JGB at the Auditorium Music Hall, Memphis, TN, November 18, 1975 (CXL)

Here's an ad from the Memphis Commercial Appeal billing Jerry Garcia Band (JGB) at the Auditorium Music Hall in Memphis, TN, November 18, 1975.

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), November 2, 1975, p. 5

The show must have been canceled, because I have never seen other record of this *and* the Garcia Band played the Keystone Berkeley this night.

I have a question about the venue, for which no address is given.

For his only Memphis gig outside the Dead on March 28, 1976, Garcia played what we list as South Hall, Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, TN. (see also JGBP). Is this the same room? I think so, as we give capacity for that space at 2,200 and the ad says 2,000 tickets available.

Would just love to hear any thoughts. In the meantime, I think I am going to list this with the same venue.

Kean College Tour Closer: JGB, November 15, 1982 (Late Show)

jg1982-11-15.jgb.late-1.aud-vita-minches.78008.flac1644

Pretty standard late '82 gig to my ears, not the equal to 11/11/82 late or 11/13/82, IMO. Errico's Gatling Gun start to HTC is awesome.

Three little oddities jump out to my pattern-obsessed brain.

First, no early show tape. Hm. Second ... , both the Vita aud and the soundboard tape are missing the encore. Hm. never mind. Third, all of the newspaper listings, some of the tickets, and the band's in-house itinerary show the venue as De'Angelo Gymnasium, but other tickets, the handbill/poster, and at least one recollection (from someone involved in planning the show) place it in the theatre, as the '80 and '83 shows at the college were. Update: it was moved from the gym to the theatre because of concerns for the court surface.

One of these is not like the others.

No biggy, but contradictions are fun.

Jerry Garcia Band

Wilkins Theatre, Kean College

1000 Morris Avenue

Union, NJ 07083

November 15, 1982 (Monday) - Late Show (10 PM)

Vita MAC missing 1 tune shnid-78008

--8 tracks, 7 tunes, missing encore, 74:12)--

l-t01. crowd and tuning [1:23-1:00] 

l-t02. Mission In The Rain [1:00 + 8:53] [0:16] % [0:21]

l-t03. Harder They Come [13:45] [0:11] % [0:12]

l-t04. It Ain't No Use [9:55] [0:02] % [0:03]

l-t05. Mystery Train [8:52] [0:27]

l-t06. Run For The Roses [5:01] [0:33]

l-t07. Dear Prudence [12:44] ->

l-t08. Tangled Up In Blue [11:20] (1) [0:12]

[MISSING: --Encore-- Midnight Moonlight]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #15b

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

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;

! lineup: Greg Errico - drums;
! lineup: Elisecia Wright - vocals;
! lineup: Shirley Faulkner - 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/19821115-02

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-11-15-wilkins-theatre-kean-college-union-nj-2/. Commenter Matthew Turkin posts (November 25th, 2015): "was one of the people on the concert committe (CCB) that put on this night and the next year's shows at Kean College. Great shows w great people that helped bring these shows 4 ourselves and all the heads that we knew. The theatre was rockin from the seats to the rafters. 'Never had such a goodtime, in my life before'."

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/23339 (sbd, shnf, also missing encore); https://etreedb.org/shn/78008 (this fileset). It appears that the early show does not circulate, though Jerrybase gives a setlist.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/lhE48

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/wilkins-theatre-kean-college-1000.html

! listing: Daily Record (Morristown, NJ), November 12, 1982, p. 17; Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ), November 13, 1982, p. B-13; Philadelphia Inquirer, November 14, 1982, p. 13-J.

! venue: the band itinerary, three newspaper listings, and some tickets give the venue as De'Angelo Gymnasium, while other stubs and conventional reckoning have it as Wilkins Theatre. The JGC comment by Matthew Turkin seems to confirm it was in the Theatre, so somewhere either wires were crossed or plans were changed. update: plans changed

! seealso: JGMF, "Armistice Day Rocker: JGB at Felt Forum, November 11, 1982," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2018/01/armistice-day-rocker-jgb-at-felt-forum.html; JGMF, "Greg Errico hits like a linebacker," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/greg-errico-hits-like-linebacker.html.

! R: field recordist: Jim Vita

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 > Sony D-5

! R: field recording location: 16th row center

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master cassette played back on Nakamichi Dragon > ART DI/O > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > Cool Edit 2000 > flac encoding > FLAC.

! R: Jim Vita pulled a pretty good one this night - the vocals are low, but that's fine since they sound fatigued here at the end of the tour (as they may well have at the start, in this period). The bass is especially well captured, and the drums are very present, not least because Errico just crushes those fuckers.

! R: l-t01 mistracked, tune starts at about :23

! P: l-t02 MITR vocals shaky out of the gate, as they often were. Nice energy, fluid playing. John is making himself heard here. Errico bashes.

! P: l-t03 HTC man, Errico is just HAMMERING the start. Great energy from John, too.

! P: l-t05 MT frenetically paced

! l-t08 (1) JG: "See ya later."

New-to-The-List from the Examiner, 1973-end

This is a followup to New-to-The-List from the Examiner, 1970-1972. I include new-to-The-List dates, some that were advertised and seem to have been canceled, a few other weird things I uncovered. The Examiner was quite a task. If the Chronicle were digitized, that'd be the last frontier for me. At this point, returns are diminishing, so if it comes online after 2018 I might skim it, but will certainly be less thorough in entering stuff into my spreadsheet than I have been with the Examiner. There's only so much time.

New to The List

It's possible that some of these didn't happen, of course. But I found these and couldn't find disconfirming evidence of them.

1/30/73 (Tuesday): JGMS at Keystone
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, January 30, 1973, p. 21.

8/12/73 (Sunday): JGMS at the end of Magellan Road, El Granada. "Jazz-rock concert featuring Merl Saunders and friends (including Jerry Garcia) at the end of Magellan Road" in El Granada, presented by Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.
! listing: SFSECDB19730812p07.

1/3/74 (Thursday): JGMS at Keystone
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, January 3, 1974, p. 29.

3/30/74 (Saturday): JGMS at Keystone Stockton. Of course they played Freddie's shortlived venture out in the sticks!

Jerry Garcia and Merle [sic] Saunders, plus Paul Pena, at the Keystone Stockton, Saturday, March 30, 1974. Ad in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, March 24, 1974, p. 27.

! listing: SFSECDB19740324p04;
! ad: SFSECDB19740324p27.

6/3/74 (Monday): JGMS at Keystone. One can wonder if, like the rest of the shows this week, this gig featured Tony Saunders on bass.
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, June 3, 1974, p. 32.

6/15/77 (Wednesday): JGB at Keystone Palo Alto
! ad: SFSECDB19770529p39.

4/13/79 (Friday): Reconstruction at the Rio Theatre. I had already concluded that Reconstruction did not play the Denver Rainbow on this date, despite tape labels to the contrary. Here's more evidence against a Denver gig.
! listing: SFSECDB19790401p14.

7/16/80 (Wednesday): JGB at Keystone
! ad: SFSECDB19800713p10.

6/10/82 (Thurday): JGB at the Stone. Ad says "note new SF date". Earlier ads had JGB at Stone on 6/13. So I suspect that show was canceled and this one replaced it.
! ad: SFSECDB-19820606p28.

7/10-11/84 (Tuesday-Wednesday): JGB at Keystone Palo Alto. Hard to imagine a show this late not having imprinted itself, but it was a midweek down south, before the internet.
! listing: SFSECDB-19840708p14.

CXL

6/10/75 (Tuesday): JGMS at Keystone. I wonder if this cancellation had to do with Jerry being occupied by the United Artists deal, which I date to the next day?
! ad: SFSECDB19750525p29;
! ad: [contra] SFSECDB19750608p29.

12/16/79 (Sunday): JGB at Keystone. This was rescheduled for the next night.
! ad: SFSECDB19791209p24.

12/20/81 (Sunday): JGB at Keystone
! ad: SFSECDB19811206p14;
! ad: [contra] SFSECDB19811213p10.

6/13/82 (Sunday): JGB at Stone. This in earlier ads, then later ads show late addition on 6/10 at Stone, and this show gone. So I suspect this was cxl and replaced by that one. See entry for 6/10/82 above.
! ad: SFSECDB-19820530p22.

10/29/82 (Friday): JGB at Keystone. This is a weird one, listed as late as the day of the show. But Garcia left LA on PSA #348 dep 2:55 PM arr 4 PM in Arizona, and was supposed to check into the Fiesta Inn in Tempe for the next night's gig in Mesa, AZ. He might have flown home instead, gigged, and then gone from home back down to the southwest, I guess. But for now I will list this as canceled.
! ad: SFSECDB19821003p19;
! ad: SFSECDB19821010p24;
! listing: SFE19821028pE2.

2/25/83 (Friday): JGB at Keystone. I have this as canceled and re-scheduled for the 28th.
! ad: SFSECDB19830213p19.

Confusing

8/6/73 (Monday): Keystone. The same set of listings show both Herbie Hancock and Steve Head, on the one hand, and JGMS, on the other, playing for Freddie in Berkeley.
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, August 6, 1973, p. 28.

1/21/83 (Friday): JGB at KPA, or Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma? Contradictory info out there. On the one hand, there's an announcement of the Petaluma show in a Norcal paper the day of the show, and Jerry gave an interview to a Norcal radio station that day. He is known to have played Petaluma the next day. On the other hand, an earlier listing in the Examiner had him at Keystone Palo Alto.
! listing: [contra] San Francisco Examiner, January 20, 1983, p. E2;
! preview: "Jerry Garcia performs tonight at the Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma", Ukiah Daily Journal, January 21, 1983, p. 8.

Dropping in Robertson Gym (gd1969-01-17)

The Grateful Dead and Santa Barbara are two great things that go great together. One little mystery has always centered on the location of the January 17, 1969 gig. The gig was absent from Deadbase, is listed as Unknown Venue chez Deadlists, and circulates from Vault -> Latvala -> world tape as “Civic Auditorium, Santa Barbara, CA”, which Corry has noted does not exist. He’s right about that (as far as I know), but his alternative explanation, that the gig was at the Santa Monica Civic, is incorrect.

The gig was in Santa Barbara. Like another one a mere four months later (5/29/69), it took place in Robertson Gymnasium (“Rob Gym” for those who pick up games there), on the stunning campus of U.C. Santa Barbara (UCSB). [update: I see that dead.net already knew this.] Must have been a ‘head or two on the Program Council that year, though, as I'll note, looks like only the latter was fully campus-sponsored.

Background: Grateful Dead in Santa Barbara

Deadlists:
4/29/67 Earl Warren Showgrounds Santa Barbara CA
1/17/69 Unknown Venue Santa Barbara CA
5/29/69 Robertson Gym - University Of California Santa Barbara CA
5/20/73 Campus Stadium - University Of California Santa Barbara CA
5/25/74 Campus Stadium - University Of California Santa Barbara CA
2/27/77 Robertson Gym - University Of California Santa Barbara CA
1/13/78 Arlington Theatre Santa Barbara CA
6/4/78 Campus Stadium - University Of California Santa Barbara CA

There are some interesting Jerry engagements in lovely old Santa Barbara, too, but I will break form and ignore them for now.

Ads and Such

With a little slaving over a hot microfilm reader, I found the following:

! ad: El Gaucho, January 16, 1969, p. 3;
! caption: El Gaucho, January 17, 1969, p. 1;
! ad: El Gaucho, January 17, 1969, p. 3;
! listing: El Gaucho, January 17, 1969, p. 5.

Here’s the day-of-show ad:

"Kappa Sigma presents In Concert Santana Blues Band / Grateful Dead / Travel Agency, lights by Dry Paint, January 17 [1969], 8:30 PM, Robertson Gym (Bring Your Own Pillow)"

Brief Analysis

Thank you, El Gaucho!

The ad reinforces the lost-from-memory feel of the gig, a bit of an in-your-face guerilla exercise with Kappa Sigma. The Santana Blues Band and its successors are well documented, and this show is not listed at the canonical Santanamigos site. If I were an objective observer, I would say SBB headlines over the Dead as a matter of presentation, which is pretty amazing given how early in Santana's run this occurred. It's useful to remember just how Spanish Santa Barbara is, perhaps - maybe Santana would bring the vaqueros' kids in from the high school.

El Gaucho advertises what's going to go down in technicolor glory, even through bad microfilm in black and white. In the sweet spot, top-left of the front page, soak in the picture of a bunch of crazed Deadfolk in various degrees of sprawling on the steps of 710 Ashbury, over caption beginning “DROPPING IN ROBERTSON GYM”, (caps original), and a–wink-wink and a-nudge-nudge.

Bring Your own Pillow

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the show seems to have fallen somewhat out of memory – many may not have imprinted for very long in situ, more the decaying trails of an up-close camera flash.

Listening to the Dead tape now and it's pretty bad. Pigpen is lost in Lovelight, even Dark Star > Steven > Eleven leave me totally flat. Death Don't is good, TIFTOO is fine but uneventful, and a *very* tentative Cosmic Charlie closes things out. The show is way below average for the period, for sure. It sounds like a good crowd which cheers a lot for the Lovelight (maybe the sound was bad), but eventually The Man drops in and shut things down, and young Mr. Weir puts a point on things:

They say that's all there is, so I guess that's all there is.

And goodnight to you, too.

Bear Tracks and Bear Drops in the Bear Republic

"Slewfoot" was a great selection for the Dead's Santa Rosa shows June 27-28, 1969: "Bear tracks" in the Bear Republic.

date	venue	city	state
6/11/69	California Hall	San Francisco	CA
6/21/69a	Fillmore East	New York	NY
6/27/69	Veterans Auditorium	Santa Rosa	CA
6/28/69	Veterans Auditorium	Santa Rosa	CA
7/3/69	Reed's Ranch	Colorado Springs	CO
7/4/69	Kinetic Playground	Chicago	IL
7/12/69	NY State Pavilion, Flushing Meadow Park, Queens	New York	NY
8/2/69	Family Dog at the Great Highway	San Francisco	CA
12/31/69	Boston Tea Party	Boston	MA

6/27, Corry: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2009/07/june-27-1969-sonoma-county-fairgrounds.html
6/27, Bear: https://archive.org/details/gd69-06-27.sbd.samaritano.20547.sbeok.shnf
6/28, Bear:  https://archive.org/details/gd69-06-28.sbd.samaritano.20548.sbeok.shnf

Some classic 6/28 banter, including Phil, "This song is about Bear Drops". Heh heh - that'd be an LSD reference, ladies and gents.

Oh yeah, can I get a ruling on the venue? Deadlists gives Veterans Auditorium, Corry gives Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

Color: January 12-25, 1972 Night Times listings

Here are some listings from the Night Times, with a few scattershot thoughts.

1) The Berkeley Night Times is a gem.

2) It's especially good re: race.

The range of clubs it covers exceeds most other sources - you've got the country clubs, the rock clubs, the black soul/R&B/gospel clubs, the Latin clubs, a little bit of the crooner set, a little of everything. I think I have noted, and Corry and I have certainly discussed so he may have noted, as well, the racial disparities in our work, derived in part from the material fact of the source materials we use. The white college kids and hippies going to the Longbranch, to say nothing of the martini set at the Circle Star, probably generated more paper, and certainly more enduring (i.e., filmed, digitized) paper, than did the folks getting their gospel on at the On Broadway or one of the Oakland rooms. Night Times had informants seemingly quite consistently across a wide set of sociocultural (and hence musical) strata - valuable stuff for future researchers who might want to look at how race played though all of it.

3) Some foreground, and not just color: JGMS 1/14-15/72

There's also a piece of foreground for me, in this listing. Garcia-Saunders have the January 14-15, 1972 weekend at Keystone Korner, still a Freddie Herrera joint.

I have done up some listening notes for the delightful tape of the Saturday show. It's the only tape fragment between 9/25/71 and 2/6/72, and it's worth a listen - very sweet, indeed.

And yet, as I continue to p.6 (looks like their ads expanded and so did their listings around late 1971, after maybe two months), I see JGMS listed for the same nights at the Lion's Share.

A Jerry Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

To recap, there are four pieces of contemporary evidence, of uncertain independence (relative to each other, including relative to some common prior cause).

1. listing: Hayward Daily Review, January 13, 1972, p. 35:  Jerry Garcia and Friends at Keystone Korner;
2. listing: Night Times, January 12-25, 1972, p. 5: Jerry Garcia and Merle [sic] Saunders at KK;
3. listing: Night Times, January 12-25, 1972, p. 6: Jerry Garcia, Merle [sic] Saunders and Tom Fogerty at Lion's Share
4. http://etreedb.org/shn/8644, the circulating audience tape says KK.

Based on a preponderance of the evidence standard, I'll go with KK, but I am open to arguments either way.

4) Stoned Sunday rap info?

Joel Selvin or someone at Night Times drops this tidbit into the listing: "fresh from being interviewed by Charles Reich and Jann Wenner (whew!)". I need to check when the Rolling Stone piece, because he might be reacting to its published length. Otherwise, I wonder if this is a scrap from telephone game that helps us pin down the dating of this event? Here's a scenario: Garcia talks about how long these stoned raps were, or he mentions it to Freddie, Freddie tells Selvin over the phone and they have a chuckle about it, it's good fresh banter if the interviews just took place. Could have happened. That'd put the rap (or is it raps? I can't recall) sometime between Christmas 1971 and the second week of January 1972.

update: JGMF, "Signpost to a New Space and Stoned Sunday Rap - Dates"

5) What Would You See?

Lots of great music happening in the Bay Area during this fortnight. Besides the Garcia stuff, I don't know what I'd pick, if I had to pick one. Doc Watson would be good. The George Duke Trio gig at El Matador is tempting, I wonder who was in that band? You'd be deaf for a week after that synth assault.

6) Other Notes

Gideon and Power always intrigues because I have it in my head that Melvin Seals was part of the band (Power) at some point. The Night Times has some cool little asides about Gideon, who seems to have been quite the showman with his "hard-driving gospel soul".

The aside about Malo is also interesting, because it brings the Latin scene into focus. The band had gotten and/or would get lots of press, as part of an exploding Latin scene in San Francisco that had Carlos Santana's fingerprints all over it. Malo was a sort of supergroup with all kinds of hot players. The listing blurbs it as "a local big band that is fronted by Carlos Santana's brother Jorge and that has a Warner's album scheduled for release this month". I have some other 1971-1972 listings and such to go through and Cesar's Band at Cesar's Club, Luis Gasca, the percussionists Armando Peraza and Mongo Santamaria, and all kinds of other maniacs were tearing up the clubs. This whole scene feels very heavily fueled to me.

7) "All the beer you can drink"

One last piece, another piece of Fred Herrera color, as he is getting the New Monk, which would become Keystone, up and running at 2119 University in Berkeley. Ever the entrepreneur, the deals sound great: Clover is the regular band on Monday night, $1 and free food; Doobie Brothers on Thursdays, $2.50 and all the beer you can drink. Forget the still-scrappy Doobies, "all the beer you can drink"? I am on that.

What's Going On? Listening to the Show Traveling as JGMS 7/22/74

LN jg1974-07-22.jgms.146mins.sbd-GMB.86198.flac1644

I wrote about this Jerry Garcia – Merl Saunders (JGMS) set dated July 22, 1974 and located at the Keystone, Berkeley, some time back. I had suggested that this show (and the one attributed to July 21, 1974, same venue) might not be as it seemed. I initially speculated that it might be from the Sand Dunes, but upon a close listen I don’t think so – it sounds like the Keystone to me. I don’t normally trust my ears, but it’s identified as Keystone and it sounds like everything else I have heard from there, with a good-sized crowd. (For more on the Sand Dunes, see my initial post and check the posts under the Sand Dunes label.)

I have recently gone back to the material identified as JGMS, July 21, 1974 at the Keystone Berkeley and promised to revisit 7/22 as well. I have now done so, and I can say a few preliminary things.

First, the two filesets are clearly related beyond that they are dated to consecutive days. As I note below, the following pieces look to fit together: Pennies From Heaven (7/21/74 front, 7/22/74 back), How Sweet It Is (7/22 v1 front, 7/21 back) and You Can Leave Your Hat On (7/21 front, 7/22 back). I don’t know how what began as scraps of tape got organized and disseminated in this way, but there you go. This all remains to be confirmed, but I think it will be.

Second, while I am not sure I’ll ever be able to figure out exactly what’s what, I presently hold the view that these filesets are approximately correctly dated, which is itself a discovery since there are lots of reasons to misbelieve them. Among them are the following:

• The Grateful Dead played Hollywood Bowl on 7/21/74.
• Newspaper listings for the Keystone show different acts on these dates (respectively, Moby Grape and Earthquake on Sunday 7/21, Nite Shift and audition bands on Monday 7/22).  (These contrary listings appear in the Berkeley Barb, July 12-18, 1974, p. 28 and in the Hayward Daily Review, July 19, 1974, p. 36.)
• Related, Merl Saunders and Martin Fierro were billed for the Sand Dunes on 7/22 (Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1974, p. 2-RAP). 
•  There are repeated songs on each “date”: When I Die on 7/21 and How Sweet It Is on 7/22.
• Boogie On Reggae Woman was first released on Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale, which appears to have come out on … wait for it … July 22, 1974.

So there are all kinds of reasons to disbelieve these datings. Yet, they feel approximately correct.

First, there’s the matter of the tape labeling itself. These have quite clear provenance (First Batch Betty reels > Dougal Donaldson’s PCM copy > DAT), and it’s not clear that a mislabel would have been likely to intervene in such a short chain. It could have, as the old saga of April 1975 LOM dates suggests. Someone might have been making shit up. But it’d be strange. 

Second, Tony Saunders is here, which implies that John Kahn was not available. (This is not Aunt Monk, remember; it’s Garcia-Saunders. I infer this inter alia from the fact that Garcia sings some tunes.) We know that John was at Hollywood Bowl (with Maria Muldaur’s band) on 7/21/74, and might imagine that he wasn’t in as much of a rush to get back to the Bay Area as Garcia might have been, not least because he had family in LA. 

Third, when else would these have been? We could push out as far as July 1975, but no farther. The setlist, performance quality, song timings, and many other things ring more like 1974 to my ear than 1975. It almost certainly could not have been any earlier.

More specifically (and hence less justifiably), I am entertaining the idea that there were indeed shows on more or less precisely the nights indicated. The plans for Frank Biner and the Nite Shift and some band auditions at Keystone on Monday 7/22 could very easily have been shunted aside if Jerry would be in the house. This would be a really nice Monday-night payday for Freddie Herrera (Keystone proprietor) and the other musicians, so the incentive was there. Regarding 7/21, I guess either that there was a late set from Saturday night to Sunday morning (i.e., starting on 7/20/74) that was labeled the 21^st because it started after midnight, or, more likely to my mind (though not likely in any absolute sense), that Garcia indeed did race up from LA after the Hollywood Bowl gig and make it to Berkeley to play the last set with Merl et al. I know it all sounds implausible, but that’s my hunch. There was a flurry of activity in the Oakland Tribune around Saunders and Fierro in July-August 1974 (see, e.g., my post on Merl Saunders and Friends gig at the Inn of the Beginning on May 31-June 1, 1974). I don’t know precisely what it was, but something was going on, and typical patterns (insofar as there were any at this time) could easily have given way.

Baroque listening notes follow.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

Keystone

2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704

July 22, 1974 (Monday)

--Set I (6 tracks, 67:56)--

s1t01. //Pennies From Heaven [#2:20] [1:10]

s1t02. Boogie On Reggae Woman [18:40] [3:53]

s1t03. Wondering Why [17:05] [0:16]

s1t04. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) // [5:06#]

s1t05. // You Can Leave Your Hat On [#5:27] (1) [0:49]

s1t06. That's What Love Will Make You Do [12:55] (2) [0:12]

--Set II (4 tracks, 78:10)--

s2t01. //Cucumber Slumber [#20:47] [0:40]

s2t02. Harder They Come [17:34] [2:09]

s2t03. What’s Going On [26:22] % [0:04]

s2t04. [0:05] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:38] (3) [0:49]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;

! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;

! lineup: Tony Saunders - bass;

! lineup: Gaylord Birch - 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.

! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/1075

! db: shnid 86198 (this seed); shnid 10127 (earlier, slightly shorter version seeded by Darrin Sacks; it gives lineage as MSR>C>DAT, which is possible given that there were indeed cassette decks at the transfer party for the first Betty Batch).

! R: "Source: SBD: MSR > PCM > DAT; Transfer: Panasonic SV-3700 > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 to Wavelab 5.0 mastering with L3 Multimaximizer > CDWAV1.9 > FLAC (level 8). Transferred, Remastered by B. Koucky and Seeded by Green Mountain Bros. June 2007." This, along with "7/21/74", was part of the First Batch of Betty Boards (see Dwork et al. 2000; Harvey 2009, pp. 122-141). It is not identified by Dougal Donaldson (in Dwork et al. 2000, pp. 37-39) as one of the tapes transferred from that batch, but samizdat versions of the history of the Betty tapes include these dates (as well as 6/4/74). As of this writing, I do not know the tape specs, i.e., whether they were 7" or 10" tapes, the recording speed (probably 7.5 ips), any noise reduction applied or decoded (Dolby or DBX), etc. I only know that, per the Betty Board histories, they were half-track tapes played back on Bob Menke's Technics 1506, through Dougal Donaldson's Sony PCM 501ES unit. I presume that the source PCM tape was Dougal Donaldson's.

! setlist: the seeder Bill Koucky had referred to these two pieces as either sets or shows. There is so much other mystery around this date, I'll just keep it simple and call them sets for now. I think we will discover that this material fits together like puzzle pieces with the material dated "7/21/74". Specifically, the following pieces look to fit together: Pennies From Heaven (7/21/74 front, 7/22/74 back), How Sweet It Is (7/22 v1 front, 7/21 back) and You Can Leave Your Hat On (7/21 front, 7/22 back). How the material got distributed across the two recordings this way remains a mystery.

! setlist: Seeder Note: "d2t04 How Sweet It Is may or may not be from this show depending on if it was an early or late show. It is very clear the tune is the last song of the night as Jerry says, “See you all later” and you can hear people in the first rows ask for an encore. There is a tape splice before the song, which may indicate a reel change or a filler to the DAT source. The Jerry Site notes that What’s Going On is cut and this version is not and does not list How Sweet It Is nor does it list the d1tr01 Instrumental [Pennies From Heaven]. This is a more complete source that what previously circulates."

! setlist: s1t01 Pennies From Heaven is the Arthur Johnston/Johnny Burke composition (1936). Thanks to Tony Saunders for identifying it. It also appears as d1t03 on the shnid 117653 fileset for "7/21/74" and on the Aunt Monk show dated 2/14/75.

! R: s1t01 PFH cuts in.

! P: s1t02 BORW comes in smokin', nice entry by the bass and the drums.

! s1t02 after the song, they are warming up "After Midnight" until 19:47, but then change course. @ 20:47 Merl signals "When I Die" and Tony takes the cue. They noodle in for a little bit, change course again. @ 21:24 Garcia seems to strum "The Weight". Merl hits "When I Die" again @ 21:38. In the meantime, he had mentioned "Wondering Why", which is where they go.

! R: s1t04 HSII cuts out

! R: s1t05 YCLYHO cuts in

! s1t05 @ 5:38 (1) I think I hear Garcia say something like "We only have time left to do one more" to his bandmate(s).

! s1t06 @ 13:00 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a break. We'll be back pretty soon."

! setlist: s2t01 Cucumber Slumber is a one-off -- this is the only known version (for Jerry Garcia, naturally). As far as I can tell, it was initially released on Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller (Columbia 32494, 1974). And how would you like some serendipity? According to wikipedia, first, the record was recorded between February and May 1974 at Devonshire Studios in LA, which of course is where (and when) Garcia's Compliments album was recorded. Second, "Greg Errico was the drummer for the tour between the previously released Sweetnighter and [Mysterious Traveller], but declined an invitation to be a permanent member of [Weather Report]." The first references I can find to this album being released are in July 1974 (a review in some Indiana newspaper). It could have been that these guys somehow got their hands on an advance copy, or at least the chart of the Alphonso Johnson/Josef Zawinul composition. Maybe they got a copy of it at Devonshire Studios. But it's unlikely. update: indeed, I think the simpler explanation is that the dating given to this material is wrong, and the gig happened a half year later.

! R: s2t01 Cucumber Slumber cuts in, not much missing.

! P: s2t01 Cucumber Slumber Martin does some very loud squawking at 19-min mark. He would do more and more of this as things progressed. I don't particularly remember him doing it quite this aggressively before about this time (ca. July 1974), but that's something I'd want to check. If you don't like it when Martin squawks, I'd say that shows in '73 and the the first half of '74 will be more to your liking.

! R: there is a persistent R-channel buzz that can be heard especially clearly when Cucumber Slumber ends. It ends around 21:16 of the track. It is back again at the end of HTC, probably has been there all through the music.

! setlist: s2t03 What's Going On is the only known Garcia-associated version (i.e. a one-off). As Corry notes, the drummer for this megahit was none other than Paul Humphrey. I think that certainly makes it more likely that this is Humphrey drumming. update: nope - it's Gaylord Birch

! P: s2t03 WGO is a really nice performance, very exploratory but not too meandering. At times toward the end Tony S. is playing a bass line a little like "Welcome To The Basement". Very nice stuff.

! P: s2t04 HSII Martin is blowing *hard in the 7-minute mark.

! s2t04 (3) JG: "Thank you. We'll see y'all later on."

REFERENCES:

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.

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.

jgmf.blogspot.com

Pennies From Heaven: Listening to the Tape Known as JGMS 7/21/74

**updated**

Here are the reference posts for this set of listening notes:

1. JGMF, “JGMS: "July 21-22," 1974, Keystone, Berkeley, CA”, 7/25/2010, updated 12/16/2011.
2. JGMF, “Jerry with Merl and/or Martin, ca. 1974, The Sand Dunes”, 5/16/2010.

In brief, I am walking back from my speculation that this material is from the Sand Dunes. It’s not. It sounds like the Keystone. This only raises more questions about the date. But I am going to listen to 7/22/74, and on its face it looks like these two tapes may be close companions. I will leave some notes when I can.

LN jg1974-07-21.jgms.93mins.sbd-Betty.117653.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Keystone

2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704

"July 21, 1974 (Sunday)"

Disc One (3 tracks, 47:22)
--end set I--
d1t01. The Harder They Come [18:09] (1) [0:14] %
--set II--
d1t02. //When I Die [12:33#] (2) [0:28]
d1t03. Pennies From Heaven// [15:41#] % dead air [0:14]

Disc Two (4 tracks, 46:02)
--set II (con't)--
d2t01. //After Midnight [#10:33] (3) [1:59]
d2t02. When I Die [17:10] [1:29]
d2t03. You Can Leave Your Hat On// [11:28#] % dead air [0:04]
d2t04. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#2:56] (4) [0:17] % dead air [0:04]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone;
! lineup: Tony Saunders - el-bass;
! lineup: Gaylord Birch - 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.

! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/1074

! db: none.

! FYI: http://dead.net/show/july-21-1974

! R: given lineage: "MSR > PCM > DAT > ZA2 > CDR (xx) > EAC > flac1644". At Lossless Legs, user JerryRocks has identified the digital history of this recording, passing from Dougal Donaldson (PCM) to Ryan Shriver (DAT) to Andy Lemieux (DAT) to jjoops (CD) and thereafter out and about.

! This recording may not be what it purports to be. The Grateful Dead were at Hollywood Bowl on 7/21/74, though Garcia could have flown up for a late Bay Area set with Merl after that show ended ca. 9 pm. All available sources also point to Earthquake and Moby Grape playing the Keystone Berkely this night (Berkeley Barb, July 12-18, 1974, p. 28; Hayward Daily Review, July 19, 1974, p. 36). Tony Saunders is playing bass here, which works well with the 7/21 dating since John Kahn was down in Hollywood, having opened for the GD as part of Maria Muldaur's band, and he may not have wanted to fly north right away. The room sounds too big to be a tiny place like the Sand Dunes, which I had earlier conjectured. I also think it goes along well with the material dated 7/22/74 (also featuring Tony S. on bass). My working argument is that we might as well call it 7/21/74, Keystone Berkeley. update: nope.

! We cannot know how much of a show, or how many pieces of shows, this represents. I have conjectured before that this represents bits and pieces of tape. It's so cut up, we really can't tell what might go with what except for the ca. 40-minute piece of continuous tape from After Midnight to Leave Your Hat On. HTC is definitely the end of a first set, and HSII is definitely the end of a show, but beyond that we don't have much to go on.

! Personnel: Tony Saunders is on bass, which only really happened when Kahn was unavailable or when the gig was more of a Merl gig than a Jerry-and-Merl gig. As noted just above, this lends some credence to a 7/21/74 dating. I do not know who is drumming. The guy is really good. Possibilities include Bill Kreutzmann, Paul Humphrey or Gaylord Birch, all of whom Tony Saunders remembers playing with in the Saunders-Garcia band. E.W. Wainwright apparently played with Aunt Monk at the Generosity (timeframe uncertain) and also sat in at least once with Garcia-Saunders (3/14/74, Keystone Berkeley). Larry Vann and Bob Stellar both also drummed with Aunt Monk and could be possible here. update: it's Gaylord.

! R: this is a really sweet sounding recording. First fucking rate. It's maybe a little bright, as if maybe the PCM gen put some pre-emphasis in that never got decoded out. But Betty Cantor-Jackson is a true genius. This recording came from "Batch One" of the Betty tapes, which explains the PCM gen.

 P: d1t01 HTC the drummer is really hot. Now, of course, Betty knows how to mic him perfectly. The snap is fantastic. But that's also because the dude is *hitting. Merl also sounds really nice. Jerry gets a nice metallic sound for his solo in the 12-minute mark, extremely electric.

! d1t01 HTC In the 8-min mark is that alto sax? Martin is keeping it nice and tight here.

! venue: crowd sounds too big to be the Sand Dunes. Maybe 7/21 and 7/22 go together, and are actually from the Keystone.

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

! P: d1t02 WID when they drop into the jam around 2:30, it's really nice, with Tony Saunders supplying the big bottom end and Merl cooking around and through him. Tony does some nice ascending runs at the start of the 3-min mark. Martin misses the return to the '1' about 11 minutes in, but treats discretion as the better part of valor, stops, andjoins the rest of the band.

! R: d1t02 When I Die cuts in, not much missing;

! d1t02 (2) Tony Saunders can be heard talking to Jerry from 12:41 to the end of the track.

! setlist: d1t03 Pennies From Heaven is the Arthur Johnston/Johnny Burke composition (1936). Thanks to Tony Saunders for identifying it.

! R: d1t03 Pennies From Heaven cuts out;

! R: d2t01 After Midnight cuts in, substantially underway in the middle of a loud Martin solo.

! P: d2t01 AM Tony picks some really big notes about 5-minutes in. Merl is doing his tasteful Jimmy Smith thing as we approach the 6-minute mark, his son thumping along underneath. @ 6:12 the drummer makes himself heard with some nice cymbal work. It's grooving now.

! d2t01 (3) @ 11:52 someone asks "Jerry, you want a hit, man?" Folks on and near stage laugh, Garcia asks back "'Do, I want a hit, man?' I just had one." And it's true that just previous to this, Jerry can be heard asking Tony or someone for a match.

! P: d2t02 WID is much faster than the version that appears earlier in this fileset. The drummer is a monster at the start of this version (though, again, there's always the fact of Betty's amazing tapes to factor in).

! P: d2t03 YCLYHO Merl is a little confused about the vocals at the start.

! R: d2t03 YCLYHO Vocals are very low in the mix, come in better after about a minute and a half.

! P: d2t03 YCLYHO Martin does some ear-splitting stuff @ 5:55.

! R: d2t03 YCLYHO cuts out, unknown amount missing.

! R: d2t04 How Sweet It Is cuts in, almost entirely missing

! d2t04 (4) JG: "See y'all later."

OAITW: June 11, 1973, Temple University-Ambler, Ambler, PA

This show (OAITW: June 11, 1973, Temple Festival Theater, Ambler, PA) will end up being important to me, I think, as I write more about OAITW and the summer of 1973. Can't wait.

For now, I just want to address venue confusion.

**update: it was definitely in an amphitheater, not an enclosed theater - thanks to attendee/commenter Gr8fulD for further confirmation**


The Jerry Site's data are presently a mess. Here are the two "changes" that have been noted at the Jerry Site's entry for the show:

• Mar 8, 2010 - [ryanshriver@mac.com] Changed venue based on info from Hank Edenborn, "The venue for the show below was definitely the outdoor concert venue of the Temple University - Ambler Campus. The "Ambler Theater" is an indoor venue where other Dead spin-off bands may perhaps have played, but there is no way that this show was played there. I was finishing up a year at Temple University main campus at the time and it was undoubtedly how I saw the announcement for the show." 
• Sep 10, 2008 - [ryanshriver@mac.com] Changed venue from the Temple Festival Theater to The Ambler Theatre based on info from Harry Angus. 

 And yet the listing is still traditionally given as Temple Festival Theater.

I have one datum to ad to the mix.

Unfortunately, I don't have the reference for this. But I do have a copy of the "ad [actually a calendar listing] in June 5th edition of Philadelphia newspaper Drummer" mentioned at TJS, which I believe came from Joey Newlander. And it also says Temple Festival Theater.

Anyway, the ad contradicts the participant/Jerry Site informant's memory, and I am just not sure how to reconcile. On the one hand, you have an ad for a show which seems to be promoted by professionals ("Electric Factory Concerts presents at Temple Festival Theater"). It seems to have nothing to do with Temple University-Ambler. Yet, Hank Edenborn tells TJS that "The venue for the show below was definitely the outdoor concert venue of the Temple University - Ambler Campus", he having attended it.

In general, ex ante advertisements, especially drawn ads rather than calendar listings, probably lose out in an evidentiary test to credible eyewitness testimony. I guess I am just wondering what the hell happened between whenever the ad was submitted and June 11th. And where are we talking about? The Ambler Theater, which looks really nice on a street view, seems not to be the place under discussion (i.e., the same as the "Temple Festival Theater" named in the ad)? The only google results on "Temple Festival Theater" that are relevant go back to The Jerry Site and here. So whatever the hell this advertisement is referring to as the venue, it seems to have been lost to memory. WTF?

Here's a blurb I found from the college's web site, which  might be relevant:

For 13 years, the music played on. In 1968, the Temple University Music Festival and Institute was born at the Ambler Campus with two important goals — to serve as a school for young professional musicians and to provide several summers of world-class music. In its heyday, the Music Festival stage was graced by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington. The amphitheater placed the spotlight on rising stars such as Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis, and Temple’s own Bill Cosby. Area residents, and many well beyond, fondly remember the “42 Evenings of Musical Excellence” that summers at Ambler would bring.Though the location of the well-remembered Music Festival now plays host to Temple’s Owls baseball and softball teams ... 

Anyway, I guess we have to go with the eyewitness and list the venue as the "outdoor concert venue of the Temple University - Ambler Campus". Maybe, based on the text above, we could just call it "Ampitheater"? Thoughts?

Two final notes.First, I had always thought this was a bluegrass festival. Guess not. Heh heh. Second, if there were hassles with this it'd be really interesting for the narrative that is revealing itself around OAITW and the 1973 bluegrass festival season.

**update2: per commenter Gr8fulD, Doug Sahm opened**

LN jg1973-xx-xx.oaitw.88mins.sbd-PNW.99222.flac1644

This is shnid-99222, a somewhat degraded soundboard tape of Old And In The Way (OAITW) with Richard Greene on fiddle. I had mentioned it when it first came out.

update: I surmise that this is Thursday, April 12, 1973, Granada Theatre, 1216 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA. It's not certain by any stretch, but that's what I figure. Indeed, now based on an expost account in the UCSB Daily Nexus (Haight 19730419), which confirms Greene and that the 4/12/73 late show ended with Orange Blossom Special, I am prepared to say that I am 99.99% certain that's what we have here.

I have made lots of notes, so I'll just mention that note 15 contains a little exchange that really underscores the "Burden Of Being Jerry".

Old And In The Way
Unknown Venue (probably Granada Theatre)
Unknown City, Unknown State (probably Santa Barbara, CA)
ca. April-May 1973 (probably April 12, 1973)

--Disc One (13 tracks, 51:02)--
d1t01. (1) [0:05] //Going To The Races [#2:25] (2) [0:11]
d1t02. (3) [0:09] I Wonder Where You Are Tonight [2:19] [0:08]
d1t03. (4, 5) [0:28] Down In The Willow Garden [4:19]
d1t04. (6, 7) [0:29] Old And In The Way Breakdown [1:59] [0:10]
d1t05. Land Of The Navajo [7:40] [0:03] %
d1t06. [0:23] 'Til The End Of The World Rolls Around [2:18] [0:09]
d1t07. (8) [0:32] Panama Red [2:18] [0:11]
d1t08. [0:22] I'm Knocking On Your Door [3:50] [0:11]
d1t09. (9) [0:48] Soldier's Joy [3:06] (10) [0:32]
d1t10. (11) [1:14] Down Where The River Bends [4:43] [0:06]
d1t11. band introductions, talk (12, 13) [1:41]
d1t12. Blue Mule [4:35] [0:13]
d1t13. (14) [0:45] Love Please Come Home [2:20] [0:08] %

--Disc Two (9 tracks, 33:15)--
d2t01. [0:49] Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:02] [0:12]
d2t02. (15) [0:37] Pig In A Pen [2:33] [0:11]
d2t03. banter (16) [1:21]
d2t04. Hard Hearted [2:43] [0:08] %
d2t05. (17) [0:47] Turkey In The Straw [1:56] [0:13]
d2t06. % [0:38] White Dove [4:02] % [0:11]
d2t07. (18) [1:12] Thirsty In The Rain [3:02] [0:09]
d2t08. [0:09] How Mountain Girls Can Love [1:53] (19) [1:20]
d2t09. Orange Blossom Special [4:28] (20) [0:34]

--Rehearsal Filler (2 tracks, 3:57)--
d2t10. talk (21), Blue Mule workouts// [3:28]
d2t11. Cedar Hill// [0:29]

! ACT1: Old And In The Way
! lineup: Peter Rowan - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-bass;
! lineup: Richard Greene - fiddle.

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/19730412-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19730412-02 (late)

! db: shnid-99222 (somewhat degraded sbd; this fileset).

! R: Source Tape: MR > ? > R @ 7.5 ips

! R: Source Tape digitization: AKAI GX 625 playback > Apogee Mini Me (24/96) > Apogee MiniDac (monitoring/mastering) > Wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 16/44 via Apogee) > CD, by Matt Smith. Subsequent digital realm: EAC > WAV (TLH confirms no sbes) > FLAC (TLH), by GEMS.

! R: seeder notes: - The presence of Richard Greene on fiddle suggests this show was between March and May 1973. - wow, thanks Will Boswell and Matt Smith for this "new to general circ." show.  you guys rule! - and, as of now, we don't have OAITW doing a number of these songs! - there is slight distortion in a few places. This tape warbling, however, is a bit harsh from d2t06 white dove on.

! d1t01 (1) dead air, layer of hiss starts @ 0:03 until 0:05

! d1t01 (2) RG mic check, lots of reverb. Garcia "No, wait a minute, wait a minute man. Don't put it high [inaudible]."

! d1t02 (3) JG: "Oh hey, how about IWWYAT"

! d1t03 (4) DG: "'Willow Garden', you wanna do 'Willon Garden'?" JG: "Sure."

! d1t03 (5) @ 0:24 DG song intro: "A little traditional murder ballad for ya."

! R: d1t03 DITWG warbles in 2:30 mark.

! d1t03 P: Garcia takes a solo @ 3:12-3:37. I know some would not want to countenance the possibility, but I hear his banjo limitations.

! d1t04 (6) ?Rowan?: "Why don't we do [inaudible]?" There's a chuckle and some cross-talk and JG says "Because you don't know it." Guy: "I can fake it!"

! d1t04 (7) @ 0:31 DG introduction "This is the, uh, Old And In The Way Breakdown."

! R: d1t05 LOTN bad speed issues @ 5:50

! R: d1t05 LOTN bad tape much @ 6:48

! d1t07 (8) @ 0:13 DG: "This boy over here on the git-tar, his name is 'Panama Red'. 'Panama Pete'."

! d1t08 IKOYD starts with Rowan knocking on his guitar, simulating door, replying to himself "What's that noise? C'mon in" as the song starts.

! d1t09 (9) DG: "I'd say it's time for a banjo & fiddle tune."

! d1t09 (10) Richard Greene: "Thank you, thank you." JG: "Thanks a lot."

! d1t10 (11) @ 1:10 JG: "It's time for the Old And In The Way patriotic moment. This is it coming right up."

! d1t11 Personnel: David Grisman: "I'd like to introduce the members of the band. Peter Rowan here on the guitar. Lil' John Kahn on the bass. Fiddlin' Richard Greene back there. On the 5-string banjo, Spud Garcia." JG: "Playing mandolin tonight we have David Dawg." Note for the evolution of nicknames in OAITW.

! d1t11 (12) DG: "We're gonna render one now called "The Blue Mule."

! d1t11 (13) @ 0:56 PR: "How many people here have heard of Bill Monroe? [applause] This is the song of Molly and Tenbrooks."

! d1t13 (14) DG: "We got a brand new number here for ya. We were just workin' it out in the car." PR: "Actually we got a brand old number."

! P: d2t01 LLAC again I can hear JG's banjo limitations in the solo @ 2:50ff.

! d2t02 (15) DG: "Any requests?" Chick: "Let Garcia sing!" JG to DG: "You had to say something." THIS IS EXTREMELY REVEALING. Chick yells out again: "Let Garcia sing!" Rowan, in a sort of an east coast accent: "Awright, we'll let'im. You don' think he can sing, huh?"

! d2t03 (16) RG: "We've have a lot of requests for the 'Orange Blossom Special' .. But, wait ... I myself haven't played it in years." Band: "You lie!" RG: "And furthermore, these boys here, on the stage tonight, don't know how the tune goes." Lots of laughter.

! d2t05 (17) RG: "We'd like to honor a request right now -- 'Turkey In The Straw'."

! R: from d2t06 "White Dove" forward, these are quite bad speed problems.

! d2t06 WD Garcia vocals

! d2t07 DG: "We're gonna do a little Peter Rowan number called 'Thirsty In The Rain'."

! R: s2t08 is practically unlistenable (even for me!) because of speed problems. We are aural witnesses to the demise of a set of batteries. RIP, old friends.

! d2t08 (19) JG: "See y'all later." Encore calls, including some close-to-the-mic urgings suggestive of a possible audience tape? Then when you hear the room there's a lot of room sound ... definitely recording ambiently. Re: venue, sounds like a moderate-sized auditorium to me. More room echo than you'd get in a club like the Lion's Share, for sure. Doesn't sound like Keystone, either. Auditorium, or theater.

! d2t09 (20) @ 4:52 Emcee: "That's it, folks, g'night. Thank you very much. G'night." I don't recognize this voice, so it doesn't shed much light on the venue.

! d2t10 filler (21) JG: "I don't have any of them numbers." Other guy: "I think I have the office's." JG: "Oh, call them up and tell them - ?Ned?, who's Parrish's old lady, to tell Parrish to get serious. That'd work." That followed by some goofiness, microphone talk, some runs through the harmony introduction to "Blue Mule", and some running through that song.

! I am not going to get into what the rehearsal material might be. There's a need to go through the OAITW rehearsal material with a fine-toothed comb, and I don't want to tackle it here and now.

! Given the provenance of the recording (Will Boswell to Matt Smith), my best guess as to what this really is would be as follows: Thursday, April 12, 1973, Granada Theater, 1216 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA. (update: yes, I really do think so.) First, we know that Boswell acquired some tapes from a Santa Barbara soundman, including the 4/24/74 Great American Music Band tape. SB soundman, maybe this tape was also from his collection. Pat Lee suggests that the fact that the reels were on BASF tape stock is consistent with the Santa Barbara soundman idea. (Note that while this April 12, 1973 OAITW date is generally unknown and undocumented, Richard Greene's datebooks show him at the Granada on this date) Second, we also (think we) know that Richard Greene was only playing with OAITW, perhaps only intermittently, in ca. April-May. We know the band started without fiddle, the John Hartford played in a time or two, that Richard was around, and that Vassar enters for the Boston show on June 5. Third, the more I reflect on this the more it seems like a relatively spacious room, and the more this indicates an out-of-town show. I see the following local venues played by the band at this time: Boarding House (San Francisco), Lion's Share (San Anselmo), Orphanage (San Francisco), Homers Warehouse (Palo Alto). There was a show at Bimbo's 365 Club on May 25, but Richard was not there. How big was Homers Warehouse? The other places were small clubs, ca. a couple hundred seats as I understand things. Out of town, by contrast, they played the Granada, Churchill High School (presumably the gym) in Eugene, OR (Tuesday, May 8, 1973) and the Paramount Theatre in Portland (Wednesday, May 9, 1973) during this period. Upshot: large room suggests out of town; provenance suggests Santa Barbara, for which there is a theater date that includes Richard Greene.

Reconstruction: June 8, 1979, venue question

Still can't believe how little I've had to say about Reconstruction. All in due time, I guess.

Anyway, a quickie: I think the correct venue for the June 8, 1979 Reconstruction show is probably the Rio Theater (140 Parker Avenue, Rodeo, CA, 94572). Here's how it looks today:


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This is based on the image below, a calendar item from the Contra Costa Times of June 8, 1979 (p. 37) that lists it that way.

By contrast, I have never seen any firm evidence for a listing at the Rheem Theater. That's how it's listed at TJS, and that's how it is listed on circulating tapes (e.g., shnid 23675). I suspect those two data are not independent of each other. In any case, I'd guess that there was a (perfectly understandable) transposition of Rheem Theater for Rio Theater somewhere along the line.

I didn't crop the listing too closely, for a few reasons. First, there's just other stuff in there and you never know who'll find something interesting. Second, and maybe this is more because I am listening to some Buck Owens, but it reminds me of how "country" some of Contra Costa County still was in 1979. I haven't been to Rodeo in forever and maybe it hasn't changed at all (based on the Google Earth image above, it doesn't look like it!). But most of CCC is completely transformed since that time period, and its interesting to remember what a hinterland it was in the late 70s. Third, I wanted to give a sense of the degraded quality of the microfilms of the Contra Costa Times are a the central CCC library in Pleasant Hill. I certainly don't blame the facility nor, especially, the librarians - there's clearly no money being devoted to that stuff. But this wealth of historic material may just disappear one day due to budget cuts. [soapbox] Please consider donating to your local library! [/soapbox]

Was anyone there? Has anyone ever seen any other hard evidence of this show taking place at the Rheem?

Rio Theater seemed like a weird little spot, which is kind of a microcosm for how Rodeo strikes me. I'd bet more time looking through the Contra Costa Times listings would reveal lots of stuff (at the Rio and elsewhere). Rock Prosopography lists an 8/10/69 show there by Sons Of Champlin and South Bay Experimental Flash, and LLD lists a March 4, 1978 Hunter and Comfort/Peter Rowan gig. Somewhere I have a note or two about the venue. Anyway, I guess it made sense for them to advertise in the Times, which always seemed more East county centered (Lamorinda, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Concord, even Antioch). There are some pretty weird east bay backroads between those towns and Rodeo, and back at that time there wasn't necessarily a whole lot of police presence on them - could be fun to drive a little, see a show, and all that.


Anyway, consider this my argument in favor of changing the venue for this show from Rheem Theater, Moraga, to Rio Theater, Rodeo.