This is shnid-99222, a somewhat degraded soundboard tape of Old And In The Way (OAITW) with Richard Greene on fiddle. I had mentioned it when it first came out.
update: I surmise that this is Thursday, April 12, 1973, Granada Theatre, 1216 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA. It’s not certain by any stretch, but that’s what I figure. Indeed, now based on an expost account in the UCSB Daily Nexus (Haight 19730419), which confirms Greene and that the 4/12/73 late show ended with Orange Blossom Special, I am prepared to say that I am 99.99% certain that’s what we have here.
I have made lots of notes, so I’ll just mention that note 15 contains a little exchange that really underscores the “Burden Of Being Jerry”.
Old And In The Way
Unknown Venue (probably Granada Theatre)
Unknown City, Unknown State (probably Santa Barbara, CA)
ca. April-May 1973 (probably April 12, 1973)
–Disc One (13 tracks, 51:02)–
d1t01. (1) [0:05] //Going To The Races [#2:25] (2) [0:11]
d1t02. (3) [0:09] I Wonder Where You Are Tonight [2:19] [0:08]
d1t03. (4, 5) [0:28] Down In The Willow Garden [4:19]
d1t04. (6, 7) [0:29] Old And In The Way Breakdown [1:59] [0:10]
d1t05. Land Of The Navajo [7:40] [0:03] %
d1t06. [0:23] ‘Til The End Of The World Rolls Around [2:18] [0:09]
d1t07. (8) [0:32] Panama Red [2:18] [0:11]
d1t08. [0:22] I’m Knocking On Your Door [3:50] [0:11]
d1t09. (9) [0:48] Soldier’s Joy [3:06] (10) [0:32]
d1t10. (11) [1:14] Down Where The River Bends [4:43] [0:06]
d1t11. band introductions, talk (12, 13) [1:41]
d1t12. Blue Mule [4:35] [0:13]
d1t13. (14) [0:45] Love Please Come Home [2:20] [0:08] %
–Disc Two (9 tracks, 33:15)–
d2t01. [0:49] Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:02] [0:12]
d2t02. (15) [0:37] Pig In A Pen [2:33] [0:11]
d2t03. banter (16) [1:21]
d2t04. Hard Hearted [2:43] [0:08] %
d2t05. (17) [0:47] Turkey In The Straw [1:56] [0:13]
d2t06. % [0:38] White Dove [4:02] % [0:11]
d2t07. (18) [1:12] Thirsty In The Rain [3:02] [0:09]
d2t08. [0:09] How Mountain Girls Can Love [1:53] (19) [1:20]
d2t09. Orange Blossom Special [4:28] (20) [0:34]
–Rehearsal Filler (2 tracks, 3:57)–
d2t10. talk (21), Blue Mule workouts// [3:28]
d2t11. Cedar Hill// [0:29]
! ACT1: Old And In The Way
! lineup: Peter Rowan – ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: David Grisman – mandolin, vocals;
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – banjo, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn – ac-bass;
! lineup: Richard Greene – fiddle.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; … = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the “real” time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! db: shnid-99222 (somewhat degraded sbd; this fileset).
! R: Source Tape: MR > ? > R @ 7.5 ips
!
R: Source Tape digitization: AKAI GX 625 playback > Apogee Mini
Me (24/96) > Apogee MiniDac (monitoring/mastering) >
Wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 16/44 via Apogee) > CD, by Matt Smith.
Subsequent digital realm: EAC > WAV (TLH confirms no sbes)
> FLAC (TLH), by GEMS.
! R: seeder notes: – The
presence of Richard Greene on fiddle suggests this show was between
March and May 1973. – wow, thanks Will Boswell and Matt Smith for this
“new to general circ.” show. you guys rule! – and, as of now, we don’t
have OAITW doing a number of these songs! – there is slight distortion
in a few places. This tape warbling, however, is a bit harsh from d2t06
white dove on.
! d1t01 (1) dead air, layer of hiss starts @ 0:03 until 0:05
! d1t01 (2) RG mic check, lots of reverb. Garcia “No, wait a minute, wait a minute man. Don’t put it high [inaudible].”
! d1t02 (3) JG: “Oh hey, how about IWWYAT”
! d1t03 (4) DG: “‘Willow Garden’, you wanna do ‘Willon Garden’?” JG: “Sure.”
! d1t03 (5) @ 0:24 DG song intro: “A little traditional murder ballad for ya.”
! R: d1t03 DITWG warbles in 2:30 mark.
! d1t03 P: Garcia takes a solo @ 3:12-3:37. I know some would not want to countenance the possibility, but I hear his banjo limitations.
! d1t04 (6) ?Rowan?: “Why don’t we do [inaudible]?” There’s a chuckle and some cross-talk and JG says “Because you don’t know it.” Guy: “I can fake it!”
! d1t04 (7) @ 0:31 DG introduction “This is the, uh, Old And In The Way Breakdown.”
! R: d1t05 LOTN bad speed issues @ 5:50
! R: d1t05 LOTN bad tape much @ 6:48
! d1t07 (8) @ 0:13 DG: “This boy over here on the git-tar, his name is ‘Panama Red’. ‘Panama Pete’.”
! d1t08 IKOYD starts with Rowan knocking on his guitar, simulating door, replying to himself “What’s that noise? C’mon in” as the song starts.
! d1t09 (9) DG: “I’d say it’s time for a banjo & fiddle tune.”
! d1t09 (10) Richard Greene: “Thank you, thank you.” JG: “Thanks a lot.”
! d1t10 (11) @ 1:10 JG: “It’s time for the Old And In The Way patriotic moment. This is it coming right up.”
! d1t11 Personnel: David Grisman: “I’d like to introduce the members of the band. Peter Rowan here on the guitar. Lil’ John Kahn on the bass. Fiddlin’ Richard Greene back there. On the 5-string banjo, Spud Garcia.” JG: “Playing mandolin tonight we have David Dawg.” Note for the evolution of nicknames in OAITW.
! d1t11 (12) DG: “We’re gonna render one now called “The Blue Mule.”
! d1t11 (13) @ 0:56 PR: “How many people here have heard of Bill Monroe? [applause] This is the song of Molly and Tenbrooks.”
! d1t13 (14) DG: “We got a brand new number here for ya. We were just workin’ it out in the car.” PR: “Actually we got a brand old number.”
! P: d2t01 LLAC again I can hear JG’s banjo limitations in the solo @ 2:50ff.
! d2t02 (15) DG: “Any requests?” Chick: “Let Garcia sing!” JG to DG: “You had to say something.” THIS IS EXTREMELY REVEALING. Chick yells out again: “Let Garcia sing!” Rowan, in a sort of an east coast accent: “Awright, we’ll let’im. You don’ think he can sing, huh?”
! d2t03 (16) RG: “We’ve have a lot of requests for the ‘Orange Blossom Special’ .. But, wait … I myself haven’t played it in years.” Band: “You lie!” RG: “And furthermore, these boys here, on the stage tonight, don’t know how the tune goes.” Lots of laughter.
! d2t05 (17) RG: “We’d like to honor a request right now — ‘Turkey In The Straw’.”
! R: from d2t06 “White Dove” forward, these are quite bad speed problems.
! d2t06 WD Garcia vocals
! d2t07 DG: “We’re gonna do a little Peter Rowan number called ‘Thirsty In The Rain’.”
! R: s2t08 is practically unlistenable (even for me!) because of speed problems. We are aural witnesses to the demise of a set of batteries. RIP, old friends.
! d2t08 (19) JG: “See y’all later.” Encore calls, including some close-to-the-mic urgings suggestive of a possible audience tape? Then when you hear the room there’s a lot of room sound … definitely recording ambiently. Re: venue, sounds like a moderate-sized auditorium to me. More room echo than you’d get in a club like the Lion’s Share, for sure. Doesn’t sound like Keystone, either. Auditorium, or theater.
! d2t09 (20) @ 4:52 Emcee: “That’s it, folks, g’night. Thank you very much. G’night.” I don’t recognize this voice, so it doesn’t shed much light on the venue.
! d2t10 filler (21) JG: “I don’t have any of them numbers.” Other guy: “I think I have the office’s.” JG: “Oh, call them up and tell them – ?Ned?, who’s Parrish’s old lady, to tell Parrish to get serious. That’d work.” That followed by some goofiness, microphone talk, some runs through the harmony introduction to “Blue Mule”, and some running through that song.
! I am not going to get into what the rehearsal material might be. There’s a need to go through the OAITW rehearsal material with a fine-toothed comb, and I don’t want to tackle it here and now.
! Given the provenance of the recording (Will Boswell to Matt Smith), my best guess as to what this really is would be as follows: Thursday, April 12, 1973, Granada Theater, 1216 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA. (update: yes, I really do think so.) First, we know that Boswell acquired some tapes from a Santa Barbara soundman, including the 4/24/74 Great American Music Band tape. SB soundman, maybe this tape was also from his collection. Pat Lee suggests that the fact that the reels were on BASF tape stock is consistent with the Santa Barbara soundman idea. (Note that while this April 12, 1973 OAITW date is generally unknown and undocumented, Richard Greene’s datebooks show him at the Granada on this date) Second, we also (think we) know that Richard Greene was only playing with OAITW, perhaps only intermittently, in ca. April-May. We know the band started without fiddle, the John Hartford played in a time or two, that Richard was around, and that Vassar enters for the Boston show on June 5. Third, the more I reflect on this the more it seems like a relatively spacious room, and the more this indicates an out-of-town show. I see the following local venues played by the band at this time: Boarding House (San Francisco), Lion’s Share (San Anselmo), Orphanage (San Francisco), Homers Warehouse (Palo Alto). There was a show at Bimbo’s 365 Club on May 25, but Richard was not there. How big was Homers Warehouse? The other places were small clubs, ca. a couple hundred seats as I understand things. Out of town, by contrast, they played the Granada, Churchill High School (presumably the gym) in Eugene, OR (Tuesday, May 8, 1973) and the Paramount Theatre in Portland (Wednesday, May 9, 1973) during this period. Upshot: large room suggests out of town; provenance suggests Santa Barbara, for which there is a theater date that includes Richard Greene.
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