Chieftains Opening for OAITW

Update 7/22/2022: somehow I got the date wrong by a week, but in any case this Chieftains set is now being released by the Owsley Stanley Foundation!

A book by John Glatt entitled The Chieftains: The Authorized Biography (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) describes Chesley Milliken arranging a meeting between Garcia and The Chieftains, who were touring the US in autumn 1974. After their local gigs, Garcia invited the Chieftains “to open for his own bluegrass group Old And In The Way, who were playing a show at the Boarding House to be recorded for a live album. Garcia also arranged a radio show with the legendary Tom Donaghue [sic].” Paddy Moloney recalls that “Jerry sent a limo for us and we did the show, which was San Francisco’s top-rated radio programme. Jerry interviewed us and we talked and played tunes and discussed the music. Later in the week we opened for Jerry’s bluegrass band and it was a wonderful evening of music.”

This interested me for several reasons. First, of course, Garcia’s grandfather William Clifford was Irish. Second, I have heard snippets of rumors that when he went to Ireland with Deborah in the summer of ’93, he picked some tunes in some pubs and such, and I had even thought that maybe he did so with the Chieftains. (It appears not, since the bio would have mentioned it.) Third, of course, lots of the white roots music Garcia played ultimately derived from various isles off the northwest coast of Europe, not just the sea shanties and all that but also bluegrass as a Scotch-Irish-American compound, so I am just interested in this crossing as a meeting of musics. And, finally, this was just specific enough regarding timeframe –OAITW was recorded on 10/1/73 and 10/8/73– but also necessarily mistaken (because it was said to be autumn 1974), and so I wanted to try to gain clarity.

Well, I have found it. 1974 is indeed wrong.

If he’s right about OAITW being recorded, and the Chieftains gigs happening before that, then we should be closely prior to 10/1 or 10/8/73. Through the magic of digitized newspapers, I find them playing the following:

  • 9/29/73: The Gaelic League sponsored a gig this night at 8 PM in the Scottish Rite Memorial Auditorium, 19th and Sloat in the city. (! ad: SFC19730928p57)
  • 9/30/73: concert at the Oakland Auditorium Theatre, 8 PM (! listing: SFSECDB19730930p07)

So far, so good.

Then I started Googling around for a list of “Live From the Record Plant” KSAN broadcasts, and found none. (Someone, please get on that!) It took me some fine-tuning on the search syntax to find what I was looking for, but I found it.

  • 10/7/73: 11 PM, KSAN (94.9) – The Chieftains (! listing: SFSECDB19731007p22)

Even though “later in the week” would normally be understood to mean more than one night later, there was still space for the Chieftains to open for OAITW the next night at the Boarding House. So I queried Peter Rowan, and he affirmed that The Chieftains opened for OAITW on 10/8/73. 

Update: Chieftains appear to have opened on 10/1. Since I followed the logic closely, it seems that Paddy just had the sequences and timeframes a little unclear, as they were reported in the book.
Update your spreadsheets. And, if you keep records of Garcia’s whereabouts even when he wasn’t playing, you can place him at the Record Plant on the night of 10/7/73, hanging with Big Daddy and talking with and listening to the Chieftains.

Now, I am contractually obligated to make two further queries.

First, is there tape of the 10/7/73 Live From the Record Plant KSAN broadcast?
update: Yes! At the SF Museum of Performance and Design, which holds the KSAN Vault. Two reels have been digitized and are available for on-site auditioning, by appointment.

Second, did Bear tape the Chieftains on 10/8/73 10/1/73 at the Boarding House? update: yes he did!

Let me make one final point, after updating my data: Garcia was a very busy boy right in this timeframe. I now have him as follows for the eight days starting Sunday 9/30:

“Work eight days a week | baby I give it all to you”

And on the ninth day, a Tuesday, he rested. As far as I know.

Comments

12 responses to “Chieftains Opening for OAITW”

  1. Jerry's Brokendown Palaces Avatar

    “Jerry sent a limo for us and we did the show, which was San Francis-co's top rated radio program,” says Moloney. “Jerry interviewed us and we talked and played tunes and discussed the music. Later in the week we opened for Jerry's bluegrass band and it was a wonderful evening of music.” [17]

    17.) Glatt, John, The Chieftains: The Authorized Biography, pg. 96, 97.

  2. Jerry's Brokendown Palaces Avatar

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  3. Fate Music Avatar

    Thanks for the page references!

  4. Fate Music Avatar

    Sweet Lord, the recording does exist, via the Museum of Performance and Design in SF. The recording is available for onsite listening. Anyone in the area care to check it out and make some notes?

    Title: [Chieftans on KSAN live radio recorded and broadcasted on October 7, 1973] [sound recording].

    Contents: 005.046.0169 – Chieftains #1 – 10/07/73 – Tom Donahue Intro/Jerry Garcia Commentary (00:00) – Instrumental/Talk, Talk, Talk (02:20) – Instrumental/Talk (9:00) – Instrumental/Talk (15:50) – Instrumental/Talk (23:00)005.046.0170 – Chieftains #2 – 10/07/73 – Instrumental (00:05) – Instrumental (03:00) – Instrumental (07:15) – Instrumental (09:45) – Instrumental (14:50) – Instrumental (20:10) – Instrumental (23:40) – Instrumental (28:15)

  5. Fate Music Avatar

    And, BTW, a simple search for titles containing KSAN generated a long list of results that look scrumptious. Homepage is at https://sfpalm.library.net/default.htm.

  6. Nick Avatar

    This whole post is amazing. If I wasn't 2800 miles away, I'd be there in the morning.

  7. Fate Music Avatar

    I will be out there in a couple of months, will try to make a little time …

  8. Fate Music Avatar

    Since I don't have to spin Chronicle microfilm anymore!

  9. Corry342 Avatar

    Garcia had underwritten the Chieftains first US tour (meaning he guaranteed some bills, which in the end he probably didn't have to pay). I don't know enough about Chieftains to know if this was the first tour.

    Undiscovered Garcia Country, 46 years later. Who knows–maybe Vince Guaraldi was there too? Great work

  10. Fate Music Avatar

    I think this was their first US tour. Where do you have info that he "underwrote" it? This bio seems to have had Paddy Moloney's involvement, and it seems to me that he would have mentioned that.

  11. Fate Music Avatar

    Well, I went and listened to this today. The music is rather amazing. Big Daddy asks Garcia to say some things at one point, and he talks about what I discussed above – Irish traditional music as a root source for bluegrass and, to a lesser extent, country and western. The upcoming opening for OAITW does get mentioned.

  12. Fate Music Avatar

    Three years later, this is being released by the Owsley Stanley Foundation! https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/bears-sonic-journals/the-chieftains-in-san-francisco/

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