When Jerry Met Freddie: NRPS, Wednesday, November 25, 1970: Keystone Korner

Listing for NRPS at Keystone Korner, 750 Vallejo Street, San Francisco, CA, Wednesday, November 25, 1970. Source: “Opening Today,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 25, 1970, p. 35.

“Finds” are fun, and here’s one: New Riders of the Purple Sage (NRPS) at Keystone Korner, 750 Vallejo Street, San Francisco, CA, Wednesday, November 25, 1970.

So, the Grateful Dead and the Riders are on tour, playing a wild-ass Hell’s Angels party at the Anderson Theatre in NYC on Monday, November 23rd, and Garcia plays a hometown gig with his old buddies David Nelson and Marmaduke, probably Dave Torbert on bass. Corry has covered the early history of the NRPS bassists beautifully (see also earlier). But the late history of the NRPS is not perfectly clear to me, and in any case this new listing might be worth thinking about in this context.

Mickey Hart’s Departure From the New Riders of the Purple Sage

I know there are probably bits and pieces around about this, but I do not have my materials handy. (I’ll look forward to your sources and sourced recommendations in the comments!) Corry’s “New Riders Of The Purple Sage Personnel 1969-1981” tells me that the NRPS #2 configuration of Dawson-Nelson-Garcia-Torbert Hart ran from 4/17/70 through 11/29/70, the latter opening for the Grateful Dead at the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, OH. NRPS #3, with Dryden replacing Hart, kicks off on 12/12/70 (opening for the GD at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in hometown Santa Rosa). This is the configuration with which Jerry would finish his run with the Riders, opening for himself one last time at the Taft Auditorium in Cincinnati, OH, on Halloween night, October 31, 1971.

So this new listing for 11/25/70 would be Hart’s third-from-final show with the NRPS, on current knowledge, followed only by the opener for the GD at the Syndrome in Chicago on 11/27 and the Agora set. But what do we know about Mickey’s departure from the NRPS? Corry notes that “Mickey Hart had become increasingly distraught after his father Lenny had nearly bankrupted the Grateful Dead. He left the New Riders after their November tour, and the Dead in February of 1971.” I assume the linkage of the emotional wreckage from Lenny and the NRPS departure is a good one to make, and for some reason this new listing, the night before Thanksgiving 1970, puts me in mind of the tinge of sadness that seems to accompany certain Bay Area Thanksgivings. If you are alone and already sad and feeling blue, if it’s cloudy and cold and wet, that could be a tough time. So, while I obviously can’t conjecture too might about the emotional color of 11/25/70 at the Keystone Korner, by gut feeling is that it was far from a rainbows-and-unicorns affair.

That said, it might’ve been mighty nice, too. Hang around, play some country music, have a few beers. Are we not still men?

Caveat/wild speculation: do we really know Mickey was there, and that this wasn’t a warmup for Spencer Dryden? Hmm??