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.

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."

Nice RAC, Señor: JGB at the Warfield, April 25, 1994, set II

Not much bandwidth these days, so some bullets.

1) I am way behind on posting listening notes. I have lots backed up, and many of them are pretty spare. I have sometimes threatened to post these kind of notes in batches, just to get them out of my mind, and not always followed up. This time might (or might not) be different.

2) I wonder what the story is behind the random 90s JGB board tapes that circulate? I suspect every one of them has an interesting story, because there was not systematic leakage of these - Cutler kept a pretty tight lid on things, and there was just less demand for these than for contemporary GD tapes.

3) Jerry sounds old, but much better here than five days earlier. Higher asymmetric --downside-- variance in this period than any other. The Rock Bottom period had higher overall variance, comparing the killer high guitar peaks with the killer low vocal troughs. Ten years later, the highs don't get so high, but, as on 4/20/94, the lows could get really low. 4/25/94 II is pretty good, nothing too problematic.

3) "Money Honey" got a re-arranged ending somewhere in the late period. I would kind of like to pin down when it showed up.

4) Nice "Reuben And Cherise" here. It's my favorite Garcia Band song, and I think I hold it to a pretty high standard. It sometimes went 'round the bases too many times at the end, stuck in the same rut that its album-mate "Cats Under The Stars" often found. But Jerry is mindful here to throw in enough wrinkles to make things interesting.

5) Final JGB "Señor". Sigh. I love love love love love this tune so much. He mumbles a fair share of the lyrics, but there's some good stuff here, too, like the growly "magnetic field" and a repeated "I'm ready when you are" at the end.

6) Crazy dense period for Jerry at the Warfield: April 18-19-20 and 25-26-27 with JGB, then May 4-5 with Grisman. Maybe Deborah needed some new shoes, and goodness knows that golden eggs don't lay themselves.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
April 25, 1994 (Monday)
s2 sbd shnid-77711

--set II (7 tracks, 59:56)--
s2t01. Harder They Come [12:12] [0:41]
s2t02. Mission In The Rain [9:55] [0:14]
s2t03. You Never Can Tell [7:00] [0:02] % [0:04]
s2t04. Money Honey [7:07] [0:10]
s2t05. Reuben And Cherise [9:05] [0:27]
s2t06. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [6:47] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:09] (1) [0:03]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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; [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/19940425-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/12257 (same root tape, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/77711 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/97864 (Vasseur MAD, complete).

! band: JGB #23 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

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

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

! R: SBD > 1C? > DAT? > CD > flac. Seeded 8/2006 by Teddy "GoodBear" Selby. A Teddy "GoodBear" Production ~ www.goodbear.com :wave: 

! P: s2t03 YNCT some mumbly here and there, e.g., around 6:25. Jer sounds old, but good not bad.

! P: s2t04 Money Honey w the newly arranged ending

! P: s2t05 RAC Donny is offbeat. It takes 45 seconds at the start to set the 1. That said, I think he nails every word of the lyrics! He has finished singing the lyrics 5:28, goes around several times, goes higher up 5:40 and Melvin synths a little alongside. A little bit of variation in the phrasings in the 6 minute mark. Now I fear this is going to get stuck going around for too long without enough happening to justify it. And I find myself there 6:45. Jerry needs to mix things up, or end it. A little more wrinkling right over 7, longer phrases than one might often hear in RAC (not sure), but good that he is making it more interesting. Descending bit 7:45 good. He's hitting the deeper chords to signal the end 8:30 and so forth, then digs in to finish it 8:50. A very good late era RAC, I have to say!

! song: Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) (s2t06): final Garcia performance.

! P: s2t06 Señor a few lyrical stumbles. 1:48 is that mumble mumble still playing in that hay-cant lot. 2:27 mumble mumble, maybe should have been "I can't stand the suspense". Then mumble waiting there Senor. 4:40 mumble I remember. Returns to eyes glued to the door, instead of picking himself off the floor.  He does some nice low growly stuff, as on "magnetic field", which is how Bob did it and I don't recall Jerry doing it so much. He repeats "I'm ready when you are" in the last line, rather than "can you tell me what we're waiting for", but it WORKS.

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

Donny's Debut: JGB at the Warfield, February 4, 1994

LN jg1994-02-04.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.146010.flac1644

Friday, February 4, 1994 through Sunday, February 6, 1994 are super interesting, for reasons that may not be independent. The amazing drummer David Kemper was let go at some point between the end of the fall '93 tour and the first night of this run, for reasons that seem unclear even to him. After over ten years in the chair, they didn't give him so much as an explanation. It is well established from the historical record, and has been repeatedly stated by those who knew him best -- I am not going to cite chapter and verse here, so if you want to imagine I am going beyond my paygrade, sure, fine, whatever -- that Garcia's greatest personal failing involved an unwillingness to tell (former) lovers and (former) bandmates that they were out. He seemed more inclined to have Big Steve deliver hard news. So, first, this inaugural set of 1994 shows featured the debut of Donny Baldwin, from the Starship orbit and also a veteran of the Elvin Bishop Group. I imagine, but don't have it pinned down, that this latter connection between Donny and Melvin facilitated the drummer's entry into the Garcia Band. Second, as astute student of the music Nick has framed it, the run provides "one last flash of greatness" for Jerry and friends. This is most obvious in the 2/6/94 "Don't Let Go", which my memory tells me is a true monster that stands up to any versions that Jerry ever played. I have found a lot to love in '94 and '95 Jerry Band over the last few years, but I agree that he never again played anything so great as that "Don't Let Go".

Indeed, I have often held February 14, 1994, eight days after that show, to augur Garcia's irreversible (though not monotonic) physical decline. The game of trying to pin such things too precisely doesn't get us very far. I might point to GD keyboardist Brent Mydland's passing on July 26, 1990 as signaling Garcia giving up the emotional ghost, and impresario Bill Graham's death on October 25, 1991, as removing all doubt. (See how this game works?) We can point to plenty of pictures from before Valentine's Day '94, the day on which Jerry married Deborah Koons, showing him looking haggard. But, after that day, he never looked anything but like a man shambling toward death's door. Deadheads held no love for Garcia's "Black Widow", who certainly treated the legendary Mountain Girl and all of the other women in Jerry's life very badly during the probate and other proceedings that followed his death, whose taste in music (no "Reuben And Cherise"??) and cover art (Shining Star - what in the almighty fuck?!??) affronted fan sensibilities, who allegedly either passively accepted or actively abetted Garcia's hard drug use, and whose love of tasteless licensing and merchandising strikes us, from the vantage of 2021, as decidedly Trumpian. Be all of that as it may, the observation I just cannot shake is that Garcia's decline accelerated markedly after those nuptials.

All of which makes the triumph of the February 4-6, 1994 shows so remarkable. Nick speculates that the band actually, y'know, rehearsed some with the new guy. The older pattern would have been to break him in on an off-night, off-the-beaten path, or both. Just about every new addition to the Garcia Band prior to Donny was afforded this possibility. So, they may or may not have gotten any rehearsal time, but they did get a gig. But, by 1994, as Bob Barsotti reported a few years later, "the only place [Garcia] could get it together physically to play with the Jerry Garcia Band was by getting in his car and driving for a half an hour to the Warfield" (Greenfield1996, 300, cited in context on my post on 3/4/95). So we might imagine that there were some rehearsals, and, indeed, as Nick points out, Jerry sounds generally together and the band sounds quite tight, consistent with some rehearsal. I have no data to that effect, but it seems likely.

So, onto my sense of Donny's Debut, 2/4/94. He's good, and it's good. Jerry sounds especially together in the first set, sprightly for the very common --indeed, statistically modal-- How Sweet -> Stop That Train opener, and working some great strong grunge into "Lay Down Sally". Nick elaborates:

The one major [2/4/94] high point is a steaming Lay Down Sally jam: Garcia's chugging along, sounding fine, and then decides to hit his distortion pedal and something clicks into place.  The audience feels it, Garcia responds, and you get one of those brief moments of aud-tape perfection as everything clicks into place.  Nice work, old man!

Jerry fades pretty hard at the end of set I (Deal) and through much of set II, sundowning especially noticeably in "The Maker", where I swear he departs from the lyrics and sings @ 1:40 "cannot see for the pain in my life". "Don't Let Go" is the other relative highlight of the show. It's a compact version, 12 minutes, and you'd think they might have held off on it to let the new guy get up to speed. But Donny plays very strongly. True, Jerry does no vocal-instrumental doubling on either the front or the back end of the song, which could often provide him a rare opportunity to engage in true vocal improvisation. But, even listening for limitations, I find a lot to like in this version, and a foreshadowing of the monster that'd spring forth two nights later, before the tune mostly faded into a shadow of its former self in its remaining fourteen months.

All in all, then, a nice show from a characteristically gorgeous Janet and Chuck Vasseur aud pull with the vintage Neumanns. Check it out if you can. If you are feeling impatient, go straight to 2/6/94 - do not pass Go, do no collect $200. If it's as good as I remember it being, and as (more reliably) Nick says it us, you can thank us later.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Melvin Seals sounds awesome this night, all big loud joyful swirly energy.

Listening notes follow.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 4, 1994 (Friday)
Vasseur shnid-146010

--set I (7 tracks, 53:29)--
s1t01. [0:05] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:00] [1:04]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:11] [1:16]
s1t03. You Never Can Tell [6:41] [0:08]
s1t04. Lay Down Sally [10:01] (1) [1:39]
s1t05. Struggling Man [6:25] [0:42]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:56] ->
s1t07. Deal [8:11] (2) [0:09]

--set II (7 tracks, 61:16)--
s2t01. Shining Star [15:24] [0:13]
s2t02. Money Honey [6:31] [0:13]
s2t03. Wonderful World [4:29] [0:15]
s2t04. The Maker [7:10] [0:11]
s2t05. Don't Let Go [11:45] [0:15]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:41] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:04] (2) [0:07]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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/19940204-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15602; https://etreedb.org/shn/94747; https://etreedb.org/shn/95234; https://etreedb.org/shn/146010 (this fileset). Every one of these derives from the Vasseur master.

! band: JGB #23 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

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

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

! ref: Nick, "Feb 94 JGB: one last flash of greatness", URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2017/11/feb-94-jgb.html.

! personnel: Donny Baldwin's first show in the drum chair, succeeding the impossible-to-replace David Kemper. I am typing this listening to Don't Let Go - you have to give the guy his due, because this cannot have been easy.

! R: field recordist: Janet and Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: Source Notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark

! P: s1t01 HSII Jerry sounds stoked. Melvin swirls up huge peaky feature late 3.

! P: s1t01 STT everyone sounds good. Donny hits nicely. Jerry bending some pitch.

! P: s1t03 YNCT Melvin, 3:30 I am typing, is on fire this night. He really sounds enthusiastic.

! P: s1t04 LDS oh man, what a killer grungy tone on LDS in the 7 range. A little modal, very firey. Nick: "The one major high point is a steaming Lay Down Sally jam:  Garcia's chugging along, sounding fine, and then decides to hit his distortion pedal and something clicks into place.  The audience feels it, Garcia responds, and you get one of those brief moments of aud-tape perfection as everything clicks into place.  Nice work, old man!"

! s1t04 (1) JG: "The new guy is, uhh, Donnie Baldwin. Playin' drums."

! P: s1t05 Struggling Man is done peppy - very good. Late 1 it slows down a little bit.

! P: s1t07 Deal a number of lyrical miscues. He is sounding a little tired.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "... take a break for a little bit ..."

! P: s2t04 The Maker he sounds pretty wobbly on the lyrics. @ 1:25 trying to get to second verse, mumbles. @ 1:40 sounds like he says "cannot see for the pain in my life". Goes across the great divide to Jean-Baptiste here early on. @ 2:09 "Body | is bent and broken". Donny nicely triggers Garcia's feature at 3ff.

! P: s2t05 DLG he doesn't do any vocal doubling at all. So by 3:15 he has already stepped back and away from the mic. But I confess that this is just perfectly good Jerry Garcia guitar work happening, e.g., around 6:30, when it has a real edge. I think I came into this listen of this wanting to hear its limitations. They're there, because this is not Eden. And I keep looking at the clock realizing that this is only going to run 12 minutes. But the quality is high. He strums it without quite such thick effects, Melvin swirly, Donny nicely picks up the pace. 8:15 Jerry definitely signals a connection to the tune. 9:20 assertively back to the tune, Donny be damned. Fully back to tun 10:12, no doubling.

! s2t14 (2) JG: "See y'all later."

Rocks, Bottles, and a Tired-Sounding Jerry: JGB at the Warfield, February 27, 1993

Apparently 12 people were arrested after this Saturday night show, allegedly for throwing rocks and bottles at police. Ten months earlier had seen unrest in the area, not necessarily caused by Jerry's kids, but related instead to acquittal of the cops in their trial for beating Rodney King in LA. No idea what might have triggered this early '93 issue.

Janet and Chuck Vasseur pulled an absolute masterpiece of a tape this night, as so many others. The show has its moments, including a nice easy start with "I Second That Emotion" (a tune I don't generally favor) and, especially, Old Jerry heart-feeling "I Shall Be Released". "Simple Twist" is also super-gentle. Lots to like in the set II song selection, especially, for me, "Reuben And Cherise". But I spun it three times and didn't get many sparks.

But Jerry sounds exhausted all night. I take to heart Mr. Completely's advice to avoid drug determinism, and I don't think it would be engaging in that fallacy to note 1) that Jerry sounds exhausted, and 2) we know, via Barbara Meier, that he was using in this period. It's not deterministic, but neither is this pure coincidence, IMO, YMMV.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 27, 1993 (Saturday)
Vasseur shnid-141455

--set  (8 tracks, 72:43)--
s1t01. I Second That Emotion [9:48] [0:52]
s1t02. I Shall Be Released [9:12] [1:15]
s1t03. Mission In The Rain [8:22] [1:16]
s1t04. [0:07] Simple Twist Of Fate [10:15] [0:26]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:12] [0:50]
s1t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:34] %
s1t07. /My Sisters And Brothers [#4:26] ->
s1t08. Deal [8:00] (1) [0:08]

--set II (7 tracks, 62:10)--
s2t09. Shining Star [13:34] [0:26]
s2t10. Tore Up Over You [7:30] [1:10]
s2t11. Wonderful World [4:38] [0:09]
s2t12. The Maker [8:05] [0:11]
s2t13. Lay Down Sally [9:24] [2:05]
s2t14. Reuben And Cherise [8:24] ->
s2t15. Midnight Moonlight [6:30] (2) [0:05]

! 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/19930227-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/13036; https://etreedb.org/shn/29344; https://etreedb.org/shn/141455 (this fileset). As far as I can tell without A-B'ing, these are all from the Vasseur master.

! 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

! expost: "12 arrests at Garcia concert," Argus-Courier (Petaluma, CA), March 2, 1993, p. 2, allegedly for throwing rocks and bottles at the police.

! R: field recordist: Janet and Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! R: This is a masterpiece of field recording.

! R: seeder notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, here they are! --Shark

! P: s1t01 ISTE It's well known that I don't love this song. But I like how this feels coming out of the gate, despite the fact that Jerry definitely sounds vocally fragile.

! P: s1t02 ISBR I hadn't really grokked that he played this as consistently in the 90s as he did. This comes in sounding absolutely wonderful. Old Jerry.

! P: s1t03 MITR Garcia sounds quite wasted.

! P: s1t04 STOF bass feature late 5 is almost entirely inaudible, goes to about 7:10. This is a remarkably gentle version of STOF.

! P: s1t06 TNTDODD Melvin bg swirly feature over 6

! R: s1t07-08 strange to have a discontnuty and a clpped start w a DAT master.

! s1t08 (1) JG: "back in a couple minutes"

! P: s2t02 TUOY some good guitar 5:30ff.

! s2t15 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot."

You Know What's Crazy? I Have Never Listening-Noted a Garcia-Grisman Gig

So I will do the January 12-13, 1994 Warfield shows together.

The performances are delightful, and I don't have tons of comments at that level. They play a number of rarities which had been relatively recently released on Not For Kids Only (Acoustic Disc ACD 9, 1993), and I am a huge fan of that record, which was recently remastered and topped-up with some bonus tracks. The first two tunes on the record are "Jenny Jenkins" and "Freight Train", which I played a LOT for my kiddos and which are both burned into my DNA. JJ kicks off set II of the first night, while Freight Train, which had gotten a one-off breakout with JGB on 11/3/93, happens in set II of night two. Merle Travis's coal miner's lament "Dark As A Dungeon" was a real highlight for me - I recommend it via the video of 1/12/94. But, really, I have to say that I love every single song they played.

There is no banjo playing at these shows, and I think at least "Stealin'" and "Jenny Jenkins" are done as David and Jerry duets.

Set I the second night is quite short, about 36 minutes. Some number of those minutes come out of the great Garcia-Grisman composition "Grateful Dawg", which clocks in here at a mere three-and-a-half minutes. I don't have specific timing for earlier versions, but I want to say they might have gone 6 or 7 or more.

I do want to provide a little repertorial analysis to illustrate the range of (mostly) American musics from which Jerry and David drew, and to which they contributed in turn. Some data next.

I am wide open to suggestions about this set of classifications. In particular, I have in my mind a genre called country blues which I guess is black acoustic, but, again, I don't really know what I am talking about. I have only just come to understand what a standard is. The next table summarizes the shows by genre.

I guess the main take-home from this little exercise is that the first night was a little more contemporary, while the second was a little more traditional. Anything else jump out at you?

Anyway, totally wonderful to listen to these. I was responsible for the earliest seeds of these two shows, which were not very good. Then they were remastered by someone else, not very well. While a bunch of other sources for 1/13 have come about, 1/12 was only very recently upgraded from the recording annotated here, pulled by Steve Fink. So we now have very good tapes from both nights, and they are worth your ear time.

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

LN jg1994-01-12.jgdg.all.aud-Fink.150311.flac1648

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

The Warfield

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

January 12, 1994 (Wednesday) - 8 PM

Fink MAD shnid-150311

--set I (9 tracks, 8 tunes, 47:35)--

s1t01. Teddy Bears' Picnic [4:52] [0:53]

s1t02. Jack-A-Roe [4:32] [1:07]

s1t03. Dark As A Dungeon [7:12] [0:18]

s1t04. Bow Wow [5:19] [0:05]

s1t05. ambience [1:28]

s1t06. Two Soldiers [4:20] -> 

s1t07. Friend Of The Devil [6:57] [0:05]

s1t08. Louis Collins [5:20] [0:19]

s1t09. (1) [0:39] Stealin' [3:59] [0:11]

--set II (12 tracks, 9 tunes, 62:38)--

s2t10. ambience [0:48]

s2t11. Jenny Jenkins [4:50 [0:05]

s2t12. Walkin' Boss [7:16] [0:06]

s2t13. When First Unto This Country [4:32]

s2t14. ambience [1:43]

s2t15. Milestones [8:30] [0:15]

s2t16. Sitting In Limbo [9:21]

s2t17. ambience [1:02]

s2t18. Russian Lullaby [6:37] ->

s2t19. I Ain't Never [3:10] [0:32]

s2t20. Bag's Groove [9:22] ->

s2t21. Ripple [4:11] (2) [0:18]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - acoustic guitar, vocals;

! lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;

! lineup: Jim Kerwin - acoustic bass;

! lineup: Joe Craven - fiddle, percussion.

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/19940112-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/11169 (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/30691 (loy remaster of shnid-11169); https://etreedb.org/shn/150311 (this fileset)

! 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

! video: URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VTwaV4FQ2s

! setlist: Old data, based on attendee recollections, had Stealin' as the first song of set II, but the recordings clearly reveal it to be in set I. Similarly, Ripple as given as an encore, but continuous tape from Bag's Groove belies this idea.

! R: field recordist: Steve Fink

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAP-20

! R: field recording location: drink rail

! R: lineage: DAT Archived and Transferred by Stucco; Mastering by Jamie Waddell 16bit/48kHz FLAC. Originally shared at www.shnflac.net in celebration of the 15th birthday of our website June 25, 2020 **gems** team.

! R: My goodness, this tape dramatically improves on the only previously circulating version. So clear!

! P: s1t03 DAAD Wow! Garcia is giving this real feeling. 

! song: "Dark As A Dungeon" (s1t03): Public debut. Amazing that he is doing this tune, written by country legend Merle Travis. So freaking great!

! song: "Bow Wow" (s1t04): Public debut. Dawg original.

! s1t09 (1) DG: "[inaudible] send this out to my little boy, Samson Eli, who's four years old today. [inaudible]"

! personnel: I think Stealin' and Jenny Jenkins are done in duet.

! P: s2t12 WB Jerry takes a feature second half of 2 that, to me, has some tempo issues and occasional picking dysfluency. Again late 4 tempo wobbles, and where JG needs to pick and sustain some notes in his dialogue with David, I don't hear the sustain. This version is not as together as the versions from three years earlier.

! P: s2t15 Milestones JG takes first feature 0:45ff. Playing well. Grisman is doing some powerful stuff in the 3 minute range, the crowd responds appropriately @3:10. Just killing! Kerwin features next, building up during 4. Craven percussion feature 5:25ff. 6:15ff Dawg and Jer are sort of trading licks, then 6:35 to the theme.

! P: s2t16 SIL gets off to a rough start, everyone a little out of sync, Jerry garbles the opening verse. Still 3 minutes in, everyone is not together on this. A little better later on in the tune. 7 Jerry digs in a little deeper, does some Caribbean guitar (not inappropriately).

! s2t21 (2) sounds like there's a "thanks a lot"

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

LN jg1994-01-13.jgdg.all.aud-Fink.150310.flac1648

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

The Warfield

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

January 13, 1994 (Thursday) - 8 PM

Fink MAD shnid-150310

--set I (8 tracks, 35:59-:12)

s1t01. //Shady Grove [#3:05] [0:31]

s1t02. Long Black Veil [5:03] [0:46]

s1t03. Rosa Lee McFall [3:28] 0:33]

s1t04. Dawg's Waltz [5:00] [0:11]

s1t05. Freight Train [4:52] [0:20]

s1t06. Hot Corn, Cold Corn [4:28] [0:18]

s1t07. Red Rocking Chair [3:24] [0:14]

s1t08. Grateful Dawg [3:28] [0:06] % pre-set II [0:12]

--set II (12 tracks, 9 tunes, 70:00+:12-6:01)--

09. Trouble In Mind [4:14] [0:14]

10. Ballad Of Casey Jones [4:34] [0:17]

11. There Ain't No Bugs On Me [4:41]

12. ambience (1) [0:59]

13. So What? [10:04] [0:11]

14. Rockin' Chair [7:31]

15. ambience [1:17]

16. Stealin' [3:50] [0:34]

17. Little Glass Of Wine [3:44] [0:13]

18. Drink Up And Go Home [2:55] [0:11]

19. Arabia [18:31]

20. ambience (2) [6:01]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - acoustic guitar, vocals;

! lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;

! lineup: Jim Kerwin - acoustic bass;

! lineup: Joe Craven - fiddle, percussion.

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/19940113-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/11331 (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/30692 (loy remaster shnid-11331); https://etreedb.org/shn/32833 (Neumann); https://etreedb.org/shn/82760 (Neumann); https://etreedb.org/shn/85644 (Litzenberger flac1648); https://etreedb.org/shn/94690 (Litzenberger flac); https://etreedb.org/shn/150310 (this fileset).

! 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

! R: field recordist: Steve Fink

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAP-20

! R: field recording location: drink rail

! R: lineage: DAT Archived and Transferred by Stucco; Mastering by Jamie Waddell 16bit/48kHz FLAC. Originally shared at www.shnflac.net in celebration of the 15th birthday of our website June 25, 2020 **gems** team.

! R: s1t01 Shady Grove cuts in on "wish I had a banjo string"

! R: seeder notes. Set One was recorded much louder, and the crowd cheers clip between songs, but not the music at all. Both Sets of music match volume wise now, I did what I could to unclip the crowd between songs Set One

! P: s1t05 FT he pulls this off just about perfectly. So nice.

! P: s1t08 GD is a fucking killer song, but look at how short this version is! Three and a half minutes?

! s2t12 (1) DG: "The man on the bass - Jim Kerwin. On the fiddle, and on the fiddle case - Joe Craven." JG: "That's David 'Dawg' Grisman playing the mandolin." DG: "Captain Trips here on the guitar [inaudible]."

! s2t20 (2) Some interesting taper talk at the end about a fan who had too much fun

Saxophone Somewhere Far Off Played: JGB at the Warfield, December 2, 1989

If you are following along, you might notice that I listened to a bunch of early December shows from various years, but am late in posting them. It's rare for me to get enough contiguous time to listen and note and post these days.

My notes on this show, from a soundboard tape (shnid-117562) and the balcony tape of the great and wonderful Marcus Buick (Campolindo HS '87) (shnid-81060), are pretty spare, and I don't particularly have tons to say here, so just a few comments.

First, Clarence Clemons is here this night, but was not present the night before. I raved about that show, in part because its Clarencelessness suits me. But he is good this night, and I just love how the crowd shows him and a knowing, careful Jerry some love on the "saxophone somewhere far off played" line of Dylan's "Simple Twist Of Fate".

Second, maybe not quite as strong as the night before, but this is a characteristically strong gig for the late '89 Jerry Band. Garcia sounds articulate, energetic, focused right out of the gate. He sings intentionally. He plays well.

Third, "Don't Let Go" is good, maybe even very good. It certainly makes I had been there with Bu, ogling (while guarding) those Brüel & Kjær 4011s.

I won't bother with a jump - listening notes follow.

~~~~~

LN jg1989-12-02.jgb.all.aud-buick.81060.flac1644

Jerry Garcia Band

Warfield Theater

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

December 2, 1989 Saturday - 8 PM

Buick MAD shnid-81060

--set I (7 tracks, 57:25)--

s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:31] [1:05]

s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:38] [1:24]

s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:35] [1:08]

s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:35] [0:50]

s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [8:35] [0:27]

s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:22] ->

s1t07. Deal [7:01] [0:11]

--set II (7 tracks, 73:52)--

s2t01. [0:06] Harder They Come [11:34] [1:25]

s2t02. I Shall Be Released [11:45] [1:00]

s2t03. Someday Baby [7:07] [1:23]

s2t04. Waiting For A Miracle [5:49] [0:54]

s2t05. And It Stoned Me [7:42] [0:31]

s2t06. Don't Let Go [17:10] ->

s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [7:08] [0:15]

! 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;

! guest: Clarence Clemons - saxophone.

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/19891202-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6310 (sbd shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/22513 (sbd shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/22514 (Schoeps shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/81060 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/117562 (sbd flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/123333 (Schoeps s2 flac1644)

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

! 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

! R: field recordist: Marcus Buick

! R: field recording gear: 2x Brüel & Kjær 4011 microphones (handheld) > Aerco PS @ 29.3dB > Panasonic SV-250

! R: field recording location: balcony seats 107-109 Row D,E

! R: lineage: master DAT > Sony PCM 601 > Sony SL-360 beta/0 > Sony SL-HF450 playback > Sony PCM-601 > Digital Domain VSP-P > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > Cool Edit 2000 > flac encoding. Transfer by David "The Machine" Minches.

! R: s1t01 HSII fades in.

! P: s1t01 HSII great energy, especially at the end, Garcia giving extra oomph to the vocals.

! R: s1t02 TLEO digisnit @ 5:54.

! P: s1t03 STOF crowd gives a good knowing hand at the "saxophone somewhere far off played" line. Garcia is singing this with beautiful care. And I am enjoying Clarence's contributions this night, unusually. 8:45 or so some kind of hassle, maybe somebody objects to the taping, or is getting in the taping space ... But a really nice STOF.

~~~~~

LN jg1989-12-02.jgb.all.sbd-arf.117562.flac1644

Jerry Garcia Band

The Warfield

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

December 2, 1989 (Saturday)

sbd shnid-117562

--set I (7 tracks, 55:36)--

s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#6:13] [1:04]

s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:30] [1:22]

s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:15] [1:07]

s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:28] [0:50]

s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [8:22] [0:05] %

s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:21] ->

s1t07. Deal [6:55] (1) [0:06]

--set II (7 tracks, 69:59)--

s2t01. Harder They Come [11:21] [1:22]

s2t02. I Shall Be Released [11:31] [0:08] %

s2t03. Someday Baby [7:01] %

s2t04. Waiting For A Miracle [5:51] [0:52]

s2t05. And It Stoned Me [7:40] % [0:08]

s2t06. Don't Let Go [16:58] ->

s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [7:04] (2) [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;

! guest: Clarence Clemons - saxophone.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [mm:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [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/19891202-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6310 (sbd shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/22513 (sbd shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/22514 (Schoeps shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/81060 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/117562 (sbd flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/123333 (Schoeps s2 flac1644)

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

! 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

! R: source: Soundboard > ? > 2C (three tape sides, unknown generation)

! R: lineage: trade cassettes (Dolby B) > Harmon Kardon TD 302 (Dolby B on, heads aligned to each tape side) > Zoom H2 @16/44.1 > SDHC card > PC > tracked & edited with wavepad > flac level 8 & checksums with traderslittlehelper. Transfer by arfarf, December 9, 2011.

! R: seeder notes: Additional tape edits on the source recording are ...at the start of s2t03, and at 07:40 of s2t05

! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in

! P: s1t01 HSII JG sounds amazingly articulate, focused, energized right out of the gate.

! s1t03 STOF bass feature 6:25ff-8:25ish.

! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes."

! P: s2t06 DLG nice. Garcia steps up the pace around 11:30, and it's nice.

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

Blissfully Clarenceless on Market Street: JGB at the Warfield, December 1, 1989

LN jg1989-12-01.jgb.all.aud-bk4011.141459.flac1648

God, '89 was such a great year for the Jerry Band. I really need to find some more of the out-of-town shows to spin, though everytime I do I tend not to note much, because it's all just really consistently good.

This show, 12/1/89, is absolutely outstanding. I am glad that, contrary to what I thought I had seen, Clarence Clemons is not present. I am not a big fan of the Big Man. 

Instead, it's "just" JGB #21b, in the zone. So many tunes give rise to nuance, complex, creative, interesting variations on the usual, this really is worth your ear time. "Cats Under The Stars" offers varied tones, progressions and attacks out of the chute. It also doesn't go round and round too much at the end. Ol' Jer bends some pitch in "Stop That Train", which I don't recall really hearing (or at least noting) before. "That's What Love Will Make You Do" combines notes and sustains in uncommon ways. One of my all-time faves, "Reuben And Cherise", appears for the first time in two and a half years (5/30/87), and I am happy to hear it even if Jerry does lose track of who's who and what's what a little bit. Look, even Reuben gets a little twisted up here - Pirouette in white, Pirouette in red, what's the difference? Layering and stacking in "Forever Young". And "Let's Spend The Night Together" busts some hard core grunge, before most of us had heard of Nirvana, to announce the first big guitar turn, and then ol' Jer mixes up the timing of let's and spend later on to just bring some originality to the proceedings. He sounds clear and focused and into it.

All of that was just set I. Every tune expect RAC is a great version, and RAC was fresh off a three year hiatus, so it can be forgiven.

Set II, I will just say that "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" may be the quintessential Melvin-era Jerry Band tune. It's Dylan, it's churchy, the organ works perfectly, it has a reggae bounce and it lilts along lighter than air between heavy lyrics. The Grateful Dead's versions never held a candle to it, not one time, and don't @ me, bro.

The tape embodies what was happening at the Warfield in this period. According to my info, Tom Hughes held the mics (Brüel & Kjær [B&K] 4011s @ 110°), while Rick Katzeff and Marcus Buick worked the deck and ran interference around The Spot, a.k.a. the drink rail (2nd tier, 2nd row). Bu's taping journal has him on the mics and supplies classic color:

Deck's on, I'm bracing the mics under my nose. I scrupulously monitor my entire peripheral vision. All of a sudden, a bust is going down behind us, Tom is tapping me furiously, and Rick blocks himself on my right shoulder. Five minutes later Bill Graham brushed against our mic veil. The show continues. We met Oren [Oren David Green, Warfield security, nemesis to tapers] at the end of the night. I hope he had fun listening to the dummy blank! Score: us=2, O=2.

Indeed, we can hear a little encounter near the start of set II, someone asking "Hey, what you doin' there?" Glad this tape made it out into the San Francisco night!

Anyway, highly highly highly recommend this show, this tape.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
December 1, 1989 (Friday)
Hughes-Buick-Katzeff B&K4011 flac1648 shnid-141459

--set I (7 tracks, 66:50)--
s1t01. [0:05] Cats Under The Stars [9:21] [1:27]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:52] [1:41]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:34] [2:05]
s1t04. Reuben And Cérise [6:54] [0:34]
s1t05. Forever Young [10:41] [0:33]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:39] ->
s1t07. Let's Spend The Night Together [11:18] (2) [0:08]

--set II (7 tracks, 67:59)--
s2t01. ... Harder They Come [#8:59] [1:20]
s2t02. Mission In The Rain [9:44] [0:45]
s2t03. Waiting For A Miracle [5:58] [0:29]
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [9:23] [1:33]
s2t05. Think [7:43] [1:12]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun [10:07] [0:04]
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [10:42] (3) [0:02]

! 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; [mm:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [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/19891201-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6348 (I believe the same master, but have not verified, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/94353 (Miller AKG C1000 MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/141459 (this fileset).

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

! 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

! personnel: JGC and old info files put Clarence Clemons on sax for this show, but I did not hear him. I do have a very active lame-sax-canceling filter, so have never actually heard a note CC played. That might explain things.

! R: field recordists: Tom Hughes (mics), Marcus Buick and Rick Katzeff (deck and protection)

! R: field recording gear: 2x Brüel & Kjær (B&K) 4011 @ 110° > Aerco > Panasonic SV-250

! R: field recording location: The Spot (2nd tier, 2nd row)

! R: lineage: master DAT > DAT clone > PC > WAV > FLAC (16/48).

! R: seeder notes: "Thanks to Bill Shaw for the DAT"

! P: s1t01 CUTS I love the tones and varied attacks Garcia offers late 4 over 5, nice progression to peak 5:35ff. And he ends it without going on too long, too many times, generally a good indicator for his level of focus.

! P: s1t02 STT pitch-bending, interesting. Great expression in the east/west verse. Right on, Jer.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD I am just loving the combinations he puts together this night. @5:35 Garcia gives the frets a good scrubbing.

! setlist: This represents the first Reuben and Cérise since 11/10/86.

! P: s1t04 RAC love this song so much, but he lost the thread of the narrative somewhere in there. Not my favorite version.

! P: s1t05 FY some nice layering and stacking in the 7-min range.

! P: s1t07 LSTNT I love how he announces the first big guitar turn at 2:20 or so by working up a little grunge. On an earlier listen I had written "There is some very grungy tone working here, but the execution feels a little loose in the cage to me as of 4. Overall, not bad." On this listen (4/4/2020), I didn't notice any problematic looseness. Late 5, interesting vocal syncopation, pausing a beat after "let's", putting some more emphasis on "spend". Nice action all through 7-min range, creative, expressive, engaged. On this listen, a very strong LSTNT.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "See y'all in a little while [inaudible]."

! R: s2t01 HTC enters in progress. Then, levels go down at 4, and one can hear someone asking "Hey, what you doin' there?"  Sounds like Warfield security has arrived at the drink rail.

! P: s2t03 KOHD if you don't love this, you need to re-assess your priorities. GLORIOUS. So much better than the GD versions.

! R: there is some wonkiness in the tagging and/or the order of the tunes in set II. It really goes HTC, MITR, WFAM, KOHD, Think, TLOS, TUIB.

! P: s2t07 TUIB don't love the sluggish tempo out of the gate.

! s2t07 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Jerry, tògòtigi - JGB at the Warfield, Wednesday, March 9, 1994

Marquee for Jerry (who?) at the Warfield, March 9, 1994. I would LOVE to find out who the photographer is and give credit.

I love the image above, of the Warfield marquee reading just "Jerry" for the March 9, 1994 JGB show, because, assuming his last name is not photoshopped out, it speaks to who Jerry had become by the last year of his life. In the Bamana language of the Mandé culture of West Africa, he had become a tògòtigi - "proprietor of his own name" (Skinner 2004, 157). "In Mandé social thought," musicologist Ryan Skinner has elaborated,

the purpose of these acts of self-making is to make a name for oneself (ka tògò sòrò, literally “to find one’s name”) and become what people call a tògòtigi, or an individual who is the owner (tigi) of his or her given name (tògò)".  Malian literary critic and cultural theorist Chérif Keïta summarizes that "The togo is the axis of individuality and desire for personal distinction" (Skinner 2015a, 22).

The concept applies across artistic fields in the Mandé world, especially among griots "expert hereditary professional" (Dubois 2016, 32) storytellers --musicians, poets and artists-- charged with carrying forward the collective knowledge embodied especially in the oral tradition (but see Chérif Keïta 2005). In the musical realm,

the artist who improvises a running solo, incites the dance with a syncopated rhythm, and makes his instrument sing with a novel melody asserts his dynamic and creative agency as a performer. He claims his individuality, a distinctive subjectivity symbolized by his first name, or tògò, and the status and identity of being a tògòtigi the achieved state of making a name for oneself, of being an owner (tigi) of one's name (tògòtigi ) ... There is an existential risk in such acts of musical distinction and innovation (Skinner 2015a, 88).

Anyway, not that, in certain circles, people didn't know who just-Jerry was before 3/9/94, but I have always loved this marquee for capturing it, the culmination of the name-claiming journey which began on a seasonal May day in 1968, when the name "Jerry Garcia" appeared on a sheet of paper billing a musical event for the first time since the formation of the Warlocks. Over decades of gradual assertion and musical differentiation, and eventual commodification, he had successfully made his name. That progression is probably the main arc of Fate Music, where I'll get into it hopefully more artfully and definitely at greater length.

The show is off-pattern in a few other ways. First, it was a single-shot on a Wednesday night. While midweek Warfield gigs were not unheard of, they almost always took the form of multinight runs. Indeed, though I have not gone and checked, I can't think of another Warfield one-off like this one in the Wolfgang-Warfield era (December 1989-April 1995). Second, the handbill is especially lame.

I wonder if this show was pinned down late, and/or if ticket sales were slow, or if BGP was just on a tight budget, but this is about as basic as it ever got.

Third, as to the show, it's fine, but what jumps out at me is that there is not a single Garcia-Hunter original here - it's all covers. Jerrygarcia.com makes this relatively easy to see, since the originals have hyperlinks and the covers do not. I spun through '93-'95, I think, and didn't see any other shows without at least a "Deal" or a "Run For the Roses" or something else. If I find time and motivation I might dig deeper, though I understand that this has no particular importance, it's just a curiosity. But it's a Garciaverse curiosity, which is kind of the bread and butter of JGMF, so there you go.

An hour first set was just about what he seemed to be going for, and 75+ minute second set is nothing to sneeze at. Chuck Vasseur pulled a typically great tape. The performance is fine, all pluck and less fire, which was his style at the time (no onion on his belt, as far as I know). Donny does some nice hard trapping in Don't Let Go, and everyone sounds just fine. Well, John doesn't "sound" much at all, but that was pretty much par for the course in this timeframe, too, and it's all good by me.

Listening notes below the fold.

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

What a strange thing this is.

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

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

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

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

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

"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes": JGB at the Warfield, March 4, 1995

LN jg1995-03-04.jgb.all.aud-sonics.141470.flac1648

I don't feel like I have time or energy to do a full write-up, so let me try to sketch a few thoughts around a recent listen to taper Wilson66's very enjoyable Sonic Studios DSM-6 drink rail tape of the Jerry Band on home turf, March 4, 1995.

Tone and Technique > Lyrical Precision and Power

This formulation provides my key to appreciating very late vintage Jerry Band. On the down side, the man can mumble through entire songs such as Daniel Lanois's beautiful "The Maker", or repeat himself, well, repeatedly, as with Dylan's it-has-to-be-meaningful-for-old-Jerry line from "Positively 4th Street" about what shuffling a mile in famous moccasins feels like. He sometimes loses himself, as in the mountain stream waters of Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me". Both his singing and his guitar playing lack power.

But he generally makes up for all of this by upping the intentionality of his vocal and guitar phrasings. He changes things up, syncopates, rolling with the sometimes gurgling, sometimes more turbulent flow of his own uncertainty. He makes up in more deliberate and careful choice what he lacks in oomph and volume, taking his time to work with the subtler possibilities that an earlier him would have just blasted right through. "Stoned Me" offers some extremely fragile and sweet passages that the younger slinger just couldn't credibly generate, his considerable pain, while real, just not overflowing the cup the way it does here. Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" exemplifies the varied technical approaches (I won't say attacks) engaged by late Jerry  He doesn't melt your face off the way he regularly did with this tune between 1990 and 1993, by turns, anyway. But he bobs, weaves, ascends, doubles up, descends, plucks and innovates in ways that wouldn't win over an eager newbie so much as they can reward the patient fan.

Interesting Song Selection

! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): John Kahn had selected this Chuck Berry rock and roller for Garcia's second solo album, Compliments (Round RX102, 1974), and it formed a staple of Jerry's non-Dead diet, with fallow periods in 1978, 1985, 1988, then came out with declining frequency in the 1990s. Prior to this final version, it had last been played 5/15/94 in Irvine, which gives you a sense of the elongated late rhythms of its appearances. When they first started playing it, John opened with big fat bass lines, and Jerry could make it WAIL. Here, at the end, John is even less audible than he is creative (not very), and while Jerry's ideas and attack remain interesting --he still knows *how* to play rock guitar-- he just lacks power. I do love the tone he gets very late 8 over 9, with some great high-sustain followed by plucks, then scratches. The man was still full of sound, no doubt about that.

! song: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (s1t05): The band soundchecked ITALTL, ITATTC, and then played it here for the last time, and the first time electric since 2/22/80. (The GD did it six times in 1991-1992.) What a bustout - a one-time revival after 15 years, never to be played again in the short time remaining.

! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t10):  After landing on the shelf in early 1980 (the day after "Train To Cry"), JGB brought the Dylan classic back for six appearances in the 1990s: 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95 (see and see), 3/4/95 (this version), 4/15/95. I have a little theory, which I haven't thought about how to test, that interesting song selections arose more early in the year, and I have a causal mechanism in mind, namely, that the Dead took time off in January and Jerry and the band maybe thought about, and sometimes also worked up, some different material. I have no evidence for that. This version moves pretty briskly, and Jerry mostly has the lyrics together. It doesn't sneer the way it needs to, but it's interesting to contrast how focused he sounds for it after muddling his way through "The Maker". He says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think, but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true ...

The End Is Nigh

Random/blinded selection and listening would be the best practice to reduce bias, but I just can't do it. We know in listening to this that it's late in the game. January and February had both provided evidence of decline. First, on January 18, 1995 (ten years to the day after The Bust in GGP), Jerry spun out in a brand new gold BMW 525i on loan from Sonnen BMW --"a cherry", according to CHP officer Jerry Monge, valued at over $30,000-- while his own was in the shop. He was northbound between Mill Valley and Corte Madera, and the car "bounced off the guardrail on the right side of the roadway several times, spun around, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic." Conditions were dry, and "Garcia was unable to explain how he lost control" (! ref: "Jerry Garcia OK after crash," San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1995, p. A-2.)  According to unknown source, "The section of road this happened on (Corte Madera, literally 100 yards from a major CHP office) has guardrails well off the road. Jerry didn't take his eye of the wheel for no 1/10 of a second. 1/10 of a minute, maybe." Second, the February 10-11-12 shows were canceled (including an envisaged 2/13 makeup for the first night) after Garcia was stung on the hand by a jellyfish while diving in Hawaii and couldn't play.

Bob Barsotti, who ran the Warfield for BGP, puts this stuff in context:

We had to cut back on Jerry Garcia Band shows because he wasn't capable of doing it anymore. We had to keep canceling shows and stopping tours because physically he wasn't able to do it. That was why he used to play twenty times a year at the Warfield. The only place he could get it together physically to play with the Jerry Garcia Band was by getting in his car and driving for a half an hour to the Warfield. If he could do that, then he could play (Greenfield1996, 300).

On this night, the next, and five more in April, he managed, and I am glad he did.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
March 4, 1995 (Saturday)
Wilson66 Sonic Studios DSM-6 drink rail shnid-141470

--set I (6 tracks, 62:56)--
s1t01. [1:30] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:43] [0:39]
s1t02. Let It Rock [11:39] [1:19]
s1t03. And It Stoned Me [12:08] [0:38]
s1t04. (1) Lay Down Sally [11:12] [0:23]
s1t05. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [6:51] [0:07]
s1t06. Deal [8:23] [0:22]

--set II (7 tracks, 69:33)--
s2t07. [2:14] The Harder They Come [8:25] [2:09]
s2t08. [0:19] Simple Twist of Fate [11:44] [0:30]
s2t09. Tore Up Over You [9:35] [0:14]
s2t10. The Maker [9:48] (2) [0:21]
s2t11. Positively 4th Street [7:25] ->
s2t12. Lucky Old Sun [10:01] [0:05]
s2t13. Midnight Moonlight [6:14] (3) [0:27]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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/19950304-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1995-03-04

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

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

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/16443 (Vasseur shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/78007 (set 2, unlineaged); https://etreedb.org/shn/79635 (Russ B. MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/141470 (this fileset).

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

! seealso: JGMF, "Old Garcia Running to the Rock for Rescue" [LN jg1995-03-05.jgb.all.aud-michaelB-goodbear.79634.flac1644], URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/05/old-garcia-running-to-rock-for-rescue.html.

! historical: Garcia was scheduled to play the Warfield in January (13-14-15), February (10-11-12), March (4-5), and two weekends in April (14-15 and 21-22-23). This was the first show after two events that might have concerned the fans. First, on 1/18/95, Jerry spins out in a brand new gold BMW 525i on loan from Sonnen BMW while his own was in the shop. He was northbound between Mill Valley and Corte Madera, and the car "bounced off the guardrail on the right side of the roadway several times, spun around, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic." The car was "a cherry", according to CHP officer Jerry Monge, valued at over $30,000.  Conditions were dry, and "Garcia was unable to explain how he lost control." According to unknown source, "The section of road this happened on (Corte Madera, literally 100 yards from a major CHP office) has guardrails well off the road. Jerry didn't take his eye of the wheel for no 1/10 of a second. 1/10 of a minute, maybe." (! ref: "Jerry Garcia OK after crash," San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1995, p. A-2.) Second, the February shows were canceled (including an envisaged 2/13 makeup for the first night) after Garcia was stung on the hand by a jellyfish while diving in Hawaii and couldn't play.

! R: field recordist: Wilson66

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sonic-Studios DSM-6 > Sony TCD-D7 (48k)

! R: field recording location: first tier drink rail

! R: lineage: DAT Master > Tascam us144-mkII > PC > Audition > CD Wave > TLH FLAC 16/48. Brought to you by Shark420, fresh transfer from DAT master, Dec 2017.

! P: One has to ask how this would hit me if I didn't know the date and the dénouement of the whole story. The vocals are certainly low, probably some correlated combination of weakness and being turned down in the mix.

! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): John Kahn had selected this Chuck Berry rock and roller for Garcia's second solo album, Compliments (1974), and it formed a staple of Jerry's non-Dead diet, with fallow periods in 1978, 1985, 1988, and declining frequency in the 1990s. Prior to this final version, it had last been played 5/15/94 in Irvine, which gives you a sense of the late rhythms. When they first started playing it, John opened it with big fat bass lines, and Jerry could make it WAIL. Here, at the end, John is even less audible than he is creative (not very), and while Jerry's ideas and attack remain interesting --he still knows *how* to play rock guitar-- he just lacks power. I do love the tone he gets very late 8 over 9, with some great high-sustain followed by plucks, then scratches. The man was still full of sound, no doubt about that.

! P: s1t03 AISM JG takes an interesting vocal approach, a little off-the-1, seemingly intentionally. He forgets the third verse, so he takes a sweet little guitar turn instead. Three minutes later, we still haven't had another verse. It's pretty compelling to hear how he manages around not remembering the lyrics. @ 5:24 we get the "rain let up" verse. @ 6:38 after that verse JG is lost again, and he takes another turn - when in doubt, play. And, again, after the last verse they used to just end the tune, but here we get another turn, and then @ 10:51 JG returns to "oh the water", which he gets himself from a mountain stream. Pretty damn sweet. Flawed, and sweet. Finally at 12 he drops a big chord to signal the end. Fragile, flawed, lovely.

! s1t04 (1) woman near taper calls LDS just before it starts. Good call, woman near taper!

! P: s1t04 LDS Jer is really playing around with the timing of his little runs out of the gate, seemingly intentionally, and Donny does a good job holding down the 1. Interesting little piece right over 1 min, a neat intro to the tune (which might be because he can't remember the words, but I dunno). Lyrics kick off 1:40ish. 8:20 ish interesting set of doublets. I really like how Donny plays this tune. Garcia plays so patiently. Now some interesting ascending pieces very late 8. Very inventive stuff. 9:16 more innovation - I don't listen to late era very much, but this is very interesting. Jerry and everyone but John hit the ending just right. That was really, really good.

! P: s1t05 ITALTL, ITATTC he blows the first lyric. John doesn't appear to remember the song, but the ladies are doing some nice backing vocals. Nice to hear, even if imperfect.

! song: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (s1t05): The band soundchecked ITALTL, ITATTC, and then played it here for the last time, and the first time electric since 2/22/80. (The GD did it six times in 1991-1992.) What a bustout!

! P: s1t06 Deal you can really hear the impotence of his guitar playing on this number, which wants to burn barns, but here just casts a warmish glow.

! P: s2t07 HTC goes nowhere. Shortest version I recall ever hearing.

! P: s2t10 Maker he doesn't remember any of the words, at least as far as anything audible - his vocals are very low. @ 3:41 he misses his chance to take a guitar lead, which he gets into ten seconds later. He has sounded really lost so far on this tune.

! s2t10 (2) @ 10:01 guy in crowd yells out "Positively!" Might he have heard the soundcheck? I didn't hear the lick, maybe he did.

! P: s2t10 P4S is done at a pretty quick tempo. Jerry seems to have the lyrics together. This version doesn't sneer the way it needs to, but it's interesting to contrast how focused he sounds for it after muddling his way through "The Maker". He says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think, but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true ...

! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t10):  After landing on the shelf in early 1980, it came back for six appearances in the 1990s: 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95, 3/4/95 (this version), 4/15/95.

! s2t13 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."