At Camp Loma Mar [At Camp Loma Mar] | kids can swim [kids can swim] | all the way to China [all the way to China] | Ha ha ha [ha ha ha] | Ho ho ho [ho ho ho]

As a sixth grader at Burton Valley Elementary School in Lafayette California in the spring of 1982 I got to go to sixth grade camp. This seems like a thing that still happens for kids --at least certain kinds of kids from certain kinds of schools-- in their terminal year of elementary school. Where I am now, and so for my kids, it's CalWood west of Boulder. In my case, we went to Camp Loma Mar, in the coastal forest east of Pescadero, California.

This is not the kind of thing I normally remember. But we had an ancient ranger, like in his 90s at this point, whose name I can't remember, but who, among other things, did a sing-along containing the titular line, and this imprinted on me. Maybe it's also that sixth grade was a big year for me, immersed as I was with two of my greatest influences- - my school teacher James A. Barry, and my Little League coach Jack Gordon (USMC ret.). I could write thousands of words about each of these men and his impact on me, but I won't do so here. I'll just say it was a huge year in my life, and to the extent that I have discipline and confidence and strength and success, they deserve a lof of the credit.

In light of this deep personal connection to Camp Loma Mar, and in light of my love of discovering possible Garciavents that Corry hasn't already written 10,000 words about (for a palate cleanser, mind you), I was stoked to stumble across a possible new-to-The-List Grateful Dead gig at Camp Loma Mar, Sunday, May 14, 1967. Now, LIA, another act always hard to follow, had gotten wind of this:

In mid-May 1967, [Richard] Brautigan took part in a San Francisco State Writer's Conference, a three-day event at Camp Loma Mar in Pescadero, a small seaside town twenty miles north of Santa Cruz. Over fifty local writers had been invited to participate... After three days of sunshine, readings, workshops, and literary chit-chat, the conference ended with a 'Festival of Feeling' for which the Grateful Dead provided music (William Hjortsberg, Jubilee Hitchhiker: the Life & Times of Richard Brautigan, p.308)

He went on to say that "I don’t think the Dead played any such event, as there’s no other trace of this, but it’s fun to contemplate." (He took an even stronger stance on this being a false sighting in comments chez Corry.)

I have now found a new ex ante trace, in the San Francisco State University Daily Gater, dated May 12, 1967, available through the school library's digital repository.

"Writers convene to rock out with literary eccentrics, etc.," Daily Gater, May 12, 1967, p. 6.

The operative part reads "a rock dance with the Grateful Dead and the Lighthouse for the Blind is tentatively scheduled for Sunday."

Now, I note the word "tentatively", and I certainly don't consider this proof that the Dead played. But this, combined with Hjortsberg's reference to the event as one that happened, does increase my estimate of the probability that the gig did happen. And, of course, given my connection to the place, the possibility makes me feel like I might be able to swim ... all the way to China ... ha ha ha.

JGMS: June 11, 1974 Keystone Berkeley - new to The List

So here's a new one for The List: JGMS at Keystone on Tuesday, June 11, 1974.

But note, too, that Merl is playing Sand Dunes on Monday the 10th - this could very easily be a Monday on which Garcia sat in. The fact that Tony Saunders played with Merl and Jerry the week prior (June 4 and June 6) makes it seem even more likely to me. The fact that Jerry played under Merl's billing on May 31-June 1 at the Inn of the Beginning is also suggestive.

No proof will ever turn up, of course, so this can remain little more than speculation. But I sure would have liked to belly up to the bar at the Sand Dunes on this Monday, in the thick fog and salt, and catch some tunes.

Read more:

• Jerry with Merl and/or Martin, ca. 1974, The Sand Dunes 
• JGMS: "July 21-22," 1974, Keystone, Berkeley, CA

Where was Garcia on July 26 or 29, 1973?

My previous post contemplated where Garcia was on July 4, 1973, based on ads published in a bluegrass magazine. This post does precisely the same thing for July 26 or 29, 1973.

As you can see, Jerry Garcia is listed among the acts appearing at the First Annual West Virginia Peace, Love, Blues and Bluesgrass [sic] Folk Music Festival (hereafter FAWVPLVVFMF), to be held at Aunt Minnie's Farm and Country Road Park, Rt. No. 33 and 119 (Stumptown) in Glenville, WV on July 26-29, 1973.

Note the pitch to the young/"freak" crowd with the framing, and presumably also through the booking of such acts as the New Riders of the Purple Sage (who would appeal to that sort). There's a lot to say about that, but this is not the place.

Garcia is also billed (as is Vassar Clements) on a handbill held in the Southern Folklife Collection Festival Files (#645) at UNC Chapel Hill.

Did Garcia play this festival, presumably with Old and in the Way?

The 26th and 29th are possible dates, on either end of the GD's performances at Watkins Glen on the 27th and 28th. I'll address them in reverse order.

Re the 29th, Blair Jackson's Garcia ((1), p. 244) says that Jerry appeared in the Burlington County Court (Mount Holly, NJ) on the 29th, in connection with his March 17, 1973 drug bust on the NJ Turnpike (2). But the 29th was a Sunday, and a contemporary article (3) published on the 31st says that he was in court on the 30th. It also says that "Garcia was brought to the hearing … in a helicopter from the Watkins Glen site", which confuses me a little bit unless the GD stayed over at Watkins Glen on the 29th. I doubt they did that, so the record seems a little conflicted. My hunch is that Sunday the 29th would have been an open day for Garcia to play a bluegrass festival, still on the east coast, and indeed that if he had a court date on the 30th it might be a perfect opportunity for him to do so. So I consider the 29th possible.

The 26th also seems possible, though my instinct tells me that it would have been less likely for him to have played a Thursday just prior to Watkins Glen than a Sunday just after it. Not sure why, but there it is.

All of that said, I just don't think this happened, for roughly the same reasons as were adduced against a July 4th festival appearance.First, ads from the next month in Bluegrass Unlimited no longer list Garcia - they show, as did later ads for the 4th, Don Reno and Bill Harrell in that spot. So it seems awfully likely that the Reno-Harrell billing was lined up when Garcia/OAITW dropped out, and this for both July events.

Second, the same eyewitness, who was involved with organizing festivals, doesn't recall Garcia or OAITW at the late July Festival, either. He suggests that these festivals organized by Jim Clark in the summer of 1973 were chaotic and that OAITW may have felt burned after the June 8, 1973 Culpeper-Warrenton Festival. (Yes, I want to know more about that, too. I hope to learn what I can and post.)

As far as I know, there's just no evidence other than some advertisements that this ever happened. And I suspect that the ads promised something that didn't materialize. Getting to the titular question, then: I highly doubt that Garcia was playing a peace, love, blues and bluegrass festival in West Virginia in late July of 1973.

Let me make a macro point about this. The standard histories of OAITW say that they played a couple of east coast dates, and that's it. Like so many of the historical "truths" that surround Garcia, there seems to be more (or even different) to say, at least potentially. Even if they didn't play on July 4th, July 26/29, Labor Day in Camp Springs, or Harpers Ferry on September 7, 1973, that possibility was at least under discussion - so much so that ads were printed in the leading bluegrass magazines. It may not ultimately matter - the most relevant truth may just be that they only played a few of these gigs. But it's also possible that why these gigs were never played --if indeed they weren't-- might be worth knowing as we ponder the too-short history of Old and in the Way.

REFERENCES
(1) Jackson, Blair. 1999. Garcia: An American Life. New York: Penguin Books.
(2) Rolling Stone, 4/26/73, p. 14.
(3) "Bye-Bye, Don’t Come Back," Washington Post, July 31, 1973, p. B2.

Where was Garcia on July 4, 1973?

I don't really know. I have him with the GD at the Universal Ampitheatre in Universal City, CA on June 29 - July 1, and then at the Lion's Share on July 5 with Merl.

July 4 was a Wednesday, but Garcia seemed like a vaguely patriotic guy (in a U.S. Blues sort of way!) who might want to gig on the 4th.

Now consider the following two scans:

According to a May 1973 ad in Bluegrass Unlimited, Old and in the Way and "Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead)" were listed as scheduled to appear at the 1st Annual Pennsylvania Old Time Mountain-Country Gospel-Bluegrass & Blues Folk Music Arts Festival. I'll call that the 1APOTMCGBBFMAF for short. Based on fliers held in the archives of the Southern Folklife Collection Festival Files at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Folder #506), this seems to have been held in Valley View Park, York, PA ("off I-83").

Now, this scan is from the next month's issue of the same magazine. It no longer lists Garcia (Don Reno and Bill Harrell have been subbed in), but it does list Old and in the Way for the 4th. Vassar Clements is also billed for that day (with Doug Dillard), as he had been the month previous.












There are two fliers in the SFC collection, both undated. One lists "Jerry Garcia from Grateful Dead" (underneath "Peter Rowan from Seatrain" -- think they were trying to appeal to the youth/rock audience?). The other does not, and makes no mention of OAITW, either.

Someone who was involved in the bluegrass festival scene at this time says that he doesn't remember seeing Garcia at this 4th of July festival. Combined with the printed materials, this seems to suggest that OAITW/Jerry were originally scheduled to play, or at least discussions were happening, but it didn't come to fruition.

This still leaves open the question of what Jerry was doing on Independence Day 1973, but I do doubt that he attended the 1APOTMCGBBFMAF.

The summer of 1973 bluegrass festival scene certainly warrants a post on its own.

NRPS: January 19, 1970, Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley

My Blackberry takes the world's worst pictures (see below), and there was neither scanner nor photocopier handy as I was going through a handful of Berkeley Tribes from late 1969-early 1970 today. But I found a reference to a NRPS gig on January 19, 1970 at Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley.

Scan from Berkeley Tribe, January 16-23, 1970, p. 28.

Here's the translation:

DANCE CONCERT: Benefit for Center for Educ. Change. New Rider [sic] of Purple Sage, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, lights by Dr. [illegible]. Pauley Ballroom, UCB [then either price or time].

Kind of funny that I would stumble into this today, since Corry has just posted about Pauley Ballroom and since we are discussing (here, here and here) the paucity of NRPS gigs from December 1969 possibly into April 1970.

So here we have a possible gig in January 1970. The GD were in Portland, OR on 1/18/70 and Jerry would apparently go down to LA to record the "Love Scene Improvisations" for Antonioni's Zabriskie Point on 1/20/70. In the past I would have scoffed at the possibility of a Bay Area Garcia gig on 1/19. But the more I learn about this guy's workaholism, the more I come to believe in the possibility of such things.

We have no earthly idea if it actually happened, of course. But if it did, then
1) we have a new NRPS gig;
2) we have a NRPS gig in the middle of what is apparently, and otherwise, a very long performing hiatus between December 1969 and, maybe, April 1970; and
3) Garcia was a nut. What's three separate gigs, in three separate idioms, in cities a thousand miles apart, in 72 hours?

GD: September 11-12, 1970: Pepperland, San Rafael (POSSIBLE) (NOW DISCONFIRMED)

**UPDATE: DISCONFIRMED. SEE COMMENTS**

I don't have tremendous confidence that this ever happened, but since Corry has educated me a little about booking practices and such, the fact that it's a Friday-Saturday that is otherwise unfilled in GD/Garcia chronologies makes me more open to it.

In a July 1970 Billboard article on Pepperland ("scheduled to open on Labor Day Weekend") , venue operators Nat Shind and Ben Blatt report that they have booked the Grateful Dead for the September 11-12 and 18-19 weekends. They also note that the band planned to record for a new live album, which is presumably what became "Skullfuck" and featured spring 1971 recordings.

We know the dates are at least half wrong, with the GD at the Fillmore East on September 18-19. But my spreadsheet shows September 11-12, 1970 to be an open weekend for Garcia, so it certainly seems possible. I'll file it as such.

OAITW: September 7, 1973, First Annual Harpers Ferry West Virginia Indian Summer Bluegrass Folk Music Festival, Harpers Ferry, WV (UNCERTAIN)

Man, what a mouthful some of these bluegrass festival names are. And what's with the "Indian Summer" thing? Scanning through Muleskinner News, it comes up a lot.

An ad in Muleskinner News v4 n8 (August 1973), p. 37, announces the titular festival and lists, among the acts for Friday, September 7 (12 noon to midnight) one Jerry Garcia. Vassar Clements is listed for the next day but not the 7th, and there are no other references that shed any light. Let's assume this would have been Old and in the Way.

We know that Jerry was in Passaic, NJ for a Garcia/Saunders gig at the Capitol Theatre on September 6th, and that the Grateful Dead were at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY on September 7th. The trajectory from Passaic (A) to Harpers Ferry, WV (B) to Uniondale (C) looks like this:


View Larger Map

Definitely not the most intuitive itinerary in the world. I don't know off hand when the GD came on on 9/7, nor what the airport situation might have been around Harpers Ferry, WV and Uniondale, NY.

Seems unlikely to me that old Spudboy would have been able to pull this one off, so I'll file this one under uncertain/unlikely.

GD: 11/28/71, Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, CA (CXL)

"The Grateful Dead will play a benefit [at the Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium] on Sunday for the benefit of Head Start."

So saith a "Newgrams" in the Pacific Sun, week of Novmeber 25-December 1, 1971, p. 17.

update: David Davis found an IJ piece indicating the Marin County supes nixed the gig. Reported by LIA in comments below. Reference: "Benefits Banned for Two Weeks," Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA), November 24, 1971, p. 5.

Possible Jerry Gig? October 15-16, 1971, Keystone Korner, SF, CA

So, here's one that caught my eye. Nick the Greek, Merl, Tom Fogerty, Dave Getz (presumably) and John Kahn gigging at the Keystone Korner on a Friday-Saturday night in October, 1971 when Jerry is not known (to me) to have been otherwise occupied. Jerry and Merl were billed at the same place the weekend before.

Makes one wonder, doesn't it?

NRPS: ca. 11/1/1970?

update: ! seealso: https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/11/ca-november-1-2-1970-fragments.html

The San Francisco section of the "From the Music Capitals of the World" Feature in the November 21, 1970 issue of Billboard (p. 25, available via Google Books), written by Mary Turner, indicates that the New Riders of the Purple Sage performed at an event called "Marathon 70," put on by Both/And Productions, over the Halloween Weekend of 1970. The image is below.
We know that GD and NRPS were at SUNY Stony Brook on Halloween night (Saturday). We also know that the GD were in Port Chester from Thursday, November 5th.

Did the NRPS (and Jerry) come back to the Bay Area rather than just hanging around the east coast? Hard to say for sure, but there seems to be enough evidence (fragmentary, but independent) suggesting that they did, and thus that this gig might well have happened.

First, the Jerry Site lists a Monday, November 2nd "Jerry Garcia and Friends" show at the Harding Theater, SF, based on information contributed by Joey Newlander from a listing in the Berkeley Barb. TJS further speculates that the gig did not happen, what with the GD out east. OK.

Second, the PERRO tapes (in this case, sessions for David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name) include at least one cut ("Cowboy Movie") said to have been laid down at Heider's in SF on Tuesday, November 3rd. (This has always been important to me, since that was the date of my birth and I *love* the idea that that's what Jerry was doing on that day!)

Third, Good Times (v.3 n.43, 10/30/70, p. 16) ran a listing for a Garcia/Saunders show at the Matrix on this same night, Tuesday, November 3rd.

Fourth, though not independent of #2, I also have a PERRO session listed for Wednesday, November 4th, though I have no notes on where that information might have come from.

Now we have a fifth piece of evidence in the indication that NRPS might have been back in the Bay Area in between Stony Brook and Port Chester.

I am going to go ahead and speculate that the "Halloween Weekend" notion plus the gigs seemingly booked for every other night during this short window, both militate in favor of a Sunday, November 1, 1970 listing.

I'd like to hear from anyone who knows more about this event ("Marathon 70") and/or the Both/And. Thoughts?

NRPS 9/15/71 in NYC?

A mention in the "From the Music Capitals of the World" feature in Billboard, September 11, 1971, p. 22 says that "Columbia's New Riders of the Purple Sage play the Manhattan Center Ballroom, Wednesday (15) at 34th St. & 8th Ave."

Hard to know what to make of this. That particular week was a blank slate until recently, when in my searching around I discovered listings and such for the following gigs:

Friday 9/10/71, JGMS @ Harding Theater, SF (1)
Thursday 9/16/71, JGMS @ Keystone Korner, SF (2)
Friday 9/17/71 and Saturday 9/18/71, NRPS @ Friends and Relations Hall, SF (2, 3)

So while it's not impossible that JG could have gone east to play with the NRPS on 9/15/71, it seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it? I'd be grateful for thoughts and/or leads about how to figure out whether this happened. Who would have been promoting Manhattan Center gigs at that time?

References:
(1) listing in Hayward Daily Review, September 16, 1971, p. 25.
(2) Oakland Tribune, September 15, 1971, p. 25
(3) there is also a poster IIRC.