Setting Right What Was Rent Asunder

Or something like that.

Forgive me, for I have sinned. I have added entropy to the world. I am here to make amends.

When the Falanga-Menke Stash of Garcia-Saunders tapes from 1974 first came to me, one of them was labeled 8/14/74. I had what I thought was another recording of the show connected to Lou Tambakos. Somewhere along the line, in the first decade of the 21^st century, I decided that the correct date was 8/15/74. Because I was an early source of recording metadata, that dating has really stuck. I even wrote about it once because of a mystery trumpeter.

But I think I was wrong. I now believe that Wednesday, August 14, 1974 is the correct date of this mid-August 1974 JGMS show at the Great American Music Hall.

Three streams of evidence.

8/14/74 JGMS at GAMH has no contrary listings and these confirmatory ones: Bill Alex, "Around Town," San Francisco Examiner, August 9, 1974, p. 23; San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, August 11, 1974, p. 4; Todd Tolces, "Out to Lunch," Berkeley Gazette, August 14, 1974, p. 11; San Francisco Examiner, August 14, 1974, p. 27.

8/15/74 JGMS at GAMH has no confirmatory listings and the following contrary listings: Hayward Daily Review, August 9, 1974, p. 40; Daily Independent Journal, August 9, 1974, p. 20; Bill Alex, "Around Town," San Francisco Examiner, August 9, 1974, p. 23; San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, August 11, 1974, p. 4; Todd Tolces, "Out to Lunch," Berkeley Gazette, August 14, 1974, p. 11. All of these bill John Hartford at GAMH on this date.

Tapes: not only was the Falanga-Menke tape labeled 8/14/74, but so was a beat-up old dubbed cassette the Jerry had in his tape collection.

So, QED. Change your lists. Change your fileset info!

The Great Barcia

Rock Scully's book occasionally referred to Jerry as "the Great Barcia". I had originally thought it was Salvador Dalí, but looking back, I guess not. It still tickles me.

This just came back to mind as I came across two ads, a month apart, for Reconstruction at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on 3/31/79. Someone at the Sentinel was either a Prankster or confused, and not just about Jerry (see also "Greg Kihm"). I wonder if Rock got this "Barcia" thing from the second ad posted here? Anyway, I am sure that, especially in Reconstruction, the Great onedidn't mind having some of his higher fans possibly thrown off the scent.

update: commenter Nick points out that the Eldon Porray tapes understood as Reconstruction at the Catalyst on 3/30/79 are probably really from this date, 3/31/79. This pertains to shnid-11673 (deprecated) and the MOTB transfer, shnid-106004. He raves about the "Sama Layuca" as well, which you should take very seriously.

ad for "Re Construction" at the Catalyst, featuring mystery guitarist "Jerry Garsia", Santa Cruz Sentinel, February 23, 1979, p. 16.

ad for Reconstruction at the Catalyst, featuring mystery guitarist "Jerry Barcia", Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 23, 1979, p. 13.

April 1975 Legion of Mary tapes

Some brave souls at Lossless Legs are wading into the waters of the April 1975 Legion of Mary tapes.

I fear that, like all those who have come before, these tapes will defy our collective ability to pin down what's what (correct dates and such). Most importantly, this shit seems to have come in bits and pieces of tape that got all jumbled up somewhere along the way. Ryan's old notes on 4/9/75 spoke to all of this, as he tried heroically (and, I think, ultimately unsuccessfully) to make sense of what was what. Another long time Garcia collector had the following listed for 4/12/75a in Scranton:

04/12/75a Scranton, PA - Masonic Temple                          MS?>?>CD        Partial 35                      

          *LOM*

          This material is extremely confused, and may actually be from 4/8/75b, or some other date.

          Set One: on disc two of "4/15/75": 2. [0:04] Tough Mama [7:47] [0:08], 3. [0:05] Wondering

          Why [15:47] [0:04], 4. [0:17] I'll Take a Melody [9:50] [0:05]

Note here that the material at the time of that last was thought to be 4/12/75a, but it was feared to be 4/8/75a (notwithstanding that it came off a source labeled 4/15/75!). The 4/12/75 Scranton material continues to be confused and contested to the present day.

So, point #1 of this post: be careful following what's on tape labels!

Second, and this is really more of a note to myself, Ryan's old 4/9/75 notes contained some important Betty Board information that I had nearly lost track of. In his collecting, he had located three distinct sources, and made the following notes:

1. Master SBD Reel > 1st gen reel > PCM > DAT (44kHz)
2. Master SBD Reel > 1st gen reel > DAT (48kHz +emphasis)
3. Master SBD Reel > 2 cassette gens > DAT (48kHz)

Tapes #1 and #2 descend from the Marin Flea Market batch of Betty Cantor reels. These are reels that “fell out” from the infamous Betty locker auction that happened in 1985. 1st gen 15ips copies were made from the master 7.5ips reels [i.e., Master SBD reels (2-track Nagra SL11183 at 7.5 ips on 7" Scotch 206 reels) > 1st gen reel (2-track Otari MX5050 at 15ips on 7" reels] ... I believe Jeff Silberman and other long-time traders were very instrumental in getting copies of this show widely circulated.

Tape #3 comes from the early/mid ‘80s and appears to be from a completely different path than tapes #1 and #2.

I am intrigued by this, because I think it's a part of the Betty Board history that was almost been forgotten, at least by me. Is it correct that there was a Marin Flea Market batch in 1985? Is this a separate batch from the storage unit tapes that were digitized in late 1986/early 1987? Is the Third Batch that I have been discussing really the third batch, or is it correct that "A smaller batch of Betty Boards was discovered in 1990 and returned almost immediately to the GD” Vault (Harvey 2009), such that the "Third Batch" (the uncirculated Garcia stuff, which came into some light in late 1995) really a Fourth Batch? I am confused, and the existing histories (Dwork et al. 2000; Harvey 2009) don't answer my questions. I have got some 'splaining to do, just to myself.

RERERENCES:

1. Dwork, John, and Alexis Muellner, with Dougal Donaldson, Doug Oade and Mark Kraitchman. 2000. Outside the System. In The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, vol. III, An In-depth Guide to the Music of the Grateful Dead on Tape, 1986-1995 (New York: Henry Holt/Owl Books.), pp. 33-62.
2. Harvey, Katie A. 2009. Embalming the Dead: Taping, Trading and Collecting the Aura of the Grateful Dead. Master of Arts Thesis, Tufts University, August. URL http://www.scribd.com/doc/26367749/Embaling-the-Grateful-Dead, consulted 12/18/2011.

LN jg1973-10-xx.oaitw.partial.sbd.14216.shnf

Old And In The Way "October 1973" (http://db.etree.org/shn/14216) turns out to be a degraded copy of Boarding House, October 8, 1973. Grisman officially released the whole show in 2008, though all links to download it seem to be dead. Some notes.

Old And In The Way
"Unknown Location, October xx, 1973"
Boarding House
October 8, 1973 (DOW)
shnid 14216: degraded 81 minute sbd

(19 tracks, 81:15)
t01 - Home Is Where The Heart Is [2:01] [0:08]
t02 - Love Please Come Home [3:12] [0:13]
t03 - [0:26] Down Where The River Bends [4:26] [0:14]
t04 - [0:52] Kissimmee Kid [4:23] [0:23] (1)
t05 - (2) tuning [1:07], Pig In A Pen/% [2:37#], dead air [0:06]
t06 - dead air [0:03], //Uncle Pen [#2:12] [0:30]
t07 - Panama Red [2:40] [0:15]
t08 - talk (3) and tuning [1:25], Midnight Moonlight [5:59] [0:20]
t09 - talk (4) and tuning [1:00], White Dove [4:32] [0:09] % dead air [0:06] %
t10 - //Wild Horses [#4:21] [0:07]
t11 - talk and tuning [0:19] % [0:17] Orange Blossom Special [2:38] [0:15] % [0:24]
t12 - (5) [0:28] Old And In The Way [2:55] [0:12]
t13 - Lonesome Fiddle Blues [3:14] [0:18]
t14 - % [0:11] On And On [3:17] [0:06]
t15 - Land Of The Navajo [6:54] [0:20]
t16 - tuning [0:38], Catfish John [3:56] [0:31]
t17 - (6) [0:05] Til The End Of The World Rolls 'Round [2:09] [0:02] % [0:08]
t18 - % /Jerry's Breakdown [#4:23] [0:16]
t19 - tuning and talk (7) [0:53], The Great Pretender [3:26] [0:09] %

Personnel:
Peter Rowan - acoustic guitar, vocals;
David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
Vassar Clements - fiddle;
John Kahn - acoustic bass.

JGMF:
! this fileset is deprecated by lots of better sources for the same material, including the official release Old & In The Way: Live at the Boarding House, October 8, 1973 - The Complete Show - Sets 1 & 2 (Acoustic Disc/Acoustic Oasis, ACD-AO-50005, 2008) (http://www.deaddisc.com/disc/OITW_100873.htm)
! 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.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/904
! db: shnid 14216 (this fileset -- deprecated); http://db.etree.org/shn/99499 is the best-sounding non-official copy of material from this date (though it travels as unknown 1973).
! R: given lineage: "MSR > R > R > D > CD".
! R: shnid 14216 (non-seekable shns) renamed, flac encoded and tagged by JGMF, 8/2011.
! R: Seeder Note: "not sure why the discs are split like this. It was provided to me in this manner ..."
! (1) ?DG?: "Vassar Clements!"
! there's a recording break, but it sounds very short. I don't think there's much or anything missing here.
! R: Badly muffled and running fast. This is a pretty painful listen, though it either gets better or we get used to it. It's plausible to think this is a degraded sbd.
! P: Nice stretched out harmony vocals by JG at the end of DWTRB
! This sounds like an early version of Kissimee Kid. You can hear them saying something like "You wanna try it?" and then a minute of tuning. This might help triangulate to date.
! (2) chick calls for Foggy Mountain Breakdown before Pig In A Pen
! R: PIAP cuts out
! R: Uncle Pen cuts in
! (3) crowd yell "play it Vassar!" leads to some chatter, DG noting that Vassar's fans are demanding. PR asks "What would you like to hear him play?" Crowd shouts a bunch of stuff. "Peking Fling", etc. "Muleskinner Blues". Crowd is hooting and hollering and having a good old time.
! Midnight Moonlight is fully developed. This definitely makes October dating more plausible. These guys really got it together around this time. This is probably October 1 or October 8. Some A-B comparisons will be necessary [edit: confirmed that this is October 8, 1973].
! P: this may be the hottest Midnight Moonlight ever played. They are well-gelled and cooking.
! (4) @ 0:42 DG: "We're gonna slow things down a little bit, get into a little reflective portion of our show. Everybody can sort of ease down, and reflect upon ..."
! Wild Horses cuts in before first verse.
! (5) Audience member calls for something. ?Vassar? says "We got the man here who produced that, too. The McEuen Brothers."
! song name Old And In The Way Breakdown is not a Breakdown. I think this is just called OAITW.
! R: LOTN speaker-endangering digi-snit @ 5:41
! (6) DG: "Here's one of Lester and Earl's numbers."
! @ 0:37 (7) DG: "These antiques are like pretty women, Pete. Have to fool with 'em to get 'em right."
! setlist: Great Pretender was listed as an encore, but there's continuous tape to it from the end of Jerry's Breakdown. And it doesn't necessarily sounds like the show ends after this point, either. So I don't know what to make of the 'encore' designation for this except to think it's incorrect [confirmed].

NRPS-Matrix-1970 02 of 7: LN19700430: Thursday, April 30, 1970

NRPS-Matrix-1970: a seven part series discussing New Riders of the Purple Sage (NRPS) gigs at the Matrix, 1970, including listening notes on the circulating tapes, speculation on dates, observations on playing, general pontificating.

1. Introduction
2. LN19700430: Thursday, April 30, 1970
3. LN19700707: Tuesday, July 7, 1970
4. LN19700729: Wednesday, July 29, 1970
5. LN19700730: Thursday, July 30, 1970
6. LN19700902: Wednesday, September 2, 1970
7. Analysis and Conclusions

This is the earliest putative recording of a NRPS show at the Matrix in 1970, and it embodies many of the general features of the NRPS-Matrix-1970 nexus. The tape ultimately derives from the "Matrix Tapes", soundboard (line) recordings on reel-to-reel tape. It is said to be set I only.

The date of this recording is questionable, for two main reasons. First, the Chicken on a Unicycle (COAU) Matrix list shows Sandy Bull at the Matrix this night, and Ross Hannan classifies this listing as spurious. Second, as I will elaborate at much greater length in installment four of this little series, the material from "4/30/70 set I" duplicates "7/29/70 set I," and I find the latter dating much more likely to be approximately correct.

I do not know of any evidence other than tape that supports a 4/30 dating. Because I conclude that this is a mislabel and I discuss the material at length in the corresponding (late July) context, I won't go on at any length, and my listening notes will be much lower-res than subsequent ones will be.

I will just say that in an absolute sense, the April 30 date makes some sense. We currently believe that NRPS played a "stealth" gig on 4/29/70 at the Peninsula School in Menlo Park, CA. We also know that the "An Evening With The Grateful Dead" concept took its show on the road starting the night after this, Friday, May 1, 1970 at Alfred State College in Alfred, NY. We know that across the decades Garcia liked to do some low-key local shows to warm up new bands and/or new members, especially in advance of a national tour.

But there's just no evidence whatsoever that NRPS played the Matrix on 4/30/70 except this seemingly-mislabeled tape. So I'd say science requires us to list this date as doubtful unless and until something else comes up.

Quick question for the cognoscenti: did the Matrix show weird movies at set breaks? Marmaduke mentions this at the end of the tape. I am 95% sure this material dates from after mid-June 1970, if that matters. Sounds like a Family Dog thing to me, but what do I know?

The end of the November 1974 Jerry Garcia - Merl Saunders (JGMS) east coast tour

There is so much to say about the November 1974 east coast tour undertaken by the Jerry Garcia / Merl Saunders group (the quintet of Garcia [el-g, vocals], Saunders [keyboards, vocals], John Kahn [el-bass], Martin Fierro [horns], and future Lawrence Welk drummer Paul Humphrey).

Garcia had done two national "tours" outside the Grateful Dead prior to this one.

• First, in January 1972, he went out with Howard Wales behind the Douglas Record Hooteroll? on something like a 10-date tour. I think we have barely scratched the surface with that tour.
• Second, in June 1973 Old And In The Way booked a midwest/east coast bluegrass festival tour which seems to have fallen apart after a scant 3-4 gigs. Again, we know next to nothing about this.
• Third, we have this tour. (The gigs at the Bottom Line, New York, NY, July 1-3, 1974 were one-offs, more like "scouting trips" for the tour, in my eyes. One helluva party, it seems like, and another barely documented episode.)

It began at the Bottom Line on Tuesday, November 5, 1974, and ended, I will argue, on Sunday, November 17, 1974 at the Auditorium Theatre in Rochester, NY. By my count the group played 22 shows in 12 days. I am not going to narrate the whole tour, just the end.

TJS currently has the tour running through a Monday night (November 18, 1974) show in The Dome at C.W. Post College in Greenvale, NY. Ryan's note says "All tapes I've seen with this date are really 11/08/74." Indeed. There was a show on Friday, November 8, 1974 in The Dome at C.W. Post College. There are several different tapes and lots of eyewitness accounts (though I'd love to gather more!). It seems pretty open and shut to me that the "11/18/74" dating is just a transcription error from "11/8/74". Not sure the point even needs belaboring, but I guess I'll go ahead and summarize all of the reasons this date is probably bogus:

• there is lots of evidence for 11/8, no evidence for 11/18 except mislabeled tape;
• easy to make "11/8" become "11/18".
• Why would they come back to the same venue ten days later?
• Why would they do so on a Monday night?

So this is what I think of as a "mere mislabel". The chances that it happened are tiny. How should these data be kept, and for example how should they be displayed at TJS?


In sum, I conclude that the current listing for Garcia and Saunder at C.W. Post College on November 18, 1974 is based on a mislabel of tapes from November 8th.

If "11/18/74" wasn't the last show of the tour, what was? For the night before (Sunday, November 17, 1974), TJS lists Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders at the Auditorium Theatre (*not* the Rochester War Memorial Auditorium) in Rochester, NY. It notes a 145 minute audience recording, which I do not believe I have heard. It also notes information from "Mark Wilkins", who presumably attended the show. There's a quite complete looking setlist as well. I would note, finally, that there is a listing in the (Canandaigua, NY) Daily Messenger, Thursday, November 14, 1974, section two, front page. So, lots of evidence that this show happened, and finishing on a Sunday makes a certain amount of sense.

So far I hope to have done the following:

• established that "11/18/74" is a "phantom gig";
• invite feedback on this is a type of phantom gig, and how TJS might represent such data;
• established that 11/17/74 did occur and was the final show of the 12-day, 22-show marathon (or is it a sprint?) northeast tour.

One last point I'd like to make is that John Kahn seems to have finished up with Garcia and Saunders and picked right up with Maria Muldaur's road band. Nice scheduling!

• The first Maria Muldaur gig from this tour that I have come across is, you guessed it, Monday, November 18, 1974 (Avery Fisher Hall in New York, NY). It was reviewed in Billboard (1). John Kahn is not mentioned.
• 
  
• The second one I came across was the same billing (Maria Muldaur, Livingston Taylor) at the Music Hall in Boston, MA on Friday, November 22, 1974. This was in an ad in the Boston Phoenix (November 12, 1974, p. 6, in the "Don Law Presents" space). 

Obviously I am not trying to narrate this Muldaur tour, though the Kahn story will eventually require all of that to be done. I am just noting the transition for John: finish with Jerry on the 17th, head back to the city for Maria on the 18th. Few more paying gigs (and maybe quite a few ... where were they until the 26th?), not too bad!

I suppose my point about this is that, in those days, Kahn was quite a busy musician. I don't think Garcia was carrying Kahn in 1974.


REFERENCE:
Stephen, Jim. Talent In Action: Maria Muldaur, Livingston Taylor, Avery Fisher Hall. Billboard, December 14, 1974, pp. 21, 31.

When did Melvin Seals begin with JGB?

Edited 20110216

The Jerry Garcia Band show listed as Saturday, December 20, 1980, Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA, has always struck me odd. I argue here that (1) "12/20/80" is a "phantom" listing, a mislabel of 12/20/79. Along the way (2) I argue that "1/18/81" is also a phantom, a mislabel of 1/18/83. This leads to a new-to-me understanding of when Melvin Seals joined the band; I (3) conclude here that Melvin Seals's public debut as keyboardist with the Jerry Garcia Band was Thursday, January 22, 1981 at the Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA. This can be seen as a companion piece to my query about the start of the Garcia-Saunders relationship.

Observation #1: all circulating tapes of "12/20/80" are actually copies of 12/20/79. No-one with ears to hear (or eyes to see, if one had been there) could confuse Melvin and his Hammond B-3 with Ozzie Ahlers and his electric piano (can't remember the precise gear right now).

Observation #2: the last reasonably well documented JGB show before "12/20/80" is August 9 (*shiver*), 1980, Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA (shnid-29088 [partial sbd]). As we presently understand it, that is the last show of the Garcia-Kahn-Ahlers-Errico quartet version of the Jerry Garcia Band. (Errico would return on October 13, 1982, for another 8-month stint.)

Observation #3: I know of no hard evidence (newspaper ad, ticket stub, attendee recollection, distinct tape, etc. etc.) of a JGB show on 12/20/80. Gordon Sharpless, credited as contributor at TJS, has shared his conclusion that "12/20/80" is a misdate of 12/20/79 in comments.

Observation #4: there have been tape recordings labeled "Melvin Rehearsals", dated Wednesday, January 14, 1981 through Friday, January 16, 1981, at Club Front in San Rafael, CA. I have January 16th to listen to (thank you, wk!) but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's the kind of thing that is going to be all consuming for 90 minutes, and I tend not to have chunks of time like that. Tape datings are among the least reliable data sources we have --I have created a new tag called 'methodology', by the way-- but the coincidence of Wed-Fri rehearsals right before starting up the new configuration the next week is a strongly suggestive one. (I would have guessed that they'd gig on Saturday 1/17, but if they weren't ready they probably spent a few more nights rehearsing.) There may well have been further rehearsals, but there is no public information about that. Anyway, these rehearsals are consistent with a later starting date than "12/20/80" ... I don't think workaholic Jerry would have been rehearsing this new band for the 3-4 weeks required to have started up before 12/20/80 and still been rehearsing in the third week of January.

Observation #5: The next conventionally-listed JGB gig is Sunday, January 18, 1981, Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA. This would be a plausible first gig for a band with a new lineup: Sunday night at the relatively out-of-the-way Catalyst. I see three reasons to conclude that this date is bogus, though. First, the tapes circulating with this date are all from January 18, 1983 (same venue, the Catalyst). Mislabels being what they are, this doesn't mean an '81 show on this date and venue didn't happen. Second, TJS had this note: "DeadBase's setlist for this show is a duplication of their 01/18/83 setlist and incorrect", and it credits gorshar as a contributor. This is exactly like the profile of 12/20/80, of course. Third, the manucript tradition (i.e., Corry's lists) never contained information on this show. Strike three and this date is out, as far as my current reasoning goes.

Interim Analysis. Here's what I think happened for both "12/20/80" and "1/18/81". The old manuscript tradition correctly had no listing for these shows. At some point a tape of 1/18/83 gets mislabeled "1/18/81" (easily enough), just as a tape of 12/21/79 became "12/20/80" (though this one has a less obvious orthographic explanation). This tape forms the basis of a Deadbase listing (most of which, but obviously not this one, drew from Corry's lists). When the Jerry Site comes around in ca. ?1999? or ?2000?, gorshar tells Ryan about the mislabel, but Ryan (rightly, conservatively) makes the note but keeps the entry in, just in case. But I am prepared to conclude here that 1/18/81 is also a bogus listing.

Observation #6: the next known JGB show is Thursday, January 22, 1981, the first of two nights at the Keystone Palo Alto in Palo Alto, CA (Jerrybase, shnid-97266 [Latvala's partial audience recording]). These are Melvin's presumed third and fourth shows, after "12/20/80" and "1/18/81". But I argue there that 1/22/81 is the correct dating for Melvin Seals's public debut with the Jerry Garcia Band. The two preceding dates, "12/20/80" and "1/18/81", are both phantoms, by my analysis.

Aside, re: personnel: Melvin would never leave the JGB's keyboard chair, putting in an astonishing 14+ years. Without checking the numbers, I think this makes Melvin Jerry's #2 onstage musical collaborator (in terms of frequency) outside the Grateful Dead, following Jerry's ol' buddy John Kahn. There is obviously much, much more to say about Mr. Melvin Seals, who continues, 30 years on, to engage this music as "Melvin Seals and JGB".

Aside re: venues: Corry's pathbreaking work on the Keystone complex, including his Garcia shows at Keystone overview, deserves to be borne in mind at all times. His economic analysis is especially important, really providing some good hard evidence about the Garcia-Keystone (let me use that as shorthand for Freddie Herrera and the whole complex here) symbiosis. He mentions the nice complementarities of Jerry being able to rotate through the various clubs, especially in this period when the Keystone Berkeley, Keystone Palo Alto, and the Stone (San Francisco) were all operating. I don't read him as identifying any further division of labor, but I have a hypothesis: the Keystone Palo Alto was more likely to be used midweek than either of the other two clubs. That's not to say the KPA never got weekend shows, just that, by the early 80s, if there was woodshedding to be done and a Keystone club was to be involved, it was more likely to happen in Palo Alto than in Berkeley or SF. Otherwise, it seems like slightly more out-of-the-way places such as the Catalyst and the River Theater got a disproportionate share of the "debut" action. And given the fluidity of JGB membership in the early 1980s (e.g., in terms of backup singers and drummers), there was an unusual amount of woodshedding to be done. I do think we could get at this with some very simple statistic tests, but I'll add that to the "to-do" list.

And a meta point underneath (or "over", anyway) that: maybe the fact that less central venues tended to get the "debut" performances in the early 80s is why information on precise starting and ending dates has been so inconsistent. Fewer notetakers and tapers = less carry-though to the present. An interesting sociology of knowledge involved in all this, but I digress ...

Upshot:

1. I argue and conclude that the "12/20/80" JGB date is a phantom
2. I argue and provisionally conclude that the "1/18/81" JGB date is a phantom.
3. I argue and conclude that Melvin Seals's public debut with the Jerry Garcia Band was January 22, 1981, following at least some rehearsals the week prior.

Source Check:
McNally, LST: no mention
Jackson, Garcia, p. 321: Melvin's arrival and tenure noted, but no starting date/timeframe given.
Jackson, cutting room floor: no mention.

LN19690219 High Country "2/19/69" Matrix, San Francisco, CA

LIA's argument that the GD set circulating under the date of 6/19/68 is actually the 2/19/69 GD show is totally persuasive to me. Of course that probably implies that the 2/19/69 dating of the High Country set from the Matrix, with Garcia and Nelson joining Butch Waller and Rich Wilbur, is probably mis-dated. (A Wednesday afternoon show at the Matrix strikes me as unlikely.) Unless someone knows something I don't, I'd guess I'd say, based on understanding gleaned from Corry and Yellow Shark, that the "2/19" dating is indicative of a general timeframe.

(Parenthetically, does anyone know anything about the GD show at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore, MD, on February 9, 1969, listed at Deadlists based on Deadbase IX?)

Anyway, LIA's post led me to revisit this little bluegrass set, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This is important, of course, as the first known Garcia bluegrass (and banjo) playing since the Warlocks went electric in 1965. Makes you wonder what else we don't know! It's also always nice to hear Garcia just relaxing and picking a little bit.

UPDATE: Of course LLD has posted on this gig, which I had forgotten about.

Anyway, I post my listening notes below. The song titles are all over the place in terms of how Deadheads keep track of this stuff; I have confirmed all but the unidentified ones below. Thanks in advance for corrections/additions!

High Country (w/ Jerry Garcia & David Nelson)
The Matrix
3138 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA
"February 19, 1969 (Wednesday)" [probably incorrect date]

MSR > ? > R > CD, via fstop.

(16 tacks, 56:13)
t01. /Mississippi Sawyer [1:58] [0:48]
t02. On And On [2:36] [1:30]
t03. Walls Of Time [3:18] (1) [1:12]
t04. Pike County Breakdown [2:09] [0:08] % [0:19]
t05. Teardrops In My Eyes [2:29] [0:36]
t06. Big River [1:57] [1:05]
t07. Working On A Building [3:42] [1:12]
t08. Brand New Shoes [1:42] (2) [1:04]
t09. Soldier's Joy [3:07] [0:56]
t10. Swing Low Sweet Chariot [2:08] [0:55]
t11. I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome [2:39] (3) [1:03]
t12. [0:15] Bluegrass Stomp [3:40] [0:14] %
t13. //I Wonder Where You Are Tonight [#2:22] (4) [1:03]
t14. unidentifed country bluegrass 19690219-2 [3:01] [0:22] % [0:18]
t15. Live And Let Live [2:27] (5) [0:12]
t16. Bluegrass Breakdown [3:15] [0:14]

! ACT1: High Country
! lineup: Butch Waller - mandolin, vocals;
! lineup: Rich Wilbur - bass, vocals;
! lineup: David Nelson - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - banjo.

JGMF:

! /=clip; //=cut; %=tape discontinuity; #=truncated timing

! Show: Frank Wakefield is sometimes identified as the mandolin player, but I think the evidence (including reference in Rothman 1998) suggests that it is Butch Waller and that the lineup listed above is correct. The show has conventionally been dated 2/19/69, but as of 1/1/11 that seems unlikely, since the GD played the "Celestial Synapse" show at the Fillmore West. Deadheads have attached many different song titles to lots of these numbers. I have pretty well confirmed the titles given above, with the obvious exception of the two unidentified tunes (t01 and t14).

! Recording: This version comes from fstop, who was one of those who copied Peter Abrams's reels in the 1970s. It is mono throughout, but a nice recording overall. We can't really know the lineage with any certainty. I didn't necessarily note all of the between-song tape discontinuities.

! t01 clips in

! t01 unidentified bluegrass standard 19690219-1 is identifiable. We need some bluegrass ears on this!

! Love how they are calling out the song keys to Garcia, and deciding on the spot when he'll take his break (e.g., t02 before Walls of Time)

! Sounds like there are about 20 people in attendance.

! t03 (1) @ 3:46: Guy asks Jerry if he wants to play "Pike County?" Jerry sort of groans and indicates he's not sure he can play it: "Oh, God, OK, I'll try it." The following song is indeed "Pike County Breakdown"

! t06 tick near start of Big River

! t08 (2) @ 1:47: guy to Jerry: "You let us know when we should call it a day." JG: "[inaudible] should keep playing." Guy: "All right!"

! t11 title confirmed from http://www.bluegrasslyrics.com/song/im-blue-im-lonsome/

! t11 (3) @ 2:4: guy: "What do you think we ought to do? You think we ought to stay here, or you think we ought to go away?" Garcia: "I don't know. Let's play some more." Guy: "OK. Let's play Bluegrass Stomp."

! t13 I Wonder Where You Are Tonight fades in, almost nothing missing.

! t13 (4) @ 2:26: Guy: "Bluegrass Breakdown" ... JG, about 2:34: "Oh, man. I'm gonna have a hard time  with this one." DNA/genetic code talk. JG: "Go ahead. You guys do it. ... I just can't play it." Guy: "You can do it in  'D'." JG: "I can do it in 'C'." Guy: "Me too, I guess." @ 3:03, sounds like guy changes the song: "Do this one. This one's easier." Then they do a more guitar-driven song the title of which I don't know.

! t14 TJS lists this song as "Don't Say Goodbye If You Love Me", but I don't think that's what this is. It's a really nice number, whatever it is. We need some folk/country/bluegrass ears on this!

! t15 Live And Let Live title confirmed at http://www.bluegrasslyrics.com/node/667

! t15 (5) @ 2:26: JG: "Let's do one more." Guy: "Bluegrass Breakdown."

References:
Rothman, Sandy. 1998. Jerry Garcia’s Musical Roots: The Banjo Years. Relix 25, 4 (August): 26-30.

GSCBF3: Sunday, April 28, 1974 afternoon schedule

Updated 9/18/2010

Part of a series of back-of-the-napkin thoughts about the Golden State Country Bluegrass Festival (GSCBF), held in San Rafael, CA from Friday, April 26th through Sunday, April 28, 1974.

Previous installments:

GSCBF1: just a mention

GSCBF2: a plea for a release of the film and tapes!

I have mentioned that there are several flavors of soundboard tapes moving around in collectors' circles, and a few audience-recorded pieces as well. I will be working to build a narrative of the festival, using the following audio sources:

1. 29-minute Tom Moran audience recording of GASB on 4/26/74 (shnid 99532)
2. Tom Moran recordings of Maria Muldaur and Doc & Merle Watson sets from 4/26/74.
3. 32-minute Tom Moran audience recording of "morning workshop session, 4/27/74"
4. 4-CD set of "WB reels", with material dated 4/27 and 4/28/74; these are AKA the "soundman reels" in some circles.
5. 6-CD set of "Debbie reels" with material dated 4/27 and 4/28/74
6. 21-minute "OAITW 4/27/74 aud" recording (shnid 21525)
7. 4-CD set with the lineage as follows: "SBD REEL > DAT > CDR (playback:  Sony TC 765 reel > SBM1 > Sony D8 > Tascam CD-RW4U > Soundforge)", circulated from Jeff Korona to Mike Lai and from there via a now defunct FTP server called stellablue.etree.org.
8. 1-CD set "John Hartford and Friends, 4/28/74" set, with this lineage: "Source: SBD: MR > DAT > Echo Mia > Cool Edit > CDWave > Philips CDRW804. Recieved as CDA audio.  EAC > WAV > SHN (Gabriel Kuykendall)."
9. 4-CD set circulated by Rob Berger from Jerry Moore's reel copies. Given lineage is as follows: "source: sbd reel, exact gen unknown (Jerry Moore's copy); lineage: reel playback on Sony TC-765 > sbm1 > dat > cdr > soundforge > cdr > eac > flac, transferred by Rob Berger '99". As of right now I believe (suspect, really, since I haven't had time to check) that the Korona/Lai set is derivative of this one. But we'll see.

I'll have more to say about the different tapes, as I learn more and as time permits. It is going to be a fun story to unravel.

As a set, these tapes embody an improbable amount of conflicting information about the dates of the various performances. I have no idea why this would be, but there you go. But I think I have figured a bunch of it out and will eventually have been able to piece together a maximally complete picture of which acts played when, what and with whom.

For now, just quick note on something I think I have figured out. I am about 99.9% sure that the 6CD set of "Debbie reels" is the last piece of the festival, from late afternoon to late night on Sunday, 4/28. In other words, even though the first four CDs are labeled as "4/27/74", I believe all six are from 4/28. This obviously means that the identical chunks from other sources will need to be relabeled.

There are lots of ways to arrive at this conclusion (or one really, really comprehensive way!). In general, the fit between the published schedule (not set in stone, I know!) and the Debbie reels is just way too high to be a coincidence. Here's the correspondence:

What's more, the recordings tie this all together as a piece. Here are a few data:

• Debbie reels confirm that Greenbriar Boys set is followed by Jimmy Martin.
• Jack Elliott was backstage for the GB set; his only scheduled appearance was on Sunday.
• Jimmy Martin was also only scheduled for Sunday.
• Jimmy Martin says he'll be back on later with the Dirt Band, also only scheduled for Sunday.
• The soundman reels have OAITW's encore, "Hobo Song", continuous across the statement "it's been a great festival" and the end of a tape. That OAITW would have closed the show, rather than the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" reunion, is consistent with the conjecture in GSCBF2, that things became rather Garcia-centric as the festival developed.

All of the foregoing leads inexorably to this conclusion: the Debbie reels are more or less continuous tape (of performances, anyway) from Sunday, April 28, 1974, about 3 p.m. - 11 or whenever the festival came to a close.

GD at Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA, January 1968

 I am going to argue that the Quick and the Dead played Eagles Auditorium in Seattle, WA on Friday, January 26 and Saturday, January 27, 1968, and *not* on Monday 1/22 and Tuesday 1/23. This may well be widely accepted, but since the tapes still circulate with the latter dates, and Deadlists remains a bit noncommittal, I thought I'd lay it out.

Argument 1: The GD played Eagles Auditorium on Friday 1/26 and Saturday 1/27, 1968.

There is both ex ante and ex post evidence for this.

For ex ante evidence, to the left is an item in the Seattle Times dated 1/23/68.

Here is a calendar listing for 1/27/68, published on the day of the second (Saturday) show:

There were also articles written ex post in the Helix, as the following two. Note that I am not entirely sure about the volume/issue/date. I noted these as v2 n 13 (2/1/68), but according to the University of Washington's Special Collections Helix scans, this is v2 n10. The microfilm from which I was working made it exceptionally difficult to figure out this sort of thing, insofar as it was legibly identified at all.

What do we learn from this? The Quick and the Dead played late January 1968 Friday-Saturday shows at Eagles Auditorium. The GD, on 'jc''s account, opened the second show with Lovelight.

There is a poster in Art of Rock, plate 3.104, p. 287; see also p. 249.

By the way, the liner notes from the Golden Road boxset give the Seattle Eagles Auditorium dates as 1/26-27/68.

In sum: I believe the evidence establishes that the GD played Eagles Auditorium on January 26-27, 1968.

Argument 2: The Quick and the Dead did not play Eagles Auditorium in Seattle on January 22-23, 1968 (Monday-Tuesday).

As far as I can tell, the only evidence in support of this dating is the labeling of GD vault tapes. Now, I am aware that notwithstanding the chemicals that could have been involved, GD vault tape labels are incredibly reliable. So when I say "only" I don't mean to deprecate this empirical source; I merely mean to say that this is the unique evidence that is known to me. Material from "1/23/68 Seattle" has been issued on the official release Road Trips v2 n2, and of course material with both dates has circulated for some time in collecting circles.

Evidence against the 1/22 and 1/23/68 dating is entirely mostly of the "dog that didn't bark" sort. There are no known posters. There were no show announcements in the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the University of Washington Daily, nor, most importantly, in that masterpiece of Seattle psychedelic underground journalism, the Helix.

Update: I have found a dog barking, albeit quietly, about 1/23/68. The Seattle Times, January 14, 1968, p. 85 (or is it B5?), has a little item entitled "Hanauer, David in 10-Rounder Here" about a World Wide Boxing Club event. Seems Jack Hanauer, a middleweight from Pasco, was going to meet Indian Joe David of Oakland. There were a few other fights on the card. Most importantly, the fight was scheduled for January 23rd in Eagles Auditorium. Indeed, the January 23rd opening date for the fight club was announced as early as 12/31/67 in the same paper.

Based on spending a little bit of time with these sources, I am 100% persuaded that any GD show at Eagles and/or otherwise in Seattle would have been advertised and/or otherwise covered in some of these sources, ex ante and/or ex post. The GD's first visit to Seattle, AFAIK, was in July 1967. That show was extensively advertised, including with a poster. The "Be-In" that afternoon at Golden Gardens Park, before the Eagles' show, was reported in the P-I. Similarly, the Eagles Shows on September 8-9, 1967, featured a nice ad in the Helix. The January 26-27 shows were advertised widely and much-discussed.

Finally, reading the above in particular, there is just zero intimation that the GD shows on Friday-Saturday are taking place after a set of Monday-Tuesday shows that same week. Does this make sense? There's no mention anywhere that they had just played the same venue a few days before. By contrast, there's lots of "sense" in the coverage that the Quick and the Dead came upon a Seattle that was barely ready for them. The rube Seattlites are made to seem like they have a lot to learn. Hard to imagine that'd be necessary if the GD had warmed them up just a few days before.

In sum, notwithstanding the apparent existence of taped in the GD vaults labeled with these dates, I argue that no GD shows took place at Eagles Auditorium in Seattle on January 22-23, 1968.

I have no idea what would explain the mislabeling of the tapes. Maybe 1/22-23 were originally scheduled, and maybe since the GD were recording for the album tapes were pre-labeled before they were rescheduled. Just one less thing to do on tour, and all that. I have no idea. But unless some other evidence turns up, I am compelled to conclude that 1/22-23/68 Quick and Dead shows are phantoms.

Hartbeats: October "1969" misidentification

I just briefly posted some time back with an image of the Matrix poster that I bought myself. I have now had it framed and I have to say that it looks wonderful. The nice thing about having obscure taste is that some of the stuff that really interests me (e.g., New Riders) has less of a premium on it than more mainstream items (e.g., related to the Grateful Dead).

Sort of in conjunction, I picked up Grushkin's Art of Rock. "My" poster is in there at plate 2.118, but it is misidentified as 1969. I think this might account for the October 1969 listings that show up on lists based on Gary Jackson's Matrix Concerts data (e.g., at sixtiesposters.com). I had suspected that these were a duplication of the October '68 dates, and now am about 99% sure. Not sure the direction of causality (i.e., Grushkin -> Jackson or Jackson > Grushkin), but it's immaterial. As of now, I am no longer listing Garcia and Friends at the Matrix in October of 1969.

OAITW: September 1-2, 1973, Blue Grass Park, Camp Springs (?), North Carolina

This is why I pick up old copies of Muleskinner News and such whenever I can.

It appears based on the image below that Old and in the Way played the "9th Labor Day Weekend Original Blue Grass Music Festival" in Camp Springs (?), North Carolina on September 1-2, 1973.

The only thing standing in the way of this possibility as things currently stand is the Garcia/Saunders outing dated September 2, 1973. I have long held that this date is erroneous. If you look at the liner notes to Merl Saunder's Keepers, it dates "Georgia on My Mind" and "Keepers (Finders)" as from The Record Plant on this date. Yet those tracks are identical to what circulates as a KSAN Broadcast (from ... you guess it ... the Record Plant in Sausalito) dated July 8, 1973. Now, I have no idea if the material was broadcast on September 2, re-broadcast on that date, or if there's just some error that led to this dating in the Keepers liner notes. But either way, I always had pre-existing doubts about this date.

Now comes some evidence that OAITW played a bluegrass festival in North Carolina over Labor Day weeked. It makes sense from a money perspective (I assume that as the "special guest" OAITW got well-paid,  relatively speaking). It makes sense from a logistical perspective: barring the 9/2/73 Record Plant thing, I have Garcia/Saunders at the Keystone on 8/31 and then in New York City Harbor for the Hell's Angels gig on September 5th. Heading east anyway for the GD tour, we know that Jerry did the SS. Bay Belle and the Capitol Theater on September 6th ... why not start a bit farther south, do a gig on Labor Day, have a good time, and then go up to the city?

Makes sense to me.

Any thoughts on the town name?