A Second Hooteroll?

In reporting that Epic/Columbia Custom Records and Douglas Records had re-upped on their distribution deal in spring 1972, Cash Box noted that one expected piece of product was "an encore of the collaboration between Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and keyboard man Howard Wales". News to me.

! ref: "Col, Douglas Dist. Renewal," Cash Box, April 1, 1972, p. 9.

San Francisco Sessions, 1969

update: changed title 20160319

San Francisco Sessions Series

• San Francisco Sessions, 1967-1968
• San Francisco Sessions, 1969
• San Francisco Sessions, 1970
• San Francisco Sessions, 1971
• San Francisco Sessions, 1972 

Moving through the Garciaverse, I pick up lots of pieces that are more degrees of separation out from Jerry than I can ever have real occasion to write-up, except purely on grounds of the shedding necessary to free up scarce cognitive resources. Thus was born my series San Francisco Sessions, which will run through 1972, I think.

/update

I just posted some random gatherings from SF (mostly studio) sessions, 1967-1968, mostly involving people who cross the Garciaverse in some way or who just interest me (e.g., QMS).

More of the same, 1969, with some half-baked effort to put in bold the names of folks with whom Garcia shared a stage.

A few fun ones, for me:

• I love that the Mule and the Bloomfielders did a radio commercial for Country Club Malt Liquor. I am sure that stuff went down smooth.
• A Howard Wales sighting! Ever the obscurity, even the union doesn't know his address.
• I notice Richard Greene and Kahn working a Brewer & Shipley session together on December 1st - I am not sure I knew that Greene had crossed into the Kahn-o-verse in this way.
• Question: is James Cooke of the Steve Miller sessions a.k.a. Curley Cooke, or is that someone different?

Anyway, please do leave name corrections, random thoughts, hoots and jeers in comments.

Risk and Challenge in the 1970s

Here's a back-of-the-napkin sketch, my subjective assessment, of the musical risks and challenges associated with Garcia's 1970s bands (qua personnel and repertoire) playing black and race-fusion music. So, this includes Wales-Garcia, all of the Jerry and Merl outfits, and all of the JGBs. It excludes NRPS, OAITW, GAMB/GASB (playing mostly white roots music), and the Lagin construct.

I intend this at some rather inchoate meso level. There are incendiary flashes and moments in every period. There are great shows. But that's micro level, and not what I am after here. This is intended as a map, if you will, of the structural constraints posed by players, their skills and shared repertoires.

Happy to receive questions, criticisms, etc.!

Rough chronology.

• HWJG and early JGMS = highest risk and challenge
• JGMS Forgerty era considerably lower. I didn't include the spring '73 influection Tickner and Sarah experiments, basically show it declining monotonically to July '73.
• JGMS Fierro era, an uptick.
• LOM, perhaps a slight downtick.
• An uptick with Nicky. This is mostly a personnel artifact, less so a repertoire one. Basically, I am saying that Nicky could challenge Garcia in ways that Merl could not (any longer?).
• The opiate-cushioned descent down down down, though 1978 is certainly better (and generally at a faster tempo) than the preceding two.
• Reconstruction uptick.

After that, things are fluid on the personnel front, but not so much in terms of risk and challenge. Garcia and Kahn are tweaking the JGB recipe until the advent of JGB #21b in July 1983, which basically endures until both of the principals are, generally, too sick and far gone to care.

Again, comments, criticisms, etc., most welcomed!

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders at the Matrix - A Dialogue

[ed: Corry sent me an email about Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders at the Matrix, which turned into a rather elaborate exchange on the subject. One piece of our correspondence involved the tape traveling as 5/20/71. This is some of Garcia's finest playing on tape in any context. I highly recommend that you check it out. I have done a little metadata analysis of the tape and reckon that there's no reason to doubt the David Lemieux-inspired conclusion that it is what it purports to be, and plenty of reason to concur in it.

Corry was stunned at how "out" this material is, sounding more like Howard Wales than Merl Saunders on keys, unmooring totally, in quasi-free jazz style, from the songs. I agreed with him, but, if my metadata analysis is right --and we both think it is-- then it is indeed Merl, and we may need, in my words (pace Bayes), to update our priors.

With Corry's permission, I am posting it more or less as we have it in email, with a few tweaks here and there. I originally planned that Corry would be in black and I would be in blue ("Tasty hemlock!"), but the quoting arrangement seems to work all right. Don't want too much formatting else Blogger will up and walk away on me.

Dialogue below the fold.]

JGMS January 21-22, 1975, Keystone, Berkeley

Keystone Berkeley events calendar, January-February 1975

I hadn't seen this one before. It includes information on two previously unlisted Jerry Garcia-Merl Saunders gigs, on Tuesday-Wednesday, January 21-22, 1975, at Keystone, 2119 University Avenue in Berkeley.

Also includes a couple of Howard Wales gigs, information on opening acts for Kingfish on 1/24-25, and a little notice in the middle: Coming Soon to Keystone Berkeley, March 1 & 2: Legion of Mary: Jerry Garcia-Merl Saunders-John Kahn-Ron Tutt-Martin Fierro. I have elsewhere asserted that this is the first documented instance of the use of the Legion of Mary moniker, though an eyewitness to the Eugene show on 12/15/74 remembers them being billed as LOM.

Anyway, more for The List.

Reading Notes: Constanten, Tom. 1992. Between Rock and Hard Places: A Musical Autobiodyssey. Eugene, OR: Hulogosi Press.

update 20120107: how could I have missed LIA's post "Constanten on Constanten"? Anyway, there it is, excellent as always.

Spent some time with this, mostly trying to get some more anchoring around Tarot, which has become quite a productive discussion in comments to my post on a "Rubber Duck Mime Band and Jerry Garcia" billing at Mandrake's in Berkeley on June 2-3, 1970.

A few drive-by take-home points for me.

• Tarot still really confuses me, and especially the nature and extent of Garcia's involvement.
• We have a Vince Guaraldi and a Howard Wales sighting. Regarding the latter, and based on the context, We can't rule out that he's talking about the GD-Wales encounter on Thursday, August 28, 1969 at the Family Dog at the Great Highway. But it's certainly before 2/1/70. Similarly, we get a data point on GD-Guaraldi that points to sometime before 2/1/70 for his sit-in(s) with the band.

Reading Notes, focused only really on GD/Garcia and points of interest to me, follow. (I.e., I am certainly not representing this as anything other than a data-mining and breadcrumb-establishing enterprise.)

Constanten, Tom. 1992. Between Rock and Hard Places: A Musical Autobiodyssey. Eugene, OR: Hulogosi Press.

 

Constanten 1992, 70: TC saw Warlocks at The In Room.

Constanten 1992, 70-71: saw GD 5/29/66, spent a few days staying with the band at Olompali.

Constanten 1992, 71: joined them in LA for studio work on Anthem, ca. November 1967?

Constanten 1992, 72: Pigpen, Tom Constanten and Nicky Hopkins hung out talkin' music in a hotel room at Woodstock. Sessions at Columbia Recorders overdubbing a vocal track for Alligator, TC in control room.

Constanten 1992, 74: returning to St. Louis early April 1969.

Constanten 1992, 75: Fillmore West acid spiked apple juice. “I remember Janis venting her high dudgeon at Owsley backstage that night – her trumpet player had got dosed. … When it came time for us to play, Phil’s bass was loosely draped over his shoulders and he was pushed onstage, muttering the while about the Fall of the Roman Empire. … I found Robert Hunter painted onto the stairs on our way out the back door. He and Pete Grant were then decanted into their respective back seats for the rid back home across the Golden Gate Bridge.”

Constanten 1992, 75: Bull Frog festival in Oregon.

Constanten 1992, 76: 4/28/71 he just happened to be in town because of the Tarot project.

Constanten 1992, 76: Dylan was in attendance GD 4/27/71.

Constanten 1992, 76: More NYC. Café a Go Go. Hey Jude encore at Fillmore East (2/11/69). Fillmore East. Woodstock. “a musically warm afternoon at the Central Park bandshell” (6/22/69).

Constanten 1992, 77: LA 1967 met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who didn’t like the band’s name, wanted to call it “Everlasting Life”.

Constanten 1992, 77: “We were supposed to be the band in the movie Zachariah. It got as far as touring the MGM back lot, getting fitted for costumes, and impacting the script, but no farther.” NB movies.

Constanten 1992, 77: mention of Big Rock Pow Wow show. Playboy after Dark.

Constanten 1992, 77: “The band even went horseback riding as a group a couple of times out at Mickey’s ranch in Novato”. Helps to paint the Mickey’s Barn picture: not like they rode every day.

Constanten 1992, 78: 3/15/69 Black and White Ball. 

Constanten 1992, 78: TC had met Garcia 1962.

Constanten 1992, 78-79: Aoxomoxoa. 

Constanten 1992, 79-82: why he left the band. Mostly it sounds like there just wasn’t enough musical or auditory space for him.

Constanten 1992, 80: “comparing the problems more experienced players, like Vince Guaraldi and Howard Wales, encountered in interacting with the band, I began to suspect that some of the band members themselves didn’t have that clear an idea of the keyboard’s role in a guitar band context”

Constanten 1992, 81: “It was unsettling enough for Phil to pointedly remark how much he preferred Howard Wales’s playing when he sat in with the band. But what really hurt was his apparent insensitivity to the fact that Howie’s system was driving twice as many Leslie speakers as mine.”

Constanten 1992, 81-82: New Orleans bust, early 1970

Constanten 1992: notice that neither the narrative nor the information in the TC Base at the end of the book ever lists Garcia as performing Tarot live, or really involved with it in any way.

Constanten 1992, 84-89: whole Tarot story, but still quite hard to parse exactly who/what/when/where [OCR scanned .doc]

Constanten 1992, pp. 195-197 are the parts of “T.C. Base 3” which cover the years to Tarot [images scanned]. The GD data in TC Base have a number of known errors which I won't try to catalog.

Wales/Hooteroll influence on GD?

All Hooteroll All The Time (AHATT) is an interesting idea that could be elevable to a core principle, i.e., to the effect that Hooteroll is "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" (Revelations 22:13, King James Bible version). :) I won't go into that here.

I will just reproduce what I just came across in a late 1972 discussion of the Grateful Dead, probably by a college undergraduate music major, who had seen all of two Dead shows. I post it on AHATT principles.

Perhaps the best recorded example of what may yet be another turn in style, and one which was embryonically apparent in at least two of the Dead's latest concerts (Philedelphia [9/21/72] and Washington [9/20/72]) can be found in a largely undiscovered album Garcia recorded with Howard Wales called Hooteroll?. Without a doubt, Garcia's collaboration with the superb blues/jazz organist, Wales, will continue to produce dramatically important results.

To a large extent, the Dead's recent dream-like style of playing, characterized by slowly evolving, minutely subtle melodies which at times are intentionally shattered ... by powerfully syncopated chords and notes, by Lesh's imitation and by a general accelerando, can be attributed to Garcia's experiences with Wales on Hooteroll? It seems likely, too that the increased influence and often outright performance of jazz preeiminently displayed throughout much of their latter concerts can be developmentally traced to Hooteroll? as well.

Now, this guy could just happen to have listened to Hooteroll? in writing up his review (or preparing for the show, or whatever) and could be following the law of the hammer. He might not know what he is talking about. Maybe Jerry had an underlying interest in jazz which led him to play it with the GD and Howard (spurious correlation, plausible). Maybe Jerry's jazzy work with the Dead influenced his style with Howard (reverse causation, highly doubtful). I don't endorse Rob Pritchard's sentiment. Because I find GD-GOTS crossovers to be really useful to parameterize, I merely note it with interest and pass it along.

AHATT.

REFERENCE:
Pritchard, Rob. 1972. Grateful Dead Resurrect Country, Blues, Jazz. Cavalier Daily (University of Virginia), October 6, 1972, p. 2. Accessed via Google New, though I can no longer find it there. The Cavalier Daily appears to be archived on line, if incompletely. A google search turns up this issue, but I can't seem to access the content.

more on the keyboardist change, ca. 1971

We have been going around on the various blogs about the engagement of Vince Guaraldi and Howard Wales with the GD/Garcia, and especially about Weir's recollection that Howard Wales had a tryout as GD keyboardist.

LIA has wondered aloud whether some of the 1970 "Hartbeats" gigs, e.g., in late July, were, effectively, the Wales tryouts.

I have argued that September 1971 seems more likely. More importantly, LIA cites McNally as giving this timeframe, as well.

The other day I was wondering how Pigpen felt about all of this. He was sick and getting sicker, so maybe it just was what it was. But it must have been depressing and awkward. Then I remembered about the September 9, 1971 gig that Corry uncovered (which had also been listed in the Barb, I had found), the only solo Pigpen gig that I have ever even heard of or seen reference to. I suspect that if the gig happened Pigpen just brought out his guitar and sang some sad blues.

We already know, if tape labels are to be believed (and I think in this case they make too much sense not to be), that Keith Godchaux would be rehearsing with the GD within three weeks of this, if he wasn't already. And I admit that a Pig gig says nothing about the timing of a Wales tryout. But I thought it was an interesting piece of context, and the tickle in the back of my brain has me really believing that the Wales tryout was ca. September, 1971.

GD19710903-4: Harding Theater, SF, CA

Here's another one that puzzles me. This scan from the Berkeley Tribe v.6 n.4 (issue #110) (September 3-9, 1971), p. 13 advertises a benefit for Marin County Head Start featuring Grateful Dead, Howard Wales and Shades of Joy on Friday-Saturday, September 3-4, 1971 at the Harding Theater in San Francisco.

Why post? A few reasons.

First, this is not a Grateful Dead date that's known to me, so it's interesting in that regard. I don't have anything else going on for Jerry on this weekend, so it fits in the schedule. I have an unknown NRPS gig listed for September 5 (Sunday), no venue or other info ... no idea where that comes from. I show Garcia and Saunders at the Harding Theater on September 10 and the NRPS there on September 23. This is an odd little cluster of shows at this venue which begs an explanation, I think, but in any case another couple of gigs fit this little pattern.

Second, last year I had posted on a listing in the (San Rafael) Pacific Sun for a Grateful Dead gig at Marin Vets on 11/28/71 to benefit, you guessed it, Head Start. Nothing more ever turned up and, as Corry said in comments, it seems unlikely that the event happened. But it's weird to find another Head Start connection from just a few months before.

Third, the presence of Howard Wales on the bill is especially interesting. LIA has been writing some incredibly rich posts on the Hartbeats, the surface of which I have barely scratched. In his post on the July 1970 "Hartbeats" gigs, he a) mentions the story that Wales once had an audition with the Grateful Dead; b) notes McNally's timeframe for this of September 1971; but c) speculates that, instead, the Wales audition took place around July 1970 instead. Now here we have a Grateful Dead/Wales co-billing, in September 1971, in the same month during which we know the Grateful Dead were rehearsing their new keyboard player, who turned out to be Keith Godchaux.

The listing that forms the object of this post makes me return to the September 1971 time frame for Howard's GD "audition". Let me go a step further ... the story of Keith becoming a member of the GD is well known. Here's how Donna relates it, from Blair Jackson's fantastic cutting room floor, once she and Keith had flashed on him playing with the GD.

"We went home, looked in the paper and saw that Garcia's band was playing at the Keystone, so we went down, of course. At the break, Garcia walked by going backstage, so I grabbed him and said, 'Jerry, my husband and I have something very important to talk to you about.' And he said, 'Sure.' I didn't realize that everyone does that to him. So Garcia told us to come backstage, but we were both too scared, so we didn't. A few minutes later, Garcia came up and sat next to Keith, and I said, 'Honey, I think Garcia wants to talk to you. He's sitting right next to you.' He looked over at Jerry and looked back at me and dropped his head on the table and said, 'You're going to have to talk to my wife. I can't talk to you right now.' He was just too shy. He was very strong but he couldn't handle that sort of thing. So I said to Jerry, 'Well, Keith's your piano player, so I want your home telephone number so I can call you up and come to the next Grateful Dead practice.' And he believed me! He gave me his number."

(Actually, Keith was not completely unknown in the Grateful Dead world. Betty Cantor had used him on a studio session for a record by James & the Good Brothers and thought very highly of him.)

(That last bit isn't especially germane, but I wanted to note the James & The Good Brothers connection, having just posted on it, and note further that, per Matt Scofield's deaddisc, Keith is not credited on that album. FYI, FWIW, etc.)

Why do I quote that at such length? Well, I observe that Garcia and Saunders played the Keystone Korner on September 16, 1971 (listing in Hayward Daily Review, September 16, 1971, p. 25). I note that circulating recordings of Keith's GD rehearsals are dated from September 27. So, wild speculation time, friends and neighbors: I suggest that September 3-4 at the Harding were the tryouts with Wales, that it didn't go especially well, that Keith and Donna buttonholed Jerry on September 16, and that Keith started in not more than 11 days later with the Grateful Dead. How's that for an extrapolation?!?

I also wonder, compounding speculation with speculation, if all of this might not tie into all of the record company backing and forthing and the relatively long gestation period of Hooteroll? (remember -- All Hooteroll?, All The Time!), which wasn't released until December. Again, I know I am going way beyond the evidence, but isn't it also interesting that Shades of Joy is on this bill, another Douglas Records client?

Sorry to throw so much out there with this. Anyway, here's an attempt at a summary of what this post does:

• identifies previously unknown GD gig
• may well pin down the date of Howard Wales's "audition" with the GD
• may well pin down the "when Keith & Donna met Jerry" date at Keystone Korner
• may well identify some connections between all of this and the record company scramble around this whole group of people around this time.

OK, 'nuff for now, I guess. The Berkeley Tribe is a masterpiece!

JG: December 21, 1970 (Monday), Pepperland, San Rafael, CA

At some point I need to figure out Pepperland. I see from a Rock Prosopography post on Sons of Champlin setlists that the venue was the Bermuda Palms ca. 1967, then became Euphoria Ballroom, then became Pepperland. Nothing turns up on Rock Archaeology.

COAU has a little bit. With an address of 737 Francisco Blvd. E, San Rafael, CA 94901, it is apparently recently known as Litchfield's Zebra ?Restaurant?:


View Larger Map

But my purpose here is not to dig into Pepperland, but to follow up on the gig on December 21, 1970. I had mentioned it in one of the recent Hooteroll? posts, and I reproduce an ad from the Pacific Sun that I had also posted there. (What can I say, I like this image?)

In comments, cryptdev confirmed that Howard Wales was not present, so the billing in the ad is wrong.

We have good eyewitness information on this at Deadlists, however. This from MP:

I attended part of this show. It was indeed the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood opening, with a spectacular set. Next up was a blues band (not Howard Wales) that I can't recall the name, but John Kahn was their bass player. The New Riders played next. Around 2 AM, Garcia, Lesh, Hart, and David Crosby came out. They opened with "Drop Down Mama," and also played "Alabama Bound," "Triad" and "Deep Elem Blues" before I was dragged kicking and screaming from the hall by my ride, who needed to work the next morning. The ads billed the show as "Acoustic Dead" but this segment, at least, was electric. At one point, Garcia introduced the group as "David and the Ding-A-Lings" (not Dorks!) and Crosby countered with the name "Jerry and the Jets." Weir and Pigpen were visible wandering around backstage, so it is entirely possible, even likely, that the entire Dead played even later, as curfew clearly was not an issue.

So I'll just extract and reformat. On this night, we have the following:

1. Jerry Hahn And The Brotherhood 
2. blues band, with John Kahn on bass: Comment: LLD, take note!
3. New Riders of the Purple Sage (NRPS). Comment: Mickey is in the house. Wonder if he played drums, or if Spencer did?  First documented show with Spencer was in Cleveland on 11/29/70, but as I am learning it might have switched back and forth for awhile, so with Mickey here it's possible he played.
4. David And The Dorks. Comment: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, David Crosby. Name is utterly fluid, so this DATD listing is purely conventional. Much to say, eventually, about David and the Dorks. Not sure what more there is to be learned ... hopefully more!
5. possibly the GD, acoustic or electric possible

A few thoughts..

If the GD did play, this would have been a rare "threefer" day for Garcia. The only other days I can think of him playing live with three different bands, off the top of my head, were the closing of the Fillmore West run (July 2, 1971) and, you guessed it, the Golden State Country Bluegrass Festival on April 28, 1974. (He played three separate shows on 6/5/82, but all as the Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet.)

With Weir and Pigpen in the house, I'd wager the GD were at least slated to play. I'd even say there might be better than even odds that the GD played in some configuration.

Wonder where Mickey Hart's head was at, given how things would shake out in regards to Perfidious Lennie over the next few months? I also wonder whether his barn studio was being planned or built yet?

Would JG ever play at Pepperland again?

Hooteroll? Next Part

Corry's original post on LLD: "Hooteroll?--When Was It Recorded?", with lots of great comments.
My response: "Response to LLD's Hooteroll--When Was It Recorded?"

A number of commenters to these posts, including sraile and LIA, as well as more from Corry, have added valuable thoughts and information. Thank you all!

The purpose of this post is to give a bit more information, based on a post from Blair Jackson at Deadnetcentral, reflecting tapes in the Garcia vault. This information disconfirms my speculation that Hooteroll? was completed by the end of 1970. It seems to have been recorded ca. October 1970 - ca. June 1971.

Here's what Blair so generously reports:

10/29/70
There are a couple of 2" reels with this date, which need not have been a session but could have been mixing or copying or whatever. On these tapes: two "unnamed" songs, "Up from the Desert," "A Trip to What Next" and "South Side Strut." "Personnel is definitely Jerry and Howard, plus unnamed bass, drums and flute."

What interests me here is a 10/26/70 "Jerry Garcia & Friends" listing at the Matrix (Good Times, v.3 n. 42, 10/23/70, p. 14). In years past I would have thought that GD would have just gone east from St. Louis after 10/24/70 en route to Stony Brook on 10/30. But I no longer believe this. It seems to have been Jerry's habit to come home even in 2-3 day windows, even if it meant flying twice over lots of the same terrain. This seems to have been especially the case when there are sessions back home. So I have little doubt but that he was in the Bay Area on 10/26 and even 10/29.

Was this a gig with Wales? Dunno. If so, that would obviously fall after the date on which I have speculated things started up with Merl Saunders, i.e., September 7th. (Not that it matters, but it's amazing how hard it is for me to shed the assumption of linearity in my thinking about all this.) Anyway, all of this stuff leads me to see that there was considerable overlap between Merl and Howard -- almost 17 months, by my present reckoning. It's just that (with the exception of the Hooteroll? tour in early '72), Wales & Garcia took it from the stage to the studio. Why not? There are nubby Doris Dynamites and blow o'plenty there!
 
3/31/71
Next date that appears on tape boxes. Again, need not have been a session date, though so far as I can tell Jerry seems to have been in town. Blair: "There are some reels with no titles, and also full reels with multiple false starts and a few takes of "South Side Strut" and "Up From the Desert" that were probably referenced for the mixing of the album."

6/21/71
Blair: "By 6/21/71 the full album mastering has been completed, and the 2-track masters (or are they copies?) are in the vault with that date on them."

8/1/71?
Blair: "Then the next tape entry in the vault is four live multitrack reels from Boston, dated 8/1."
 
Whoa. Is it possible that Wales & Garcia played in Boston on Jerry's 29th birthday, August 1, 1971? Well, the GD did play Yale University (New Haven, CT) on 7/31 ... anyone ever wonder what was up with that? JG's first solo album, Garcia, was said to have been recorded in three weeks in July 1971, and then the GD go out east for a one-off. So JG almost certainly began 8/1 within easy reach of Boston ... is it possible that a Boston gig happened this late in the game, with no contemporary record or memory of it?

Anyway, this is a really interesting rabbit hole we find ourselves in, I think. I still have a million questions about all this. For now, I'll just aver that I was wrong in speculating that Hooteroll? was in the can by the end of 1970.
 
So I answer Corry's titular question as follows: so far as we can tell, between October 1970 and June 1971.

Response to LLD's Hooteroll--When Was It Recorded?

Corry has an important and rich post over at LLD on the mystery that shrouds the recording of Howard Wales / Jerry Garcia, Hooteroll [deaddisc entry]. I started to reply in comments over there, but began to write more than I thought suitable for that little sub-medium (a minimum?), so I thought I'd just let myself go a little over here. Not sure what blogger etiquette dictates in such a situation, but anyway. This will be a little bit of a sloppy mess, so brace yourselves.

Hooteroll? is obviously very important for Garcia scholars as Garcia's first real "side trip" (insofar as "trip" implies travel [excluding the Hartbeats], and "side" implies separate from the Grateful Dead [excluding the JG-era NRPS]). (Whoever named the one live Wales/Garcia release was freaking smart ... I mean, Side Trips really is a genius title ... but I digress.) And Corry is absolutely right that there's a lot of seemingly-deliberate obscurity surrounding this album. Howard Wales is a generally obscure guy, and seems to prefer things that way, but there is a lot of weirdness even in the contemporary record about this album. Corry has laid out a number of elements that strike me as important, but I still can't quite see how they fit together.

Let me throw out a bunch more, and conclude that the album was recorded in late 1970, with its release delayed a year due to record company squabbles. This won't be well organized, but I'll do my best.

I was initially prepared to pin down at least the end date of the sessions, based on an item in Billboard from Nov. 7, 1970 (1), including this: "Recording of the Garcia-Wales LP was completed last week in San Francisco at Wally Heider Studios". That pins the location and would pin the date pretty clearly. Remember the discussion about a possible Garcia return to the Bay Area for a ca. Nov. 1, 1970 NRPS gig? And Janis's wake at the Lion's Share ca. Nov. 1-2, 1970? I have found that some or many of Garcia's odder movements (such as traveling back to the Bay Area from Stony Brook after 10/31 only to return to Port Chester for an 11/5 show -- why not hang in NYC??) had to do with recording obligations. Oh yeah, and let's not forget that there are PERRO tapes (Heider's!) dated 11/3/70. All of this fits together so perfectly, dating at least the completion of Hooteroll? to ca. November 1-4, 1970, and providing another piece of evidence that Garcia was in the Bay Area on those dates.

One more tidbit: Billboard had a little item on Douglas the day before this (2), as well, suggesting that there was a record-company promotional effort underway, also suggesting that word of the sessions' status would have been coming from the horse (Douglas)'s mouth. This is also a good read, totally confirming what Corry says about Douglas's uncompromising approach.

And yet ... and yet ... here are a few spanners for the works.

November 7, 1970: presumed wire report (2): "Former Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales have signed a contract with Douglas Records and are expected to start work on their own material in the near future." Given the number of mistakes (the error-to-word ratio is pretty striking), I would discount this, maybe as a bastardization of the contemporary Billboard material. Until I see a ...

... December 19, 1970, report from San Francisco in Billboard (3), with these consecutive items: "Howard Wales has begun working for a new album on Douglas ... The New Riders of the Purple Sage are recording at Wally Heider's ... David Crosby has booked time there through the end of January ... Jefferson Airplane is at work on a new LP ..." This is obviously PERRO incarnate, with what would become Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name and Kantner/Slick's Blows Against the Empire, though I had never, ever realized there might be a Wales connection to PERRO. It doesn't explicitly say that Wales was working at Heider's, but the context (looks like they got a call from Barncard or someone!) is suggestive. So is the fact, pointed out by LIA, that Wales came into the studio to lay down some stuff for the GD's American Beauty, which would have been around August 1970 at Heider's.

So the last two items suggest that recording might have started around November-December 1970, rather than finishing then. The November 7 report that things were done by early November seems like the anomaly here ... maybe there was just a miscommunication?

There's also this little tidbit in support of more of a December timeframe. I had forgotten about it, and it is odd, defying otherwise clean break between Howard and Merl as GOTS keyboardists ca. September 7, 1970:

Can't recall if I owe h/t to Ross. Probably, so, thanks, Ross!

Grateful Dead, the Brotherhood, and "Howard Wales and Friends" billed at Pepperland in San Rafael on December 21, 1970. Interesting. We also know that David Crosby was around Pepperland right in this moment because of the David and the Dorks gigs, which would tie back into Heider's in November. We don't know whether Howard and Jerry played together at all, but I do think the billing is instructive. I don't know that Garcia and Wales would ever share a billing again, but for the January 1972 Hooteroll? promotional tour.

One final reflection on late 1970 recording timeframe. Corry mentioned The Music of El Topo. According to deaddisc, this is Douglas Records #6, released in 1970. Hooteroll? is Douglas Records #5, released in December 1971. Not sure this odd sequencing says anything about recording dates (it may reflect contract dates, or expected release order, or whatever), but it might. It might imply that Hooteroll? was in the can by the time El Topo was released ... let's say ca. Christmas 1970? This strikes me as an independent piece of evidence, tenuous on its own but suggestive in the context of everything else, for recording in November-December 1970, probably not much thereafter.

Anyway, I am pretty persuaded that the album was recorded in late 1970. I am hoping to learn more about whether this took place at Heider's -- I have records for other sessions around this time, but nothing for Wales -- but that's my operating assumption for now.

So, why doesn't the album come out until December 1971, with a brief promotional tour in January 1972? I agree with Corry that this had to do with record industry stuff.

Consider this tidbit, from the Nov. 7th Billboard item (1), which I remind you was headlined "Douglas To Record 2 LP's By Grateful Dead Artists":

Joe Smith, Warner Bros. executive, said that the Douglas recordings will be beneficial to Warners in terms of artist exposure as well as enhancing the climate of artistic freedom which is so necessary among serious musicians who want to work with artists from other labels.

As Corry points out, the record was eventually manufactured and distributed by Columbia Records. And the above quote sounds like a bunch of CYA from Joe Smith, who was confronted with a story that leads with the GD working with another label and probably wanted to put a positive gloss on what was actually a turf battle. The fact that it is mentioned also supports the idea of some "industry" tension surrounding the whole thing.

Wild conjecture time. The Nov. 7th Billboard piece (1) informs us that, in addition to Wales and Garcia, there are plans for a Kreutzmann-Hart percussion album.

The Kreitzmann[sic]-Hart LP will be recorded at a fully-equipped 16-track studio Douglas has installed in Hart's barn in Navato [sic], Calif. The studio, designed by Kreitzmann [sic], Hart and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead under the supervision of engineer Dan Healy, will be completed within the month.

I would need to go back to look at the history of Mickey's Barn studio, but I do not recall having known that Alan Douglas had paid for it. That would not have been a cheap item in 1970-1971. The Grateful Dead cancel their Port Chester shows in December 1970 with an abject public apology, get back there in February 1971, and Hart abruptly leaves the band after the first of six nights, in connection with his father Lenny's perfidy. Rolling Thunder ends up being released ... on Warner Brothers ... in September of 1972. I note that Kreutzmann is not credited.

What a freaking mess. The bustup with Hart involves a divorce with Kreutzmann and, to a lesser extent, with the rest of the GD. Joe Smith and Warners are pissed that the GD are seeing other people, and lean on them to extract some kind of concession. Douglas has paid for a home studio for one of his artists. Dénoument: the GD/Hart and Warners/Douglas seem to engage in some odd, multifaceted exchange whereby Douglas gets the Wales/Garcia album (a score!), maybe with some weird sweetening by/for Columbia (how the hell did they get involved, anyway?). Hart gets a 16-track studio (score!) and his album. Warners/Joe Smith get Rolling Thunder (d'oh!), maybe save some face? Working all that out delays the release of Hooteroll? by about a year. That's my story.

So I conclude my saga with an answer to Corry's question: Hooteroll? was recorded in November-December 1970, probably at Heider's, and its release was delayed by disputes that ultimately have to do with the recording/music industry.

I have a few broader points, but I am out of gas. Let me just bullet them for now:

• Wales/Garcia timeline
• centrality of Heider's
• Recording industry angle

REFERENCES:

1. "Douglas To Record 2 LP's By Grateful Dead Artists," Billboard, November 7, 1970, p. 4. Accessible via Google Books.
2. "Alan Douglas's Market: People in a State of Consciousness," Billboard, November 6, 1970, p. 40. Accessible via Google Books.
3. Corpus-Christi Caller-Times, November 7, 1970, p. 3D.
4. Billboard, December 19, 1970, p. 37. Accessible via Google Books.

HWJG: Quick Questions on the January '72 East Coast Tour

Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia (HWJG) is another one of these things about which I have a great deal to say, but no time to get it down except in dribs and drabs. So be it.

Quick question or two on the January 1972 east coast tour they did, Jerry's first non-GD-related paying gigs in the northeast, AFAIK.

First, slipnut over at The Jerry Site just posted two new gigs, based on credible-looking information at the Mahavishnu Orchestra set lists site. I believe that MO was also on Douglas Records and that MO was opening for HWJG at a number of the shows on the tour. The newly-considered are as follows:

• Friday, January 28, 1972: Palace Theatre, Providence, RI
• Saturday, January 29, 1972: University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

These gigs seem really plausible. Obviously the Friday-Saturday would be good nights to book. The venues also seem plausible: up to Providence from Boston on 1/26, and another college gig after the Villanova show on Sunday 1/23. Probably medium-sized rooms, probably just about right.

Still, it's surprising that these shows have never come to light (that I know of - prepared to be corrected, of course). East coast stuff tends to be documented pretty well.

update: these are now very well established. See Jerrybase on 1/29/72. On 1/28/72, two tunes were released on Hooteroll? +2!

(BTW, the MO site also lists a gig on 1/22 at Union College in Schenectady, NY, but doesn't indicate it was opening for HWJG ... I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was, though ...) update: nope, HWJG in Syracuse on 1/22.

Lots more to say, but I'll just ask a second question --or pose a lament-- re: tapes.

The only circulating tape is January 26, 1972 from the Boston Symphony Hall, which was broadcast on WBCN. Tapes also masquerade under the date of 1/25, but they are from 1/26. There is nothing else in circulation from this tour. Indeed, the only other live HWJG in circulation is from the incredible, breathtaking, begging-for-a-volume-two Side Trips, Vol. 1 (Grateful Dead Records, GDCD 4061, October 1998), which I believe to have been recorded on 5/18/70 at the Matrix. Ken Lee, the usher whose masterful, spread balcony recordings from the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY are rightfully legendary, seems to have taped at least one of the shows from the Academy of Music in New York, NY on January 21 (early | late); alas, the Port Chester Resurrection Project, which brought a handful of these (apparently massively numerous) tapes into clear light (some for the first time), has been stalled for several years at least. Please, please, if you know the folks involved, kindly, gently, respectfully ask them if they might be able to preserve those precious historical documents!

I have also long wondered about the Villanova show on 1/23. From the ad below, we see that it was sponsored by WKVU Villanova ... surely there was a broadcast to go alongside? And if so, didn't anyone tape it? Anyone want to check Villanova, starting with the station itself?

update: related, it seems that 1/29/72 in Buffalo was FM broadcast!

All right, enough hectoring. Really just wanted to see if anyone remembers these or other Wales/Garcia gigs in January, 1972!

When did Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders first play together?

Update 15 years later (summer 2025):

I had concluded it was 9/7/70.

This seems to have been incorrect.

Unheard tape suggests that was still Howard Wales. But the evidence is indirect, only a tape label that Howie Wowie's El Paso friend Martin Fierro showed up. As we know, at least as early as 5/21/71 Fierro played with the Garcia-Saunders outfit, and Martin and Merl would play on and off through the 1970s. It's possible the Howard tie is not strong enough to mean that earlier, Martin = Howard. I have a theory about Martin and Howard that I will briefly touch on in Fate Music, and I feel about 75% confident.

2025 Timeline

Corry:

Around August 1970, Cox was recording at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco with producer Nick Gravenites, and his supporting musicians included John Kahn and Merl Saunders. Kahn took a moment to introduce Saunders to Jerry Garcia, recording in Heider's at another room. A month or two later, Saunders would join the pair at the Matrix.

8/17/70-8/20/70

Gravenites triadically closes John and Merl, connecting them from Brewer & Shipley and Danny Cox initially. AFM Local No. 6 studio session contract archives for 1970 show Brewer & Shipley at Heider's from August 17 to August 21.

I couldn't find a hint of Danny Cox until looking at San Francisco Sessions, 1971.

8/21/70: John triadically closes Merl and Jerry. Garcia is credited on the last night of sessions for pedal steel on two songs on their record Tarkio. That sequences absurdly well Corry's narrative: Gravenites employs John and Merl on some sessions, and Garcia comes in the last night. John introduces the two. Perfect.

So, yes, Jerry met Merl, as I currently understand things, on ca. 8/21/70 at Heider's

9/7/70: Martin Fierro's name appears on the tape box for 9/7/70. Do Martin's social ties point to Merl or Howard Wales in the house? I argue with about 80% confidence that the Wales-Fierro tie is vastly stronger in summer 1970 than any ties to Merl. I think that points to this being Howard. I have been researching their relationship in El Paso and it is verrrry interrrreessstingg. Jesse Jarnow's oral histories with Howard are incredible. Conjecturing further, IFJGS staff imagine that 9/7/70 was Wales's last night. Howard and Martin are tight and I mean *tight*.  IFJGS staff imagine Fierro invited or just showing up for the sendoff party. Conclusion: Wales.

For 9/14/70, the ads just say "Jerry Garcia & Friends". It is unknown whether anyone at all played keys. There is no direct or indirect evidence for Merl Saunders. Both 9/7 and 9/14 were Matrix Taped, but I have not been able to learn anything about who played what.

ca. September-start October; I believe the gap between 9/7ish and 10/12ish was partly for them to at least rehearse a little in Merl's little garage or Heider's. Saunders had been playing for pay for well over 15 years at this point.

The next advertised Garciaverse Matrix Monday night gigs were for "Jerry Garcia, Merl Sanders [sic*] and Friends", October 12-14, 1970. Even though it's Monday-Wednesday, that gig has the feel of a coming out for Merl Saunders in the Matrix Monday Night gig. Check this out - all three nights were taped. But I have not been given access to study them. At least they give us confirmation that Jerry didn't skip out after playing two shows in Paterson, NJ the night before, though of course we don't know if Jerry is on them, *doh*

Conclusion: Wales until 9/7, unknown on 9/14, Saunders commences 10/12/70. Oh yeah, and if you have any sway, please help free at least any cataloguing of these Matrix Tapes!

/fin 2025 update

For now, the basic question: when did they first play together?

In a ca. 1995-6 interview included on the DVD release of  The End of the Road: The Final Tour '95 (Monterey Video DVD 313302), Merl indicates that he went down to Golden Gate Park and played with the Grateful Dead sometime in the late 1960s. I can't offer any precision or evaluation - it's certainly possible, but is presumably utterly unknowable from this vantage point unless someone's diary or some old photographs or some other account turns up.

The Jerry Site's first listing for "Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders" is for October 12, 1970, though if you go to the band summary for that "artist" entry it lists the first show as 12/1/70. slip_not added some Merl content (a quote about he and Jerry came to play together) on the 9/7/70 Jerry Garcia & Friends entry, but there's no obvious ex ante reason for that information to be attached to that date.

So we are in a bit of a quandary, but I have a few data points to offer.

My MO here is to examine gigs and studio sessions that might have been relevant to understanding when Jerry and Merl started together. For gigs, I am especially interested in looking at the evolution of the Monday Night Jam sessions at the Matrix, since the standard story is that Howard Wales dropped out at some point and Merl joined in. It may not have been a clean/linear break, but the data might help. For sessions, I am interested because of the Merl quote listed under 9/7/70 TJS listing linked above. There seems to have been a Heider's connection where the GD, the whole PERRO crowd (Crosby and the Jeffersons), Brewer & Shipley, and Danny Cox (the latter two of whom were under the same management) were jumping into each others' sessions to an astonishing degree.

Anyway, here are what I consider some relevant data.

• 4/20/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales [double-check]; Matrix; "Scenedrome" (calendar listing), Berkeley Barb, April 17-23, 1970, p.6.
• 4/27/70: Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales, & Friends; Matrix; display ad; listed as jam session in Scenedrome; Berkeley Barb, April 24-May 1, 1970, p. 8.
• 5/18/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales [double-check]; Matrix; calendar listing, Good Times v.3 n.20, 5/15/70, p. 24. I believe this is the show that was released as Side Trips, vol 1. (Aside: "Thank you, sir. May I have another?")
• 5/25/70: Howard Wales, Jerry Garcia & Friends; Matrix; Scenedrome listing in Berkeley Barb, May 22-28, 1970, p. 18. Doubtful JG was there, given GD show in the UK the night before.
• 6/1/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales [double-check]; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.22 (5/29/70), p. 24.
• 6/7/70: this appears not to have happened.
• 6/8/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales; Matrix; [source suppressed]
• 6/15/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales [double-check]; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.24 (6/12/70), p. 24.
• 6/22/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales [double-check]; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.25 (6/19/70), p. 23.
• 7/6/70: Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales [double-check]; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.27 (7/3/70), p. 17.
• 7/15/70: the first "PERRO" session at Heider's that I can document; Kantner session working on "Starship" and "Old Man" for what would become Blows Against The Empire; this and all related listings provided below show Jerry present [source suppressed]
• 7/17/70: as above, but working on "Mau Mau";
• 7/20/70: Howard Wales and Friends listed at Matrix for this Monday and the next night (Tues., 7/21/70); calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.28 (7/17/70), p. 18; no mention of Garcia.
• 7/21/70: as above.
• 7/22/70: Kantner session at Heider's ("Mau Mau"; "Together"); see 7/15/70.
• 8/6/70-9/16/70: I have the GD's American Beauty sessions at Heider's from these dates; source: McNally, LST, p. 378.
• 8/10/70: Kantner session at Heider's ("Starship"; "Old Man"); see 7/15/70.
• 8/11/70: as above ("Starship"); see 7/15/70.
• 8/21/70: Brewer & Shipley session at Heider's, for what would become Tarkio; Garcia listed ("50 States of Freedom"; "Oh Mommy"); [source suppressed]
• 8/24/70: Garcia & Wales [double-check] Monday night Matrix session; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.33 (8/21/70), p. 21.
• 9/7/70: Jerry Garcia & Friends; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.35 (9/4/70), p. 16.
• 9/8/70: PERRO jams at Heider's: JG, Jorma, Jack, Kreutzmann ("Jam"); source: PERRO tapes.
• 9/14/70: Jerry Garcia & Friends; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.36 (9/11/70), p. 16.
• 10/12/70: "Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends"; Matrix; based on newspaper advertisement as listed at TJS; first TJS listing for Garcia & Saunders; spurious JG listing since GD were playing in Paterson, NJ.
• 10/13/70: as above, though GD had no gig until 10/16 in Philly, and JG could well have flown home.
• 10/14/70: as above.
• 10/19/70: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.41 (10/16/70), p. 20; in the past we would have discounted this, since GD was in Minneapolis on 10/18 and Washington, DC, on 10/23, but I have increasingly come around to the view that he flew home more often than I might have thought, and likely as not played a gig whenever a night was open around this time. So I buy that this could have happened.
• 10/26/70: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders; Matrix; calendar item in Good Times, v.3 n. 42 (10/23/70), p. 14. GD were between St. Louis (10/24) and Stony Brook (10/30), but on the logic just above I believe this could have happened.
• 11/1/70 or 11/2/70: Janis's wake. Not relevant, just wanted to keep the record straight.
• 11/2/70: I have a Jerry Garcia & Friends listing for the Harding Theater, but no source info. We have discussed this a little bit, but I am not sure where things stand.
• 11/3/70: PERRO/If I Could Only Remember My Name (IICORMN) session at Heider's ("Cowboy Movie"); based on Steve Silberman "Crosby Connection" show played on KPFA, ca. 2001.
• 11/3/70: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders; Matrix; note that this is a Tuesday; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.43 (10/30/70), p. 16.
• 11/4//70: PERRO session at Heider's; no source information listed.
• 12/1/70: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders; Matrix; note: Tuesday; calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.47 (11/26/70), p. 20).
• 12/2/70: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders; Matrix; listed at TJS based on Joey Newlander newspaper research (Berkeley Barb).

Thatsalotta data, I know, but I wanted to put it out there for you all to see.

What do I infer from all of this about the titular question? The pivot looks to be right around the time of the 8/21/70 Brewer & Shipley session. (Full disclosure: in personal email, Corry played up the Brewer & Shipley connection to Danny Cox, and thence to Merl; so credit should go to Corry for helping me see the break in the series.) There's only one Wales listing a few days later, and then come the "Jerry Garcia & Friends" listings. I would guess that Merl became a "Friend" at the 9/7/70 Matrix show (otherwise why not list Wales, as they had all year?), but there is no smoking gun in these data. Merl's name doesn't appear in listings until 10/12/70, which has the drawback of being a listing known to conflict with GD performance 3000 miles away. But it certainly suggests that Merl was definitely around by this time.

I believe I spoke with Danny Cox, and he doesn't have any old paperwork regarding his sessions at Heider's. I have not tried to contact the Brewer & Shipley people, but that might be a better lead.

In sum, in answer to the question of when Jerry and Merl first played together (qua Jerry & Merl), I'll say September 7, 1970. And maybe walk back and say that slip_not may know a thing or two. ;-)