Good Old Boys at Keystone: June 13, 1974

Keystone

2119 University Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94704

June 13, 1974 (Thursday)

opening for Great American String Band

–set I–

ambience (1)

Deep Elem Blues

(2)  Earl’s Breakdown

(3) I’ll Never Make You Blue

(4) Jesus Loves This Mandolin Player #2

On Top Of Old Smokey

Pistol Packin’ Mama (5)

Raw Hide

–set II–

ambience (6)

unidentified-GOB19740613-01

(7) Jesus Loves His Mandolin Player #1

Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake (8)

Bill Cheatham (9)

T For Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1) (10)

(11) Teardrops In My Eyes (12)

New Camptown Races

(13) Uncle Pen

(14) Sally Goodin (15)

A Voice From On High (16)

Back Up And Push [1:59] [0:03]

! ACT1: Good Old Boys

! Lineup: Frank Wakefield – mandolin, ?vocals?;

! Lineup: David Nelson – guitar, vocals;

! Lineup: Fred Weisz – fiddle;

! Lineup: Sandy Rothman – banjo;

! Lineup: Pat Campbell – ac-bass.

JGMF:

! setlist: I am confused about the structure of the festivities at Keystone this Thursday, June 13, 1974. Need to write it out at greater length than this info file will allow.

! expost: Philip Elwood, “From country to jazz – a snap,” San Francisco Examiner, June 14, 1974, p. 27. He spells fiddle player’s name Wiesz, but it must be former Greenbriar Boy Fred Weisz, who had bipolar disorder and might have been a street person around Everett, WA.

! song: traditionals: s1t02 “Deep Elem Blues”; s1t06 “On Top Of Old Smokey” (Trad., arr Wakefield); s2t10 “Sally Goodin”; count: 3.

! song: country: s1t04 “I’ll Never Make You Blue” (Ray Cline, Charlie Cline); s1t07 “Pistol Packin’ Mama” (Al Dexter); s2t06 “T For Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1)” (Jimmie Rodgers); count: 3.

! song: bluegrass: s1t03 “Earl’s Breakdown” (Earl Scruggs); s1t08 “Raw Hide”; s2t02 “unknown-GOB19740613-01”; s2t04 “Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake” (Bill Monroe); s2t05 “Bill Cheatham”; s2t07 “Teardrops In My Eyes” (Red Allen, Tommy Sutton); s2t09 “Uncle Pen” (Bill Monroe); s2t11 “A Voice From On High” (Bill Monroe, Bessie Lee Mauldin); s2t12 “Back Up and Push”; count: 9.

! song: Wakefield originals: s1t05 “Jesus Loves This Mandolin Player #2”; s2t03 “Jesus Loves His Mandolin Player #1”; s2t08 “New Camptown Races”; count: 3.

! (1) Frank: “Actually, Fred Weisz and Jerry Garcia wrote this one.”

 

! (2) Someone says “Bluegrass Stomp”, and Nelson says “Yeah, how ’bout ‘Bluegrass Stomp’?” Not sure what Wakefield says, but David says “Let’s pick one.” I think Sandy suggests “Earl’s Breakdown”, Nelson affirms, and Wakefield introduces it. “Here’s one where Sandy does some … if y’all ever seen a [inaudible] player uh accordion player twist some keys, he’s gonna do this for ya.” ?Sandy?: “Frank does a little fancy key-twistin’ on this one, too.” DN, laughing, “Watch his hands!”

! (3) Frank: “Here’s another song that Sandy wrote, about his sweetheart. She broke his heart, and he’s gonna break her darn jaw now, right?”

! (4) Nelson: “Thank you. Right now, Frank’s gonna do a solo mandolin tune. I don’t know if of you have him heard do it before. He writes these mandolin tunes that are like classical music. They sound like classical music, but not really, I mean, it’s hillbilly classical. And he’s got about 34 or 6 tunes written out, and they all used to be called “Symphony #94″, since that was the only classical piece he’d ever heard, by Beethoven. … ‘Jesus Loves His Mandolin Player #2’.” FW gives an explanation. Talks about NYC Ballet Orchestra.

! (5) Frank: “Thank ya. Now we’re gonna play one called the ‘Berkeley Waltz’, then we’re gonna take a little intersection [sic] and we’re gonna come back and play some more for ya.” Nelson, to FW: “Do you know that that word means? What’s that word mean?” Frank: “Oh yeah, I forgot what that word means.”

! (6) Frank: “I’m sorry, about six months. Can you hear it way back in the back alright? You need more volume? Is that loud enough now? [crowd guy: “‘s’all right!”] Bless you, thank you.”

! setlist: s2t02 is solo mandolin. It may be one of the Jesus songs, but I just don’t know. Even Neil Rosenberg was stumped!

! (7) Frank: “That’s an 8-string harmony, now we’re gonna play some grass for you.” David Grisman, I need to borrow your mandolin real fast. I just broke a string. David? Where you is?” Ballet Opera NYC. Gimme that mandolin!

! (8) FW: “Thanks a lot. Now we’re gonna turn Fred loose, who’s a super good fiddle player.”

! (9) Frank: “Thanks a lot. Now we gonna do somethin’ where this super good bass player, Pat, he’s really good on the bass”, etc.

!  (10) FW: “I’d like to thank David Grisman for loaning me this mandolin. Thank you.”

! (11) FW: “Now here’s one that David has on record. Him and the Purple Sage Dust.”

! (12) FW: “Here’s one that David here wrote a long time ago. One called ‘New Camptown’. What inspired you to write it, David?” Nelson, off-mic: “Who you talkin’ to?”

!  (13) FW: “Here’s one that Fred Weisz wrote a long time ago, that he does on the fiddle, called ‘Uncle Fred’.”

! (14) unknown speaker (not FW or DN): “Here’s a little Sally Goodin, we’ll get Fred to play a little piece of pie.”

! (15) Freddie Herrera: “David … David … David … David, We’re starting to run late.” FW: “We feel so unnecessary.” Nelson: “Hey, what’s unnecessary mean?” Freddie: “David, can you hear me?” And they answer with “I Hear A Voice A Callin’!” Perfect!

! (16) Freddie: “Dave. Dave. Can you hear me? Dave? Dave. I’m down here. We are starting to run late, we have time for maybe one more tune at the most.” DN, to band: “Oh, we have one more tune.”