Poynette

Let me just remind you on the show's 49th birthday that

three years after the fact, a program called "Studio None" on cable channel 4 in Madison apparently broadcast footage of the Dead and Baby Huey from the [4/26/70] gig. The listing refers to "the 1969 Poynette Rock Festival", but I think this must be 4/26/70. Mmmm ... wonder where that tape might be? (! listing: Wisconsin State Journal, November 26, 1973, sec. 3, p. 3.)

Anyone know anyone in Madison who might be able to make inquiries? Nothing but photographs and memories circulates from this gig.

Last Show at Alpine Valley: JGB, September 15, 1989

Jerry smiling at Clarence Clemons, Alpine Valley, 9/15/89. Photo credit: Todd Darrow.

The Dead played this space all (and very often well) throughout the 80s. Garcia played it once, and it was his last time there. There must have been plenty of room to boogie on this night, as the place was half-full, but Jerry sounds great and the show, as most of its tourmates were, is strong throughout. This is the penultimate show of  twelve in the two-week tour. Nice closing with a good, relatively long and weird "Don't Let Go" and the briefly-revived "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home", which never gets out like it used to be still comes off well. Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell wrote this great road tripper. Garcia's version followed Delaney and Bonnie's more country arrangement than Clapton's earlier-recorded R&B take, but Jerry took it out into some weird places, with some 70s versions clocking in at well over 20 minutes. After getting tons of play with the Keith and Donna era Jerry Bands (with both Tutt and Buzz Buchanan drumming), it reappeared twice in '81 (7/26/81, 8/20/81), then made five appearances on this tour (9/3/89, 9/5/89, 9/9/89, 9/11/89, 9/15/89) before being shelved for good.

Clarence accompanies the proceedings well enough, and it sounds like a good ol' time.

Jerry Garcia Band
Alpine Valley Music Theatre
2699 Highway D
East Troy, WI 53120
September 15, 1989 (DOW)
SJ MAC all-1 shnid-118330

--set I (7 tracks, 6 tunes, missing one song, 48:42)--
[MISSING: How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)]
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:50]
s1t02. Stop That Train [8:00] [1:15]
s1t03. Forever Young [8:34] [1:02]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:36] [0:34]
s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [8:35] [0:06]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:11] ->
s1t07. Deal [9:#46] (1) [0:14]

--set II (9 tracks, 7 tunes, 79:53)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:01]
s2t02. Harder They Come [11:16] [1:33]
s2t03. Mission In The Rain [1:17] [0:33]
s2t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:56] %
s2t05. crowd and tuning [1:04]
s2t06. I Second That Emotion
s2t07. Waiting For A Miracle [6:36] [0:20]
s2t08. Don't Let Go/ [20:44#] %
s2t09. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [5:54] (2) [0:02]

! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals;
! guest: Clarence Clemons - saxophone.

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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19890915-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1989-09-15

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/8295 (MAC shnf); MAC (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/84359 (Holtz Mac); https://etreedb.org/shn/99084 (Holtz MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/118330 (this fileset);  https://etreedb.org/shn/141680 (Markson s2 flac24); https://etreedb.org/shn/141874 (Markson s2 flac16); https://etreedb.org/shn/142021 (Ted C. and Nat F.).

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

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/DDSYmjCX2F22

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/alpine-valley-theater-2699-highway-d.html. The Dead played this space a ton throughout the 1980s. This was Jerry's only show there, and his last time overall.

! listing: Milwaukee Sentinel, September 15, 1989, p. unk;

! ref: Billboard, October 7, 1989, p. 45. Show grossed $237,517 on 13,946 tickets sold. Venue held 25,000. The band got a $60k guarantee earlier on tour in Hartford, so it was probably in that range.

! historical: Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman acoustic duo opened.

! R: field recordist: SJ

! R: field recording gear: 2x Audio Technica 2-ATR-35 > Sony PC-39 > Sony WM-D6C

! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell MX-90

! R: Transfer: Harmon Kardon TD-302 playback (heads aligned to tape) >
Zoom H2 wav recorder @16/44.1 > SDHD > tracking and editing w/ wavepad > flac and checksums w/ traderslittlehelper, analog > digital transfer by arfarf on July 8, 2011.

! R: this isn't the greatest tape in the world, but it's totally fine and captures the vibe really well - the taper and his/her friends seem to be having a great time.

! P: s1t02 Jerry sounds very lively.

! P: s1t03 FY very good

! P: s1t05 LARLH so nice!

! P: s1t07 Deal gets pretty hot

! R: s1t07 Deal tape flip @ 8:41

! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes. Thank you." Then the taper notes about his tape flip, correctly: "I never would have made it."

! P: s2t04 TWLWMYD features great guitar work, totally characteristic of the period. Check out the tones he works with in the 4-5 range, on top of totally fluid picking. Really nice.

! P: s2t08 DLG man JG just sounds so great here. By 9, things start getting weird.

! song: "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home" (s2t09). Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell wrote this great road tripper. Garcia's version followed Delaney and Bonnie's more country arrangement than Clapton's earlier-recorded R&B take, but Jerry took it out into some weird places, with some 70s versions clocking in at well over 20 minutes. After getting tons of play with the Keith and Donna era Jerry Bands (with both Tutt and Buzz Buchanan drumming), it reappeared twice in '81 (7/26/81, 8/20/81), then made five appearances on this tour (9/3/89, 9/5/89, 9/9/89, 9/11/89, 9/15/89) before being shelved for good.

! s2t09 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on. Bye bye."

The Mecca

These Dead shows from The Mecca in Milwaukee, WI, from April of 1989 are outstanding.

Garcia is burning a hole in the atmosphere in "Little Red Rooster", of all places. This band is Locked. In.

Sound Storm Echoes

The Grateful Dead played a legendary gig at the Sound Storm festival on Mrs. Irene York's farm near Poynette, Wisconsin on April 26, 1970. As ever, Corry is on the case, as is LIA over at Deadsources.

I have a couple of obscure followups.

First, three years after the fact, a program called "Studio None" on cable channel 4 in Madison apparently broadcast footage of the Dead and Baby Huey from the gig. The listing refers to "the 1969 Poynette Rock Festival", but I think this must be 4/26/70. Mmmm ... wonder where that tape might be? (! listing: Wisconsin State Journal, November 26, 1973, sec. 3, p. 3.)

Second, the Little Brothers of the Poor, a lay group from Milwaukee, asked the Columbia County Board for permission to host a "Festival of Christ" on the York Farm August 6-8, 1971, expressing hope that Joe Cocker and the Dead might perform. Seems unusual entertainment for a religious festival planned to include prayer and meditation, with prospective participation by evangelist Billy Graham and Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, but Jesus Freaks will Jesus Freak, I guess. (! ref: "Charity May Hold Poynette Rock Fest," Capital Times, April 24, 1971, p. 13.)

Third, Sound Storm '72 happened in August of that year. The promoter accused advertised headliners the Grateful Dead of backing out of agreement to play the Festival, which the Dead denied, with Gail Hellund telling local radio stations and newspapers that they had never accepted Don Bobo's offer to play the gig. (! ref: Cosgrove, Howard. 1972a. Rock Fair Set to Swing. Capital Times, August 3, 29; ! ref: Cosgrove, Howard. 1972b. Poynette 'Rock Fair' Falls Apart. Capital Times, August 10, 27.)

GD: July 4, 1974, Titan Stadium, Oshkosh, WI (CXL)

A mention in the Chicago Tribune of June 20, 1974 (1) notes that tickets are still available for the GD's July 4th show at 10,000 seat Titan Stadium in Oshkosh, WI. I had though Corry had written this up over at Lost Live Dead, but I don't see it there so I thought I'd at least put down a marker.

This would have been a reasonable time for Jerry et al. to swing through Wisconsin, having ended the GD June tour in the northeast Nice easy stop to make on the way back home. A very perceptive local account (Branigan 1974) explains that the GD had dropped out of a prospective "July 4th superconcert" in Columbus, OH, with The Band and Eric Clapton, potentially dropping them into the laps of some industrious young Oshkosh promoters, who had been chasing Three Dog Night.


Campus and athletic department officials approved the event, and it was ticketed:

(from psilo.com)

Tickets were going quickly: 15,000 tickets sold over 11 days in Chicago alone, thousands more in other upper midwest towns. Attendance expectations rose to 30,000, and apparently the good burghers of Oshkosh got worried about lots of Dirty Fucking Hippies coming to town. Bratigan (1974) gives some great color. Local homeowners threatened to block an awaiting rezoning petition that would have held up some university athletic facilities -- how that's kicking 'em where it hurts! The local Kiwanas worried about the impact on their annual bratfest and fireworks beerbash. "We don't have enough brat for 30,000 hippies and us too!", said one local.

The university caved. Those town-gown relations can be very delicate. Apparently an alternative venue, the Loft golf course and nightclub in Fitchburg, was selected, agreed, and advertised at some point, but that one, too, was blocked when a local neighbor sued to stop the show. According to (3), "on the eve of the Fourth of July, the promoter [Zoom Productions of Chicago] apparently decided to abandon the whole idea." A column (2) the day of the show says that "Today's Grateful Dead concert ... has been postponed until Saturday [ed: July 6th] at 2 p.m. and relocated at [sic] the Ridgewood Trace Park in Madison." This doesn't seem to have happened, either.

In the end, Bratigan reports that "The Grateful Dead spent four wonderful days and nights in the Pioneer Inn" watching the lightning, victims of "a complicated dance of politics and home-grown fear". We know that Jerry was in NYC playing with Merl on the 1st-2nd-3rd (see Corry, nick), and I doubt the band was stuck in Oshkosh (though the roadies, quippies, and bag-men might have been). But who knows?

By way of unhappy postscripts to this saga, later we get reports (4, see left) that the GD is suing the promoters .




REFERENCES
(1) Gold, Aaron. Tower Ticker. Chicago Tribune, June 20, 1974, p. B2.
(2) Gold, Aaron. Tower Ticker. Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1974, p. C2.
(3) Boxoffice, July 22, 1974, p. 49, via issuu.com.
(4) "Grateful Dead Seeks Damages," Billboard, v87 n1, January 4, 1975, p. 3 (via Google Books).
(5)  Branigan, Brian. 1974. A Dead 4^th of July. Unknown publication (WI).

GD/NRPS: March 21, 1971, Expo Milwaukee Convention Center, Milwaukee, WI

March 1971 is an interesting one to me re the GD. It's overlooked between the (overrated, IMO) Port Chester shows of February and the college and Fillmore East shows of April. Given my taste for the obscure, I'd naturally be drawn to it.

Musically, and thus most importantly, it has one of the most unusual appearances of 1971: a raging 15+-minute Caution -> Feedback tucked inside an otherwise standard (i.e., no major jams) early '71 show at the Fox Theatre, St. Louis on March 18th. .Huh? Anyway, homey says check it out. The tapes also sounds great since I think they were multitracking at least some of the shows for what would become Skullfuck.

The logistics of this time period are marginally interesting. I have posted about this separately.

I thought it noteworthy that NRPS played, while I had never seen this on lists before. But I see that the New Riders concert history for 1971 has been updated with lots of gigs. The Jerry Site will get a once-over in view of this.

Anyway, I started this post wanting to note a few things about March 21, 1971. Here are a few things not apparent (or different) from Deadlists, and/or otherwise noteworthy.

• also appearing: the Ox (apparently a Milwaukee band)
• the venue is consistently referred to as the Expo Milwaukee Convention Center. Carman (1971) gives the address as 4805 South 2nd Street, though I also found the address as 4747. It seems to have been attached to the Red Carpet Inn. (Cue Wimpy: "Ahh, the red carpet treatment ... this is obviously the superior establishment.")
  
• venue capacity is given at 2,500, while attendance was estimated at about 5,000. Sounds like it was dangerously packed.
• Jensen (1971) says that the GD performed "And We Bid You Goodnight". This was presumably the encore/final song.
• Deadlists says "This is the complete show, there was no second set (the band had to catch a plane)", but there is no mention of this in the many discussions of the show in the Milwaukee papers. Where does this information come from. 

A few further trivia:

• The Bugle-American v2 no.11 (#24) of March 18-24, 1971 has a nice spread in its second section. Three photos by Mark Goff appear (my photocopy is too dark to make scanning worthwhile, I think). One is of Jerry backstage, a second is of the serious crowding at the venue entrance, and the third looks to be a terrific shot taken right over Jerry's shoulder, past Marmaduke as the NRPS play. I'd like to track down this photog, or at least this photo, because it looks like a real keeper.
• Another oddity that I stumbled across, with methodological consequences, is that the version of the Milwaukee Journal available at the Google News archive is different, with different content, from some other versions floating around. Take March 22, 1971. Google News has the "latest edition". I don't know what edition I have (my photocopy is truncated in the key spot), but the content is also different, and some of it doesn't seem to exist in Google News. I obtained my photocopies from the Milwaukee Public Library using its (not inexpensive) research service. Carman (1971) appears as the front page of that day's newspaper from that source. A search on various other content from my photocopy turns up empty on Google News. Nothing we can do about it, but just caveat lector: if you are looking for something that should be in Google News but isn't, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The Google is not all-knowing even with respect to the sources that it archives.

REFERENCES

1. Carman, John. 1971. Rock Show a harbinger in Battle for Youth Park? Milwaukee Journal, March 22, 1971, pp. 1, 3. 
2. Jensen, Dean. 1971. Lively Bash by Grateful Dead Has Jugs of Wine, Little Verse. Milwaukee Sentinel, March 22, 1971, p. 5.