Sunday, Monday, What's the Difference? JGB #11a at Keystone, December 17, 1979 (Monday)

LN jg1979-12-17.jgb.s1s2p.aud-walscoller.106057.flac1644

I wanted to spin some JGB #11a (Ozzie-Johnny D quartet) from late in 1979, a little window I have neglected in favor of their first few gigs on the one hand (10/7, 10/14), and the Winter 1980 tour (overall economics, 2/16, 2/20, 2/24) on the other hand. (update: see also 12/20/79)

Joanie Walker, Paul Scotton and Charlie Miller collaborated in putting out an aud tape of 12/17, which had never really circulated much, as distinct from shows on the 20th and the 21st. Following my nose for the obscure, I checked it out.

The tape: nice.

The show: blech.

Really blech. The most obvious thing is that Jerry and Johnny D'Fonseca are just not sync'd up, a big problem given that Johnny D is the drummer. And I blame Garcia. This is not only because Johnny D is so dang young (just 21 at the time of this show) or because it's only his seventh night out with the band. And it's not just because, corresponding to these, we might put responsibility on the older fella with his name on the band to help him out, the way he did with the JGB's previous young drummer, Buzz Buchanan. It's mostly because Garcia mostly just sounds out of it. His voice is still sweet in its sweet spot, but it lacks oomph and shows limited range. There are some good pyrotechnics in Sugaree, but 22+ minutes for Sugaree is a little indulgent even for Our Hero. And the second set material, which I think is incomplete on the tape, just doesn't really go anywhere or do anything.

Maybe I am totally wrong. Maybe you will listen to it and wonder what's wrong with me. I dunno. Let's discuss.

The only other thing I have to say about this show relates to the scheduling. The left side of the panel above shows the Keystone pink section ad dated December 9th, the right the one dated December 16th. You will see that JG was originally scheduled in Berkeley for Sunday 12/16, with Monday the 17th billing the "Best New Bay Talent" for no cover and a one drink minimum. Jerry on Sunday had still been listed in the Examiner as late as the 14th. But by the time the day-of-show ad comes out, the New Riders are in the Sunday slot and Jerry has moved to Monday. What's more, we now have a newly-added Jerry show on Saturday 12/22. Maybe that one was to makeup for the canceled gig on 12/8.

No biggie, stuff happens. The Pareto Criterion asks us to evaluate a possible change in the world such that it leaves at least one party to a transaction better off, and no party worse off. This one fits the bill. The New Riders get a gig, Freddie gets the New Riders on a Sunday (selling tickets and presumably more beer than the Best New Bay Talent) and Jerry on a Monday, great for him. As for Garcia, I SPECULATE that he was totally indifferent to the change. Sunday? Monday? Whatever.

One question I have is to what extent some notion of Jerry doing the Riders a favor might have entered into the equation. Call this Qustion 1. Of course he lent his lucrative name and considerable talents to these boys out of the gate, getting them some huge paydays before sending them off on their own. I don't know who besides Dawson was in the NRPS by late 1979, but the band had certainly fallen on hard times, and would never sniff its early 70s success again. Maybe part of the context was the chance for Jerry to help produce a payday, however modest, for an old friend. I dunno.

A second, question, call it Question 2, this is somehow related to the fact that the GD canceled the last two shows of its tour in Milwaukee on 12/13 and St. Paul on 12/14. At Jerrybase we note cancellations because "one band member ill and band wants to finish new album". Maybe Jerry needed Sunday night to work on what would become Go To Heaven. Or maybe he was the sick band member and needed another day to recover, which might also account for how out of it he sounds here.

Q1 and Q2 are not mutually exclusive, of course. Maybe all of the above, and Pareto smiles.

Anyway, my notes below.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94740
December 17, 1979 (Monday)
s1s2p walscoller aud shnid-106057

--set I (4 tracks, 62:37)--
s1t01. [0:14] Sugaree// [22:15#] %
s1t02. //Catfish John [12:38] [0:09]
s1t03. That's Alright Mama [10:25] [0:41]
s1t04. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [16:16] %

--set II (3 tracks, 47:54, probably incomplete)--
s2t01. /After Midnight [#14:16] [0:07] %
s2t02. Simple Twist Of Fate [19:39] %
s2t03. /Harder They Come [#13:45] [0:07] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #11a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Ozzie Ahlers - keyboards, synthesizers;
! lineup: John d'Fonseca - drums;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19791217-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/106057 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html

! venue: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html; URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html

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

! listing: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, December 16, 1979, p. 18

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, December 16, 1979, p. 30

! seealso: JGMF, "Checking Myself: JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, December 20, 1979"

! historical: show was originally scheduled for Sunday night, 12/16, but moved to Monday for reasons unknown to me.

! R: Recording Info: Unknown Mics -> ? -> Cassette (Maxell UDXLII)

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette (Nakamichi DR-1) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/96k) -> Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.03 -> FLAC/16 (2 Discs Audio / 1 Disc FLAC). All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller charliemiller87@earthlink.net February 14, 2010

! R: seeder notes: -- Thanks to Joani Walker and Paul Scotton for the tapes -- Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction

! R: this recording is clean. The keyboards are way forward and the bass is buried, the guitar also a little low.

! R: s1t01 Sugaree cuts out

! P: s1t01 Sugaree tempo variability, Johnny D trying to figure out where Jerry wants to be. But if you know this tune from this era, you know it's good. Many hold 12/21/79 to be the one of the best. Certainly the guitar work Jerry is doing in the 14-minute range and forward is outstanding. Standing big layers of notes 15:23. Still big peaky stuff 19.

! R: s1t02 CJ cuts in

! P: s1t03 TAM wonky start, but Jerry just bulldozes it forward and Johnny D jumps on almost immediately once Jerry really sets things. He's good. Things still wonky, but he's doing as well as anyone might.

! P: s1t04 HSII sounds a little off key for a bit, JG can't remember the lyrics in the first verse or so.

! R: s2t01 AM clips in

! P: s2t01 AM JG and JD are not syncd at all to start the tune. It's really pretty bad until about 2, when it seems to synchronize. Talk near taper @0:56: "Jerry's just like a jazz musician". More conversation that is nearly audible, someone could probably get ears on it and report out. Still late 5 it doesn't sound to me like the drums are doing what they need to be doing. JG also sounds pretty out of it on this whole version. Nothing of note here.

! P: s2t02 STOF good high peaky guitar work 10. John should take his feature late 10, but Ozzie takes it. Tempos a little unsure. John is fluttering behind, Ozzie pretty perfunctory, now John steps out a little more 11:38, still not very loud. JG steps out 13:34, crowd gives John a nice round of applause.

! R: s2t03 HTC cuts in. I cannot put my finger on what feels off this night, other than everything. Jerry's voice is still high, but it lacks oomph and range. He really needs backing vocalists to fill it out that aspect of the band's sound. All night the tempos have struck me as off.

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

Fascinating.

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

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

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

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

If not, then what?

Investing in Marmaduke

Some notes-to-self.

Corry:

The Grateful Dead family was interested in turning John Dawson into a recording artist as early as 1968, and willing to spend their own studio time to do it, even though nothing ever came of it, so the New Riders project can be seen as a solution rather than a random idea.

I do think this slips a little into "functional fallacy", of postulating as the cause of some beneficial thing the mere fact that it is beneficial, ergo, folks must have wanted it and caused it to be produced. It might have been that they loaned him a bunch of money as friends, and then contributed so as to increase the probability of future repayment. So that would be "money -> idea" rather than "idea -> money" (in which case we are 180 degrees from our usual positions).

LIA seems to agree that the idea of Dawson as a "solution" doesn't follow from what we know: "we don't know what the purpose of the Dawson demo was, if Garcia himself had any plan or record-label in mind, or if Dawson just wanted to shop around various companies, or if there was thought to be any leverage from Dawson's 'Dead connection'."

Either way, cool insight: this is "as if" it were an early investment in a more diversified portfolio of commercializable music - absolutely fascinating.

updates

LIA comments "If indeed the Dead were giving some of their studio time to an old buddy, it strikes me as a precursor to the Round Records idea", an interesting thought. JGMF, in comments:

I agree with LIA (in comments) and you that Round becomes the formalized expression of some basic elements of the Garciaverse: he wanted to help out his friends with paying gigs, and the world demanded that he monetize himself (in addition to giving time, effort and layers of skin) to achieve that. For all of his other flaws, Garcia was an unusually generous friend. Think about how many lives were "made," how many properties in Marin and Sonoma made affordable, by professional involvement with Jerry. Man had the Midas Touch.

JGMF, in comments, where apparently I have already had the same urge to think through the titular proposition. At least I agree with myself that this is interesting!

[Corry says] "I find it strange that no record company was interested in John Dawson's demos." Here's a flyer: maybe the record companies insisted on some demonstrable GD/Garcia connection, e.g. a playing contribution from Jerry, as a condition of signing on his friends? This necessity drove (at least to some extent) Garcia's constitutive role in the NRPS, which is consistent with your idea that the NRPS was a solution (a band with Garcia, i.e., one that could sell records) to a problem (Jerry's desire to help his ol' pal Marmaduke).

RN Sandy Troy's One More Saturday Night (1991)

Troy, Sandy. 1991. One More Saturday Night: Reflections with the Grateful Dead, Dead Family, and Dead Heads. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Reading Notes

“by the fall of 1974 the band’s business ventures began to unravel” (Troy 1991, 27). #business

JG and MG moved in together early 1967 (Troy 1991, 68). #women

#v-Carousel as described by MG: “It was a beautiful place; nobody could believe it. It had wooden floors, a fairly low ceiling, plus sets of French doors that opened to let in fresh air. It also had beautiful gold framed mirrors, strange 50’s light fixtures, weird old tables, and red push sofas. It even had a great kitchen and we served dinner, too. (MG in Troy 1991, 91).

#Chet Helms knew Phil first, through the Mime Troupe, though they had a totally non-musical relationship. They’d hang out, smoke grass, and talk politics. (Troy 1991, 98).

#houses #Olompali interview with Rock Scully says when they left Haight they went to Camp Lagunitas, then moved to Olompali. But I think he’s confused. “Olompali was a big old Spanish estate that had a swimming pool, some outbuildings with bedrooms, and enough space so that we all could live there and have a good time. We would [122] get the word out that we were having a party and people would come and jam. It wasn’t a set thing where the Dead would play, but it was a jam session where musicians from the Airplane, Quicksilver, the Charlatans would jam with us. It was a chance for all our friends from the City to come and hang out with us outdoors in the sunshine. We’d set up the stage between the house and the pool and people would being [sic] doing acid and hanging out by the pool naked. Sometimes there would be several hundred people partying” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 120, 122).

“Garcia, Lesh and Weir really enjoyed Crosby, Stills and Nash harmonies and I think Crosby’s influence helped the band improve their harmonies” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 122).

ST: How did the concept of AEWTGD come about? Rock: “It came about because Jerry was playing pedal steel, and digging it. John Dawson knew Jerry and asked him to play pedal steel in the New Riders. “An Evening With The Grateful Dead” worked conceptually because the music of both bands went well together. It stopped being a concept when Jerry realized that playing pedal steel was screwing with his electric guitar playing. The instruments were so different from each [other] that his guitar playing was suffering” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 124). #NRPS #pedal steel

Rock on #NRPS: “There wasn’t really one [New Riders] manager.” Rock involved first album and Powerglide. “I remember when the New Riders were living in my house. That picture on the back of the first album, when the band is leaning on the banister, was actually in my house in Kentfield. I guess you could say I was managing them at the time because pretty much all their gigs were with the Dead because Jerry was playing with them. When they got Buddy Cage they started doing shows on their own. Then Dale Franklin and Jon McIntire became their managers for a time” (Scully in Troy 1991, 125).

Chateau d’Herouville 6/21/71 “was Jon McIntire’s baby” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 125).

#v-Carousel Healy “It held about eight hundred people … though we would put as many in there as we could get. It was an old ballroom left over from the Swing era. It was owned by an Irishman.” JG: “They had Irish music there on Thursday nights.” DH: “That’s all they had in there. Aside from that it was closed all the time, and had been closed down right after the Swing [145] era. It was still in its original state, right out of the ‘20s, right down to the chandeliers in the place. The interior was beautiful. It wasn’t at all torn up: it was in mind condition.” (in Troy 1991, 144-145).

Lesh on Watkins Glen, the Dead had to run the show, in spite of promoters. “The biggest hassle was convincing the Band to come out and play. Hey man, it’s just down the road a piece, come on out and play. What can you lose? They played great!” (Lesh in Troy 1991, 153).

Constanten: “That’s a chance you have to take in courting serendipity – sometimes serendipity comes to grace your performances and sometimes not” (TC in Troy 1991, 156).

The John “Marmaduke” Dawson chapter (Troy 1991, 164-175) is very important material.

Dawson says he was around in 1958-59, taking guitar lessons from a lady in Palo Alto, when Jerry was with Sara. So that would be 1963. “They dropped in at a guitar thing that my guitar teacher was having at her house one night. I didn’t really meet him until later on at a club called The Tangent” in Palo Alto (Dawson in Troy 1991, 165).  Met Nelson at the Tangent (Troy 1991, 165).

Dawson: Rancho Olompali is a “place where all the Indians used to hang out. There’s an Indian burial ground nearby. It’s quite a lovely place. It had a big old mansion of a ranch house that they lived in for a while” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167).

Dawson got serious in spring of 1969: “I went with a bunch of guys down to a place called Pinnacles National Monument, … and a group of us ate a bunch of what we thought was mescaline but was some weird little chemical cocktail that had some LSD in it. I had an experience on that particular occasion and I made up my mind that I wanted to write songs more seriously and learn how to sing more seriously. I liked the idea of being a country-western singer and started picking up Buck Owens and Merle Haggard records to try to learn how they were doing it.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167).

“Hunter was going to try to be the bass player for a while but he didn't have that many chops together. Bob Matthews tried out but he wasn't able to pick up on the instrument quickly enough because all of the rest of us had been playing for a long time. That's when Phil Lesh finally stepped in and played bass with the New Riders.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167). #NRPS

“What had happened is that I invited myself over to Garcia's house one day after he had come back off the road with a brand-new pedal steel guitar. He had stopped in Denver at a music store that had a bunch of pedal steels in it. So he bought one and brought it back. I [[168] bumped into him at the Dead's practice place in Novato near Hamilton Air Force Base. I asked Jerry if I could come over to his house and listen to the steel guitar that he just bought. He said I could come over later if I wanted to hear it. I brought my guitar when I showed up so he would have something to accompany. I showed him a couple of tunes that I had been working on and I got to listen to the pedal steel. That little duet worked into a thing where Jerry asked me if he could come down and practice his pedal steel at my coffee house gig in Menlo Park. I think it was called The Underground and it was a hofbrau kind of thing where they would carve you up a sandwich from a fresh cut of meat, right on the spot.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167-168). #NRPS

“they just added Nelson and me to the Grateful Dead tour and we came along with them that way. That's when we first got started on the national scene and you heard us back there in 1970 on the East Coast at the Fillmore - "An Evening with the Grateful Dead featuring the New Riders of the Purple Sage” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 170). #AEWTGD

“That's when you only had to add Nelson's and my ticket to the tour and you had a whole new five-piece band to open, which made it quite handy. That got my songs exposed to a national audience a lot sooner than they would have been otherwise. We also had a gospel quartet that did some stuff. Nelson would play an acoustic and Bob Weir, Jerry, and I would come out and would sing a couple of gospel tunes.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 170). I love he says “they had a gospel quartet”. A self-contained hippie hootenanny. #AEWTGD

“Phil at some point said, "Hey, I don't want to do it any more:· So that's when David Torbert joined the band.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 170). #NRPS

“When we finally met another pedal steel guitar player in the person of Buddy Cage on the ride across Canada in 1970, that gave Garcia a chance to go back to just the Grateful Dead” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 171). #NRPS

Festival Express: “The Band was supposed to be on [the train] but the only person from the Band that actually showed up and rode the train was Rick Danko” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 171).

Port Chester February 1971 run Howard Stein painted the Cap performance surface, and they were the New Riders of the Purple Stage! (Dawson in Troy 1991, 173). #NRPS

Dawson: Garcia “is a picking junkie, first and foremost. He would rather be playing than anything else” (Troy 1991, 174).

NRPS were best when Marmaduke was focused and sober (LN jg1971-10-27.nrps.all.fm-weiner.18357.shnf)

The New Riders of the Purple Sage opened for the Grateful Dead for most or all of its October-December 1971 touring. Happily, a lot of the shows were broadcast and there are pretty good tapes.

This one, from the Onondaga War Memorial in Syracuse, NY on October 27, 1971 is an above-average tape of a well-above-average performance. I can't say I've listened forensically to tons of late 1971 New Riders, but the band represented here is really, really hot. The vocals are tight and correct, with no drunken Marmaduke silliness on, e.g., Honky Tonk Women. He sounds sober and focused. David Torbert sings lead on "Hello Mary Lou" [Allan | Scofield], made famous by Ricky Nelson, and "Willie and the Hand Jive" [Allan | Scofield], which had been a top-ten single for its author, Johhny Otis, in the summer of 1958 [wikipedia]. Nelson is great, as usual, and Garcia is good and tasteful, with the awesome, rusty buzz-sawing steel in "Dirty Business" that I really love.

Anyway, good clean fun, and a very favorable review in the next day's Syracuse Post-Standard (see reference in notes, below).

New Riders of the Purple Sage
Onondaga County War Memorial
800 South State Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
October 27, 1971 (Wednesday)
FM shnid-18357 shn2flac

--complete set (12 tracks, 62:20)--
t01. {03:40} //Six Days On The Road [#2:09] [1:21]
t02. {04:34} I Don't Know You [3:32] [1:02]
t03. {03:30} Down In The Boondocks [3:04] [0:26]

t04. {13:58} Dirty Business [11:03] [2:55]

t05. {04:04} Rainbow [3:11] [0:53]
t06. {07:34} Garden Of Eden [6:41] [0:53]
t07. {03:27} Hello Mary Lou [2:59] [0:28]
t08. {03:58} Henry [3:39] [0:19]
t09. {03:10} S//ailin' [#1:59] (1) [1:11]
t10. {03:57} Sweet Lovin' One [3:10] [0:47]
t11. {06:00} Willie And The Hand Jive [5:55] [0:05]
t12. {04:28} Louisiana Lady [4:00] (2) [0:28]

! ACT1: New Riders of the Purple Sage
! lineup: John Dawson - rhythm guitar, vocals;
! lineup: David Nelson - lead guitar, vocals;
! lineup: David Torbert - bass, vocals;
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - pedal steel guitar;
! lineup: Spencer Dryden - drums.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19711027-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/18357 (FM broadcast, this fileset)

! review: John Wisniewski, "6,500 Rock to ‘Dead’ Sounds; Riders Superb in Warmup," Syracuse Post-Standard, October 28, 1971, p. 8.

! R: "FMMR(C?) > ? > R > DAT > WAV > SHN"

! R: "A > D transfer by Noah Weiner - June, 2003 from Jimmy Warburton's 7" Reel."

! R: "The recording is mono, and the left channel had a great deal more hiss and noise than the right. Thus, the right channel was copied over the left in Sound Forge to produce a more clean and strong signal for the final digital project.  Also, throughout the reel there are occasional static pops, fuzz, and crackles."

! R: "Reel playback on Pioneer RT-701 > Teac AN-180 Dolby decoder > Fostex D5 DAT (A>D only) > Turtle Beach Montego II Digital I/O > Soundforge (wav edits and track IDs) > SHNTOOL (SBE fix) > MKW (shn)."

! R: this has a gen or two on it, and as Noah notes it has some warts, but overall it is quite good, a fine listen.

! historical context: NRPS opened for the Grateful Dead for all of the out-of-town gigs in October-December 1971, with a great many of the sets broadcast on FM radio. The FM broadcasts are nice because I think Marmaduke and the rest are just a little more careful when they think they are being broadcast: things are nice and tight, everything is pretty good. If you wanted to hear what NRPS sounded like at this stage, this set is totally representative. This would be one of Garcia's last gigs with the New Riders, with the last known one being four nights later in Stony Brook, NY. There were apparently no NRPS sets at the Harding on November 6-7, and by Atlanta on 11/11 Buddy Cage had taken over the pedal steel chair.

! NB Torbert lead vocals on Hello Mary Lou (t07) and Hand Jive (t11).

! R: t09 Sailin' has a splice a few seconds in, not sure if there's a verse missing. Cuts in on "//My lady is lovely and she carries no comb".

! t09 (1) station ID: "WAER, Syracuse".

! t12 (2) ?McIntire?: "Yeah, the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Thank you, New Riders. OK, this is what we're gonna be doing for the next twenty minutes. We're gonna have a quick change-around, so we can get the Grateful Dead//"

LN jg1970-07-30.gd.33mins.sbd-cotsman.17077.shn2flac

Vegas is skeptical that I can do the NRPS-Matrix-1970 thing in seven posts, but I never claimed I'd do them consecutively. And, well, if I happen to cover related terrain, well, that's just how it goes. And it just so happens that LIA's post "The Hartbeats - July 1970" mentions some GD material that I'd like to post on right about now. ;) Specifically, I'd like to do Listening Notes on the GD sets dated Thursday, July 30, 1970 (Matrix, SF, CA) and Wednesday, August 5, 1970 (Golden Hall, San Diego, CA). Since LIA has posted such thorough analyses, I'll just post the listening notes I have written up (with LIA's analyses in mind), without further comment.


Grateful Dead
The Matrix
San Francisco, CA
July 30, 1970 (Thursday)
acoustic set; unknown if there was an electric set

SBD > ?? > CD > EAC > SHN (shnid 17077) > FLAC level 8 (TLHv2.6.0, build 168, 'convert encoding format' command).

(7 tracks, 32:46)
t01. To Lay Me Down [6:09] [0:38] {6:47}
t02. Dire Wolf [4:00] [0:06] {4:06}
t03. Candyman [6:29]
t04. stage banter (1, 2 3) [2:42]
t05. Rosalie McFall [3:32] (4, 5) [1:52] % [0:12] {5:36}
t06. A Voice From On High [2:49] [0:02] % (6) [1:04] {3:55}
t07. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot [2:54] (7) [0:14] {3:08}

Lineup:
Jerry Garcia - acoustic guitar, vocals;
Bob Weir - acoustic guitar, vocals;
Phil Lesh - (?electric?) bass;
Mickey Hart - drums (tracks 1-3 only);
David Nelson - mandolin, vocals (tracks 5-7);
John "Marmaduke" Dawson - ?guitar?, vocals (tracks 6-7).

Seeder Comments:
- This short acoustic set seems to be all that the Dead played in capping off a couple New Riders sets at the Matrix.
- Sound Forge was used for a slight pitch correction and minor edits.
- Part of The Music Never Stopped Project 2003
- Thanks to Chuck Gannon; edits/encoding by JCotsman.

JGMF Notes:
! 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.
! db: http://db.etree.org/shn/17077 (this recording, degraded sbd).
! t04 @ 0:16 (1) some drunk-sounding guy mutters something inaudible, and Garcia says "Go away, man. Get your own band." Guy: "What?" JG: "Get your own band." Guy: "My own band?" JG: "Sure." Guy: "What does that mean, 'get my own band'?" JG: "It means fuck off, man. Fuck off." Guy keeps muttering some stuff. Says something to Weir. Weir: "I don't care, man." A weird exchange, for sure.
! t04 @ 0:59 (2) JG: "Is Nelson here?" @ 1:04 Nelson, laughing: "Ha ha, take care of my boy there, Hart."
! t04 @ 1:18 (3) Nelson: "Are you guys gonna do some gospel numbers? Aw, you don't need drums on gospel numbers."
! t05 @ 3:50 (4) JG: "Where's Marmaduke?"
! t05 @ 5:15 (5) Weir: "'I Hear A Voice A' Callin''." I only note this to underline that this traditional goes under many names, as many traditionals do.
! t06 @ 3:27 (6) JG: [clears throat] "Is this gonna work? Just stand back a little [inaudible]. Turn the microphones up. Let's do it that way." Nelson: "Barbershop." [cross-talk] JG: "This is an old principle. It's called singing in a group."
! t07 (7) Nelson: "Thank you. Thanks a lot."

Reading Notes: Kahlbacher, Gene. 1974. Aquarian Interview: New Riders of the Purple Sage. Aquarian, January 29 – February 12, 1974, pp. 14, 27, 31.

NB: I didn’t have the year of this publication, somehow. But from the context of Torbert leaving and Battin just arriving, I believe it is 1974.

Kahlbacher 1974, 14: How much of an inspiration has JG been to NRPS, and was he its Founding Father? Spencer Dryden: “Rather than father, I look to Jerry for inspiration. But he doesn’t want to hear any more about it.” JG doesn’t want to be seen as a mystic.

Kahlbacher 1974, 14: Dawson on origins of NRPS: “I was wandering around for a long time at several colleges and not really knowing what the goal was. … I’d learned to play the guitar a long time back, but I never practiced a whole bunch. … I was wandering around and this whole bunch of changes came down on me. For one thing, I ceased trying to get a group together right then, as I had been for a long time. I finally came down to the point of saying ‘This obviously isn’t what’s happening right now, and instead of wasting my time trying to do that – putting my energies into something that isn’t panning – I should put my energies into something that is working. So I got a gig in a little coffee house, playing and singing songs … eventually it came down where Jerry Garcia was learning pedal steel guitar at the same time that I was trying to learn how to be a singer and pick a few songs. We got together on a kind of thing where I’d come to his living room and I’d plunk out simple tuns for him to try to put steel licks behind.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 14: Nelson: “I played in a bunch of bands, mostly bluegrass bands. There were lots of clubs we played … Later I played with Torbert in an electric band called the New Delhi River Band, and then I was with Pete Albin and Dave Getz.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 14: Dryden’s entry into NRPS: “The tune ‘Dirty Business,’ actually, made me join the Riders. I was leaving the Airplane, and McIntyre [sic] and Owsley came down to the big house [the Airplane House] … and said ‘You really should see the New Riders. I think you might be able to help them out’. But I was thinking of producing, not playing. I was tired. I’d been through that before. But I went down to see them [NRPS] at the Family Dog on the beach, on the Great Highway … At the time the drummer for the Riders was Mickey Hart, and they also have Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia. So the thing was, I wasn’t doing anything, and Mickey was looking for his own trip which culminated in his producing a solo album, Rolling Thunder.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 14: how have NRPS evolved since they were just opening for GD? Dryden: “It’s evolved … graduated. Jerry was working two gigs at once and doing extra recordings, and it became hard. Two sound checks [raising his eyebrows]. He was working the equivalent of 12-14 hours a day. It’s rough, man. He’s got other things he wants to do, other people he wants to play with, other music he wants to make. So we went out [in 1971] and got Buddy.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 14: how did Buddy Cage become a member of the group? Dryden: “Buddy, immediately prior to us, was with Ann Murray, from Canada. And before that he was with Ian and Sylvia [Tyson] and the Great Speckled Bird. When the guys made that train trip across Canada … we met up with Buddy and it was a real flash. And for Jerry especially, because he considers himself a novice at the pedal steel. I don’t consider him so, I consider him an innovator. Because he plays differently from almost anybody I’ve heard. But he admits that he didn’t have the chops that Buddy has. I mean, Buddy’s got years and years and it’s his main instrument. It’s Jerry’s second or third: he’s played banjo and mandolin and shit like that, besides electric guitar … Buddy knows how to play that sucker, real clean and real fast. And Jerry’s amazed, yet Buddy’s amazed at Jerry’s chordal formations and legato [smooth] style. Actually, you want to know what really happened? Well, we were making this tour, see. And we called Buddy down ‘cause Jerry said he was gonna quit … this was three [and one-half] years ago. So we got Buddy down, made some rehearsals, and then we were going on tour. But Jerry was still with us. We flew from San Francisco to Atlanta, and Jerry missed the plane. Buddy made the plane. And we got in at something like four in the morning. Jerry couldn’t get there ‘till seven that night and we went on at seven. So the trip was all of a sudden ‘Hey Cage, Garcia’s not here. You wanna go on stage?’ ‘Sure, man’, he says, ‘set up my pedal steel’. He went on and played with us. Jerry came in –they came down and picked him up at 7:30 or so, and he got there at quarter to eight –and he heard the end of the set. Buddy walked off the stage, and Jerry went up to Buddy, shook his hand, and said ‘Man, you just got yourself a gig!’”

Kahlbacher 1974, 27: how Marmaduke got his name: Dawson: “A guy named Rick who was hanging out in this house where we were all hanging out, in the summer of 1965, smoked this large joint of Acapulco Gold one morning just before I came over to visit them. As I walked in, he decided that my name shouldn’t be John Dawson after all, and that ‘Marmaduke’ was much better.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 27: Marmaduke on ‘Last Lonely Eagle’: “It was one of the major comings out of my personal life … one day I ate a couple of chemicals and went wandering around in a place called Pinnacles National Monument with David Torbert and two guys that’re now in his band – Chris Herold and Matthew Kelly, who’s played harmonica on some of our albums. We were wandering around down there and this whole bunch of changes came down on me.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 27: why did Torbert leave the band? Dryden: “He wanted to make other music. And he only joined this band to make an album. He was on his way from Hawaii to Europe about three or four years ago. He got a call from Marmaduke, who said ‘Why not come and help us make this [the first] album, play a bit.’ He said okay and stayed with us.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 31: “when Buddy Cage came down from Toronto to join the band … Jerry was totally happy.”

Kahlbacher 1974, 31: do you attribute your success to the band’s association with the GD? Nelson: “It helped.”