update: the original title of this was “First Night Out”, but I have discovered a warmup gig on 6/24/81 at the Keystone Palo Alto (not in Salinas, as I had elaborately laid out).
Liz Stires and Essra Mohawk appear to debut as backing vocalists on the night before this show. There are no singers on the late May shows, then there are here and the next night. One presumes that the 6/24/81 Palo Alto gig was a warmup: off-night, if not quite off the beaten path.
Phil Lesh sits in while John Kahn travels Europe with his mom. Merle [sic] Saunders sits in for the first two tunes – his last sit-in with Garcia On The Side, I do believe.
The only other non-musical thing I’d note was the GD-centric billing in the preview entitled “Night of the Dead”. This was uncommon, and for years the standard Garcia Band contract rider prohibited any trading on the name Grateful Dead or on Garcia’s association with that band. With Mickey Hart a key principal in the opening band, High Noon, and Phil joining Jerry, this night seems to have permitted of an exception. It’s almost like the “Grateful Dead Three Ways” framing around the December 1975 Kingfish, JGB and Keith and Donna Band gigs.
Musically, I like it. Phil sounds good, I really liked “I’ll Take A Melody” and “Simple Twist Of Fate”.
Jerry Garcia Band
Civic Auditorium
307 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
June 25, 1981 (Thursday)
Senicola-Poris MAC shnid-89567
–set I (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 59:29)–
s1t01. crowd and tuning [1:46]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:36] [0:24]
s1t03. Catfish John [8:15] (1) [0:36]
s1t04. Sitting In Limbo [10:10] [0:28]
s1t05. That’s What Love Will Make You Do [8:33] [0:40]
s1t06. Mississippi Moon [11:12] ->
s1t07. Tangled Up In Blue [9:41] (2) [0:09] %
–set II (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 56:27)–
s2t01. crowd (3) and tuning [1:28]
s2t02. I’ll Take A Melody [12:20] % [0:03]
s2t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:14] [0:08] %
s2t04. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door [13:22] [0:05] % [0:09]
s2t05. Dear Prudence [9:14] ->
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight [7:00] [0:21]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #13a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals – keyboards;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren – keyboards;
! lineup: Daoud Shaw – drums;
! lineup: Essra Mohawk – backing vocals;
! lineup: Liz Stires – backing vocals.
! guest: Merl Saunders – keyboards (s1t01-s1t03).
! guest: Phil Lesh – el-bass (whole show).
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; … = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = 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 [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1981-06-25
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/9302 (aud shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/89567 (this fileset).
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/kkDtK
! historical: High Noon opened. Lesh replaces Kahn on bass; Saunders sits in on first two numbers, almost sounds like Melvin was late. Very interesting use of Grateful Dead marketing. This is almost like a “GD Three Ways” kind of feel. See preview title. The listing has a picture of Jerry with caption about “Jerry Garcia and friends”, and listing identifies Hart. Clearly planned and sold around Garcia, Lesh, etc.
! seealso: Arnold, Corry. 20160804. June 26, 1981 Fox-Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA: Jerry Garcia Band with Phil Lesh/High Noon/Mike Henderson (The Truth Is Out There). Lost Live Dead, August 4, URL https://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2016/08/june-26-1981-fox-warfield-theatre-san.html, consulted 7/28/2019. That’s where Corry reports that John Kahn was touring Europe with his mom during this timeframe.
! preview: “Night of The Dead,” Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 5
! ad: Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 12
! listing: Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 20
! R: field recordists: Richard Senicola and Jaime Poris
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 300 + 1x Nakamichi 700 > (Nak 550) > Sony TC-D5M (Mark Severson’s equipment)
! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell MX cassette
! R: field recording location: 35 feet back from right center of stage
! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nak Dragon > Grace Lunatec V3 (24/96) > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe > Adobe Audition 2.0 > (dither/downsample) > FLAC encoding.
! R: this is a great pull! Drums are super-punchy. What a tape!
! personnel: Definitely two keys plus two backup singers. I presume that Merl was playing Melvin’s Hammond on the tunes that list him, and that Melvin was sitting out. I probably wouldn’t be able to hear three keyboards at once, anyway.
! s1t03 (1) JG: “We’d like to thank Merl Saunders for sittin’ in with us for a couple of tunes.”
! P: Phil is pretty hot and heavy for Miss Moon and TUIB. BTW, earlier in the set an audience member mentions him by name, lest there be any doubt that Lesh is in the house.
! s1t07 (2) JG: “We’re gonna take a lil short break, we’ll be back in a [inaudible] minutes.”
! s2t01 (3) @ 0:18 crowd member starts singing “Elvira” … now there’s a time capsule for you.
! P: s2t02 ITAM @ 2:01-2:04, you hear Philip Lesh playing the freaking bass. Wow. Great backing vocals @ 5:48. Rare to hear them this clearly … great stuff! @ 11:19 JG is doing some ridiculous running around the chords.
! P: s2t03 STOF is incredible, careful, deliberate, beautiful! This tape captures it really, really nicely. STOF without the bass solo is interesting
! P: s2t04 KOHD @ 6-min mark, Jimmy Warren’s little solo is not great.
! R: s2t06 Midnight Moonlight [00:01 – 00:07] patched with SHNID-9302
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