I Have A Confession To Make

I do not know who the JGB backing vocalists were between October 24, 1982 and November 15, 1982

Update: they are now known: Shirley Faulkner and Elisecia Wright.

I have posted many, many times about the early 80s backing vocalists (see Appendix below). Our understanding of who was who, and when, was greatly abetted by the fact that Corry Arnold took notes from the GD Ticket Service ("thank you, and stay in touch"), which also announced Jerry Band shows and tours and sometimes identified personnel. Here's how I currently understand things. This is all catalogued at Corry's "Jerry Garcia Band Personnel 1975-1995" post at LLD, or eventually will be to the extent that he agrees with me.

June 24, 1981 - August 23, 1981: Essra Mohawk and Liz Stires

The starting date of this configuration is not certain (see the discussion here), but overall this seems pretty solid.

September 7, 1981 - June 22, 1982: Liz Stires and Julie Stafford

Intrepid researcher slipnut found some reference to Liz Stires's sister singing on the first gig in this window, but I have shown the picture below to Julie Stafford, and she thinks that is her (left of the picture), and wasn't entirely sure but thought it could indeed have been her first night out.

JGB at Concord Pavilion, 9/7/81
photo credit: unknown

As far as the end of this window, Liz told me that she left the group just before the tour ended, after a gig in Richmond (6/22/82).

June 23, 1982 - June 24, 1982: Julie Stafford

We are fortunate that a review of the 6/23/82 show mentions "the female vocalist", confirming that Julie carried on as the lone backing vocalist, presumably for the last two nights of the tour.

October 24, 1982 - November 15, 1982: unknownShirley Faulkner and Elisecia Wright

At one point, I thought Jacklyn LaBranch and DeeDee Dickerson began here. But Jacklyn has said very clearly that she and DDD started together at the Keystone in January 1983. I had also wondered whether Julie continued through the end of 1982, but she has said she did not.

So, as of now, this is a three-week hole in my personnel knowledge that disconcerts me, on the one hand, but also delights me because we still have mysteries to unravel.

January 13, 1983 - May 20, 1984 (?): DeeDee Dickerson and Jacklyn LaBranch

With Jackie's clear statement that she and DDD began in January '83 at the Keystone, the start of this period seems clear. I used my unreliable ears to pin down the end of this window, noting the very different vocal sounds and stylings between May (DDD) and July/August (Gloria).

update: as of 2024, I still have questions about when DDD ended and Gloria started. There is evidence for both of them in May 1984 ...

July 10, 1984 (?) - April 23, 1995: Jacklyn LaBranch and Gloria Jones

The front end of this period is not entirely certain. I had originally thought Gloria started on 7/28/84, because there were no known electric shows between May (DDD) and then, while at the same time we know Gloria was with the band out east in August, so must have been in the fold for the local gigs in late July and on Jerry's bday. But then in 2018 I discovered previously undocumented Keystone Palo Alto gigs on July 10-11, and it seems extremely likely that these would have been Gloria's first with the band. It is not quite an iron law, but a clear regularity, that the Jerry Band liked to break in new members on off-nights, off the beaten path, or both. A Tuesday-Wednesday down in Palo Alto fits that bill pretty well.

Appendix: Mistakes along the way

10/24/82 with Julie? Apparently not

thought 7/20/83 was Gloria's debut, was wrong | thought 7/21/83 was her second, was wrong

late '83 tour: used to think this was Gloria, then discovered it was DDD

late '83 tour: further confirmation that it was DDD and not GJ

thought Gloria debuted 1/8/84, but I was wrong because 5/19/84: DDD still in the house per a review

thought Gloria debuted on 7/28/84, but 7/10/84 is more likely And May 1984 remains possible!

Lizless Sextet: JGB at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, June 23, 1982

LN jg1982-06-23.jgb.s1s2p.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448

This date interests me because Liz Stires is said to have left the JGB tour after the previous night's gig (6/22/82). So this would be a show with only one backing vocalist (Julie Stafford), a rare JGB sextet with two keyboards (JGB #14d, I have proposed we catalogue it). Truth is, I can't hear from this tape whether there is one vocalist or whether there are two. I plan to put ears on the other partial tape (which looks to complement this tape nicely; concatenated, they should provide the complete show). Anyway, the review (Allison 1982a) seems to say pretty clearly there is a single vocalist, so given the provenance [redacted] of the information that Liz left on 6/22, it's a pretty sure bet she's not here.

Oh, yeah. There's a really outrageous, ripping guitar solo about 8 minutes into Tangled Up In Blue. As I say in  my notes, I bet Garcia was sweating like a greased pig. But it's good stuff.

So, review, then listening notes.

Jerry Garcia Band
Stanley Theater
830 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
June 23, 1982 (Wednesday)
Closet Call 2nd gen s1s2p cassette (81 minutes)

--Set I (6 tracks, 59:01, complete)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [3:48]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:21] [1:48]
s1t03. I'll Take A Melody [14:55] [2:12]
s1t04. Valerie [7:31] [0:06]%
s1t05. (I'm A) Road Runner [8:48] [0:19]
s1t06. Tangled Up In Blue [10:13] (1) %

--Set II (3 tracks, 22:12, incomplete, start of set)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:11]
s2t02. The Harder They Come [11:29] [1:53]
s2t03. Let It Rock [7:36] [0:02] %

[MISSING Russian Lullaby ->]
[MISSING Dear Prudence ->]
[MISSING Run For The Roses]
[MISSING --Encore-- Deal]

! Band: Jerry Garcia Band #14d
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! Lineup: Jimmy Warren - electric piano;
! Lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;
! Lineup: Julie Stafford - backing vocals.

JGMF:

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

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-06-23

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19820623-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/90876, incomplete unlineaged audience tape.

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/oab9c

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/05/stanley-theatre-830-liberty-avenue.html

! 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.

! personnel: The key historical interest of this show lies in the personnel. This is an odd, fleeting, sextet configuration with Garcia and Kahn (of course), featuring two keyboardists (Melvin Seals on organ and Jimmy Warren on electric piano). Bill Kreutzmann is on drums, which would happen periodically for reasons that are not very clear, but worth thinking through at some point. Yet this is a rare night with only a single backing vocalist (Julie Stafford, as I presently understand things). I think the last time Garcia would have played with a single backup singer (always a "girl singer", as he once referred to Dolly Parton) would probably have been late '77, with Donna Jean Godchaux but without Maria Muldaur. In this instance, there were two backing vocalists for the tour, but Liz Stires left the Garcia Band after the June 22nd show at the Richmond Mosque in Richmond, VA [TJS]. A review in the Penn State Daily Collegian (Allison 1982a) identifies the band personnel (though only Garcia and Kreutzmann by name) as including "a woman vocalist", going on to note that "the woman vocalist had few opportunities to perform, but was always a fine addition." I think this is pretty solid confirmation that there was only one singer, and that, indeed, Liz Stires left the tour a few days early. According to Corry's typology, this should be JGB #14d, which would have done three shows on 6/23/82 and 6/24/82 (early and late).

! setlist: Allison 1982a says "Let It Rock" ended the second set, but he also says that LIR is a Garcia original. This tape runs continuously from the warmup before HTC through the end of LIR, so if LIR was last (before the encore), then HTC was also the penultimate tune.

! historical: see note about personnel. The Allison review (1982a) notes that Garcia will play two shows, at 6 and 9, Sunday night (6/27) at the Tower Theatre in Philly (actually, Upper Darby), and that as of the the 24th tickets were still available. (Note that the Tower show was Garcia/Kahn.)

! R: this is definitely a different recording than the one embodied in shnid-90876, and on a quick listen I think this one is better. I have to check more carefully, but it looks like these tapes will fit nicely together and, hopefully, can be concatenated to provide the complete show.

! R: source tape: "2nd gen aud", 1x Maxell XLII (no Dolby)

! R: transfer: Nakamichi BX-300 playback (no Dolby) > Pyle Pro cables > WaveTerminal 2496 > Samplitude 10.1 Download Version (record @ 24 bits/48kHz) > CDWave 1.9.8 (tracking) > Adobe Audition 3.0.1 Build 8347.0 (fades) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC 2448 encoding, level 8) > Foobar (tagging).

! R: This is a classic Closet Call tape. It's not great, but it's not bad. Things are a little overloaded, and there's definitely some room feel, but the (unknown) recordist was in a pretty good spot and did a pretty good job. The keyboards and backing vocals are a little washed out, while the bass sounds pretty good. The recordist just left the tape rolling, 45 minutes at a time, by the sound of things, which is really nice.

! R s1t03 ITAM about 7 and a half minutes in there is a real-time blank spot. You can sort of hear the music imprinted underneath it. Maybe someone forgot to pop the tabs on their tapes?
! personnel: s1t06 TUIB I can't tell if I hear two backing vocalists?

! P: s1t06 TUIB Garcia is tearing it up in this TUIB. This is some pretty outrageous guitar. Easily some of his @@ best licks of the year. Solo around 8 minutes into TUIB. Late 8-min mark and forward, just very, very lengthy phrasings, also at blowout intensity and some great raunch. I bet Garcia was sweating like a fucking hog here.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thanks, we're gonna take a break for a little while. See y'//".

! Disclaimer: This is part of a "Closet Call" project aimed at getting missing Garcia dates into the digital realm. These are "warts and all" ... straight transfers of the source cassettes with editing only of the most offensive tape transitions and such. If you don't like hiss, possible speed problems, etc., etc., then move along. And, to anticipate a FAQ: no, I don't plan on doing 16/44s of these. Thanks to wk for supplying these tapes!

References:
Allison, John. 1982a. Garcia band hot at the Stanley. Daily Collegian (Pennsylvania State University), June 25, 1982, p. 13.
Arnold, Corry. 2012. Jerry Garcia Band Personnel 1975-1995. Lost Live Dead, January 12, 2012, URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html, consulted 3/24/2013.

jgmf.blogspot.com

The River Theatre (Guerneville, CA) 1982 Liz and Julie Conundrum, Resolved

In my previous post on the JGB's early 1980s drummers and backup singers, I grappled with the puzzle of the backup singers on 10/24/82 at the River Theater, 16135 Main Street, Guerneville, CA, 95446-8301:

an eyewitness to the 10/24/82 River Theater (Guerneville, CA) show, which we know featured the return of female vocalists after the brief four-show interregnum of 10/13 and 10/21-23, thought that "Julie" was one of the singers. This was how Julie Stafford first came to my attention as someone who might have sung onstage with JGB ...

I then noted in comments the following:

The eyewitness to the River Theater (Guerneville, 10/24/82) show is Julie A., and she is exceptionally credible. She and John saw a great fraction of Bay Area Jerry shows from '79-90s or so, and taped many of them. She may come post here, but in any case she says she is 100% sure that the backup singers on 10/24/82 were two white women, Julie and Liz ... And if Jacklyn and DeeDee didn't start on 10/24/82, then we have their debut date wrong, too.

I believe I have this little conundrum solved: JGB also played the River Theater, Guerneville, CA, on May 31, 1982, and I believe that this is the Guerneville show with Liz and Julie singing. It would have been in the "Liz and Julie" period. Julie Anzaldo avers that the "Liz and Julie" show could have been 5/31. She remembers Roadrunner being played, but it was played at both Guerneville shows. There weren't any other particular rarities that might have set the two shows apart in memory, except perhaps for the guest shot by Matt Kelly on harmonica at the May 31 show (for "Mystery Train").

This may help to resolve two things in particular that had confused me. First, it restores the longstanding update: MISTAKEN understanding that Jacklyn LaBranch and DeeDee Dickerson debuted on 10/24/82. Second, it reconciles with the Liz Stires chronology, which has her leaving after the 6/22/82 Mosque Show in Richmond, VA.

Update: I have posted listening notes on 5/31/82.

On the theater, I would love to learn more! Seems like my kind of place

Here are the Garcia dates I have for it:

Reconstruction, June 23, 1979 (Wednesday)
Jerry Garcia Band, May 31, 1982 (Monday)
Jerry Garcia Band, October 24, 1982 (Sunday)
Jerry Garcia and John Kahn, September 28, 1984 (Friday)
Jerry Garcia and John Kahn, August 17, 1985 (Saturday)
Jerry Garcia and John Kahn, October 11, 1985 (Friday)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/2VFWg. And here is the Google Street View from ca. now:

JGB: early 1980s drummers and backup singers

I posted some listening notes from the 10/13/82 JGB show at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA. A priori, two things are particularly interesting about that show. First, it's the public debut of drummer Greg Errico with the Jerry Garcia Band in this particular stint (he had done a mini-tour with them in July 1980). There's much more to say about him and that. Second, there are no backup vocalists, as this was a ca. four-show interregnum between the departure of two female vocalists after the June '82 east coast tour and the arrival of Jacklyn LaBranch and DeeDee Dickerson two unknown singers on 10/24/82 at the River Theater in Guerneville, CA. (I'll do a post or two on that show as part of this thread, I hope.) (For some more backing vocalists talk with data relevant to what I'll post here, see this discussion of the personnel working the late '83 JGB tour.)

As as so often the case, Corry replied with knowledge that far exceeds that which is the present public "state of the art". All of this has been known by Corry all along, mind you, but it just never made the various leaps from him to what's currently publicly "known". So glad he is blogging so we can recover and extend all of this!

Anyway, he left a series of great comments, which I am going to try to respond to ad seriatim before I try to summarize where I think we are in terms of the early 80s drummers and backup singers. It's more complicated that one might think. In fact, these are among the last reasonably consequential Garcia mysteries from the 80s onward.

Comment 1:
Do you know anything about Jimmy Warren? Where he came from, what he did before, whether he ever did anything after? I don't.

Warren wasn't a guest star, he was in the JGB for 18 months and played dozens of shows. One of the biographers (Blair?) said "he had problems," but who knows what that meant.

Not much to go on. I would love to be able to talk to him, to learn more.

Here's Blair: "Electric pianist Jimmy Warren was, to put it delicately, sympathetic to Kahn's and Garcia's offstage behavior ... even John Kahn admitted that 'things got kind of out of control around then. Jimmy Warren was just sort of a friend. It didn't work out and it went on too long ...'" (Jackson 1999, 321). I believe he mostly played a Fender Rhodes. He came in with Melvin in January of 1981 (I believe "12/20/80" is just a mislabel of 12/20/79). He and Liz Stires were an item, so this band initially had both the Liz Stires-Jimmy Warren couple and the Essra Mohawk-Daoud Shaw couple. I doubt he was especially "problematic" in terms of personal issues among those within Garcia's orbit at that particular time. Blair continues on pp. 321-322 about the fact that Garcia was in pretty deep at this point. I don't know anything about his tenure except that TJS lists his last gig as September 7, 1982. So, yeah, 18 months, no flash in the pan.

Comment 2:
Essra Mohawk and Liz Stires were the vocalists from June 25 '81 (Santa Cruz) through Aug 25 '81 (Keystone PA).

I don't list this 8/25/81 show. Should I? update: no, probably a phantom, and 8/23/81 is the last Essra show

I have just checked on 5/30/81 and 6/25/81, and indeed there are no vocalists on the former and two female backing singers on the latter. So I'd say 6/254/81 is, as far as we currently have evidence, the return of backing vocalists to JGB after 2.5 years of having none.

Comment 2: 
Julie Stafford replaced Essra Mohawk starting on September 7, 1981 (Concord Pavilion). Stafford and Stiles [sic] were the singers through June 24 '82 (Capitol Theater, Passaic). 

Julie Stafford is completely missed by TJS. I know that she is credited for background vocals on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" from the Run For the Roses album. I never knew that Essra was in for such a short time, really just a handful of shows. In fact, I am a little bit skeptical of this. I have to go back and check some stuff.

What's more, I know that Liz Stires left after the Mosque (Richmond, VA) show on 6/22/82. She was not there for the rest of the tour. I need to revisit tapes, but a review of the 6/23/82 Stanley Theater (Pittsburgh, PA) show (1) says that there were two keyboard players and one female vocalist.

What's also strange is that an eyewitness to the 10/24/82 River Theater (Guerneville, CA) show, which we know featured the return of female vocalists after the brief four-show interregnum of 10/13 and 10/21-23, thought that "Julie" was one of the singers. This was how Julie Stafford first came to my attention as someone who might have sung onstage with JGB, something which another band member from this time has confirmed. Update: that appears to have been reference to 5/31/82.

Upshot, I have some doubts about this particular time period. Corry, can you say more about how you came to this understanding?

Comment 3:
David (Daoud) Shaw was the drummer for the Jerry Garcia Band starting in January '81, and he remained the drummer through Aug 23 '81. [ed: Comment 4 says this was 8/25/81, which was a phantom listing.]

I have always followed TJS and had Shaw in through June 1, 1981, which has always left open the question of who played the June-July-August shows. I am more than happy to fill Shaw's name into the drum slot here, but can I ask again about sourcing?

Comment 3:
The next JGB show [ed: after 8/23/81, implied by comment 2] was Sep 7 '81 at Concord Pavilion. Bill Kreutzmann played drums.For the three other Sept JGB shows (Sep 18 Keystone Berkeley, Sep 19-20 The Stone), Ron Tutt played drums. Tutt also played drums on the tour that started in Palo Alto on Oct 25 and headed East from Oct 31 (Philadelphia) through Nov 19 (Denver). On the Grateful Dead hotline, the tour was billed as "The Return Of Ron Tutt."

It absolutely blows my mind that it was billed this way, and that this has somehow been lost to history insofar as that is represented at TJS, etc. It also reconciles one little factoid which has been bugging me, which is that Ozzie Ahlers has said that Tutt played some shows after he left. These would be them, I guess.

I list Kreutzmann on 9/19/81 at the Stone, though that may have just been me following TJS. I did conclude that "[drummer] is an animal" in my listening notes.

Comment 3:
Bill Kreutzmann returned to the drum chair on Dec 17 '81 at Keystone Berkeley and seems to have held it through Jun '24 82. I have not absolutely confirmed that, however, and it's possible that there were subs at some show (Gregg Errico, Gaylord Birch, etc) or that someone else took over the drums entirely. I do know that Kreutzmann generally played drums at Bay Area shows during this period, because I asked anyone who went to a show. 

Yes, there is an old tape of 12/17/81 with audience chatter suggesting that Kreutzmann is in the house.  And, with you, I assume that there are some discontinuities or non-linearities kicking around from night to night.

So much for bullet-type responses to Corry's comments. What's the big picture?

First, we still have some meaningful gaps in our knowledge of who was on stage in the 1981-1983 period, especially. This is true in terms of drummers and backup singers.

Second, this is probably a case where lots of listening is required. I wish I were more perceptive in terms of being able to hear different drumming and singing styles, but I am not. Sometimes audience chatter and stage talk can reveal a thing or two.

Third, we may never be able to pin it all down. Much as I like knowing, not knowing is OK, too. Keeps some mystery in the whole thing.

Thanks for giving lots of food for thought, Corry!


REFERENCE:
(1) John Allison, "Garcia band hot at the Stanley," Daily Collegian (Pennsylvania State University), June 25, 1982, p. 13.