On Friday-Saturday, November 19-20, 1976, the Jerry Garcia Band played four improbable gigs at the stunning Pismo Theatre in foggy, salty, sandy, lovely little Pismo Beach, California. If you only know it from Bugs Bunny, I urge you to pass through it some time (though I have not done so in more than twenty years). It is the quintessence of that part of the California coastline.
Commenter nick had listened to 11/20/76 not too long ago and mentioned it, also noting a guest rhythm player in "Don't Let Go". I confess that I listened without recalling the putative guest shot, and I didn't even hear it! It was only in polishing my notes that I was reminded about it, and went back to check it out. It's very subtle, until about 5:18 when it comes forward a bit more. It's pretty basic chording on an electric guitar, nothing particularly distinctive, which is fine. (Though, once I alerted my ears to it, it became quite repetitive.) But it makes me wonder whether this guy (probabilistically speaking) isn't present in other parts of the set. Could be, and I just missed it.
Who is it? Well, this is the earliest known entry in the late-1976 to early-1977 second guitarist experiments. John Rich plays pedal steel at the December 21-23 Keystone Family shows. But there is a second guitarist also on 1/29/77, 1/30/77 and 4/9/77, and while I initially thought it was Mr. Rich, I have determined that it is someone else, and further that that someone else should also be associated with 2/5/77, 2/6/77 and 4/10/77. This might just constitute a hitherto-undocumented "Era" of the Jerry Garcia Band, the only one to feature two guitars (earlier two-guitarist situations, whether with Tom Fogerty, George Tickner, or mystery players (2/16/74, 7/12/74) all predated JGB, and in the latter case would be construed as guest shots rather than (ongoing) band membership.
If forced to wager, I'd say the guy here is the same guy playing in the first half of 1977, whose name I'll reveal once I get a chance to engage him directly. I don't like that this stretches his known timeline back a month --I'd feel better if this fell within the January-April window, for which there is good contemporary evidence-- but he's my best guess. Of course, it could have been any one of a dozen guys within driving distance of Pismo, and I just don't know.
Musically, meh. The shows are long and stretched out, clocking in well over an hour and a half each, and this show doesn't suffer from the turgid tempos of so many of any its 1976 brethren. It just doesn't move me.
I like the "After Midnight" in the early show. But "Don't Let Go", as it almost always is in any show in which it made an appearance, is the highlight, though this is far from the best version out there. Keith does some very interesting multiplets in the 12 minute mark, John Kahn takes a very uncommon-for-the-song lead piece on his electric bass, Jerry steps up a few minutes later with some really cosmic stuff, but too-briefly, Tutt drives with some amazing foundational and flourish work underneath him, and for awhile it's really great. But they end up just repeating "don't let go" an awful lot to the crowd, and ten minutes of real highlight isn't much in three hours of time. I have a well-known bias against 1976, but I think it's reasonably well-deserved. There's nothing wrong with this, it just doesn't light me up.
One last point: Jerry Speaks. More than that, he advocates (after TLEO in the late show): "I'd like to remind you all to come down here and see
old Hoyt Axton, December 10th and 11th. He'll be down here doin' a
benefit for Redwind, which is just a good scene, about forty miles from
here, a lot of good people workin' real hard. Hope you can make that one." This is the only time since the 60s (it hadn't happened since, that I can recall, and would never happen again, that I can think of)
that Garcia directly pitches a charity to the crowd. Jerry was mostly mute from stage by
this time except for his setbreak announcement and parting word. But he was
especially averse to advocating anything. What's going on here?
The RedWind Medicine Camp was a Native American community, chiefed by the last full-blooded
Chumash, Semu Huaute, located in rugged San Luis Obispo County. In
correspondence, Bob Sewana Saenz explains: "Jerry visited me in SLO after
a show at the Pismo Beach Theater in late 1976. I drove him and a few band
members to Semu Huaute's (Chumash) Red Wind Medicine Camp. I showed him a
school project that we were in need of funds to develop for the many children
there." I presume they went up on Saturday, and came back down in time for
Jerry to play his shows. He must have been moved, because he speaks. Even more
importantly, he puts his money where his mouth is, headlining a benefit for the
RedWind Foundation at UCSB on February 5, 1977 - but I'll get to that later. [edit: done!]
Detailed listening notes, references, etc. below the fold. There's a funny beach bum who keeps yelling "fried chicken!" for no apparent reason, and a little other color.
