Darlin' Cory

What an amazing song. Obviously a (continuously, spontaneously, organically evolving) folk song, and working under many different titles, but here are the lyrics at Wikipedia:

Wake up, wake up darlin cory
Tell me what makes you sleep so sound
The revenue officers are comin
Gonna tear your still house down

[Chorus]

Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow
Dig a hole in the cold, cold ground
Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow
Gonna lay darlin cory down

Oh the first time I saw darlin cory
She was standin in the door
She had her shoes and her stockings in her hand
And her little bare feet on the floor

Oh the next time I saw darlin cory
She was standin by the banks of the sea
she had a 44 strapped around her body
And a banjo on her knee

Oh the last time I saw darlin cory
She had a wine glass in her hand
She was drinkin that sweet liquor
With a low down gamblin man.

Brief Encounters of the Weird Kind: JGB at Penn State, December 11, 1977

jg1977-12-11.jgb.all.sbd-sirmick.80773.flac1644

Again, listening notes may be briefer for awhile. Certainly, these are bullet-style.

David Gans once said something to the effect that Garcia exhibits the shortest distance between spirit and fingertip of any musician he knows. That's probably not quite right, but it was something like this. A reviewer from this last show of the Fall '77 JGB tour, Don Foster, sort of alludes to the same notion, in saying  "I'd swear if there was some way of putting a tracer into his vibrations you would see them travel through his body to his fingertips, out to his guitar, and then into the audience."

I also like Foster's take here: "The Mystery Cat banner in the background reminded me a lot of Donna Godchaux. She would leave the stage when she was not singing and like a cat reappear mysteriously for her next number." Very evocative. I'd say the show has a really sleek, unperturbed kind of feline energy to it. Smooth, pretty graceful.

Nice tape. Thank you for the work on it, sirmick. I didn't compare with other versions - all circulating sources are sbds, presumably from the same root tape. John sounds full and fat, as he would through 1978.

This is a rare Jerry-before-GD performance space.

Peppy "Sitting In Limbo". I like it. And "I Second That Emotion" finds some nice room that I also dug.

Turns out the "Close Encounters" theme in "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home," one of a few on the tour, and which I have mentioned before, is extremely brief. But there is more than one encounter here, as after "Love In The Afternoon" we hear some stage talk about aliens, and then, before "Russian Lullaby," Jerry and John noodle on the famous five-note theme for a good 30 seconds. And, because we focus on Garcia On The Side (GOTS) here, we are contractually obligated to note that this occurs before the Grateful Dead would grapple more fully and wildly with the theme on 1/22/78 in Eugene. Just sayin'.

Band got $12,500 + $2,500 sound and lights for the gig, which only grossed something like 16 grand. Gotta love those student activities budgets! Proft, schmofit, so long as the kids have a good time.

Jerry Garcia Band
Recreation Hall, Penn State University
Curtin Rd.
University Park, PA 16802
December 11, 1977 (Sunday)
sbd sirmick remaster shnid-80773

--set I (5 tracks, 54:22)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:22] [0:06] % [0:03]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:04] % [0:07]
s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:33] %
s1t04. Sitting In Limbo [10:24] [0:07] %
s1t05. Mystery Train [11:31] (1) [0:04]

--set II + encore (8 tracks, 97:56)--
--set II (7 tracks, 79:31)--
s2t01. [0:03] Love In The Afternoon (2) [11:51] % [0:05]
s2t02. I Second That Emotion [14:12] % [0:06]
s2t03. Gomorrah [7:07] % [0:06]
s2t04. Harder They Come [11:32] [0:18] %
s2t05. (3) [0:54] Russian Lullaby [14:29] % [0:04]
s2t06. Tore Up Over You [9:12] [0:09] % [0:03]
s2t07. Mission In The Rain [9:12] % [0:08]
--encore (1 track, 18:25)--
s2t08. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [18:21] (4) [0:04]

! ACT1: JGB #4
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = 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 [m:ss] 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/19771211-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/80773 (this fileset), plus lots of other filesets presumably derived from the same root tape.

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. No Maria Muldaur.

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/recreation-hall-curtin-road-university.html. This is a rare Jerry-before-GD hall.

! historical: From Foster review I infer 3,200 attended and 8,600 capacity. But contract makes it clear that capacity is 5,000. Band got $12,500 guarantee, plus 70% over $21,500 (not triggered) plus $2,500 for sound and lights, on gross potential of $25k.

! ad: Daily Collegian, December 1, 1977, p. 17

! exante: "Jerry Garcia Band to perform," Daily Collegian (Penn State University), December 9, 1977, p. 3;

! exante: Clifford 1977;

! review: [positive] Foster 1977: "I'd swear if there was some way of putting a tracer into his vibrations you would see them travel through his body to his fingertips, out to his guitar, and then into the audience."

! expost: Wilson 1977

! seealso: JGMF, "JGB: November-December 1977 East Coast Tour Rarities"

! R: source: source: sdb > master reel > cassette > pcm > dat > cdr

! R: Seeder comments: - this is a remaster of shnid-6622 - Hiss reduction was attempted on this source once before but the results were not very successful.  I think that this is far more pleasing to the ear - remastered using iZotope Ozone and 4Front Sandbrush - hiss reduction with Waves X-Noise - SIRMick December 2006

! R: Nice tape. I haven't listened to this show in many years, and I don't think I have ever heard this sirmick version. It is buttah. The bass tone is as good as the '78 boards. Man. Later on, some more hiss comes onboard, and sometimes it overloads, but it's nice to have!

! P: s1t01 HSII the band comes in feeling absolutely groovy right out of the gate. John sounds so amazing, so it's hard to parse the capture from the playing, but I do think the playing is just wonderful - fluid, inventive, big, playful.

! P: s1t02 CJ nice version, but tempos are a little variable.

! R: s1t03 STOF more hiss

! P: s1t04 SIL done sprightly, maybe peppiest version I have ever heard. In the 7-minute mark it takes a really spare feeling, not much Keith, or he's way back, anyway. Lovely stuff.

! R: s1t04 SIL splice at 7:09

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a little bit. Thank you."

! s2t01 (2) at around 7 minute mark, someone says something like "check out the aliens [inaudible]".

! P: s2t02 ISTE I am not always a big fan of this tune. But Buzzy does some splashing late 7 that really catches my ear, and maybe Jerry's, because Jerry puts on a little spacier tone and the band gives him a little more room. Just wonderful. 

! s2t05 (3) Jerry and John noodle on the "Close Encounters Theme" for a good 30 seconds here.

! P: s2t05 Russ Lull JK feature 7:58-11:15. Despite the fatter tone, this feature feels more like later ones, very fluttery and not very impressive. Buzzy trying to add some rhythm in the back, but he's swimming upstream.

! R: s2t07 MITR splice at 1:17

! R: s2t08 LAALWFH splice at 6:09

! P: s2t08 LAALWFH Close Encounters 15:30, but it's really just a few riffs here.

! s2t08 (4) JG: "Thank you. See y'all later on."

You Know What's Crazy? I Have Never Listening-Noted a Garcia-Grisman Gig

So I will do the January 12-13, 1994 Warfield shows together.

The performances are delightful, and I don't have tons of comments at that level. They play a number of rarities which had been relatively recently released on Not For Kids Only (Acoustic Disc ACD 9, 1993), and I am a huge fan of that record, which was recently remastered and topped-up with some bonus tracks. The first two tunes on the record are "Jenny Jenkins" and "Freight Train", which I played a LOT for my kiddos and which are both burned into my DNA. JJ kicks off set II of the first night, while Freight Train, which had gotten a one-off breakout with JGB on 11/3/93, happens in set II of night two. Merle Travis's coal miner's lament "Dark As A Dungeon" was a real highlight for me - I recommend it via the video of 1/12/94. But, really, I have to say that I love every single song they played.

There is no banjo playing at these shows, and I think at least "Stealin'" and "Jenny Jenkins" are done as David and Jerry duets.

Set I the second night is quite short, about 36 minutes. Some number of those minutes come out of the great Garcia-Grisman composition "Grateful Dawg", which clocks in here at a mere three-and-a-half minutes. I don't have specific timing for earlier versions, but I want to say they might have gone 6 or 7 or more.

I do want to provide a little repertorial analysis to illustrate the range of (mostly) American musics from which Jerry and David drew, and to which they contributed in turn. Some data next.

I am wide open to suggestions about this set of classifications. In particular, I have in my mind a genre called country blues which I guess is black acoustic, but, again, I don't really know what I am talking about. I have only just come to understand what a standard is. The next table summarizes the shows by genre.

I guess the main take-home from this little exercise is that the first night was a little more contemporary, while the second was a little more traditional. Anything else jump out at you?

Anyway, totally wonderful to listen to these. I was responsible for the earliest seeds of these two shows, which were not very good. Then they were remastered by someone else, not very well. While a bunch of other sources for 1/13 have come about, 1/12 was only very recently upgraded from the recording annotated here, pulled by Steve Fink. So we now have very good tapes from both nights, and they are worth your ear time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LN jg1994-01-12.jgdg.all.aud-Fink.150311.flac1648

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

The Warfield

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

January 12, 1994 (Wednesday) - 8 PM

Fink MAD shnid-150311

--set I (9 tracks, 8 tunes, 47:35)--

s1t01. Teddy Bears' Picnic [4:52] [0:53]

s1t02. Jack-A-Roe [4:32] [1:07]

s1t03. Dark As A Dungeon [7:12] [0:18]

s1t04. Bow Wow [5:19] [0:05]

s1t05. ambience [1:28]

s1t06. Two Soldiers [4:20] -> 

s1t07. Friend Of The Devil [6:57] [0:05]

s1t08. Louis Collins [5:20] [0:19]

s1t09. (1) [0:39] Stealin' [3:59] [0:11]

--set II (12 tracks, 9 tunes, 62:38)--

s2t10. ambience [0:48]

s2t11. Jenny Jenkins [4:50 [0:05]

s2t12. Walkin' Boss [7:16] [0:06]

s2t13. When First Unto This Country [4:32]

s2t14. ambience [1:43]

s2t15. Milestones [8:30] [0:15]

s2t16. Sitting In Limbo [9:21]

s2t17. ambience [1:02]

s2t18. Russian Lullaby [6:37] ->

s2t19. I Ain't Never [3:10] [0:32]

s2t20. Bag's Groove [9:22] ->

s2t21. Ripple [4:11] (2) [0:18]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - acoustic guitar, vocals;

! lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;

! lineup: Jim Kerwin - acoustic bass;

! lineup: Joe Craven - fiddle, percussion.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = 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 [m:ss] 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/19940112-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/11169 (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/30691 (loy remaster of shnid-11169); https://etreedb.org/shn/150311 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! video: URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VTwaV4FQ2s

! setlist: Old data, based on attendee recollections, had Stealin' as the first song of set II, but the recordings clearly reveal it to be in set I. Similarly, Ripple as given as an encore, but continuous tape from Bag's Groove belies this idea.

! R: field recordist: Steve Fink

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAP-20

! R: field recording location: drink rail

! R: lineage: DAT Archived and Transferred by Stucco; Mastering by Jamie Waddell 16bit/48kHz FLAC. Originally shared at www.shnflac.net in celebration of the 15th birthday of our website June 25, 2020 **gems** team.

! R: My goodness, this tape dramatically improves on the only previously circulating version. So clear!

! P: s1t03 DAAD Wow! Garcia is giving this real feeling. 

! song: "Dark As A Dungeon" (s1t03): Public debut. Amazing that he is doing this tune, written by country legend Merle Travis. So freaking great!

! song: "Bow Wow" (s1t04): Public debut. Dawg original.

! s1t09 (1) DG: "[inaudible] send this out to my little boy, Samson Eli, who's four years old today. [inaudible]"

! personnel: I think Stealin' and Jenny Jenkins are done in duet.

! P: s2t12 WB Jerry takes a feature second half of 2 that, to me, has some tempo issues and occasional picking dysfluency. Again late 4 tempo wobbles, and where JG needs to pick and sustain some notes in his dialogue with David, I don't hear the sustain. This version is not as together as the versions from three years earlier.

! P: s2t15 Milestones JG takes first feature 0:45ff. Playing well. Grisman is doing some powerful stuff in the 3 minute range, the crowd responds appropriately @3:10. Just killing! Kerwin features next, building up during 4. Craven percussion feature 5:25ff. 6:15ff Dawg and Jer are sort of trading licks, then 6:35 to the theme.

! P: s2t16 SIL gets off to a rough start, everyone a little out of sync, Jerry garbles the opening verse. Still 3 minutes in, everyone is not together on this. A little better later on in the tune. 7 Jerry digs in a little deeper, does some Caribbean guitar (not inappropriately).

! s2t21 (2) sounds like there's a "thanks a lot"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LN jg1994-01-13.jgdg.all.aud-Fink.150310.flac1648

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

The Warfield

982 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

January 13, 1994 (Thursday) - 8 PM

Fink MAD shnid-150310

--set I (8 tracks, 35:59-:12)

s1t01. //Shady Grove [#3:05] [0:31]

s1t02. Long Black Veil [5:03] [0:46]

s1t03. Rosa Lee McFall [3:28] 0:33]

s1t04. Dawg's Waltz [5:00] [0:11]

s1t05. Freight Train [4:52] [0:20]

s1t06. Hot Corn, Cold Corn [4:28] [0:18]

s1t07. Red Rocking Chair [3:24] [0:14]

s1t08. Grateful Dawg [3:28] [0:06] % pre-set II [0:12]

--set II (12 tracks, 9 tunes, 70:00+:12-6:01)--

09. Trouble In Mind [4:14] [0:14]

10. Ballad Of Casey Jones [4:34] [0:17]

11. There Ain't No Bugs On Me [4:41]

12. ambience (1) [0:59]

13. So What? [10:04] [0:11]

14. Rockin' Chair [7:31]

15. ambience [1:17]

16. Stealin' [3:50] [0:34]

17. Little Glass Of Wine [3:44] [0:13]

18. Drink Up And Go Home [2:55] [0:11]

19. Arabia [18:31]

20. ambience (2) [6:01]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - acoustic guitar, vocals;

! lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;

! lineup: Jim Kerwin - acoustic bass;

! lineup: Joe Craven - fiddle, percussion.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = 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 [m:ss] 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/19940113-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/11331 (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/30692 (loy remaster shnid-11331); https://etreedb.org/shn/32833 (Neumann); https://etreedb.org/shn/82760 (Neumann); https://etreedb.org/shn/85644 (Litzenberger flac1648); https://etreedb.org/shn/94690 (Litzenberger flac); https://etreedb.org/shn/150310 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! R: field recordist: Steve Fink

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAP-20

! R: field recording location: drink rail

! R: lineage: DAT Archived and Transferred by Stucco; Mastering by Jamie Waddell 16bit/48kHz FLAC. Originally shared at www.shnflac.net in celebration of the 15th birthday of our website June 25, 2020 **gems** team.

! R: s1t01 Shady Grove cuts in on "wish I had a banjo string"

! R: seeder notes. Set One was recorded much louder, and the crowd cheers clip between songs, but not the music at all. Both Sets of music match volume wise now, I did what I could to unclip the crowd between songs Set One

! P: s1t05 FT he pulls this off just about perfectly. So nice.

! P: s1t08 GD is a fucking killer song, but look at how short this version is! Three and a half minutes?

! s2t12 (1) DG: "The man on the bass - Jim Kerwin. On the fiddle, and on the fiddle case - Joe Craven." JG: "That's David 'Dawg' Grisman playing the mandolin." DG: "Captain Trips here on the guitar [inaudible]."

! s2t20 (2) Some interesting taper talk at the end about a fan who had too much fun

The Romanesque Church Design Was Based On The Roman Basilica: Discuss (JGB at the Knick in Albany, November 3, 1993)

I just marveled at the almost 90-minute second set offered up on 12/22/90, and got to wondering about post-coma others that might match or beat it in duration. I recalled some long sets on the 11/93 tour, recalled that I had unposted (because not very informative) notes on 11/3/93 (my 23rd birthday, though I was somewhere in the vicinity of Monterey, CA), and checked them out.

Indeed, 89+ for this set II. We are envisioning being able to analyze real data on set and show durations via Jerrybase at some point in the not-too-distant future.

The show is maybe below average for the tour overall, with a few guitar highlights that I mention in the notes below. The real interest lies in the impromptu version of  Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train", which Garcia plays with an acoustic sound as a 'quippie fixes a string on John's bass. First, he lets the crowd know what's going on: "We've gotta change a string on the bass. You can all talk amongst yourselves." This latter formulation absolutely, positively echoes Mike Myers' contemporaneous SNL skit "Coffee Talk" - I use it myself when equipment challenges interrupt my teaching. I may also give a topic, as Linda Richmond does in the skit. In my case, it's something on-topic like "Vladimir Putin: strong man, or the strongest man? Discuss." In hers, the title gives a sample subject.

Then, without further ado, Our Man in Albany starts picking the tune. Melvin Seals accompanies extremely well on piano, so well that it makes me wonder how he knew the tune, since it is not associated with the "Band Electric". Maybe they had worked it up? I certainly would have liked to hear it more. Anyway, Melvin's great, and he weaves in a few bars of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" for good measure, last heard (by me) in the JGB being done by the great (if very drunk) Nicky Hopkins on 12/31/75. Jerry gets the verses mostly sung, if a little imperfectly (see my rough transcription just below), and this whole thing is just a stone cold fucking delight.

1- (chorus) Freight train, freight train, run so fast | Freight train, freight train, run so fast | Please don't tell what train I'm on | They won't know what route I'm gone
2- When I'm died oh bury me deep | Down at the end ol' Chestnut Street | Place the stones at my head and feet | Tell 'em all I'm gone to sleep
3- (chorus) Freight train, freight train, run so fast | Freight train, freight train, run so fast | Please don't tell what train I'm on | They won't know what route I'm gone
4- When I'm dead and in my grave | No more good times here I'll crave | [mumblyverse] | Tell 'em all I'm gone to sleep
5- When I'm died oh bury me deep | Down at the end ol' Chestnut Street | So I can hear ol' number nine | as she goes rollin' by
6- (chorus)

Here are Elizabeth Cotten's lyrics:

Source: Cohen and Seeger 1964, 136

At 4:30, John drops a note of electric bass to signal that he's ready to play, one of his few contributions on this night, in the era when he mostly fluttered around pretty inaudibly.

The song is one of my favorites, a perfect choice for Garcia and Grisman's then-recently-released masterpiece Not For Kids Only (Acoustic Disc ACD-9, 1993), and something Garcia had played since the pre-Dead period (see Jerrybase for the overview). In the GD era (and so the GOTS era) it showed up in the studio around 1975-1976. Jerry played it live 4/10/82a, his only "modern" solo acoustic date, but it was pretty cursory, just two and a half minutes without a good handle on the words, before running into the Cotten tune he did a lot more and in a range of contexts, "Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie". After this impromptu version eleven years later, it came up twice more in the 1994 Garcia-Grisman live sets before ol' Jer landed at the end ol' Chestnut Street himself.

For more on this tour, the Garcia Band's last out east, see also "The Reedman vs. the Gunslinger at at the Garden" (11/12/93), "Good Clean Fun" (11/14/93), the sweet little BS passes for this "Slack Tour" featuring Church of the SubGenius prophet J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, and take a gander at the crew tourbook.

Listening Notes below the fold.

Imagine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(John_Lennon_song)

Wiki says John Lennon's "Imagine" was released on October 11, 1971. Yet Garcia and Saunders played it on September 24, 1971. Corry has explained that release dates are a little fuzzy, but can someone narrate how Merl Jr. would have had the record to play some time before 9/24? (He says he was playing it in his room over and over, the guys heard it, liked it, and worked it up.)

Where Was Garcia on May 29, 1987?

As I have noted, Garcia's final Keystone Family gigs before jumping ship to Wolfgang as his permanent and exclusive hometown promoter took place at the end of May 1987, as In the Dark was getting huge. The big fella would play very few club gigs after the Wednesday (27th)-Thursday (28th) and Saturday (30th)-Sunday (31st) Stone shows.

The Friday gap night always just struck me as a day of rest. But, well, was it?

The Hermes Project, based in Malibu, was promoting a world premiere showing of "The Hero's Journey", a film about mythologist Joseph Campbell, featuring the man himself, plus special guests on a panel, plus a reception. Music composed by Mickey Hart and Rand Wetherwax --presumably "The African Queen Meets The Holy Ghost"-- "with special performance by Jerry Garcia" [itals original], all scheduled for Friday, May 29, 1987, 8 PM, at the Director's Guild, 7950 Sunset in LA (map).

The event got other line announcements in the LA Weekly and the LA Times, but I found no ex post accounts, nor have I ever heard of this thing before. Of course, the November 1, 1986 "Ritual and Rapture" event at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco is well known, and it included a performance of the Hart-Wetherwax composition, with Garcia playing a headless Steinberger. Blair Jackson wrote it up in Golden Road (no. 13, Winter 1987, p. 6).

But did this encore event happen on May 29, 1987? I sure would like to know.

The Group Probably Will Be Short-Lived, Because Hopkins Has Other Contractual Obligations

The titular line comes from an interview Garcia gave ca. November 22, 1975 to a Twin Cities journalist, Jon Bream, and references JGB #1. It could be that this was true all along, and the plan was just to monetize the Jerry Garcia name in the new Band, as well as Nicky's name, for the couple of tours the band did in October and November 1975, and then to call it quits in the new year. That's not how the conventional narrative, deriving from Blair Jackson's interviews with John Kahn, has it. The conventional narrative has it that Nicky was just too much of a wreck and was cut loose, the implication being that the band ended before John and Jerry had initially planned.

The quote is consistent with either story. It could be that this was always the plan, but no earlier interviews elicit the information. But it's also possible that by Thanksgiving Jerry had had enough with Nicky, and the "contractual obligations" were the musical equivalent of "irreconcilable differences" in marriage settings and "spending more time with the family" in political ones.

Anyway, the November 22, 1975 show at the St. Paul Civic Center Theatre was a very long one, something like three hours of music, and was mostly captured in a totally beautiful recording by Greg Overlid which especially picks, without much beyond air in the way of mediation, the play of Jerry's fingers and strings. The "Let It Rock" shows off Nicky's virtuosity, "Russian Lullaby" benefits from a peppy tempo, and there's a singleton goof with "Blackbird" as well as either a single or rarity, noted in one of the reviews, of "Old Man River", composed by Jerry's namesake Jerome Kern.

But the show, on this listen, doesn't slay me. The closing medley of "Let's Spend the Night Together -> Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder" was the band's big, huge jam vehicle, and as it goes, usually so goes my assessment of a JGB #1 gig. In this case, it never really achieves escape velocity, so I find myself a little disappointed, overall.

LN jg1975-11-22.jgb.161mins.aud-overlid.141918.flac2448

Jerry Garcia Band
Civic Center Theatre
143 W. Fourth Street
Saint Paul, MN 55102
November 22, 1975 (Saturday)
Greg Overlid aud, unlineaged cassette copy flac2448 shnid-141918

--set I (8 tracks, 81:43)--
s1t01. //Let it Rock// [taper moves seats]
s1t02. Blackbird tuning jam -> Positively 4th Street [11:55] [0:07] %
s1t03. tuning [1:02], All By Myself [8:45] % [0:02]
s1t04. [0:09] They Love Each Other :10-
s1t05. Pig's Boogie
s1t06. tuning and Nicky Hopkins intro (1), Mississippi Moon
s1t07. Sugaree
s1t08. [0:17] Roadrunner [11:44] (2) [0:11]

--set II (7 tracks, 91:28)--
s2t09. tuning [1:30], How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:19] [0:09] %
s2t10. Catfish John [11:07] [0:07] %
s2t11. Russian Lullaby [8:35] [0:40]
s2t12. Friend Of The Devil
[MISSING: Lady Sleeps > Ol' Man River {suspected setlist location}]
s2t13. Mystery Train
s2t14. I'll Take A Melody
s2t15. tuning -> Let's Spend The Night Together ->
s2t16. Edward The Mad Shirt Grinder [11:15] [0:18]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #1
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Nicky Hopkins - piano, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19751122-04

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/nYdwPE5yV8J2

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/05/st-paul-civic-center-143-west-fourth.html

! venue: Band itinerary calls it "St. Paul Civic Center Theatre". Contract cover page also says that, as does contract p. 1. That satisfies me: I am changing the last word of the venue from "Arena" to "Theatre".

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/20552 (s1p aud shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/138733 (3 source compilation); http://etreedb.org/shn/141929 (this source, flac1648); http://etreedb.org/shn/141918 (this fileset).

! band: Jerry Garcia Band #1 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! preview: Minneapolis Star, November 7, 1975, p. 9B

! listing: Minneapolis Star, November 18, 1975, p. 4C

! preview: Minneapolis Star, November 20, 1975, p. 6C

! review: Bream 1975, Anthony 1975

! historical: Price $5.50 pre-show/ $6.00 day of show. Cloudy day, high temperature of 37 degrees. JGB guarantee of $5,000 plus $1,250 for lights and sound. Anthony identifies capacity crowd, ca. 2,900, but boxoffice says 2,628, a sellout, gross of $14,454. I had a larger capacity for the room, over 4k, but no source for that info. Promoter John Ballard/Edgewood Agency had taken a bath on the 4/75 Legion gig in Milwaukee, I think, asked for good terms; Zippy didn't want him to cry over spilled milk.

! R: field recordist: Greg Overlid

! R: field recording gear: 2x Shure 545 microphones > Nakamichi 550 cassette deck

! R: field recording location: front row

! R: first digital circulation of 3 songs from set2- CFJ, RL and ITAM (27 mins of new music)

! R: missing first notes of Mystery Train patched with SHNID-138733

! R: taper notes: "The Jerry Garcia Band / Garcia / Hopkins / Kahn / Tutt / St. Paul Civic Theatre / Saturday, November 22, 1975 / Nakamichi 550 w/Shure 545's / Sandy / "Tex" / Joey / Greg / Rhesa  / Dikel / S & Ggg get stage passes / get in before general admission crowd /  get us front row seats / not 10-15th / pulled out at end of first number by usher / talked to John Ballard, prom. / missed 1 to 1-1/2 min. Let It Rock / 1 to 1-1/2 limbo / Nicky Drunk!! /  DUBS: Buddy & Nancy / Stu K. / Rhesa / Jeff S./ Russ F./ Dave P. / Jeff C./ Joe S. / Steve B."

! R: lineage: From the collection of Jeff Knudsen. Recorded by Greg Overlid. Archived & Transferred by Tom Markson. Critical Assistance by John Wenzel, Andrew F. and Joe Jupille. Speed Correction by Jason Chastain. Edited and Mastered by Jamie Waddell, 24 bit 48 kHz.

! R: provenance: Jeff Knudsen has been an avid Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead and San Francisco Sound music fan for over 40 years. From a letter to Dead Relix Magazine asking for help cultivating a tape collection, Jeff developed a relationship with Dick Latvala and many other tapers, building an enormous music collection.  He also taped many Jerry Garcia shows at venerable institutions like the various Keystones. Jeff loved to share tapes in a twinkle of an eye.  He was a key player in leaking the Betty Boards back in the day.  A few years ago, he decided he should pass his collection on to someone who could properly archive and transfer.  After a few years of offering it publicly, there were no takers. In 2008,  Arizona LL members Jamie and Tom felt the Knudsen collection was too valuable to let go.  After a flight so bumpy that we almost cried, and a great visit, albeit too short, with Jeff... 1200 lbs of tapes, gear and cds were lovingly packed at his Florida homestead.  The next era of his beloved collection summer camp for the tapes in the desert... an ongoing process of cataloging and transferring the contents to share.  Born from decades of Jeff's passion for live music collecting and the archival efforts of many, it's an honor and a privilege to share the Knudsen Tapes with you.  Enjoy! originally shared at www.shnflac.net"

! R: this is a really pretty tape. The finger-string interplay is directly audible, and it sounds sweet! Over and over again, strings directly recorded, nothing between them and the mics but air.

! R: s1t01 LIR clips in, cuts out; taper moves seats after the tune. Nicky very prominent - love it! The end cut is a COD.

! P: s1t01 LIR comes in amazing, Nicky truly doing the virtuoso thing right out of the gate. Jerry is filligreeing a lot, matching Nicky who continues to just play some beautiful stuff.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Nicky Hopkins on piano".

! s1t08 (2) JG "...take a break"

! P: s2t10 CJ some great glassy picking by ol Jer.

! P: s2t11 RL I love this peppy tempo.

! P: s2t15-16 LSTNT > Edward never really achieves escape velocity. Tutt does a little drum feature late 7 of Edward, which is uncommon and neat.

Unscary Jerry: Halloween '88

Just another good, clean '88 Garcia Band show. By my count, the "Band Electric" only played 16 gigs the whole of the year, which is a shame, because Garcia's clean, relaxed vibe suits it perfectly.

"Werewolves" is fun, as always, Cats is fine, Forever Young and Stop That Train are both way above average, Think is *terrific*, Lifeline is delightful in its first of only three appearances --I think it would have worn thin-- and Don't Let Go has some great vocal work. Indeed, the vocals outshine the guitar on this night, though the grunge in "Think" is worth hearing. As I say, good clean fun.

Jerry Garcia Band
Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center
10 Tenth Street
Oakland, CA 94607
October 31, 1988 (Monday)
Reutelhuber shnid-21790 shn2flac rename

--main set + encore (6 tracks, 90:14)--
--main set (7 tracks, 86:13-0:13)--
t01. /Werewolves Of London [#5:40] [1:34]
t02. Cats Under The Stars [8:02] [1:05]
t03. Forever Young
t04. Stop That Train [6:32] [0:53]
t05. Run For The Roses [5:19] [2:23]
t06. Think [6:30] [0:31] %
t07. [0:18] Throw Out The Lifeline [4:48] [0:38]
t08. Evangeline [3:18] [0:03]
t09. Don't Let Go [12:05] [2:15]
t10. That Lucky Old Sun [9:33] ->
t11. Deal [6:52] (1) [0:13] % pre-encore [0:13]
--encore (1 track, 0:13+4:01)--
t12. My Sisters And Brothers [3:54] (2) [0:07]

! 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.

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/19881031-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/4378 (Travitz MAD shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/19857 (unattributed Nak 700 shnf, could be Bill R.); http://etreedb.org/shn/21790 (this fileset).

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

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/syxJeJyHJMB2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/henry-j-kaiser-auditorium-oakland.html

! ref: Billboard, November 19, 1988, p. 26. Tickets $18.50-$22.50, $146,150.00 gross on 7,900 tickets sold (sellout).

! R: field recordist: Bill Reutelhuber

! R: field recording gear: Nakamichi 700/CP701 (in hat) > Reutelhuber P/S > dbx 221e type II encoder > Sony TCD5m

! R: field recording media: Maxell XLIIS

! R: field recording location: FOB; Each mic was in front of each stack on each side and about 25 feet back.

! R: transfer Info: Cassette Master (Nakamichi Deck/Azmituth Aligned) > dbx 224x Decoder > Mytek Digital ADC8X96 > Nuendo (24bit/44.1k) > SHN (2 Discs Audio / 1 Disc SHN). Process Info: 1) Processed to a 16 bit file with waves Q10 and L2. 2) Tracked and Normalized with Samplitude v7.02 Professional. Transferred and Process #1 By Bill Reutelhuber. Process #2 By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, 1/6/04.

! R: Note From Bill Reutelhuber: "Recorded due to the team effort of about 20 to 30 people!!"

! P: Garcia sounded consistently fresh and lively for '88 JGB shows, and this one is no different. Lots of good little articulations, good energy. He doesn't get all of his lyrics right, but I'd attribute that to the unusual irregularity of the band's gigging during the year: last show before this one was 7/10/88, three and a half months before!

! R: t01 Werewolves clips in.

! P: t03-t04 FY and STT were both very good.

! P: t06 Think: man this just has some great, raunchy guitar tone. Love it.

! song: "Throw Out The Lifeline" (t07): Public debut. Allen: "Based on a hymn by Edwin Smith Ufford, apparently written after observing a lifesaving drill at Point Allerton near Boston, Massachusetts in 1888." It didn't stick around very long, and that's probably fine by me - it's nice, but it just wasn't going to get very interesting, IMO, YMMV.

! P: t09 DLG Yeah! Garcia is growling, and he gives two "whoow!"s late 3, killer stuff. He had done some of this in Werewolves as well. Man, he sounds freaking fantastic. It doesn't get as far out as I might have liked, but it's tight as a drum, including the whole band sticking the final landing. Even the Russian judge gives that one a high 9.

! P: t11 Deal doesn't ever achieve escape velocity for me.

! t11 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

! t12 (2) JG: "G'night everybody."

GarciaLive vol. 9: JGMS at Keystone, 8/11/74

GarciaLive Volume Nine: August 11th, 1974 Keystone Berkeley - set for 7/28 release.

I have done listening notes on the Falanga-Menke aud, and beside the Four Tops' "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)" --and the tape-- it doesn't slay me. That said, I'll happily buy it - an uncirculated soundboard to support the team. Maybe I'll love it more!

Two Pauls in Boston

LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early-1.aud-warburton.16461.shn2flac
LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early.aud-alt.135968.flac1644

Garcia-Saunders, with Paul Humphrey drumming, Paul's Mall in Boston, late 1974. What's not to like?

Jimmy Warburton's tape (shnid-16461) blew my mind when it came out - a revelation. We were still erroneously calling "Valdez In The Country" "Bossa Martin", and wearing onions on our belts, which was the style at the time. "Just Kissed My Baby" caused me to spend some time with the Meters' Rejuvenation, for which I am eternally grateful. The tape captures the scene beautifully.

Recently an alternative master emerged, unattributed but nice-sounding and presumed complete, with an 18+ minute Harder They Come kicking the show off. Maybe part of the magic of the old tape was that it kicked right in with Favela, but obviously I am not complaining!

Nick has a great post on this show, LIA has posted the Howard and Gelzinis accounts after the first of the three-night, six-show run, and I have discussed the run in "'Secret' at Paul's Mall: see p. 27" and "Sole Star at Paul's Mall".

11/14/74 early show is still one of my favorites. Nick doesn't like it as much as I do, but DGNED. I probably need to soak with 11/27/74 and 11/28/74 more than I have.

Listening notes on both filesets follow.

LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early-1.aud-warburton.16461.shn2flac

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Paul's Mall
733 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
November 14, 1974 (Thursday) - Early Show
Warburton MAC early-1 shnid-16461 shn2flac

--(9 tracks, 88:26, missing 1 tune)--
[MISSING: The Harder They Come]
t01. tuning [0:06]
t02. Favela [10:45] [0:07] % [0:22]
t03. [0:08] Let It Rock [6:27] [0:06] % [0:44]
t04. My Problems Got Problems [14:35] [0:27]
t05. Mystery Train (1) [13:51] [0:10]
t06. //My Funny Valentine [#14:33] ->
t07. People Make the World Go Round// [2:24#]
t08. Just Kissed My Baby [11:16] [0:32]
t09. Valdez In The Country [12:48] [0:07]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Paul Humphrey - drums.

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/19741114-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1974-11-14-pauls-mall-boston-ma/.

! db: shnid-135968 (alt AUD, complete); shnid-16461 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/o8sMZHfMAou.

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/pauls-mall-733-boylston-street-boston-ma.html.

! ad: Boston Phoenix, November 5, 1974, sec. 2, p. 27.

! JGMF: "'Secret' at Paul's Mall: see p. 27," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/12/ln-jg1974-11-13jgmslateaud.html.

! JGMF: "Sole Star at Paul's Mall," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2015/05/sole-star-at-pauls-mall.html.

! seealso: Nick, "Garcia & Saunders, 11/14/74 Boston," URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2016/05/garcia-saunders-111474-boston.html.

! historical: Ad in Boston Phoenix bills "Jerry Garcia" and doesn't mention early/late shows, but there were early and late. For the six shows, JGMS get $5,000 guarantee plus 70% gross receipts over $8,100. Tix $4.50, not sure of show times.

! personnel: Paul Humphrey on drums is totally distinctive. Really fast, lots of snare, great splashes, incredible.

! R: field recordist: Jimmy Warburton

! R: field recording gear: 1x Sony ECM-99 > Sony TC-152SD MAC (Dolby B)

! R: field recording location: left of center, 8' from stage, left-of-center, mics on a table

! R: transfer: Sony TC-152SD playback > Teac A2300SD 1st gen reel [Dolby B off] > Pioneer RT-701 playback > Teac AN-180 Dolby decoder > Fostex D5 DAT (A>D only) > Turtle Beach Montego II Digital I/O > shn (mkwACT) > wav (mkwACT) > tracking (CD Wave) > .shn (mkwACT). A > SHN by Noah Weiner, tracking by JJ.

! R: shn2flac jgmf 3/14/2015.

! R: seeder notes: "This is a nice recording of what is perhaps my (JJ's) favorite show of the 11/74 east coast Garcia/Saunders tour. Disc two [t06-t09], especially, is just wall-to-wall great stuff.

! P: t02 Favela is smokin' hot. Garcia solo late 3. Merl takes a turn late 5. Humphrey is splashing all over the place 6:15, so great.

! P: t05 Mystery Train a female audience member joins on vocals toward the end of the song

! R: t06 My Funny Valentine cuts in, probably not much missing

! R: t07 People Make the World Go 'Round cuts out, unknown missing.

LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early.aud-alt.135968.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Paul's Mall
733 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
November 14, 1974 (Thursday) - Early Show
shnid-135968

--(9 tracks, 108:24)--
t01. The Harder They Come [18:18] [0:02] %
t02. Favela [11:03] %
t03. [0:14] Let It Rock [6:32] %
t04. [0:07] My Problems Got Problems [14:41] %
t05. Mystery Train [13:14] [0:02] %
t06. My Funny Valentine [14:55] ->
t07. People Make The World Go Round [4:21] [0:03] %
t08. Just Kissed My Baby [11:23] [0:06] %
t09. [0:23] Valdez In The Country [12:53] [0:07] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Paul Humphrey - drums.

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: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1974-11-14-pauls-mall-boston-ma/

! db: shnid-16461 (Jimmy Warburton MAC, shn, missing HTC)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/o8sMZHfMAou

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/pauls-mall-733-boylston-street-boston-ma.html

! ad: Boston Phoenix, November 5, 1974, sec. 2, p. 27;

! seealso: JGMF, "Sole Star at Paul's Mall," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2015/05/sole-star-at-pauls-mall.html.

! seealso: Nick, "Garcia & Saunders, 11/14/74 Boston," URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2016/05/garcia-saunders-111474-boston.html.

! historical: Ad in Boston Phoenix bills "Jerry Garcia" and doesn't mention early/late shows, but there were early and late. For the six shows, JGMS get $5,000 guarantee plus 70% gross receipts over $8,100. Tix $4.50, not sure of show times.

! R: Source: AUD marked "1st Gen" rescued from ebay for coupla bucks.

! R: Transfer: XLII > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain SRC > Wavelab (adding 16-bit patches) > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transferred by Andrew F. 06/2016.

! R: Note: Recording does not match shnid-16461, Lucky us, now we have two! This one appears to be closer to the P.A. with lots of crowd chatter, has a real "you-are-there" sound. Also contains THTC and the complete PMTWGR. The tape was tightly edited with most songs clipped at start, THTC & MFV have a bit missing. Several patches from ID-16461 added to make the show as complete as possible; first 08 seconds Favela, first 21 seconds Let it Rock, first 07 seconds Problems, also in Problems 06 seconds starting at 10:29, first 16 seconds Mystery Train, first 08 seconds Just Kissed, and from 10:02 Just Kissed thru to end of show.

! R: this sounds very nice

! R: t03 LIR chatty nearby crowd guy might want to STFU and listen. @03:55 Jerry scrubs a thing that the audience really likes, then some glassy picking which, again, seems appreciated.

! P: t04 MPGP late 3 over 4 Garcia lays down some tasty licks. 8:45 ff Humphrey does a nice splashy little feature, still working it 9:14 behind Merl, but totally putting himself forward.

! P: t05 MT female audience member singing at end. She is not on the 1 with the band, Jerry is wrapping it up pretty fast.

! R: MFV thought I heard a splice @ 1:15

! P: MFV 1:30 he gives it a "Red Clay" CTI thing. Humphrey splashes and hi-hats wonderfully here. 1:52ff guitar exploration. The talkative crowd reminds us it's not just the kids today who talk throught the show. Shhh! Some big Martin squawking melting in the 6:30ff range. 14:30 some big fluttery fanned chords by Garcia.

! P: t07 PMTWGR Garcia still doing some decayed stuff at start, eases into the tune, Merl still swirling so @ 0:40 Garcia gets out with a beautiful set of fanned chords. Flute jacks up his entry - c'mon Martin. Paul tries to follow Martin, but the band is not together.

! P: t08 JKMB there is some great stuff here. Everyone plays.

! P: t09 VITC Listen to Paul Humphrey bring the tune in, straight outta Brazil. Man. Merl misses the obvious starting point, comes back a four later, but it's all good. 4 min mark Paul H is amazing, crazed splash 4:38, another 4:43 to make sure everyone took note. What a drummer! This is really great. At 12:45 just scrubs to bring things to a close. Very, very good stuff.

I came for the Johnny Too Bad, I Stayed for the Don't Let Go

LN jg1994-09-01.jgb.all.aud-neumann.12024.shn2flac

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
September 1, 1994 (Thursday) - 8 PM
Neumann KM-140 shnid-12024 shn2flac

--set I (7 tracks, 70:18)--
s1t01. [0:43] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:51] [0:31]
s1t02. Get Out Of My Life Woman
s1t03. Run For The Roses
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate
s1t05. Aint No Bread In The Breadbox ->
s1t06. Johnny Too Bad
s1t07. Deal [11:08] [0:03]

-- set II (7 tracks, 68:59)--
s2t01. Second That Emotion
s2t02. The Maker
s2t03. Tore Up Over You
s2t04. Evangeline
s2t05. Don't Let Go
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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/19940901-01

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/21825 (same source tape, shnf, deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/94692 (this fileset).

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

! R: field recordist: unknown

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM-140 > Panasonic SV-255

! R: field recording location: FOB

! R: lineage: DATx > Tascam CDRW 700 > CDx > DAE (EAC) > tracking (cdwav) > SHN (mkwact) via neo_levo/candyman FTP, 4/02 shn (shnid-12024); shn2flac jgmf 5/17/2017.

! R: seeder notes: "Thanks to Chuck F. for the awesome seeds."

! P: s1t01 HSII is pretty tight, exceeds my expectations.

! R: s1t02 GOOMLW static @ start

! P: s1t02 GOOMLW great to hear him working some provocative R & B this late in the game.

! P: s1t04 STOF comes in on the second verse - sheesh. John took a long lame feature that didn't work for me.

! P: s1t05 Breadbox good, fine, old man guitar playing.

! song: "Johnny Too Bad" (s1t06): Public debut of this relative obscurity (?) from the Harder They Come soundtrack. Jimmy Cliff released it on his 1989 album, when he crossed Garcia. I'd have to check arrangements, but I'll take the Spinners 1970 original all day long. Also 9/10/94, 3/5/95, 4/14/95, 4/21/95, so a five-timer, probably should be considered a rarity.

! P: s1t06 JTB is a running song,  it's got great self-propulsion.

! P: s1t07 Deal still good energy on the guitar.

! P: s2t02 The Maker: This is one that really benefits from the chiller vibe of the JGB. Garcia could never just gently groove this way with the GD. Now, it may be that he is lost, doesn't remember how to start, or he's just enjoying himself. (Or both.) Big pitch-bending 12 min range.

! P: s2t04 E I am not usually a fan of this, but I like it at this tempo. First performance since 5/2/92.

! P: s2t05 DLG an interesting combination of upbeat, almost New Orleans tempo with a little minor blue on it. Doing some little direct punctuations late 6, to good effect. Very good DLG to 7 minutes in. That was a very good DLG.

Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?

A little over a year ago, I found a review of a unique-sounding Garcia-Saunders gig, backing Maria Muldaur at the Berkeley Community Theatre on October 12, 1974.

While unique at the gig level, it turns out that JGMS backing John Kahn's then-"old lady" Maria Muldaur, still flying high from a hit record or two, was actually not unique. Indeed, we have known from tape that she fronted the band on a few numbers --along with a drummer identified as "Ringo"-- on 10/27/74b at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, doing Fats Wallers' "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You". update: written by Don Redman, but done by Fats Waller.

It turns out that the latter was a pretty strict reprise, since they all did the same tune at the BCT show and the night after the BCT show, 10/13/74 at the Santa Barbara County Bowl. S.B. reviewer David Rowell didn't find much to like about the Garcia-Saunders set --"What was coming from the stage was, at worst, disdain; at best, a 'stoned' lack of awareness"-- but he liked Maria (who also played some tambourine on the number before her star turn). In hitting the previous link, I see that the sit-in is documented at JGC, but I had been unaware of it.

In previewing the Legion at the Granada on 6/26/75, the Santa Barbara News-Review even published a picture of the event in question.

One last point: the same 6/26/75 preview says Maria also sat-in when the Legion played Venice on 6/14/75, so there's a fourth JG-HOST Shared Stage event with Maria (three in SoCal), before she joined the Jerry Garcia Band in its 1977-1978 configuration.

! seealso: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/09/recently-added-to-tjs-saunders-images.html

! ref: Rowell, David B. 1974. Garcia and Saunders take the back seat. Santa Barbara News-Press, October 14, B2.
 

JGB at Freeborn Hall, November 12, 1976

Sometime in the afternoon or thereabouts of Friday, November 12, 1976, Garcia, John Kahn, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, probably Richard Loren hopped into sedans being driven by monitor mixer Harry Popick and roadie Bill 'Kidd' Candelario to Davis, California, about a hundred miles east of San Francisco on I-80. Thus began a little weekend jaunt that strikes me as more pleasant than one they'd do in August '81 (billed as the "1^st Northern California Tour"), if only because the latter passed through Stockton in August, while this one offers foggier temperatures and a cooler implicit psychology.

It had already been a busy week, Sunday-Monday for Freddie Herrera in Berkeley and Palo Alto (I don't think a note of these shows circulates among collectors), then Tuesday through Thursday at Elliot Mazer's His Master's Wheels studio, in the space formerly operated by, variously, Pacific High Recorders and Alembic. The band gives every appearance of trying to use these sessions to work up some old favorites, sort of like a second version of Compliments, a few more fonky gospel numbers, maybe a few not so fonky, but a nice eclectic mix, for some ready-to-sell vinyl. This is the...

 ... Abortive 1976 Garcia Band album

At His Master's Wheels (HMW) Elliot Mazer had put together a space that Garcia really liked, singling it out when asked about the tastiest rooms in the Bay Area in June of 1974, right after recording Compliments (mostly at Columbia) and using it for Reflections, recorded second half 1975 and released early 1976, itself involving some abortive components (see Corry). That involved the payoff of the summer 1975 United Artists bailout. In late 76, Jerry played for Clive, and Arista paid the HMW studio time, as Davis, Garcia, Weir and the Grateful Dead (the latter three not at all the same thing as these men make their respective journeys) enter into a deal to further find fates. It’s impossible to say whether Davis fronted the studio time as an act of good faith, or whether, more likely, the time would eventually come out of Garcia’s advance. Despite its aesthetic promise, I can't say why this project gwas shelved. Eventually, after long battles with demons in the studio --recorded in earnest August-November 1977 and released around April 1, 1978-- Cats Under The Stars replaced it as the first, and in many ways the only, Jerry Garcia Band studio album.

The Abortive 1976 Jerry Garcia Band Album would differ from its predecessors, not a Jerry Garcia record, but a Jerry Garcia Band one, a false step in the institutionalization of Jerry Garcia. Bringing Nicky on board in summer 1975 was certainly a touring proposition - Nicky is contractually obligated to mention his 1975 Mercury record No More Changes (see my WIP "Hiatus Garcianomics"), and the band took xx tours (involving out of town flights) in its three-and-a-half months together. But having the Session Man in the house was almost certainly also a recording proposition: the timing with the recording Compliments is too strong suggestive. But it fell apart, for reasons unknown, and became a little bit of a Garcia-GD Frankenstein, incoherent even if it has its moments.

After August 1976 sessions paid by Round Records - perhaps the last good checks that outfit ever wrote, if they didn't bounce, October and November found Arista paying the bills, leaked to the cognoscenti no later than November 20^th.[i] Conceptually, take 2 of the first JGB album resonated with the "Americana Jerry likes" feel of Compliments, but with the band of Garcia-Kahn-Tutt-Godchaux (Keith) and at least some of the material drawing from cooler, stiller depths. Garcia tried Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" and "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" on for size for the project, about which I wrote at some length, noting that the ancient songstress found pulp-and-glue permanence in the New Lost City Ramblers Songbook (1964), through which, I surmise, Garcia might have learned the tunes. An undated OBIANL features on All Good Things, disc 3, track 11.

The Band also drew heavily from the gospel well with which Jerry, Keith, Donna and the rest had spent so much time in the Godchaux's living room in 1975 (for Keith and Donna), sometimes quite literally accompanied by a Samarian woman and a "Strange Man".  telling her every sinful thing she'd done, and setting her free. After a shambolic January, the bicentennial live act came to feature more upbeat gospel, as well, from the celestial choir of  “My Sisters And Brothers” to the hot-to-trot show closer “Ride Mighty High”. (Another angelic boogie, “Magnificent Sanctuary Band” [released on the 2004 box set All Good Things] never made it out of Stinson.)

Beyond gospel we find a Dylan (“Visions Of Johanna”, on the bonus disc All Good Things Redux), some black--and-white rockers “Bo Diddley” and “Not Fade Away” (11/9/76), a little R&B on November 10th (“Don’t Let Go”, “The Way You Do The Things You Do”), "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" (11/10/76), “Matilda” (calypso on both 11/10/76 and 11/11/76!) and the pure train “Streamlined Cannonball” (11/11/76). To travel to the places to which these various tunes were established, among the people who established them, would drive across every route and byway east of the Mississippi, lots of cities and hollers and plains, and a few on the other side; to do so by the means that conveyed them would bring you to ambient voice, boat, ship, raft, rail and automobile. Aesthetically, the collection would make a fine record.

The Weekend "Tour"

After laying down some tracks, the tour looks take draw a long, deep, weekend breath through some gigging and green spaces, the late Friday night show in Davis, it culminated in a pair of Saturday night shows at verdant Humboldt State.

Table xxx.

I have notes from the front end below. In terms of the back end of the "tour", Jerry has some land up in Mendocino, that Laird Grant lives on - maybe Garcia checked in, said hello and stocked up on the local fare --still autumn, harvest season-- for the rides back home.

Garcia at Freeborn

Depending on where they were coming from, this crew crossed a bridge (Richmond-San Rafael from Marin, or the Bay Bridge from the City), hooked up with I-80 east bound, crossed another bridge (over the Carquinez Strait), went up over the coastal ridge and dropped into the Great Central Valley. "Jerry Garcia has always liked this town," wrote the California Aggie reviewer about Davis. Campus gym Freeborn Hall would have been a drafty, smelly basketball arena at this time, all echo, but the college kids, many of them from the Bay Area, were enthusiastic, and the show shimmered. "Never before," wrote his seasoned reviewer, "have I seen Garcia dance, nor have I ever seen him smile so much".

Table xxx.

So nice to hear. In terms not of the visuals of Jerry (and Donna) swaying in a sweet groove, but of the audio, we are blessed to have Betty Cantor Jackson's 4^th reel of the night (reels 1-3 are AWOL, and may have returned do dust), and it holds just a 30 minute "Don't Let Go" and a show-closing "Might High", the crème de la crème of 1976 JGB repertoire, just about (LAALWFH wants a word with me).

LN jg1976-11-12.jgb.s2p-end.sbd-wise.132401.flac1648

A few highlights of the Davis show, based on the tape evidence.

John Kahn does a bass feature in DLG, which is actually interesting, not his usual feathery fluttery tickling thing – actual bass playing. He could do this in earlier years, and occasionally later on, but to hear John Kahn play with some power in November 1976 is a revelation.

Keith is noodling around some classical tunes after DLG.

"Mighty High" is nothing short of amazing. I love Donna Jean Godchaux.

Jerry Garcia Band

Freeborn Hall, University of California

Davis, CA 95616

November 12, 1976 (Friday) - 8 PM

BCJ reel #4 wise DAT flac1648 shnid-132401

--end of show (3 tracks, 2 songs, 38:17)--

reel04-t01. crowd and tuning [0:19]

reel04-t02. Don't Let Go [28:53] (1) [2:46]

reel04-t03. Mighty High// [6:19#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, vocals;

! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;

! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19761112-03

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/15850 (same source reel, probably different source DAT and definitely more primitive DAT > CD transfer - deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/132401 (this fileset - best source).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/wuV67V7hENM2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/freeborn-hall-uc-davis-104-freeborn.html

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

! review: Krane, Matt. 1976. Garcia & Company: Phenomenal Crowd Pleasers. California Aggie, November 15, 1976, p. 3. positive review of 11/12/76. Under subtitle "Fabulous Crowd Pleasers" starts by getting out his Webster's: "mellifluous (me-lif-loo-es, adj. (L. /mellifluus: mel, mellis-honey, fluete-to flow), flowing sweetly and smoothly; honeyed; said of words, sounds, etc. … Jerry Garcia has always liked this town, Davis", gave a memorable performance. Not's the JGB has played Crabshaw Corner in Sacto. Freeborn  Freeborn usually sounds like ass, but the reviewer says the band's gear sounded great." Kane praises "Garcia's magnificently mellow, fluid blues progressions". "Never before have I seen Garcia dance, nor have I ever seen him smile so much. But he had a lot to smile about, and so did a crowded Freeborn." "He appeared very warm and comfortable. His music was doubly so."

! R: recordist: Betty Cantor-Jackson

! R: media: 7" reel master @ 7.5ips 1/2 track (reel #4 only). As far as I know, reels 1-3 are not in the Garcia Vault, which might mean they are still out in the world somewhere. They are known not to be among the Betty Boards (TM). Given the water damage to this reel, though, it's strongly possible that the first three reels were among the miles of rotted spaghetti and distingrated vinyl and oxide, silt and pulp and goat piss. As of this writing (3/24/2016), my best sense is that they are gone forever, but that could be wrong.

! R: gear: Betty's Nagra reel to reel deck (serial #SL11183)

! R: lineage: Playback on Otari MX5050-Meyer VX-1 signal processor-Sony PCM R-700 DAT @ 48KHz (circa 1999). Original zero gen DAT played back on a Sony PCM R-500-Digital Audio Labs Card deluxe-16 bit 48KHz. Editing (Adobe Audition CC) - Mastering & Processing (iZotope Ozone 6) - FLAC encoding (dBpoweramp) - Tagging (Tag & Re-name - Digital Transfer, Editing & Processing By JW:February 2015.

! R: note: 16 bit 48Khz file set formatted for music servers"

! R: note: "This reel was old & brittle and there is some tape squeal present."

! R: reel04-t02 DLG @ 15:43 ran past a place where the oxide wasn't, some squeal. Again late 22, ca. 22:50.

! P: reel-04-t02 DLG 12ff John Kahn is taking a bass solo, and for 20 seconds he's on it, a little too fluttery at 12:20, some great bass soloing by John Kahn -- yeah, I said it. @ 14:43 the band comes back, John gets a nice round of applause from the crowd. This is building to a very nice crescendo, all involved, Garcia high up 15:18, all the rest is percussion, now he puts some blue on it 15:39. Garcia in a very interesting space 16:13, a little more speed. 25ff is Garcia's vocale-guitar duetting, some good moaning and scowling. Jerry gets real strong wid it to come to an end, everyone lands right.

! reel04-t02 (1) Keith is playing a classical piece late 29. 29:49 - sounds like something definable. 30:20 for sure, that Parisian Waltz. more at 30:35. another quote 30:53, more than a quote. He wants to play it. Garcia strums for Mighty High @ 31:04.

! P: reel04-t03 Mighty High is incredible. Donna is bringing it early 5ff, everyone singing hard, she is belting! You guy, girl! Even Keith is yelling, in his nasally way, making the tape squeal. Man, that is some good time music for the Aggies!

! R: reel04-t03 squeal somewhere in 4. 5:38 squeal. Reel ends, maybe 30 seconds of music missing.

---

[i] McDonough 1976 11/20/76.