Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Workingman's Tracker's JGMS and LOM Project
Update: thanks to the good folks at WT, the forum posts are now public. Thank you!
There is a Garcia/Saunders and Legion of Mary Project going on at Workingman's Tracker, organized by user SteveSw. He's posting great reviews of about one recording per day, using only the best sources from '71-'75. The project is scheduled to run until November 5th!
I don't think non-members of Workingman's Tracker can read the information. I wish there were a way they could make that conversation public (as the WELL with Deadsongs.Vue: Literature of the Grateful Dead, which basically includes all of David Dodd's amazing Annotated Lyrics!). I have this fear that really interesting information/analysis/insight will emerge there, but the fact that it's firewalled as a private discussion might keep that stuff out of reach. We have seen in the history of the whole GD List-Making Tradition, about which I'll eventually do a post or two, that things that were known can become unknown. Hate to see that happen any more than it should.
Anyway, there's good music spinning and SteveSw is writing beautiful reviews. They are up through Garcia and Saunders "5/23/73, Ash Grove" (a misdate, I argue), and there could be lots of good discussion and deep engagement with these shows. Great concept for a project. Thank you, SteveSw!
There is a Garcia/Saunders and Legion of Mary Project going on at Workingman's Tracker, organized by user SteveSw. He's posting great reviews of about one recording per day, using only the best sources from '71-'75. The project is scheduled to run until November 5th!
I don't think non-members of Workingman's Tracker can read the information. I wish there were a way they could make that conversation public (as the WELL with Deadsongs.Vue: Literature of the Grateful Dead, which basically includes all of David Dodd's amazing Annotated Lyrics!). I have this fear that really interesting information/analysis/insight will emerge there, but the fact that it's firewalled as a private discussion might keep that stuff out of reach. We have seen in the history of the whole GD List-Making Tradition, about which I'll eventually do a post or two, that things that were known can become unknown. Hate to see that happen any more than it should.
Anyway, there's good music spinning and SteveSw is writing beautiful reviews. They are up through Garcia and Saunders "5/23/73, Ash Grove" (a misdate, I argue), and there could be lots of good discussion and deep engagement with these shows. Great concept for a project. Thank you, SteveSw!
Monday, July 25, 2011
NRPS 19710121 Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, Davis, CA
My questions about whether the NRPS played the January 1971 out-of-town GD shows in Davis (1/21/71), Eugene (1/22/71) and Seattle (1/24/71) , and my conjecture that maybe they just stayed at Heider's, are at least partly answered and stand at least partly wrong.
Here's a little pictorial from the campus newspaper, the California Aggie, regarding the show at Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, Davis, CA on January 21, 1971.
So the Marmaduke picture answers the NRPS question. Then I have a few other questions from this great little display. First, who are the guys besides Weir, Garcia and Kreutzmann in the bottom-right panel? The guy far-right could be Mickey, I guess, but to the right of Billy in the picture ... who is that? Second, there's the James and the Good Brothers reference. And, sure enough, a brief review in the same paper ("Dead, Riders, Brothers," California Aggie, January 27, 1971, p. 6) mentions that the show went James and the Good Brothers, NRPS, and two sets of GD.
So, yes Virginia, the New Riders did play Thursday 1/21/71 at Freeborn Hall, UC Davis. And it appears from Jim Quigley's photos to have been "fantastic".
Update 10/12/2014: there is now an audience tape of the GD set in circulation [shnid-131516, flac 2496 | shnid-131517, flac1644], which I hope to listen to and report on soon. In anticipation, here's the last visual I have for the show (a preview), and, below that, a link to LIA's post on this show.
LIA: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/07/january-21-1971-freeborn-hall-davis-ca.html, which reproduces the following: Abramson, Hilary. 1971. Grateful Dead Shake Freeborn Hall. Woodland Democrat, January 22 1971, p. unk.
 |
| California Aggie, January 25, 1971, p. 8; photos by Jim Quigley. |
So the Marmaduke picture answers the NRPS question. Then I have a few other questions from this great little display. First, who are the guys besides Weir, Garcia and Kreutzmann in the bottom-right panel? The guy far-right could be Mickey, I guess, but to the right of Billy in the picture ... who is that? Second, there's the James and the Good Brothers reference. And, sure enough, a brief review in the same paper ("Dead, Riders, Brothers," California Aggie, January 27, 1971, p. 6) mentions that the show went James and the Good Brothers, NRPS, and two sets of GD.
 |
| Reviewer, Aggie. 1971. Dead, Riders, Brothers. California Aggie, January 27, 1971, p. 6. |
So, yes Virginia, the New Riders did play Thursday 1/21/71 at Freeborn Hall, UC Davis. And it appears from Jim Quigley's photos to have been "fantastic".
Update 10/12/2014: there is now an audience tape of the GD set in circulation [shnid-131516, flac 2496 | shnid-131517, flac1644], which I hope to listen to and report on soon. In anticipation, here's the last visual I have for the show (a preview), and, below that, a link to LIA's post on this show.
LIA: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/07/january-21-1971-freeborn-hall-davis-ca.html, which reproduces the following: Abramson, Hilary. 1971. Grateful Dead Shake Freeborn Hall. Woodland Democrat, January 22 1971, p. unk.
GD 19670106
 |
| "Big Mama to aid in raising of the dead," California Aggie, January 6, 1967, p. 5. |
Grateful Dead played at Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, Davis, CA on January 6, 1967. The above preview article is from that day's California Aggie, p. 5.
What intrigues me is the line that says that the last time they played Freeborn, the GD played to a full house. When did the GD play Freeborn Hall before 1/6/67?
Sunday, July 24, 2011
OAITW 19730424 Inn of the Beginning, Cotati, CA
Tuesday, April 24, 1973: Old And In the Way featuring David Diadem (Grisman), Jerry Garcia and Peter Rowan played the Inn of the Beginning at 8201 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati, CA, 94931. George Edwards opened. This was billed as a "Special Show" (as 3/5/73 had been) and the $2.50 ticket price was just about the most expensive the Inn had ever offered.
OAITW had just come off their first weekend gigs, April 20-21, 1973 at the Lion's Share (60 Red Hill Avenue, San Anselmo, CA, 94960), and would do another Friday-Saturday in a few days, the 27th and 28th at Keystone (2119 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94704). (See Corry's post at LLD on the 4/27/73 billing, with broader analysis.) This is what I call the second period of OAITW's too-brief existence, during which they are trying to integrate fiddle into the band, working specifically with Richard Greene during this period. But Greene was and remains a very busy musician, and my imprecise reckonings suggest that he was around or not pretty sporadically. Here's how I currently code Greene's presence/absence during this period, though none of this is very firm.
4/12/73 Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara: present (stuff | listening notes)
4/15/73 Boarding House: present ("Four Nights at the Boarding House")
4/16/73a Boarding House: present (listening notes | "Four Nights at the Boarding House")
4/16/73b Boarding House: absent ("Four Nights at the Boarding House")
4/19/73 Lion's Share: present
4/20/73 Lion's Share: present
4/21/73 Lion's Share: present (listening notes)
4/23/73 Orphanage: absent (see below)
4/24/73 IOTB: absent (see below)
4/27/73 Keystone: present
4/28/73 Keystone: absent (I think)
4/30/73 Orphanage: absent
5/8/73 Eugene: present
5/9/73 Portland: present
5/18/73 Homer's: present
5/25/73 Bimbo's: present
Then Vassar comes in, and as far as I know Richard is done. For more on April 1973, see "Twenty-Four Performances in Twenty-Four Days: April 6-30, 1973".
The 4/23/73 gig at the Orphanage (807 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA, 94133) was reviewed by Philip Elwood in the San Francisco Examiner (1). Scan below.
Among other things, he notes that the band needs a fiddle and that Greene occasionally sits in to fill that need, implying that he was not there on the night in question. So much for Monday 4/23.
How do I reach the conclusion that Greene was not present for this Inn gig on Tuesday 4/24/73? Well, Richard Greene and Friends would play the Inn on August 2, 1973, and in that month's Inn of the Beginning Flyer, we are told that "Richard Greene played the fiddle with Seatrain the last time he was at the Inn." I think Mark Braunstein wrote that blurb, and I highly doubt the remark was an oversight. If Richard Greene had played the Inn with OAITW on 4/24/73, the blurb probably would have told us so, and certainly would not have told us anything to contradict that. Combined with the fact that such a gig was not in Richard Greene's own contemporary datebooks, I am about 99.9% sure he was not there on the date in question.
REFERENCE:
(1) Elwood, Philip. 1973. A New Country Ear-Opener. San Francisco Examiner, April 24, p. 26.
 |
| April 1973 Inn of the Beginning Calendar, courtesy of Mark Braunstein. |
4/12/73 Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara: present (stuff | listening notes)
4/15/73 Boarding House: present ("Four Nights at the Boarding House")
4/16/73a Boarding House: present (listening notes | "Four Nights at the Boarding House")
4/16/73b Boarding House: absent ("Four Nights at the Boarding House")
4/19/73 Lion's Share: present
4/20/73 Lion's Share: present
4/21/73 Lion's Share: present (listening notes)
4/23/73 Orphanage: absent (see below)
4/24/73 IOTB: absent (see below)
4/27/73 Keystone: present
4/28/73 Keystone: absent (I think)
4/30/73 Orphanage: absent
5/8/73 Eugene: present
5/9/73 Portland: present
5/18/73 Homer's: present
5/25/73 Bimbo's: present
Then Vassar comes in, and as far as I know Richard is done. For more on April 1973, see "Twenty-Four Performances in Twenty-Four Days: April 6-30, 1973".
The 4/23/73 gig at the Orphanage (807 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA, 94133) was reviewed by Philip Elwood in the San Francisco Examiner (1). Scan below.
 |
| Elwood, Philip. 1973. A New Country Ear-Opener. San Francisco Examiner, April 24, p. 26. |
How do I reach the conclusion that Greene was not present for this Inn gig on Tuesday 4/24/73? Well, Richard Greene and Friends would play the Inn on August 2, 1973, and in that month's Inn of the Beginning Flyer, we are told that "Richard Greene played the fiddle with Seatrain the last time he was at the Inn." I think Mark Braunstein wrote that blurb, and I highly doubt the remark was an oversight. If Richard Greene had played the Inn with OAITW on 4/24/73, the blurb probably would have told us so, and certainly would not have told us anything to contradict that. Combined with the fact that such a gig was not in Richard Greene's own contemporary datebooks, I am about 99.9% sure he was not there on the date in question.
REFERENCE:
(1) Elwood, Philip. 1973. A New Country Ear-Opener. San Francisco Examiner, April 24, p. 26.
OAITW 19730305 Inn of the Beginning, Cotati, CA
Sharp-eyed readers who checked out the March 1973 Inn of the Beginning flyer in my post about Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders 1/15/73 and Sarah Fulcher may have looked to the top-left, and seen this:
Here we have listings for two Monday, March 5, 1973 shows (9pm and 11 pm) by Old And In The Way (OAITW) at the Inn of the Beginning, 8201 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati, CA 94931. The named players are David Diadem, Jerry Garcia and Peter Rowan. The Rowan Brothers are set to open. As a factual note, the March 1973 IOTB ledger page says the early show was at 8pm, and I think that’s the “correct” time for the early show.
Fascinating on so many levels.
First, some calendar context.
Barring very early bar gigs, Old And In The Way played its first paying gig Friday March 2, 1973, after doing a radio hit earlier in the day. That's five musical events in its first three days. (They also recorded a little jingle for KSAN!) Here at the Inn would be gigs number 5 and 6 by the end of the fourth day. Of course, our guy being our guy, he keeps playing, Tuesday-Wednesday with Merl.
If you continue the timeline forward, you have Pigpen’s death on March 8 and then the wake and funeral, an off-night gig with Merl (March 11), blow off some steam, and spend Monday-Tuesday March 12-13 at Keystone Berkeley. Then the GD are on tour all the way through early April, followed by what must have been a relatively long-booked weekend chez Freddie (Keystone) with Merl. By my reckoning, after debuting at the Share OAITW wouldn’t play another weekend until April 20-21, 1973, by which time they had Richard Greene. So it seems to me like they really needed a fiddle player, and that, among other of its complicated aspects, OAITW fell prey to the vicissitudes of Garcia’s schedule, and some odd circumstance. The man was just fundamentally a workaholic and had too many irons in the fire. What’s more, the fact that OAITW would have this “false start” of sorts in March, then have to begin anew in April, must have been frustrating to Rowan and Grisman. (I have recently written about the transition through what I might now call the "third phase" of OAITW, the Vassar Clements period.)
Anyway, it’s always neat to recover a date and put it into its calendar context, so there you have it.
Second observation, smaller: David Diadem. This was the nom-de-freak that David Grisman was using at this time, as far as I can tell for reasons known only to him. He was a highly spaced-out dude at this time, from what I can tell, but a mind-blowing player, composer and eventually band-leader who was just about ready to carve his own channel of genius through the world, and then walk it, strongly. We should all be blessed with such strengths and opportunities!
Third, aside on the Mark Braunstein collection. The March 1973 IOTB calendar was the front page of the Inn of the Beginning Flyer. I didn’t take careful notes on the evolution of the flyer itself, but roughly it began as a single calendar sheet and evolved into at least an 8-page Flyer, a newsletter of sorts that was mailed out to folks on the Inn’s list. And it is a rich, rich source of information. I was able only to scan the calendar pages and selected other pages, as well as the handwritten “ledger” of bands and arrangements compiled at the end of each month. So there are countless pages of amazing narratives on the bands, the scene, stuff going on in Cotati, Sonoma and beyond, etc. I hope someday some museum will take these materials and catalog them fully. They deserve it. And thanks, Mark, for letting me go through this amazing stuff!
Fourth, a business aspect or two. The IOTB had calendared this as a “Special Show” and run the blurb above at the top left of the inside cover (p.1 of the Inn of the Beginning Flyer proper). As ever, Being Jerry Garcia involves not being able to escape on a Monday night to pick some banjo, but having to be part of a “Special Show”, with Your Name In Lights. An insider reminds me that there’s ego involved here, and Garcia was as subject to that kind of motivation as anyone else. So I don’t want to pluck the harp strings for him here. It might be “having to do this”, but it’s also “choosing to do this”. But it might also be just a little bit of a drag, dontcha think? Maybe a reflection of a constrained choice-set rather than some underlying preference to be on the marquee? Pigpen is laying in his bed and dying, Garcia has to help launch a new band, on top of being Jerry Garcia Of The Grateful Dead (“Let’s start a record company!”) and headlining with Merl. (Aside: no wonder he had John Kahn manage band decisions for him! With Sarah, and George Ticker, and Martin, and Tom Fogerty, and Vitt and Kreutzmann, and mystery rhythm guitar players [at least once, no, at least twice and mystery harmonica players and mystery trumpet players and all that, Garcia/Saunders alone should have been a full-time job. Have John do it!)
I nearly left out the most interesting business aspect that these IOTB materials reveal. On the back of the February 1973 ledger there is a handwritten note, written and circled with palpable excitement, that says "Jerry Garcia | new group: "Old And In The Way" | Peter Rowan guitar, David Diadem mando, JG banjo" and maps out the contours of the night with the Rowan Bros opener, the percentages, a note to "turn house" (i.e., have separately ticketed/charged early and late shows), etc. It's great to see such rich contextual evidence for the fact that a band with Garcia was a relatively "big deal" and a sure money maker in Cotati. We "knew" this, but now I feel like I "know" it in a fuller way.
I nearly left out the most interesting business aspect that these IOTB materials reveal. On the back of the February 1973 ledger there is a handwritten note, written and circled with palpable excitement, that says "Jerry Garcia | new group: "Old And In The Way" | Peter Rowan guitar, David Diadem mando, JG banjo" and maps out the contours of the night with the Rowan Bros opener, the percentages, a note to "turn house" (i.e., have separately ticketed/charged early and late shows), etc. It's great to see such rich contextual evidence for the fact that a band with Garcia was a relatively "big deal" and a sure money maker in Cotati. We "knew" this, but now I feel like I "know" it in a fuller way.
Anyway, I am sure everyone did well this night. Tickets are two bucks. The ledger shows the band’s guarantee as $500 or 80%. I am betting the place was packed to the damn rafters, because insofar as I understand it the capacity might have been 250 or so. So they might have sold $1,000 or more of tickets, depending on how crowded they let it get. So be it. Be Jerry Garcia. Grab your banjo, go out there and put one guy’s kid brothers on first, make some bread ($800 four ways, not bad!), pick some bluegrass, maybe start a band and cut a best-selling record.
Do y’thing, mang.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
JGMS 19730114-19730115 Inn of the Beginning, Cotati, CA
We know of the Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders show at the Inn of the Beginning on Monday, January 15, 1973 from the circulating tapes (http://db.etree.org/shn/9573), which are Betty Boards rescued by Rob Eaton from the muck and filth of God-knows-what-or-where (listening notes). There are severe problems with the recording, especially with the start of the show, but once you get past them you get a great tape.
The Inn of the Beginning's January 1973 calendar does not advertise this show (nor anything for Monday, 1/15). The night before, Sunday, January 14, 1973 is listed as "to be announced".
What little experience I have with these tells me that from October 1970 through the end, "to be announced" shows often ended up having special guests or being otherwise notable.
As it turns out, the handwritten ledgers fill in the missing detail. For January 14-15, 1973, they list "Merle [sic] Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Tom Fogerty, Bill Vitt". As far as I know, January 14, 1973 is new to "The List".
No mention in the ledger of the most historically mystifying person on stage that night, Sarah Fulcher, who features on several lead vocals from the 1/15/73 tape. I am hoping to learn more about Sarah Fulcher and would gratefully receive any and all information that anyone might have. I know she was from San Antonio, spent some time in NYC, went back to San Antonio, and ended up in the Bay Area. I believe she was in the Bay Area ca. late 1972, and then the last trace I can find of her is in the credits of Wake of the Flood and then the October 2, 1973 Winterland Garcia/Saunders show. After that, basically nothing. Anyway, by my back of the napkin-reckoning I have her on the following shows:
The Inn of the Beginning's January 1973 calendar does not advertise this show (nor anything for Monday, 1/15). The night before, Sunday, January 14, 1973 is listed as "to be announced".
What little experience I have with these tells me that from October 1970 through the end, "to be announced" shows often ended up having special guests or being otherwise notable.
As it turns out, the handwritten ledgers fill in the missing detail. For January 14-15, 1973, they list "Merle [sic] Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Tom Fogerty, Bill Vitt". As far as I know, January 14, 1973 is new to "The List".
No mention in the ledger of the most historically mystifying person on stage that night, Sarah Fulcher, who features on several lead vocals from the 1/15/73 tape. I am hoping to learn more about Sarah Fulcher and would gratefully receive any and all information that anyone might have. I know she was from San Antonio, spent some time in NYC, went back to San Antonio, and ended up in the Bay Area. I believe she was in the Bay Area ca. late 1972, and then the last trace I can find of her is in the credits of Wake of the Flood and then the October 2, 1973 Winterland Garcia/Saunders show. After that, basically nothing. Anyway, by my back of the napkin-reckoning I have her on the following shows:
- 1/14/73 Inn of the Beginning, Cotati
- 1/15/73 Inn of the Beginning, Cotati
- 1/19/73 Keystone, Berkeley (also NB Marty David, not John Kahn, on bass)
- 1/23/73 Boarding House, SF
- 1/24/73 Boarding House, SF
- 1/25/73 Boarding House, SF
- 3/7/73 Keystone, Berkeley
- 5/4/73 Homers Warehouse, Palo Alto
- 5/5/73 Homers Warehouse, Palo Alto
- 7/19/73 Great American Music Hall (also NB Martin's first appearance w/ JGMS; also NB guest harmonica player)
- 10/2/73 Winterland, SF (also NB Jellyroll, unknown trumpeter)
A seemingly-odd batch of shows, on the one hand. Lots of other personnel fluidity, and that apparent six-month gap ... no idea what to make of it. On the other hand, maybe that's just how fluid things really were, which is nice to remember! There were people coming and going and jamming and all of that. Good stuff.
I learned a bit more about Sarah from the IOTB materials. I found "Sarah & Friends" listings for March 30-31, 1973 at the Inn. Here's a page from the March 1973 IOTB flyer:
 |
| March 1973 Inn of the Beginning Flyer, "Entertainment" Notes". Courtesy of Mark Braunstein. |
For those of you who didn’t catch her name before. Sarah is the lady who sang with Merle [sic] Saunders and Jerry Garcia last January. She and Bill Vitt, who played drums on the same show, and a few friends will give you more of the same.
For whatever reason, Ms. Fulcher seems to have had a taste for the anonymous by this time in her life. Note that they don't ever give her last name.
(As an aside, these notes from the IOTB flyers are incredibly precious. There is tons of information in there about who was playing with whom, etc. I have a few other nuggets that I'll post about that come from these amazing contemporary observations and analyses. Thanks to Mark Braunstein for documenting this scene so thoroughly back then, and for sharing the data now!)
I reproduce this both to reproduce it (these things are gorgeous!) and because it sheds small light on a few other things. First, it tells us that Vitt was drumming at the January JGMS show that had Sarah singing. Maybe we knew that, but it's nice to know. Second, this makes me think that Bill Vitt was how Sarah Fulcher came to sing in these Garcia-Saunders shows. I had always assumed that the Texas angle meant Martin or Dough Sahm. I can't remember if Vitt has any Texas connections, but anyway I am guessing Bill was closest to Sarah, effectively "sponsoring" her to sing with the band. Wild speculation, I know, but there it is. Finally, this blurb provides some nice crossing evidence that Jerry, Merl, Vitt and Sarah played the Inn in January 1973. We have this information from tape, but now we also have contemporary text. Nice.
The whole point of this post was to say that the Inn of the Beginning "ledgers" (handwritten lists, compiled monthly, of artists who played) show Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders shows on both Sunday, January 14 and Monday, January 15, 1973 at the Inn. Personnel was Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Tom Fogerty and Bill Vitt, with Sarah Fulcher on vocals for at least 1/15/73.
JGMS 19710920 Inn of the Beginning, Cotati, CA
Inn of the Beginning, 8201 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati, CA 94931, USA. What a fantastic spot, and a review of the calendars and other materials so presciently and conscientiously preserved and generously shared by former employee-then-proprietor Mark Braunstein highlights its importance in the whole thing, *that* whole thing, as well. (I didn't see any evidence of the alleged Neil Young and Crazy Horse gig in '75 mentioned at RnR Roadmaps, but there are a number of Van Morrison dates.)
Lots of neat things have come up from these materials. I have already posted two newly-discovered New Riders of the Purple Sage shows at the Inn, August 20-21, 1971 (the latter presumably in the evening after "Mickey Hart's Barn Jam" happened earlier in the day). Now I have another one, Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders from 9/20/71.
September 1971 was an interesting time, and it has come up a bunch. There's the whole keyboard thing. I had posted about September 3-4, 1971 GD shows that were listed for the Harding Theater, but that LIA doubts happened. In that post I speculate that these very shows --Sept. 3 and 4-- were the "Howard Wales" tryouts for the keyboard slot. I think we also got into how weird it is that for this little two month period the Harding Theater becomes part of the GD/Garcia universe. Why? Given that we know they started rehearsing with Keith ca. September 27, is it possible they rented this great little room as a rehearsal hall? This gave rise to "More on the Keyboardist Change ca. 1971" from me, again with lots of great comments.
I had also once posted about a possible NRPS gig in NYC on September 15, 1971. Here's an ad:
As I noted in my original post, Billboard blurbed this as "Columbia's New Riders of the Purple Sage", so this looks for all the world like an industry thing. Scofield says that New Riders of the Purple Sage was released August 1971, so that fits, too.
Anyway, I have uncovered what a believe to be a faint record of a Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders gig at the Inn of the Beginning (8201 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati, CA, 94931) on Monday, September 20, 1971. On this date the September 1971 IOTB ledger --not really a ledger, just an end-of the-month list of acts and their guarantees/percentages-- reads "Merl Saunders … [illegible] …Jerry Garcia". My scan is not very clear, but I saw it in person and scanned it because of this listing, so I am about 95% sure it's Saunders/Garcia.
When we add this listing into our current understandings of Jerry's whereabouts at this time, here's what we get, in reduced form:
What a week-and-a-half! From NYC w/ NRPS to Keystone Korner (where, I allege, he was connected by Donna Jean with Keith Godchaux) with Merl, to what used to be The Family Dog at the Great Highway --not sure who was running it September 1971-- --NRPS again-- to this newly-discovered show at the Inn, another New Riders show, then two nights of JGMS at the Lion's Share. All of this before GD rehearsals with Keith start on ca. Monday, September 27, 1971. Hell, maybe this 9/20/71 was Merl's tryout ... small room, Monday night, no publicity (ledger entry only) ... why not? Or maybe he was just jonesing to play, since the GD had been relatively quiet while figuring out the keys, and he was just packing in every gig he could. Maybe both.
Man, this stuff is fun.
Lots of neat things have come up from these materials. I have already posted two newly-discovered New Riders of the Purple Sage shows at the Inn, August 20-21, 1971 (the latter presumably in the evening after "Mickey Hart's Barn Jam" happened earlier in the day). Now I have another one, Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders from 9/20/71.
September 1971 was an interesting time, and it has come up a bunch. There's the whole keyboard thing. I had posted about September 3-4, 1971 GD shows that were listed for the Harding Theater, but that LIA doubts happened. In that post I speculate that these very shows --Sept. 3 and 4-- were the "Howard Wales" tryouts for the keyboard slot. I think we also got into how weird it is that for this little two month period the Harding Theater becomes part of the GD/Garcia universe. Why? Given that we know they started rehearsing with Keith ca. September 27, is it possible they rented this great little room as a rehearsal hall? This gave rise to "More on the Keyboardist Change ca. 1971" from me, again with lots of great comments.
I had also once posted about a possible NRPS gig in NYC on September 15, 1971. Here's an ad:
 |
| Village Voice ad for New Riders of the Purple Sage (open John McLaughlin), Manhattan Center Ballroom, New York, NY, 9/15/71. |
Anyway, I have uncovered what a believe to be a faint record of a Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders gig at the Inn of the Beginning (8201 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati, CA, 94931) on Monday, September 20, 1971. On this date the September 1971 IOTB ledger --not really a ledger, just an end-of the-month list of acts and their guarantees/percentages-- reads "Merl Saunders … [illegible] …Jerry Garcia". My scan is not very clear, but I saw it in person and scanned it because of this listing, so I am about 95% sure it's Saunders/Garcia.
When we add this listing into our current understandings of Jerry's whereabouts at this time, here's what we get, in reduced form:
What a week-and-a-half! From NYC w/ NRPS to Keystone Korner (where, I allege, he was connected by Donna Jean with Keith Godchaux) with Merl, to what used to be The Family Dog at the Great Highway --not sure who was running it September 1971-- --NRPS again-- to this newly-discovered show at the Inn, another New Riders show, then two nights of JGMS at the Lion's Share. All of this before GD rehearsals with Keith start on ca. Monday, September 27, 1971. Hell, maybe this 9/20/71 was Merl's tryout ... small room, Monday night, no publicity (ledger entry only) ... why not? Or maybe he was just jonesing to play, since the GD had been relatively quiet while figuring out the keys, and he was just packing in every gig he could. Maybe both.
Man, this stuff is fun.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Rock and Roll Road Map
I should obviously have been spending more time with Rock and Roll Roadmaps, I guess. Just stumbled across the listing their for Keystone Korner. Oooh, and here's one for the Cotati Cabaret. All right then, I will try to play around more with this.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
NRPS 19710820-21: Inn of the Beginning, Cotati, CA
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| Inn of the Beginning calendar of events, August 1971. Courtesy of Mark Braunstein. |
I am not in a position to blog extensively about this, but I think it's really interesting. Feel free to discuss in my absence of another 5 days or so.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Welcome to your new home, Vassar Clements: OAITW at the Keystone, 7/21/73
LN jg1973-07-21.oaitw.b-live-all.sbd-PNW.113845.flac1644
updated 20110629-1438 EST
updated 20110629-1438 EST
updated 20200723
We have here a 94 minute soundboard of Old And In The Way, identified as at the Keystone, 2119 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94704 on the evening of Saturday, July 21, 1973. The tape was in the collection of Will Boswell via Jerry Garcia’s own copy, held and apparently shared by his once and future main squeeze, Debbie. Matt Smith is doing the transfers, and I tend to shorthand these as ‘PNW’ because they emanate from the Great Pacific Northwest. This same source also supplies a rehearsal tape, said to be from earlier this same afternoon at the Lion’s Share, a club which would have been local to the Marin- --and, for a number of them, specifically, Stinson-- based freaks in the band, at 60 Red Hill Avenue in San Anselmo. As Matt pointed out in his notes, it’s neat to have a rehearsal tape and a gig tape from the same day, provides a nice “day in the life” feeling, back when Garcia could still mostly live like a human being.
We have here a 94 minute soundboard of Old And In The Way, identified as at the Keystone, 2119 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94704 on the evening of Saturday, July 21, 1973. The tape was in the collection of Will Boswell via Jerry Garcia’s own copy, held and apparently shared by his once and future main squeeze, Debbie. Matt Smith is doing the transfers, and I tend to shorthand these as ‘PNW’ because they emanate from the Great Pacific Northwest. This same source also supplies a rehearsal tape, said to be from earlier this same afternoon at the Lion’s Share, a club which would have been local to the Marin- --and, for a number of them, specifically, Stinson-- based freaks in the band, at 60 Red Hill Avenue in San Anselmo. As Matt pointed out in his notes, it’s neat to have a rehearsal tape and a gig tape from the same day, provides a nice “day in the life” feeling, back when Garcia could still mostly live like a human being.
It’s terrific material, and we are all incredibly fortunate to be able to listen to it. We have to remember what lucky music fans we are. Here we have rehearsal and gig tapes, nice tapes, of the great Vassar Clements. (And all the rest of these guys, natch.) We can study this stuff intensively and extensively. It’s great stuff.
Little outline for what has become a longish (for me) note.
Little outline for what has become a longish (for me) note.
- I. Dating: Might as well call it 7/21/73b.
- II. Aside: Was there a Boarding House show on 7/23/73? tl; dr: YES
- II. Personnel Comments
- A. John Kahn
- B. Vassar Clements
- 1. Welcome to the Bay Area as Member of OAITW, Vassar!
- 2. The Arc (or Three Bursts) of Vassar with/and OAITW
- 3. Was Vassar Clements a "Member" of OAITW?
- 4. The Improbable Junction of Vassar and the Rest of These Guys?
- 5. Clarence White and Muleskinner, RIP
- 6. Was it Mostly About Making (a) Record(s)?
- III. Setlist and Repertoire
- IV. Listening Notes
I. Dating
The gig tape under analysis comes with impeccable provenance, as described in the 1st graf. It says 7/21/73, and that should be our operating assumption, our baseline.
Yet, some questions arise around this dating.
First, this is the same material that has historically circulated as "7/23/73 Boarding House" (e.g., shnid-4490, shnid-4491, shnid-11888). A priori, a Monday night gig at the Boarding House sounds a little unlikely. Furthermore, I have not seen any evidence for the 7/23 dating other than recordings, though it’s possible I have not looked. The McNally-Arnold JG List lists neither date. update: plenty of listings and such for the 7/23/73 Boarding House show. There are ads in support of a 7/21 listing. If this were all, I’d say it’s an overdetermined, closed case of a more credible tape label and other evidence defeating a less credible tape label. Full stop.
But that’s not all because, second, this recording raises a few questions.
(1) why is John Kahn not present here (I don't think -- see personnel note below), when he was at the afternoon rehearsal (he does play on the 7/21/73a rehearsal)?
(2) Why does audience member ask for "Wild Horses" toward the end of this fileset (see d2t10 note 4 below) when they had already played it as the performance is represented here (d1t09 as released; d1t10 on my retracked copy)?
(3) The placement of certain cuts and chatter doesn't make sense. For example, they say they are on their last number before Hobo Song, but then there's a setbreak announcement after High Lonesome Sound, which is presented as the last song of the night. It's just not consistent with this being in the same order in which it was played, which opens up more general questions and joins with the questions above to raise some doubts.
(4) Not a question and certainly not a criticism, but the nature of the recording--lots of tape discontinuities-- makes it impossible to know where things should go.
Overall, there's no smoking gun, nothing that unambiguously supports or contradicts either dating for this material. Maybe it’s a little of both. Maybe it’s other dates. Maybe it’s a hodgepodge. We just can’t know, and so I conclude that we should just keep calling it "7/21/73b", the live gig at the Keystone on the Saturday night, after the earlier rehearsal that same day, the 2nd night of weekend in Berkeley, etc.
II. Aside: was there an OAITW show at the Boarding House on Monday, July 23, 1973?
Update: TL;DR: Yes!
mention: San Francisco Examiner, July 20, 1973, p. 33;
! mention: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730722p27;
! listing: San Francisco Chronicle, July 23, 1973, p. 40;
! listing: San Francisco Chronicle, July 23, 1973, p. 41;
! listing: San Francisco Examiner, July 23, 1973, p. 23.
et la pièce de résistance: OSF has a tape of it! QED.
This little period is clearly unique (as they all are, I know!), and might involve otherwise-implausible gigs because of the details of Vassar’s involvement. Let me elaborate.
Vassar joins up with OAITW on the East Coast on June 4, 1973, warms up with ‘em in the hotel room, and plays gigs in Boston (Orpheum Theatre, June 5), Passaic (Capitol Theatre, June 6th, ?Garcia’s first John-Scher booked non-GD gig?) and the Palace Theatre in Waterbury, CT (June 7th – not 100% sure about this listing). Then they do the Whippoorwill Festival in Warrenton, VA on June 8, 1973 –about which I plan on saying a considerable amount at some point, Garcia burns for two days with the GD and the Allmans and others at RFK in DC, and then one more gig at Temple University-Ambler in Ambler, PA on the 11th.
After that, Garcia does a tour with the GD after apparently taking a weekend off (Friday 6/15/73 and Saturday 6/16/73 … anyone wanna bet he had his guitar handy, wherever he was?). Then he and Merl warmup on a Thursday at the Lion’s Share (July 5, 1973) before recording a series of shows for commercial release. The 7/7 show is a mystery, but the great July 8th Record Plant session is a great way to get ready to record. Then come the July 10 and July 11 JGMS shows which gave us a whole mess of officially released material. Live at the Keystone (Fantasy F-79002, 1973), Keystone Encores Volume 1 (Fantasy FCD 7701-2, 1988), Keystone Encores Volume 2 (Fantasy MPF 4534, 1988) were on vinyl. As Scofield notes, “the tracks from the original double LP and the two 1988 releases were reconfigured and released as” the CDs Live At The Keystone Volume 1 (Fantasy FCD 7701-2, 1988) [JGMF], Live At The Keystone Volume 2 (Fantasy FCD 7702-2, 1988) [JGMF], and Keystone Encores (Fantasy FCD 7703-2, 1988) [JGMF]. As far as can be determined from existing setlists, all but three or four of the songs played at this pair of dates were released.
On July 15, 1973, guitar legend, apparent übermensch and Muleskinner compadre Clarence White is killed in a car accident. This forms a piece of the Muleskinner-OAITW jigsaw puzzle that Corry has started to unravel in his "1972-73 Muleskinner/Old And In The Way Timeline" at LLD. At the very least, there's a weird emotional register to the 7/21/73b material that might be partly accounted for by the melancholy of such a moment. Not a lot of cutting up, laughing. Vassar as the only one really yee-hawing it up. (I am not accusing him of being insensitive, BTW. Just pointing it out. We all deal with this stuff as we do. And I think Vassar knew Clarence. Hadn't Vassar been in So Cal for a bit, sort in his Earl Scruggs Revue and Will the Circle Be Unbroken period?)
On July 15, 1973, guitar legend, apparent übermensch and Muleskinner compadre Clarence White is killed in a car accident. This forms a piece of the Muleskinner-OAITW jigsaw puzzle that Corry has started to unravel in his "1972-73 Muleskinner/Old And In The Way Timeline" at LLD. At the very least, there's a weird emotional register to the 7/21/73b material that might be partly accounted for by the melancholy of such a moment. Not a lot of cutting up, laughing. Vassar as the only one really yee-hawing it up. (I am not accusing him of being insensitive, BTW. Just pointing it out. We all deal with this stuff as we do. And I think Vassar knew Clarence. Hadn't Vassar been in So Cal for a bit, sort in his Earl Scruggs Revue and Will the Circle Be Unbroken period?)
A few days later, we have a show listed as OAITW, a Wednesday (7/18/73) in Cotati, which I find perfectly plausible. [edit: indeed!] This would be Vassar Clements's first Bay Area OAITW show. Gotta get warmed up together, run through some numbers? Do it midweek in Cotati. I bet it was an absolute blast ... oh to have been a fly on the wall. There are some canceled GD gigs in this window (Duke University, Friday 7/20/73, per Deadbase IX), the weekend in Berkeley, a gig at Crabshaw Corner in far-flung Sacramento –perhaps Garcia’s first GOTS gig in that Queen City (2/12/72 is spurious here)--, then down to Homers Warehouse in Palo Alto on the 24th before Garcia leaves for Watkins Glen. My friends, that’s six out of seven nights with OAITW. (Jerry spent his “off” night from OAITW with JGMS on 7/19/73, a party gig put on by Fantasy to celebrate the release of Merl's Fire Up. Slacker.)
So my notion is that they played like hell when Vassar arrived to make him some gittin’ started money, and that this makes a 7/23/73 Boarding House gig totally plausible. Maybe it’s not on the old lists because they got a last-minute, Monday night booking? Maybe this is related to the GD's cancellation from Duke? If you owned the Boarding House, wouldn’t you do it? Hell, yeah. Gotta be better than however many dime beers you’d sell otherwise.
Wow, that got long, sorry. Anyway, bottom line: 7/23/73 Boarding House seems pretty rock solid.
Update: there is no longer any doubt. It happened, and Bear taped it.
III. Personnel
A. John Kahn (June 13, 1947 - May 30, 1996)
Is he here? For the life of me, I do not hear a bass player. I think, instead, the bottom I hear is mostly from Peter Rowan’s guitar. It’s possible that Kahn wasn’t mic’d for some reason. But it’s also possible he’s not there. As I note above, this would raise some question as to the dating, since he is present on the 7/21/73a afternoon rehearsal tape. Maybe there was an emergency or he got a flat tire, no idea. And not a big deal in the scheme of things. But the number of shows that Garcia played without either Phil Lesh, John Kahn or David Torbert on bass is strikingly small, and any deviation is probably worth noting.
Is he here? For the life of me, I do not hear a bass player. I think, instead, the bottom I hear is mostly from Peter Rowan’s guitar. It’s possible that Kahn wasn’t mic’d for some reason. But it’s also possible he’s not there. As I note above, this would raise some question as to the dating, since he is present on the 7/21/73a afternoon rehearsal tape. Maybe there was an emergency or he got a flat tire, no idea. And not a big deal in the scheme of things. But the number of shows that Garcia played without either Phil Lesh, John Kahn or David Torbert on bass is strikingly small, and any deviation is probably worth noting.
B. Vassar Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005)
1. Welcome to the Bay Area as Member of OAITW, Vassar!
As I noted in discussing the rehearsal tape, this was a pretty big night for OAITW. Insofar as anyone invested any hopes and dreams in this agglomeration, Saturday 7/21/73 in Berkeley was important. I hypothesize that it was conceived as the introduction of fiddle legend Vassar Clements as a member of OAITW to the home crowd (after the smaller "hello" in Cotati on 7/18). I admit that I am mostly basing this on the ad, with its “Special Guest Fiddler From Nashville Vassar Clements” addendum, but it also makes sense. We know that these guys, and it seems to me most notably Grisman, were pleased as punch to have Vassar on board. And why not? The man was a deserved legend.
2. The Arc (or Three Bursts) of Vassar with/and OAITW
1. Welcome to the Bay Area as Member of OAITW, Vassar!
As I noted in discussing the rehearsal tape, this was a pretty big night for OAITW. Insofar as anyone invested any hopes and dreams in this agglomeration, Saturday 7/21/73 in Berkeley was important. I hypothesize that it was conceived as the introduction of fiddle legend Vassar Clements as a member of OAITW to the home crowd (after the smaller "hello" in Cotati on 7/18). I admit that I am mostly basing this on the ad, with its “Special Guest Fiddler From Nashville Vassar Clements” addendum, but it also makes sense. We know that these guys, and it seems to me most notably Grisman, were pleased as punch to have Vassar on board. And why not? The man was a deserved legend.
2. The Arc (or Three Bursts) of Vassar with/and OAITW
I have already chronologized a little above, but let me summarize it in a table, with data derived from the Jerry Site (but excluding the mid- and late-summer 1973 bluegrass festivals, at which OAITW almost certainly did not play).
 |
| Old And In The Way w/ Vassar Clements. Data source: The Jerry Site. |
OAITW with Vassar Clements amounts to something like twenty shows, total. And, when you look at the pattern I have set out above, you see that it was actually approximately three one-week spurts of gigging, with a single one-off in the middle. (I’ll add that I’d like to see evidence that OAITW played that 8/22/73 gig. Color me skeptical until I do.) You get a spurt in June, one in July, and one in October. The November gig was a reschedule from an earlier cancellation, and then OAITW played one more time, a special reunion to close out the Golden State Country Bluegrass Festival on Sunday, April 28, 1974. That’s it!
3. Was Vassar Clements a "Member" of OAITW in the formalistic way I understand that term (as distinct from "invited guest", as distinct from "sitting in")?
All of this, and some conversations I have been having about the meaning of such concepts as "band", "group", "membership" and others, leads me to revisit something. Here's a tighter view on the Keystone Berkeley ad from the Berkeley Barb, July 19, 1973 - August 1, 1973, p. 21:
3. Was Vassar Clements a "Member" of OAITW in the formalistic way I understand that term (as distinct from "invited guest", as distinct from "sitting in")?
All of this, and some conversations I have been having about the meaning of such concepts as "band", "group", "membership" and others, leads me to revisit something. Here's a tighter view on the Keystone Berkeley ad from the Berkeley Barb, July 19, 1973 - August 1, 1973, p. 21:
Vassar is listed as a "Special Guest". Without taking that word as if it were consciously deployed in the same sense in which I mean it, I wonder if "guest" isn't closer to the truth of Vassar's connection than "member". I don't know. It's heretical and contradicted by the language used by everyone else, as far as I know. But these three one-week spurts ... I wonder when the plan to record live (which is represented by all of the releases featuring material from the October 1 and October 8 shows, recorded by Bear) was hatched, by whom, and if this thought wasn't hand-in-glove with bringing Vassar in? In this sense, I wonder if Vassar wasn't more than a hired gun -- an amazing one, but a hired gun nonetheless?
All we ever hear about Vassar coming in are vague platitudes of the "he was great, he was available, we jumped at the chance" variety. "[fill-in name here, Grisman or Rowan] just called him up." Those things are probably mostly true/accurate. But I certainly think there were good, clean professional and pecuniary motivations at work, too.
All we ever hear about Vassar coming in are vague platitudes of the "he was great, he was available, we jumped at the chance" variety. "[fill-in name here, Grisman or Rowan] just called him up." Those things are probably mostly true/accurate. But I certainly think there were good, clean professional and pecuniary motivations at work, too.
update: yes, from the vantage of 2020, I consider him a full-fledged member of the band.
4. The Improbable Junction of Vassar and the Rest of These Guys?
Now, to start, it's not improbable in the sense that they were all pretty hot musicians wanting to play hot music with other hot musicians. We don't need to be musicologists to understand that this drives a lot of things! And the fabric of bluegrass was woven pretty densely, so there are almost certainly a large number of small-world network linkages between these five guys. So I don't want to overstate the case.
But, yet, here's a Southerner (born in North Florida, i.e., the Deep South), 15-20 years older than these other guys, pomade-slicked-it-was-a-crewcut-once 'do, apparently coming off a drinking problem which put his career on hold for some number of years ca. late 1960s-start of 1970s, been gigging around with the cutting-edge Earl Scruggs Revue and and meeting-of-the-generations Will the Circle Be Unbroken project around that same time, who can tear the fucking fiddle to shreds and make you weep while he does it.
Here's fellow former Blue Grass Boy Pete "Panama Red" Rowan, now chasing the next line, Marin on top of LA on top of Bahston, via the Land of the Navajo. Here's the very scruffy and very far-out spacy, but exacting and smokin'-hot-pickin' David Grisman, just out of his "David Diadem" phase and on the verge of creating a pathbreaking musical style of his own. Maybe a big tall feller on the big fiddle, quiet, smart, funny, good player. Last but not least, you learn when you meet him, here's a 'lectric guitar rock star who was once a banjo star. Jerry Garcia is a hairy, hairy freak of a man, but he's a force of nature on every dimension that might matter.
I guess I think the shared interests and the shared networks and the setting and possibilities combine to make the Vassar-OAITW connection. They are in Marin County, CA, it's summertime, they've got a built-in ticket-buying audience (thank you, JERRY ... Jerry ... jerry ... GARCIA ... Garcia ... garcia !!! ... !! ... !), record company lined up ... why the hell not? Line up a bunch of gigs, get warmed up, roll some tape, and then see what happens.
5. Clarence White and Muleskinner, RIP
One other thing. Having just revisited Corry's post on the Muleskinner-OAITW connections. To recap, the members of Muleskinner were as follows:
6. Was it Mostly About Making (a) Record(s)?
Thought experiment: perhaps it's not coincidence that OAITW ended once the recordings were in the can? After the October Boarding House gigs, did any of these guys play again with Vassar (at least in the 70s) except for the 11/4/73 makeup, the GAMB 4/26/74 sit-in by Vassar, Garcia and Vassar in together with the Greenbriar Boys on 4/28/74, and the OAITW "reunion" performance later that night? It seems like they broke up right after they recorded the live tracks for possible release.Can anyone shed any light on the reported studio recordings of OAITW? Now *those* I would love to hear.
Summary of all of this: To me, Vassar’s playing is the real highlight of this music. He provided such depth to this band of young hotshots. Too bad it didn't last, for whatever reason.
4. The Improbable Junction of Vassar and the Rest of These Guys?
Now, to start, it's not improbable in the sense that they were all pretty hot musicians wanting to play hot music with other hot musicians. We don't need to be musicologists to understand that this drives a lot of things! And the fabric of bluegrass was woven pretty densely, so there are almost certainly a large number of small-world network linkages between these five guys. So I don't want to overstate the case.
But, yet, here's a Southerner (born in North Florida, i.e., the Deep South), 15-20 years older than these other guys, pomade-slicked-it-was-a-crewcut-once 'do, apparently coming off a drinking problem which put his career on hold for some number of years ca. late 1960s-start of 1970s, been gigging around with the cutting-edge Earl Scruggs Revue and and meeting-of-the-generations Will the Circle Be Unbroken project around that same time, who can tear the fucking fiddle to shreds and make you weep while he does it.
Here's fellow former Blue Grass Boy Pete "Panama Red" Rowan, now chasing the next line, Marin on top of LA on top of Bahston, via the Land of the Navajo. Here's the very scruffy and very far-out spacy, but exacting and smokin'-hot-pickin' David Grisman, just out of his "David Diadem" phase and on the verge of creating a pathbreaking musical style of his own. Maybe a big tall feller on the big fiddle, quiet, smart, funny, good player. Last but not least, you learn when you meet him, here's a 'lectric guitar rock star who was once a banjo star. Jerry Garcia is a hairy, hairy freak of a man, but he's a force of nature on every dimension that might matter.
I guess I think the shared interests and the shared networks and the setting and possibilities combine to make the Vassar-OAITW connection. They are in Marin County, CA, it's summertime, they've got a built-in ticket-buying audience (thank you, JERRY ... Jerry ... jerry ... GARCIA ... Garcia ... garcia !!! ... !! ... !), record company lined up ... why the hell not? Line up a bunch of gigs, get warmed up, roll some tape, and then see what happens.
5. Clarence White and Muleskinner, RIP
One other thing. Having just revisited Corry's post on the Muleskinner-OAITW connections. To recap, the members of Muleskinner were as follows:
- Peter Rowan-guitar, vocals
- Clarence White-lead guitar, vocals
- David Grisman-mandolin, vocals
- Richard Greene-violin, vocals
- Bill Keith-banjo
July 15, 1973: Clarence White died after being hit by a drunk driver at 2am in Palmdale, CA, while White was loading equipment into his car. It would take me 10,000 words to explain how great a player Clarence was, and I'm not even a guitar player (apparently it takes even more if you can play). Suffice to say, any plans that Grisman, Rowan and others may have had for "Muleskinner" would have been put permanently in abeyance with Clarence's untimely death.At the risk of being crass, I wonder if Clarence's passing, and, as Corry notes, the demise of any professional plans organized around Muleskinner, didn't act as an accelerant for OAITW, or for professional (i.e., money-making) aspirations surrounding it, including Vassar's "membership". I am not saying they called Vassar up on the 16th and asked him to do some gigging and cut some records over Clarence's still-warm body. Hell, they had already played with Vassar the prior month, and it seems pretty clear that they (felt they) needed a fiddle player. And Vassar is one hell of a player. But I do wonder if the short-cutting of Muleskinner engendered the jump-starting of OAITW, both with some gaggles of gigs and through cutting some studio tracks.
6. Was it Mostly About Making (a) Record(s)?
Thought experiment: perhaps it's not coincidence that OAITW ended once the recordings were in the can? After the October Boarding House gigs, did any of these guys play again with Vassar (at least in the 70s) except for the 11/4/73 makeup, the GAMB 4/26/74 sit-in by Vassar, Garcia and Vassar in together with the Greenbriar Boys on 4/28/74, and the OAITW "reunion" performance later that night? It seems like they broke up right after they recorded the live tracks for possible release.Can anyone shed any light on the reported studio recordings of OAITW? Now *those* I would love to hear.
Summary of all of this: To me, Vassar’s playing is the real highlight of this music. He provided such depth to this band of young hotshots. Too bad it didn't last, for whatever reason.
IV. Setlist/Repertoire
I am not sure how noteworthy the setlist is relative to other OAITW shows, but since I have never gone through OAITW setlists very carefully I thought I’d do it here, get a since of the distribution of musical sources and styles. Here’s a table of the credits for the songs they played on this night, from data hosted by Alex Allan.
OAITW’s repertoire presents a fascinating slice of the many American (or pseudo-so, as in "Wild Horses") musics from which the band and its members drew.
First are the traditional, old-timey and bluegrass numbers. There are lots of grey areas here, of course, lots of speciation happening between those niches. Carter Stanley and Bill Monroe credits and that sort of thing. I have no idea if the distribution of songs springing from this well is different here on July 21 than it typically would be around this time, or would have been with Richard Greene in April, or not. I have a tiny hunch that there's more Carter Stanley here than I am used to seeing, stuff shading a little more toward the old-timey and traditional vein, but I can't be sure. Either way, all of that would represent the lingua franca between the hairy freaks and Vassar. If you look through Allan and Scofield's notes on these songs, you'll see a bunch for which tape from Garcia's pre-GD days also exists. This is further confirmation, I'd say, of the lingua franca appeals of the old favorites.
Regarding the specific versions of these songs, I am just not expert enough in listening to this sort of music to give much evaluation. I would love if some bluegrass freak looking for good conversation would join our little community here (but everyone should blog, and blog more! Join us! You have nothing to lose but your time!). Anyway, I'll just mention two specific numbers very informally. Number one: this is the only OAITW version known to me of the great Monroe haunter "Cheyenne". Not sure how the Big Mon could pick up the feel of those particular high plains, but he does it brilliantly here. Great song. (I think Rowan would agree, since "Cheyenne"'s feel becomes "Land of the Navajo"'s hook.) Number two: "Orange Blossom Special" is just a brilliant piece of songwriting. Greatest. Train. Song. Ever.
Regarding the specific versions of these songs, I am just not expert enough in listening to this sort of music to give much evaluation. I would love if some bluegrass freak looking for good conversation would join our little community here (but everyone should blog, and blog more! Join us! You have nothing to lose but your time!). Anyway, I'll just mention two specific numbers very informally. Number one: this is the only OAITW version known to me of the great Monroe haunter "Cheyenne". Not sure how the Big Mon could pick up the feel of those particular high plains, but he does it brilliantly here. Great song. (I think Rowan would agree, since "Cheyenne"'s feel becomes "Land of the Navajo"'s hook.) Number two: "Orange Blossom Special" is just a brilliant piece of songwriting. Greatest. Train. Song. Ever.
Second, we find six Peter Rowan originals in the setlist. One function/aspect of the band was indeed as a Rowan "song" vehicle. If forced to choose I would mostly classify these as country-bluegrass, while some ("Lonesome L.A. Cowboy") are closer to soft country rock (early "Eagles", for example). I have to say that these songs are generally pretty awesome, though no versions from this fileset jump out as me as exceptional.
Third, this set features only one instrumental contribution each from David Grisman and the great Vassar Clements, whose "Lonesome Fiddle Blues" is a freaking masterpiece. Haunting and fantastic, right up there with the great fiddle tunes that I know (though I confess to not knowing many.) The Grisman datum is interesting because in listening to the tapes I sometimes get the sense that David is treated a little like a beta dog. "Fanny Hill" also seems not to have been a favorite of his, insofar as it wasn't released until sometime later. It feels kind of like a transitional piece for Grisman, more toward bluegrass than Dawg Music. Grisman was clearly growing very quickly at this stage, and I suspect that the misfit between his own ambitions and musical trajectory and the space allowed for him to enact them in this particular band may have been one of the frictions that led to its too-quick demise.
Fourth, there’s a smattering of other country-bluegrass stuff, on none of which I am particularly qualified to speak.
Summing up, and as Corry has discussed with me, one aspect of the relatively short tenure of OAITW may be the different pulls of, say, Peter Rowan's songs vs. traditional/bluegrass/oldtimey/etc. vs. Dawg Music. I am not making it too conflictual, but we don't know much about how OAITW ended and it's pretty straightforward to suggest that there were just too many tradeoffs to be made, too many songs (and musical styles) chasing too few gigs and album tracks. The fact that certain members had tightly constraining "other obligations" *cough* GD! *cough* certainly wouldn't have helped, but it could be that there other design flaws in the band's DNA that doomed it to be short-lived.
V. Listening Notes follow after the jump.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Garcia and Saunders at the Lion's Share (LN jg1973-07-05.jgms.all.sbd-alligator.79032.flac1644)
update 20230709: the trumpet player is Mike Price.
slight update 20110816, as noted below
Like 2/16/74, this was a previously uncirculated Betty Board dropped by the mysterious 'alligator' into the ether at Lossless Legs, this one about five years ago. What fantastically lucky music fans we are to have had this band playing, Betty Cantor taping, Rob Eaton preserving and documenting those tapes, and 'alligator' sharing them.
The show strikes me as very characteristic for the period, which is only knowable in the sense that the Live at Keystone releases so thoroughly mine the July 10-11 shows in Berkeley (see my post on the distribution of the July 11, 1973 show across the official releases, which will also link to the other cuts into the associated sets of material). At this stage of the game, there are not really any Merl Saunders vocals leads, though here he does sing a few verses of “The System”. There’s lots of soul and R&B, some jazz, a smattering of other Americana and a number of Saunders originals that are approached as improvisational vehicles.
As I note in the listening notes below, there are two things of special interest about this show.
The second was speculation about the trumpet player. It turns out to be Mike Price.
First is the setlist. When this was released, both "The System" and "Merl's Tune" were just identified as instrumentals. The correct titles were nominated by "sl halper" at deadnetcentral and have been confirmed. There are some very interesting selections here, with three bona fide Saunders-penned rarities.
First is the setlist. When this was released, both "The System" and "Merl's Tune" were just identified as instrumentals. The correct titles were nominated by "sl halper" at deadnetcentral and have been confirmed. There are some very interesting selections here, with three bona fide Saunders-penned rarities.
· "She's Got Charisma" [Allan | Scofield] is a slow blues, in the same emotional register as "Lonely Avenue". The title is a little fluid. It was first released on the vinyl Fire Up (Fantasy 9421, 1973) as “Charisma (She’s Got)” and lacking Garcia. As Alex Allan notes, it was not included on the subsequent CD Fire Up Plus (Fantasy FCD 7711-2, 1992), but did appear on the 1997 Keepers CD (Fantasy FCD-7712) with a 1972 date and renamed “She’s Got Charisma”. I use the later-officialized title. As a side note, it appears to have been covered by Cal Tjader on a 1973 album Last Bolero in Berkeley (Fantasy, 1973), the credits of which also seem to include Paul Humphrey, who would later drum with Jerry and Merl.
· "The System" [Allan | Scofield] is a pretty nicely funkified piece of social commentary, including Merl's early ecological interest (cf. "Save Mother Earth" [Allan | Scofield]). This version has (some of) the vocals. I cannot remember if others do. My sense is that at least some versions they played are instrumental, but I'd have to check.
· "Merl's Tune" [Allan | Scofield], finally, is most readily accessed through the Garcia/Saunders/Kahn/Vitt Live at the Keystone, volume 1 release (Fantasy FCD 7701-2, 1988), a version which was played five days after this one. This particular rendition is interesting because the tune is only the barest skeleton for what they actually do. In fact, they never play the distinctive swooping intro followed by the fast carnival swirl that starts off the album version (and which I really like). Really, there's just Merl playing the organ line and the rest of the band playing around it. And the "Merl's Tune" theme pops up all the way to the end of the "collective improvisation" (i.e., jam) that follows it. In other words, it would be just as plausible to have that all tracked together and to think of it as a 25+ minute version of “Merl's Tune.” NB that Allan credits only Saunders for this composition, while Scofield credits Merl and a John White. I am inclined to go with Scofield’s information.
Regarding personnel, it’s probably worth noting that Garcia (I presume – could also have been Merl and/or John) was looking for something more than what he got out of the guitar-bass-keys-drums quartet setup. Of course there had been second guitarists, from Tom Fogerty (mid-1971 to late 1972, on and off) to George Tickner (ca. spring 1973). Sarah Fulcher had been around in the first part of ’73 and would appear with Garcia/Saunders at least as late as October, singing in her very distinctive scatting style. Martin Fierro would come in two weeks to the day from the performance being noted here (7/19/73, Great American Music Hall) and would be more or less around for two solid years, seemingly giving the band the fill and color that they (or someone) wanted.
Anyway, an interesting show and a really nice tape. Listening notes follow after the jump.
LN jg1973-07-21.oaitw.early.sbd-smith-boswell.113805.flac1644
 |
| ad for Keystone, Berkeley, July 19 - August 1, 1973; Berkeley Barb (7/19/73-8/1/73), p. 21 |
Let me just make a few points to head up these listening notes for this newly-circulated version of these rehearsals. They are very, very important.
First, the provenance of the tape is awesome. Thanks to the Pacific Northwest Crew for this one.
Second, there's evidence on the tape that lends near-perfect credibility (for me) to the date/time/place/personnel ascribed to this. I totally believe this is 7/21/73 in the afternoon at the Lion's Share, in between two shows at the Keystone, Berkeley which, I am coming to believe, served as the introduction of Vassar Clements to the Bay Area. I also list a show at the Inn of the Beginning in Cotati midweek (Wednesday, July 18), which would have been a good place and time to warm up the act in public, but without a big crowd, before heading to the (relatively!) bigger deal weekend gigs at the Keystone. Anyway, long-winded way of saying, again, that I completely believe that this is exactly 7/21/73 in the afternoon at the Lion's Share. You could call this (presumably part of) the "Vassar Clements rehearsals".
Third, related, I need to go foresensically through the OAITW rehearsal tapes that are around. There are a shitload of filesets out there. While they have been much-collected, I think they are little-auditioned and remain almost entirely unanalyzed. I wouldn't be surprised to find more "Vassar Clements rehearsals", as well as some "Richard Greene rehearsals". (I doubt there are Hartford or other pieces, but who knows?)
Fourth, having confidence in this date/time/location/configuration gives me more confidence that the evening's show from Berkeley, which the Pacific Northwest (PNW) crew has also recently dropped (shnid 113845), is correctly dated. I know that the material is the same as what has long traveled as Monday, July 23, 1973 at the Boarding House, 960 Bush Street, San Francisco, 94109. I am going to revisit it soon, hopefully today, but my working hypothesis is that the 7/21/73 dating is probably correct. I'll report back.
Update: Done!
Fifth, for my taste this source deprecates a bunch of filesets:
There may be other bits and pieces of this same material floating around amongst the undated OAITW rehearsal snippets, but figuring that out is a project.
Old And In The Way
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA, 94960
July 21, 1973 (Saturday), afternoon rehearsal
PNW sbd shnid-113805
(22 tracks, 78:15)
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t01. (1) [0:28] Little Bessie [3:42]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t02. talk [0:09], % On And On (false start) [0:43]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t03. On And On [3:39]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t04. tuning and talking [1:15]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t05. Lonesome Fiddle Blues [2:59] %
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t06. tuning and talking (2) [1:39]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07. Land Of// The Navajo [6:#59]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t08. talk and tuning [0:20] % [0:25], Going To The Races [2:33]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t09. Land Of The Navajo [8:25]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t10. talk (3) and tuning [1:14], Cedar Hill [3:37] [0:03], randomness [0:02]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t11. dead air, fiddle/bass jam, tuning and talking [1:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t12. High Lonesome Sound [3:42]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t13. false start [0:21] % Hobo Song [4:58] [0:03]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t14. [0:06] % /Wild Horses [4:34] [0:04]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t15. Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:29]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t16. tuning and talking, Pig In A Pen chorus practice [2:05]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t17. Pig In A Pen [3:04]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t18. tuning and talking (4) [2:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t19. Kissimee Kid [2:56]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t20. Kissimee Kid [3:07]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t21. tuning and talking (5) [1:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t22. Midnight Moonlight [4:50], talk (6) and silliness [0:15], dead air [0:07]
! Band: Old And In The Way
! Lineup: Peter Rowan - ac-guitar, vocals;
! Lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
! Lineup: Vassar Clements - fiddle;
! Lineup: John Kahn - ac-bass.
JGMF:
! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/963.
! db: shnid -113805 (this source).
! R: MR @ 7.5ips (Recorded by Betty Cantor on her Nagra) > R @ 3.75ips (Jerry Garcia's copy) > R @ 3.75ips (Will Boswell's copy). Transferred and mastered by Matt Smith 5/11. CD > flac using dbpoweramp, checksums created with TLH by gballen 05-28-2011. JGMF copy: files renamed and tagged with foobar2000.
! R: we can call this a soundboard if we'd like, but I have to think that'd be a misnomer. Presumably there were no lines anywhere, and these guys were all acoustic. So this recording would have been an ambient recording, n'est-ce pas?! R: Matt Smith's notes: "This (7-21-73) is from the famed "Debbie Stash" that Will copied back in early 1979. The rehearsal has circulated but the late show from the Keystone has never surfaced until now. The real cool thing about this is that it gives the listener the whole scope of a typical day for Jerry back then. You know, get up, go to the GD office maybe, then rehearse with your bluegrass buddies then decide you are going to do a gig at the Keystone that night!! This time period was probably a very happy time in his life and it comes through in his playing here."
! Technical: since there is no clear set distinction here, I renamed the tracks from the "dxtxx" format to a continuous naming. If you want the original disc splits they were between t10 and 11, though of course with this total time there'd be no need for disc splits at all (unless one could track down some 74-minute CDs!).
! (1) dead air [0:10]; @ 0:xx: ??: "Wanna try that 'Little Bessie' that we were doin' in G last night?" I think this reference to "last night" is important in time-stamping this. The ad in the Berkeley Barb makes a fair amount of "Special Guest Fiddler from Nashville Vassar Clements". This seems to have been billed as Vassar's introduction to the Bay Area as a member of OAITW. Why is that relevant here? Because it makes sense that they'd be rehearsing this stuff in between the two billed shows. It's just a little detail that fits the given date/time of July 21, 1973 in the afternoon (in a little place they've gigged, just down the road from Stinson where Rowan, Grisman and Garcia lived) with absolute perfection.
! setlist: jg1973-07-21a-smith-t01 was listed as "Someone Calling My Name", but its correct title is "Little Bessie". Verified from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=14718! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t06 (2) Jerry talking about his banjo: gives the names/model, bought it last week. It's brand new.
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07 LOTN influenced by Kaw-Liga?
! R: jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07 LOTN splice/jump @ 4:18
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t10 (3) @ start JG about LOTN #2: "That wasn't as good as the first one."
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t11: DIME comment #4763536 by randomando at 2011-05-31 21:41:33 GMT: "Vassar teaching somebody the jazz tune "Move" on disc 2 track 1 [i.e., t11] is stunning. Dawg did the tune in the early years of the DGQ (75-76)."
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t18 (4) JG, cutting up (but precisely how is hard to say without physical or visual correlate): "OK you guys, I'm ready to cut another track." Talk about where they can position themselves. DG: "Wanna try White Dove?" Then they are gonna do "Vassar's tune", and JG is enthusiastic. More cutting up about doing whatever that's called. DG: "Wanna play 'Find Your Name Written There'? JG: "Why don't we just do that tune of Vassar's." I notice that Grisman rarely gets to call the tune. Garcia's assent is always required.
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t21 (4) ?PR?: "All I know are words. I'll just play with words."
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t22 (6) JG: "That was all right."
First, the provenance of the tape is awesome. Thanks to the Pacific Northwest Crew for this one.
Second, there's evidence on the tape that lends near-perfect credibility (for me) to the date/time/place/personnel ascribed to this. I totally believe this is 7/21/73 in the afternoon at the Lion's Share, in between two shows at the Keystone, Berkeley which, I am coming to believe, served as the introduction of Vassar Clements to the Bay Area. I also list a show at the Inn of the Beginning in Cotati midweek (Wednesday, July 18), which would have been a good place and time to warm up the act in public, but without a big crowd, before heading to the (relatively!) bigger deal weekend gigs at the Keystone. Anyway, long-winded way of saying, again, that I completely believe that this is exactly 7/21/73 in the afternoon at the Lion's Share. You could call this (presumably part of) the "Vassar Clements rehearsals".
Third, related, I need to go foresensically through the OAITW rehearsal tapes that are around. There are a shitload of filesets out there. While they have been much-collected, I think they are little-auditioned and remain almost entirely unanalyzed. I wouldn't be surprised to find more "Vassar Clements rehearsals", as well as some "Richard Greene rehearsals". (I doubt there are Hartford or other pieces, but who knows?)
Fourth, having confidence in this date/time/location/configuration gives me more confidence that the evening's show from Berkeley, which the Pacific Northwest (PNW) crew has also recently dropped (shnid 113845), is correctly dated. I know that the material is the same as what has long traveled as Monday, July 23, 1973 at the Boarding House, 960 Bush Street, San Francisco, 94109. I am going to revisit it soon, hopefully today, but my working hypothesis is that the 7/21/73 dating is probably correct. I'll report back.
Update: Done!
Fifth, for my taste this source deprecates a bunch of filesets:
There may be other bits and pieces of this same material floating around amongst the undated OAITW rehearsal snippets, but figuring that out is a project.
Old And In The Way
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA, 94960
July 21, 1973 (Saturday), afternoon rehearsal
PNW sbd shnid-113805
(22 tracks, 78:15)
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t01. (1) [0:28] Little Bessie [3:42]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t02. talk [0:09], % On And On (false start) [0:43]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t03. On And On [3:39]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t04. tuning and talking [1:15]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t05. Lonesome Fiddle Blues [2:59] %
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t06. tuning and talking (2) [1:39]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07. Land Of// The Navajo [6:#59]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t08. talk and tuning [0:20] % [0:25], Going To The Races [2:33]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t09. Land Of The Navajo [8:25]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t10. talk (3) and tuning [1:14], Cedar Hill [3:37] [0:03], randomness [0:02]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t11. dead air, fiddle/bass jam, tuning and talking [1:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t12. High Lonesome Sound [3:42]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t13. false start [0:21] % Hobo Song [4:58] [0:03]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t14. [0:06] % /Wild Horses [4:34] [0:04]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t15. Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:29]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t16. tuning and talking, Pig In A Pen chorus practice [2:05]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t17. Pig In A Pen [3:04]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t18. tuning and talking (4) [2:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t19. Kissimee Kid [2:56]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t20. Kissimee Kid [3:07]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t21. tuning and talking (5) [1:22]
jg1973-07-21a-smith-t22. Midnight Moonlight [4:50], talk (6) and silliness [0:15], dead air [0:07]
! Band: Old And In The Way
! Lineup: Peter Rowan - ac-guitar, vocals;
! Lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
! Lineup: Vassar Clements - fiddle;
! Lineup: John Kahn - ac-bass.
JGMF:
! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/963.
! db: shnid -113805 (this source).
! R: MR @ 7.5ips (Recorded by Betty Cantor on her Nagra) > R @ 3.75ips (Jerry Garcia's copy) > R @ 3.75ips (Will Boswell's copy). Transferred and mastered by Matt Smith 5/11. CD > flac using dbpoweramp, checksums created with TLH by gballen 05-28-2011. JGMF copy: files renamed and tagged with foobar2000.
! R: we can call this a soundboard if we'd like, but I have to think that'd be a misnomer. Presumably there were no lines anywhere, and these guys were all acoustic. So this recording would have been an ambient recording, n'est-ce pas?! R: Matt Smith's notes: "This (7-21-73) is from the famed "Debbie Stash" that Will copied back in early 1979. The rehearsal has circulated but the late show from the Keystone has never surfaced until now. The real cool thing about this is that it gives the listener the whole scope of a typical day for Jerry back then. You know, get up, go to the GD office maybe, then rehearse with your bluegrass buddies then decide you are going to do a gig at the Keystone that night!! This time period was probably a very happy time in his life and it comes through in his playing here."
! Technical: since there is no clear set distinction here, I renamed the tracks from the "dxtxx" format to a continuous naming. If you want the original disc splits they were between t10 and 11, though of course with this total time there'd be no need for disc splits at all (unless one could track down some 74-minute CDs!).
! (1) dead air [0:10]; @ 0:xx: ??: "Wanna try that 'Little Bessie' that we were doin' in G last night?" I think this reference to "last night" is important in time-stamping this. The ad in the Berkeley Barb makes a fair amount of "Special Guest Fiddler from Nashville Vassar Clements". This seems to have been billed as Vassar's introduction to the Bay Area as a member of OAITW. Why is that relevant here? Because it makes sense that they'd be rehearsing this stuff in between the two billed shows. It's just a little detail that fits the given date/time of July 21, 1973 in the afternoon (in a little place they've gigged, just down the road from Stinson where Rowan, Grisman and Garcia lived) with absolute perfection.
! setlist: jg1973-07-21a-smith-t01 was listed as "Someone Calling My Name", but its correct title is "Little Bessie". Verified from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=14718! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t06 (2) Jerry talking about his banjo: gives the names/model, bought it last week. It's brand new.
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07 LOTN influenced by Kaw-Liga?
! R: jg1973-07-21a-smith-t07 LOTN splice/jump @ 4:18
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t10 (3) @ start JG about LOTN #2: "That wasn't as good as the first one."
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t11: DIME comment #4763536 by randomando at 2011-05-31 21:41:33 GMT: "Vassar teaching somebody the jazz tune "Move" on disc 2 track 1 [i.e., t11] is stunning. Dawg did the tune in the early years of the DGQ (75-76)."
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t18 (4) JG, cutting up (but precisely how is hard to say without physical or visual correlate): "OK you guys, I'm ready to cut another track." Talk about where they can position themselves. DG: "Wanna try White Dove?" Then they are gonna do "Vassar's tune", and JG is enthusiastic. More cutting up about doing whatever that's called. DG: "Wanna play 'Find Your Name Written There'? JG: "Why don't we just do that tune of Vassar's." I notice that Grisman rarely gets to call the tune. Garcia's assent is always required.
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t21 (4) ?PR?: "All I know are words. I'll just play with words."
! jg1973-07-21a-smith-t22 (6) JG: "That was all right."
Saturday, June 18, 2011
LN jg1973-04-16.oaitw.s1.fm-nfagdtrfb.100404.flac1644
I have made an updated post on this fileset. This one is deprecated.
http://db.etree.org/shn/100404/
Not much time to get very elaborate, but a little more detail on this fileset.
OLD AND IN THE WAY
The Boarding House
960 Bush Street
San Francisco, CA
Monday, April 16, 1973
First Set
Disc Time 49:35
t01 (1) [0:06] Goin' To The Races [2:24] [0:17]
t02 Tragic Romance [3:40] [0:12]
t03 Katie Hill [3:27] [0:09]
t04 The Willow Garden [4:57] [0:34]
t05 'Til The End Of The World Rolls 'Round [2:25] [0:11]
t06 band introductions [1:19]
t07 Pig In A Pen [2:36] [0:05]
t08 Panama Red [2:17] (2) [1:43]
t09 Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:25] [0:36]
t10 Hard Hearted [2:30] [0:51] (3)
t11 Wild Horses [4:37] [0:27]
t12 Lost [3:22] [0:15]
t13 stage banter (4) -> Blue Mule false start [1:22]
t14 Blue Mule [4:36] [0:12]
Source: SBD > ? > WBAI-FM Broadcast > SAE-2 Receiver > Sony DTC-670.
Transfer: MFD > Sony D10P > Coax SPDIF > Audiophile 2496 > Wavelab > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644. Transfer by Andrew F. 08/2009
Notes: The DAT was recorded from the WBAI Morning Dew radio program on 07/31/1999 during their JG birthday special. Pitch is correct on this recording (ID-18422 is approx 90 cents slow). There's some low end fuzziness, and other minor FM artifacts in the recording.
Lineup:
Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
John Kahn - bass;
Peter Rowan - guitar, vocals;
Richard Greene - fiddle.
JGMF:
! I love that you can hear the band talking things over between tunes, though wish we could hear just a little bit better!
! t01. (1) DG: "We're gonna go to the races, folks."
! t05. DG sings a few verses of Til the End of the World Rolls Around
! t08. JG is singing echo refrain of "Panama Red" during chorus ... I don't remember hearing this.
! t08. (2) DG: "You folks sound like you're havin' a good time tonight."
! t09. JG's solo @ 2:15 of Lonesome LA Cowboy is just not very good.
! t10. (3) DG: "Here's a tune that may be familiar to most of you."
! t13. (4) DG: "We're gonna have a big gospel portion on our second set. That's what we're deciding right now. So stick around and get your r'l'gion. ... We're gonna take a short leave of absence ... right after this next song."
http://db.etree.org/shn/100404/
Not much time to get very elaborate, but a little more detail on this fileset.
OLD AND IN THE WAY
The Boarding House
960 Bush Street
San Francisco, CA
Monday, April 16, 1973
First Set
Disc Time 49:35
t01 (1) [0:06] Goin' To The Races [2:24] [0:17]
t02 Tragic Romance [3:40] [0:12]
t03 Katie Hill [3:27] [0:09]
t04 The Willow Garden [4:57] [0:34]
t05 'Til The End Of The World Rolls 'Round [2:25] [0:11]
t06 band introductions [1:19]
t07 Pig In A Pen [2:36] [0:05]
t08 Panama Red [2:17] (2) [1:43]
t09 Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:25] [0:36]
t10 Hard Hearted [2:30] [0:51] (3)
t11 Wild Horses [4:37] [0:27]
t12 Lost [3:22] [0:15]
t13 stage banter (4) -> Blue Mule false start [1:22]
t14 Blue Mule [4:36] [0:12]
Source: SBD > ? > WBAI-FM Broadcast > SAE-2 Receiver > Sony DTC-670.
Transfer: MFD > Sony D10P > Coax SPDIF > Audiophile 2496 > Wavelab > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644. Transfer by Andrew F. 08/2009
Notes: The DAT was recorded from the WBAI Morning Dew radio program on 07/31/1999 during their JG birthday special. Pitch is correct on this recording (ID-18422 is approx 90 cents slow). There's some low end fuzziness, and other minor FM artifacts in the recording.
Lineup:
Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
John Kahn - bass;
Peter Rowan - guitar, vocals;
Richard Greene - fiddle.
JGMF:
! I love that you can hear the band talking things over between tunes, though wish we could hear just a little bit better!
! t01. (1) DG: "We're gonna go to the races, folks."
! t05. DG sings a few verses of Til the End of the World Rolls Around
! t08. JG is singing echo refrain of "Panama Red" during chorus ... I don't remember hearing this.
! t08. (2) DG: "You folks sound like you're havin' a good time tonight."
! t09. JG's solo @ 2:15 of Lonesome LA Cowboy is just not very good.
! t10. (3) DG: "Here's a tune that may be familiar to most of you."
! t13. (4) DG: "We're gonna have a big gospel portion on our second set. That's what we're deciding right now. So stick around and get your r'l'gion. ... We're gonna take a short leave of absence ... right after this next song."
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