The twin keyboards sound good, e.g., 4-minute range.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD is about as uptempo as it was ever done. Speedy. Jerry's guitar work is outstanding. Melvin's feature work in 6 is also really strong. 

! R: s1t04 STOF clips in

! P: s1t04 STOF some very melodious picking 12:15.

! P: s1t05 TUIB typically hot '81 version, espec. ca. late 9 to early 10.

! R: s2t01 KOHD clips in

! P: s2t01 KOHD I love the pluck Garcia gives it in the 3 minute mark - it's like the perfect slice of JGB's KOHD, with the reggae lilt.

! R: s2t02 LIR clips in

! P: s2t02 LIR not moving me. Melvin's solo 4 min mark is hard to hear, nothing particularly interesting that I could identify. That said, the shit Garcia does all through the 7 minute mark is some absolutely incredible big chord work.

! R: s2t03 DP ca. 2:30 lots of tape drag and warble. Sounds like batteries are struggling?

JGB Debuting Señor and Tears of Rage: The February 1990 Warfield Run

LN jg1990-02-02.jgb.all.aud-darroch-paul.86658.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-03.jgb.all-1.sbd-seaweed.114060.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-04.jgb.all.aud-buick.30811.flac1644

The Jerry Garcia organization embraced a "no taping" policy, for reasons that aren't entirely clear given the principal's own experience recording bluegrass in the Sixties, his oft-stated indifference to audience taping in the Grateful Dead (GD) context ("when we're done with it, they can have it"), the Dead's own allowances in the form, from 1984 forward, of an Official Taping Section (OTS) just behind Dan Healy's soundboard and, frankly, the low commerical appeal of the Garcia Band. What was gonna do, etch some bootleg vinyl of yet another show closing "Midnight Moonlight"? Yet, nevertheless, there the policy was.

Enforcement was another matter, and seems to have been highly variable. Some busts happened at various places and times, tapers such as John Corley seem to have felt that stealth was called for (dismantling his Nak 700s and wiring them up through the top of a very "silly hat"), but generally a lot of tapes walked out of a lot of Jerry shows. Anecdotally, the no taping policy was most assiduously enforced at the Warfield in 1990, which one imagines relates to the fact that Jerry and Co. were recording themselves for an official live release (Jerry Garcia Band, Arista 18690-2), which arrived August 25, 1991 with material culled from Warfield shows in April and August of the prior year, sweetened in some cases with some vocal overdubs, at least.

Campolindo High School alumnus and sound engineer extraordinaire Marcus Buick kept a little journal of his own and his taping buddies' battles against one particularly dedicated Warfield security guy, by the name of Oren David Green. Apparently, at least in '89 and into '90, he was not a BGP bluecoat, but worked for VIP security. Bu kept a running score, and it was good guys 4 (successful complete shows pulled) and Oren 2 (busts) after the last Garcia Band show of '89. Oren then went on a little run to start the new year. He seems to have successfully kept the tapers away from the best recording location in the house, "The Spot" on the first drink rail. Rob Darroch and Sara Paul managed to pull complete analog masters from there the first night, February 2, 1990, but the digital tapers got busted during the first song. On February 3, Buick, Rick Katzeff and Tom Hughes (Campolindo '87) were able to pass equipment, hop seats, and relocate to get the 1st set from row M of the upper balcony, but got busted set II. On Sunday the 4th, Bu finally managed to digitally pull a whole show, but only by jamming his Josephsons into the right floor speaker stack from about a foot away, far too close. Oren thus played the digikids to a tie for the weekend, impressive given how committed and enterprising they were. (To give an indication of this, note that some soundboard material circulates from this run, derived from recordings made by splitting wire running to the hallway speakers, a technique first accomplished at the Lunt Fontanne in 1987, as far as I know.)

So, the tapes are generally sub-optimal, and I know well that this can color my listening experience. Historically, I have found these shows to be just sort of "meh", perhaps partly because of recording limitations and perhaps also from reasoning motivated to support my "one year too late" thesis about the double-live album: as great as that album is --and I do think it's great--, I think it would have been even better if they had taped in '88 and '89, when things were fresher and peppier. By 1990, to my ears, Jerry is sounding a little more fatigued. I like the March 1-2 shows a good deal, remember finding the April shows to be "meh", definitely find the June shows to be relatively weak, have formed no opinion on August, and think things are hotter in November, after GD keyboardist Brent Mydland had died and Jerry seemed to transfer some amount of energy over to the JGB.

I want to revisit all of these and see how my older assessments hold up, and I began over the last week with the February 2-4 shows. The key setlist interest here is the arrival into the Garcia Band repertoire of Dylan's "Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" and Dylan and Richard Manuel's "Tears Of Rage", both of which were added, I imagine, with the album in mind. The Señor from 4/15/90 did make it onto the release, while Tears of Rage would wait to be released until the version from that same date appeared on the posthumous How Sweet It Is record (Grateful Dead Records GDCD 4051, April 1997). The former stuck around for over four years --note that Jerry had also played it once at the Warfield with Dylan, way back in 1980-- while the latter lasted less than a year in the repertoire, much to my chagrin. Both find Jerry reaching way down into deep darkness, full of mournful pathos that well-suited his old man period. On their maiden voyages of this February weekend (Señor appeared all three nights, Tears the last two), they show their newness. Things aren't entirely pinned down in terms of Jerry's own or the backing vocals, he hasn't settled into the tunes yet, and so they sound a little uneven. But that is not to say they don't sound great - they do. Whoever picked these tunes for the Garcia Band --one presumes either Jerry or his musical director, bassist John Kahn-- picked well. 

Generally, the shows exhibit I haven't-played-live-in-a-month-itis, which is perfectly reasonable. Jerry headed out to Kona and took no fewer than 26 plunges with Jack's Dive Locker between January 6 and 29, 1990. January '88 found him tan and healthy in a Hawaiian shirt playing the "Blues For Salvador" benefit with Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, and lots of others. January '89, again in post-scubal bliss, found him warming up the first night out (1/27/89) and then dropping a true masterpiece of a show on 1/28/89, though the Dead shows the next week were, well, pretty weak. 

None of these February 1990 Warfield shows reaches those peaks, though there are plenty of strong moments. The first two nights, especially, he flubs all kinds of lyrics, like throughout practically every tune. The first night is pretty short for a 90s Warfield show, though I note some nice peppy tempi and an "I Second That Emotion" that is worth a listen. The second night, I don't note much. The set II opener, "Harder They Come", is not present on any circulating tapes, though we can pretty well imagine what it must have sounded like. 2/4/90 is the best show of the run, to my ears, though it's still pretty uneven. I took real notice that he went up an octave to sing the last stanza of Señor, "this place don't make sense to me anymore", which gives it a really worried tone fit to put weaker listeners into the nervous hospital. I think it was like that all three times here, and I doubt it would ever be that way again.

All in all, I enjoyed listening to this three shows as a whole run. I think I will do more of that. Because even though things can get repetitive, it does provide something like a consistent baseline, allowing little things (like the pretty fun "Let's Spend The Night Together" to open set II on 2/3) to stand in sharper relief. I wouldn't tell you to grab these as a first choice from the year -- go ahead and get the record for that. But they do strike me as pretty straightforwardly representative of what the Jerry Band was up to as the 1990s got going.

Listening notes below the fold.

The Bicycle Rule: Don't Stop Pedaling, or You Might Fall Over (JGB at the Stone, November 10-11, 1986)

LN jg1986-11-10.jgb.all.aud-corley.17749.shn2flac
LN jg1986-11-11.jgb.all.aud-ty.94632.flac1644

Not a lot happening here one way or the other. It's a Monday-Tuesday night, Jerry sounds a little tired, even Corley's tape from the 10th sounds a little muffled.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 
November 10, 1986 (Monday) - 9 PM
Corley shnid-17749 sh2flac

--set I (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 52:51)--
s1t01. ambience [0:13]
s1t02. Cats Under The Stars [7:50] -8:31
s1t03. Forever Young [8:43] -9:35
s1t04. They Love Each Other [8:16] -8:57
s1t05. Love In The Afternoon [7:41] [0:11]
s1t06. Run For The Roses [5:08] [0:02] %
s1t07. //Think [#6:00]
s1t08. Deal [6:22] [0:12]

--set II (7 tracks, 60:14)--
s2t01. //Harder They Come [#11:14] -11:42
s2t02. And It Stoned Me [6:51] [0:11]
s2t03. Knockin' On// Heaven's Door [9:58] [0:06]
s2t04. Reuben And Cherise [6:50] [0:22]
s2t05. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [7:42] [0:03]
s2t06. Gomorrah [6:30] ->
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [9:54] (2) [0:05]

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

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [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/19861110-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/17749

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

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

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

! R: field recordist: John Corley

! R: field recording gear: 2x disassembled Nak 700s clipped to brim of the "Silly Hat" > Sony TCD5M

! R: field recording location: 20' from stage, first row of tables, dead center

! R: lineage: MAC > ? > CDR > EAC > CDWave (retracked) > Shn. EAC'd / retracked / Shn'd by Charlie Connor. Correct sector boundaries verified with Shntool. Seeded to fungus, tol and abgd 2/5/03. Special thanks to Bob Menke for the audio discs

! R: muffled out of the gate

! P: s1t02 CUTS comes out sluggishly, Jer sounds a little tired.

! R: s1t07 Think cuts in

! R: s2t01 HTC cuts in

! P: s2t01 HTC everyone stops pedaling, and they all almost fall over at 9:28. Don't stop pedaling - you'll fall over!

! R: s2t03 Splice at 8:51 tightened up using Steinberg's Wavlab

! P: s2t04 RAC I am as big a fan of this tune as one can be, but Jer sounds a little tired for sure. Sluggish. I am revisiting this after a bit, and I hear how buried the vocals are.

! setlist: somehow we have always Mid Moon as the show closer, but it is demonstrably TUIB.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

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

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
November 11, 1986 (Tuesday)
Taz MAC shnid-94632

--set I (6 tracks, 51:03)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is [#5:26] [0:22]
s1t02. Like A Road [7:05] [0:28]
s1t03. Get Out Of My Life Woman [6:36] [0:13]
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:53] [0:10]
s1t05. Run For The Roses [5:15] [0:05]
s1t06. I Shall Be Released [8:07] ->
s1t07. Deal/ [5:24#]

--set II (7 tracks, 54:41)--
s2t01. //The Harder They Come [#10:21] 0:11]
s2t02. Forever Young [8:13] [0:17]
s2t03. Think [6:09] % [0:14]
s2t04. And It Stoned Me [6:01] ->
s2t05. Dear Prudence [9:29] [0:17]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [6:54] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:35] (1) [0:04]

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

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19861111-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15006 (Corley MAC shnf);  https://etreedb.org/shn/94632 (this fileset)

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

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

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

! R: field recordist: Tazuo Yamaguchi

! R: field recording gear: 1x Nakamichi 100 > Sony TC-D5M

! R: field recording location: 5' from stage

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nak Dragon> Grace Lunatec V3 (24/96) > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe > Adobe Audition 2.0 > (dither/downsample) > FLAC encoding.

! P: JG sounds tired (somewhat ragged vocals), but the show has energy. STOF quite rough vox. I think the tape isn't doing his voice any justice, either, since it is just capturing direct from Garcia's mouth rather than through the PA, I'd guess. The low vox of an upfront aud.

! R: s1t01 HSII beginning cut

! R: s2t01 HTC beginning cut

! P: s1t04 STOF no bass solo

! P: s1t06 JG flubs first verse of ISBR. But he is singing very delicately and thoughtfully here. 

! R: S1t01 Deal end clipped

! R: s2t01 HTC cuts in

! P: s2t01 HTC comes out much more peppily.

! P: s2t02 Forever Young sounds pretty out of it, but in that endearing, "Jerry's struggling" way, not the "he's out of it" way.

! P: s2t05 DP pretty good guitar solo in the 5-min mark.

! P: s2t06 Melvin's church organ is so perfect for this song

! s2t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

How Come History's Got to Take Such a Long, Long Time? JGB, Warfield, Sunday, May 3, 1992

LN jg1992-05-03.jgb.all.aud-lucien.106771.flac1648

I just don't always have a lot to say, but want to put these here to invite others to comment.

I enjoyed this. Some mumblyverse, but some real depth of feeling, too. I really enjoyed this version of "The Maker", with a little extra vocalization at the end that I can't quite make out --it's supposed to be "oh river, rise from your sleep" (h/t minches)-- and there's some real goodness in "Don't Let Go", as well.

RIP Danny Lucien.

Jerry Garcia Band

The Warfield

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

May 3, 1992 (Sunday)

Lucien MAD shnid-106771

--set I (6 tracks, 50:57)--

s1t01. //Cats Under The Stars [#8:57] [2:02]

s1t02. Waiting For A Miracle [5:38] [1:27]

s1t03. Run For The Roses [5:24] [0:37]

s1t04. Struggling Man [6:22] [0:44]

s1t05. Mission In The Rain [10:32]

s1t06. Lay Down Sally [8:29] (1) [0:08]

--set II (7 tracks, 75:58)--

s2t01. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love [9:37] [1:10]

s2t02. Shining Star [12:35] [0:43]

s2t03. Tore Up Over You [7:46] [1:37]

s2t04. The Maker [8:05] [0:26]

s2t05. Don't Let Go [15:45] [0:17]

s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [11:58] [0:05]

s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [5:50] (2) [0:04]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;

! lineup: David Kemper - drums;

! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;

! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19920503-01

! db:

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

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

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

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

! R: field recordist: Danny Lucien

! R: field recording gear: 2x Schoeps MK4 > Rbox > Panasonic SV250

! R: field recording location: Drink Rail

! R: Transfer: SV3700 -> RME Hammerfall DSP (SPDIF) 16/48 -> Nuendo

! R: s1t01 CUTS cuts in

! P: s1t01 CUTS too many go 'rounds, way too many. Way, way too many.

! P: s1t02 WFAM lots of little lyrical flubs and whatever. I do like how he says "how come history gotta take such a long long time" instead of "the future" - feels Rodney King relevant, though that's pretty surely projection.

! P: s1t03 RFTR some more lyrical irregularity

! P: s1t06 LDS he starts with the chorus.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes."

! P: s2t01 ENSTL the crowd seems very stoked to hear this one, special cheer at 0:49 for not-sure-what. Love the tone and the notes in 5. Great playing.

! P: s2t04 Maker he is singing in a different key than usual. Lyrical issues. Some interesting lyrical improv at the end, 6:20 "run rabbit [?] run way from yo [space]"

oh oh still waters

dark and cold like the night

I stand with arms wide open

I run the twisted mile

I'm a stranger in the eyes of The Maker

I could not see for the fog in my eyes

I could not feel for the fear in my life

across the great divide

in the distance I saw a light

Jean-Baptiste walking to me with The Maker

My body is bent and broken

[mumble] and dangerous sleep

I can't work the fields of Abraham

turn my head away

I'm not a stranger in the hands of The Maker

Brother John have you see the homeless daughters?

standing there with broken wings

I've seen the flaming swords

there over east of Eden

burning in the eyes of the Maker

oh burning in the eyes of the Maker

whoa burning in the eyes of the Maker

run [] run ... away from your [??]

! P: s2t05 DLG nice low vocalizations 4, starts doubling after 4:30 or so, with some interesting variations before stepping back from mic 5:02. He lets things go to a big orchestral melt around 9:25, then he starts doing a swing march that is really wonderfully groovy, now minor allusion 10:20, John modal, Melvin light and Kemper glue holding it together. Faster flurrying late 10 over 11. Return to tune late 13.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya next time."

Chatty Cathy in the House: JGB at the Stone, December 18, 1981

LN jg1981-12-18.jgb.all.aud-martin.16379.shn2flac

I recently learned the term "chompers" to describe people who talk through shows. Well, this phenomenon is as old as time, with the triad of the drum, the chomper and the shusher perhaps very nearly co-constituting each other In The Beginning.

Bill Kreutzmann drums, the chomper talks all show long, and I don't really hear a shusher on the in-your-face ambient recording pulled by taper Steven Martin through modified Nak 700s at the Stone on December 18, 1981. A Whistling Wally appears briefly, but thankfully he rethinks or otherwise abandons his accompaniment. Nothing in the show draws particular comment. This one is all about the tape, which totally puts you there.

I still don't understand how Kreutzmann came to be in the JGB in 1981-1982. What sequence of events and decisions produced this outcome? I dunno.

Some stuff I have been going through recently really lays bare just how impossibly intermingled were the finances of the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia (an sich) in this period. Money big and small is moving on the regular, especially in the GD -> JG direction, partly through the practice of the O/A - an "on account" withdrawal that facilitated Jerry getting lots of cash, very frequently, in the days before widespread ATMs. But there were also much bigger loans, often in the low five figures. After every Garcia Band tour, there's a reckoning of income and expenses --we are moderns, after all, and must genuflect before Double Entry Bookkeeping--, and big chunks of what's left go to such things as paying Jerry's back taxes and paying back the GD. Ownership of assets such as the Neve console or the rest of the Front Street studio setup, which Jerry respectively bought and paid for with his Cats Under the Stars advance from Arista in 1977, was murky. Despite the heroic efforts of Bonnie Simmons and Sue Stephens and many other office folks, for many, many years it seems like Garcia just kept burning through wads of cash while Phil, inter alia, seethed. It's hard to blame the rest of the guys for worrying about all of this, though of course there would have been no "this" without Jerry, so they were in a little bit of a bind, limited in what they could do.

I know these thoughts are inchoate. I will say a lot more, and presumably more coherently, in Fate Music. But I do think that the story of 81-82 Jerry Band clearly expresses the mess of the man's life, financially and otherwise, in this period of time. They'd take in $107k on a tour like JGB in February 1981, and see $112k soaked up immediately, to say nothing of ongoing, longterm, lingering giant debts or everyday petty and not so petty cash needs. And I wonder if Billy being onboard after business was settled with Ronnie Tutt was related to all of this. Of course, it could just be that Rock had his number. Again: I dunno.

In the meantime, the band played on, and the people drank, danced, chatted, and taped, and it was kind of a hoot, all things considered.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
December 18, 1981 (Friday)
Martin MAC shnid-16379 shn2flac

--set I (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 46:33)--
s1t01. ambience [0:22]
s1t02. The Way You Do The Things You Do [7:42] [0:12] % [0:05]
s1t03. Sitting In Limbo [11:53] [0:09] %
s1t04. /Mystery Train [8:36] [0:08] %
s1t05. /Mississippi Moon [9:58] [0:08] %
s1t06. /Deal [7:22] (1) [0:04]

--set II (5 tracks, 4 tunes, 49:36)--
s2t01. ambience [0:32]
s2t02. Sugaree [10:31] [0:20]
s2t03. I'll Take A Melody [15:14] [0:13] %
s2t04. Russian Lullaby [12:47] ->
s2t05. Tangled Up In Blue [9:53] [0:03]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #14a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - electric keyboards;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;
! lineup: Julie Stafford - vocals;
! lineup: Liz Stires - vocals.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19811218-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/16379 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/135462 (Ohr Weinberg MAC).

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

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! band: JGB #14a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). We used to call this 14c, but it was born before b then came back, and we use the order in which they appeared to identify.

! R: such a fun tape! Jerry's vocals are low, but there's great ambience (including very chatty chomper nearby - it's not a new thing, folks!), and the backing vocalists are coming through strong, especially one of them. Chatty Cathy does keep distracting me, e.g., in Sugaree. Shush!

! R: field recordist: Steven Martin

! R: field recording gear: 2x modified Nakamichi CM-700 mics > Sony TC-D5 cassette deck

! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell XLII

! R: transfer: Nakamichi Dragon playback > Cardas audiophile cables > HHB CDR 800 master CD > Microboards QD2 CD clone > HP 9350i extraction (EAC v0.9 beta 4) > tracking (CD Wave v1.6) > patching (SF Studio 6.0) > sector boundary verification (shntool v1.01) > .shn encoding (mkwACT v0.97 beta 1). CD > SHN by Joe Jupille (jjoops@attbi.com). shn2flac jgmf 12/18/2021.

! R: seeder comments: This is a nice recording with lots of crowd ambience and energy, and most tunes barely clipping in.  In both respects it strongly resembles a different master of the same show made by Ohr Weinberg (Senn 421s > Sony TC-D5M Dolby B MAC, transfer by Jim Wise via Nakamichi Dragon > Sony PCM-R500 > HHB-800).  They are indeed different masters, though. Weinberg's master has a tape flip at the transition between Russian Lullaby and Tangled Up in Blue at the end of set II, while Martin's flips @ 7:24 of Tangled Up.  So I could have used Martin's to patch Weinberg's or Weinberg's to patch Martin's.  I chose the latter, and I think it was the right choice based on the 7:24-8:16 piece in Tangled Up. Besides the clipped starts of songs, no other flaws were noted. A MisSHN in the Rain Installment of the Music Never Stopped Project.

! R: s1t04 Mystery Train clips in

! R: s1t05 Miss Moon clips in

! R: s1t06 Deal clips in

! R: s2t03 ITAM @ 5:47 a guy whistled a measure, and I thought Whistling Wally was gonna join Chatty Cathy on this tape. But it appears to have been a momentary burst of enthusiasm.

! P: s2t03 RussLull John steps forward 5:48. The crowd seems to support and encourage this, for reasons that must forever remain mysterious. It's a full blown solo for quite awhile. Ends at 9, crowd gives John a nice round of applause. Note they have been drinking for hours by this time. (I keed, of course.)

! P: s2t05 TUIB gets nice and loud

! s1t06 (1) JG: inaudible set break announcement

The December '85 Garcia Band Shows

LN jg1985-12-14.jgb.all.aud-CC.137723.flac1644

LN jg1985-12-15.jgb.all-1.aud-CC.137724.flac1644

LN jg1985-12-21.jgb.all.aud-gale.14980.shn2flac

LN jg1985-12-22.jgb.all.aud-gale.14981.shn2flac

seealso: LN jg1985-10-14.jgb.all.aud.138028.flac1644

Earlier this year I posted listening notes on four JGB shows from August 1985, and here I do the same for December of the same year. It's relatively feasible to do this for Rock Bottom shows because they are fun sized, with sets regularly clocking in below 45 minutes.

The shows make for nice comparison pieces in this regard.

Recall these set lengths from August:

DATE      s1      s2           TT      
8/4/85    46:03   31:04      77:07
8/5/85    49:31   48:37      88:08
8/9/85    42:26   38:32      80:58
8/10/85  37:08   34:14      81:22

Here are the December equivalents:

DATE         s1        s2            TT      
12/14/85    47:22   39:24       86:46
12/15/85    42:31   29:02*     71:33 *missing Cats, probably about 8-9 minutes
12/21/85    50:11   34:09       84:20
12/22/85    40:03   44:03       84:06

So, things are not very much different four months on. More than half the sets fit on a tape side (5 of 8 and 6 of 8, respectively). In the case of the December tapes, this is not due to tape discontinuities: Jerry runs from one song to the next with very little time between, and the taper kept things rolling. That sub-35 minute 12/21 II, looks mighty short, but it probably doesn't enter the bottom five for shortest electric sets.

The big difference, then, is in personnel: the August shows involve THE Jerry Garcia Band, #21b, which ran with only a single interruption from ca. July 10, 1984 to November 19, 1993, Jerry's longest-running aggregation. The interruption happened October 1985 - February 1986 when, for reasons unknown, David Kemper was not drumming, replaced by the legendary Oakland funk master Gaylord Birch. Clean inference would really require blind listening, of course. Here I know Gaylord is in the the house, I am listening for distinctive style, and boy do I hear it. Lots more snare and hi-hat, generally busier, not as much in either respect as Kool-Aid Chemist Paul Humphrey, who played with Jerry and Merl in '74, but closer in style to him than, say, the 50-caliber Greg Errico.

This is Birch's third Garciaverse appearance. He played a few gigs in early '75 (January 21-22) with the Saunders-Garcia aggregation, certainly the funkiest and some of the most challenging gigs Garcia ever did. He next manned the chair from January-September 1979 with Reconstruction, again, an outfit that pushed Garcia out of his comfort zone, the last "challenge band" outside the Dead he ever regulalrly played with. (Not coincidentally, also the last band he'd regularly play with that didn't bear his name.) Finally, we find this little interregnum, nine gigs in six months subbing for David Kemper in the Garcia Band.

Table xxx. Gaylord Birch in the Garcia Band, 1985-1986

(Hopefully that gets a little bigger if you click on it! Otherwise, just click the link above the table.)

(Note that Mid Moon ended every show except the first one. The great Walter Keenan has pointed this regularity out to me before, and here we see it plain as day. The Jerry Band setlists never varied as much as GD setlists did, but this is ... striking even for JGB.)

Anyway, Birch simply amazes me at ever turn here. He had played four gigs in October (7th-8th not in circulation, 13th and 14th), then nothing for two months, then returns for these four in December. I doubt there was an awful lot of practicting going on in the interim, though I don't know anything about that for certain. And, yeah, some of these tunes, like "How Sweet It Is", are going to be straightforward enough, even as the Garcia Band's loose-to-unraveling arrangements, gas-brake tempo fluctuations, and general approach to things would have defied a lesser drummer. But then there are the Garcia originals and tunes played in so many different genres that it's hard to imagine Gaylord had thought much about over the years, less still played. Maybe they threw some charts at him or something, but whatever the preparation they provided him, the '85 Garcia Band would certainly have been pretty darn hard to drum for, I'd imagine. Yet Birch seems to have no trouble at all, with anything. He plays most every tune like he's been playing it for years. It's not perfect, but man is it great, and man oh man is it impressive.

I will paste listening notes below the fold. Nothing will really surprise you here, so let me just sketch some moments I dug. Thanks to the legendary Erik VanO for the ticket stub scans!

12/14

s1t01-GOOMLW great way to kick things off. Melvin sounds great, Jerry finds some liquidy goodness midway through.

s1t02-Garcia steps in the Mutron with a big click and a wahh and the crowd hoots appreciatively, knowing that Catfish John is about to happen.

s1t04-Love In The Afternoon, a song he would never have played outside the GD, Gaylord just shines. He does some stuff 6:50-7 that knocks me out.

s1t06-Deal: there will be no surprises here. "The voice during Deal is horrifying. Big scrubba dubba doo later on 6:49, though. Yow! Go to 7 and hear the Great Barcia wail."

Overall, I had more to say about set I than about set II.

12/15

It's getting toward the holidays, and the crowd sounds drunk and ready to party. Elmer Fudd is definitely in the house vocally. But one of the things to note is that Garcia is figuring out, on the fly, how to sing with his now powerfully limited vocal range. He can't just numb up and try to power through. He has to dial back the force and dial in a little bit of singing nuance. This is really the beginning of the rounding, softening of his style over all. In '83-'84, he'd just BLAST. Here, we see the start of a little more circumspection, more befitting a man of his age.

s1t03 my love of pre-coma 80s JGB Knockin's is well known (to myself). This one is just wonderful. From the notes: "Right at 4:01 or so he hits a terrific guitar combo, and a crowd member yelps at it. 4:45 I love the feel of this - it's like the sound of recovery. Oh my, at 8:35 you hear a thing only Gaylord Birch could ever have done with JGB. Trust me, and check it out. What a drummer."

s1t04 a characteristically shreddy balls-to-the-wall wailing guitar Deal

s2t04 I find him doing some interesting picking in Midnight Moonlight, which is really uncommon at this stage.

12/21

Looks like the weakest show of the run on this set of listens - almost no notes.

Interesting to note the following recollection at Jerrybase: "I stood five feet from him the whole night. He didn't open his eyes once. He also stood at the mike, or one step back or at his amp. Not much movement. The show was great." Those observations and that assessment are, of course, not mutually exlcusive when it comes to Rock Bottom Jerry.

12/22

s1t01 CUTS man, yeah, listen to Gaylord! Yowwww!!! And they don't circle aroud too much at the end. Nice.

s1t04 after a nice salty Think (s1t03), Deal is big, as it was wont to be in this period. Gaylord double-timing some 6:15, crazy high-neck Jerry tone 6:30, even higher 6:49, doesn't sound possible. Big raging Deal here for sure. I can't imagine how loud this must have been in situ.

s2t01 Kahn does some neat stuff in HTC. Attaboy, John. Chin up.

s2t05 somehow my silly mind coins another silly acronym: MAMMM: a mile-a-minute Midnight Moonlight. Gaylord's going to need a cortisone shot after this one.

In Sum

All in all, I don't really have many complaints about these. There's lots of good stuff happening. If you need a haircut, go to Deal on any given night. But, generally, I do think there's something to be said for the effect of fresh blood on ol Jer. Looking back at my August notes, I summarized "Overall, I guess I'd say totally characteristic. Some really good guitar work, some lyrical fumbles, vocals getting rougher by the minute." I think these shows are stronger. I would certainly not play these for the unitiated - the vocals are still pretty terrible. (The tapes have the featurebug that the vocals are buried.) But I hear many interesting moments, and a higher average level, here than I did in August. Some of the credit, I think, has to go to Gaylord. This is no knock on Kemper, whom I love. But it's the same way that people sometimes let themselves go after marriage - no need to impress. But if you are looking to get with someone new, or with someone new, you want to sharpen up a little bit. So you're maybe a little more together ex ante. And, then, the new person brings new stuff - surprises. So you need to listen a little more carefully, and you  have some new stuff to respond to. That's all to the good.

This could all, of course, reflect the narrative fallacy. I know Gaylord is here, and I dream up some story that could plausibly flow from that kind of situation. You should certainly go back and check my work, if you are so inclined. But this idea that the fresh blood brought forth better from our guy is my story here, and for now I am sticking to it.

Listening notes below.

Venues not attached to specifics

So I have been trying to cull information from the Big Steve show, which is just amazingly rich with all kinds of wonderful little anecdotes and tales. They don't always line up with the historical record precisely, but the man has an amazing memory and it's all right even when it's not strictly correct.

A few venues have popped up that he discusses for which we have no known specific dates, all mentioned in the context of Garcia On The Side (GOTS). I would love to hear if anyone has memories of Jerry playing these places, or any additional information. Will probably post more as I come across them. update: I have started adding venues thought to have been played, reportedly played, not form the Big Steve Show, but from everywhere.

Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA: experienced and reliable SoCal Deadhead "Paula S. Morgan" said on twitter that she recalls seeing Jerry Band play here in ca. spring 1980.

Frenchy's, Hayward. Big Steve came into the scene in the late 60s, so he is not referring to Warlocks playing there. He seems to discuss it in context of GOTS. But we have no GOTS dates for this venue at Jerrybase.

Paul's Saloon, San Francisco. Grisman had said that Old And In The Way played here (Forte 1979a, 34). It was the center of the Bay Area bluegarss universe for a minute, when bluegrass had its first really huge moment right at the time OAITW was happening. I think a weekly bluegrass show was broadcast from here, as well. But no specifics have ever emerged. Update: in a 2010 correspondence which I just rediscovered, David said "I think Jerry & I dropped in there one night and played a few tunes (in the early days when the back of the stage was in the front window) but the band never had a gig there"

Sand Dollar, Stinson Beach, mentioned in the same breath as the Red Whale (later, The Brigg) and in the context of Old And In The Way and the Stinson period.

Scoreboard, San Rafael: Just seen on FB: "Jerry and Merle would play at the Scoreboard [bar/club] when the Dead were not on the road. The Dead office was two blocks away in downtown San Rafael. This was mid to late 70's." My money is on January 3-4, 1975. More on that eventually.

Stepping Stone, Willits, CA. JGBP has hipped me to a youtube comment indicating that Great American String Band played its first gig at the Stepping Stone in Willits, CA. An online piece says that JGMS played there ca. early '74, and an attendee recalls such a thing.

"Whitey's Place", San Rafael: JGMS "play at some little clubs around Marin, but mainly at Whitey's place in San Rafael" (Scully 1996, 201). This is Whitey Litchfield. Not clear if he is referring to Pepperland, or whether there was a bar attached to the uber-seedy Bermuda Palms (home of a large number of events figuring on the local police report over the years - lots of prostitution, robberies, stabbings, drug deals, etc.).

Woody's Tavern, San Francisco. Harry Angus has sniffed around this one for me, and has found Woody's Tavern, 41 Powell Street, Owner Joe Francisco, listed in the Polk's Directory 1969-1973, then gone.

xxx Rehearsal space next to Red Tillman's automotive shop, Jacoby Street (now a different street name), San Rafael, ca. September 1971 when Keith was being rehearsed.