What I think is Might Be (?) a January 1976 keyboardists' tryout tape

The great Charlie Miller has gathered and shared many thousands of tapes. One that he got hands on somewhere along the line and then forgot about has just come into the light.

ca. 1975-1976 JGB rehearsals, outs: https://etreedb.org/shn/166364.

I hypothesize that this tape captures material from trying out / playing around with various keyboardists in January 1976. I think the need to summarize the ca. January 1976 keyboardist/repertoire options is what begat this tape --an artifact, emerging out of a distinct set of historical processes-- in the first place. It's a work tape.

I could be completely wrong about that. If you disagree, let me hear it! Tape is available to torrent from Lossless Legs (maybe be sub required).

Insofar as that's what's represented, then 

1) cool;

2) I was considerably wrong in my "Jerry's January 1976" post when I implied he was a slacker who settled for the most ready-to-hand keyboard player, Keith Godchaux;

3) I have additional material informing this idea of these as tryouts, which you'll be able to read about in Fate Music.

In the meantime, here are my very detailed listening notes, tracked differently (more baroquely) than Charlie's fileset.

Jerry Garcia Band
Probably His Master's Wheels
60 Brady Street
ca. 1976
85 minute 2 channel mono

--(20 tracks, 85:52)--
--fragment 1
t01. noisy noodle (1) [0:20] %
[MISSING: Tore Up Over You]

--fragment 2 (2 tracks,
t02. //untitled-197611xx-01-jam (2) [#21:12] %
t03. Magnificent Sanctuary Band Jam// [2:53#] %

--fragment 3 (2 tracks, 1 tune,
t04. //tape fragment// [#0:03#]
t05. //Tore Up Over You (3) [2:13] [0:06] %

--fragment 4 (3 tracks,
t06. //Freight Train [#2:47] %
t07. //Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie 1 [#5:56] (4) [0:03] %
t08. //Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie 2 [#4:30] [0:02] %

--fragment 5 (3 tracks,
t09. //Mystery Train// 1 [#7:04#] %
t10. (5) Mystery Train 2 [3:26] [0:16]
t11. Mystery Train 3 [7:09] (6) [0:09] %

--fragment 6 (5 tracks,
t12. I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) [9:36] (7) [0:14]
t13. It's Too Late [0:30]
t14. (I'm A) Road Runner 1 flirt [0:47]
t15. (I'm A) Road Runner 2 fragment [0:14] (8) [0:18]
t16. (I'm A) Road Runner 3 [4:15] (9) [0:21] %

--fragment 7 (4 tracks,
t17. Hey Bo Diddley [7:13] ->
t18. Hideaway [3:02] (10) [0:14]
t19. (11) Maybellene [0:42] ->
t20. Thirty Days flirt (12) [0:24]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band Z
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - electric guitar;
! lineup: John Kahn - electric bass;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums;
! lineup: unnamed-19761xxx-01 - keyboards (tracks,
! lineup: unnamed-19761xxx-02 - keyboards (tracks,

JGMF:

! t01 JG cites Tore Up Over You before tape cut

! P: I have no idea what this is - but it's a B3 player who can play!

! t01 (1) the noisy noodle has a vaguely Halloweenish feel

! R: t02 jam is munching tape at the start, super warbly, eventually gets up to speed. Jerry higher up in the mix 1:30ff.  Bass more audible late in 1. Garcia's guitar distorted, probably everything distorted.

! P: t02 jam Very New Orleans feel, bright B3. Is that really KG on organ? It does not sound like him. The organ is much more Brother Jack McDuff-sounding than I ever recall Keith being. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_McDuff. JG Nice lick 1:45. Organ feature 3:05ff, Garcia comping, John walking, drummer swinging. Right at 4 again very avian big bright organ - Jimmy Smith Brother Jack McDuff. John is walking it just like James Jamerson all up in here. 4:50 Jerry takes another lead turn. 13 more walking bass line. @13:32 you can hear Jerry's fingers on the strings - he's letting it make itself heard, as an accent. Sounds amazing - super slow late 13 as gentle as fresh a wildflower! B3 is mellifluous 14ff. Gentle, sweet tunes. Still a B3 "feauture", but it is buried in the mix and sounds a little rudimentary to my ear. Still walking along for a while, easy as you please. Nice melody Jerry lands on in 15 - something almost recognizable at 15:51. Fuzz makes it sound a little saxophonish around 16:40. Even more at 17:35 - superfuzz for Jerry, Link Wray tone for a bit. JG takes some rounds 18:19 and the organist steps forward (recording, too, I think) - things are hotting up 18:45, B3 in the classic sound - hits high right at 19, again avian. Swinging on an R&B groove around 19:15 and a N'awlins descent at 19:30. Jerry starts winding it down like 20:30, but it's hard to pin a real ending, so I just time the whole track.

! t02 (2) Jerry hits "Tore Up Over You" just before the tape cuts out.

! P: t03 Magnificent Sanctuary Band Keith (I think) is leading this, the drum is very foot-pedal heavy, and this is just Keith and a drummer, with Garcia and Kahn sitting this one out. Both of the pianist's hands sound great. Probably just KG and RT.

! R: t03 MSB drop right before the end, real time

! P: t05 TUOY starts with organist back a little bit, Jerry up front. The, delightfully @ 0:29 JG starts comping, and at 0:36 the B3 comes in like a bird - exactly the same style as the earlier jam had been, same personnel. Around 1:15 or so Jerry starts singing the lyric, but without a vocal mic. The organist doing a straightforward accent on "tore up" - sounds like Jerry gets in front of a mic for the last lyric.

! t05 (3) JG: "aw fuck - I keep forgetting that thing"

! P: t06 Freight Train Jerry sounds almost acoustic. Drums just snare. Electric keyboard comes in @0:52. Jerry singing so high in the register, almost falsetto, can't quite reach the notes. Very peppy tempo. Lyrically, he sort of gets the first verse, does a couple of choruses. Beautiful swirly keys 1:25, like a carnival. 1:42 he sings the "when I die o bury me deep / down at the end of old Chestnut Street / so I can hear ol number 9 as she goes running by". Another chorus - he calls a note at 2:27 not sure "[D E G] again". Nice plucky tone against the swirly organ.

! R: t07 OBIANL ff recording has more high end, I think. Hissier for sure.

! P: t07 OBIANL beautiful just Jerry and John falsetto - out of his range I think. Drums enter at 2:00, now electric keys @ 2:08. This aggregation and keys in around 2:05 -5:55. Pretty keyboard in 5:30 range - he puts a Baby Blue riff on around 5:46.

! t07 (4) JG: "I don't know what ... I don't really know//". This sort of tails onto t08.

! P: t08 OBIANL take 2 - lovely gentle stuff. Drums enter around 0:40. Snare-led.

! R: t09 MT1 sounds better than the chunk with the Elizabeth Cotten material. More dynamic range, less hiss. drums and guitar L, synth keys R, voice center, bass L. Tune cuts in and cuts out on what was probably the last "took away my baby"

! P: t09 Mystery Train take 1 keys are synth right now - fascinating! Different player, too? Just not sure. 2:29ff electric keys/synth takes first feature. Jerry comping fantastically behind, like check out 2:49. Sounds like there's an organ on one hand, electric piano on the other hand? Jerry in a little feature ca. 3. Organ lead 3:39ff. Drummer hard in the pocket - high hat driven, super steady. More electric keys lead 4:25. JG lead 4:52

! t10 (5) song is ending, an English guy *not Nicky* says "too much". Then they roll into MT2. I normally might have tacked a second or so from the front here onto the previous track, but it's all good. Electric keys - Rhodes plus the three members Jerry, John and Tutt.

! P: t10 MT2 right around 2 there's some conversation while the beat rolls on. Can't make it out. Jerry steps up for a verse 2:30. Keys sound really nice, nice little flourish over the end of that verse. This sounds tight as hell.

! P: t11 Mystery Train take 3 is faster and drives harder.  This drives like a motherfucker. Drums ease in at 0:17, Garcia has a nice country twang going just before 30 seconds in, the synth is upfront. What is the technique he uses at 0:43 called? He plucks a single note that's not offkey, but it certainly offsets the straight vocal, punctuating. It's awesome. Sweet country sound - I wonder if he's playing a tele, almost? I highly doubt it, but it definitely has that feel. Bend at 2:04 that is definitely Bakersfield. Here in 4 the keys sound familiar. At first I thought Jimmy Warren, but maybe now it sounds like Ozzie Ahlers. I am not saying it is either of these guys - I don't think it's either one of them. But I am trying to pin some comps down. Now at 5:20 two keyboard sounds, I think it's one player with two hands going - left is like an electric piano and right is the synth. Truly glorious string scratches from Garcia right at the end, a little scrubby-dubby from 7:02-7:05. Gaaahhh.

! t11 (6) Tutt: "Ahhh, shit. [inaudible] to try another one like that." JG: "[inaudible] like that?" Somebody else (Kahn?): "It's got layers." As I will narrate in Fate Music in a heading titled "Cats in the Studio," in July 1977 Tutt and Garcia held a very similar exchange after a jam, with Ronnie saying stuff like "that'll work - we can take that wherever we want to", and Jerry concurring. Who cares? I do! Kahn gets all the credit as Garcia's band director, and he was. But Tutt was in a "musical director" space -- validated by Garcia -- in those July '77 jams, and here he is the prior year playing the same role. Very important little fragment right there.

! song: "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" (t12): Yes, the Four Tops Tune tune, Holland-Dozier-Holland on Motown! Singleton. 

! P: t12 Sugar Pie Honey Bunch - oh my God this is stunning. Drums, organ, electric guitar, Garcia playing in a style like I have never ever heard before. 1:46 is he playing a Strat? Wow, fuzzy 2:16 what is the name of that effect? Not sure I have heard bass in this. Just keys guitar drums. God, Tutt starts some hi-hatting at 3:12 that is IMPOSSIBLE it's so good. Organ player takes a lead 3:20ff or thereabouts. @ 3:42 Garcia singing unamplified, way high in his vocal range, but amazing. This is cooking so sweet and hot and it bounces incredibly well. Band playing really well together. No idea who this organist is - DEF not Keith. This is a B3 aficionado, someone tearing it up. Any chance this is Larry Knechtel? By 6 Jerry is in more recognizable sound, still not sure which guitar he's playing. But my God is this AMAZING. Slow it wayy down at 8:48, half time, quarter time, decay to gentle @ 9:07, there's John Kahn, Jerry noodling some stuff to wind it down.

! t12 (7) @ 9:41, good hearty Jerry laugh. Tutt: "What time is it?" JG: "Too late." Someone else, affirming: "too late". Naturally enough, this leads Jerry to strum the beautiful xxx notes xxx chord of "It's Too Late".

! P: t13 ITL falsetto!

! t15 (8) JK is quoting an Abbey Road sounding piece - maybe Come Together? Powerful, McCartney sounding. Jerry hits the Lennon twang. Not sure which tune, but a Beatles riff I think.

! P: IARR 3 he doesn't lead with the first verse, I don't think? This is the quartet playing. Jerry, John, Ronnie, and organ player. Tempo slows 2:48, now sounding more like '76 JGB (heh heh).

! t16 (9) @ 3:45 IARR sort of unraveled gradually. Tutt called out a '1' to take it from the top, but Jerry starts moaning "1", becoming "whaaaa??" It's "1" a second moan, he is joined in by John I think, also moaning "1????????" They pick it up pretty continuously until 4:15, when he drops it again, Tutt calls out '1' again, and they all riff on the same goof from 30 seconds before, moaning and cawing. @ 4:10 someone yells out "Christ!", and it sounds like an English voice to me. Again, NB re: Tutt leading musically. He's the drumer and he's just counting down the beat in this case, but it's still fun to see him focused and the rest of these weirdos being weird.

! song: "Hey Bo Diddley" (t17): https://jerrybase.com/songs/326.

! P: t17 Hey Bo Diddley starts off with cool John Kahn liquid weirdness, some big bottom of the sea low amplitude forms, first 30 seconds of the track. Organ arrives 0:54. Neat interplay JG and organ player 1:38, he scrubs for the three beats, real basic, and the organist puts some color on it. Right after 3 Jerry steps back to play his guitar, and it's hot and great. Killer fuzztone 4:35 - like fuzzier than you will ever hear him. Shreddy, weaving through, around, over, the organ's melody lines. Big fuzzy R&R guitar 5:18ff. Grungy. Late 5 he finds a defined melody of something that might be identifiable. Jerry audibly unpedals the fuzz @ 6:20 with a killer rock chord, and it's back cleanly into the Bo Diddley beat, Jerry with some chunky ... all through this there is a drum that sounds like a hand drum, e.g., 6:45 for awhile, but it perfectly accompanies the drum, so I think ...?

! P: t17-t18 Jerry lets it decay and the organist hits "Hideaway", but Jerry takes a bit to really embrace it. At 0:39 Garcia is playing "Hideaway" with a guitar that sounds really unfamiliar. Wow! Groovy as fuck at 1:32 when everyone is walking it for awhile, organist splashes other tones. 2:27ish Jerry tries to end it, but not one takes him up on it, trying again 10 and Tutt catches the cue perfectly!

! R: t18 Hideaway track some static for sure

! t18 (10) Jerry playing some blues lines, Tutt drums fast to them.

! t19 (11) I track Maybellene to where Tutt starts drumming the beat. Over the start of it, he says "That's that other [?another?] Freddie King tune". I think he's referring to the melody he just hinted at - see note 10. I don't recognize it. Maybellene, of course, was written by Chuck Barry, so maybe he was just having a stoner moment with it?

! P: t19 Maybellene Jerry does some of the rough and ready vamp singing he's been having fun with all night to start, but pretty quickly he gets a verse together, like ten seconds into the noodle. John walking *incredibly* late 0:16 range. This is a boogeying little thing they are doing,

! song: "Thirty Days" (t20): Chuck Berry. Like "Maybellene", a rock 'n' roll standard.

! t20 (12) there are a couple of "fuck it"s at the very end.

Friday Night at the Boarding House

edit: well, this is a first - turns out I had already posted a version of this. Heh heh. Presumably, this one is better.

April 13-16, 1973 saw Garcia "Four Nights at the Boarding House", two with Merl Saunders and The Group (JGMS), two with Old And In The Way (OAITW). So much about these shows tantalizes me – the legendary San Francisco venue, the only-in-the-Garciaverse blend of black and white, old and new, my love for the repertoires and performances of both bands, and the fact that of the four nights, and presumably at least nine sets/shows,[1] only one set circulates, the first set of the OAITW late show on Monday the 16^th (see shnid-100404 for the best copy, and my listening notes). We know a little about the other three nights from Rob Eaton: Friday the 13^th and Saturday the 14^th were represented among the Third Batch Betty Boards that he transcribed in 1996, and somewhere along the way (possibly also the Third Batch) he transcribed one of the Sunday night (4/15) bluegrass sets.

In this post I want to say just a bit more about Friday the 13^th, mostly triggered by a show review I found in the Stanford Daily.[2] I'll start with what we already knew, and then turn to what the review adds.

Metadata

The Soto-McNally-Arnold JG List, Garciaverse successor to the Soto List, had a listing for this show, which may have come from union contracts and/or the newspaper and other research of any of the named authors. I show a Barb "Scenedrome" listing (April 13-19, 1973, p. 18) and one in the Hayward Daily Review (April 6, 1973, p. 53) with scheduled 8 pm start.

Setlist

Rob Eaton contributed setlist details for the end of the show, updated by TJS staff:

--end set II--

Money Honey

Positively 4th Street

untitled-19730307

Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Tape Archaeology

These details came from a sound recording, and I'd like to dig into a bit of tape archaeology.

When Betty Cantor-Jackson and Rex Jackson got together in 1972, they mixed and mingled their lives and their tape collections. The legendary Betty Boards could be more accurately, if less fetchingly, understood as the Cantor-Jackson Collection, the tapes they merged and then made (together and apart) during Rex's foreshortened life (d. September 5, 1976) and beyond it, Betty flying where it's wing-meltingly-hot to make some of the finest sound recordings in the long history of live music.

This gorgeous personal collection of professionaly-curated tape got washed away along with everything else in her life over a number of years, by the early '82 floods and by a spate of equally natural human disasters, muck that doesn't come off with a Q-Tip. The tape went from a box in Betty's San Anselmo basement to the world of storage units (somewhere in the world exist documents that could help us pin down details, I just haven't managed to uncover them yet), lost from memory until it wound up auctioned-off with a thousand or more of its companion Betty Boards around May 1986.[3]

For over nine years, this tape hid in a goat barn until, in late 1995, its possessor called Rob Eaton to investigate and, eventually, preserve it. Armed with wood-stemmed cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol, an oven to bake flaky oxide to a vinyl backing, sweating over an Otari 50/50 reel to reel->Apogee 500 A/D converter-> Panasonic SV3700 DAT setup, Eaton spent 700 of his 1996 hours annotating, cleaning, repairing, spinning, and presumably soaking in and enjoying some of the sweetest sounds ever captured live – a Third Batch of Betty Boards, including the last 40 minutes of the Garcia-Saunders group at the Boarding House on Friday, April 13, 1973.[4]

Now I will get even more arcane about this particular artifact.

Eaton's "Kingbee" List gave the following:

04/13/73 The Boarding House, San Francisco Ca - xcerpt
4.8, 039min, Sbd, A0D1, Reel Master->Dat 1, 44k,
10inch Master Reel@7.5ips 1/2trk->3700 x 0->3800 x 1

Though he's almost never mistaken, I thought Kingbee had tripped up on this one. I thought this must be reel #3 of a show recorded on 7" tape. I was wrong, KB was right as usual. Not that anyone cares, but let me run through my reasoning.

It has generally been my sense that Betty usually taped Garcia on 7" reels running at 7.5 ips or 10" reels running at 15 ips (about 48 minutes). Sometimes tape diameter and recording speed would cross to the other diagonal, but not that much. What we have here is a 10" reel running at 7.5 ips (96 minutes), just such an off-diagonal tape. And, I have finally come around to the idea that this could indeed be the last 40 minutes of a contemporary JGMS gig, on these parameters – this looks a lot like the 49 minute end-of-show tape that lived with 4/13/73, March 7, 1973. I also note that Lion's Share 7/5/73 gives 10-7.5 parameters, though that one is a 180 minute monster. So maybe this is how she was doing it at this time.

Show Review

Happily, recent gatherings give me a bit more to report. The Stanford Daily has been beautifully preserved and presented at http://stanforddailyarchive.com/. Thanks to all involved in making that happen. Among many other delights, it yielded a review by Jay Harlow of this Friday the 13th at the Boarding House. 

Garcia and Saunders "returned for a two-night stay" (following a three night run in January[5]), "joined by guitarist George Pichner [sic: George Tickner], ... an important enough part of the group to deserve equal billing." They were late in starting: "At 9:30 we got word that the band was still waiting for the bass player. Five minutes later he was outside looking for a parking space, and eventually came walking in through the audience, being occasionally booed and heckled." The show eventually kicked off just before ten with "That's A Touch I Like". Garcia's guitar plays like a good, dry white wine (it was already Palo Alto, after all).

A friend named Sarah helped with the vocals on some numbers, and particularly shone on "Honey Chile". Her voice ... blends very nicely with Garcia's guitar. .. In the middle of the set there was a long, beautiful instrumental number in which everyone had some solo space. ... Pichner [sic], who had been playing mostly rhythm guitar so far, did some good leads, à la Eric Clapton at times. His somewhat harsher tone sets off Garcia and Saunders very well.

Harlow namechecks Bill Vitt for us, and has high praise for the Mule: "bassist John Kahn was certainly worth waiting for. Both in backup and solo playing, he is a real stylist. At times the flair in his left-hand fingerings reminded me of a classical guitarist." He gives us a few more setlist details ("That's All Right", "Lonely Avenue" and "I Second That Emotion"), and it sounds like a good time, "first rate musicians really working together".

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, Harlow doesn't say anything about the electric violin player reported present at JGC (via TJS). I wonder if George Tickner did any fiddling?

In Sum

Armed with this new information, let me sum up in the form of a draft TJS-successor entry.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

Boarding House

960 Bush Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

April 13, 1973 (Friday) - 10 PM

--unknown set and order status--

That's A Touch I Like

That's All Right

Lonely Avenue

I Second That Emotion

Honey Chile

--end set II--

Money Honey

Positively 4th Street

untitled-19730307

Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

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

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: George Tickner - el-g;

! lineup: Bill Vitt - drums;

! lineup: Sarah Fulcher - vocals.

! ?guest?: ?? – electric violin.

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19730413-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1973-04-13-boarding-house-san-francisco-ca/, noting "An unknown electric violinist sit in on this performance".

! db: none in circulation as of 8/11/2015.

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/boarding-house-960-bush-st-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/4JEC3

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730401p12

! listing: Hayward Daily Review, April 6, 1973, p. 53

! listing: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730408p04

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730408p11

! listing: "Scenedrome," Berkeley Barb, April 13-19, 1973, p. 18

! listing: Hayward Daily Review, April 13, 1973, p. 53

! listing: San Francisco Examiner, April 13, 1973, p. 35

! listing: San Francisco Examiner, April 13, 1973, p. 44

! review: [positive] Harlow, Jay. 1973. Garcia, Saunders 'Together' At Boarding House Theater In SF. Stanford Daily, April 17, p. 7. Accessed via http://stanforddailyarchive.com/, 7/2/2015

! personnel: Harlow (1973) namechecks the whole band (though, as a few weeks earlier at the Inn of the Beginning, Sarah is just Sarah). The author identifies "George Pichner", but it's George Tickner on second guitar.

! setlist: The show was scheduled for 8, but started closer to 10 (John Kahn was late arriving). The set structure is uncertain beyond that That's A Touch opens the proceedings Dixie closes them down. I hypothesize that one of the sets was truncated due to the late start. For example, the songs from RE's reel transcription, Money Honey through Dixie Down, could be the entirety of set II. The rest of the songs derive from a review in the Stanford Daily (Harlow 1973), and I place them in set I, though that's not certain.

! song: " untitled 19730307" is the beautiful unnamed thing Jerry and Sarah did together on the March 7, 1973 tape.

---

[1] Normally, I'd say eight sets/shows, two sets per night for JGMS and two shows per night for OAITW. But the circulating tape of 4/16/73b suggests that that show contained two sets, bringing our presumed set total to at least nine, and possibly as many as sixteen sets (2 for each JGMS date and 4 for each OAITW date).

[2] Harlow 1973.

[3] Budnick 2014.

[4] See Eaton 2015 for more detail.

[5] See my write-ups for 1/24/73 (http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/07/ln-jg1973-01-24jgmsearly-latesbd.html) and 1/25/73 (http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/07/ln-jg1973-01-25jgmsearly.html). Betty taped and Eaton transcribed 1/23, but it has never seen the wider light of day.

That fiddle!

https://archive.org/details/gd1969-08-03.sbd.miller.30652.sbeok.flac16

I can't believe how great the guest fiddler is on this show, 46 years ago today. There's also a sax and maybe a few other mystery players.

Goddamn, I wish I could have seen a show at the Family Dog.

Jerry Band at the Pismo Theatre

On Friday-Saturday, November 19-20, 1976, the Jerry Garcia Band played four improbable gigs at the stunning Pismo Theatre in foggy, salty, sandy, lovely little Pismo Beach, California. If you only know it from Bugs Bunny, I urge you to pass through it some time (though I have not done so in more than twenty years). It is the quintessence of that part of the California coastline.

Commenter nick had listened to 11/20/76 not too long ago and mentioned it, also noting a guest rhythm player in "Don't Let Go".  I confess that I listened without recalling the putative guest shot, and I didn't even hear it! It was only in polishing my notes that I was reminded about it, and went back to check it out. It's very subtle, until about 5:18 when it comes forward a bit more. It's pretty basic chording on an electric guitar, nothing particularly distinctive, which is fine. (Though, once I alerted my ears to it, it became quite repetitive.) But it makes me wonder whether this guy (probabilistically speaking) isn't present in other parts of the set. Could be, and I just missed it.

Who is it? Well, this is the earliest known entry in the late-1976 to early-1977 second guitarist experiments. John Rich plays pedal steel at the December 21-23 Keystone Family shows. But there is a second guitarist also on 1/29/77, 1/30/77 and 4/9/77, and while I initially thought it was Mr. Rich, I have determined that it is someone else, and further that that someone else should also be associated with 2/5/77, 2/6/77 and 4/10/77. This might just constitute a hitherto-undocumented "Era" of the Jerry Garcia Band, the only one to feature two guitars (earlier two-guitarist situations, whether with Tom Fogerty, George Tickner, or mystery players (2/16/74, 7/12/74) all predated JGB, and in the latter case would be construed as guest shots rather than (ongoing) band membership.

If forced to wager, I'd say the guy here is the same guy playing in the first half of 1977, whose name I'll reveal once I get a chance to engage him directly. I don't like that this stretches his known timeline back a month --I'd feel better if this fell within the January-April window, for which there is good contemporary evidence-- but he's my best guess. Of course, it could have been any one of a dozen guys within driving distance of Pismo, and I just don't know.

Musically, meh. The shows are long and stretched out, clocking in well over an hour and a half each, and this show doesn't suffer from the turgid tempos of so many of any its 1976 brethren. It just doesn't move me.

I like the "After Midnight" in the early show. But "Don't Let Go", as it almost always is in any show in which it made an appearance, is the highlight, though this is far from the best version out there. Keith does some very interesting multiplets in the 12 minute mark, John Kahn takes a very uncommon-for-the-song lead piece on his electric bass, Jerry steps up a few minutes later with some really cosmic stuff, but too-briefly, Tutt drives with some amazing foundational and flourish work underneath him, and for awhile it's really great. But they end up just repeating "don't let go" an awful lot to the crowd, and ten minutes of real highlight isn't much in three hours of time. I have a well-known bias against 1976, but I think it's reasonably well-deserved. There's nothing wrong with this, it just doesn't light me up.

One last point: Jerry Speaks. More than that, he advocates (after TLEO in the late show): "I'd like to remind you all to come down here and see old Hoyt Axton, December 10th and 11th. He'll be down here doin' a benefit for Redwind, which is just a good scene, about forty miles from here, a lot of good people workin' real hard. Hope you can make that one." This is the only time since the 60s (it hadn't happened since, that I can recall, and would never happen again, that I can think of) that Garcia directly pitches a charity to the crowd. Jerry was mostly mute from stage by this time except for his setbreak announcement and parting word. But he was especially averse to advocating anything. What's going on here?

The RedWind Medicine Camp was a Native American community, chiefed by the last full-blooded Chumash, Semu Huaute, located in rugged San Luis Obispo County. In correspondence, Bob Sewana Saenz explains: "Jerry visited me in SLO after a show at the Pismo Beach Theater in late 1976. I drove him and a few band members to Semu Huaute's (Chumash) Red Wind Medicine Camp. I showed him a school project that we were in need of funds to develop for the many children there." I presume they went up on Saturday, and came back down in time for Jerry to play his shows. He must have been moved, because he speaks. Even more importantly, he puts his money where his mouth is, headlining a benefit for the RedWind Foundation at UCSB on February 5, 1977 - but I'll get to that later. [edit: done!]

 
Detailed listening notes, references, etc. below the fold. There's a funny beach bum who keeps yelling "fried chicken!" for no apparent reason, and a little other color.

Legal Aid for Unnamed Angels

LN jg1973-10-02.jgms.all.sbd-alligator.83809.flac1644

I am sure Blair and McNally and all the other sources go into the obscure story of the Legal Aid Benefit. I just re-read the one source I have at hand, John Wasserman's very suspicious-sounding piece in the Chronicle a few days later (1). Sounds like some Angels, facilitated by Sam Cutler and certainly abetted by Garcia, made a lot of dough with this gig, but it's not clear who, nor is it clear that the whole thing was correctly represented to, inter alia, Bill Graham himself. It sounds like an interesting story to dig more deeply into.

Of key interest from the GOTS perspective is the large number of guests. I work with a concept of the Shared Stage, which suggests that within the social networks of musicians, playing together is a deeply important form of linkage. These are "strong ties", as opposed to the "weak ties" represented by linkages such as joint billings and joint album credits. From my Garciacentric vantage, Shared Stage events can be broken down into a few categories, the most important of which are JG-host (Jerry hosting a guest) and JG-guest (Jerry taking a guest shot with someone else). Here we have a number of linkages to Jerry through the former channel in this gig:

• Another mystery trumpeter (see also 12/28/72, 7/5/73, 8/15/74, 9/1/74). Wolfgang's Vault identifies this as Bill Atwood, but that's apparently based on a conjecture by Corry, itself based on a mistaken assumption.
• Martin Fierro guests, for the second known time after 7/19/73.
• Sarah Fulcher sings on a song.
• Roger "Jellyroll" Troy plays bass at the end, and sings a couple of blues numbers.
• Matthew Kelly on harmonica.

I want to love this show. Things are good and reasonably interesting, but it just doesn't move me as much as I thought it should.

Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders
Winterland Arena
corner of Post and Steiner
San Francisco, CA 94115
October 2, 1973 (Tuesday)
92 min Betty Cantor-Jackson sbd

--(8 tracks, 92:00, presumed complete)--
t01. [0:18] % /It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [5:21] [1:39]
t02. Finders Keepers [9:35] [1:34]
t03. The Harder They Come [10:42] [1:37]
t04. My Funny Valentine [18:27] [1:09]
t05. That's Alright Mama [11:30] [1:00]
t06. I Second That Emotion [10:12] (1) [1:15]
t07. Sweet Little Angel [7:09] -> I've Got News For You [1:23] [0:16]
t08. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:56] (2) [0:13] %

! Band: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass (t07-t08);
! lineup: Bill Vitt - drums;
! guest: Martin Fierro - saxophone (t02-t06, t08);
! guest: ??Bill Atwood?? - trumpet (t01-t04, t06, t08);
! guest: Matthew Kelly - harmonica (t05, t07, t08);
! guest: Roger "Jellyroll" Troy - el-bass (t07-t08), vocals (t07);
! guest: Sara Fulcher - vocals (t05).

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/19731002-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/83809 (this fileset).

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/hLCHp

! historical: Legal Aid Benefit for a Hell's Angel friend of Sam Cutler, who didn't really tell Bill Graham what was going on. Graham: "Was I lied to by omission? Yes. Was I lied to by Mr. Cutler? Yes. For now, the money is going nowhere. Not because it was for an Angel, but because I was lied to. They used me. When I am used, I want to know by whom. What a sad commentary on our supposed 'inside' community. Now, we're in the gutter" (Wasserman 19731005).

! R: Betty Cantor Jackson's master soundboard reel ("Third Betty Batch" reel #7, 10" @ 7.5 ips ½ trk, Nagra IV-S, uncertain tape stock); preserved by Rob Eaton early 1996: Otari 50/50 reel-to-reel > Apogee 500 A/D converter > Panasonic SV3700 DAT; lossless encoding "DAT4x" > Delta DIO 2496 > Soundforge > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC, via Alligator. I have the "DAT4x" in quotes because I am not sure I believe it.

! R: came into general circulation in 2007, placed there by 'alligator' via Bit Torrent at Lossless Legs (shnflac.net) with a GEMS classification. This was among the "third batch" of Betty Cantor-Jackson's tapes, which came into some light in around late 1995-early 1996. These tapes contain a great many hours of otherwise-unheard players, songs, guests, etc., and very few of the Garcia tapes have ever come into circulation. It is very, very nice to be able to hear this recording. Without it, there is a four-month gap in recording coverage of Garcia/Saunders as a live act (between 9/6/73 and 1/17/74). That's an eternity given how much this configuration was playing and how fluid things were. [update 20130218: we now also have JGMS 11/3/73 in this frame! update later: 10/11/73, 10/12/73 now in the fold.]

! personnel: the fileset credited Saunders with keyboards and vocals, but he doesn't sing here.

! R: t01 18 seconds of recording, then clips into Train to Cry. Trumpet player is audible right away. Garcia's vocals are nearly inaudible for most of the song as the mix settles in. The mix is way off, lots of hiss, for a good long while.

! personnel: The trumpet player is good and tasteful. Wolfgang's Vault identifies him as Bill Atwood, but Corry presumes this is derived, ultimately, from him, and that the listing is possibly spurious. So we really don't know who it is.

! P: t02 Finders Keepers: half the band tries to stop around 6:54, the other half keeps playing. They pull it back together quickly enough, I guess.

! personnel: t02 Martin Fierro starts making himself audible late in the song, for example stepping forward @ 8:46. He is pushing Jerry nicely and Garcia is rockin' out

! R: t03 HTC some monkeying around in the 3-min mark, then bad sound fluctuations in 4-min mark. More weirdness, mix fluctuations, anomalies, around 6:30ish. AFter song, around 11:45, an odd spinning sound.

! personnel: t05 I think this is the same harmonica player as 7/19/73. Gotta be Matt Kelly.

! t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna get a friend of ours named Jellyroll out here to play some bass, sing a few songs for ya, maybe."

! P: t07 Sweet Little Angel: hearing Merl play some deep, swampy blues like this is pretty phenomenal. The stuff he is doing @ 6:32 is straight Church of Jimmy Smith. It feels a lot like Sunday here. Mmm mmm mm. @ 7:10 the "Ive Got News For You" verse. @ 7:48 harmonica back in. Let's assume that's Matt Kelly. Saxophone, maybe also trumpet at end, as well.

! setlist: wk: "The 'Unknown Blues Song' starts out as B.B. King's 'Sweet Little Angel' goes into a jam then finishes as Ray Charles' 'I've Got News For You. The vocals are handled by Jelly Roll Troy."

! personnel: t08 HSIII honestly cannot tell if this is Jellyroll or John Kahn playing bass here. HSII harp @ 2:52. Horns audible @ 3:35.

! t08 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. Jack and Jorma are gonna come out and play for awhile."

! WV: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/jerry-garcia-and-merl-saunders/concerts/winterland-october-02-1973.html. "Following sets by Stoneground, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Mike Bloomfield & Friends, the Garcia-Saunders Band took the stage at Winterland. They invited several friends to sit in over the course of the show, making this one of the more unique performances by the group. The recording begins with an original Saunders instrumental called "Finders Keepers." Here, Merl's dynamic keyboard playing and the punchy rhythms created by Kahn and Vitt create a funkfest that brings out a side to Garcia's playing few had heard before. Martin Fierro joins in at this point, adding freeform sax improvisations to the mix. Reggae music was just beginning to penetrate the music world in 1973 and a lengthy exploration of Jimmy Cliff's classic "The Harder They Come" follows. Garcia was one of the first American musicians to fully embrace reggae and he would absorb its exotic rhythms like a sponge. He also handles the vocals here. The highlight of the entire set is next as the ensemble tackles the jazz standard, "My Funny Valentine." This is absolutely infectious from beginning to end. Over the course of nearly 20 minutes, the ensemble floats along in a dreamy exploratory style. John Kahn's bass playing brings out lyrical magic from Garcia's guitar and Fierro's sax, neither of whom is at a loss for ideas. An unknown musician also joins in on trumpet during this number. It's an exquisite performance and the sheer joy in Garcia's playing is palpable. He rarely sounded sweeter or more comfortable than he does right here. The set continues with a rollicking romp through "That's All Right Mama." Matt Kelly, future founder of the band Kingfish, blows harmonica on this number and Garcia, with the help of local singer Sara [sic] Fulcher, handles the vocals on this rockabilly classic. A delightful rendition of Smokey Robinson's "Second That Emotion" follows, which takes the three-minute Motown hit and cooks it up for well over ten minutes. At this point, John Kahn exits and is replaced by Roger Troy, bass player and vocalist from Mike Bloomfield's band, who had performed earlier on the show. Troy leads the group into blues territory with "Sweet Little Angel," a tune he and Garcia had previously performed together during a stint in Howard Wales' band two years prior. Troy handles the vocals here, and it's obvious that all concerned are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Finally, the Marvin Gaye classic "How Sweet It Is" closes the set on another joyous note. They say goodnight and inform the audience that Jorma and Jack (aka Hot Tuna) will be taking the stage next."

REFERENCE:
Wasserman, John L. 1973. ‘Mystery’ Benefit at Winterland. San Francisco Chronicle, October 5, 1973, p. 56.

Second Gig for the new Sextet: Rissmiller's 10/27/82

LN jg1982-10-27.jgb.s1s2p.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448

Jerry Garcia Band
Rissmiller's Country Club
18415 Sherman Way
Reseda, CA 91335
October 27, 1982 (Wednesday)
83 min s1s2p Closet Call aud

--set I (7 tracks, 57:16)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:28]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:43] %
s1t03. ... They Love Each Other [8:11] [0:08] % [0:32]
s1t04. Valerie [7:34] [0:11] % [0:19]
s1t05. I Second That Emotion [9:57] % [0:09]
s1t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [7:53] [0:03] %
s1t07. Dear Prudence [12:57] (1) [0:05] %

--set II (4 tracks, 25:41, presumed incomplete)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [0:21]
s2t02. Sugaree [11:16] [0:16] %
s2t03. Run For The Roses [5:25] [0:04] % [0:07]
s2t04. Let It Rock [8:12] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #15b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! 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/19821027-03

! db: shnid-137997 (better transfer of source tape noted here)

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/wR2rw

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/rissmillers-country-club-reseda-theatre.html

! metadata: This date has been mysterious, for such a contemporary one in such a large media market. It was not mentioned in the McNally-Arnold JG List. As of 12/9/2012, the only hard evidence for this was  the picture (via TJS-RIP) of the Rismiller's marquee, reading "The Jerry Garcia Band Oct 27 28" (seen here). It is surprising that no ticket stubs or participant recollections have emerged. The setlist is similar to what we have from clean provenance for the show on the 28th, but it is not identical. I have compared the two performances and I conclude that this is, indeed, a distinct set of music. I have a theory about what happened: I suspect that this first show was unadvertised (beyond the marquee). Maybe Jerry's people agreed to just a percentage of the door, or something, so they could have a Wednesday-night warmup for the new girls. This is consistent with a broader pattern in the Garcia Band, of breaking in new players midweek and off-the-beaten path. They want to have them broken in before they put 'em before the Keystone regulars.

update20170325: I have now seen the tour documents (at the Grateful Dead Archive at McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz), and the show can be confirmed.

! R: 4th gen audience cassette (Maxell XLII90, no Dolby) > Nakamichi BX-300 playback (no Dolby) > Pyle Pro cables > WaveTerminal 2496 > Samplitude 10.1 Download Version (record @ 24 bits/48kHz) > CDWave 1.9.8 (tracking) > Adobe Audition 3.0 (cross-fades, etc.) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC encoding, level 8) (flac2448).

! R: This is fundamentally a nice tape, notwithstanding several cassette gens.

! R: s1t02 HSII badly oversaturated, brickwalled to start. Levels come down about 30 seconds in.

! P: s1t02 HSII Jerry's voice sounds a little wrecked.

! R: s1t03 TLEO fades in, a few beats missing

! P: s1t04 Valerie JG flubs the first verse vocals. Nice vocal inflection on "growled at you". Pretty nice guitar solo 4-minutes in. Doesn't completely ignite at first, but then 4:30ff, late 4-min mark, some fuzz and distortion. Good, not great.

! P: s1t05 ISTE is peppy.

! P: s1t07 DP 9-min mark Jerry's playing is very fluid. He's making perfectly symmetrical circles, which, as anyone who has ever tried to hand-draw one can attest, is not easy to do. Very airy and nice. No rush, but not ponderous. Exploratory.

! R: s1t06 TNTDODD levels way way down

! R: s1t06 splices after song, then returns to the start of "Run For the Roses". I can't tell whether this RFTR fragment is actually from in front ot the RFTR in this fileset (s2t03), and it's just a scrap of tape, but I saved it anyway. Who knows that it is.

! s1t07 (1) "We're gonna take a break. We'll be back in a little while." Good sized crowd.

! P: s2t02 Sugaree Jerry's vocals are very expressive. He sounds engaged. Melvin some nice swirls behind the action during the first verse. JG some nice fanning 8-min mark. Again, late 9-min mark, Jerry is giving the vocals his all. Not bad.

! P: s2t03 RFTR starts off a little tentative. I note that the backing vocalists aren't as present with the oohhh-ooohs and "run for the roses!" exclamations, behind the verses, as they would later become. Noting that this is the second show with the ladies, I would suggest that they don't quite have the arrangement fully worked out. The tentative instrumental and vocal start to the song almost seems to reflect this, as if Jerry needs some fill under his feet to really dig in, as the song requires. It'll be interesting to hear when this particular lineup puts the fuller vocal arrangement in. Of course, the musical execution falls apart once in the 3-min mark, as well. Melvin isn't very audible during the verses either. In some, there are some holes in the sound, especially under and around the verses, that need to be filled. Garcia can't carry it vocally, though he doesn't sound bad yet.

! Disclaimer: This is part of a "Closet Call" project aimed at making missing Garcia dates available for study. These are "warts and all" ... straight transfers of the source cassettes with editing only of the most offensive tape transitions and such. If you don't like hiss, possible speed problems, etc., etc., then move along. And, to anticipate a FAQ: no, I don't plan on doing 16/44s of these. Thanks to wk for supplying these tapes!

! URL: http://jgmf.blogspot.com

The Group with George Tickner: Keystone, March 7, 1973

LN jg1973-03-07.jgms.s2p-48mins.sbd-alligator.31501.flac1644

Update 4/22/2012: The second guitarist is George Tickner.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA
March 7, 1973 (Wednesday)

--Set II (3 tracks, 48:42, partial set)--
t01. untitled 19730307 [19:59] [0:08] % [0:06]
t02. Merl's Tune [14:18] ->
t03. Georgia On My Mind [13:44] (1) [0:27]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: George Tickner - el-g;
! lineup: Bill Vitt - drums;
! lineup: Sarah Fulcher - 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/19730307-01

! db: shnid 31501 (this source). This is one of the mostly-uncirculated "third batch" of Betty Cantor-Jackson's tapes, which came to light around late 1995. Rob Eaton professionally preserved the tapes, many of which were seemingly-irredeemably water-damaged and filth-encrusted. Thank goodness he did. Tapes like this show us stuff that otherwise would be completely unknown. Eaton supplied DATs of these tapes to Latvala and/or the Garcia vault. It would seem that Lossless Legs user 'alligator', who shared these with the world, was indeed very well-connected.

! Given lineage: "MSR > DAT3x > Delta Dio 2496 > Soundforge > WAV > FLAC1644"; seeded to Lossless Legs by alligator.

! Seeder note: "There are some low volume digital pops that can heard during the quieter parts of the performance. They did not detract from me thoroughly enjoying this show."

! personnel: Garcia, Saunders and Fulcher are easy, and the little bass solo in Georgia On My Mind is almost certainly (p <. 05) by John Kahn. We can assume it's Vitt drumming, I guess. The historcal assumption was that the second guitarist was Tom Fogerty, but it turns out to be George Ticker. GT has better lead guitar chops than Tom, who actually is never known to have played with JGMS in 1973 despite having been billed in the early part of the year.

! setlist: t01 is almost certainly a song with a name. This is the one with Jerry and Sarah singing, duet-style, as if to each other, "ba ba, ba ba, da dah". It's really nice. The vocals start up around 3:20 in.

! P: t02 Tickner makes himself heard at  @ 1:02, then plays a hot solo from 1:15-2:35. He is good, and it strikes me unusual for someone other than Jerry or Merl to take the first solo. This guy is tearing it up.

! P: t02 Merl's Tune is in a really nice jam space in the 4-min mark, with Merl moaning, groaning, howling, burning. Very nice. Garcia tries to double-time it around 5:09, Merl swirling around, Jerry's saying at 5:20 that he has an idea and runs with it for a bit. There's a deep, screaming space in the 11-minute mark. Tickner is also then wailing around 11:20 for awhile.

! P: t02 I think this version of Merl's Tune is fantastic.

! P: t03 Garcia is the one who drops them into Georgia On My Mind. Subtle, delicate, beautiful. John Kahn plays a beautiful bass solo in the 10-minute mark of GOMM. Right on, man! Great American Songbook, baby.

! t03 (1) @ 13:55 JG "Well the light is on, as you all know. So ... we have to call a close to the evening's festivities." The crowd calls for more, or one more, and Garcia says "I know they're not gonna dig it" as he appears to call for "How Sweet It Is" with his guitar. I'd bet dollars to donuts they closed the show with HSII.

Another Mystery Trumpeter: JGMS, August 14, 1974

There's a trumpeter playing on "Roadrunner", the last song of set I of the show previously known as "August 15, 1974, Great American Music Hall", now corrected as 8/14/74. Listen to the first five minutes of the Falanga-Menke tape. Guy (presumably) is pretty good.

JGMS: July 19, 1973, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA

Heitman, Dianne. 1973. Merle [sic] & Jerry soar at Music Hall – so does audience. San Francisco Phoenix v.1 n.24 (August 10), p. 8. Positive review of Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, July 19, 1973, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA.

The Great American Music Hall, at 859 O'Farrell Street in San Francisco, CA, 94109, looks to be a gilded freaking palace. I didn't see a post on it at any of Corry's blogs. If there is one, please point it out!

As far as I can tell the first time Garcia played it was Thursday, July 19, 1973. Somewhere there's an interview from Merl where he talks about how special this room was to them. By my back of the napkin count, they played this venue at least 30 times. I have touched on several, and with at least some focus in at least three:

·       3/10/74, where the venue gives birth to a new band, the Great American Music Band

·       7/14/74

·       8/24/74

The band on 7/19/73 was Jerry Garcia (electric guitar, vocals), Merl Saunders (keyboards, synthesizers), John Kahn (electric bass) and Bill Vitt (drums). Three "guests"/sort-of-members/eventual members appear as well: unknown harmonica player in the "guest", slot, Sarah Fulcher (vocals) in the "sort-of-members" category, and Martin Fierro (saxophone flute) as the "eventual" member. While Sarah would join the group (or, as it was known at the time, inter alia, The Group) a little off and on through most of 1973, Martin would keep appearing pretty steadily from this point forward, forming the third key instrumental voice in what would become, by 1975, Legion of Mary. His basically two-year stint is pretty good by GOTS first-half-of-1970s standards. He was practically a mainstay for those fluid days.

Anyway, this show has come up in the Workingman's Tracker's Garcia / Saunders and Legion of Mary Project, which I think will have nice curatorial value at least for SteveSw's reviews (what I would call "listening notes"). I wish more people would join in the conversation Here, There and Everywhere … we need to crowd-source more data and analysis! The WT forums are now publicly visible – thanks to the admins there. I am posting here because what I really wanted to do was post an image of the show review above, but I couldn’t figure out how. So I’ll post it here and invite you all to read it. It’s fantastic!

Here is the reference and a few select quotes and themes.

Heitman, Dianne. 1973. Merle [sic] & Jerry soar at Music Hall – so does audience. San Francisco Phoenix v.1 n.24 (August 10), p. 8.

Here’s the opening:

The good-time, low-down, high-energy sounds of Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia and their group took off and soared under the high, gilded, electric-chandeliered ceiling of the Great American Music Hall one night called July 19.

The Music Hall was packed.

After identifying the personnel, Heitman mentions that “Sarah, during the second set, came out and sang a few numbers with the band, as she is wont to do from time to time.” Yet another example of “Sarah” only being referred to by her first name, as I have observed once before. Indeed, I wonder if the only way we know her name is by the information written onto Betty’s tape boxes and transcribed by Rob Eaton. Maybe not, but if someone can find me any pre-1995 information that mentions Sarah’s last name, I’d love to see it. And I wonder if this is intentional on Sarah’s part, or just reflects oversights?

As the quote below suggests, Sarah’s patronymic anonymity is not due to journalistic sloth. Continuing in the guests-who-shall-not-be named category, Ms. Heitman mentions “some fellow playing sax and flute. (Someone of unascertained reliability said he thought this musician’s name was Elspeth, but no-one else seemed to know him. Nor, unfortunately, could I discover Sarah’s last name – but they know who they are." Now this really cracks me up. Elspeth? Heh heh

“Elspeth” comes up again at the end of the review, when fan and reviewer interpret how Jerry relates to him based on the show-ending “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”:

“Hear that! Wow, did you hear that? The way Garcia just shot that flute player down? Man, he just told him to shut up. You could just hear how Garcia was telling him with his music: ‘Shut up now. You had your turn already.’” (That may have been so, though the way I heard it, Garcia was just telling the flute player to wait for him backstage afterwards.)

I have always found that Martin was divisive among those who pay attention to these things, just as Sarah has always been. Some love them, some really dislike them. Seems like the “Wow!” guy wasn’t a big Martin … err … Elspeth fan. S’all good.

Heitman also picks up a nice piece of color that reflects the Dilemma (maybe not yet The Burden that it would be come) Of Being Jerry:

A fellow at the next table observed that the audience at this concert was made up largely of the same people who go to all the Grateful Dead concerts, ‘Their enthusiasm for the Dead and all things connected with the Dead borders on idolatry’, he remarked, and the others at his table nodded.

Guy sounds like a stick-in-the-mud, but he probably has a point. I would love to gather more systematic evidence as to when this sentiment first started popping up around GOTS. It was clearly happening by 1973. I suspect that fan idolatry, and/or complaints of it, are as old as Garcia On The Side itself.

Anyway, there’s also a real positive review of the show, and some nice, if small, bookended photos of Jerry and Merl. They don’t look like stock photos I have seen, so maybe they show them from the actual day of the show. I dunno. Anyway, happy reading. It’s good stuff.