Grateful Dead Tour Itinerary December 1966

 

A promotional picture of Jerry Garcia for the December 23-24, 1966 Grateful Dead show at the Avalon Ballroom, published in the December 20, 1966 San Francisco Chronicle

I have been constructing tour itineraries for the Grateful Dead for brief periods of their history. There is so much information circulating on websites and blogs (including my own) that go beyond published lists on Deadlists and Dead.net that these posts make useful forums for discussing what is known and missing during each period. Rather than go in strictly chronological order, I am focusing on periods where recent research has been done by myself or others.  My principal focus here is on identifying which dates have Grateful Dead shows, which dates might have Grateful Dead shows, and which dates are in dispute or may be of interest (other entries in my Grateful Dead tour itinerary series can be seen here).

What follows is a list of known Grateful Dead performance dates for December, 1966. I am focused on which performances occurred when, rather than the performances themselves. For known performances, I have assumed that they are easy to assess on Deadlists, The Archive and elsewhere, and have made little comment.  I am not considering recording dates, interviews or Television and radio broadcast dates in this context.

My working assumption is that the Grateful Dead, while already an infamous  rock band by the end of 1966, were living hand to mouth and scrambling to find paying gigs. Most paying performances were on Friday and Saturday nights, so I am particularly interested  in Friday and Saturday nights where no Grateful Dead performances were scheduled or known.

Grateful Dead Tour Itinerary, December 1966

A listing for the Grateful Dead/Jerry Pond shows at The Matrix, from the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, November 27, 1966

November 28-December 1, 1966: The Matrix, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Jerry Pond
The Grateful Dead had played the tiny Matrix club in January of 1966, but they rapidly graduated to shows at the Fillmore and the Avalon. For some reason, the band played a Monday-to-Thursday run at the Matrix at the end of November. It's hard to say why. If the Dead were desperate for money (their normal state) and the Matrix was financially worth their while, why hadn't they played there more often? Yet the Matrix only seated 100 people and dancing was not allowed (really), so it couldn't have been too lucrative.

I have floated the idea that the Dead were interested in getting a live recording of themselves, perhaps as a sort of demo tape. I haven't convinced everyone, but at least it's worth noting that the Dead played different kinds of sets than they appear to have played at The Fillmore. The opener was local folksinger Jerry Pond. The Dead did not play the Matrix again, although Jerry Garcia played there many times in subsequent years.

A promotional photo of Jerry Garcia and Pigpen, for the Grateful Dead/Country Joe and The Fish concert at Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley campus. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 1, 1966

December 2, 1966: Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Grateful Dead/Country Joe And The Fish
On Friday, December 2, the Grateful Dead headlined at the Pauley Ballroom in UC Berkeley with Berkeley heroes Country Joe and The Fish. Both bands were in the process of signing record contracts (the Dead with Warners and Joe and The Fish with Vanguard). Pauley Ballroom had a capacity of about 1000. It's unlikely the University allowed shows to go on past 11:00pm. This was probably the last live performance of Joe and The Fish with original drummer John Francis Gunning.

Saturday, December 3 is an open date on the Dead's calendar. If there is a rumor of a lost show, this seems a very likely date. Colleges and high schools were ending their terms, so there would have been a lot of activity, and perhaps the Dead played a dance or something. They were popular, but still broke, and could hardly turn down a paid booking.

Listing for the opening night of Grateful Dead's performances at the Fillmore on the weekend of December 9-11. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 1966

December 9-11, 1966: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Tim Rose/Big Mama Thornton
The Grateful Dead were sole headliners at the Fillmore for the first time on the weekend of December 9-11. They had shared top booking a number of times, depending on how you want to define "top," but there's no question they were the principal attraction this weekend. Big Mama Thornton was just starting to get known to white hippies, but she wasn't a big draw. Tim Rose had had some modest hit singles, and was getting a little radio airplay, but he was no headliner. Thus, the Dead were topping the bill by themselves, another sign of their rising popularity.

I have speculated about these shows at length, mainly from the point of view that Tim Rose almost certainly performed his own very different arrangement of "Morning Dew." The Dead's version is so different that I doubt there was any musical influence from Rose, but I wouldn't be surprised if hearing Rose's version was an impetus for Garcia and the Dead to start playing their own arrangement publicly.

December 14, 1966: Gym, City College of Marin, San Rafael, CA: Grateful Dead
This largely unknown show was a Pep Rally/Dance for Marin's junior college. My eyewitness was (then future) Sons Of Champlin road manager Charlie Kelly. When you read the entire tale, you'll see why Kelly's memories of the entire week are very clear, and while the show may have been Thursday December 15, there's no question that Kelly's reactions are accurate (to tell the tale briefly: Kelly returned home from basic training to celebrate his 21st birthday by seeing his childhood friends The Sons Of Champlin play The Avalon, and then shipped out to Vietnam, so it wasn't a week he would forget).

If the Grateful Dead were playing a College of Marin Pep Rally the week after they headlined the Fillmore, there's a good chance they were playing a college dance on Saturday, December 3 (above). 

The listing for the Otis Redding/Grateful Dead concert at the Fillmore on December 20, 1966, from the San Francisco Chronicle of the same date

December 20, 1966: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Otis Redding/Grateful Dead
Much has been in retrospect of Otis Redding's appearance at the Fillmore. Otis Redding headlined three nights at the end of 1966 (December 20-22), and although it was a midweek booking, since it was heading towards Christmas that may not have mattered as much. Bill Graham endlessly repeated the story that the Bay Area rock bands begged to open the show, and Janis Joplin demanded front row seats every night (I heard Graham himself tell this story at a lecture in 1976).  The story was generally told as a talisman to show either how much the rock musicians liked soul music, or how popular Otis Redding was in crossing over to a rock audience. Over the years, this story has been re-told many times, and sometimes it expands in the retelling.

The outlines of the story are basically correct. Otis Redding headlined three nights, and the Grateful Dead opened Tuesday (December 20) and Country Joe And The Fish opened Thursday (December 22). The middle night's opening slot was taken by the Oakland R&B group Johnny Talbot And De Thangs, who played both the local soul circuit and also on occasion at the Fillmore. I don't doubt that the Dead and Country Joe and The Fish were enthusiastic about opening for the great Otis Redding.

However, everyone seems to forget that the Fillmore Auditorium was in the heart of the largely African-American Fillmore district. Prior to Bill Graham, the Fillmore was an important stop on the R&B circuit, under the aegis of promoter Charles Sullivan, whose retirement opened the door for Graham to take over the lease. It's very likely that Redding had played the Fillmore before. In any case, while I don't doubt that there were a few open minded hippies in the audience, the fact is that most of Otis's audience was probably African American, and many of them would have lived right there in the Fillmore. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I don't think Otis headlining the Fillmore signified anything more than that he was very popular and Graham knew a good booking when it came his way.

One implicit tip-off about the audience came from Graham's version of the story. If Janis was requesting front row seats every night, then there were seats, presumably folding chairs. The festival seating, light-show vibe was not in the cards for the no doubt well-dressed African American crowd. With all those caveats aside, it's still cool that the Grateful Dead were happy to open the show. They had just headlined the Fillmore 10 days earlier, yet they seemed to have been honored to have been on the bill, as were Country Joe And The Fish.

A poster for the Grateful Dead's appearance at the Continental Ballroom in Santa Clara on Wednesday, December 21, 196

December 21, 1966: Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA: New Arrivals/Grateful Dead/Elgin Marble/Yellow Pages
The Continental Ballroom, at 1600 Martin Avenue in Santa Clara, not far from downtown San Jose, has a very intriguing and largely untold rock and roll history. The building was San Jose's main rock and roll palace from about 1965 to 1970, and lots of great bands played there. I don't know about the building's history or ownership (and not for lack of trying to find out), but in general it was not associated with a single promoter. Part of the legend of the Fillmore and the Avalon comes from their association with Bill Graham and Chet Helms, respectively, and both men were very good at memorializing their own achievements. That isn't to deny the importance of the Fillmore and the Avalon, but the Continental was an interesting place, too, but there was no major figure to tell the story.

The San Jose area had a thriving live rock scene from 1965 onwards. Initially, many of the popular groups were made up of local teenagers, like The Syndicate Of Sound, but there was a huge population of suburban kids with cars, and there was plenty of live rock. Some really good bands came out of San Jose as well, particularly the Chocolate Watch Band. However, San Francisco and Berkeley tended to look down on San Jose, and so the Watch Band and other San Jose groups never really got their due at the Fillmore (Graham's rivalry with CWB manager Ron Roupe didn't help). There were many great rock shows at The Continental with San Jose bands, and when the San Francisco bands got popular they played a lot of shows there as well.

Since the San Jose market was oriented towards teenagers, a show on December 21st was effectively a weekend, since it was the Wednesday before Christmas and almost all students would have been out of school. Note the Munsters theme on the poster--this show isn't really directed at a psychedelic crowd. At this point, the Grateful Dead would have merely been a name that San Jose kids would have seen in the paper. However, San Jose had the kind of market where teenagers just went out to have fun, and saw whoever was around. They may have been kind of surprised by the Dead, but in fact San Jose had some good bands, so the kids probably really liked it. The light show may not yet have been a typical thing at San Jose shows. Elgin Marble was a local San Jose band who were around for a few years, but I don't recognize The Yellow Pages.

A mention of the upcoming concerts at the Avalon Ballroom on December 23 and 24, 1966, featuring the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape and the Steve Miller Blues Band, from Ralph J. Gleason's column in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 23, 1966. Note the listing for the Smokey Grass Boys at The Jabberwock; the Smokey Grass Boys was a bluegrass band featuring David Grisman, Herb Pedersen and Rick Shubb

December 23-24, 1966: Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Moby Grape/Steve Miller Blues Band
With the Fillmore closed for Christmas, the Grateful Dead took the opportunity to headline on the weekend before Christmas (Christmas was on a Sunday). The San Francisco Chronicle published its second picture of Jerry Garcia in a month (above). One of the reasons that Garcia became such a figure long before the Dead's music itself became popular was that he seems to have received a lot of publicity of this sort, probably much to his own dismay.

This weekend's shows at the Avalon were more important in the histories of Moby Grape and the Steve Miller Band than for the Grateful Dead. Moby Grape had debuted the month before, after rehearsing at The Ark in Sausalito. Their manager Matthew Katz had put on a show at California Hall at the end of November, but he had no idea about underground promotion, and there were only a few dozen people present. Moby Grape immediately split with Katz--with whom they are still in litigation 46 years later--and guitarist Peter Lewis started booking the gigs. Lewis had gotten the Grape a few nights at the Matrix, and now they were on the bill at the Avalon. Moby Grape was a great band, and a great live band, and playing the Avalon meant that everyone was about to find that out. Lead guitarist Jerry Miller had been friendly with Garcia since the Warlocks days, when Miller (and drummer Don Stevenson) had been in a group called The Frantics.

Steve Miller had been based in Chicago, but he had scouted out the Bay Area in Fall 1965. He returned in his VW Microbus on October 15, 1966, stopping off at the Fillmore to jam with his friend Paul Butterfield. By Thanksgiving, he had imported some friends from Madison, WI and they started playing as The Steve Miller Blues Band. They weren't making any money, however, and Miller was still living in his van. Once Chet Helms offered the group $500 for this weekend at the Avalon, Miller was in town to stay.

December 25, 1966: Christmas Party, Big Brother house, Lagunitas, CA
In December, 1966, the Grateful Dead were living in an unused resort camp in Lagunitas, in the San Geronimo Valley. The Dead shared the camp with Quicksilver Messenger Service. Living "next door," a few miles away, in a rambling ranch house, were Big Brother And The Holding Company. For obscure reasons, Big Brother called their house "Argentina." On Christmas, Big Brother had a Christmas party, and invited their next door neighbors. Big Brother, Quicksilver and the Grateful Dead had an all day and all of the night Christmas party for all their friends and roommates, and apparently the jamming went on constantly.

Members of all three bands had begun 1966 as penniless folk musicians who were experimenting with electric music. They barely had any gigs, and had no realistic chance of succeeding in the music industry. By the end of the year, all three bands were popular local attractions who were making enough money to support themselves and their friends, and the music industry had come to them. The bands had made few, if any concessions to conventional business practices and they knew that their music was getting better every day. By all accounts, it was a happy, memorable party for everyone who attended, before it all went national during the so-called Summer Of Love in 1967.

Supposedly, one of the reasons that Jerry Garcia chose Forest Knolls in Lagunitas for his final rehab was that he though it was on the same site as the Dead's 1966 camp in Lagunitas. It wasn't far away, in fact, but it wasn't actually the same site. Here's to hoping that Jerry ended that final night jamming with Janis, Cippo and Pigpen anyway, just as he had 29 years earlier.

 A poster for the "Beaux Arts Ball" at Governors Hall in Sacramento on December 28, 1966

December 28, 1966: Governors Hall, Sacramento, CA: Grateful Dead/Quicksilver Messenger Service
There are a number of posters for this event. There is a poster with no groups mentioned that advertises the event at the College gym, and it appears that "The Beuax Arts Ball" was a presentation of a student group at Sacramento City College.  Two others that advertise the Dead and Quicskilver at Governors Hall at the Fairgounds do not seem to be directly school connected, although I cannot read all the writing. To my knowledge, this would have been the Dead's (and Quicksilver's) Sacramento debut.

In many colleges, certainly on the West Coast, an annual "Beaux Arts Ball" was a sort of campus wide arts festival, but it's a little odd that it was taking place when school would have been out of session. It may be that "Beaux Arts Ball" was a promotional title of sorts, and didn't really have any meaning beyond that. It doesn't quite explain the Sacramento City College poster, but that could be a parallel event, or a poster from another year. I have contacted Sacramento sources who may have attended this event, but they haven't recalled anything yet.

A poster for the Grateful Dead's headline appearance at the Santa Venetia Armory, near San Rafael, on December 29, 1966, with Moby Grape and The Morning Glory

December 29. 1966: Santa Venetia Armory, San Rafael, CA: Grateful Dead/Morning Glory/Moby Grape
Ralph and Al Pepe promoted dances in Marin County. They often used the Santa Venetia Armory. Although it was a separate town about 2 miles North of San Rafael, Santa Venetia is almost a separate district of San Rafael.  The Santa Venetia Armory, at 155 Madison, was the National Guard Armory, and apparently a regular site of “Teen” dances in the mid-60s.  It was used briefly for psychedelic rock concerts in 1966-67, before it was superseded by the Fillmore and the Avalon.

While typical Pepe dances had local bands who cranked out cover versions, they seemed to have recognized that the Fillmore bands were a little different. Almost all the Pepe posters are done in the same boxing style. The highlighted L-I-G-H-T-S  suggests that the music won't quite be the regular dance fare. It's important to recall, however, that the Fillmore and the Avalon were promoting themselves as dance halls, and most of the the audiences were young, so a dance wouldn't be an alien setting by any means for the Dead. In any case, if Pigpen was cranking it out, there would be plenty of dancing going on.

Moby Grape was playing their second booking with the Dead in a week. Morning Glory were a local Marin band who had sort of an Airplane sound. They weren't bad, actually, and released an OK album on Fontana a year later.

A picture of Marty Balin from the December 29, 1966 San Francisco Chronicle listing of the New Year's Eve concert at the Fillmore on December 30 and 31, featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service

December 30-31: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Jefferson Airplane/Grateful Dead/Quicksilver Messenger Service
The Grateful Dead played the first of their legendary New Year's Eve shows in 1966. The initial version featured Jefferson Airplane, the Dead and Quicksilver for a show that was advertised from 9pm to 9am. I wonder how many sets the Grateful Dead played, and who jammed with who? Of course, as I have discussed elsewhere, 60s shows like this were so epic that no one can remember a thing about them.

On New Year's Day, the Grateful Dead played with Big Brother at the Panhandle near Golden Gate Park. As a practical matter, assuming that the Dead played in the early afternoon, they must have gone straight from the Fillmore over to the Panhandle. Big Brother had also played a New Year's Eve show, at an obscure venue in Golden Gate Park called Kezar Pavilion. While Big Brother was not booked until 9am, since they and the Dead both lived in Lagunitas, neither of the bands would have made any effort to go home before playing in the afternoon.

The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in Santa Cruz County (Revised)

[this is a substantial revision of an earlier post]

On April 24, 2008, the Grateful Dead announced the gift of their archives to the University of California at Santa Cruz Special Collections Library. The archive includes all the non-musical material accumulated by the Dead over the years, from contracts to fan letters, and it will not only provide a major insight into an important California cultural phenomenon in the second half of the 20th century, it will end up being really helpful to the likes of me. Rotating displays of some of the material will apparently be regularly on display at McHenry Library at UCSC.

The Grateful Dead and UC Santa Cruz were always like minded entities, despite a lack of formal connection. Wikipedia summarizes the pre-history of UCSC by saying "the formal design process of the campus began in the late 1950s, culminating in the Long Range Development Plan of 1963." The same might be said of The Grateful Dead. Since the Dead and UCSC were both founded in 1965, they have both been devoted to different ways of doing things, whether dispensing with grades (which UCSC did not give until 1997) or refusing to play a song the same way twice. In honor of the Archive, this post will trace the limited appearances of The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and other Grateful Dead members in Santa Cruz County.

The City of Santa Cruz and its University are isolated from the rest of the Bay Area by mountains, cliffs and the Pacific Ocean. Thus it had remained economically isolated until the last few decades, and part of Santa Cruz's charm was its insularity. This meant, however, that major rock shows were few and far between.

The Grateful Dead in Santa Cruz County
The Grateful Dead were booked in Santa Cruz County twice, and they were definitely in Santa Cruz County at least twice, but whether they played twice remains obscure.

November 27, 1965 Ken Babbs Ranch, Soquel: Acid Test
There was an Acid Test at Ken Babbs' house in the Santa Cruz Mountains, written about in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. By all accounts, the Grateful Dead-who were still probably called The Warlocks, depending on who you believe--were there but did not perform, unless they did. So, to summarize, the Grateful Dead or The Warlocks were there and did or did not perform, probably.

(the poster for the Grateful Dead concert at Cabrillo College Stadium, Aptos, CA on September 2, 1967. Thanks to Ross for the scan. The show most likely did not take place)

September 2, 1967 Cabrillo College Football Field, Cabrillo Junior College, Aptos, CA
Benefit for SCA Santa Cruz
Grateful Dead/Canned Heat/The Leaves/Andrew Staples/Sons of Champlain (sic)/New Delhi River Band/Second Coming/New Breed/BFD Blues Band/Gross Exaggeration/Yajahla/Tingle Guild/People/Jaguars/Art Collection/Morning Glory/Ben Frank’s Electric Band/New Frontier/Chocolate Watch Band/The Other Side/E-Types/Mourning Reign/Imperial Mange Remedy/Omens/Ragged Staff/Talon Wedge & Others.

This two-day Festival (Saturday and Sunday September 2-3) over Labor Day weekend, with music from 3-12 pm each day, is widely known because the poster for it appeared in Paul Grushkin's book The Art Of Rock. The "beneficiary", SCA Santa Cruz, is now unknown to me, but the wording suggests that this was a campus sponsored event (which had to be not-for-profit). The bands listed above were spread out over the two days. The Dead would have been booked to play on Saturday September 2, as they had another gig (at Rio Nido Dance Hall) on September 3. The Dead, Canned Heat,  and San Jose's own Chocolate Watch Band were the big names. The other booked acts were an interesting mixture of mostly South Bay bands, including David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band.

However, intriguing as all this sounded, I looked into it at some length and I don't believe the event ever took place. I talked to a number of old South Bay types, none of whom recalled it. While it's impossible to prove a negative, one member of a band booked at the event (the E-Types) did not recall it either, and he played Cabrillo many times back in the day, so I think this is one of those events that was planned but never happened. 

Cabrillo College (at 6500 Soquel Drive in Aptos) was just 9.1 driving miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance, and Cabrillo is definitely in the UCSC zone, but I have a feeling that this event was planned and then scuttled by whatever powers-that-be were able to do so. More's the pity. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to Comment or email me.

September 24, 1983 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville, CA: Grateful Dead
During this period, the Grateful Dead and Bill Graham Presents were experimenting with different venues around California. While the site was pleasant, and the afternoon weather was great as always, the facility lacked the parking to manage thousands of Deadheads arriving at once, and the venue was somewhat overwhelmed, in the genial pleasant way that Deadheads used to do such things. Still, the band played well, and that's what matters. Nonetheless, I do not recall this venue being used for a major act again, I think mainly due to the parking situation.

The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville (at 2601 East Lake Avenue) are about 21 miles from the entrance to the UCSC campus. As far as I know, this is as near as the Grateful Dead performed to UCSC, unless someone can make a clear-headed case for the Acid Test (good luck with that).

The Barn, Scotts Valley-no, sorry
Due to a 1999 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, there is a suggestion floating around the internet that the Grateful Dead played The Barn in Scotts Valley between 1966 and 1968. The Barn was Santa Cruz County's unique link to psychedelic culture, linked to the Pranksters and many other interesting people. Sad to say, fascinating as the history of The Barn actually is, the Grateful Dead never played there (for the record, the article says bands like the Dead, Quicksilver and Big Brother played there, but only the last two actually did).

Jerry Garcia and other Grateful Dead Members in Santa Cruz County
As Jerry Garcia increased his extra curricular activities outside of the Grateful Dead in the 1970s and 80s, he came to play Santa Cruz a few times. This coincided with the rise in Santa Cruz's population and economic profile, because of the University and its proximity to Silicon Valley. On a smaller scale, the same process occurred with other Grateful Dead members.

The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 307 Church Street, as it appeared in 2011

October 5, 1973 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Old And In The Way/Ramblin' Jack Elliott/Bruce Frye
Old And In The Way was a bluegrass band in which Jerry Garcia played banjo and sang. It was not "his" band, but he was so much more famous than the other musicians that Old And In The Way are remembered as Jerry Garcia's bluegrass band. This show was one of their last, and the other band members were Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Vassar Clements and John Kahn.

An old list compiled by Dennis McNally had a projected show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on Friday, October 5. The band was also scheduled to play outdoors at Sonoma State College in Humboldt two days later (Oct 7). The Sonoma show was canceled, due to bad weather, but a show in San Francisco at The Boarding House was held the night after (October 8), and recorded for the band's groundbreaking 1975 album.  For various reasons the Civic show had dropped on and off various lists; I know the whole story, but its very wonky and boring to explain the whole thing, so I'm sparing everyone. However, you can now read the account of an eyewitness, who not only has a copy of the flyer,  but recalls that the show was broadcast on KUSP-fm .

The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at, 307 Church Street, is an excellent Art Deco style building that was completed in 1940. As Santa Cruz rose in importance, more and more performers started using the friendly little 2,000 capacity hall for warm up shows, or shows on off nights. Garcia played the venue several times in later years. The Civic is just 2.1  miles to the UCSC Campus Entrance, and that is as close as Garcia got to performing on the UCSC campus.

February 16, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Kingfish
Margarita's was a new rock club in Santa Cruz, which was starting to show signs of growth from the University and the early impact of Silicon Valley. Margarita's was at 1685 Commercial Way, near Highway 1, where Soquel Drive turns into Soquel Avenue, near where Moe's Alley is today. Margarita's was about 5.7 miles from the entrance to UCSC. Bob Weir and Kingfish opened the club in a low-key fashion on a Sunday night. 

February 21, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Good Ole Boys
This show had been a mystery for many years. David Nelson and Frank Wakefield had a bluegrass group, and Garcia produced their album (Pistol Packin Mama).  I learned about this date from Dennis McNally's list, but it seemed an oddity, and I doubted its provenance. However, a fellow blogger not only recalled Margarita's, he attended the show and describes it in some detail.

For this show, the Good Ole Boys were a quartet, with David Nelson on guitar, Frank Wakefield on mandolin, Garcia on banjo and Pat Campbell on bass. Garcia sang no lead vocals. There was a sparse crowd.  In 1975, while Garcia and the Dead were extremely popular in Santa Cruz, the city itself was still far enough from the Bay Area mainstream that Garcia could play a stealth gig without the club being swarmed.

March 7, 1975 Crown College Dining Commons, UCSC, Santa Cruz: Kingfish
I recently learned that the first performance of an active member of the Grateful Dead on the UCSC campus was Bob Weir and Kingfish performing at the Crown College Dining Commons on March 7, 1975. My source is a sure thing--he booked the show--and he promises to Reveal All, so I will link to the revelations when they appear.

A long lost poster for Keith & Donna & Friends at Kresge Town Hall, Kresge College, University of California at Santa Cruz, on May 11, 1975. (scan courtesy of JGBP; recconstruction thanks to JGMF)

May 11, 1975, Kresge Town Hall, UCSC, Santa Cruz: Keith and Donna and Friends/Eric Andersen
Another recent discovery was an early performance by Keith and Donna Godchaux's band at Kresge College a few months after Kingfish's appearance at Crown. This was an early lineup of the Keith and Donna band, with Tom Donlinger on drums instead of Bill Kreutzmann. Folk-rocker Eric Andersen was Bob Weir's neighbor, which is how he came to write some lyrics for "Weather Report."

I have written about the implications of this booking elsewhere. In any case, following on the Kingfish appearance, Keith and Donna were the other active members of the Dead to play on the UC Santa Cruz campus itself.

June 7, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz, CA: Kingfish

An ad for Keith and Donna at Margarita's (h/t CryptDev)

June 20-21, 1975, Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Keith and Donna
Bill Kreutzmann had joined the Keith And Donna band by this time.

The poster for the Jerry Garcia Band shows at the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz on October 8, 1975

October 8, 1975 Del Mar Theatre, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins
The Del Mar Theatre is at 1124 Pacific Avenue. The theater opened on August 14, 1936. By the 1970s the theater was not in great shape, and the operators started filling out weekends with rock shows. Quite a few good shows were held there in the 1970s. The theater probably seated about 900.

This was one of the earliest shows by the newly organized Jerry Garcia Band, with the great pianist Nicky Hopkins joining stalwart bassist John Kahn and drummer Ron Tutt. Tutt also drummed for Elvis Presley, and the Garcia Band's touring schedule was limited to dates when Elvis Presley and The Grateful Dead were not performing. Due to the small size of the venue, the group played both early and late shows without an opening act.

The Jerry Garcia Band played the Del Mar Theatre twice more before it became a multiplex in 1978. The venue (still a movie theater, now refurbished), is 2.3 miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance.

The Del Mar Theater on 1124 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, as it appeared in 2011

February 26, 1976 Del Mar Theatre, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
Grateful Dead pianist Keith Godchaux had replaced Hopkins, and his wife Donna had joined as vocalist.

Spring 1976, New Riverside Szechuan Restuarant, Santa Cruz: Robert Hunter and Roadhog
The New Riverside, opened in the early 70s,  introduced Szechuan cuisine to Santa Cruz. It was on the site of the Riverside hotel at 600 Riverside Avenue. There were sometimes performances in the "Back Room," and an eyewitness recalls a three-set show by Robert Hunter and Roadhog, including Hunter dancing on a table.

(Santa Cruz artist Jim Phillips's poster for the Del Mar August 19, 1976 shows)

August 19, 1976 Del Mar Theater, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
Link Wray apparently opened one of the Del Mar shows, but I'm not sure which one.

December 16-17, 1977 Crossroads Inn, Santa Cruz: Robert Hunter and Comfort
The Crossroads Inn was at the Old Sash Mill complex, the site of a long ago sawmill at 303 Potrero. The Old Sash Mill was at the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 1 (River and Mission for you locals), hence the name 'Crossroads.' I don't know exactly when it opened or closed, but I do know that Neil Young's mystery band The Ducks played there during this period. To some extent, the Crossorads may have tried to pick up the slack caused by the disappearance of Margarita's as a venue.

I don't know which building in the Old Sash Mill the Crossroads may have been in. Anyone researching this critical issue is advised to stop in to the excellent Storrs Winery Tasting Room in the same complex. The Old Sash Mill is about 2.5 miles from the entrance to the UCSC campus.

Robert Hunter and the band Comfort were in the process of recording an album that was never released. They were an excellent live band with excellent original material, and its a shame the wide world never got a better look at them.

February 19, 1978 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort
Parts of this concert were recently released as part of the archival live cd Jerry Garcia Band: Bay Area 1978 on Grateful Dead Records.  Robert Hunter and Comfort opened the show.

The Catalyst, at 1011 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, as it appeared in 2011

March 30-31, 1979 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Reconstruction
Reconstruction was Jerry Garcia's jazz-funk excursion with Merl Saunders. From 1979 onwards, Jerry Garcia regularly played a circuit of larger Bay Area nightclubs, and The Catalyst in Santa Cruz became a regular stop. The Catalyst had opened somewhat earlier, as a coffee shop in the St. George Hotel at 833 Front, but it didn't start booking rock bands until it moved down the street in late 1978 to a converted bowling alley. The Catalyst, at 1011 Pacific Avenue, was the site of many fine Garcia shows for the next decade.  The Catalyst is 2.3 miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance.

Jerry Garcia played Santa Cruz 13 more times. For complete notes, see The Jerry Site.

May 27, 1979 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Reconstruction
February 7, 1980 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 18, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 29, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
April 21, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
June 25, 1981 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band with Phil Lesh
February 2-3, 1982 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
October 13, 1982 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 18, 1983 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
March 5, 1983 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
October 16, 1985 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn (early and late shows)
February 24, 1987 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band

Appendix: Other Performances
September 18, 1980 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Bobby And The Midnites
Bob Weir and Bobby and The Midnites made their Bay Area debut at the Catalyst on September 18, 1980. I have written about that run of shows elsewhere, as well as about the history of Bobby And The Midnites. Bobby And The Midnites also played the Catalyst on August 10, 1983 and August 11, 1984.

May 20, 1983 Dining Commons, Porter College, UCSC: The Dinosaurs
From 1982 through 1984, Robert Hunter was a member of The Dinosaurs. Other members of the band were John Cipollina (ex-Quicksilver), Barry "The Fish" Melton, Peter Albin (ex- and future Big Brother) and Spencer Dryden (ex-Airplane, ex-NRPS). Without trying, the group sounded like an old San Francisco psychedelic band, because that was who they were. Hunter was with the group when they played the Dining Commons at Porter College (College V for old-time Banana Slugs) on the UCSC Campus. There may have been a poster for this event. (Hunter and The Dinosaurs also played three shows at The Catalyst: Oct 14 '83, Feb 4 '84 and May 26 '84).

Jefferson Airplane Footnote
The Jefferson Airplane don't have an archive, to my knowledge, and it wouldn't be as interesting as the Grateful Dead's in any case. Nonetheless, just in case, the Jefferson Airplane played the UCSC "Spring Thing" dance two years in a row: first at the Cocoanut Grove on May 14, 1966, and then on May 11, 1967 at the  Cowell-Stevenson dining hall, right before a show at the Civic.


View Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in Santa Cruz in a larger map

January 9-10, 1976: Sophie's, Palo Alto, CA: The Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker

James Booker's 1976 album Junco Partner, released on producer Joe Boyd's Hannibal label

Diligent scholars of Jerry Garcia know that Jerry Garcia, John Kahn and Ron Tutt played two shows at Sophie's in Palo Alto with keyboardist James Booker on January 9 and 10, 1976. Tapes endure of both shows, along with rehearsal at Club Front two days earlier. The music on the tapes is ragged, and James Booker is fairly obscure, so most Deadheads have paid little attention to the shows. However, I have reflected for some time on the fact that the two Palo Alto shows with Booker were between Nicky Hopkins' departure from the Jerry Garcia Band and the beginning of Keith and Donna Godchaux's tenure with the band. Having heard and learned a little more about James Booker, I now think the brief experiment with Booker was a critical turning point in Garcia's solo career.

Booker was a certifiable musical genius, one of the few keyboard players who could transcend the great Nicky Hopkins, and so he would have seemed to be an ideal replacement. Yet after a brief fling with Booker, Garcia and Kahn took the prudent road with the talented but safe Keith Godchaux on piano, and the path for the Garcia Band was set for the next two decades. The reasons were probably as much commercial as musical, but the two shows with James Booker illustrate the ways in which Jerry Garcia's professional priorities had evolved by 1976.

The Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins, 1975
The Grateful Dead had stopped touring in October of 1974, and Jerry Garcia immediately stepped up his performances with Merl Saunders. By the end of 1974, Garcia and Saunders were performing under the name Legion Of Mary, along with John Kahn, drummer Ron Tutt and saxophonist Martin Fierro. This appears to have been no casual arrangement--whenever Tutt was not available, and a different drummer sat in, the ensemble used the name 'Garcia-Saunders,' not Legion Of Mary. Nonetheless, by the middle of 1975, Garcia seemed to have wanted to move in a different direction, and stopped playing with Merl Saunders and Martin Fierro.

Garcia, Kahn and Tutt formed a band with legendary rock pianist Nicky Hopkins. Hopkins, due to ill health, had largely played sessions in London during the 60s rather than tour, and as a result had recorded with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks and numerous others. By the end of the 60s, Hopkins had set out on the road with the Jeff Beck Group, later touring with Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Rolling Stones as well. Music aside, one of the attractions of playing with Jerry Garcia for Hopkins and Tutt was that it would never be a full-time job, leaving them free for studio work and other touring opportunities (Tutt was Elvis's drummer).

By the middle of 1975, although the Grateful Dead were recording an album, they no longer had any income from touring. Furthermore, Garcia was driving the train on the Grateful Dead Movie, and that was an expensive project. Thus while Garcia was always anxious to perform live, he had a specific reason to maximize his concert revenue. Naming his group The Jerry Garcia Band was in contrast to his historic practices, but it seemed to be a prudent financial move. No doubt professionals like Kahn, Tutt and Hopkins recognized that naming the group after Garcia was a sound fiscal decision. Apparently, corporate papers exist which have the quartet as partners in the Jerry Garcia Band, an indicator that the band name was no casual choice.

The Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins, as they were billed, played what I believe to be a fairly lucrative Eastern and Midwestern tour in the Fall of 1975. As a sign of Garcia's seriousness, he broke from previous practices, and performed a few of his own well-known numbers (like "Friend Of The Devil" and "Sugaree") to anchor the shows for the more casual fans. Hopkins piano was a distinct change from the funky organ of Merl Saunders, and Hopkins allowed Garcia to introduce a wider variety of American musical styles, including classic 50s and 60s R&B, rock and New Orleans tunes.

However, as we all know, despite Hopkins' musical fluency, he was simply not equipped for the hard touring that Garcia, Kahn and Tutt were comfortable with. By the end of the year, the perpetually unstable Hopkins was erratic on stage, due to problems with various substances and his own poor health. Although the Garcia Band played out their scheduled dates with Hopkins through New Year's Eve, it is plain in retrospect that they must have been planning to replace Hopkins for some time. Hopkins had a lucrative session career, so if anything he would have actually made more money after being pushed aside. In any case, after a New Year's Eve show at Keystone Berkeley on December 31, 1975, Hopkins was out of the Jerry Garcia Band. It appears that his projected replacement was James Booker.

Who Was James Booker?
New Orleans is a city of music, and as such it is a city of legendary piano players. The list is long and stellar: Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) are just a few of the greater names amongst New Orleans pianists. James Booker (1939-1982), obscure though he is, ranks just as highly in the pantheon of New Orleans pianists as those names, at least amongst experts and his fellow musicians. His "career" is so strange that its a sign of his amazing talent that he is even known at all.

Booker was classically schooled in piano, played organ in the church, loved jazz and honky tonked at night, so even as a teenager he could play all styles brilliantly. He made his recording debut in 1954, at age 15, with a few singles. The music industry was very different in the 1950s, particularly in New Orleans. Records were just marketing devices to get musicians on the road, and the musicians themselves made little from recording, even if their record companies did. The young but prodigiously talented Booker became known as a player who could play in anybody's style, as well or better than the originals. Thus Booker recorded the piano parts for many classic sides by the likes of Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith and Lloyd Price, while those musicians were touring. Booker's role was well-known amongst New Orleans musicians, but of course obscure to the general public.

Thus many classic New Orleans players were best known for records on which James Booker had played. That isn't to say that the likes of Domino, Smith, Price and others didn't invent their own styles, which they certainly did. It's just that Booker was so talented he could embrace and enlarge any other pianist's work, and so in many ways Booker embodied the New Orleans rock and roll era. In the early 60s, Booker started to tour a little bit, including some steady touring with Roy Hamilton, most famous for the hit "Don't Let Go." However, various problems got the better of Booker, and he ended up in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.

You know the lyrics to "Viola Lee Blues," when Jerry, Phil and Bob sing "some got six months/some got one solid year"? When James Booker does his 'theme song' "Junco Partner," about Angola Prison, and sings "six months ain't no sentence/one year ain't no time," it's a different thing entirely. Booker did time in Angola, and he knew those guys "doing 99." Booker got out of Angola in 1970, much the worse for wear, and music had moved away from New Orleans. Booker struggled along, mostly living with his mother and having various brushes with the law. He had become an underground legend amongst musicians and record collectors, but most thought he was still in jail or dead.

Booker began to surface in the early 70s.  With some of his problems under control, Booker started to play some sessions and gigs, and musicians absolutely raved about him. In late 1975, legendary producer Joe Boyd (of Fairport Convention fame) heard him at a session and asked if he knew "Junco Partner." Booker's ad hoc performance was so impressive that Boyd and his engineer signed him on the spot, and Booker recorded his first album in February 1976. It was Booker's first true album, as far as I know, and his first recording under his own name in about 15 years. The Junco Partner album was released on Boyd's Hannibal label late in 1976, and it's a remarkable record. Booker plays piano, organ and sings, he puts out so much music that he needs no other band members.

How Booker actually ended up playing with Jerry Garcia is anyone's guess, but I think Ron Tutt was the likely culprit. Booker was playing sessions of various sorts in the South, and Tutt was well connected in Memphis and Dallas, so he must have heard the legends from other musicians, since Boyd had not yet recorded the album. Booker had apparently recorded in Los Angeles with Dr. John's band in Los Angeles in 1973, and Tutt may have heard about that. Hopkins had been a brilliant musician who could improvise across a broad palette of American piano styles, but Booker was a guy who had helped invent those styles. Since the Jerry Garcia Band didn't rehearse much and was not really a full time engagement, the attraction of an underground legend must have been too much to resist. Since Booker's rehearsal was on January 7, 1976, and he must have had to fly out to California, his arrival had to have been planned well  before the last show with Hopkins.

The Hayward Daily Review listing for Sophie's in Palo Alto, on 260 S. Calfornia Avenue, from Dec 26, 1975. The Garcia Brothers were a local blues/rock band, and featured neither Tiff nor Jerry

Sophie's, 260 S. California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA
Sophie's was a former Purity Supermarket in Palo Alto's "old" downtown. Prior to Stanford University, California Avenue was the main street of the town of Mayfield, notorious for its saloons. When Leland Stanford purchased the land for the University, he offered to let Mayfield become the 'college town' on the condition it close its saloons. The town refused, and Stanford and his partner Timothy Hopkins purchased a large tract of land just North of Mayfield, and the saloon-less town of Palo Alto was born in 1892. When Prohibition came, Mayfield had little choice but to merge with Palo Alto, but there was always a little bit of rivalry between the two parts of town.

In 1975, there were still no bars in downtown Palo Alto--the ghost of Leland Stanford would have been proud--so it's not surprising that the new club was in the former Mayfield area. Sophie's opened in late 1975. I have never found out who owned or operated the club. In 1975, Palo Alto was still just a college town suburb, well-to-do perhaps, but not wealthy. Silicon Valley had begun sprouting, but while the seeds of Apple Computer and the like were forming, at the time neither Palo Alto nor the South Bay was exceptionally expensive. As a result, Sophie's was used by Jerry Garcia and others as a club where he could try out a new band lineup quietly. The first booked gig with Hopkins was scheduled at Sophie's (September 18, 1975), though I'm not certain it was played.

In any case, The Jerry Garcia Band played a few shows at Sophie's in 1975 and '76, and then it was sold to Freddie Herrera and Bobby Corona, and it became The Keystone Palo Alto. The reign of Keystone Palo Alto (1977-86) was during the period when Palo Alto and Silicon Valley were booming. Entertainment in the South Bay started to become big business, and Palo Alto was harder to use for trying out new bands. The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, further South, took over the role of the out-of-town club that had been filled by Sophie's. In early 1976, however, Garcia could try out a new band lineup very discreetly. I do not know how the January 9-10 shows were booked, whether they were billed as the Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker, or James Booker with Jerry Garcia and Friends, or anything else. I know of no reviews of the shows nor eyewitness accounts, but fortunately we do have tapes of the rehearsal and both shows, and they are very revealing.

The Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker, January 9-10, 1976
Although extremely ragged, the Garcia/Booker shows are fascinating in light of the period of transition that they established for the Garcia Band. It goes without saying that the band was under-rehearsed, but Garcia himself  would probably not have seen that as a negative. More interestingly, Booker and Garcia share the lead vocal duties equally. Had this lineup been an ongoing proposition, it would have been a real band, regardless of Jerry Garcia's name on the marquee. While there are a couple of Garcia standards, his songs seem to be chosen to capitalize on Booker's musical strengths. Songs like "Tore Up Over You," "All By Myself" and "Let It Rock" seem well chosen for a band with a New Orleans piano legend.

The problem with Booker and the Garcia Band, ironically enough, is that Booker simply dominates the sound. Booker's left hand is so powerful that there is hardly room for Kahn, and his right hand is golden, so Garcia has a difficult time finding space to play. Booker had probably been playing by himself for so long that he had stopped leaving room for other musicians, but it's very rare that a piano player can simply step all over both Jerry Garcia and John Kahn. Now, granted, the music is very ragged, but the sound simply comes pouring out of Booker's piano. Booker plays fine organ, too, although in a style very far from Merl Saunders. On organ, Booker sounds like Art Neville of the Funky Meters. This isn't surprising, since Booker had ghosted for Neville on many of his early 60s singles while Art was on the road.

Fascinating as the sound of Booker and the Garcia might have been, however, there's no way to get around the fact that the ensemble doesn't work. Garcia ends up backing up James Booker on most numbers, and Booker kind of dominates Garcia even when Garcia is leading the song. According to Joe Boyd's liner notes for Junco Partner, while Booker was a very nice man, he was extremely erratic and hard to work with, and after the Hopkins experience, I think Garcia and Kahn decided that they had had enough of geniuses. Thus it seems that Garcia, Kahn and Tutt had toyed with replacing the legendary Nicky Hopkins with an even greater legend, who might arguably have been a better player, but Booker's instability would have been trying and financially unsound. Thus, after the quiet Sophie's gigs, Keith and Donna Godchaux joined the Jerry Garcia Band, debuting at the Keystone Berkeley on January 26, 1976.

Aftermath
James Booker recorded his Junco Partner album with Joe Boyd in February of 1976. It was released in November of that year. It's a remarkable album, because Booker simply does not need a band, even a great one. Booker made one more album, and was on a few recordings, but he couldn't get past his many problems and he died in 1982. However, thanks to Boyd, Booker's legend rose to the surface and there is recorded evidence of his talent, so his legacy was resurrected, as it should be. However, almost all accounts of Booker's history leave out the flirtation with Garcia. I wouldn't be surprised if the well-connected Boyd had had a hand in connecting Booker with Garcia as well, but it's a peculiar episode in Garcia's history that deserves greater reflection.

Garcia and Kahn turned to Keith and Donna Godchaux. I can recall being in the dorms in Berkeley back in Jnauary 1976, when the Jerry Garcia Band was booked at Keystone Berkeley, and my friends with fake IDs attended the show. The shows were barely advertised, and in fact I think we only knew about them from seeing it on the marquee. We knew nothing about the Booker shows, and there was never any mention of the Garcia Band in the press, so until Keith and Donna walked on stage with Garcia, they had no idea who was going to fill the keyboard chair. Although the 1976-78 Jerry Garcia Band made some fine music, many Deadheads, myself included, found it frustrating that Keith Godchaux was the piano player for both the Dead and the JGB. He could handle both chairs, but it meant that Garcia's range of musical canvases was going to be shrunk.

I think Garcia wanted stability in the Jerry Garcia Band, and stability that made economic sense as well. Garcia and Kahn had tried genius twice, with Hopkins and Booker, and they seemed to have given in to reality and chosen reliability. As a fan, I wished even at the time that he had chosen a reliable pro who wasn't in the Dead, just for variety--Mark Naftalin, Bill Payne and Larry Knechtel all come to mind--but Garcia needed an easier road in order to keep all his many balls safely in the air. It's telling also that Keith could play in a very jazzy style, as he had the previous year when Garcia sat in with Keith and Donna, playing 20 minute jazz songs and the like. Now, Keith and Donna were playing in a more New Orleans/Honky Tonk style that had been laid out by Hopkins and Booker, which Godchaux handled reliably.

One other overlooked attraction of the Godchauxs to Garcia was actually Donna Godchaux. We tend to dismiss her, it being a boys club and all, but in fact from 1976 onwards Garcia had female vocalists in the band the majority of the time. Donna's vocals added a lot to the sound of the Garcia Band, allowing Jerry to take on certain numbers that wouldn't have worked as well with him as the sole vocalist. So it may be that Garcia was looking to get Donna into the band as much as Keith, but in any case after two strikes at genius, Garcia seemed interested in swinging at a safer pitch. The two-date James Booker experiment remains as a curiously forgotten fork in the Jerry Garcia Band, a final ride down the Genius Highway before a U-Turn back towards more conventional territory.

David Nelson And The New Delhi River Band, January-June 1967 (David Nelson III)

A poster for The Loading Zone and The New Delhi River Band at Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley Campus on Friday, March 3, 1967

The New Delhi River Band were founded in Palo Alto, CA in the Summer of 1966. They were one of the first psychedelic blues bands formed in the South Bay--though of course not the very first--, and they had a significant following in the South Bay underground. The group is usually remembered today, if at all, for being the first rock band for future New Riders of The Purple Sage David Nelson and Dave Torbert. Since the band never released any recordings, however, and the venues where they thrived are lost in the mists of time, the New Delhi River Band is just a ghost.

Despite substantial efforts by the group in 1967, The New Delhi River Band never succeeded outside of their South Bay turf, and the members moved on to other pursuits. My research seems to suggest, however, that they were an interesting and popular band in the little universe of the South Bay underground in 1966 and 1967, and their story makes a great case study on how regional bands help shape scenes while getting left behind themselves—the story of The New Delhi River Band stands for the tale of every cool local long haired band in 1966 and 1967 who never got big past the County Line, living on as a fond, hazy memory of their fans.

David Nelson was one of Jerry Garcia's best friends, and Nelson's career presents an interesting counterpoints to Garcia's. The Grateful Dead were the South Bay's first psychedelic blues band, of course, and the New Delhi River Band's ups and downs shed light on different ways in which the Dead were both fortunate and special. By the time Nelson and Garcia reconnected in 1969 with the New Riders of The Purple Sage, Nelson had had his own odyssey, far less legendary than Garcia's but fascinating nonetheless. This post will be part of a series on the hitherto lost history of the New Delhi River Band.

In a 21st century interview for RD Records, drummer Chris Herold recalled

NDRB was a really fine band. Some very fond memories of the formative time. We were one of the first white blues bands, probably THE first in the Bay Area. We were Butterfield Blues Band fans and it showed in our music. We also drew from all the old greats Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters . . . the list goes on. The band members were: Sweet John Tomasi (vocals and harmonica), Peter Sultzbach (lead guitar), David Nelson (rhythm guitar), Dave Torbert (bass) and me [Chris Herold] on drums.”

David Nelson played a critical role in Jerry Garcia's career, both before the Grateful Dead and during their existence. After the New Delhi River Band ended in early 1968, Nelson re-appeared in Garcia's universe at the end of 1968, participating in the Aoxomoxoa sessions (although probably not appearing on the record). More importantly, Nelson, along with Garcia and John Dawson, was a founding member of the New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Garcia's first extra-curricular band. In subsequent decades, Nelson made all sorts of great music, with and without Garcia, and continues to do so in both the revitalized New Riders and the David Nelson Band.

This chronology would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of Ross Hannan, Chris Recker, the late Russell Towle, the Magic Theater and David Nelson. Anyone with additional information, insights, corrections or recovered memories (real or imagined) is urged to Comment or email me.

Recap: The Formation Of The New Delhi River Band
Part I of the New Delhi River Band story reviews how David Nelson was a bluegrass musician in Palo Alto, just like his friend Jerry Garcia. The arrival of the Beatles and LSD electrified the tiny community of bohemian musicians, and the hitherto acoustic Nelson started to get interested in plugging in. By mid-1966, Nelson and his Channing Avenue housemate Carl Moore had joined forces with a Los Altos band called Bethlehem Exit, and hatched the idea of The Outfit. The Outfit was intended to be a sort of permanent Trips Festival in sleepy little Palo Alto, with a venue, a band and a light show all called The Outfit. According to Nelson, there was only one show, a memorable mini-Acid Test in June 1966 graced by Neal Cassady himself, but the enterprise never got any further. The New Delhi River Band found a name, however, and started to play a few shows in the South Bay, opening for Them and The Doors.

In Part II, The New Delhi River Band found a home in the Fall of 1966 at The Barn in Scotts Valley, a tiny unincorporated community in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Barn, known as 'The Fillmore of The Mountains," was only open from mid-66 through mid-68, and indeed it was closed during much of that time as well. What little information is available on The Barn mostly comes from our site, and what is posted there is fairly outdated. By the Fall of 1966, the New Delhi River Band would become the "House Band" of The Barn, whatever exactly that meant. After The Barn closed, it disappeared without a trace. The fuzziest and warmest memories of The New Delhi River Band stem from those lucky enough to be part of that tiny scene, when the few long-haired bohemians and some younger aspirants gathered together every weekend in the mountains in one of the earliest Bay Area hippie hangouts beyond San Francisco and Berkeley.

The New Delhi River Band, Early 1967

Sweet John Tomasi-vocals, harmonica
Peter Sultzbach-lead guitar
David Nelson-guitar
Dave Torbert-bass
Chris Herold-drums

The New Delhi River Band had become a sort of "house band" at The Barn in Scotts Valley in the Fall of 1966. Since The Barn was the main hippie venue in the South Bay, and one of the few outside of San Francisco and Berkeley, being the main attraction at the joint seems to have given the NDRB a kind of underground buzz. The band started to play around the South Bay, headlining small events in places like San Jose. They also played some shows in Berkeley and the East Bay. In the East Bay, the New Delhi River Band followed a pattern that had been perfected by the likes of The Grateful Dead and Country Joe and The Fish: play some relatively high-profile outdoor shows for free, so that when you had a paying gig at some nightclub, your name might be known a little bit.

Not only did the New Delhi River Band have no recordings in early 1967, there wouldn't have been a radio station to play them in any case, as KMPX--fm did not start playing rock until the Spring of '67. Thus live concerts were the only way for an unknown band to get their name out, and free concerts were the perfect vehicle. What following the New Delhi River Band had in the East Bay seems to have come from playing for free.

I do not know if the New Delhi River Band had a manager, or were associated with any booking agency. I do know that they had a business card (which I have never seen) that said "We Jumps." Besides a reference to the lively blues and R&B that the band played, it was also apparently a reference to a 1957 album called The Wide, Weird, World Of Shorty Petterstein. The album was recorded by a unique character named  Henry Jacobs, who was a pioneer in field recording, tape manipulation, surround sound and light shows. Jacobs was a contemporary and friend of Ken Nordine of "Word Jazz" infamy. The Shorty Petterstein LP 

consisted largely of encounters between hipsters and unknowing squares. One interviewer asks about art to be told, "Art? He's been with the band about six months. Blows good piano." When the interviewer protests that pianos aren't blown, but played with the hands, Shorty returns the opaque reply, "Blow is like an instrument."

While the New Delhi River Band were basing their music on well-traveled musical traditions, they had put their own bohemian stamp on it. 

The New Delhi River Band Peformance History, January-June 1967
I assume that my list has only captured a modest portion of the New Delhi River Band's live performances in the first half of 1967. The group had a certain following in the South Bay, so must have played a fair number of shows on weekends. However, I have mostly only been able to uncover shows that have a surviving artifact, like a flyer or poster. My knowledge of NDRB East Bay shows is a little better, since the Berkeley scene was covered effectively by Ralph J. Gleason in the San Francisco Chronicle and also by the Berkeley Barb. However, I suspect I have a somewhat complete listing of East Bay NDRB shows and a fairly sketchy list of their South Bay shows, so the list as I have it now is not entirely representative.

By early 1967, most  of The New Delhi River Band had moved to an old house on Euclid Avenue in East Palo Alto, along with various other denizens of the Channing Avenue house, including Carl Moore and Russell Towle. Nelson lived in the house, and Dave Torbert and John Tomasi were around there pretty much, while the more staid Peter Sulzbach and Chris Herold only dropped by when needed. East Palo Alto was across Highway 101 from Palo Alto, and was unincorporated county land (and San Mateo County at that), relatively sleepy and poor compared to well-to-do Palo Alto proper. The band used the house as a rehearsal space, and they stayed there throughout '67.

With that caveat, here is my list of known performances by the New Delhi River Band from January to June 1967. Anyone with additional information, corrections, additions or recovered memories (real or imagined) is encourage to include them in the Comments.

An ad in the SF Oracle by artist Eve Miyasaki, advertising the January 1967 program for The Barn

January, 1967: The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: New Delhi River Band/Peter And His Group
For many years, I had thought that this poster was from June, 1967, and represented an effort to re-open The Barn after it had closed. However, poster artist Eve Miyasaki, then a Los Gatos high school student who was part of The Barn scene at the time, explained the situation more clearly

The above promo art announces the addition of two new nights, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The announcement was published in the San Francisco underground newspaper, "San Francisco Oracle", and was intended to coincide with the "Human Be-in" scheduled for January 14, 1967. From the beginning, the Barn had been open on Fridays and Saturdays only, except for special events. The date on the above flyer was not indicated because it was an change of scheduling beginning, Wednesday, January 18, 1967, ongoing after the date of publication in the Oracle. 

 Auditions were held [on Sundays] to book acts for the additional nights of Wednesday and Thursday.  This schedule change, began on January 18th, continued until the Barn closed down.

Miyasaki recalls that the New Delhi River Band played The Barn up to four nights a week in early 1967, unless they had a booking somewhere else. Peter And The Group, who were also local, played many dates there as well.

January 20-21, 1967:  The Barn, Scott’s Valley, CA: Country Joe and The Fish/New Delhi River Band
The Barn in Scotts Valley was still a going concern in early 1967. In fact, it was becoming increasingly popular and the tiny community of Scotts Valley, not yet a town, was trying to get the County Sheriff to shut down the venue. The New Delhi River Band were starting to play around the Bay Area, so they may not have been playing The Barn every Friday night, but they played there on at least some occasions in 1967.

It’s not clear from the poster whether each group played both nights or whether County Joe and The Fish played Friday (Jan 20) and NDRB played Saturday (Jan 21), or both played both nights. The four photos on the cover of Country Joe and The Fish’s first album (Electric Music For The Mind and Body) were taken at The Barn, probably on this weekend, with the Magic Theater light show in the background (two of the photos were reversed, however—no members of the group play left-handed). Country Joe and The Fish had just begun recording (and possibly finished recording) the album, which would be released around May.

My suspicion is that the New Delhi River Band just played Saturday January 21, and CJF played on the Friday, but that is just speculation on my part.

January? 1967, [somewhere in the San Jose area] The Seeds/New Delhi River Band
Chris Recker recalls seeing the New Delhi River Band opening for The Seeds "somewhere in the Santa Clara Valley." The Seeds had had a big hit with the song "Pushin' Too Hard." I know The Seeds played San Leandro and San Francisco on January 27 and 28, so I assume they played somewhere in the South Bay earlier in the week, or possibly the week before. 

The stage at Provo Park in Berkeley, as it appeared in August 2009

January 29, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band
This would have been a free daytime event, Provo Park (actually Consitution Park), in the center of downtown (on Allston and Grove) was a regular site for free concerts by mostly East Bay bands. Balmy California weather allowed free outdoor concerts in the Winter. At this time, East Bay groups like The Loading Zone were playing free concerts in town or on campus without any kind of permission, and somehow the New Delhi River Band seems to have gotten wind of it. The NDRB played for free many times in Berkeley, and eventually got a few paid bookings out of it.

February 4, 1967: Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA:  Rodger Collins Review/New Delhi River Band/The Anonymous Artists of America “Bill Hamilton Presents in a Light Opera”
The Continental Ballroom, at 1600 Martin Avenue in Santa Clara, is well-known, but rarely written about. It was a roller skating rink that doubled as a “teen” venue.  When the Fillmore scene rose to prominence, the Continental Ballroom (so re-named to sound like the Avalon or Fillmore) hosted many groups that played the Fillmore, including The Dead, Big Brother and The Doors.

Rodger Collins was an Oakland-based soul singer who had a modest local hit with a song called "She's Looking Good," released on Galaxy Records (an R&B subsidiary of Fantasy--Merl Saunders was on Galaxy as well at the time). The New Delhi River Band and the Anonymous Artists Of America (with Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, among other members) were regulars at The Barn. This odd pairing of a popular soul artist with some 'psychedelia' seems odd now, but in fact it was common at the Fillmore and The Avalon. Bill Hamilton was a South Bay promoter, and he must have known that NDRB and AAA had a certain amount of underground cachet associated with them.

The San Jose market, particularly at the Continental, was very much oriented towards suburban teenagers. The implication is that there was some interest amongst High School students in seeing some of the bands that played The Barn, but their parents were not necessarily willing to let them go over the hill to Scotts Valley.
 

A clip from Ralph Gleason's SF Chronicle column on February 3, 1967, mentioning the New Delhi River Band's appearance at the Fillmore on Sunday, February 5

February 5, 1967: Fillmore, San Francisco, CA: Delano Strike Benefit
Jefferson Airplane/Quicksilver Messenger Service/Country Joe and The Fish/New Delhi River Band/Loading Zone/Dino Valente
This was a Sunday night benefit for striking grape workers in Delano, CA.  The New Delhi River Band did not appear on the poster.  However, I am confident that they played, because of a reference from Faren Miller, a Berkeley teenager who kept a diary of every show she attended (to the delight of psychedelic prosopographers everywhere).

In early 1967, weekend shows at the Fillmore were well attended and featured high profile acts, by the standards of the underground scene at the time. Often, the bands "on the poster" played Friday and Saturday nights and then on Sunday afternoons. This left the Fillmore free on Sunday nights, and as a result there were often benefits held on Sunday evenings. Sometimes, the bands playing the night time benefits were the same ones playing the paying afternoon shows, which has lead to a lot of confusion. In early 1967, there were very few paying gigs for psychedelic bands outside of Friday and Saturday nights, so Sunday night was  good night for a benefit, since a lot of groups were available.

On the weekend of February 3-5, 1967, the Fillmore featured the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Dino Valente. At one point, there appears to have been a separate afternoon show and an evening benefit, but fhe bill for the Sunday afternoon and Sunday night shows on February 5, 1967 seems to have changed several times. As near as I can tell, the benefit and "paying" show were merged into one giant eight hour show (who might have gotten paid and who didn't remains a mystery). By Friday night (February 3), Ralph Gleason had noted it in his Chronicle column (above):

Sunday the Fillmore runs from 2pm to 10pm with the regular weekend cast of Dino Valente, the Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. In addition (as this is a benefit for the US Strike Committee), there'll be special lights by Head Lights and Dan Burns, costumes and appearances by the New Delhi River Band, Country Joe & The Fish, the Grateful Dead (if they're back from recording in L.A.) and others.

While there are a variety of confusing handbills to go along with Gleason's column, since Faren Miller attended the show and wrote out all the events with her usual attention to detail, we know that the New Delhi River Band played the Fillmore on Sunday, February 5, 1967, opening for the Airplane, Quicksilver and Country Joe and The Fish. I suspect The Loading Zone helped get them on the bill. We also know, thanks to Miller, that the Grateful Dead did not appear, although it's interesting to see that they were at least trying to get there.

The New Delhi River Band's appearance early in a marathon Fillmore show turned out to be the group's only Fillmore appearance, and in fact one of just a few San Francisco appearances of theirs that I could find. Despite the group's popularity in the South Bay, and some sort of traction in the East Bay, they could never break out from their own little enclave into the big city of San Francisco. The Grateful Dead before them had been an ambitious South Bay band who had made the jump, but the New Delhi River Band never made that leap.

As far as I can tell, despite the fact that David Nelson was one of Jerry Garcia's best friends, Garcia never saw the New Delhi River Band. Both the Dead and the NDRB were scrambling around playing,  mostly on weekends, and Garcia in particular would have had no time to hang out when the NDRB were playing. The fact that the February 5 Fillmore show was the New Delhi River Band's only Fillmore appearance was made doubly poignant by the Dead's inability to get back from LA, given the subsequent history of Garcia and Nelson.

Early 1967, Museum Of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA: The Magic Theater with The New Delhi River Band
In 1967, San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art was housed in part of the San Francisco Civic Center. The Magic Theater light show was invited to perform at the Museum. They invited the New Delhi River Band along to provide accompaniment.  I believe this was part of a series. Bill Ham, who did lights for the original Family Dog, did a show at SFMOMA with his ensemble Light Sound Dimension (including Vince Garauldi's rhythm section, Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums), on February 3, 1967. I'm assuming that the Magic Theater performed after that.

Eve Miyaski poster for the weekend of February 18-19, 1967

February 18, 1967: The Barn, Scott’s Valley, CA: New Delhi River Band/Peter and The Group
This show was on a Saturday night. It's hard to say how much the New Delhi River Band played The Barn during this period (by the way, The Spirits, who headlined Friday February 17, were a local group, not the Southern California group with Randy California).

February 25, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band/Motor
Once again, the New Delhi River Band played for free on a Saturday afternoon in downtown Berkeley. Note that they would have had to drive to Santa Clara for a show later that night.  David Nelson had a white 1962 Chevy station wagon at the time, which was used as one of the principal band vehicles.

February 25, 1967: Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA:  Electric Prunes/New Delhi River Band/Teddy & The Patches
The Electric Prunes were a Los Angeles group that had had a big hit with “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night.” Teddy & The Patches had had a local hit on KLIV-am in San Jose with the song "Suzy Creemchease." The fact that the unrecorded New Delhi River Band was sharing a bill with those two suggests that NDRB had a following as well. Also, it suggests to me that the New Delhi River Band had a certain amount of underground credibility that the two more successful bands lacked. That's not a knock on the bands--the Electric Prunes were really good--but in the 60s, mainstream success was often suspect. For the South Bay, at least, the New Delhi River Band seemed to stand for a hip local band who were outside the lines.

Ralph Gleason's Chronicle column from Friday, March 3, 1967

March 3, 1967: Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band
The poster for this is at the top of the post. The Loading Zone, and by extension, the New Delhi River Band, had been playing regularly for free, and now they were playing on campus as known entities. The Magic Theater did the lights for this event.

March 5, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band/The Motor
Once again, the bands played Provo Park on Sunday afternoon.

March 19, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band/Motor/Blue Cheer/Soul Purpose/Ulysses S. Crockett and The Afro-Blues Persuasion “The Reversal Of The Earth Human Be-In”
After the success of the Human Be-In in San Francisco on January 14, 1967, similar events were held all over the state and the country. Berkeley's "Be-In" was scheduled for Saturday, March 11, at Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills. However, that event was rained out, and the groups found themselves back downtown in Provo on a subsequent Sunday.

March 20, 1967 The Aud, Thatcher Nursey, Portola Valley, CA: New Delhi River Band
The March 23 Palo Alto Times had an article describing how a series of teen dances had been held at a place called "The Aud" at the Thatcher Nursery on Willowbrook Road. The police had broken up the most recent one on Easter Monday (March 20), the last of five held there. The organizers had no business permit. The article mentioned the NDRB, and how the concerts were modeled on the Fillmore, with five amplifiers.

March 31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: New Delhi River Band
The New Orleans House, on 1505 San Pablo in West Berkeley, was a new rock club that featured Bay Area rock bands playing original music. The club had been open for less than a year at the time. By this time, thanks to their Provo Park shows, the New Delhi River Band would have been at least somewhat known in the East Bay.

This flyer for the NDRB at the Continental Ballroom on April 1, 1967, comes from the book South Bay Flashback by William Guardino and Brian Conroy

April 1, 1967 Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA: New Delhi River Band/Teddy & His Patches/Art Collection/Un-Named House Band
[update 20250726] A new book on the South Bay rock scene [South Bay Flashback--William Guardino and Brian Conroy] has some unseen flyers. The New Delhi River Band headlined a Saturday night dance at the Continental in Santa Clara. Also on the bill were the Art Collection, a local band that nonetheless featured New Zealand pop singer Ray Columbus. 

April 8, 1967-closing of The Barn
The Barn, the base of operations for both The New Delhi River Band and the Magic Theater, had been in dire financial straits throughout the year. A fund-raising concert had been held at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, headlined by Charles Lloyd, but the event was not a success. The Santa Cruz County sheriff's department shut down The Barn as a performing venue on April 8. It was still used as a sort of clubhouse by local bands for another year, but there were no official performances after that point.

A poster from the Pythian Ballroom on April 8, 1967, featuring the New Delhi River Band and the Loading Zone, along with the Magic Theater light show, presenting a "Psychedelic Circus"

April 8, 1967: Pythian Ballroom, Portland, OR: New Delhi River Band/Loading Zone
[update] The Yellow Shark found this remarkable poster. It seems that the NDRB and the Magic Theater light show took a field trip north to Portland, along with their friends from Oakland, The Loading Zone. The show was billed as a "Psychedelic Circus," and there was definitely an Acid Test vibe to this event. The Pythian Ballroom was a real underground Portland place, at 918 SW Yawmill. I don't know anything about the hall or who might have been the organizers of the event.

April 10, 1967 Experimental Building, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA: New Delhi River Band/Magic Theater/Medway Forest Indians
A number of eyewitnesses recall this show, although none too clearly. This was on a Monday night. No one can precisely recall what the Experimental Building was. There were a lot of new buildings on the Stanford campus at the time, and some of them may have been underused. There may have been a similar event in Fall 1966, at the same location.

One member of The Magic Theater light show recalls a performance at what is now the Bechtel International Center, at 584 Capistrano Way, near the Tresidder Union. That building seems a likely candidate for the venue. The "Medway Forest Indians" were a sort of commune that lived on Medway Road in Woodside, above Skyline Drive. Whether or how they performed isn't clear.

Thanks to Paul J for contributing this amazing poster of the New Delhi River Band, Bogus Thunder and Weird Herald at the Balconades Ballroom in San Jose (at 181 W. Santa Clara) on April 12, 1967

April 12, 1967, Balconades Ballroom, San Jose, CA: New Delhi River Band/Bogus Thunder/Weird Herald
[update] The Balconades Ballroom had an interesting history.  The Balconades Ballroom was an old Ballroom in San Jose.  The Balconades was on an upper floor of The Lyndon Building (built 1882), at 181 W. Santa Clara St. After time as a printing press for a newspapers, it had been turned into a ballroom (probably in the 1920s). It had been part of a Country and Western circuit for performers like Hank Williams and Bob Wills, back when San Jose was an agricultural center and the biggest radio station (KEEN 1370 AM) played country music.

The remarkable poster up above, contributed by former Cupertino, CA resident Paul J, includes fine print that says that the Balconades will feature "Hard Rock" dances every Friday night, and jam sessions on Sunday afternoons. I wouldn't be surprised if Saturday nights still featured country music. April 12 was a Wednesday, and was probably intended as a sort of kick-off. Paul showed this poster to David Nelson, who recalled the event, but I don't think they lasted long. In early 1968, Quicksilver and Ace Of Cups (who shared management) played separate shows at the Balconades, but those too did not generate a long run of shows at the Balconades, either. 

The opening acts for New Delhi River Band at the Balconades were legendary in their own right. Bogus Thunder had been previously known as The Other Side, and were inextricably linked with the South Bay's finest, The Chocolate Watch Band. Weird Herald may have been the great lost band of the South Bay, and their story, and the sad tragedy of their guitarist Billy Dean Andrus is too dense to go into here. Suffice to say, this triple bill at the Balconades featured some true legends of South Bay psychedelia. 
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[update 2]Commenter Allen Hughes reports that this Balconades poster is from 1968, and that the NDRB did not play

Your piece on the Balconades Ballroom has the wrong year. It was in 1968, and my brother did that poster. I was part of Fair Sister Productions along with Brian Spillane and my brother Dennis Hughes. I believe NDRB was a no show that night, and Bogus Thunder carried the show.

This would make perfect sense, in fact. What few other rock shows I am aware of at the Balconades were in the first half of 1968. Since the New Delhi River Band had broken up by April of '68, it would make sense that they did not play the show. Still, it's a nice poster.

April 15, 1967 Golden Gate Park, Kezar Peace Fair
Part of the Angry Arts Week was a protest march that ended next to Kezar Stadium. Scheduled performers were Judy Collins, Malvina Reynolds, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Miller Blues Band, Country Joe & The Fish, New Delhi River Band, Nevelton Butler Afro-Cuban Band, L.A. Mittelshules Chorus and Ellen Faust, Judy Job Dancers, Children's Poetry and Art. (thanks to scholar runonguinness for finding a long-lost flyer on eBay)

Spring 1967, Highlands, Clear Lake, CA: New Delhi River Band/Magic Theater
The Magic Theater recalls doing the lights a show up in Clear Lake with the New Delhi River Band. Clear Lake was a resort area North of Sonoma County. Generally speaking, rock shows at Clear Lake were associated with Bill Quarry's TNT dances in Oakland and the East Bay (usually billed as "Highlands A-Go-Go"), so the booking was probably the result of the New Delhi River Band's East Bay connections. At this time, "teen" dances were seeming a bit staid, so it's not surprising that a band who could bring a light show might seem cooler in 1967 than the typical dance band.

April 30, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band/Motor/Mad River
Rescheduled from an April 23 show that was rained out. Mad River were newly arrived from Yellow Springs, OH.

Mudd featured musicians from Foothill College (from the Foothill Sentinel, May 12, 1967)

May 13, 1967: Campus Center, Foothill College, Los Altos, CA: New Delhi River Band/Mudd/Philadelphia Jazz Quintet
Foothill College was the Junior College for the Palo Alto/Los Altos area. Indeed, it was at Foothill College, one night in 1975, when I unexpectedly discovered the prior, lost existence of both the New Delhi River Band and The Barn. I was at the Foothill College radio station (KFJC-fm, 89.7, "The Fine 89"), and I saw the Pete Frame New Riders Family Tree. There at Foothill College, on Moody Road, I was less than a half an hour from the former site of The Barn, yet it was gone without a trace.

Foothill College actually had an interesting musical history. Among other things, the South Bay's finest group, the Chocolate Watch Band, had gotten their start there in 1965. This May performance was probably a student event, but its revealing that the New Delhi River Band got the call, since it suggests they must have had some sort of following.

According to Mathew Kelly in a 1977 interview (later an adjunct member of NDRB, and subsequent leader of the group Kingfish), the NDRB were getting as big in Palo Alto as the Dead were in San Francisco. This is probably a considerable exaggeration, but does indicate how the band had a genuine local following. Music scenes in the Bay Area and elsewhere were considerably more localized than they would become in the near future. 

A flyer for the San Jose Be-In on May 14, 1967. The New Delhi River Band supported Country Joe And The Fish

May 14, 1967  City Park, San Jose, CA San Jose Human Be-In
Country Joe and The Fish/New Delhi River Band/Sweet Smoke/Anonymous Artists Of America/Wakefield Loop/others
San Jose's iteration of the Human Be-In was held at a park at 10th and Alma, near the Fairgounds and Spartan Stadium. The park was across the street from the 1940-vintage San Jose Municipal Stadium, the current home of the San Jose Giants (Class A Advanced California League, and well worth a visit).  I have written about the event (and other San Jose outdoor shows) elsewhere.

Amazingly, the NDRB were mentioned in the Billboard Magazine edition of May 20, 1967. Emblematically, however, they were only listed in a brief article about unsigned bands. Other bands listed included The Hajibabs Band, Hangmen, Wry Catchers, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, The Orkustra, Loading Zone, Second Coming, Dusty Miller and Symphony, Bitter Seeds, Notes From The Underground and Motor.

clip from Ralph Gleason's May 19, 1967 Ad Lib section in the SF Chronicle

May 21, 1967 Willard Junior HS, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band/Haymarket Riot
At the time, there was a sort of grassroots effort to move the outdoor Provo Park scene indoors, and turn it into a paying gig. Bands played at a local Junior High not far from the park, but the shows never really caught on.

A poster for the May 27, 1967 New Delhi River Band show at San Jose City College

May 27, 1967: Men’s Gym, San Jose State College, San Jose, CA:  New Delhi River Band/Lincoln Zephyr/Ephemaral Metamorphosis/Magic Theater/The Dentist
This too was probably some sort of student sponsored event. The show was in the Men's Gym at San Jose City College. Admission is listed as free. Once again, the New Delhi River Band were headliners, albeit over some very obscure groups (if I call a Bay Area 60s group obscure, trust me, they're obscure).

May 30, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: New Delhi River Band/Motor/Purple Earthquake
This was a Tuesday afternoon show (1:00-7:00 pm), but the following day was Memorial Day.

Motor and Purple Earthquake were Berkeley bands. Purple Earthquake, whose members were still in high school at the time, evolved into the band Earthquake who released a number of albums in the early 1970s.

An LA Times shot of Lower Sproul Plaza (from June 4, 1967) shows the New Delhi River Band performing. The University liked free concerts in Lower Sproul, because they drowned out protests in the main (Upper) Sproul Plaza.

Late May/Early June 1967, Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: New Delhi River Band
After the tumult of the Free Speech Movement on Sproul Plaza in 1963-64, UC Berkeley decided to deal with it by building an addition to the plaza. Lower Sproul was next to the main, central plaza, and UC Berkeley made a point of putting on free rock concerts at noon, to interfere with any protests. This policy continued well into the 1980s, as I saw Merl Saunders, Elvin Bishop, the B-52s, the Talking Heads and many others on my way to class.

Way back when, this Los Angeles Times photo shows--rather distantly--the New Delhi River Band performing on Lower Sproul. The photo was published on June 4, 1967, so the show must have been earlier.

June 11, 1967: Mt. Tamalpais Theater, San Rafael, CA:  Fantasy Fair and Magic Music Festival-Benefit for Hunter’s Point Child Care Center
This was one of the first rock festivals, a two-day event originally scheduled for the weekend of June 3-4 and then re-scheduled for the next weekend due to rain. It was the week before the Monterey Pop Festival. A Commenter on a newspaper article commemorating the event mentions seeing the New Delhi River Band playing at a stage at the foot of the mountain.

The Mt. Tamalpais Theater had no parking, so fans had to park at the foot of the mountain and wait for shuttle buses. Various bands were booked to entertain fans coming and going as they waited for shuttle buses (or their parents), and the New Delhi River Band seemed to have been one of those bands playing the parking lot.

A poster advertising the opening weekend of The Yellow Brick Road teen club in Fremont, on June 16-17, 1967. The New Delhi River Band headlined the weekend.

June 16-17, 1967 Yellow Brick Road, Fremont, CA: New Delhi River Band/Wakefield Loop
The Yellow Brick Road was a newly opened “teen” venue in then-agricultural Fremont, somewhat modeled on The Barn. Interestingly, hip Fremont teenagers had mostly gone to The Barn rather than San Francisco, as it was actually nearer, and probably less implicitly threatening to their parents (if only they had known).

I have written about the fascinating story of The Yellow Brick Road elsewhere, and it is too hard to recap here. Suffice to say, the booking for The Yellow Brick Road was handled by one of the guitarists for The Wakefield Loop, and they made sure to book themselves for the opening of Fremont's hippest venue. This was the same weekend as the Monterey Pop Festival, but Fremont was still a largely agricultural community--believe it or not--and parents would not have let their kids go to Monterey for the weekend anyway.

A poster promoting the free concert in Fremont's Cental Park on Sunday, June 18, 1967, headlined by The New Delhi River Band, supported by local Fremont bands. Poster by Cheryl Williams.

June 18, 1967: Central Park, Fremont, CA “Banana At Noon” New Delhi River Band/Wakefield Loop/The Collective Minds/The London Colony/Of An Ugly Nature
Wakefield Loop guitarist and booker Denny Mahdik was determined to introduce the then largely agricultural city of Fremont to the Summer Of Love, on the same weekend as the Monterey Pop Festival. He arranged for the New Delhi River Band to headline a Be-In at Fremont's Central Park, supported by a number of local bands, mostly consisting of high school students. The city got cold feet, but Mahdik and his bandmates pushed on, and in the end the New Delhi River Band headlined a great afternoon for a few thousand teenagers, and Fremont did indeed join the 60s.

I have written about the "Banana At Noon" story at length elsewhere.

A clip from Ralph Gleason's Chronicle column of June 23, 1967

June 24 or 25, 1967: Folsom St and 7th St, San Francisco, CA: Big Brother and The Holding Company/Santana Blues Band/New Delhi River Band/Mad River/Mount Rushmore/Freudian Slips/many others  Synanon Street Fair
The Synanon Street Fair is worthy of a whole blog post on its own (albeit on another blog). It was the first free rock concert in San Francisco on a closed street, funded by a promoter who had various kinds of concessions such as food. It was the forerunner of the Haight Street Fair, and every other street fair with a band in San Francisco and another city. Synanon was a drug rehabilitation organization that used community events as part of their program.

The New Delhi River Band appears to have played at the Synanon fair, hoping to get some traction in San Francisco by playing for free.

A flyer for the fashion show at Palo Alto's Cabana Hyatt House on June 28, 1967, with music by the New Delhi River Ban

 June 28, 1967: Cabana Hyatt House, Palo Alto, CA: New Delhi River Band Cabana ’67 Presents “Who Is Miss Boutique”
This was a “hip” fashion show on Wednesday afternoon from 2-5pm, at Palo Alto’s finest hotel. The New Delhi River Band provided the music. This event was few days after The Palo Alto Be-in, which had featured both the Grateful Dead and Big Brother. 18 months earlier, the long-haired members of the NDRB would not have gotten a glance from the fashionable young women at this event, but now it was a different story. While the band members may not have been respectable, by mid-1967, long haired rock musicians had definite bad boy appeal that they had not had before.

June 30, 1967: The Bold Knight, Sunnyvale, CA: New Delhi River Band/Adi Plain
The Bold Knight was a “teen club”—no alcohol served—at 769 N. Matilda Ave.  Such establishments were rampant in San Jose and other suburbs, usually featuring local bands, until the Fillmore revolution passed them by. The Bold Knight was a particularly successful variant on this model. Two young promoters, Mike McCluney and Terry Nissinger, put on shows almost every Friday night in the banquet room of a local restaurant. Up to 1000 people would attend. With a lot of great bands, and a lot of teenagers with cars, the Bold Knight did a thriving business and put on some great shows from about 1966 to 1969. Dave Torbert and Chris Herold had been in the Good News, who had played The Bold Knight many times.

The flyer says “From San Francisco,” which wasn’t really true, but the New Delhi River Band had played the Fillmore, which counted for something in the suburbs. By the middle of 1967, The New Delhi River Band weren't really successful, but they were knocking on the door. The band had a genuine following in the South Bay, headlining small underground events on a regular basis. They had started to get a little traction in the East Bay as well, getting a few paid bookings after plenty of free shows. However, although they had played the Fillmore once, they hadn't made any inroads into San Francisco. Even though their original base of operations, The Barn in Scotts Valley, had closed, it seemed like success was just around the corner for The New Delhi River Band.

The final part of the New Delhi River Band story can be seen here