We have been going around on the various blogs about the engagement of Vince Guaraldi and Howard Wales with the GD/Garcia, and especially about Weir's recollection that Howard Wales had a tryout as GD keyboardist.
LIA has wondered aloud whether some of the 1970 "Hartbeats" gigs, e.g., in late July, were, effectively, the Wales tryouts.
I have argued that September 1971 seems more likely. More importantly, LIA cites McNally as giving this timeframe, as well.
The other day I was wondering how Pigpen felt about all of this. He was sick and getting sicker, so maybe it just was what it was. But it must have been depressing and awkward. Then I remembered about the September 9, 1971 gig that Corry uncovered (which had also been listed in the Barb, I had found), the only solo Pigpen gig that I have ever even heard of or seen reference to. I suspect that if the gig happened Pigpen just brought out his guitar and sang some sad blues.
We already know, if tape labels are to be believed (and I think in this case they make too much sense not to be), that Keith Godchaux would be rehearsing with the GD within three weeks of this, if he wasn't already. And I admit that a Pig gig says nothing about the timing of a Wales tryout. But I thought it was an interesting piece of context, and the tickle in the back of my brain has me really believing that the Wales tryout was ca. September, 1971.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
GD19700327-29: March 27-29, 1970, "Winter's End Festival," Miami, FL (CANCELED)
The Festival was held, in a manner of speaking, but almost every big name act, including the GD, canceled. It sounds like a really disastrous episode.
Long narrative in the following: Thomas King Forcade, "Winter's End: free the Rock & Roll Six," San Diego Free Door, April 23, 1970, pp. 8, 12, accessed via Underground Newspaper Microfilm Collection (Bell & Howell), reel #48.
[end update]
[update2 20140323 below]
The image above is from the Berkeley Tribe, v2 n8 (issue #34) (February 27-March 6, 1970), p. 16. Along the right side is an ad for a "Winter's End" Festival in Miami, FL, March 27-29, 1970.
All the tribes of Woodstock Nation will gather together March 27th, 28th and 29th, in Miami, Florida, to celebrate Winter's End and perform the Rites of Spring. 600 acres of quite countryside will be the host. Winter's End is the Hog Farm and communal kitchens, Indian tribal gathering, trading posts and villages ... $20 for the entire weekend.Bands listed in the ad are the following: Canned Heat; Joe Cocker; Country Joe & The Fish; Grand Funk Railroad; Grateful Dead; B.B. King; Richie Havens; The Hog Farm; Sweetwater; Iron Butterfly; Mountain; Kinks; Little Richard; John Mayall; Steve Miller; Johnny Winter; Sly & The Family Stone; Ten Years After; Ike & Tina Turner.
I have poked around a little bit online, and not found much.
A blog attached to the Orlando Sentinel has a post entitled "Winter’s End — Orlando’s answer to Woodstock" which suggests that the event was moved to Orlando, and that the Allman Brothers played, but there's not much more there.
There is also what looks like a trifold brocuhure for the festival linked to the fantastic Iver McLeod/Deadlists poster annex, reproduced here:
 |
| Thanks to Iver McLeod and Deadlists. |
The location is not given in the Tribe ad, but is mapped on what would have been the back of the trifold brochure (when folded). It suggests that the festival would be something like 7+ miles west of what were probably the westernmost edges of Hollywood at that time. This is basically on the edge of (if not in) the Everglades, in what the "native American" angle to the Tribe ad seems to imply would be Seminole country. It makes perfect sense from the GD perspective, since they were in Dania, FL at Pirate's World on March 24. I don't have time or inclination to map it, but my sense is that Dania is just about due east of the mapped festival location. Indeed, I'd guess that the Dania gig was scheduled as an add-on to the more lucrative Miami festival, and when the latter collapsed all we get is the South Florida one-off between gigs in Port Chester (ending March 21) and Cincinnati (April 3).
I have posted on a bunch of canceled and/or rescheduled gigs (1) from 1970, including the following:
- May 9, 1970, Ocala, FL
- May xx (between 23rd and 30th), 1970, Northwestern University
- June 13, 1970, "Atlanta Braves Stadium," Atlanta, GA
- July 3-4, 1970, Aragon Ballroom, Chicago
- August 4-25, 1970 ("Caravan of Love" a.k.a. whatever it's called)
- September 4-6, 1970, Sikeston, MO
- November 18, 1970, Montreal Forum, Montreal, QC, Canada
- December 18-20, 1970, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY
- ca. December 27, 1970, canyon east of Laguna Beach, CA
- GD: early 1971 logistical difficulties
- GD: January 31, 1971, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- GD: March/April 1971, Norther Illinois University, Dekalb, IL
- GD: March 19, 1971 The Syndrome, Chicago, IL (LLD)
- GD: April 2, 1971 Kent State University, Kent, OH (LLD)
- GD: April 19, 1971, Hofstra University, West Hempstead, NY
- GD/NRPS: May 28, 1971, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
Somewhere, something on the intertubes said that the event was canceled [in its Miami incarnation] when the Speedway owners canceled the Festival's lease". This seems to imply that at some point the event was scheduled for Hollywood International Speedway of GD 12/28/69 fame, about which some cursory searching reveals very little.
My initial question was, "So, anyone know what happened to the festival?" Now we know - it happened, but after all kinds of problems and without the GD.
[update2 20140323]
A picture, for fun:
NOTE:
(1) In trying to determine a gig as "canceled" rather than just rumored or wished for, I typically want some evidence of organization behind the thing. I am probably not applying that very consistently, but that's the idea. So, ads seem like an obvious case where, if something didn't materialize, we can consider it to have been "[planned but eventually] canceled".
Monday, April 04, 2011
"Can't you all see how beautiful this is?" GD/NRPS: Saturday, April 24, 1971, Wallace Wade Stadium, Duke University, Durham, NC
I am intimately familiar with this show. It was in that first batch of ____________ [fill in blank: 10, 20, however many] great tapes I got from _____________ [fill in name, e.g., "John Smith" or other best description, e.g., "freak I met in the record store in Santa Barbara to whose Lompoc address I mailed two nice tight boxes of XLIIs from that place in Berkeley, never heard anything back, then received the tapes in a wrinkled paper bag left on the doorstep of my parents' house 250 miles away one day 9 months later")]. Every Deadhead who ever collected tapes has that story.
Anyway, some incredible photographic linkage of the New Riders and the Grateful Dead on this "Joe College Weekend." Truly glorious photographs of Garcia playing pedal steel in the bright spring sunshine (or does it look windy and a little overcast? anyway). Wow. Just take them in. Thank you to photographer Ric Carter for sharing these, and much more besides!
Coupla things to say about this show.
First, note that in the lossless realm, there is still only one source, shnid-2579, "ripped and seed by Mike Lai" and seeded to Lai's own FTP server within or affiliated with the etree.org domain (remember those?) in the first quarter of 2001. People who were early to the lossless thing will recognize that assignation: amazing sounding material, usually seeded with sector boundary errors (SBEs) ... the dreaded "sbefail" tag. But as has been argued to me, that was a strange obsession about glitches that were minor compared to, say, the wow, flutter, pitch, speed, degradation, flaking, sun-baking, splicing, recording-over and other problems with the source cassettes. And we should give this gentleman credit for sharing tremendous amounts of time, money, bandwidth (before it was so plentiful) and, of course, music with so many people. I have no idea if anyone will ever try to research and write histories of this sort of thing in a serious way, but some of these pioneers are at risk of getting glossed over in the record, as if the world jumped from CD to FLAC with no agency moving history.
This source sounds absolutely fantastic, even better than my beloved, crusty old cassette tape. I would also note the name in that source of Michael K. Weise, who wrote the first program (mkwACT) that made it easy to losslessly encode wav files. This was part of a technological revolution that revolutionized music sharing. From that whole thing we have the archive, probably the most amazing collectively fan assembled music resource in the history of the world. (How's that for hyperbole!)
Second, this is a classic Grateful Dead show. Truckin' is a trainwreck ... Bobby changes keys midway through, and Jerry and Phil are really straining to hit the harmony notes. Cumberland Blues false starts, with Weir explaining that "All this fuckin' around has put our instruments out of tune".
"Hard to Handle" remains my favorite version (yes, 4/28/71 and 8/6/71, I'm talking to you). It's not perfect, but listen to what Mr. Philip Lesh is doing to that bass guitar of his. He is playing that nice '71 bass with the crisp sound, which is audible on all of the officially released 1971 GD material (e.g., the fantastic summer '71 Road Trips. @ 6:19, pounding out the notes to grab Garcia from where he is soaring and snap him into the one on time and in key. Fantastic.
The whole show is just classic April '71. Pretty good Pigpen, also featuring "Next Time You See Me" and a long, April '71 (need I say more, one week to the day after Princeton and the "Brooklyn Bridge rap"?) Good Lovin'. No far out jams, which is true of the whole month (I think the 4/28 and 4/29 material is egregiously overrated, not least from Cornell Syndrome -- tape circulation with three features: widely spread, good performance, fantastic sounding). "Sing Me Back Home" is a transcendent masterpiece until it sort of thuds at the end. And who is that playing organ so delicately behind SMBH, Pigpen?
Check it out from archive.org.
One archive.org patron says this:
Third, just a little piece of arcania, but I absolutely love it. At least twice a fantastically blissed out young lady, 17 year-old Barbara Harlan, who was wandering topless onstage, gets ahold of a microphone and makes herself heard. I cannot believe it, but I can't remember in which track she makes her first appearance. I am listening now and will try to edit post once I have it. But the second one is at @ 1:09 of track 14, "Sing Me Back Home." Here our blissed-out friend poses the titular question, with a real (and appropriate-seeming) sense of urgency. Can't you all see how beautiful this is?
Fourth, alas no, I can't see it directly, though my mind's eye sure can! But I'd note that another archive.org patron says there is video of this show. Since video at Duke has come up in a few threads on various blogs, and I can't remember if this one has been mentioned, I thought I'd just make note, also as a pretext to discuss a show I like and link up those fantastic photographs.
Anyway, some incredible photographic linkage of the New Riders and the Grateful Dead on this "Joe College Weekend." Truly glorious photographs of Garcia playing pedal steel in the bright spring sunshine (or does it look windy and a little overcast? anyway). Wow. Just take them in. Thank you to photographer Ric Carter for sharing these, and much more besides!
Coupla things to say about this show.
First, note that in the lossless realm, there is still only one source, shnid-2579, "ripped and seed by Mike Lai" and seeded to Lai's own FTP server within or affiliated with the etree.org domain (remember those?) in the first quarter of 2001. People who were early to the lossless thing will recognize that assignation: amazing sounding material, usually seeded with sector boundary errors (SBEs) ... the dreaded "sbefail" tag. But as has been argued to me, that was a strange obsession about glitches that were minor compared to, say, the wow, flutter, pitch, speed, degradation, flaking, sun-baking, splicing, recording-over and other problems with the source cassettes. And we should give this gentleman credit for sharing tremendous amounts of time, money, bandwidth (before it was so plentiful) and, of course, music with so many people. I have no idea if anyone will ever try to research and write histories of this sort of thing in a serious way, but some of these pioneers are at risk of getting glossed over in the record, as if the world jumped from CD to FLAC with no agency moving history.
This source sounds absolutely fantastic, even better than my beloved, crusty old cassette tape. I would also note the name in that source of Michael K. Weise, who wrote the first program (mkwACT) that made it easy to losslessly encode wav files. This was part of a technological revolution that revolutionized music sharing. From that whole thing we have the archive, probably the most amazing collectively fan assembled music resource in the history of the world. (How's that for hyperbole!)
Second, this is a classic Grateful Dead show. Truckin' is a trainwreck ... Bobby changes keys midway through, and Jerry and Phil are really straining to hit the harmony notes. Cumberland Blues false starts, with Weir explaining that "All this fuckin' around has put our instruments out of tune".
"Hard to Handle" remains my favorite version (yes, 4/28/71 and 8/6/71, I'm talking to you). It's not perfect, but listen to what Mr. Philip Lesh is doing to that bass guitar of his. He is playing that nice '71 bass with the crisp sound, which is audible on all of the officially released 1971 GD material (e.g., the fantastic summer '71 Road Trips. @ 6:19, pounding out the notes to grab Garcia from where he is soaring and snap him into the one on time and in key. Fantastic.
The whole show is just classic April '71. Pretty good Pigpen, also featuring "Next Time You See Me" and a long, April '71 (need I say more, one week to the day after Princeton and the "Brooklyn Bridge rap"?) Good Lovin'. No far out jams, which is true of the whole month (I think the 4/28 and 4/29 material is egregiously overrated, not least from Cornell Syndrome -- tape circulation with three features: widely spread, good performance, fantastic sounding). "Sing Me Back Home" is a transcendent masterpiece until it sort of thuds at the end. And who is that playing organ so delicately behind SMBH, Pigpen?
Check it out from archive.org.
One archive.org patron says this:
I was at this show -- it ran about 12 hours, starting with Mountain, then the Dead, and finally the Beach Boys. Either Phil or Jerry told the crowd that they'd never been on the same bill with the Beach Boys although both were huge California bands. Just three days later, on April 27, the Beach Boys joined the Dead onstage at the Fillmore East during the Dead's 5-day run there, and they played 6 or 7 songs together. I guess that makes the show at Duke somewhat historic.Absolutely. The 4/27/71 GD/Beach Boys thing is a classic. Having read Corry for a few years now, I am guessing there was a record company aspect to that? Anyway, this is a great college gig from a fantastic month of college (and other!) gigs which, while capitalizing on the success of 1970, was probably the inflection point in cementing the Dead's viability as a national touring act for the next, oh, 24 years. This is true not only in terms of popularity, but also professionalism. There were a lot of glitches leading into this tour, as there had been of every GD tour previously. But from this point forward, tours would happen with fewer and fewer problems, much greater predictability.
Third, just a little piece of arcania, but I absolutely love it. At least twice a fantastically blissed out young lady, 17 year-old Barbara Harlan, who was wandering topless onstage, gets ahold of a microphone and makes herself heard. I cannot believe it, but I can't remember in which track she makes her first appearance. I am listening now and will try to edit post once I have it. But the second one is at @ 1:09 of track 14, "Sing Me Back Home." Here our blissed-out friend poses the titular question, with a real (and appropriate-seeming) sense of urgency. Can't you all see how beautiful this is?
Fourth, alas no, I can't see it directly, though my mind's eye sure can! But I'd note that another archive.org patron says there is video of this show. Since video at Duke has come up in a few threads on various blogs, and I can't remember if this one has been mentioned, I thought I'd just make note, also as a pretext to discuss a show I like and link up those fantastic photographs.
Sunday, April 03, 2011
JGB: September 19, 1975, Crabshaw Corner, Sacramento, CA
Thanks to Corry for answering my query on January 26, 1976 which also included a question about 11/4/78.
Before starting my post, I just want to take a second to recognize Corry's role in Garcia historiography. He has been not only an essential bridge across different documents (Soto, McNally) and traditions (from handwritten lists to here), but obviously provided a ton of what we know about the everyday JGB shows through his careful documentation of the phone messages. These and countless other facts have made their way to the present time through Corry's initial hard work, then his sharing of everything with Deadbase, then the Jerry Site. Fantastic. I really started getting crazy about this stuff in about 2000, and The Jerry Site was already available. I now realize how utterly dependent that amazing site always has been on Corry's earlier work. (And while I am at it, thank you, Ryan. The Jerry Site has been the oxygen of my own researches.) (And thanks to Scofield and Allan as well, for their unbelieveable scholarship and generosity.)
Anyway, that said. From where does the listing for Jerry Garcia Band, Friday, September 19, 1975, Crabshaw Corner, Sacramento, CA originate?
This is a really important show in the Big Picture.
We actually know very little about how Garcia's 1975 bands were born and passed from the scene. We are still struggling with basics about Legion of Mary such as "when was the fist show billed under the name Legion of Mary?", and "Why and how did LOM terminate abruptlyon ca. July 6, 1975? sometime in summer 1975?" Then, we have this band: the very first Jerry side band to bear his name, a crucial transformation of the thing from fun and loose and "maybe-I-can-just-jam-while-staying-partly-anonymous" to "I need cash and have to monetize my name and myself to do it."
We know that Round Records was a serious and risky financial investment for for Garcia. (For more, a bit earlier on Round Records, see here. We have a lot of work to do on that issue.) In September 1975, following the dates on Scofield's Round Records discography (which needs some corrections, but is a precious resource), it seems like they would have been digesting "sales numbers" (which may have had only tenuous connection to either "sales" or "numbers") and seeing the oncoming failure of the company, which I guess would be digested fully by December 1975. I'd like a cleaner timeline on that, but that's what I've got.
Might this business aspect have led to the various band changes that happen in this period of time?
Conjecture 1: there was an analysis suggesting that less money could be made working with Merl than with Nicky.
Conjecture 2: Merl's personal issues around this time maybe make it an easier moment to part ways with him.
Conjecture 3: Nicky Hopkins, Ron Tutt, John Kahn as The Jerry Garcia Band (with a definite article, i.e., meant to last) was foreseen as a possible permanent recording and touring entity. Think about the records one could make with this Band: the world's greatest rock and roll Session Man (Nicky Hopkins); a session monster in his own right and backbone of The King's own band, fer chrissakes (Ronnie Tutt); your DNA-level musical, personal, professional and financial partner who brings lots of LA connections, studio players and resources, production expertise, and financial resources into the picture (John Kahn).
Now, we know that it didn't work out that way - in short, Nicky's personal situation made untenable, whatever the musical promise and problems of this aggregation (of which I think, perhaps, the latter outweighed the former). But that doesn't mean that it wasn't the goal. In fact, I have seen but can't locate evidence that this was precisely the goal, such that there were contracts and stuff signed creating the Jerry Garcia Band as a legal entity co-owned by these four men (or, alternately, and I think just a bit later, by Garcia-Kahn-Tutt). But this is the pivotal moment. After a couple of day flirtation with another deeply troubled piano genius --The Bayou Maharajah hisself, James Booker-- Jerry defaults to the "comfort band" of Keith and Donna. After Nicky and Booker, Jerry would never again play with a keyboardist who was either good enough or empowered enough to push/challenge Garcia, to supply any kind of authoritative counterpoint to Jerry. And, indeed, one might make the argument that it wasn't until Garcia and Grisman came back together almost 15 years later that he would play with someone who really challenged him outside the GD. The JGB became a comfort band. (NB the historical coincidence of Garcia's alleged last time playing with Grisman before ca. 1990: ca. August 1975. Then the shit would hit the fan with OAITW [Grisman not getting paid, apparently], and they'd be estranged. Again, I think this episode reflects things going sour with Round, and or the perfidy of Ron Rakow, or both.)
So, 9/19/75 is early in the tenure of the first JGB, but how early? Conventional historiography lists "Jerry Garcia Band" shows on Tuesday, August 5, 1975 (Keystone, Berkeley) and Weds.-Thurs, August 20-21, 1975 (Great American Music Hall, SF). But Corry has me totally persuaded that these were Keith And Donna Band shows. I also commented there that there were listings for Nicky Hopkins and Nils Lofgren at least on the 20th. Given that we have rehearsals that have circulated for decades with dates such as 9/1/75, and everything else, I'd concur that these August JGB listings are spurious and that the JGB of Garcia-Kahn-Hopkins-Tutt began in September, with a first gig on Thursday, September 18, 1975 at Sophie's in Palo Alto [TJS | shnid 108270 (Robert Castelli aud)]. (That gig, the 9/19 Sacramento show, and the 9/20 hometown gig at River City in Fairfax [TJS | shnid 109216 (Castelli aud)] would also be consistent with the undeniable historical observation that Garcia and Kahn liked to break new players in "off the beaten path" before taking things to the Keystone, Berkeley.) So the Sacramento show that is the nominal subject (one might say pretext) of the post would have been the second public gig.
I'll reproduce a few of the pieces from TJS here, and comment on them.
This setlist looks absolutely characteristic. I wonder if the "Tequila" in the setlist indicates that they goofed on that song, or whether that was just Nicky asking for a drink (as he often did from onstage, most commonly, indeed, Tequila).
Corry, do you know where the DB setlist comes from?
TJS also added this note in late 2009:
Anyway, a lot of buildup and circling around, not much payoff. But can anyone tell me more about this show? There's no tape in circulation.
Before starting my post, I just want to take a second to recognize Corry's role in Garcia historiography. He has been not only an essential bridge across different documents (Soto, McNally) and traditions (from handwritten lists to here), but obviously provided a ton of what we know about the everyday JGB shows through his careful documentation of the phone messages. These and countless other facts have made their way to the present time through Corry's initial hard work, then his sharing of everything with Deadbase, then the Jerry Site. Fantastic. I really started getting crazy about this stuff in about 2000, and The Jerry Site was already available. I now realize how utterly dependent that amazing site always has been on Corry's earlier work. (And while I am at it, thank you, Ryan. The Jerry Site has been the oxygen of my own researches.) (And thanks to Scofield and Allan as well, for their unbelieveable scholarship and generosity.)
Anyway, that said. From where does the listing for Jerry Garcia Band, Friday, September 19, 1975, Crabshaw Corner, Sacramento, CA originate?
This is a really important show in the Big Picture.
We actually know very little about how Garcia's 1975 bands were born and passed from the scene. We are still struggling with basics about Legion of Mary such as "when was the fist show billed under the name Legion of Mary?", and "Why and how did LOM terminate abruptly
We know that Round Records was a serious and risky financial investment for for Garcia. (For more, a bit earlier on Round Records, see here. We have a lot of work to do on that issue.) In September 1975, following the dates on Scofield's Round Records discography (which needs some corrections, but is a precious resource), it seems like they would have been digesting "sales numbers" (which may have had only tenuous connection to either "sales" or "numbers") and seeing the oncoming failure of the company, which I guess would be digested fully by December 1975. I'd like a cleaner timeline on that, but that's what I've got.
Might this business aspect have led to the various band changes that happen in this period of time?
Conjecture 1: there was an analysis suggesting that less money could be made working with Merl than with Nicky.
Conjecture 2: Merl's personal issues around this time maybe make it an easier moment to part ways with him.
Conjecture 3: Nicky Hopkins, Ron Tutt, John Kahn as The Jerry Garcia Band (with a definite article, i.e., meant to last) was foreseen as a possible permanent recording and touring entity. Think about the records one could make with this Band: the world's greatest rock and roll Session Man (Nicky Hopkins); a session monster in his own right and backbone of The King's own band, fer chrissakes (Ronnie Tutt); your DNA-level musical, personal, professional and financial partner who brings lots of LA connections, studio players and resources, production expertise, and financial resources into the picture (John Kahn).
Now, we know that it didn't work out that way - in short, Nicky's personal situation made untenable, whatever the musical promise and problems of this aggregation (of which I think, perhaps, the latter outweighed the former). But that doesn't mean that it wasn't the goal. In fact, I have seen but can't locate evidence that this was precisely the goal, such that there were contracts and stuff signed creating the Jerry Garcia Band as a legal entity co-owned by these four men (or, alternately, and I think just a bit later, by Garcia-Kahn-Tutt). But this is the pivotal moment. After a couple of day flirtation with another deeply troubled piano genius --The Bayou Maharajah hisself, James Booker-- Jerry defaults to the "comfort band" of Keith and Donna. After Nicky and Booker, Jerry would never again play with a keyboardist who was either good enough or empowered enough to push/challenge Garcia, to supply any kind of authoritative counterpoint to Jerry. And, indeed, one might make the argument that it wasn't until Garcia and Grisman came back together almost 15 years later that he would play with someone who really challenged him outside the GD. The JGB became a comfort band. (NB the historical coincidence of Garcia's alleged last time playing with Grisman before ca. 1990: ca. August 1975. Then the shit would hit the fan with OAITW [Grisman not getting paid, apparently], and they'd be estranged. Again, I think this episode reflects things going sour with Round, and or the perfidy of Ron Rakow, or both.)
So, 9/19/75 is early in the tenure of the first JGB, but how early? Conventional historiography lists "Jerry Garcia Band" shows on Tuesday, August 5, 1975 (Keystone, Berkeley) and Weds.-Thurs, August 20-21, 1975 (Great American Music Hall, SF). But Corry has me totally persuaded that these were Keith And Donna Band shows. I also commented there that there were listings for Nicky Hopkins and Nils Lofgren at least on the 20th. Given that we have rehearsals that have circulated for decades with dates such as 9/1/75, and everything else, I'd concur that these August JGB listings are spurious and that the JGB of Garcia-Kahn-Hopkins-Tutt began in September, with a first gig on Thursday, September 18, 1975 at Sophie's in Palo Alto [TJS | shnid 108270 (Robert Castelli aud)]. (That gig, the 9/19 Sacramento show, and the 9/20 hometown gig at River City in Fairfax [TJS | shnid 109216 (Castelli aud)] would also be consistent with the undeniable historical observation that Garcia and Kahn liked to break new players in "off the beaten path" before taking things to the Keystone, Berkeley.) So the Sacramento show that is the nominal subject (one might say pretext) of the post would have been the second public gig.
I'll reproduce a few of the pieces from TJS here, and comment on them.
DB's list 1: Let It Rock, You Win Again, All By Myself, Tough Mama, Mississippi Moon, Pig's Boogie. DB's list 2: Lady Sleeps-> No Time, How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), I'll Take A Melody, Catfish John, Tequila, (I'm A) Road Runner, Edward.
This setlist looks absolutely characteristic. I wonder if the "Tequila" in the setlist indicates that they goofed on that song, or whether that was just Nicky asking for a drink (as he often did from onstage, most commonly, indeed, Tequila).
Corry, do you know where the DB setlist comes from?
TJS also added this note in late 2009:
An attendee notes the following about the show: "the band showed up about 90 minutes late for the show ... They called the venue from a pay phone to say they drove past Sacramento and were halfway to Reno before they realized their mistake. They were turning around and asked us to wait for them." The attendee also gave this account: "Seeing this quartet in Sacramento ... may have been my single most memorable show experience. It was a small venue with a small crowd, maybe twenty people out on the small dance floor in front of the band. ... The band came on late and obviously high and loose. After one sweet tune (I can't remember and have never seen a tape circulate) Hopkins was so moved he walked over and tearfully embraced Garcia. Then he turned and said that playing that kind of music was what he had wanted to do all of his life."Sounds like a good old time. If that contributor or anyone else in attendance is reading this, can you please Comment? I am trying to figure out how late they started and anything more about the show. At some point, someone in the Sacto area needs to go through some papers and check on some dates. A lot of what we have is unsubstantiated, some dates may be wrong, and there may be others lurking around that we don't know about.
Anyway, a lot of buildup and circling around, not much payoff. But can anyone tell me more about this show? There's no tape in circulation.
Friday, April 01, 2011
JGB: January 26, 1976, Keystone, Berkeley, CA (CONFIRMED)
updated post: I used to wonder if 1/26/76 was an actual Garcia Band show. tl;dr: it was.
my next read
Dawson, Julian. 2011. And On Piano ... Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock's Greatest Session Man. Foreword by Klaus Voormann. San Francisco: Backstage Press.
Here's a link to what I think is the publisher. Different press name, but I think they're under the same imprint somehow.
Anyway, I know a little bit about this project and anticipate that this is going to be an excellent book, a really important addition.
Here's a link to what I think is the publisher. Different press name, but I think they're under the same imprint somehow.
Anyway, I know a little bit about this project and anticipate that this is going to be an excellent book, a really important addition.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Reading Notes: Kahlbacher, Gene. 1974. Aquarian Interview: New Riders of the Purple Sage. Aquarian, January 29 – February 12, 1974, pp. 14, 27, 31.
NB: I didn’t have the year of this publication, somehow. But from the context of Torbert leaving and Battin just arriving, I believe it is 1974.
Kahlbacher 1974, 14: How much of an inspiration has JG been to NRPS, and was he its Founding Father? Spencer Dryden: “Rather than father, I look to Jerry for inspiration. But he doesn’t want to hear any more about it.” JG doesn’t want to be seen as a mystic.
Kahlbacher 1974, 14: Dawson on origins of NRPS: “I was wandering around for a long time at several colleges and not really knowing what the goal was. … I’d learned to play the guitar a long time back, but I never practiced a whole bunch. … I was wandering around and this whole bunch of changes came down on me. For one thing, I ceased trying to get a group together right then, as I had been for a long time. I finally came down to the point of saying ‘This obviously isn’t what’s happening right now, and instead of wasting my time trying to do that – putting my energies into something that isn’t panning – I should put my energies into something that is working. So I got a gig in a little coffee house, playing and singing songs … eventually it came down where Jerry Garcia was learning pedal steel guitar at the same time that I was trying to learn how to be a singer and pick a few songs. We got together on a kind of thing where I’d come to his living room and I’d plunk out simple tuns for him to try to put steel licks behind.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 14: Nelson: “I played in a bunch of bands, mostly bluegrass bands. There were lots of clubs we played … Later I played with Torbert in an electric band called the New Delhi River Band, and then I was with Pete Albin and Dave Getz.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 14: Dryden’s entry into NRPS: “The tune ‘Dirty Business,’ actually, made me join the Riders. I was leaving the Airplane, and McIntyre [sic] and Owsley came down to the big house [the Airplane House] … and said ‘You really should see the New Riders. I think you might be able to help them out’. But I was thinking of producing, not playing. I was tired. I’d been through that before. But I went down to see them [NRPS] at the Family Dog on the beach, on the Great Highway … At the time the drummer for the Riders was Mickey Hart, and they also have Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia. So the thing was, I wasn’t doing anything, and Mickey was looking for his own trip which culminated in his producing a solo album, Rolling Thunder.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 14: how have NRPS evolved since they were just opening for GD? Dryden: “It’s evolved … graduated. Jerry was working two gigs at once and doing extra recordings, and it became hard. Two sound checks [raising his eyebrows]. He was working the equivalent of 12-14 hours a day. It’s rough, man. He’s got other things he wants to do, other people he wants to play with, other music he wants to make. So we went out [in 1971] and got Buddy.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 14: how did Buddy Cage become a member of the group? Dryden: “Buddy, immediately prior to us, was with Ann Murray, from Canada. And before that he was with Ian and Sylvia [Tyson] and the Great Speckled Bird. When the guys made that train trip across Canada … we met up with Buddy and it was a real flash. And for Jerry especially, because he considers himself a novice at the pedal steel. I don’t consider him so, I consider him an innovator. Because he plays differently from almost anybody I’ve heard. But he admits that he didn’t have the chops that Buddy has. I mean, Buddy’s got years and years and it’s his main instrument. It’s Jerry’s second or third: he’s played banjo and mandolin and shit like that, besides electric guitar … Buddy knows how to play that sucker, real clean and real fast. And Jerry’s amazed, yet Buddy’s amazed at Jerry’s chordal formations and legato [smooth] style. Actually, you want to know what really happened? Well, we were making this tour, see. And we called Buddy down ‘cause Jerry said he was gonna quit … this was three [and one-half] years ago. So we got Buddy down, made some rehearsals, and then we were going on tour. But Jerry was still with us. We flew from San Francisco to Atlanta, and Jerry missed the plane. Buddy made the plane. And we got in at something like four in the morning. Jerry couldn’t get there ‘till seven that night and we went on at seven. So the trip was all of a sudden ‘Hey Cage, Garcia’s not here. You wanna go on stage?’ ‘Sure, man’, he says, ‘set up my pedal steel’. He went on and played with us. Jerry came in –they came down and picked him up at 7:30 or so, and he got there at quarter to eight –and he heard the end of the set. Buddy walked off the stage, and Jerry went up to Buddy, shook his hand, and said ‘Man, you just got yourself a gig!’”
Kahlbacher 1974, 27: how Marmaduke got his name: Dawson: “A guy named Rick who was hanging out in this house where we were all hanging out, in the summer of 1965, smoked this large joint of Acapulco Gold one morning just before I came over to visit them. As I walked in, he decided that my name shouldn’t be John Dawson after all, and that ‘Marmaduke’ was much better.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 27: Marmaduke on ‘Last Lonely Eagle’: “It was one of the major comings out of my personal life … one day I ate a couple of chemicals and went wandering around in a place called Pinnacles National Monument with David Torbert and two guys that’re now in his band – Chris Herold and Matthew Kelly, who’s played harmonica on some of our albums. We were wandering around down there and this whole bunch of changes came down on me.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 27: why did Torbert leave the band? Dryden: “He wanted to make other music. And he only joined this band to make an album. He was on his way from Hawaii to Europe about three or four years ago. He got a call from Marmaduke, who said ‘Why not come and help us make this [the first] album, play a bit.’ He said okay and stayed with us.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 31: “when Buddy Cage came down from Toronto to join the band … Jerry was totally happy.”
Kahlbacher 1974, 31: do you attribute your success to the band’s association with the GD? Nelson: “It helped.”
GD19710903-4: Harding Theater, SF, CA
Why post? A few reasons.
First, this is not a Grateful Dead date that's known to me, so it's interesting in that regard. I don't have anything else going on for Jerry on this weekend, so it fits in the schedule. I have an unknown NRPS gig listed for September 5 (Sunday), no venue or other info ... no idea where that comes from. I show Garcia and Saunders at the Harding Theater on September 10 and the NRPS there on September 23. This is an odd little cluster of shows at this venue which begs an explanation, I think, but in any case another couple of gigs fit this little pattern.
Second, last year I had posted on a listing in the (San Rafael) Pacific Sun for a Grateful Dead gig at Marin Vets on 11/28/71 to benefit, you guessed it, Head Start. Nothing more ever turned up and, as Corry said in comments, it seems unlikely that the event happened. But it's weird to find another Head Start connection from just a few months before.
Third, the presence of Howard Wales on the bill is especially interesting. LIA has been writing some incredibly rich posts on the Hartbeats, the surface of which I have barely scratched. In his post on the July 1970 "Hartbeats" gigs, he a) mentions the story that Wales once had an audition with the Grateful Dead; b) notes McNally's timeframe for this of September 1971; but c) speculates that, instead, the Wales audition took place around July 1970 instead. Now here we have a Grateful Dead/Wales co-billing, in September 1971, in the same month during which we know the Grateful Dead were rehearsing their new keyboard player, who turned out to be Keith Godchaux.
The listing that forms the object of this post makes me return to the September 1971 time frame for Howard's GD "audition". Let me go a step further ... the story of Keith becoming a member of the GD is well known. Here's how Donna relates it, from Blair Jackson's fantastic cutting room floor, once she and Keith had flashed on him playing with the GD.
"We went home, looked in the paper and saw that Garcia's band was playing at the Keystone, so we went down, of course. At the break, Garcia walked by going backstage, so I grabbed him and said, 'Jerry, my husband and I have something very important to talk to you about.' And he said, 'Sure.' I didn't realize that everyone does that to him. So Garcia told us to come backstage, but we were both too scared, so we didn't. A few minutes later, Garcia came up and sat next to Keith, and I said, 'Honey, I think Garcia wants to talk to you. He's sitting right next to you.' He looked over at Jerry and looked back at me and dropped his head on the table and said, 'You're going to have to talk to my wife. I can't talk to you right now.' He was just too shy. He was very strong but he couldn't handle that sort of thing. So I said to Jerry, 'Well, Keith's your piano player, so I want your home telephone number so I can call you up and come to the next Grateful Dead practice.' And he believed me! He gave me his number."(Actually, Keith was not completely unknown in the Grateful Dead world. Betty Cantor had used him on a studio session for a record by James & the Good Brothers and thought very highly of him.)
(That last bit isn't especially germane, but I wanted to note the James & The Good Brothers connection, having just posted on it, and note further that, per Matt Scofield's deaddisc, Keith is not credited on that album. FYI, FWIW, etc.)
Why do I quote that at such length? Well, I observe that Garcia and Saunders played the Keystone Korner on September 16, 1971 (listing in Hayward Daily Review, September 16, 1971, p. 25). I note that circulating recordings of Keith's GD rehearsals are dated from September 27. So, wild speculation time, friends and neighbors: I suggest that September 3-4 at the Harding were the tryouts with Wales, that it didn't go especially well, that Keith and Donna buttonholed Jerry on September 16, and that Keith started in not more than 11 days later with the Grateful Dead. How's that for an extrapolation?!?
I also wonder, compounding speculation with speculation, if all of this might not tie into all of the record company backing and forthing and the relatively long gestation period of Hooteroll? (remember -- All Hooteroll?, All The Time!), which wasn't released until December. Again, I know I am going way beyond the evidence, but isn't it also interesting that Shades of Joy is on this bill, another Douglas Records client?
Sorry to throw so much out there with this. Anyway, here's an attempt at a summary of what this post does:
- identifies previously unknown GD gig
- may well pin down the date of Howard Wales's "audition" with the GD
- may well pin down the "when Keith & Donna met Jerry" date at Keystone Korner
- may well identify some connections between all of this and the record company scramble around this whole group of people around this time.
OK, 'nuff for now, I guess. The Berkeley Tribe is a masterpiece!
James and the Good Brothers (Courtesy of the Grateful Dead)
Corry has said this about the connection between the bands:
James and The Good Brothers were a Canadian trio (James Ackroyd and twins Bruce and Brian Good). They made contact with the Dead on the infamous “Festival Express” train trip, and were invited to San Francisco. They recorded an album for Columbia (NRPS’s label), produced by Betty Cantor-Jackson, with Bill Kreutzmann on drums, and possibly an uncredited Jerry Garcia.
He has mentioned them again in the context of a post on the Festival Express, while the post quoted above is primarily about a Garcia guest shot with them in February 1971 at the Fillmore West.
This ad interests me for a few reasons. First, I don't recall seeing much stuff like this in pawing through old ads and the like. How common was this, and what did the "courtesy of" really mean? Was this just advertising, or would the GD somehow have contributed financially?
Second, Matt Scofield's deaddisc entry for the JATGB album contains contradictory information, with the story quoted from Corry above alongside the claim that "After moving to California to play some gigs they were 'spotted' by Jack Casady and Bill Kreutzmann - attention that eventually led to a recording deal. This LP was the result." So the one version has them hooking up with the GD on the train and then coming to CA, while the other says they were already in CA when Jack and Billy "spotted" them. Not a big deal, but I do wonder which one is closer to the truth.
Third, maybe most importantly to me, I wonder how the various record deals floating around relate to this, if at all. In our various Hooteroll? discussions (I guess this one was the last post that I did), there was lots of talk of how the pieces of the puzzle --Garcia, Hooteroll?, NRPS, Rolling Thunder, the GD's contracts, etc. etc.-- all fit together (and not). I wonder when JATGB signed with Columbia (and precisely when NRPS) did, and how it is that the GD were "promoting" them, as it were.
Anyway, really just a "hmmmm...", from my perspective.
Near-Miss with the Rubber Duck Mime Band: June 2-3, 1970, Mandrake's, Berkeley, CA
WAS TITLED "NRPS: June 2-3, 1970, Mandrake's, Berkeley, CA"
But Paul Dresher has confirmed that, while Garcia was in the ad, he did not play this night.
So, the Mandrake's ad from the Berkeley Tribe v2 n21 (issue 47) (May 29 - June 5, 1970), p. 16, lists the following for Tuesday & Wednesday, June 2-3, 1970: "The Rubber Duck Mime Band and Jerry Garcia." It looks to me like there was some last-minute rough resetting of the listing.
Glen [Frendel] played the Mandrakes show that some think Jerry Garcia also played. I was there, and Garcia did NOT play that evening. I would have remembered that well, as at that point, Jerry was my greatest guitar hero and the Dead my favorite band. While Garcia’s name might have been in the marketing for the show, he didn't play that show, Glen did.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
GD/NRPS: April 19, 1971, Gymnasium, Hofstra University, West Hempstead, NY (CANCELED)
Corry and I have been documenting some of the GD's early 1971 logistical difficulties.
- GD: early 1971 logistical difficulties
- GD: January 31, 1971, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- GD: March/April 1971, Norther Illinois University, Dekalb, IL
- GD: March 19, 1971 The Syndrome, Chicago, IL (LLD)
- GD: April 2, 1971 Kent State University, Kent, OH (LLD)
I might advance the argument that the March-April 1971 tour was the last peak of these kinds of problems. The tour was a big success, as far as I can tell, and thereafter the GD's popularity was cemented in lots of different towns. The release of Skullfuck from shows from the tour probably helped reinforce this popularity. After spring 1971, scheduling seems to have become easier. That's not to say that there still weren't snafus, even lots of them. But it is to say that just as the GD became a more musically-competent touring unit during this period, but also a more professional one in lots of ways.
Anyway, reader Dave Tamarkin has graciously sent a photo of this extremely rare poster for a canceled GD/NRPS show scheduled for April 19, 1971 in the Gymnasium, Hofstra University, West Hempstead, NY. Thank you, Dave.
Dave also sends along this story, which I relay in case there are any connections waiting to be made.
In April of 1971, the Grateful Dead were on an extensive tour playing theaters and colleges in the northeast. A scheduled show at Hofstra University was cancelled. To make this up to the students, another show was scheduled for the evening of May 2, 1971 featuring the Alllman Brothers and my friend's band, Boswell. My friends attended the afternoon concert at CCNY, also with the Youngbloods, and then opened for the Allman Brothers that night. The evening show had a ticket charge of $0.50! Boswell was made up of some good friends of mine from Long Island. They later morphed into the New Mississippi Sheiks and then just the Sheiks. Great local band. I used to work for them and taped them many times. John Cipollina played with them in the summer of 77 and we opened for some great acts including Vassar Clements and Dan Hicks among others.
Hard Road
Anyone know anything more about this publication, Hard Road? This is volume 1, no. 1 (July 20, 1970), and it seems to have been planned as a weekly. Not sure there was ever a no. 2 ... anyone know? Seemed to be out of Mill Valley.
Anyway, just because.
The interview contained in the mag was conducted Monday, June 22, 1970 in the early evening at Garcia's place in Larkspur. It's interesting. It also contains a reference to the 6/21/70 GD/NRPS show at Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley. Garcia seems a little grouchy, a little short with the sometimes stilted questions.
Anyway, if there is more of Hard Road, I'd love to know about it!
Anyway, just because.
The interview contained in the mag was conducted Monday, June 22, 1970 in the early evening at Garcia's place in Larkspur. It's interesting. It also contains a reference to the 6/21/70 GD/NRPS show at Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley. Garcia seems a little grouchy, a little short with the sometimes stilted questions.
Anyway, if there is more of Hard Road, I'd love to know about it!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Robert Hunter and Betty Cantor-Jackson photo by dgans
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgans/535231392/
"Title: Bob and Betty.
What a fantastic photograph. It's got the time-place-people that it should have, then just so much more than that, so evocative. Hard to get feeling on film, but this one's got it. Thanks for sharing, David.
Obliquely related request (can't say "bleg", just not gonna do't): does anyone remember the trove of scans of Betty's business papers that was on one of the photo sharing sites? There was a smattering of stuff like tour itineraries and all that from '76-'77, etc. If so and if you can put a link in comments, I'd be grateful. Looking for them was how I stumbled into the Bob & Betty picture.
edit: http://www.myspace.com/26picker/photos is where they are. Thank you, commenter bRad!
edit2: that link no longer works, but I got most of what I wanted for the JGMF files.
"Title: Bob and Betty.
dgans's description: Robert Hunter and a bewigged Betty Cantor-Jackson in the parking lot of Club Front in San Rafael CA, November 1977. I think it was Sonny Heard's bike."
There's a little more of the story of the wig if you click through.
There's a little more of the story of the wig if you click through.
Obliquely related request (can't say "bleg", just not gonna do't): does anyone remember the trove of scans of Betty's business papers that was on one of the photo sharing sites? There was a smattering of stuff like tour itineraries and all that from '76-'77, etc. If so and if you can put a link in comments, I'd be grateful. Looking for them was how I stumbled into the Bob & Betty picture.
edit: http://www.myspace.com/26picker/photos is where they are. Thank you, commenter bRad!
edit2: that link no longer works, but I got most of what I wanted for the JGMF files.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Punch in, mail it in for 90 minutes, punch out and party some more: JGB at the Cap Passaic, 11/26/77b
LNjg1977-11-26.jgb.late.anderson.85051.flac1644
 |
| psilo.com |
 |
| "Five Nasty Thoughts on the Jerry Garcia Band," by Jerry Moore, Relix 5, 1 (March-April 1978), p. 33. |
I believe I got this scan from Jerry himself, although I can't remember. Anyway, Jerry's "Five Nasty Thoughts" include classics #1 ("The drummer has to go") and #3:
The Garcia Band plays too fucking slow. You can run to the bathroom to piss, buy a magazine, smoke a joint and drink a beer in the lobby, and get back to your seat, all between two notes in one of Garcia's livelier solos.I do think Jerry is being too harsh, especially on Buzz Buchanan. Looks like the guy had warmup gigs on November 15-16, 1977 at the Keystone, Berkeley (note Tues-Wed night: classic pattern for breaking in a new bandmember; either get off the beaten path, or play a slow night, or both). The GD didn't get back from the east coast until the 7th (TWA 389, scheduled to land @ 3:56 pm), so there wasn't lots of time to rehearse, I'd bet. It's more a band thing than a drummer thing. I think the slow tempos are probably derivative of these "timing" issues, not separate from them.
For a little more on this tour, see these posts:
- The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs
- JGB: November-December 1977 East Coast Tour Rarities
- LN19771203 JGB Binder Gym Hartwick College Oneonta NY
Jerry Garcia Band
Capitol Theatre
Passaic, NJ
November 26, 1977 (Saturday)
Late show, 11 pm, $7.50
Disc One (4 tracks, 41:52)
d1t01. John Scher introduction (1) [0:45], Let It Rock [8:34] [0:30] % [0:36]
d1t02. Love In The Afternoon [9:12] %% [0:49]
d1t03. Midnight Moonlight [9:43] [0:30] % [0:28]
d1t04. Russian Lullaby [10:30] [0:17] %
Disc Two (5 tracks, 46:04)
d2t01. % ramp up [0:19], Tore Up [7:37] [0:37] % [0:19]
d2t02. Gomorrah [6:46] [0:14] % [0:18]
d2t03. The Harder They Come [9:42] [0:31] % [0:13]
d2t04. Mission In The Rain [7:21] [0:38]
--encore--
d2t05. % Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [11:03] [0:24] %
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
! lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals.
Field Recordist: Jim Anderson;
Field Recording Location: unknown;
Field Recording equipment: ?2x? AKG D200E mics > Sony TC-152 cassette deck
Subsequent lineage: > 1 cassette gen > SBM1 > CDR > EAC > CD Wave > FLAC, transfered by Rob Berger.
Berger's Notes:
- fair aud but no cuts;
- thanks to Dave Carey for the source tapes.
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/19771126-02
! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/85051/ (this recording); http://etreedb.org/shn/76486/ (unattributed aud)
! R: as Berger says, I'd characterize this as a fair aud. Thanks to Jim Anderson for taping and sharing.
! d1t01 @ 0:10 (1) John Scher introduction: "Good evening. A new member of our band, on drums, Mr. Buzz Buchanan. On keyboards, Mr. Keith Godchaux. ... [inaudible] ... Ms. Maria Muldaur. On bass, the inimitable, the incredible Mr. John Kahn! ... [Garcia intro inaudible due to crowd cheering]"
! R: things get off to a rough start, way overloaded at the start of LIR
! d1t01 crowd is definitely enthusiastic ...
! P: d1t02 LITA Jerry can barely sing here, holy smokes. They aren't even halfway through the tour yet, and his voice is blown - ouch. And he's not really hitting the lyrics very well, either. Sheesh. Not sure why the crowd is so appreciative.
! P: d1t03 Buzzy Buchanan is having a hard time with the pacings ... Jerry has to start Midnight Moonlight. This is a too-slow version, IMO, though it has an interesting place in the setlist. I really wonder how much they rehearsed ol' Buzzy.
! d1t04 Russ Lull has the bass solo 4:45 ... it's actually pretty good.
! Lots of "Jerry!!!" yelling from the crowd. STFU, dude.
! P: d2t03 HTC it takes them 18 seconds to get the tempo right before they can start the song.
! P: d2t05 I even find this LAALWFH flaccid ... WTF?
! P: my overall impression on this listen (3/18/2011) is that this show is pretty weak. Punch in, mail it in for 90 minutes, punch out and party some more.
! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/85051/ (this recording); http://etreedb.org/shn/76486/ (unattributed aud)
! R: as Berger says, I'd characterize this as a fair aud. Thanks to Jim Anderson for taping and sharing.
! d1t01 @ 0:10 (1) John Scher introduction: "Good evening. A new member of our band, on drums, Mr. Buzz Buchanan. On keyboards, Mr. Keith Godchaux. ... [inaudible] ... Ms. Maria Muldaur. On bass, the inimitable, the incredible Mr. John Kahn! ... [Garcia intro inaudible due to crowd cheering]"
! R: things get off to a rough start, way overloaded at the start of LIR
! d1t01 crowd is definitely enthusiastic ...
! P: d1t02 LITA Jerry can barely sing here, holy smokes. They aren't even halfway through the tour yet, and his voice is blown - ouch. And he's not really hitting the lyrics very well, either. Sheesh. Not sure why the crowd is so appreciative.
! P: d1t03 Buzzy Buchanan is having a hard time with the pacings ... Jerry has to start Midnight Moonlight. This is a too-slow version, IMO, though it has an interesting place in the setlist. I really wonder how much they rehearsed ol' Buzzy.
! d1t04 Russ Lull has the bass solo 4:45 ... it's actually pretty good.
! Lots of "Jerry!!!" yelling from the crowd. STFU, dude.
! P: d2t03 HTC it takes them 18 seconds to get the tempo right before they can start the song.
! P: d2t05 I even find this LAALWFH flaccid ... WTF?
! P: my overall impression on this listen (3/18/2011) is that this show is pretty weak. Punch in, mail it in for 90 minutes, punch out and party some more.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
GD19680902 - Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair, Betty Nelson's Organic Raspberry Farm, Sultan, WA
Reader Dave T kindly sent along this beautiful scan of an account of the-amazing sounding Sky River Rock Festival, Betty Nelson's Organic Raspberry Farm, Sultan, WA, August 31-September 2, 1968 (1).
We are very fortunate to have a delightful Charlie Miller board tape of the Grateful Dead's set, which is pretty freaking ferocious, more the fire breathing dragon of May-August than the slightly more controlled unit of the following February. I sure would like to hear the New Lost City Ramblers' set too, though! (Greedy, I know.) Apparently it was a Really Good Time, a financial bust for the organizers (including a philosophy professor from UW, John Chambless, an interesting-sounding guy), and plans were announced to do it again the next year.
Anyway, for GD-oriented people this will be the point of greatest interest: "The pinnacle of the festival was reached in a soulful blues session led by Big Mama Thornton, accompanied by James Cotton on mouth harp, Ron (Pigpen) McKernan (of the Grateful Dead) on organ, one of the Dead's two drummers, and a guitarist." First, I don't know of any other Pigpen sit-ins off-hand ... are there others? Second, one certainly wonders whether the guitarist was Garcia. More like him than Weir, I'd wager, and though it doesn't say a GD guitarist the GD set preceded Big Mama Thornton's to close the festival. So I'd say it's likely Garcia was around (given that Pigpen and a drummer were).
There is certainly a ton more to say about this Festival. I am sure McNally has a lot to say, probably Jackson as well. Accounts are that "the Grateful Dead arrived unscheduled and unexpected" (2). I recall that there was lots of material in the Seattle Helix about the festival ... like page after page after page of reports, band profiles, pictures, art, etc. If I were to have time and inclination to investigate this festival further, that's where I'd start. Since I don't have the time, maybe some intrepid researcher wants to spin through the Helix on the Underground Newspaper microfilm collection. The Helix is a real masterpiece, though the b&w films somehow seem to project salt into the reader's eyes.
Anyway, as is my wont, I mostly wanted to post this great scan about a neat-sounding day. Thanks, Dave!
REFERENCES:
(1) Lowell Richards, "Blues Outclasses Rock At Sky River Festival," Downbeat, October 31, 1968, p. 11.
(2) "Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair opens a three-day run near Sultan, Washington, on August 30, 1968." HistoryLink.org Essay 5425. URL http://www.washington.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5425, accessed 3/17/2011.
We are very fortunate to have a delightful Charlie Miller board tape of the Grateful Dead's set, which is pretty freaking ferocious, more the fire breathing dragon of May-August than the slightly more controlled unit of the following February. I sure would like to hear the New Lost City Ramblers' set too, though! (Greedy, I know.) Apparently it was a Really Good Time, a financial bust for the organizers (including a philosophy professor from UW, John Chambless, an interesting-sounding guy), and plans were announced to do it again the next year.
Anyway, for GD-oriented people this will be the point of greatest interest: "The pinnacle of the festival was reached in a soulful blues session led by Big Mama Thornton, accompanied by James Cotton on mouth harp, Ron (Pigpen) McKernan (of the Grateful Dead) on organ, one of the Dead's two drummers, and a guitarist." First, I don't know of any other Pigpen sit-ins off-hand ... are there others? Second, one certainly wonders whether the guitarist was Garcia. More like him than Weir, I'd wager, and though it doesn't say a GD guitarist the GD set preceded Big Mama Thornton's to close the festival. So I'd say it's likely Garcia was around (given that Pigpen and a drummer were).
There is certainly a ton more to say about this Festival. I am sure McNally has a lot to say, probably Jackson as well. Accounts are that "the Grateful Dead arrived unscheduled and unexpected" (2). I recall that there was lots of material in the Seattle Helix about the festival ... like page after page after page of reports, band profiles, pictures, art, etc. If I were to have time and inclination to investigate this festival further, that's where I'd start. Since I don't have the time, maybe some intrepid researcher wants to spin through the Helix on the Underground Newspaper microfilm collection. The Helix is a real masterpiece, though the b&w films somehow seem to project salt into the reader's eyes.
Anyway, as is my wont, I mostly wanted to post this great scan about a neat-sounding day. Thanks, Dave!
REFERENCES:
(1) Lowell Richards, "Blues Outclasses Rock At Sky River Festival," Downbeat, October 31, 1968, p. 11.
(2) "Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair opens a three-day run near Sultan, Washington, on August 30, 1968." HistoryLink.org Essay 5425. URL http://www.washington.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5425, accessed 3/17/2011.
JGB "1st Northern California Tour": August 6-8, 1981
One of the oddest little jaunts you'll find the in Garcia On The Side histories is one billed as the "1st Northern California Tour", comprising the following three off-the-beaten-path gigs:
Here I just want to reflect a little bit on this mini tour. Let me start with the ad that ran in BAM magazine. I first reproduce the full page in bad quality (including the TOC for the 7/31/81 issue of BAM, which is still an unindexed goldmine of late 70s-1980s Bay Area music information), and then a clearer but less complete scan focusing on the Garcia ad.
The tour is interesting for a few reasons. First, it occurs during a particularly fluid time in terms of membership of the Jerry Garcia Band. So I'll cover personnel issues first. Second, it's just a weird little tour. So I'll say maybe a thing or two about the tour overall, maybe a sort of business/economic aspect. Third, I'll just open up a slightly broader context to the rest of 1981.
First, personnel was extremely fluid around this time.
a. Keyboards. At the start of the year, Melvin Seals had come in on the Hammond B-3 organ, and after a few gigs Jimmy Warren was also brought on as keyboardist on his electric piano (I think it was a Fender Rhodes, but I am not sure). So, here we have Melvin and Jimmy Warren on keys, which is confirmed by the two tapes.
b. Drums. Historically, TJS did not show a drummer between 6/1 and 12/17, when Kreutzmann is said to come in. We know from our various discussions here and elsewhere, ultimately reflected in and derived from Corry Arnold's contemporaneous lists, that Bill Kreutzmann came in on drums for the Concord Pavilion show on September 7, 1981. I think he was also drumming in the Bay Area on December 17-18-19, while Ron Tutt had apparently taken the October-November 1981 national tour, as well as the other September '81 Bay Area shows. Anyway, Corry reckons that Daoud Shaw was around until Concord, i.e., through 8/23. That makes a lot of sense. Shaw and Essra Mohawk were an item, and both disappear from September 7 forward. So, here we presumably have Daoud Shaw drumming (though there are no guarantees of this).
c. Backing vocals. This is understood to be the short-lived Liz Stires-Essra Mohawk tandem on backing vocals. They debuted June 25, 1981 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, their first, the first Garcia Band show with backing vocalists since the Donna Jean Godchaux-Maria Muldaur arrangement vanished in late 1978. Essra appears to be gone by 9/7/81, replaced by Julie Stafford, so apparently our "School House Rock" heroine only sang a dozen or so times with the JGB.) (For more on backing vocalists, see here for early 80s, here for mid-1982 and here for late 1983.)
(One further note here, on Concord 9/7/81, JGBP says "Actually GD Archives source mentions Liz's sister. It's handwritten. [MS 332 Ser. 3, Box 1:2, GDR: Show Files: GD Concert Dates-Tour Schedule, Grateful Dead Archives, Special Collections, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, CA].)
d. Bass. This is usually a non-issue: it was John Kahn. But recall that on 6/25/81 (Santa Cruz), 6/26/81 (Fox Warfield Theatre, San Francisco) and 8/22/81 (Fairfax Pavilion!) Phil Lesh played bass with the JGB, and Kahn was not present. I don't know anything about why this was the case, nor why John would miss a few more shows in March 1982, when David Torbert filled in. No point in me speculating about it, I just don't know. Anyway, based on a review of the two tapes of this mini-tour that I have heard, The Mule is in the house.
e. Summarizing, here's my best guess as to the personnel of the Jerry Garcia Band for the August 6-8, 1981 "1st Northern California Tour":
Second point for this post, what an odd little tour.
a) It was organized as a set, it was advertised in BAM, there were posters made, etc. There's a promoter behind this. Yet I don't see that kind of information in the materials. Doesn't seem like Graham, both because his name isn't on the materials and because it's just too obscure. He seemed to let littler, further downmarket, and/or farther flung places be by this time. Since most of them seemed to pose little meaningful competition (and many seemed to come and go, change names, and generally struggle), he didn't really need to compete on that margin. UPDATE: This is a Keystone Family joint.
b) The itinerary is pretty unlikely. San Rafael to Salinas to Davis to Stockton to San Rafael? Now Salinas has the whiff of Steinbeck and is close to Monterey. Davis is a really nice college town. Even Stockton, not generally considered a desirable place to be, brings some California Delta charm, where the Gold Rush meets the Central Valley, all of which one can appreciate in an anthropological sort of way. But not in August. We're talking easy triple digits in all three of these places, but especially Stockton. August 8th in Stockton ... oof. I start sweating just thinking of it. I'll reserve judgment on the halls; a Fox Theatre can, of course, be a magnificent thing. So I am not knocking any of this, just suggesting that it's a bit odd.
c) Putting these together, it's the juxtaposition of utterly implausible levels of organization with utterly implausible itinerary that really strikes me. There are few other tours that look quite like this that I can think of. There were lots of obscure gigs in lots of obscure places beyond the core Bay Area over the years, of course. But most didn't have the faintest whiff of business professionalism about them, with the exception of the Freddie Herrera clubs (in which Ol' Jer played a ton, 'a'course). The only other tours were typically larger scale (N > 3 shows), usually further away (e.g., midwest <--> east coast). The SoCal tours bear the closest resemblance, such as the couple-day jaunts by Legion of Mary in March (7-9) 1975, Reconstruction in July 1979 and JGB in May (17-20) 1984. But SoCal is a plane ride, and anyway with all of John's people and places down there it's probably very comfortable. These places 100 miles from SF are actually less convenient in lots of ways.
Third, just a note about the rest of the year, especially re recordings. The Garcia shows that follow this one are pretty well represented. August 20-21-22-23 are ca. 70% in circulation (missing most of two of eight sets, less a little) and represent the last Phil Lesh guest slot (8/22) and the apparent end of Daoud Shaw and Essra Mohawk's time with the JGB. There are a number of dates from after that not in circulation that I know of (scanning TJS 1981, 9/20/81, 10/25/81, 10/27/81, etc.), but there's enough sprinkled through that we can interpolate across most of them.
Before this minitour is a different deal. Going back three months (to May), I see these dates unrepresented (back of the napkin only!): 5/20/81, 5/23/81, 5/24/81, 5/27/81, most of 5/28/81,5/30/81s1 [now see shnid-116252], 5/31/81, 6/1/81, and 7/23/81 and 7/24/81 [now see shnid-132091]. Only 5.5 of the 18 JGB shows in this period currently circulate in the digital realm, to my knowledge. And the May shows might be interesting. Melvin and Jimmy and Daoud had been around since January so they were broken in, yet the evidence of what would come -- the recruitment of the backing vocalists from 6/25/81-- suggests that Garcia (and/or Kahn) was/were not satisfied with what the band was doing. As Kahn would tell Blair Jackson, "it wasn't one of our better bands" (Jackson 1999, p. 321), though it's not clear if he meant before the vocalists came, after they arrived, or both. We get the strong sense from this same material that Garcia's heroin use is escalated at this time. In any case, having almost an entire month of gigs missing here is a drag. If anyone knows of any of these tapes, please contact me, as I'd like to study them!
Anyway, mostly I just liked the artwork and wanted to shout out for BAM, and the rest of this is just an excuse to post those scans. ;-)
REFERENCE:
Jackson, Blair. 1999. Garcia: An American Life. New York: Penguin Books.
! see also: JGMF, "JG19810624: Wednesday, June 24, 1981, Sherwood Hall, Salinas, CA (UNCERTAIN)," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/04/jg19810624-wednesday-june-24-1981.html.
- Wednesday, August 6, 1981, Sherwood Hall, 940 North Main Street, Salinas, CA
- Thursday, August 7, 1981, Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, Davis, CA
- Friday, August 8, 1981, Fox Theatre, 216 E. Main Street, Stockton, CA
Here I just want to reflect a little bit on this mini tour. Let me start with the ad that ran in BAM magazine. I first reproduce the full page in bad quality (including the TOC for the 7/31/81 issue of BAM, which is still an unindexed goldmine of late 70s-1980s Bay Area music information), and then a clearer but less complete scan focusing on the Garcia ad.
The tour is interesting for a few reasons. First, it occurs during a particularly fluid time in terms of membership of the Jerry Garcia Band. So I'll cover personnel issues first. Second, it's just a weird little tour. So I'll say maybe a thing or two about the tour overall, maybe a sort of business/economic aspect. Third, I'll just open up a slightly broader context to the rest of 1981.
First, personnel was extremely fluid around this time.
a. Keyboards. At the start of the year, Melvin Seals had come in on the Hammond B-3 organ, and after a few gigs Jimmy Warren was also brought on as keyboardist on his electric piano (I think it was a Fender Rhodes, but I am not sure). So, here we have Melvin and Jimmy Warren on keys, which is confirmed by the two tapes.
b. Drums. Historically, TJS did not show a drummer between 6/1 and 12/17, when Kreutzmann is said to come in. We know from our various discussions here and elsewhere, ultimately reflected in and derived from Corry Arnold's contemporaneous lists, that Bill Kreutzmann came in on drums for the Concord Pavilion show on September 7, 1981. I think he was also drumming in the Bay Area on December 17-18-19, while Ron Tutt had apparently taken the October-November 1981 national tour, as well as the other September '81 Bay Area shows. Anyway, Corry reckons that Daoud Shaw was around until Concord, i.e., through 8/23. That makes a lot of sense. Shaw and Essra Mohawk were an item, and both disappear from September 7 forward. So, here we presumably have Daoud Shaw drumming (though there are no guarantees of this).
c. Backing vocals. This is understood to be the short-lived Liz Stires-Essra Mohawk tandem on backing vocals. They debuted June 25, 1981 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, their first, the first Garcia Band show with backing vocalists since the Donna Jean Godchaux-Maria Muldaur arrangement vanished in late 1978. Essra appears to be gone by 9/7/81, replaced by Julie Stafford, so apparently our "School House Rock" heroine only sang a dozen or so times with the JGB.) (For more on backing vocalists, see here for early 80s, here for mid-1982 and here for late 1983.)
(One further note here, on Concord 9/7/81, JGBP says "Actually GD Archives source mentions Liz's sister. It's handwritten. [MS 332 Ser. 3, Box 1:2, GDR: Show Files: GD Concert Dates-Tour Schedule, Grateful Dead Archives, Special Collections, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, CA].)
d. Bass. This is usually a non-issue: it was John Kahn. But recall that on 6/25/81 (Santa Cruz), 6/26/81 (Fox Warfield Theatre, San Francisco) and 8/22/81 (Fairfax Pavilion!) Phil Lesh played bass with the JGB, and Kahn was not present. I don't know anything about why this was the case, nor why John would miss a few more shows in March 1982, when David Torbert filled in. No point in me speculating about it, I just don't know. Anyway, based on a review of the two tapes of this mini-tour that I have heard, The Mule is in the house.
e. Summarizing, here's my best guess as to the personnel of the Jerry Garcia Band for the August 6-8, 1981 "1st Northern California Tour":
- Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
- John Kahn - el-bass;
- Melvin Seals - keyboards (Hammond B3 organ);
- Jimmy Warren - keyboards (Fender Rhodes electric piano);
- Daoud Shaw - drums;
- Essra Mohawk - backing vocals;
- Liz Stires - backing vocals.
a) It was organized as a set, it was advertised in BAM, there were posters made, etc. There's a promoter behind this. Yet I don't see that kind of information in the materials. Doesn't seem like Graham, both because his name isn't on the materials and because it's just too obscure. He seemed to let littler, further downmarket, and/or farther flung places be by this time. Since most of them seemed to pose little meaningful competition (and many seemed to come and go, change names, and generally struggle), he didn't really need to compete on that margin. UPDATE: This is a Keystone Family joint.
b) The itinerary is pretty unlikely. San Rafael to Salinas to Davis to Stockton to San Rafael? Now Salinas has the whiff of Steinbeck and is close to Monterey. Davis is a really nice college town. Even Stockton, not generally considered a desirable place to be, brings some California Delta charm, where the Gold Rush meets the Central Valley, all of which one can appreciate in an anthropological sort of way. But not in August. We're talking easy triple digits in all three of these places, but especially Stockton. August 8th in Stockton ... oof. I start sweating just thinking of it. I'll reserve judgment on the halls; a Fox Theatre can, of course, be a magnificent thing. So I am not knocking any of this, just suggesting that it's a bit odd.
c) Putting these together, it's the juxtaposition of utterly implausible levels of organization with utterly implausible itinerary that really strikes me. There are few other tours that look quite like this that I can think of. There were lots of obscure gigs in lots of obscure places beyond the core Bay Area over the years, of course. But most didn't have the faintest whiff of business professionalism about them, with the exception of the Freddie Herrera clubs (in which Ol' Jer played a ton, 'a'course). The only other tours were typically larger scale (N > 3 shows), usually further away (e.g., midwest <--> east coast). The SoCal tours bear the closest resemblance, such as the couple-day jaunts by Legion of Mary in March (7-9) 1975, Reconstruction in July 1979 and JGB in May (17-20) 1984. But SoCal is a plane ride, and anyway with all of John's people and places down there it's probably very comfortable. These places 100 miles from SF are actually less convenient in lots of ways.
Third, just a note about the rest of the year, especially re recordings. The Garcia shows that follow this one are pretty well represented. August 20-21-22-23 are ca. 70% in circulation (missing most of two of eight sets, less a little) and represent the last Phil Lesh guest slot (8/22) and the apparent end of Daoud Shaw and Essra Mohawk's time with the JGB. There are a number of dates from after that not in circulation that I know of (scanning TJS 1981, 9/20/81, 10/25/81, 10/27/81, etc.), but there's enough sprinkled through that we can interpolate across most of them.
Before this minitour is a different deal. Going back three months (to May), I see these dates unrepresented (back of the napkin only!): 5/20/81, 5/23/81, 5/24/81, 5/27/81, most of 5/28/81,
Anyway, mostly I just liked the artwork and wanted to shout out for BAM, and the rest of this is just an excuse to post those scans. ;-)
REFERENCE:
Jackson, Blair. 1999. Garcia: An American Life. New York: Penguin Books.
! see also: JGMF, "JG19810624: Wednesday, June 24, 1981, Sherwood Hall, Salinas, CA (UNCERTAIN)," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/04/jg19810624-wednesday-june-24-1981.html.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
'Nice Hat, John': JGB at Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, August 7, 1981
LN jg1981-08-07.jgb.all.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448
JGB's "First Northern California Tour", heh heh.
JGB's "First Northern California Tour", heh heh.
Having just posted about the JGB Salinas show on August 6, 1981, here I just drop the raw data on a pretty grungy old tape of what purports to be the next night, Friday, August 7, 1981 at Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, Davis, CA.
One of the great things about lots of these old audience tapes is the crowd chatter and such, which can be revealing. In this case, first, I think I hear a couple of crowd references to John Kahn. Not a big deal, but worth establishing since he was hit or miss in the summer of '81 (Phil Lesh subbing in on 6/25, 6/26 and 8/22). Second, I hear some troubling references to "Saturday night" that make me wonder whether this really isn't the next night, Saturday, August 8, 1981 at the Fox Theatre in Stockton, CA. I don't know of any other purported source for the 7th, nor of any tape at all for the 8th, which back in the day didn't even have a setlist at the Jerry Site, so it's going to be hard to figure out. In the absence of anything else we'll have to go with the tape labeling, I guess, but it does make me wonder.
My main aim with these posts is to set up a post on a possible Salinas show in late June '81 (in addition to August 6) ... amazing how much groundwork I feel like I have to lay before I can say anything at all. I guess the next in this mini series will be a general one on this mini tour, and then I'll get to a possible earlier Salinas gig. Edit: done and done.
One last point: as I am frequently discovering, the tapers have played a vital role in establishing the histories that we currently use. There are other sources, of course, foremost among which is the manuscript tradition centered on Corry Arnold's contemporaneous notes (which themselves derived from, or at least incorporated, Dennis McNally's). But tapes have supplied us with a lot. And the gigs that were "off the beaten path" in terms of the tapers have tended to remain the most obscure. So such shows, including this one but especially the night before and the night following, are doubly obscure -- off the beaten path and not advertised, etc. in the "usual places" (e.g., the pink section of the Chronicle), *and* (not coincidentally) less likely to have been taped, and less circulated into more extensive trader networks even insofar as they were initially recorded.
Anyway, notes on a pretty run-of-the-mill 1981 JGB show follow.
Jerry Garcia Band
Freeborn Hall, University of California at Davis
One of the great things about lots of these old audience tapes is the crowd chatter and such, which can be revealing. In this case, first, I think I hear a couple of crowd references to John Kahn. Not a big deal, but worth establishing since he was hit or miss in the summer of '81 (Phil Lesh subbing in on 6/25, 6/26 and 8/22). Second, I hear some troubling references to "Saturday night" that make me wonder whether this really isn't the next night, Saturday, August 8, 1981 at the Fox Theatre in Stockton, CA. I don't know of any other purported source for the 7th, nor of any tape at all for the 8th, which back in the day didn't even have a setlist at the Jerry Site, so it's going to be hard to figure out. In the absence of anything else we'll have to go with the tape labeling, I guess, but it does make me wonder.
My main aim with these posts is to set up a post on a possible Salinas show in late June '81 (in addition to August 6) ... amazing how much groundwork I feel like I have to lay before I can say anything at all. I guess the next in this mini series will be a general one on this mini tour, and then I'll get to a possible earlier Salinas gig. Edit: done and done.
One last point: as I am frequently discovering, the tapers have played a vital role in establishing the histories that we currently use. There are other sources, of course, foremost among which is the manuscript tradition centered on Corry Arnold's contemporaneous notes (which themselves derived from, or at least incorporated, Dennis McNally's). But tapes have supplied us with a lot. And the gigs that were "off the beaten path" in terms of the tapers have tended to remain the most obscure. So such shows, including this one but especially the night before and the night following, are doubly obscure -- off the beaten path and not advertised, etc. in the "usual places" (e.g., the pink section of the Chronicle), *and* (not coincidentally) less likely to have been taped, and less circulated into more extensive trader networks even insofar as they were initially recorded.
Anyway, notes on a pretty run-of-the-mill 1981 JGB show follow.
Jerry Garcia Band
Freeborn Hall, University of California at Davis
1 Shields Ave
Davis, CA 95616
August 7, 1981 (Friday)
August 7, 1981 (Friday)
CC aud became shnid-136802
--Set I (6 tracks, 46:36)--
s1t01. Crowd and Tuning [0:21]
s1t02. The Way You Do The Things You Do [5:01] [1:10]
s1t03. They Love Each Other [6:45] [1:29]
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [13:46] [1:29]
s1t05. I Second That Emotion [8:17] ->
s1t06. De//al [8:#00] [0:15]
--Set II (6 tracks, 45:38)--
s2t01. Crowd and Tuning [1:39]
s2t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [12:20] [1:42]
s2t03. (I'm A) Road Runner [5:11] [1:25]
s2t04. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:34] ->
s2t05. Dear Prudence [11:36] ->
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight// [3:09#]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #13b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia: el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn: el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals: keyboards (Hammond B3);
! lineup: Jimmy Warren: keyboards
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums;
! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals;
! lineup: Essra Mohawk - backing vocals.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
--Set I (6 tracks, 46:36)--
s1t01. Crowd and Tuning [0:21]
s1t02. The Way You Do The Things You Do [5:01] [1:10]
s1t03. They Love Each Other [6:45] [1:29]
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [13:46] [1:29]
s1t05. I Second That Emotion [8:17] ->
s1t06. De//al [8:#00] [0:15]
--Set II (6 tracks, 45:38)--
s2t01. Crowd and Tuning [1:39]
s2t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [12:20] [1:42]
s2t03. (I'm A) Road Runner [5:11] [1:25]
s2t04. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:34] ->
s2t05. Dear Prudence [11:36] ->
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight// [3:09#]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #13b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia: el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn: el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals: keyboards (Hammond B3);
! lineup: Jimmy Warren: keyboards
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums;
! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals;
! lineup: Essra Mohawk - backing vocals.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19810807-02
! db: no sources as of 3/12/2011; https://etreedb.org/shn/136802 (derived from this tape)
! db: no sources as of 3/12/2011; https://etreedb.org/shn/136802 (derived from this tape)
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/freeborn-hall-uc-davis-104-freeborn.html
! Personnel. This lineup reflects the state of my understanding as of March 12, 2011. I think the crowd comments indicate that Kahn is playing bass (which is non-trivial during this particular time period, actually). The dual keyboard approach is audible and that has to be Melvin (probably on a Hammond B3) and Jimmy Warren on electric piano. I can't identify the drummer or backing vocalists. But posts and comments at JGMF (especially http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/12/jgb-early-1980s-drummers-and-backup.html) do lead me to conclude that it's Daoud Shaw and his partner Essra Mohawk, along with Liz Stires as the second backing vocalist. So, JGB #13b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)
! R: Tape Specs: unknown 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) > Wavelab 5.0.1a (cross-fades, etc.) > shntool (stripped non-canonical headers) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC encoding, level 8) > Foobar (tagging).
! R: Not a great tape, but not the worst I have heard and immeasurably better than no tape at all. It's well recorded in one sense, which is that they left the tape rolling between songs. One might think that the resulting issues in music (tape flip in Deal, end of Mid Moon cut) would make this a bad choice, but I'd disagree: for an otherwise missing '81 tape in mediocre quality from an odd run of shows, the between-song stuff is arguably just as historically important as 30-second bit of deal or yet another Midnight Moonlight. Fine by me, anyway: thanks, tapers!
! s1t01 crowd talk: TWYDTTYD @ 1:28 "John Kahn on the bass, [?he is good?]"; @ 5:30 "[inaudible] Saturday night"; @ 5:54 guy yells "Saturday Night" ... next guy yells "Terrapin".
! metadata: I confess that the discussion of Saturday Night has me confused, if this is really Friday, August 7. Maybe just a little inside joke or something, but it could also indicate that this tape is mislabeled and could actually be the Stockton show (8/8/81)?
! s1t04 STOF JG sounds very rough
! s1t04 crowd talk @ 14:08 audience member yells "Nice hat, John!" ??
! s1t06 Deal tape flip @ 7:50, maybe 30s second missing
! R: One of the people involved taping is definitely a woman. @ 12:56 on s2t02 you can hear her saying something like "the microphone's about the same size as this tape player"
! s2t02 crowd talk: The crowd is calling out tunes late in s2t02, including "Catfish John" and "After Midnight". Good, knowledgeable requests!
! s2t03 Jimmy Warren can best be heard tinkling around in Roadrunner.
! P: s2t04-5 JK is nice and decisive in moving into Dear Prudence from Dixie Down.
! R: s2t06 Midnight Moonlight cuts out. I didn't try to smooth the end.
! 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!
! Personnel. This lineup reflects the state of my understanding as of March 12, 2011. I think the crowd comments indicate that Kahn is playing bass (which is non-trivial during this particular time period, actually). The dual keyboard approach is audible and that has to be Melvin (probably on a Hammond B3) and Jimmy Warren on electric piano. I can't identify the drummer or backing vocalists. But posts and comments at JGMF (especially http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/12/jgb-early-1980s-drummers-and-backup.html) do lead me to conclude that it's Daoud Shaw and his partner Essra Mohawk, along with Liz Stires as the second backing vocalist. So, JGB #13b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)
! R: Tape Specs: unknown 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) > Wavelab 5.0.1a (cross-fades, etc.) > shntool (stripped non-canonical headers) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC encoding, level 8) > Foobar (tagging).
! R: Not a great tape, but not the worst I have heard and immeasurably better than no tape at all. It's well recorded in one sense, which is that they left the tape rolling between songs. One might think that the resulting issues in music (tape flip in Deal, end of Mid Moon cut) would make this a bad choice, but I'd disagree: for an otherwise missing '81 tape in mediocre quality from an odd run of shows, the between-song stuff is arguably just as historically important as 30-second bit of deal or yet another Midnight Moonlight. Fine by me, anyway: thanks, tapers!
! s1t01 crowd talk: TWYDTTYD @ 1:28 "John Kahn on the bass, [?he is good?]"; @ 5:30 "[inaudible] Saturday night"; @ 5:54 guy yells "Saturday Night" ... next guy yells "Terrapin".
! metadata: I confess that the discussion of Saturday Night has me confused, if this is really Friday, August 7. Maybe just a little inside joke or something, but it could also indicate that this tape is mislabeled and could actually be the Stockton show (8/8/81)?
! s1t04 STOF JG sounds very rough
! s1t04 crowd talk @ 14:08 audience member yells "Nice hat, John!" ??
! s1t06 Deal tape flip @ 7:50, maybe 30s second missing
! R: One of the people involved taping is definitely a woman. @ 12:56 on s2t02 you can hear her saying something like "the microphone's about the same size as this tape player"
! s2t02 crowd talk: The crowd is calling out tunes late in s2t02, including "Catfish John" and "After Midnight". Good, knowledgeable requests!
! s2t03 Jimmy Warren can best be heard tinkling around in Roadrunner.
! P: s2t04-5 JK is nice and decisive in moving into Dear Prudence from Dixie Down.
! R: s2t06 Midnight Moonlight cuts out. I didn't try to smooth the end.
! 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!
"We Hardly Know Each Other": JGB at Sherwood Hall, Salinas, CA, August 6, 1981
LN jg1981-08-06.jgb.all.aud-unk-russjcan.110492.flac1644
JGB's "1st Northern California Tour", as the Keystoners had it.
In response to a really intriguing email about possible late June 1981 JGB show in Salinas, about which I have posted separately, and with the generous help of folks over at Lossless Legs, I was able to get my ears around the only circulating tape of JGB on Thursday, August 6, 1981 at Sherwood Hall, 940 North Main Street, Salinas, CA. This is an odd little tour about which I have posted separately.
Anyway, here are a few bottom lines from this listen.
1) This seems to be correctly dated. If indeed there had been a Salinas JGB show in late June '81, it was the first of two. The key evidence here is not only the seeder's personal attendance (augmented by the only tape I know for this date), but a "Happy Birthday Jerry" from the crowd, much more sensible for August 6th then for late June (given Jerry's August 1st birthday).
2) This seems to be John Kahn playing bass. If indeed there had been a Salinas JGB show in late June '81 with Phil Lesh playing (which is my correspondent's recollection), then Kahn's presence here reinforces the case for two separate shows.
3) After Midnight [JB | Allan] is the most interesting song here. Highly imperfect, but worth a listen.
Anyway, notes below.
Jerry Garcia Band
Sherwood Hall
In response to a really intriguing email about possible late June 1981 JGB show in Salinas, about which I have posted separately, and with the generous help of folks over at Lossless Legs, I was able to get my ears around the only circulating tape of JGB on Thursday, August 6, 1981 at Sherwood Hall, 940 North Main Street, Salinas, CA. This is an odd little tour about which I have posted separately.
Anyway, here are a few bottom lines from this listen.
1) This seems to be correctly dated. If indeed there had been a Salinas JGB show in late June '81, it was the first of two. The key evidence here is not only the seeder's personal attendance (augmented by the only tape I know for this date), but a "Happy Birthday Jerry" from the crowd, much more sensible for August 6th then for late June (given Jerry's August 1st birthday).
2) This seems to be John Kahn playing bass. If indeed there had been a Salinas JGB show in late June '81 with Phil Lesh playing (which is my correspondent's recollection), then Kahn's presence here reinforces the case for two separate shows.
3) After Midnight [JB | Allan] is the most interesting song here. Highly imperfect, but worth a listen.
Anyway, notes below.
Jerry Garcia Band
Sherwood Hall
940 North Main Street
Salinas, CA 93906-3913
August 6, 1981 (Thursday)
--set I (5 tracks, 44:41)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is [7:37] [0:13] % [0:31] {08:21}
s1t02. Catfish John [10:04] [0:03] % {10:07}
s1t03. After Midnight [8:22] [0:05] % {08:27}
s1t04. Sittin' in Limbo/ [9:01] % {09:01}
s1t05. //Tangled Up In // Blue [#8:#36] [0:05] % {08:41}
--set II (5 tracks, 42:03)--
s2t01. crowd (1) [0:52] {00:52}
s2t02. I'll Take a Melody [11:30] [0:02] % [[0:17] {11:49}
s2t03. The Harder They Come [10:43] [0:02] % [0:06] {10:51}
s2t04. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:21] -> {08:21}
s2t05. Dear Prudence [10:03] -> Midnight Moonlight// [0:01] [0:02] % {10:06}
! R: source: Unknown gen audience recording > NakCR-3A > AudigySE > Audacity > CDWave > TLH, transfer by Russ Cansler.
! R: seeder notes: unknown low gen source. Pauses between songs. Tape flip at 7:39 in d1t05. FOB indicated by weak vocals and upfront guitar from amp instead of house sound. Jerry speaks off mike at the beginning of set 2 when tapers ask him to introduce the band. We weren't allowed in the balcony seats because we were deadheads and might try to smoke or something so everyone was on the floor. Drummer was late resulting in at least an hour between opening act and Jerry. Jerry site lists source as cutting Dear Prudence but this source has Dear Prudence intact and first second of Midnight Moonlight.
Salinas, CA 93906-3913
August 6, 1981 (Thursday)
--set I (5 tracks, 44:41)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is [7:37] [0:13] % [0:31] {08:21}
s1t02. Catfish John [10:04] [0:03] % {10:07}
s1t03. After Midnight [8:22] [0:05] % {08:27}
s1t04. Sittin' in Limbo/ [9:01] % {09:01}
s1t05. //Tangled Up In // Blue [#8:#36] [0:05] % {08:41}
--set II (5 tracks, 42:03)--
s2t01. crowd (1) [0:52] {00:52}
s2t02. I'll Take a Melody [11:30] [0:02] % [[0:17] {11:49}
s2t03. The Harder They Come [10:43] [0:02] % [0:06] {10:51}
s2t04. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:21] -> {08:21}
s2t05. Dear Prudence [10:03] -> Midnight Moonlight// [0:01] [0:02] % {10:06}
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #13b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia: el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn: el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals: keyboards (Hammond B3);
! lineup: Jimmy Warren: keyboards
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums;
! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals;
! lineup: Essra Mohawk - backing vocals.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/110492/ (this recording)
! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/sherwood-hall-940-north-main-street.html
! band: JGB #13b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). Sounds like Kahn on bass, not a foregone conclusion during the summer of '81 (see 6/25, 6/26 and 8/22, all of which had Phil Lesh playing bass). The two keyboardists and two backing vocalists are all here. The names here are based on ongoing analysis at JGMF, LLD, and elsewhere and reflect the state of my understanding as of March 15, 2011.
! R: source: Unknown gen audience recording > NakCR-3A > AudigySE > Audacity > CDWave > TLH, transfer by Russ Cansler.
! R: seeder notes: unknown low gen source. Pauses between songs. Tape flip at 7:39 in d1t05. FOB indicated by weak vocals and upfront guitar from amp instead of house sound. Jerry speaks off mike at the beginning of set 2 when tapers ask him to introduce the band. We weren't allowed in the balcony seats because we were deadheads and might try to smoke or something so everyone was on the floor. Drummer was late resulting in at least an hour between opening act and Jerry. Jerry site lists source as cutting Dear Prudence but this source has Dear Prudence intact and first second of Midnight Moonlight.
! R: TJS used to lists a 90 minute aud tape that "cuts in Dear Prudence and is missing the rest of the show." The seeder for this fileset infers that this is a different recording, but of course it's possible that Ryan's reference tape cut at the very end of DP and dropped the 1-second tease of Midnight Moonlight, so I am not sure that issue is settled. For now, I am working on the assumption that the recording I note here is the only one to have made it out of Sherwood Hall that night, but I have often been pleasantly wrong about such things.
! R: running fast. The bass is overloaded and boomy. Seeder is right, this definitely has that FOB feel - the guitar is off the monitors and is quite forward. (Not such a bad thing, after all.)
! s1t01 crowd starts up a Happy Birthday for Jerry, good provenance for the date.
! R: Nice tape, nice recording underneath it all. The master is probably a nice listen.
! P: s1t03 After Midnight is extremely coke-fueled. Jerry's switches a tone @ 1:59 for his solo, things start coming in @ about 2:12, and then he is tearing off a raunchy freaking run, foul, foul stuff. He goes around the bases again in the 3-min mark, switches into the rhythm, turning it over to Jimmy Warren, @ 3:26. Warren's solo is anemic, Melvin steps in for one @ 4:36, is shredding reasonably well for 45 seconds or so, then Jerry jumps over the top for a couple of measures to set up the vocals.
! R: s1t05 TUIB cuts in with massively overblown levels - watch your speakers.
! P: Set I definitely has more of a coke vibe than a heroin vibe.
! R: s1t05 TUIB harsh splice @ 7:39, SQ much brighter afterwards. Different source?
! R: s2t01 enters harshly, watch your ears.
! s2t01 @ 0:11 taper talk (1): "Will somebody please introduce the band?" Off-mic, Garcia replies "We hardly know each other," gets a good chuckle. It would become --really, already was-- exceptionally rare for Garcia to engage fans in this way.
! R: set II sounds brighter and hissier, more like the source for the end of TUIB than for the rest of set I.
! P: s2t05 JK sounds good @ start of DP
! R: s2t05 Midnight Moonlight is just the first note before the cassette seems to run out.
! What was the name of the opening band?
! R: running fast. The bass is overloaded and boomy. Seeder is right, this definitely has that FOB feel - the guitar is off the monitors and is quite forward. (Not such a bad thing, after all.)
! s1t01 crowd starts up a Happy Birthday for Jerry, good provenance for the date.
! R: Nice tape, nice recording underneath it all. The master is probably a nice listen.
! P: s1t03 After Midnight is extremely coke-fueled. Jerry's switches a tone @ 1:59 for his solo, things start coming in @ about 2:12, and then he is tearing off a raunchy freaking run, foul, foul stuff. He goes around the bases again in the 3-min mark, switches into the rhythm, turning it over to Jimmy Warren, @ 3:26. Warren's solo is anemic, Melvin steps in for one @ 4:36, is shredding reasonably well for 45 seconds or so, then Jerry jumps over the top for a couple of measures to set up the vocals.
! R: s1t05 TUIB cuts in with massively overblown levels - watch your speakers.
! P: Set I definitely has more of a coke vibe than a heroin vibe.
! R: s1t05 TUIB harsh splice @ 7:39, SQ much brighter afterwards. Different source?
! R: s2t01 enters harshly, watch your ears.
! s2t01 @ 0:11 taper talk (1): "Will somebody please introduce the band?" Off-mic, Garcia replies "We hardly know each other," gets a good chuckle. It would become --really, already was-- exceptionally rare for Garcia to engage fans in this way.
! R: set II sounds brighter and hissier, more like the source for the end of TUIB than for the rest of set I.
! P: s2t05 JK sounds good @ start of DP
! R: s2t05 Midnight Moonlight is just the first note before the cassette seems to run out.
! What was the name of the opening band?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)