LN jg1995-01-13.jgb.s2.aud-sisler-goodbear.79638.flac1648

update 5/17: I have revisited this date, with rather contrasting perceptions.

Needless to say, I don’t get out to 1995 very much. I enjoyed this, overall. It was not a ripoff.

Jerry’s guitar play is fine, if mixed very low. The arrangements are pretty interesting, but the execution suffers without David Kemper in the chair. Garcia is flubbing like 50% of the lyrics, and there are a few moments where he seems completely to lose himself.

“Positively 4th Street” is a tune Jerry loved, played here for the first time since 4/24/93.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
January 13, 1995 (Friday) – set II
s2 Schoeps MK4 via Goodbear flac1648 shnid-79638

–set II (7 tracks, 64:00)–
s2t01. crowd and tuning [0:17], The Harder They Come [10:21] [0:15]
s2t02. And It Stoned Me [8:48] [0:24]
s2t03. [0:41] Evangeline [5:44] [0:07]
s2t04. Don’t Let Go [14:09] [0:12]
s2t05. Lazy Bones [8:38] ->
s2t06. Positively 4th Street [8:04] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:03] (1)

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn – el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals – keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin – drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch – backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones – backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19950113-01

! historical: First shows of 1995, let’s see how ol’ Jer sounds.

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1995-01-13-the-warfield-san-francisco-ca/
! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/21484 (Vasseur, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/79638 (this fileset)

! band: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! R: field recordist: unknown

! R: field recording gear: 2x Schoeps CMC-MK4 > Reutelheuber power supply (“Billbox”) > Denon DTR80p > Sony D7 [patch deck]

! R: transfer: Sony D7 master > ? > 48k wav > CDWave > FLAC. Dan Sisler supplied the DATs in 10/2006 to Teddy Goodbear, seeded 11/2006.

! R: seeder notes: “Thanks go out to Dan Sisler for sending me the DATs in 10/2006!”

! R: seeder notes: “Seeded 11/2006 by Teddy “GoodBear” Selby [http://www.goodbear.com :wave:”

! R: who knows which DAT Brat 🙂 recorded this? I assume this is from the drink rail, though it’s pretty spacious. What makes it hard for me to tell is that Garcia’s guitar stays pretty muffled.

! R: s2t02 AISM overload @ 0:49

! P: s2t02 This ancient, dying Jerry picks his material so nicely. Of course, he’d been doing the Van classic for nine years, tackling it night after night with the Garcia Band in that whole period between near-death  (the 1986 coma) and the thing itself.

! P: s2t01. HTC Baldwin has to really hit hard to keep the band on pace, because Jerry is a little hesitant, and quite lost on the lyrics. DB is no David Kemper, and I actually don’t love how he’s playing the verse parts, but ahe seems to be giving it his all. Melvin and the ladies are pure pros on it. I haven’t heard a note of John Kahn yet is he even here? 😉 Now I heard him 3:45. There could clearly be PA issues here vocals are mixed low –there’s John again with a scale @ 4:10, so PA issues– drums are nice, keyboards forward, vocals real low so far. Tempo is quite peppy, and now the mix is settling in 5:35 Melvin swirly while Jerry comps, now Jerry a nice descending, much more wah pedal on this, almost Shakedown-era. 6:08 Jerry steps up for a turn a register up his guitar playing sounds fine. 6:56 his lyrics fumble, he starts with the response and just the call entirely. The GD were using teleprompters at this time, he could sure use one here!

! personnel: this is Donny Baldwin drumming. HTC he has to dig in real hard to set the song’s whole tempo, and we see how important time is going to be to play these songs when the singer can’t remember any of the words.

! P: s2t03 Evangeline

! R: s2t03 more bass overload when JK audibilizes himself.

! R: s2t04 more static. Bass still overloading.

! P: s2t04 DLG Jerry sounds peppy. Let me embed a general comment about song tempo and set pacing – they are nice. I can see that this set will end up not super-long. Each song is done on the fast side of its historical tempo, and that’s all to the good. We get a nice, peppy 64 minute set – nothing wrong with that. 2:57 Jerry digs down for a growl on “hold me tight”. Does he hang a vocal there about 3:10? This is so interesting. Garcia is missing this next verse, but he’s making up for it with some vocal improv, more or less. He’s not even playing his guitar at periods. He or someone hangs another something 4:05 – is that John? 4:15 goes on down to a deep and careful “don’t let go”. 4:25 he starts trying on the a few measure of vocal-guitar, vocal-guitar call and response, now late 4 he’s got the wah pedal working a little. Things are not entirely together with Baldwin and Jerry. I miss Kemper, no offense. John tickles some spacy stuff 5:39, Melvin starts rounding out the fill, John a few picks late 5 as Jerry. Late 6 Jerry gives a nice cranky washboard, now 7:18 steps up the register to play some Jerry Garcia guitar, totally unmistakeable (for better and for worse), stepping up the pace 7:49, quotes DLG a touch. I don’t want to be critical, but I feel like Baldwin is not with it. 8:15 Jerry. Garcia some very inventive lines. 8:30ff I love what Jerry is going here. He is still full of ideas, still able to draw from a lifetime of sitting around with a guitar in his hand, cigarettes and coffee and picking and strumming. He’s got a big triumphal thing playing mid 9, states a bluesy tone, the band doing almost a little marshal thing, Jerry has picked up his tempo and is playing super energetically, a little clunky second half of 10, 10:54, first nod back to DLG, now 11:05 he’s back in tone, digging in for it, Baldwin on it by 11:20, they are understanding each other, 11:42 Jerry steps up to “hound dog barking upside the hill”, which will lead him back to “I’d be barkin’ and hollerin’ too,” which we already heard. Anyway. The song was nicely played, but it just didn’t deliver that much punch. Maybe the guitar is just too far back in the mix.

! P: s2t05 LB 5:25 Jerry sounds lost, and this is not good. Something that almost never happened with Kemper – the band sounded lost, too. 

! R: s2t06 overloading – dreadful!

! P: s2t06 Jerry can’t sing 4th Street if he can’t remember the lyrics.

! song: Positively 4th Street (s2t06): 2/23/80, then 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95. Jerry had to reach up to the top shelf to grab Dylan’s snide and splenetic rant – I hadn’t been aware when it started that it had become such a rarity. He’d try it again on March 4 and April 15, 1995 – I’d like to check those out (update: done! 3/4, 4/15). Positively 4th Street is one of those that Garcia loved and never gave up on – Tough Mama being a 70s Dylan analog.

! s2t07 (1) JG: “See y’all later, thank you.” Almost sounds a little slurry, certainly his voice a little weak, il manque d’haleine.