Sunday, May 21, 2017

Old Garcia Running to the Rock for Rescue

LN jg1995-03-05.jgb.all.aud-michaelB-goodbear.79634.flac1644

I listened to the second set, and man did I love it. "Shining Star" isn't may favorite, but the call-and-response with the crowd is nice. Jerry drops on a dime --actually, John first hit the line-- into "Johnny Too Bad", which is very, very good. Wonderful. The return to SS is neat, and readers will know that such true invention and true segueing was very rare in the Garciaverse (as distinct from the GD).

"Don't Let Go" has some issues early on, but the jam is fascinating, including some scowling scrubbing at around 6:20 and a lonely wail at 11:20. I don't know how frequently "Gomorrah" was being played in this period, but it was pretty much *always* special. This one is pretty flawed, but it's a game effort. Midnight Moonlight feels perfectly reasonable.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
March 5, 1995 (Saturday) - 8 PM
Michael B goodbear flac1644 shnid-79634

--set I (7 tracks, 63:02)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars ~ 13:30
s1t02. They Love Each Other ~ 9:51
s1t03. Run For The Roses ~ 6:48
s1t04. Like A Road ~ 8:36
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox ~ 11:02
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers ~ 4:01
s1t07. Deal ~ 9:14

--set II (7 tracks, 65:55)--
s2t01. Shining Star [23:38] ->
s2t02. Johnny Too Bad [7:51] ->
s2t03. Shining Star [1:12] [0:20] %
s2t04. Think [7:12] [0:13]
s2t05. Don't Let Go [13:35] ->
s2t06. Gomorrah [5:30] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:13] [0:12]

! 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:

! historical: The second set may be the best complete set of 1995. If this is damning with faint praise, I will also say there is some music being made. The Shining Star -> Johnny Too Band piece is subime, and this is the best rendering of that song I have heard from this band (also: 9/1/94, 9/10/94, this version, 4/14/95, 4/21/95). I have some sense that these shows weren't selling out as steadily as in previous years - no idea about this particular night.


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

! R: field recordist: Michael B.

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sonic microphones > DTR80P

! R: field recording location: floor, center

! R: lineage: WAV > Cool Edit Pro > CDWAV > FLAC.

! R: Teddy Notes: - Slight entire left channel amplify reduction -1db. - Slight entire overall eq to reduce booming bass and to increase the mid to high frequencies. - Downsample entire from 48 kHz to 44.1 kHz. Seeded 11/2006 by Teddy "GoodBear" Selby. Thanks go out to Dan Sisler for sending me the DATs in 10/2006!

! P: s2t01 (1) early on, woman in the crowd: "Jerry can you hear me? I love you!" I think he heard her. SS Jerry misses the obvious start at 2, then starts off the beat 15 seconds later. D'oh! This is the biggest pitch-bending he'd do, just noodling with a strikingly different attack, like he's coming at them from the top at a 90 degree angle, so it's more percussive, then allowed to bend and echo around. 23 John is the one who starts JTB, with the bass line.

! P: s2t02 Johnny Too Bad Garcia just jumps the line, the ladies do one more round of "Shining Star" as ancient Jerry canters into the reggae groove, hair solid white at this point, running to the rock for rescue (but "there will be no rock"). Donny @ 3 hitting real hard, and he and Jerry are locked in.  The segue back to Shining Star is true. That is some fine, fine, latter-day Garcia making music.

! P: s2t05 DLG requires a little more vocal power than these other ones, it just challenges him more. Donny Baldwin hits, but he doesn't set a pocket like Kemper did. 2 he should have come to a second verse, but I think he just blanks on it, so he steps back and picks some blues. Comes back to mumbling (should be "thunder lightning wind and rain") - he finishes off with "love is buzzing inside my brain". DB still not really setting the pocket that Jerry wants or needs. He remembers "hound dog" verse. 4:36ff he announces the exploratory part, and it's good. Jerry invents lots of neat call-resopnses stuff, but no one really responds. John is pretty absent and ineffectual to my ear. He hangs a huge note at 6:20, scrubs it, scrubs it some more 6:30, very interesting, totally unique to my ears. Lonely wail at 11:20, exploring some very sweet and interesting spaces late 11 a little darker turn, chunka chunka 12:05 back to the structure of DLG.

! P: s2t06 DLG drops right into Gomorrah, almost certainly the only time he ever did this. Jacks up the verse 4:35 ish, but lands on "wife of Lot got turned to salt" and succeeding "because she looked behind me" admonition.

! P: s2t07 Mid Moon disjointed in second half of 3, Garcia off key.

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