On Tours and Marketing Records

Over at Jerrybase, we have begun grouping events not only by "runs" (consecutive nights at the same venue), but also "tours". It turns out that the notion of a tour isn't quite as crystal clear as one might want it. I wanted it to be at least three out of town gigs in at least two rooms on a single outbound from San Francisco, but, especially in the Garciaverse, this ends up creating some "tours" that lack face validity as such.

Consider Jerry's March-April 1976. The decision rule above would produce the following "tours" that month:

1) Pacific Northwest (Eugene, Portland, Seattle), March 3-6 (3 cities, 3 shows in 4 nights)

2) Midwest College Towns (Evanston, Oberlin, Columbus), March 12-14 (3 cities, 5 shows in 3 nights)

3) Texas (Houston and Austin), March 18-21 (2 cities, 6 shows in 4 nights)

4) the "real" Spring Tour, March 26 - April 5th (9 cities, 13 shows in 11 nights)

My Jerrybase partners have suggested that's a little too granular, and I don't disagree. While they fit the operational definition I offered above, they lack verisimilitude. We'd welcome you to peruse Jerrybase's Tours Page to see what you think.

UPDATE 20220625: correspondent Matt Grady informs that musicians call this little not-quite-a-tour jaunts "runouts" - the perfect word! I am a big fan of words, and when they effectively classify a group of things that would otherwise leave me wordless, well, I like them even more. And, thank you Matt!

As it happens, this work also allows me to fill in a placeholder post I had been ignoring for awhile, centered on the following image:

Here we have an 8.5" x 11" promotional handbill listing some upcoming Jerry and Merl gigs in various cities in December 1974. I know there is a copy of this in Santa Cruz ("Business: RX-102 - Compliments of Garcia," Grateful Dead Archive, Special Collections, UC Santa Cruz, MS.332.ser. 2, box 17, folder 10), and I know this image is not from there. First, this one seems to have a crease, that one doesn't. Second, they don't allow posting of scans from the collection - a requirement which I respect and I think others do as well. I was about 99% sure I got this from GDAO, but I cannot find it there. So I can't recall how I came into this it. Anyway, I saw it in the GD Archive, and loved it, then found a copy out in the wild which I could reproduce.

Why do I love this?

First, because I love the music this band made. Go get thee to Garcia Live: Volume Three: December 14-15, 1974, Northwest Tour, Legion of Mary (ATO Records, 2013) if you want to hear why.

Second, who doesn't love beardless Jerry?

Third, this particular image of beardless Jerry was drawn by Victor Moscoso for the cover of Jerry's second record, Garcia (by which I mean it was his second record, and his second record with that very title), which we all know as Compliments (Round Records, RX-102, June 1974) and I have the very tall, full color poster of the album art at the framer's, and I can't wait to get that sucker up on the wall. It's a beaut.

Fourth, the handbill promotes JGMS gigs --note, still no public use of the moniker Legion of Mary known to me before January 1975-- at the Paramount Northwest in Seattle on December 13, 1974, at the Paramount in Portland on December 14, 1974, at the Ambassador in St. Louis on December 20, 1974, two nights at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin on December 21-22, 1974, and then three nights, December 25-27, 1974, at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach.

Four-A, I love the Pacific Northwest. Four-B, these PNW theaters hosted some killer GD and Jerry over the years. Four-C, the Ambassador, a "landmark of rococo 1920s theater design"? Yes, please. Four-D, I have an original poster from the Armadillo gigs, and it is allegedly the very copy that was hung in the 'dillo lobby at the time of the show. So, there's that. Four-E, the Golden Bear - again, yes, please and thank you. We don't list capacity for it at JB - anyone know? Four-F, the Golden Bear hosted one of my favorite shows from the last eight months of the Garcia-Saunders band, 12/29/74b, partly because of the amazing tape pulled by "Flashback" Charlie Disalvo and partly because I want that version of "Expressway (To Your Heart)" to be my walk-off music as I leave behind my earthly existence. It KILLS.

Fifth, another one of my longtime favorite Garcia-Saunders shows, 12/15/74 in the EMU Ballroom at the University of Oregon, is *not* listed on this handbill, which gives me a sense that it was booked rather later than the others. Who cares? I kind of do, to tell you the truth.

But the BIG takeaway is, Six-A, that I don't know of any other Round promotions for live gigs. Jerry went to NYC on July 1-3, 1974, to play the Bottom Line just a few days after the record came out. The shows sold out in a minute without advertising, but, of course, the record company could also, y'know, have promoted the record. Same goes with the November '74 tour, Jerry and Merl and crew with Martin blowing and the great Paul Humphrey on the drums - no advertising needed for the gigs, but what about cross-promotion with the vinyl? (Yes, I know the record wasn't JGMS. But if we held strict to that, it'd rule out the hints we do have here of a tie between the record and these gigs.)

So, here we have the imagery from Moscoso's cover art, the same lettering on 'GARCIA', and the Round Records logo. But, - Six-B - there is no evidence of the record besides this. No title. No note that there even is a record. It doesn't say "buy the new record, and come see the show", or, "come see the show and, if you dig it, buy the record. Oh yeah - tell your friends!" Instead, we see allusions to Compliments, but no direct mention of it. The Jerry heads would already have recognized some of this, of course, but mostly because they probably already had the record or, as Jerryheads, didn't need to be marketed to buy tickets to see Jerry. Maybe your average head would go to the show, and Round man Steve Brown would ply them with the advertising cards, maybe a "Here Now" poster --already framed and on my wall--

or  some other schwag, so maybe that was the idea. Maybe Anton Round was signing autographs.

I guess it just seems like a little bit of a missed opportunity. Oh yeah, one last thing, in full-circle mode: those March '76 jaunts were almost certainly "behind" Jerry's third record, Reflections (Round Records, RX-107, February 1976) - maybe by then the tie-ins were being made more explicit. But, then again, that'd redound to the benefit of United Artists, since Round, as such, had gone belly-up. I wonder why?

Don't judge a tape by the gear: JGB at Stages, East St. Louis, May 23, 1983

The only tape circulating for the Garcia Band show at Stages in East St. Louis, May 23, 1983, was recorded using the built-in mics of a Sony D6 by one Steven Shayman. Looks like it entered circulation in June 2004 as a shn fileset put together by Dr. Chris Ladner (neo_levo) as part of the MisSHN in the Rain offshoot of the The Music Never Stopped (TMNSP) project to canonically archive and circulate, well, everything.

I have always loved that tour, and consider 5/31/83 to be an all-time great Garcia Band show. There are lots of great tapes from known tapers using fancy gear, in venues we know and love such as the Cap, from the back end of the tour. The band plays encores the last eight shows of the tour, and eleven of the last twelve -- and not always "Midnight Moonlight", but some killer "Rhapsody In Red"s and other stuff. It's hot.

The early part, by contrast, wobbles a little bit. I know the Saturday Rainbow show in Denver was a late-add and didn't sell out, though I like it pretty well. The next night north of K.C. was canceled for reasons unknown --I presume that ticket sales were just too slow for a room that was much too large-- and the gig at the incredible Shea's Theatre in Buffalo on the 25th gets a "meh" from me, though that may be because the tape is kinda rough.

Anyway, for all of these reasons, I suppose, I have utterly neglected little ol' 5/23/83. And I was wrong to have done so.

The tape is actually quite a delight. It sounds really fresh and nice. Shayman must have found a good spot, and the D6's built-in mics pick everything up. As any taper will tell you, location > gear. There's plenty of the sellout crowd, and everyone seems to be having a great old time. Jerry hadn't played St. Louis outside the GD since 1976, and everyone seems enthused to have hime come through. A review from unidentified publication (Durrwachter 1983) captures the vibe nicely, invoking a happy crowd packed onto the club floor, dancing a vital, lively, tight band. All of that comes through on the tape.

He even looks pretty good!

Jerry at Stages, East St. Louis, May 23, 1983. Picture credit: Madeline Dames, via https://www.gdao.org/items/show/826463

I don't have a ton of @@wowwowwowwowwows in my notes. I hear some fanny goodness in "Catfish John," a rockin' "Let It Rock," and some of the period's chacracteristic beautiful spirraling guitar figures in both "Harder They Come" and "Dear Prudence". Not a lot of the metallic, hair-on-fire burn here, even in "Deal", at least not that I noted. The show has a cooler, smoother, sweeter vibe than we'd hear after another week-plus on the road. It's just a really nice listen from both a recording and a performance standpoint. Don't make the same mistake I did and leave it neglected for 17 years.

Tour table follows, then listening notes.

Table xxx. Spring '83 JGB tour 

Date	Venue	JGMF
1983-05-20 [Fri] Early	Rainbow Music Hall, Denver, CO
1983-05-20 [Fri] Late	Rainbow Music Hall, Denver, CO
1983-05-21 [Sat]	Rainbow Music Hall, Denver, CO	Errico is a monster
1983-05-22 [Sun]	Civic Arena, St. Joseph, MO
1983-05-23 [Mon]	Stages, East St. Louis, IL	don't judge a tape by the gear
1983-05-25 [Wed]	Shea's Theatre, Buffalo, NY	meh
1983-05-26 [Thu]	Auditorium Theatre, Rochester, NY
1983-05-28 [Sat]	Cape Cod Coliseum, South Yarmouth, MA	average for the tour
1983-05-29 [Sun]	Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford, CT
1983-05-30 [Mon]	Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford, CT
1983-05-31 [Tue]	Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY	Mamma mia, what a show
1983-06-01 [Wed]	Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY
1983-06-03 [Fri] Early	Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ
1983-06-03 [Fri] Late	Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ
1983-06-04 [Sat] Early	The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY
1983-06-04 [Sat] Late	The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY	pretty strong
1983-06-05 [Sun] Early	Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA	swan song for JGB #15c
1983-06-05 [Sun] Late	Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA	swan song for JGB #15c

The "Little Cash Cow," Fall 1991 Edition

 

Table xxx. JGB Gig Income, Fall 1991 Tour

Table xxx. JGB Gig Gross and Income, Fall 1991 Tour

Music Mountain Is All That

Sometimes the conventional wisdom has it right, and the high esteem in which folks hold the Jerry Garcia Band show from June 16, 1982 at Music Mountain in South Fallsburg, NY illustrates the point. I heard it a few times way back when, and really liked it. Then I revisited it a few days ago for the first time in at least ten years, and I really liked it. It brings great energy. Everything pops. Valerie is young and grungy, inducing her man to shoot his dog just for barking! The "Don't Let Go" is incredible, Garcia just overflowing with ideas. There is a board tape of the first set, but if a complete master sbd tape existed this should be a no-brainer for release. I may not love it as much as I love 5/31/83, but one reasonably could.

Bobby and the Midnites shared the bill, and played second. Lucky for JGB, because apparently it rained cats and dogs during the Midnites set. People had a good time. A number of great-sounding tapes made it out of the venue, but I don't think the Cornell Effect drives the love for this show. Instead, it's just really good.

Which is pretty remarkable, because according to Andy Leonard, who had worked for the Dead, Our Hero wasn't looking so good:

I had never seen a human being that color before in my life. He was the wrong color. I thought he was going to die onstage. It scared the crap out of me (Browne 2015, 296).

These kinds of contrasts happen all the time in the Garciaverse. I have just come to accept that there is no one-to-one relationship between Garcia's health and how he performed on any given night.

On this listen, I spun the John Steinthal tape, put out by the Mouth of the Beast (MOTB) crew via the legendary Barry Glassberg's first gen reel. Nice tape, excellent show.

Oh yeah, one more thing: what an odd tour, really two tours in one. Things began on this night, after three hometown warmup gigs on June 10-11-12. JGB would do 8 shows in 9 nights, though they'd lose Liz Stires before the tour was over. Then, the Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet would take over the back end, for 11 gigs in 8 nights. Jerry must have made a pile of money on this two part electric-acoustic tour!

The three electric shows for which I have data (from Billboard), the first three of the tour, show gross of over a quarter million dollars.

The acoustic shows made less: we have data for five, grossing another $123k (with only two performers drawing pay). So we're talking over $400,000 and maybe a half mil for the jaunt, which would have had Jerry away from his hidey-hole on Hepburn Heights for less than three week. At those rates, Chief Smokin' Moccasin (Scully 1996/2001, 359) could afford plenty of new slippers.

Jerry Garcia Band

Music Mountain

South Fallsburg, NY 12789

June 16, 1982 (Wednesday) - 7 PM

Steinthal MAC > 1R MOTB-0057 flac1644 shnid-88972

--set I (6 tracks, 55:02)--

s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:56] [0:02] % [0:05]

s1t02. Catfish John [12:57] % [0:04] %

s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [11:09] % [0:04] %

s1t04. Valerie [6:57] ->

s1t05. Let It Rock [7:35] ->

s1t06. Deal [7:06] (1) [0:08]

--set II (5 tracks, 54:33)--

s2t01. (I'm A) Road Runner [8:41] % [0:04] %

s2t02. [0:32] Love In The Afternoon [12:44] % [0:03] 

s2t03. Don't Let Go [19:27] [0:02] %

s2t04. /The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [#7:48] ->

s2t05. Run For The Roses [5:04] [0:08]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #14a

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - bass;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;

! lineup: Jimmy Warren - keyboards;

! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;

! lineup: Julie Stafford - backing vocals;

! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19820616-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-06-16

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/4422 (Senn 441 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/6659 (Silberman Senn 441 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/12513 (Eaton-Wise Senn 421/PZM blend shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/19278 (Holvey AT815a shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/33417 (Eaton-Wise Senn 421/PZM blend flac); https://etreedb.org/shn/88972 (this source, flac16); https://etreedb.org/shn/89042 (s1 sbd); https://etreedb.org/shn/89194 (s1 mtx); https://etreedb.org/shn/89198 (s1 DTS 5.1); https://etreedb.org/shn/89657 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/120086 (Dyche Nak 300).

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

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/music-mountain-south-fallsburg-ny.html

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

! ref: Billboard, July 3, 1982, p. 39. The show did not sell out! The venue held 10k, but this drew 7,863 paying customers for gross of $79,458.

! ref: "The Dead Come Alive: Bob Minkin's Live Photos of the Grateful Dead," URL http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/the-dead-come-alive-bob-minkins-live-photos-of-the-grateful-dead-20141103/music-mountain-south-fallsburg-new-york-june-1982-20141103;

! seealso: JGMF, "A JGB drum solo by Bill Kreutzmann - Cape Cod Coliseum, June 18, 1982," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-jgb-drum-solo-by-bill-kreutzmann-cape.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "Long Ago and Far Away: JGB at Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME, June 20, 1982," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/08/long-ago-and-far-away-jgb-at-cumberland.html.

! historical: Bobby and the Midnites also billed, Garcia Band went first. Apparently it rained mightily during Bob's set. Andy Leonard, former GD employee, says Garcia looked horrible: "I had never seen a human being that color before in my life. He was the wrong color. I thought he was going to die onstage. It scared the crap out of me" (Browne 2015, 296). Despite that, this is widely viewed as one of the great Garcia Band shows. and spinning it now (May 2020) after not having heard it in probably ten years, it holds up extremely well. It just packs tons of clear energy, not too grungy/down-and-dirty yet, still some youthful sweetness to Garcia's voice (though that'd be gone before long, and is already on its way out here in Dixie Down), the band very tight. After three hometown warmup gigs on June 10-11-12, here they start an east coast jaunt, 8 shows in 9 nights before the Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet would take over the back end, for 11 gigs in 8 nights. Man, Jerry must have made a pile of money on this two part electric-acoustic tour! The three electric shows for which I have data (from Billboard), the first three of the tour, show gross of over a quarter million dollars. The acoustic shows made less: we have data for five, grossing another $123k (with only two performers drawing pay).

! R: field recordist: John Steinthal

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi CM-300 > Sony TC-D5M > MAC (Maxell XLIIS-90)

! R: lineage: Sony TC-D5M (??) playback > TEAC AN-300 (Dolby encode) > Technics RS-1506US (Maxell UD 35-90 @ 3.75ips) > Technics RS-1506 > TEAC AN-300 (Dolby decode) > Grace Design Lunatec V3 (pre-only0 > Korg MR-1000 > DSF (1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo) > Korg MR-1000 > Korg AudioGate > WAV (24/96).

! R: MOTB Release Date: 2007-12-07

! R: people notes: R1 supplied By: Barry Glassberg; Transfer By: A. Egert; Mastering By: J. Waddell

! R: Mastering Notes -- Edited, mastered and downsampled to 16/44.1 on the GEMS Edit Station. -- Tape was paused between several songs. -- s2t0{3,4} - Tape pause between "Don't Let Go" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" cross-faded. 

! R: seeder notes: -- No music is lost due to the numerous tape pauses; however, the lead in is very short on a number of them. -- s1t01 - Output levels are very unstable during the opening of "How Sweet It Is"; taper is able to quickly adjust to optimum levels. -- s2t0{3,4} - Cross-fading of the tape pause - between "Don't Let Go" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" - may give the impression of a direct transition between the songs. The cross-fade was applied for aesthetics, as the tape pause was very abrupt, and there was actually a musical break.

! R: overall: Steinthal was a great taper, and this is a nice tape. Everything is forward out of the gate except the bass.

! P: s1t01 HSII he flubs the second verse, starting again with "needed the shelter"

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD 5:30 ish Garcia is just hitting some great notes, very high up the fretboard as 6 approaches, crystalline playing, crowd appreciative. Jimmy takes a lead early 6.

! P: s1t04 Valerie lyrical flub again around 1:40, and this time the protagonist shoots his dog for merely *barking* at our anti-heroine. Very nice guitar work 3:44 ish, before and some after, featuring unexpected jumps between notes, skipping some, not splitting stuff evenly but taking a more diverse approach.

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

! P: s2t02 LITA what I really hear is how he is varying the phrase lengths and note intervals. Man, this is highly articulate playing.

! P: s2t03 DLG is truly top shelf Jerry. Billy steps forward 10:20ff, and it becomes a true solo from about 10:35-11:20 or so. Then John steps back in and we have a drum-bass duet. Jerry returns 12:41 with a beautiful, confident, melodious piece.

! R: s2t04 TNTDODD clips in

Fall '77 Gig Economics: The Case of SUNY New Paltz (JGB, 11/29/77)

Handbill for JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77. Scan via Mark Cohen. Note that Ron Tutt is erroneously listed among the personnel.

The economics of the Garcia Band's Fall '77 tour have remained a little out of view for me, since I have never been able to track down itineraries, contracts, box office reports and all that, which I have seen for a few other trips. But a great report in the SUNY New Paltz Oracle lays them bare for one gig (11/29/77), and provides a snapshot into Garcia's rock star lifestyle of the time.

I should note that I have discussed a setlist rarity from this show (the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" inside the Wailers' "Stir It Up"), set forth some listening notes under the title "his voice is fading fast", and have also presented these kinds of data for a gig two years earlier ("Accounting the JGB: October 8, 1975").

The SUNY New Paltz Concert Committee brought in name talent a couple times a year for the students, drawing from student activity fees and generally running these events at a loss. But the earnest-seeming crew in place in Fall 1977, which seems to have been operating under the probably-copyright-infringing-but-totally-1977 name of "Jedi Productions", didn't plan to lose as much as they did on the Garcia Band's Tuesday night gig. For Google interest, here are the names and positions of the folks involved in putting on the show.

Kirt Madsen ... Production Manager
Eric Early ... Production Manager
Bill Dacey ... Stage Manager
Rick Markle ... Electrician
Joni White ... Talent Coordinator
Shari Berkowitz ... Tickets
Esther Friedman ... Publicity
Karen Reilly ... Hospitality
Rob Insolia ... Treasurer
Stan Wisla ... Security
Brian Higgenson ... Staging Consultant
Erica Pauling ... Secretary
Richard Someck ... Concessions
Randi Sackheim ...Programs
Debbie Golub ... Programs
Steve Martin ...General Manager
Jack Babb ... Assistant to General Manager

I would love to hear from any of them, especially Karen Reilly, who is mentioned in the narrative below.

According to the report in the school paper (Ratner 1977), the gig lost about $8,000, which is more than planned, mostly due to ticket sales of only 1,300 against a projected 2,000. But other aspects of putting the concert on probably also taught our young impresarios some valuable lessons in show biz economics. Here are the expenses.

Table xxx. Expenses for JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77. Source: Ratner 1977.

So here we have the band at a $10k guarantee, whereas it got $12,500 at Penn State (Clifford 1977). Monarch does well on sound and lighting. But let me get to the "hospitality" line item, which generates the following data and story, a little sidebar under the heading "Garcia Serves Up New Paltz, Brings His Own Chef":

     When the Jerry Garcia Band plays a school, it usually submits a list of refreshment requirements: Freshly ground coffee (either of Sumatra, Celebes, Jamaica High Mountain, Mocha-Java, or Columbian beans); Coffee must be made via the drip method, not electric percolator; Three (3) bottles of good French red wine and one and one-half (1 ½) cases of Heineken Light beer; Four (4) quarts of orange juice – no sugar; Four (4) of bottled spring water; Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches and good cheeseburgers; a dinner meal for fifteen …
     When they came to New Paltz, they were willing to forego the refreshment requirements. Instead; they brought their own chef, affectionately named Cy Kocis, and asked the concert committee for $600.
   "I knew things were going to be wrong when they wanted $600 in cash Tuesday morning," explained Karen Reilly, the Concert Committee's Hospitality Chief. Karen managed to knock them down to $450.
     Cy Kocis arrived at 1:30 on Tuesday; installed a four-burner stove charcoal grill and large cooler in Elting Gymnasium 101, and went to work. Filet Mignon and halibut steaks were on the dinner menu. The cooler contained a sumptuous feast for the band and its crew. Karen was there to meet the entourage. In fact, she was there since 9:00, earlier than anyone, making sure everyone experienced New Paltz's hospitality. "But when Cy Kocis gave me 4 large butternut squashes and told me to start peeling and cutting, I told him I had to get towels, or something, for the stage crew." Everyone has their limits.

Why do I imagine this merits quoting at length? I love the standard contract rider information. I knew Jerry was a coffee junkie, but I didn't know he was a coffee snob (which I count as a point in a person's favor). Good French wine pleases me, too, though not sure who of the band would most enjoy it. I guess I have Keith as good for at least a dozen of those Heinekens, but what do I know? Burgers? Definitely Jerry.

Then comes "Cy Kocis". Interesting. $600 cash is also interesting, and suspicious minds sometimes wonder whether that kind of wad might not have bought more than filet, halibut and butternut squash. I also admire the cut of Karen Reilly's jib, haggling them down to $450 and taking a pass on the vegetable peeler. She sounds awesome.

Anyway, good color.

The Reedman vs. The Gunslinger: JGB with David Murray, Madison Square Garden, November 12, 1993

LN jg1993-11-12.jgb.all.aud-brennecke-litzenburger-GEMS.91812.flac1644
LN jg1993-11-12.jgb.s2.aud-gastwirt.139507.flac1648

The man had conceived the band bearing his name as a way to scratch some musical itches, play some mostly consonant music with mostly-simpatico (or at least deferential) people, and make a little bit of walking around money. The Jerry Garcia Band provided its namesake with a comfortable and, eventually, highly lucrative musical diversion which allowed him to be himself, do most of the soloing, not have to figure out where Mickey Hart put the one, and maybe share some laughs (among other things that release endorphins, kill pain, and produce euphoria [Dunbar et al. 2012]) with his ol' buddy John Kahn.

Yet, Jerry was Jerry, with all that implied. Like Midas, everything he touched turned to gold, and that included his bar band, half of whose members played for free in Oakland churches on Sundays. By contrast, on Friday, November 12, 1993, this group sold out Madison Square Garden, grossing almost half a million as part of its twenty night, fifteen gig swing through the eastern time zone, its last real tour. Unlike a decade earlier, a relatively punishing bus tour with Garcia deep in heroin haze, this one was first class all the way, with the band staying in New York City and flying in and out of Teterboro, while battalions of squeaks (sound techs) and squints (light techs) did the heavy lifting. It seems like only half the gigs sold out, but these were mostly good-sized rinks and arenas with five-figure capacities, the kinds of places the Dead had been playing only a few years earlier.

The Garcia band's cozy sociality also meant that guest shots became scarce once the years' third digits turned to nines. The E Street Band's good-time "Big Man" Clarence Clemons sat in once in 1990, reprising his steady gigging with the JGB from late 1989, and banjo wiz Béla Fleck joined in on a couple of numbers at the Greek Theater in Berkeley two months later, in the dark early weeks following Brent Mydland's passing. As good as Fleck is, he played in a decidedly consonant mode, picking some pretty accompaniment to Pete Rowan's "Midnight Moonlight" and, doubly improbably, some mandolinish lead reggae banjo on "Harder They Come". The next fall, while still a member of the Dead, the great Bruce Hornsby sat in with Jerry in Hampton, Virginia, on the decade's other east coast swing, in November of 1991.

Hornsby certainly had the chops and the chutzpah to challenge Garcia, and he did so regularly in the Dead before stepping back off the scene to pursue his own extremely successful career, and perhaps to ward off the curse of the Dead's keyboard players. The one guy to really push Jerry around on his own stage was hotshot jazz saxophonist David Murray, who showed up two years after Hornsby's visit, and six weeks after sitting in with the Dead, at the aforementioned Madison Square Garden gig. The man BLEW, which is to have been expected. As Dead family insider Gary Lambert put it, "expecting a force of nature like David to function as a 'sideman' for the JGB (or any band) is kind of like saying to Jackson Pollock, 'Gee, I really admire your work. Now, could you paint me a nice Andrew Wyeth?'"

The reedman put some air into a number of very sharp notes, with a Garcia Band that was mostly soft, cottony round edges by this point in time. Garcia appears to have taken notice. Attendee Eric Pooley recalls that "Murray was in Garcia's face a little more than Garcia would have liked: [he] attacked, and Garcia retreated into shoetop space", chin on chest. Jim Powell observed that "Murray cut Jerry to shreds at that MSG Jerry Band show - maybe the only time old gunslinger Garcia ever came out on the short end." But the evidence of the night's "Lay Down Sally", normally a smooth, easy, good-time roller hewing closely to Clapton's original, belies this perspective, with all due respect to the poet and Macarthur Genius grantee who proffered it.

Segueing out of the churchy "My Sisters And Brothers", Garcia displayed little Christian charity in first feinting at the Stones' "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love", then shifting into "Lay Down Sally", taking a couple of extra measures at the start to let Murray his footing and thus making it, if not quite a fair fight, at least an honorable one. Typically, in the Garcia Band, Jerry gets the first solo (and usually the second, third and fourth). Here, Murray challenges the old fella in the light purple shirt right out of the gate, and they step on each other for a minute or two before Jerry lets him have his say, comprised of some sharp, loud bursts that might have blown back his shock-white mane. After that, still only fifty-one despite the white hair and haggard mien, the gunslinger drops the hammer, pursuing a million aggressive leads, syncopating some minor chords, and generally, all due apologies, not taking "no" for Sally's answer. Clocking in at over sixteen minutes, and finishing with an emphatic strum over the setbreak announcement, the "Lay Down Sally" from November 12, 1993 provides one of the finest musical displays of Garcia's late solo career, proving that he could still rise to a challenge when the occasion called for it.

I picked and chose from the two filesets named at the top, so some sketchy listening notes follow the fold. "Shining Star" also illustrates the reedman and the gunslinger trading blows, and both "The Maker" and "Don't Let Go" from the 86-minute second set are outstanding and worth your time.

JGB at Freeborn Hall, November 12, 1976

Sometime in the afternoon or thereabouts of Friday, November 12, 1976, Garcia, John Kahn, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, probably Richard Loren hopped into sedans being driven by monitor mixer Harry Popick and roadie Bill 'Kidd' Candelario to Davis, California, about a hundred miles east of San Francisco on I-80. Thus began a little weekend jaunt that strikes me as more pleasant than one they'd do in August '81 (billed as the "1^st Northern California Tour"), if only because the latter passed through Stockton in August, while this one offers foggier temperatures and a cooler implicit psychology.

It had already been a busy week, Sunday-Monday for Freddie Herrera in Berkeley and Palo Alto (I don't think a note of these shows circulates among collectors), then Tuesday through Thursday at Elliot Mazer's His Master's Wheels studio, in the space formerly operated by, variously, Pacific High Recorders and Alembic. The band gives every appearance of trying to use these sessions to work up some old favorites, sort of like a second version of Compliments, a few more fonky gospel numbers, maybe a few not so fonky, but a nice eclectic mix, for some ready-to-sell vinyl. This is the...

 ... Abortive 1976 Garcia Band album

At His Master's Wheels (HMW) Elliot Mazer had put together a space that Garcia really liked, singling it out when asked about the tastiest rooms in the Bay Area in June of 1974, right after recording Compliments (mostly at Columbia) and using it for Reflections, recorded second half 1975 and released early 1976, itself involving some abortive components (see Corry). That involved the payoff of the summer 1975 United Artists bailout. In late 76, Jerry played for Clive, and Arista paid the HMW studio time, as Davis, Garcia, Weir and the Grateful Dead (the latter three not at all the same thing as these men make their respective journeys) enter into a deal to further find fates. It’s impossible to say whether Davis fronted the studio time as an act of good faith, or whether, more likely, the time would eventually come out of Garcia’s advance. Despite its aesthetic promise, I can't say why this project gwas shelved. Eventually, after long battles with demons in the studio --recorded in earnest August-November 1977 and released around April 1, 1978-- Cats Under The Stars replaced it as the first, and in many ways the only, Jerry Garcia Band studio album.

The Abortive 1976 Jerry Garcia Band Album would differ from its predecessors, not a Jerry Garcia record, but a Jerry Garcia Band one, a false step in the institutionalization of Jerry Garcia. Bringing Nicky on board in summer 1975 was certainly a touring proposition - Nicky is contractually obligated to mention his 1975 Mercury record No More Changes (see my WIP "Hiatus Garcianomics"), and the band took xx tours (involving out of town flights) in its three-and-a-half months together. But having the Session Man in the house was almost certainly also a recording proposition: the timing with the recording Compliments is too strong suggestive. But it fell apart, for reasons unknown, and became a little bit of a Garcia-GD Frankenstein, incoherent even if it has its moments.

After August 1976 sessions paid by Round Records - perhaps the last good checks that outfit ever wrote, if they didn't bounce, October and November found Arista paying the bills, leaked to the cognoscenti no later than November 20^th.[i] Conceptually, take 2 of the first JGB album resonated with the "Americana Jerry likes" feel of Compliments, but with the band of Garcia-Kahn-Tutt-Godchaux (Keith) and at least some of the material drawing from cooler, stiller depths. Garcia tried Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" and "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" on for size for the project, about which I wrote at some length, noting that the ancient songstress found pulp-and-glue permanence in the New Lost City Ramblers Songbook (1964), through which, I surmise, Garcia might have learned the tunes. An undated OBIANL features on All Good Things, disc 3, track 11.

The Band also drew heavily from the gospel well with which Jerry, Keith, Donna and the rest had spent so much time in the Godchaux's living room in 1975 (for Keith and Donna), sometimes quite literally accompanied by a Samarian woman and a "Strange Man".  telling her every sinful thing she'd done, and setting her free. After a shambolic January, the bicentennial live act came to feature more upbeat gospel, as well, from the celestial choir of  “My Sisters And Brothers” to the hot-to-trot show closer “Ride Mighty High”. (Another angelic boogie, “Magnificent Sanctuary Band” [released on the 2004 box set All Good Things] never made it out of Stinson.)

Beyond gospel we find a Dylan (“Visions Of Johanna”, on the bonus disc All Good Things Redux), some black--and-white rockers “Bo Diddley” and “Not Fade Away” (11/9/76), a little R&B on November 10th (“Don’t Let Go”, “The Way You Do The Things You Do”), "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" (11/10/76), “Matilda” (calypso on both 11/10/76 and 11/11/76!) and the pure train “Streamlined Cannonball” (11/11/76). To travel to the places to which these various tunes were established, among the people who established them, would drive across every route and byway east of the Mississippi, lots of cities and hollers and plains, and a few on the other side; to do so by the means that conveyed them would bring you to ambient voice, boat, ship, raft, rail and automobile. Aesthetically, the collection would make a fine record.

The Weekend "Tour"

After laying down some tracks, the tour looks take draw a long, deep, weekend breath through some gigging and green spaces, the late Friday night show in Davis, it culminated in a pair of Saturday night shows at verdant Humboldt State.

Table xxx.

I have notes from the front end below. In terms of the back end of the "tour", Jerry has some land up in Mendocino, that Laird Grant lives on - maybe Garcia checked in, said hello and stocked up on the local fare --still autumn, harvest season-- for the rides back home.

Garcia at Freeborn

Depending on where they were coming from, this crew crossed a bridge (Richmond-San Rafael from Marin, or the Bay Bridge from the City), hooked up with I-80 east bound, crossed another bridge (over the Carquinez Strait), went up over the coastal ridge and dropped into the Great Central Valley. "Jerry Garcia has always liked this town," wrote the California Aggie reviewer about Davis. Campus gym Freeborn Hall would have been a drafty, smelly basketball arena at this time, all echo, but the college kids, many of them from the Bay Area, were enthusiastic, and the show shimmered. "Never before," wrote his seasoned reviewer, "have I seen Garcia dance, nor have I ever seen him smile so much".

Table xxx.

So nice to hear. In terms not of the visuals of Jerry (and Donna) swaying in a sweet groove, but of the audio, we are blessed to have Betty Cantor Jackson's 4^th reel of the night (reels 1-3 are AWOL, and may have returned do dust), and it holds just a 30 minute "Don't Let Go" and a show-closing "Might High", the crème de la crème of 1976 JGB repertoire, just about (LAALWFH wants a word with me).

LN jg1976-11-12.jgb.s2p-end.sbd-wise.132401.flac1648

A few highlights of the Davis show, based on the tape evidence.

John Kahn does a bass feature in DLG, which is actually interesting, not his usual feathery fluttery tickling thing – actual bass playing. He could do this in earlier years, and occasionally later on, but to hear John Kahn play with some power in November 1976 is a revelation.

Keith is noodling around some classical tunes after DLG.

"Mighty High" is nothing short of amazing. I love Donna Jean Godchaux.

Jerry Garcia Band

Freeborn Hall, University of California

Davis, CA 95616

November 12, 1976 (Friday) - 8 PM

BCJ reel #4 wise DAT flac1648 shnid-132401

--end of show (3 tracks, 2 songs, 38:17)--

reel04-t01. crowd and tuning [0:19]

reel04-t02. Don't Let Go [28:53] (1) [2:46]

reel04-t03. Mighty High// [6:19#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3

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

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, vocals;

! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;

! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, 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/19761112-03

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/15850 (same source reel, probably different source DAT and definitely more primitive DAT > CD transfer - deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/132401 (this fileset - best source).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/wuV67V7hENM2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/freeborn-hall-uc-davis-104-freeborn.html

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

! review: Krane, Matt. 1976. Garcia & Company: Phenomenal Crowd Pleasers. California Aggie, November 15, 1976, p. 3. positive review of 11/12/76. Under subtitle "Fabulous Crowd Pleasers" starts by getting out his Webster's: "mellifluous (me-lif-loo-es, adj. (L. /mellifluus: mel, mellis-honey, fluete-to flow), flowing sweetly and smoothly; honeyed; said of words, sounds, etc. … Jerry Garcia has always liked this town, Davis", gave a memorable performance. Not's the JGB has played Crabshaw Corner in Sacto. Freeborn  Freeborn usually sounds like ass, but the reviewer says the band's gear sounded great." Kane praises "Garcia's magnificently mellow, fluid blues progressions". "Never before have I seen Garcia dance, nor have I ever seen him smile so much. But he had a lot to smile about, and so did a crowded Freeborn." "He appeared very warm and comfortable. His music was doubly so."

! R: recordist: Betty Cantor-Jackson

! R: media: 7" reel master @ 7.5ips 1/2 track (reel #4 only). As far as I know, reels 1-3 are not in the Garcia Vault, which might mean they are still out in the world somewhere. They are known not to be among the Betty Boards (TM). Given the water damage to this reel, though, it's strongly possible that the first three reels were among the miles of rotted spaghetti and distingrated vinyl and oxide, silt and pulp and goat piss. As of this writing (3/24/2016), my best sense is that they are gone forever, but that could be wrong.

! R: gear: Betty's Nagra reel to reel deck (serial #SL11183)

! R: lineage: Playback on Otari MX5050-Meyer VX-1 signal processor-Sony PCM R-700 DAT @ 48KHz (circa 1999). Original zero gen DAT played back on a Sony PCM R-500-Digital Audio Labs Card deluxe-16 bit 48KHz. Editing (Adobe Audition CC) - Mastering & Processing (iZotope Ozone 6) - FLAC encoding (dBpoweramp) - Tagging (Tag & Re-name - Digital Transfer, Editing & Processing By JW:February 2015.

! R: note: 16 bit 48Khz file set formatted for music servers"

! R: note: "This reel was old & brittle and there is some tape squeal present."

! R: reel04-t02 DLG @ 15:43 ran past a place where the oxide wasn't, some squeal. Again late 22, ca. 22:50.

! P: reel-04-t02 DLG 12ff John Kahn is taking a bass solo, and for 20 seconds he's on it, a little too fluttery at 12:20, some great bass soloing by John Kahn -- yeah, I said it. @ 14:43 the band comes back, John gets a nice round of applause from the crowd. This is building to a very nice crescendo, all involved, Garcia high up 15:18, all the rest is percussion, now he puts some blue on it 15:39. Garcia in a very interesting space 16:13, a little more speed. 25ff is Garcia's vocale-guitar duetting, some good moaning and scowling. Jerry gets real strong wid it to come to an end, everyone lands right.

! reel04-t02 (1) Keith is playing a classical piece late 29. 29:49 - sounds like something definable. 30:20 for sure, that Parisian Waltz. more at 30:35. another quote 30:53, more than a quote. He wants to play it. Garcia strums for Mighty High @ 31:04.

! P: reel04-t03 Mighty High is incredible. Donna is bringing it early 5ff, everyone singing hard, she is belting! You guy, girl! Even Keith is yelling, in his nasally way, making the tape squeal. Man, that is some good time music for the Aggies!

! R: reel04-t03 squeal somewhere in 4. 5:38 squeal. Reel ends, maybe 30 seconds of music missing.

---

[i] McDonough 1976 11/20/76.