Dating the September 1971 Lion's Share Gigs

Consider this a throwback post, in that it does what the blog started out doing, and that's just trying to correct and fill out metadata around Garciavents. Here, I argue that the material we know from circulating tapes as 9/24/71 is actually from the next night, 9/25/71, also at the Lion's Share in San Anselmo. The post also serves to pin down a third set of music from the four played this weekend, from newly digitized (and, as of today, circulated) tape of what, I argue, should be seen as the 9/24/71 late show.

Tom Fogerty left Creedence Clearwater Revival on February 1, 1971 (Boucher 1972), seeking to escape the domineering shadow of his little brother John and carve out his own musical identity. Around May 26, 1971, he first sat in with Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders and their unnamed group, at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco. He gigged on and off with them for a year-and-a-half, while also doing all kinds of studio work at The House That Creedence Built (Fantasy in Berkeley). He continued collaborating on Merl's Fire Up into late spring '73 before exiting the Garciaverse. Some of his correspondence with Merl lives in the GD Archives, and from what we can glean he was a sweet and generous guy who was very fond of his labelmate. He continued to play and record through ongoing back problems, fell on some hard personal times, and apparently contracted HIV/AIDS from an unscreened blood transfusion connected with a back surgery in the early 80s. This led to his untimely demise from a tuberculosis infection at the age of 49 on September 6, 1990.

I have yet to come to a clear understanding of my own of the mix of music and commerce (especially, the role of Fantasy Records) in the "Tom Fogerty Era" of the Garcia-Saunders group, partly because, outside studio recordings, so few tapes of them playing live are available to hear. The first pop up almost four months after his arrival, in September 1971, with two widely-circulated sets from the Lion's Share which I will focus on here. After that, the next tape comes June 30, 1972 at the Korner, and then December 28, 1972, again in San Anselmo. That's it - though tape exists of September 20, 1971 at the Inn of the Beginning in Cotati, and December 5, 1972 at the Boarding House in the city, it does not circulate. And, while he figured in some billings early in 1973, it seems highly unlikely that he ever gigged with these guys after 1972. 

We currently list 48 Tom Fogerty events at Jerrybase, we have a few setlists from newspaper reviews and attendee recollections, and now pieces of five shows. Tragically, all of our JB listings are for public events. Fantasy has remained completely opaque in terms of session dates, which I estimate might number in the few dozens from 1970 or 1971 through 1974 or 1975.

As a result of all of this, the little tape that we have is precious. I have spent considerable time with it trying to glean some insight into the Fogerty Era. It's risky to extrapolate much from the little we can hear, of course. But it seems clear that he and Jerry shared a love for 50s R&B numbers such as Hank Ballard and the Midnighters' "Annie Had A Baby" (1954), The Four Deuces' "W-P-L-J" (1956), and Jimmy Reed's straighter blues "Baby What You Want Me To Do?" (1959), the latter of which the Dead played a few times but none of which is known to have appeared in any other GOTS configuration. They also played Jesse Winchester's super-sweet "Biloxi" from his 1970 debut, and a bunch of tunes that otherwise seem part of the Garcia-Saunders repertoire of the period, insofar as we can know it.

The Lion's Share gigs on September 24-25, 1971 were well advertised and, in a refreshing change of pace, Fogerty's name preceded Garcia's. Yayyy, Jerry! (We celebrate this because the guy just wanted to play, he didn't need or necessarily want top-billing). Maybe it was just done alphabetically. Anyway, only the Berkeley Tribe specifies early (9 PM) and late (11:30 PM) shows. The ads all identify Jerry Corbitt, Billy Cox, and Charlie Daniels (yes, the one you've heard of) opening, though for some reason Jerrybase currently shows Loading Zone and Congress of Wonders the first night instead of them. Gideon and Power were also on the bill the second night, per the Lion's Share calendar.

My partner David Minches and I have just had the pleasure of working with 1971-1972 Lion's Share soundman Lou Judson to arrange a fresh transfer of these old tapes. The three from this September 1971 weekend present, first, a Sony PR-150 labeled "Friday 24 Sept 71 last 1/2 hr)".

The labeling is confirmed by the end of the recording, where the emcee says "Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, Tom Fogerty and Bill Kreutzmann. They'll be back tomorrow night, for another two shows, along with Jerry Corbitt and Charlie Daniels. Come back and bring your friends. Thank you for comin', and good night." So this is clearly 9/24/71b. As you will hear when the seed hits the ether, this is distinct music that has never circulated among collectors.

It seems that there probably was a first reel from this night, but, alas, it remains MIA.

But wait, you say - don't circulating filesets already purport to include 9/24/71b? Indeed, they do. But these tapes clearly establish that they are mis-dated, and derive from the second night. Lou's other two reels from the weekend are Sony SLH-180 stock, and clearly labeled "September 25 Saturday '71 first set" and "September 25, 1971 second set".

The material on these tapes corresponds to the material that has long circulated as 9/24/71. But it is actually 9/25/71.

Last thing to do is pin down what we can from the partial setlist for 9/24/71b, and post listening notes from all three sets of material. That stuff follows.

~~~~~

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA 94960
September 24, 1971 (Friday) - Late Show / reel #2
Judson MSR > HD 2022

--end of late show (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 30:28)--
19710924-l-t01. [0:46] Annie Had A Baby [3:21] ->
19710924-l-t02. W-P-L-J [3:48] [1:07]
19710924-l-t03. Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do? [5:16] [1:08]
19710924-l-t04. I Was Made To Love Her [7:51] [1:05]
19710924-l-t05. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [5:31]
19710924-l-t06. outro (2) [0:36]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Tom Fogerty - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - 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/19710924

! db: none in circulation from this date. The following are mistakenly dated 9/24/71, but are actually 9/25/71: https://etreedb.org/shn/4497 (early and late, via Shriver shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/137584 (Reel Master 10inch Master Reel@7.5ips 1/2trk > DAT, via Eaton-Scotton-Miller-SirMick); https://etreedb.org/shn/138213 (raw version of shnid-137584)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/FCaYZGNhk21VzhvF6

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/lions-share-60-red-hill-avenue-san.html

! personnel: NB no bass.

! R: field recordist: Lou Judson

! R: field recording gear: PA line out > Viking 88

! R: field recording media: Sony PR-150 1/4" x 7" @7.5ips stereo (tape "GS6")

! R: lineage: MSR Sony 854-4 playback > Sound Devices 744T (24 bit / 96kHz wav) > editing and mastering by David Minches, July 2022.

! t02 (1) @ 4:27 JG: "No dancing in the Lion's Share. At least - nobody's dancing in the Lion's Share. [inaudible] dancing right around here [inaudible] I don't know [inaudible]

! R: t05 some kind of noise in TNTDODD, not sure if it's tape or equipment

! t06 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot folks. See y'all later." Emcee: "Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, Tom Fogerty and Bill Kreutzmann. They'll be back tomorrow night, for another two shows, along with Jerry Corbitt and Charlie Daniels. Come back and bring your friends. Thank you for comin', and good night."

~~~~~

Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA 94960
September 25, 1971 (Saturday)
Judson MSR > HD 2022

--early show (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 51:56)--
e-t01. Introduction (1) [1:09]
e-t02. Save Mother Earth [11:38] ->
e-t03. Imagine [5:19] (2) [2:28]
e-t04. One Kind Favor [8:45] [1:25]
e-t05. I Was Made To Love Her [9:53] [0:32]
e-t06. Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do? [3:47] [0:04] %
e-t07. Biloxi [6:51] [0:06]

--late show (7 tracks, 51:55)--
l-t01. [0:15] Hi-Heel Sneakers [8:36] [1:10]
l-t02. Man-Child [10:21] ->
l-t03. Summertime [10:07] [1:14]
l-t04. That's A Touch I Like [5:47] (3) [1:52]
l-t05. Annie Had A Baby [2:55] ->
l-t06. W-P-L-J [3:17] [0:13] %
l-t07. [0:19] The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [5:40] (4) [0:09]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Tom Fogerty - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: John Kahn - electric bass;
! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - 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/19710925

! db, mistakenly dated 9/24/71: https://etreedb.org/shn/4497 ("MSR>1C>D etc.", via Ryan Shriver and Danny Metz); https://etreedb.org/shn/137584 ("MSR>DAT etc.", via Paul Scotton and SIRMick); https://etreedb.org/shn/138213 (raw transfer of Scotton DAT). Prior to 8/9/2022, no sources have circulated dated 9/25/71, which is the correct date for this material.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/FCaYZGNhk21VzhvF6

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/lions-share-60-red-hill-avenue-san.html

! R: field recordist: Lou Judson

! R: field recording gear: PA line out > Viking 88

! R: field recording media: 2x Sony SLH-180 1/4" x 7" @7.5ips 1/4 trk stereo (tapes "GS7" and "GS8")

! R: lineage: MSR Sony 854-4 playback > Sound Devices 744T (24 bit / 96kHz wav) > editing and mastering by David Minches, July 2022.

! e-t01 (1) JG: "Hey - whoever it is that controls the lights, could ya turn 'em down, these ones here? Ahh, yes. Keep it going ... thanks, great. You can turn 'em down even farther ... that's good. [To band] Can you guys see well enough?" Tom: "Oh yeah, for sure." Emcee: Let's have a warm welcome for Jerry Garcia, Tom Fogerty, Merl Saunders, and ... friends." JG: "That's, uh, John Kahn and Bill Kreutzmann, are the 'friends'." Emcee: "Thank you." JG: "Don't mention it."

! P: e-t02 SME very slowly paced. @ 7:30 JG pedals in a little wah or whatever that is. Things getting melty in 9.

! e-t03 (2) Tom: "Can we get some beer and apple juice, please?" JG: "And a little bit of light - just the tiniest little bit" [some chuckles].

! R: e-t07 Biloxi patched in from shnid-137584. How it could be complete there and not here is a mystery ...

! P: l-t01 HHS Tom's buzzsaw tone fatigues my ears

! P: l-t02 Man-Child John starts rumbling fantastically in 6

! l-t04 (3) Tom: "Can we please have some beers and, uhh, two apple juices?"

! R: l-t07 TNTDODD in mono

! l-t07 (4) JG: "Thanks a lot. Good night."

New-to-The-List from the Digitized Chronicle

After spending X hours over X years spinning microfilm to try to find the needles of unListed Garcia gigs in the haystack of the Chronicle, the paper has been digitized.

Je ne regrette rien!

That said, I was able to find a few listings for The List. At this point, I cannot imagine we are missing more than a handful of Bay Area gigs about which information was actually printed somewhere.

2/15/71 JGMS at Matrix (via JLW "Something Else").
11/3/71 JGMS at Keystone Korner ("" "").
12/22/71 JGMS at Keystone Korner ("" ""). Just says Jerry Garcia, presume JGMS.
12/28/71 JGMS at New Monk ("" "").
12/29/71 JGMS at New Monk ("" "").
1/31/73 JGMS at Keystone Berkeley (via listings). This one turned up on a search for Tom Fogerty, who is listed, because JG is listed as Jerry Garcilea.

Update your Lists.

New-to-The-List from the Examiner, 1973-end

This is a followup to New-to-The-List from the Examiner, 1970-1972. I include new-to-The-List dates, some that were advertised and seem to have been canceled, a few other weird things I uncovered. The Examiner was quite a task. If the Chronicle were digitized, that'd be the last frontier for me. At this point, returns are diminishing, so if it comes online after 2018 I might skim it, but will certainly be less thorough in entering stuff into my spreadsheet than I have been with the Examiner. There's only so much time.

New to The List

It's possible that some of these didn't happen, of course. But I found these and couldn't find disconfirming evidence of them.

1/30/73 (Tuesday): JGMS at Keystone
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, January 30, 1973, p. 21.

8/12/73 (Sunday): JGMS at the end of Magellan Road, El Granada. "Jazz-rock concert featuring Merl Saunders and friends (including Jerry Garcia) at the end of Magellan Road" in El Granada, presented by Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.
! listing: SFSECDB19730812p07.

1/3/74 (Thursday): JGMS at Keystone
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, January 3, 1974, p. 29.

3/30/74 (Saturday): JGMS at Keystone Stockton. Of course they played Freddie's shortlived venture out in the sticks!

Jerry Garcia and Merle [sic] Saunders, plus Paul Pena, at the Keystone Stockton, Saturday, March 30, 1974. Ad in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, March 24, 1974, p. 27.

! listing: SFSECDB19740324p04;
! ad: SFSECDB19740324p27.

6/3/74 (Monday): JGMS at Keystone. One can wonder if, like the rest of the shows this week, this gig featured Tony Saunders on bass.
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, June 3, 1974, p. 32.

6/15/77 (Wednesday): JGB at Keystone Palo Alto
! ad: SFSECDB19770529p39.

4/13/79 (Friday): Reconstruction at the Rio Theatre. I had already concluded that Reconstruction did not play the Denver Rainbow on this date, despite tape labels to the contrary. Here's more evidence against a Denver gig.
! listing: SFSECDB19790401p14.

7/16/80 (Wednesday): JGB at Keystone
! ad: SFSECDB19800713p10.

6/10/82 (Thurday): JGB at the Stone. Ad says "note new SF date". Earlier ads had JGB at Stone on 6/13. So I suspect that show was canceled and this one replaced it.
! ad: SFSECDB-19820606p28.

7/10-11/84 (Tuesday-Wednesday): JGB at Keystone Palo Alto. Hard to imagine a show this late not having imprinted itself, but it was a midweek down south, before the internet.
! listing: SFSECDB-19840708p14.

CXL

6/10/75 (Tuesday): JGMS at Keystone. I wonder if this cancellation had to do with Jerry being occupied by the United Artists deal, which I date to the next day?
! ad: SFSECDB19750525p29;
! ad: [contra] SFSECDB19750608p29.

12/16/79 (Sunday): JGB at Keystone. This was rescheduled for the next night.
! ad: SFSECDB19791209p24.

12/20/81 (Sunday): JGB at Keystone
! ad: SFSECDB19811206p14;
! ad: [contra] SFSECDB19811213p10.

6/13/82 (Sunday): JGB at Stone. This in earlier ads, then later ads show late addition on 6/10 at Stone, and this show gone. So I suspect this was cxl and replaced by that one. See entry for 6/10/82 above.
! ad: SFSECDB-19820530p22.

10/29/82 (Friday): JGB at Keystone. This is a weird one, listed as late as the day of the show. But Garcia left LA on PSA #348 dep 2:55 PM arr 4 PM in Arizona, and was supposed to check into the Fiesta Inn in Tempe for the next night's gig in Mesa, AZ. He might have flown home instead, gigged, and then gone from home back down to the southwest, I guess. But for now I will list this as canceled.
! ad: SFSECDB19821003p19;
! ad: SFSECDB19821010p24;
! listing: SFE19821028pE2.

2/25/83 (Friday): JGB at Keystone. I have this as canceled and re-scheduled for the 28th.
! ad: SFSECDB19830213p19.

Confusing

8/6/73 (Monday): Keystone. The same set of listings show both Herbie Hancock and Steve Head, on the one hand, and JGMS, on the other, playing for Freddie in Berkeley.
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, August 6, 1973, p. 28.

1/21/83 (Friday): JGB at KPA, or Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma? Contradictory info out there. On the one hand, there's an announcement of the Petaluma show in a Norcal paper the day of the show, and Jerry gave an interview to a Norcal radio station that day. He is known to have played Petaluma the next day. On the other hand, an earlier listing in the Examiner had him at Keystone Palo Alto.
! listing: [contra] San Francisco Examiner, January 20, 1983, p. E2;
! preview: "Jerry Garcia performs tonight at the Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma", Ukiah Daily Journal, January 21, 1983, p. 8.

New-to-The-List from the Examiner, 1970-1972

In addition to the tantalizing May 20-21, 1969 Garcia gigs at the Matrix, the newly-digitized Examiner has yielded a good number of previously unlisted, mostly-midweek Garcia gigs. A little list  from 1970-1972 follows.

update: see also a subsequent list from 1973-end

11/2/70 (Monday): Jerry Garcia / BBHC / Ice / Cleveland Wrecking Company. Harding Theater. Benefit for A Learning Place. I don't know if this would have been NRPS or JGMS; I am listing as JGMS for no particular reason.
! Listing: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, November 1, 1970, p. 27;
! Listing: San Francisco Examiner, November 2, 1970, p. 35.
! seealso: https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/11/ca-november-1-2-1970-fragments.html.

1/5/71 (Tuesday): JGMS at Matrix
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, January 5, 1971, p. 24.

2/4/71 (Thursday): JGMS at Matrix
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, February 4, 1971, p. 25.

3/30/71 (Tuesday): NRPS at Matrix. I interpret this as warmup for the east coast tour. BTW, they also played the next night, according to a redacted source, so we can add 3/31/71 (Wednesday), same band and room.
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, March 30, 1971, p. 24.

11/24/71 (Wednesday): JGMS at Keystone Korner. Garcia's first-known gig for Freddie Herrera had happened the night before Thanksgiving the year before with the New Riders. Jerry and Merl reprise the gig on its first anniversary.
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, November 24, 1971, p. 20.

1/18/72 (Tuesday): JGMS at Lion's Share
! Listing: San Francisco Examiner, January 18, 1972, p. 21.

3/1/72 (Wednesday): JGMS at Keystone Berkeley (formerly New Monk). I now understand this to be the very first night for the so-named Keystone at the corner of University and Shattuck. It's a fitting indicator of the centrality of Garcia to Freddie's enterprises that he would play this opening night at the old Monk. (See also "Jerry and Freddie, mid-March 1972".)
! Listing: San Francisco Examiner, March 1, 1972, p. 33.

6/3/72 (Saturday): JGMS at Keystone Korner
! Listing: San Francisco Examiner, June 3, 1972, p. 10.

8/31/72 (Thursday): JGMS at Keystone Berkeley
! Listing: San Francisco Examiner, August 31, 1972, p. 31.

12/26/72 (Tuesday): JGMS at Keystone Korner. This one puzzles me, because the KK would have been under Barkan's ownership at this point. Barkan has narrated that he once hosted Jerry and Merl (after he started booking the room on July 7th), but didn't dig the vibe and stuck thereafter with jazz. This could well be that very gig. I still don't know what to make of a listing for JGB at KK four years later, of course ...
! Listing: San Francisco Examiner, December 26, 1972, p. 28.

Jerry Garcia and Friends, Sanpaku at the Matrix: May 20-21, 1969

Fascinating.

I told you all that the Examiner would yield many interesting things. Well, this is one of the most interesting. Sometimes skimming cream is worth the price of later anticlimax.

Jerry Garcia and Friends and Sam Paku [sic: Sanpaku] at the Matrix, Tuesday, May 20 and Wednesday, May 21, 1969.

Garcia's first understood public pedal steel playing happened 5/14/69 at the Underground, supposedly a Hofbrau house in Menlo Park, understood just to be him and Marmaduke. The second instance was the second day of this listing, 5/21/69.

So, do we imagine this is Jerry and his pedal steel, and maybe Marmaduke and his songs?

If not, then what?

Stinson History

Stinson Beach Music Scene Time Line: 1960s to the Present

The site above was just brought to my attention. I can't find an email for anyone in the organization based on a cursory search, so I thought I post some reactions here.

The prompt for all of this is the newly digitized source for the OAITW gig at the Stinson Community Center on September 30, 1973, same source tape as an older source I have sketchily blogged. I haven't had time to look back at this in detail, but I also want to pin Corry's post on an early OAITW gig at a Stinson Beach bar.

The point of this post is to post some corrections and ask some questions about entries in the Stinson Historical Society page that heads the post. If anyone knows any of the principals and wishes to draw their attention to the corrections, they might be interested.

“Blows Against the Empire” and “Mexico” (1969) - Jefferson Airplane

Recordings for BATE started in July 1970, just to be clear. Not sure what the Stinson connection is supposed to be here.

1970 – Peter Rowan moves to Stinson Beach from Mill Valley, where he had been playing in bands such as Seatrain and Earth Opera. Also recently been spending time playing with bluegrass legend Bill Monroe. He moves into a house on Calle del Ribera and pays $100/month in rent. He ends up writing one song inspired by Stinson Beach: “Riding the Rainbow in the Sky,” which was never released on a record.

The liner notes to Breakdown say PR arrived in Stinson Beach in October 1972.

8/27/71 - Jerry Garcia and others play at the club known as “The Red Whale,” which is located where the current Stinson Beach Water County District is located on Highway One just past the turn off for Calle del Arroyo. It would later be renovated and renamed “The Brigg.” Still later, it would be renovated again and renamed the “Over the Hill Bar and Grill.”

Mmmmm, a specific date which I don't have. I would love to know the source of this information! In the meantime, I will add it to my spreadsheet. I am presuming this would be the NRPS warming up earlier in the day before gigging at the Longbranch this night, but of course I can't be sure.

One rumor has it that the only time Jerry Garcia met John Lennon was during this time period in Stinson Beach.

Sounds familiar, but I will pin this possible crossing here.

Autumn 1972 – Jerry Garcia & David Grisman play bluegrass music several times, with Jerry practicing his banjo whenever he can after they bumped into each other at Ed’s Superette as Garcia was buying cigarettes.

I thought the story of their hooking back up in Stinson was that Pete Rowan walked Dawg (or vice versa) up the hill to Garcia's. This doesn't rule out that they bumped into each other at Ed's Superette, of course.

January 1973 – ... After playing at “Avila's Barn,” Jerry Garcia names David Grisman "Dawg" after he saw dog following Grisman on the beach at Stinson.

Avila's Barn doesn't ring a bell to me, though I bet that if I check Corry's "unknown bar" post it's mentioned there. update: I think the name is not "Avila" but Avella - so, Avella's Barn. I have changed it in my tag.

1973 [sic] - Goldie Rush starts Round Records above Ed’s Superette in 1973

First, the name "Goldie Rush" was new to me, and it shouldn't be, because apparently she was heavily involved in Round Records. Second, though, 1973 is too early, at least for "starts" in any formally institutionalized sense. Round Records was incorporated in the state of California on January 22, 1974.

1977 [sic] – David Jenkins (guitar) and Cory Lerois (keyboards) move to Stinson Beach, both members of the band Pablo Cruise. Lerois buys Mountain Girl/Jerry Garcia’s old house, and does a major remodel.

No. This was early 1978.

1979/1980 – The band “The Edge” is formed by Lorin Rowan, Mark Stein, Jim Dillon, Keith Glanz and Ozzie Ahleve [sic]

Correction: last fellow's name is Ozzie Ahlers.

Twenty-Seven Performances in Twenty-Four Days: April 6-30, 1973

update 20240414: we now know that the Four Nights at the Boarding House were all two-show nights. Math may have to be updated. I am also dinging the uncertain 4/28 at the Plant, as recently discussed here. I now believe this was spurious.

Yup: I now count 27 performances in these 24 days. Edit title yet again.

update: commenter RoG has brought two more gigs to my attention, Wed-Thurs April 25-26 with JGMS at Keystone, so the title has changed from "Twenty-Two" to "Twenty-Four". All the more remarkable.

update2: oh yeah, I forget to mention another little detail from this period: on April 19th, the Dead decided to start up their own record label (Perry 1973, 50; Troy 1994, 155). Because Garcia didn't have enough going on.

I got to commune with more Chronicle microfilm a few days ago, and managed to spin through January 1, 1973 through August 10, 1973. I didn't gather every last listing, just too little time, but I gathered a bunch. These first eight months of 1973 yielded three New-to-The-List gigs, all Garcia-Saunders: April 10-11, 1973 at the Orphanage, and May 24, 1973 at the Keystone.

SFC19730409p45, listing for 4/10/73 JGMS at the Orphanage

SFC19730410p36, Datebook listing for 4/10/73 JGMS at the Orphanage

SFC19730411p41, listing for 4/11/73 JGMS at Orphanage

SFC19730523p58, listing for 5/24/73 JGMS at Keystone

Ah, Garcia, you amaze me.

The last entry lets us see that Jerry played with three bands, three different styles, over three days in May '73: Jerry and Merl on the 24th, plus already-known shows with Old And In The Way at Bimbo's on the 25th, and of course the Dead, with NRPS and Waylon Jennings also playing, at Kezar Stadium on the 26th.

Even more strikingly, these new-to-The-List April shows, Tuesday-Wednesday gigs, fill in a remarkable run from that month. I have already written about OAITW in Santa Barbara on the 12th, a four night run at the Boarding House right after these gigs, two with Merl playing inter alia black contemporary, and two with Dawg and Pete Rowan and the rest playing white roots music, taking a deep dive into Friday the 13th, which got a review in the Stanford Daily (Harlow 1973), and also some listening notes from the 16th. But with these shows, we see a truly insane month of shows once the Dead got back from the east coast.

April 6-8: JGMS at Keystone

April 9: off night (Monday - slacker)

April 10-11: JGMS at Orphanage

April 12: OAITW at the Granada in Santa Barbara (2 shows)

April 13-14: JGMS at Boarding House (4 shows)

April 15-16: OAITW at Boarding House (4 shows)

April 17: off night (Tuesday)

April 18: OAITW session at the Record Plant (uncertain)

April 19-21: OAITW at Lion's Share

April 21: afternoon FM broadcast live from the Record Plant

April 22: off night (Sunday)

April 23: OAITW at Orphanage

April 24: OAITW at the Inn of the Beginning

April 25-26: JGMS at Keystone off nights, only consecutive nights off since this run started, and since 3-4-5 after Dead flew back home

April 27-28: OAITW at Keystone

April 29: night off (Sunday)

April 30: OAITW at Orphanage

Now, there are a few uncertain dates in there. But if my reckoning is correct, and without counting thigh dubious 4/18 session in Sausailo, this is 272422 performances in 24 days, 

I note that Selvin referred to the Orphanage as a "cocaine speakeasy" (Selvin 1996, 37). This which might have come in handy given the unprecedentedly hectic pace of the month's musical pursuits.

Hooteroll? with Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia - Crouse Auditorium, Syracuse University, January 22, 1972

Previously unknown gig. Thanks to carville for sharing!

Old And In The Way at the Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara

Several years ago, Richard Greene was kind enough to work through some of his old datebooks with me over the phone. He showed himself at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara on Thursday, April 12, 1973, a date for which no Old And In The Way (OAITW) gig has been listed. I thought it was possible that he was playing with someone else this night --the man has always been highly sought after-- but I listed it as OAITW and vowed to check for clarification the next time I found myself in S.B. In the meantime, I even surmised that one of the undated OAITW live sets in circulation could be the very show, given the provenance of the tape, the room feel, other details. update: yes, I think that is correct! Among other things, the expost I identify below confirms that Orange Blossom Special closed the show, just one more piece of evidence.

I did turn up more confirmation for the gig

! ad: Daily Nexus, April 12, 1973, p. 5.

Nice to see Doc Watson opening the show, a year before he and Jer would share billings at the Golden State Country Bluegrass Festival in Marin. The preview hints that Doc might join OAITW, but it appears not to have happened. Note two shows. Note further that Richard doesn't make the billing, though he was there. Note finally that this was Doc and Merle.

update: the UCSB Daily Nexus is now available online through https://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu, and I have found the following.

! preview: Haight 19730412

! review: [positive] Haight 19730419

Anyway, this is now pinned down just a little bit more. And here's the Granada in the present time:

Last note: the ad here says "Theatre", and in comments JGBP points out that the current website also has it that way. Just note that Cinema Treasures and a 1975 LOM ad both say 'er', apparently incorrectly.

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.

JGMS, July 12, 1972, Town & Country, Ben Lomond

This has been in my paper files and, looking for something for Corry, I found something else he might be interested in, as we all must be: an ad for a previously unregistered Jerry Garcia - Merle [sic] Saunders - Tom Fogerty - Bill Vitt - and Friends (John Kahn must have counted as two) gig at the Town & Country in Ben Lomond, Wednesday, July 12, 1972.

More for Corry's list of Garcia in Santa Cruz County.

! seealso: JGMF: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/12/jgms-july-13-15-1972-uncertain.html

Lost Godchaux-Muldaur Era JGB

New to The List:  Stanford Daily listing shows JGB at Keystone Berkeley Saturday, August 12, 1978 (long known via the Soto-McNally-Arnold JG List, and there is tape), but also Sunday, August 13, 1978. The latter would be new to The List.

 ! listing: Stanford Daily, August 11, 1978, p. 7. 

Still Uncertain? 11/4/78 and a Bonus Speculation

I don't know where things stand with respect to the "So What" show, Friday 11/3/78, or the next night (11/4/78) as the last Garcia Band shows of the Godchaux era, four months before they'd last play with the Dead. 11/4/78 has a question mark in the Soto-McNally-Arnold JG List. JGBP: "I was at the 11/3/78 show, I thought this was the last one, as they played an unusual So What to open the second set. From recollection, I don't think 11/4/78 happened." Those are two strikes against it.

For what it's worth, the 11/4/78 show was listed in the Stanford Daily of 11/2, and I now have the following around that show:

! listing: Stanford Daily, November 2, 1978, p. 9;
! listing: BAM no. 43 (November 3, 1978), p. 10;
! ref: Arnold, Corry. 2011. "So What" The Jerry Garcia Band: Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA November 3, 1978. Hooterollin’ Around, May 13, 2011, URL http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/05/so-what-jerry-garcia-band-keystone-palo.html, consulted 12/28/2013;
! ref: JGBP comment at JGMF, January 11, 2014 at 6:15:00 PM MST, URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/04/jgb-january-26-1976-keystone-berkeley.html?showComment=1389489304453#c2232559722495631241.

So the Saturday 11/4 show was advertised well, but canceled. The Friday show has the "So What" bustout, and JGBP reckoned at the time that Friday was the last show. How do we reconcile these observations? The Stanford Daily was just that, a daily, so the November 3-4 listings could have been called in on Halloween or 11/1, right? Maybe even 11/2? And then something happens to result in the lucrative Saturday show getting canceled.

Deadhead rumor mill (and maybe The Sources) have always hinted that Keith stole some of Garcia's drugs. If the foregoing things are true (that as of 11/1 the Saturday gig was still on, by 11/3 it was off) - I speculate that this represents a window within in which things changed rather abruptly for the Godchaux Era JGB.

p.s. it's remarkable that there are still potential shows to discover as late as 1978.

JGMS September 9, 1971 - Harding Theater - New to The List

A few years ago we had a good time talking around some putative Dead shows at the Harding Theater, 616  Divisadero, on September 3-4, 1971. These shows have never been known from anything other than the listing I found, and they may not have happened.

I mentioned there the odd cluster of September 1971 Garciavents at the Harding - a September 10 JGMS billing and the NRPS gig from 9/23/71, in addition to the first weekend of the month. I have one more to add to The List, a Garcia-Saunders billing at the Harding on Thursday, September 9, 1971, per both a Datebook listing and an item in the SFC.

So now we have 3rd and 4th with GD, 9th and 10th with Merl and 23rd with the New Riders, all within the same month. That may be some kind of record - Jerry playing the same room with three different bands in the same month.

listing: DB, SFC, September 9, 1971, p. 44;
item: "Garcia, Fogerty at Harding," SFC, September 9, 1971, p. 44.

NRPS: July 24-25, 1971, New Monk - New to The List

listing: "Rock, Jazz This Week in Bay Area," SFC, July 23, 1971, p. 45.

New Riders are scheduled to play Freddie Herrera's New Monk Saturday-Sunday, July 24-25, 1971. Commander Cody slated to open. New to The List.

"Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders & Tom Fogerty Sat-Sun, New Monk"

SFC 7/2/71 p. 52

Last year I spun some 1970 and early 1971 microfilm of the San Francisco Chronicle, and found seven new-to-The-List shows in a three-month span. If you follow the blog or scroll down a bit chronologically, you'll see that I have continued to discover more in the 1971-1972 period, and even as far out as 1974. I hope they are all tagged TJS-addition; that's my code for stuff that's new to The List, newly discovered Garcia shows. So long as there is nothing that fills the function of the much-missed Jerry Site, allowing updates from fan research, first-hand accounts, materials, etc., all in a classic List format, it will be especially important to track the bread crumbs that pop up along the way.

So, obviously I am searching these calendar listings and such because I believe there are still shows out there to discover, hiding in plain site on microfilm.

But, this, I never expected to find.

On Friday, July 2, the Grateful Dead played the Closing of the Fillmore West run, Garcia pulling off the rare trifecta of playing with three bands in the same day - the Rowan Brothers, the New Riders of the Purple Sage (NRPS), and the Dead. I need to think hard about when this might ever have happened again; maybe it never did. This night he played from 8:30 p.m. - 3 a.m. (Wasserman 1971).

The Fillmore West events would continue through the Fourth of July. Yet the 7/2 music listings show that Garcia would be otherwise occupied.

"Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders & Tom Fogerty Sat-Sun, New Monk"

It would appear that on July 3-4, 1971, while Fillmore West drew most of the eyes and ears, Garcia-Saunders-Kahn-Vitt and new arrival Tom Fogerty, did some tunes. Without elaborating all of the evidence here, I think Fogerty came in only mid-1971, and maybe as recently as the week before this (i.e., around 6/25/71 or 6/26/71). Fogerty lived in a big ol' Tudor or something in Berkeley, and the New Monk specifically, and working for Freddie Herrera generally (i.e., also at Keystone Korner) seemed to be working out really well. Fogerty would inhabit the Garciaverse for 18 months. The New Monk would become Keystone Berkeley, Garcia's musical home base for more than a decade (see also data).

The Sunday night July 4th show, especially, appeals to my aesthetic - a hot summer night (I haven't actually checked that - could have been cold and foggy) in Berkeley, friends and music for the 4th.  There's something very picturesque to me, very resonant with a une certaine idée de Garcia, about him finding a way, while he could, to take advantage of the fact that the spotlight was elsewhere to just play to the beer and sawdust set. Sign me up!

REFERENCE

Wasserman, John L. 1971. When the Music Finally Stopped. San Francisco Chronicle, July 5, 1971, p. 37. 

JGMS: May 25, 1971 Keystone Korner: new to The List

San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 1971, p. 42.

Garcia and Saunders listed for Tuesday, May 25, 1971 at Keystone Korner. New to The List.

More color around Friends and Relations and the Tuesday Fillmore West auditions.

JGMS: Matrix, May 11-12, 1971

There is a great half-hour tape labeled as Garcia-Saunders at the Matrix, May 11, 1971. I had always thought it was a little suspect, as I had never seen any other corroborating information, though it is listed at the Chicken's Matrix List.

This calendar listing from the San Francisco Chronicle (May 10, 1971, p. 45) not only puts JGMS at Matrix on Tuesday, May 11, but also Wednesday, May 12 - a new show to The List.

For color, I have been entering most everything I come across for 660 Great Highway. In 1971, I track Keystone Korner listings, since Freddie was still running it. I have also been entering the Tuesday auditions at Fillmore West whenever I find them - they have historically been absent from the Chicken's Fillmore West List, which originated in posters (of which there were none for the auditions). See Corry and Ross's lists of Tuesday Fillmore auditions for 1968-69 and 1970-71 for what I think is a more updated take on all of that.

No, I don't know who titular Jack is. I assume it's related to the SF mayoral elections, as many benefits seem to have been held at Friends and Relations. I assume based on today's electoral calendars that these were primaries, to select party candidates for the ca. November elections, but I don't know that.

JGMS: June 11, 1974 Keystone Berkeley - new to The List

So here's a new one for The List: JGMS at Keystone on Tuesday, June 11, 1974.

But note, too, that Merl is playing Sand Dunes on Monday the 10th - this could very easily be a Monday on which Garcia sat in. The fact that Tony Saunders played with Merl and Jerry the week prior (June 4 and June 6) makes it seem even more likely to me. The fact that Jerry played under Merl's billing on May 31-June 1 at the Inn of the Beginning is also suggestive.

No proof will ever turn up, of course, so this can remain little more than speculation. But I sure would have liked to belly up to the bar at the Sand Dunes on this Monday, in the thick fog and salt, and catch some tunes.

Read more:

• Jerry with Merl and/or Martin, ca. 1974, The Sand Dunes 
• JGMS: "July 21-22," 1974, Keystone, Berkeley, CA

JGMS October 5, 1972 - Keystone - new to The List

I have Friday and Saturday shows in The List, but this Thursday listing is new to me.

JGMS August 5-6, 1972 Lion's Share - new to The List

As the title says, per listing under the North Bay section, center column.

Lots of other interesting stuff, by way of color.