David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band, July 1967-February 1968 (David Nelson IV)

A flyer for the last known New Delhi River Band show, at Cowell College in UC Santa Cruz, on January 27, 1968 (submitted by people who attended)

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 counterpoint 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 First Year 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.

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.

The rock market was starting to explode in the Bay Area in 1967, but it was still a collection of local scenes, even if the Fillmore and the Avalon in San Francisco were biggest and most exciting of them. Thanks to constantly playing The Barn, the New Delhi River Band were a popular act in the South Bay. They were booked at a variety of local venues, sometimes as a headliner, and they were very much a leading 'underground' band on their home turf. However, the NDRB had a difficult time breaking out beyond Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. They regularly played free concerts in Berkeley, particularly at Provo Park, so they were somewhat known, but that had transferred into very few paying shows. By the end of June, 1967, the New Delhi River Band had played a benefit at the Fillmore and a free concert in The City as well, but they had no traction in San Francisco, the most lucrative of  the Bay Area scenes.

The New Delhi River Band, July 1967
Sweet John Tomasi-vocals, harmonica
Peter Sultzbach-lead guitar
David Nelson-guitar
Dave Torbert-bass
Chris Herold-drums

By July 1967, the New Delhi River Band had been performing for a year. As they were Palo Alto's second psychedelic blues band, it is worth considering their progress in relation to the first one. Let's take a snapshot of some of the differences and similarities between the Grateful Dead after their first year of existence (July 1966) and the New Delhi River Band after one year.

A Special Genesis: Acid Tests and The Barn
After six months of playing bars and teen dances, the Warlocks wormed their way into Ken Kesey's infamous Acid Tests. With the collaboration of one Owsley Stanley, the Grateful Dead were at least the musical center of an important cultural change, and they were infamous long before they recorded a note.

Although the New Delhi River Band's cultural impact was limited to two counties, they were part of some original bohemian happenings in Palo Alto (at The Outfit) and in Santa Cruz (at The Barn). The Barn was the hippest place in the South Bay at a time when hippies were few and far between, and public events weren't really possible without excessive police interference. The New Delhi River Band were the house band at The Barn, and with Ken Kesey's bus "Furthur" parked out back, they were pretty hip in their own little Universe.

Venues: A Base Of Operations
New bands, particularly new bands playing what at the time was not commercial music, will not endure if they cannot find a place to play. Before the Summer Of Love, almost every rock band that made an impact, even at the local level, had some places to play where they could do their thing and build an audience. Even if they didn't make a lot of money, they made enough to keep going. That is why legendary rock bands are so often associated with a foundational venue, as well: there wouldn't have been the Beatles without the Cavern Club, and vice-versa.

The Grateful Dead, of course, were regulars at The Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom throughout 1966. Along with many other bands, the Dead made their music and made a living, and along with a host of other bands, not only made San Francisco the capital of the music world, however briefly. The Fillmore and the Avalon defined the modern rock concert as we know it today, so an entire industry was established along with the bands that started it. As far as the Grateful Dead were concerned, without the Fillmore and Avalon, the band would not have made enough money to get by, as they were too far outside the mainstream to play what they wanted to play anywhere else.

In the Fall of 1966 and into 1967, the New Delhi River Band regularly played The Barn, and the group built a South Bay following and made enough to keep going. For about six months, The Barn was a self-sustaining operation for all concerned, and there would have been no New Delhi River Band without it. However, by the middle of 1967, the rock market had exploded, in a large part due to the Fillmore scene. The Barn closed due to pressure from its neighbors, and the New Delhi River Band lost their base. Although the NDRB were popular in the South Bay, more fans wanted to see the big Fillmore bands come to their town, rather than see their locals. Thus New Delhi River Band bookings became fewer and less lucrative, in part due to the increasing impact of Fillmore bands like the Dead.

Music: Jamming The Blues
From what we know of the New Delhi River Band's repertoire, they played straight ahead blues songs and some funky R&B songs like "Youngblood" and "Suzie Q." Memories are foggy, of course, but it seems like they had their own arrangements and didn't rush through the songs. The material that the New Delhi River Band were mining in mid-1967 was roughly from the same vein that the Grateful Dead were pulling from: music from black radio stations in the early 60s. The NDRB's business card said "We Jumps," so they were definitely trying to be fun to dance to, not just purists.

However, by mid-1966, at the end of their first year, the Grateful Dead were experimenting with numerous original songs. In fact, they had worked up a handful of original songs after their first six months, as we know from a November, 1965 demo tape.. In fact, only one original song from the Dead's first year survived even into 1967, namely "Caution: Do Not Stop On Tracks" and that was a sort of mutant version of Them's "Mystic Eyes." Nonetheless, the Dead were experimenting with songwriting from the very beginning. It took a while to get it right, not to mention the arrival of Robert Hunter, but the Dead were working on it from the beginning. In contrast, there's scant evidence that the New Delhi River Band had any original material beyond some instrumental jam-type numbers.

Management: Working The Phones
Early in their career, the Grateful Dead had found a patron in the notorious Owsley. Owsley thought big, really big, and he did things his own way. Garcia and Phil Lesh in particular were sympathetic to Owsley's self-directed vision of success, even if they did not individually subscribe to all his ideas. On a less dramatic scale, David Nelson's friend Carl Moore had tried to start a venue in Palo Alto called The Outfit, for which the proto-NDRB were to be the band. Although the venture only seems to have had one event in June, 1966, it put the New Delhi crew on a different path far earlier than their peers. Moore continued to be a useful influence throughout 1967.

However, after Owsley stepped aside from the Grateful Dead, fellow travelers Rock Scully and Danny Rifkin acted as managers. Rather than being "10-percenters" like the traditional Hollywood managers, Rock and Danny were part of the collective consciousness of the band. While the Dead rehearsed and played, Rock and Danny worked the phones, looking for the next booking. For a busy, ambitious band, whether hip or unhip, trusted managers who could focus on finding paying gigs was crucial for success.

According to David Nelson, however (via David Gans), the New Delhi River Band arranged and booked their own shows. That insured that no one ripped them off, but it also meant that all the band members were wearing multiple hats. To some extent, the paucity of NDRB bookings may have been partially due to the fact that they had no dedicated manager. In mid-1967, the New Delhi River Band had a name as a hip band around the Bay Area, even if not that many people had heard the band. A hustling manager could have worked the phones enough to find some gigs, and the musicians could have done enough by playing well. The New Delhi River Band had no such assistance, however, and so their world of contacts was limited.

Recordings
The Grateful Dead made their first studio recordings in November, 1965, before they were even the Grateful Dead. They had made a six-song demo for Tom Donahue's Autumn Records (the 'Emergency Crew' demo). Five of the six songs were original. In June of 1966, the Dead had recorded a single ("Don't Ease Me In"/"Stealin'") at a San Francisco studio.

The New Delhi River Band had also recorded during their first year, some time in 1967, although the exact date remains uncertain. David Nelson told me (when I spoke to him after a New Riders show) that the band recorded 15 or 16 songs in 1967 in "some guy's garage in Berkeley." There was a garage studio in Berkeley, known--I think--as Reggie's Guerage, but I don't recall Reggie's full name. I know that Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, among others, recorded a demo in the same garage. I believe the Masked Marauders album was recorded there as well.

Nelson promised me that he never throws anything out, so we may yet be lucky enough to hear the New Delhi River Band, perhaps on some Grateful Dead Marathon on KPFA.  Still, from what little I can piece together, the NDRB were regarded as a fine live band without much in the way of original material. Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead got over the hump by engaging Robert Hunter as their in-house lyricist. Hunter had to return from a difficult situation in New Mexico to join up with the Dead, but he had contacted Carl Moore who sent him a little money to get him home.

Ironically enough, an eyewitness recalls a much-worse-for-wear Hunter sleeping on the couch at the New Delhi River Band house on Euclid Avenue, waiting for the Dead to fetch him. Legend has it that Phil Lesh drove to Palo Alto (technically, East Palo Alto) to pick up Hunter and return back to Rio Nido, where Hunter wrote "Dark Star" shortly afterwards. I have to wonder: while Hunter was hanging out with his old pal Nelson, did either of them consider the idea that Hunter could have written songs for the New Delhi River Band as well? It would not have inherently interfered with the Dead's plans, and the history of the New Delhi River Band would have been very different indeed.

New Delhi River Band Performance History, July 1967-February 1968
Despite my diligence, I have only been able to uncover a smattering of performance dates by the New Delhi River Band in their final 7 months. I feel confident that there were quite a few more, but I have not yet been able to find them. Anyone with any additional information or recovered memories (real or imagined) is encouraged to Comment or email me.

July 2, 1967 El Camino Park, Palo Alto, CA: Grateful Dead/New Delhi River Band/Anonymous Artists Of America/Solid State/The Good Word/others Mary Poppins Umbrella Festival and Be-In
The Grateful Dead headlined a Be-In in Palo Alto, and the NDRB were one of many other bands at the event. I have covered this unique moment in Palo Alto history elsewhere.

July 9, 1967: The Steppenwolf, Berkeley, CA: County Joe and The Fish/Loading Zone/New Delhi River Band/Notes From The Underground
The Steppenwolf was a folk club at 2136 San Pablo Avenue. This was probably a benefit, as Country Joe and The Fish had long since graduated to being a Fillmore headliner, and either Loading Zone or Notes From The Underground (both East Bay groups) could have topped the bill at the modest club on their own. Once again, the New Delhi River Band was playing Berkeley effectively for free. Plenty of Berkeley rock fans had heard them, but the band hadn't really made any money out of it.

July 15 and 16, 1967:  Devonshire Meadows Raceway, Cal State Northridge, Northridge, CA  Fantasy Fayre and Magic Music Festival
Saturday, July 15 running order (10:00am-8:00pm): Second Coming/Kaleidoscope/Whirling Dervishes/Doors/Solid State/Iron Butterfly/Grass Roots/New Delhi River Band/Thorinshield/Kaliedoscope/Solid State/The Factory/[unknown]/The Groupies
Sunday, July 16 running order (10:00am-8:00pm): Solid Sate/Humane Society/Sunshine Company/Butterfield Blues Band/Country Joe And The Fish/Heather Stones/New Delhi River Band/ Jefferson Airplane/Thorinshield/Sunshine Company/Merry Go Round/Canned Heat/Solid State
To my knowledge, the New Delhi River Band only made two road trips outside of the Bay Area. One of them was to Southern California, for the "Fantasy Fayre" at Devonshire Meadows. There had been a similarly named event in Northern California the month before, on Mt. Tamalpais (June 10-11, 1967) and the NDRB had played in the parking lot. I assume there was a connection between the two events. Presumably the NDRB had played well enough to get added to the Southern California shows.

Some major bands headlined the festival. The actual acts who played were different than who was booked, as The Mothers Of Invention, among others, were advertised but did not play. However, the running order is known from a photograph at the festival grounds. The New Delhi River Band played both days. On Saturday (July 15), they were booked at 4:45, after The Grass Roots and before Thorinshield. On Sunday (July 16), the NDRB were booked at 2:30pm, after Heather Stones and just before the Jefferson Airplane. All acts, including the big names, were scheduled 45 minutes apart, so sets would have been short. Who actually played, and for how long, remains somewhat obscure.

Summer 1967: [unknown venue], Vancouver, BC: New Delhi River Band
David Nelson told David Gans that the New Delhi River Band made their longest road trip in the Summer of '67, in Nelson's '62 Chevy station wagon. All five band members plus John Tomasi's girlfriend made the trip. I know quite a lot about the booming 60s Vancouver rock scene, but I haven't yet found a trace of the New Delhi River Band. However, there was a lot of Bay Area bands that got booked in Vancouver, particularly from Berkeley, so it's not at all surprising that a locally popular but unsigned Bay Area band played around Vancouver.

Nelson recalled that they went to "Queen Elizabeth Island in Vancouver, " which can't be quite right. The actual Queen Elizabeth Islands are much farther North. However, there are numerous parks and buildings in Canada named after English royalty, for obvious reasons, and there are also islands and promontories in Vancouver, so I am assuming that Nelson's memory is about 2/3 correct, I'm just not sure which third is muddled (Update: a fellow traveler surfaced, and he recalled that the main venue couldn't find the money to pay the band, so they didn't play the gig. However, the group did play University of British of Columbia and Simon Fraser University, presumably at some casual student dances).

While I don't have any date for the Vancouver expedition, the entire adventure must have taken at least a week, so the late July/early August period provides a good window. One thing to note was that if the trip took a week or more, since the band were booking themselves, they could not have made many phone calls on their own behalf to book shows while on the road. Thus, a few weeks after they returned, they would have found their calendar fairly empty. This illustrates one of the pitfalls of bands who booked themselves, particularly back in the 1960s. Even if they completed a phone call, how would they leave a callback number? Its not a surprise to see the New Delhi River Band's gig sheet thinning out as the Summer of 1967 ended.

July 21, 1967 Cafeteria, Berkeley High School, Berkeley, CA: New Delhi River Band/Anonymous Artists of America
The July 13, 1967 SF Chronicle reported this Friday night show as the first in a series of folk-rock dances. I don't know if others were held. There was an idea to move the Provo Park scene indoors, but it never really got traction (thanks JGMF for this).

Palo Alto Times, July 20, 1967

July 22, 1967 Burgess Recreation Center, Menlo Park, CA: New Delhi River Band (Saturday)
The Menlo Park Teen Club put on a Saturday night dance at the local park. The Rec Center was a small indoor building. Presumably The Magic Theater provided the light show (thanks Ross for finding this one).
 

A poster for the New Delhi River Band show at Azteca Hall in San Jose on August 25, 1967

August 25, 1967: Azteca Hall, San Jose, CA:  New Delhi River Band/Weird Herald/Ohms Band/Warriors of The Rainbow
Azteca Hall was at E. San Antonio and S. 24th St, not far from where Highway 101 meets Interstate 280 today. I don't know anything else about it, but it probably wasn't too big. This sort of show was where the New Delhi River Band had a following. The NDRB were a known quantity in the tiny South Bay underground, so they could headline a concert in San Jose, albeit a modest one.

Weird Herald were a legendary San Jose band that featured guitarists Billy Dean Andrus and Paul Ziegler, along with bassist Cecil Bollinger and drummer Pat McIntyre. Both Andrus and Ziegler were old friends of Jorma Kaukonen’s from his South Bay folkie days.  Ziegler was briefly in the electric Hot Tuna around 1970.  Andrus was a true South Bay legend, and when he died unexpectedly in November 1970 it upset all his friends greatly: Jorma wrote "Ode For Billy Dean," and another old friend, Pat Simmons of The Doobie Brothers, wrote "Black Water" for and about him. Weird Herald only released one obscure single, but they did record an unreleased album, and having heard a few tracks I can assure you their legendary reputation had some basis in fact.

Warriors of The Rainbow were another band of ex-San Jose State folkies, featuring guitarist Page Brownton, who is still performing in the Santa Cruz Mountains today, as far as I know. The Ohms Band is a mystery, even to me.

Robert Hunter would have arrived in East Palo Alto right around this time. The Grateful Dead were playing in Lake Tahoe this weekend, but I believe Phil Lesh would have picked up Hunter on Euclid Avenue shortly afterwards.

A poster for the planned show at the football field at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz County on September 2-3, 1967. There is no evidence that the shows ever took place, sad to say.

September 2-3, 1967:  Cabrillo College Stadium, Cabrillo Junior College, Santa Cruz, CA
Benefit for SCA at Santa Cruz [canceled]
Grateful Dead/Canned Heat/The Leaves/Andrew Staples/Sons of Champlain (sic)/New Delhi River Band/Second Coming/New Breed/Butterfield 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 was scheduled as a two-day event on the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Cabrillo College is a Junior College about six miles from the UCSC Campus, with a view that would be the envy of a million dollar resort. The event is widely known because the poster appears in Paul Grushkin's book The Art Of Rock.

However, I looked into the subject at some length, and there's no evidence that the event actually occurred. I talked to numerous old South Bay rockers who wouldn't have missed it, and even someone who was in a band that was booked at the show (the E-Types) and not a one recalled anything about it. It's impossible to prove a negative, but I have to believe this event was planned and then got scuttled by finances or the powers-that-be.

In theory, the Grateful Dead would have played Cabrillo on Saturday, September 2, because they were playing Rio Nido on Sunday (September 3). Remember that with Labor Day weekend, Sunday would have been like Saturday night, and shows could have run late. Most chronologies have the Dead at Cabrillo, but I don't think they, or anyone, was there. It's too bad. For one thing, it would have been a chance for the New Delhi River Band to play with the Grateful Dead, but this never occurred. More intriguingly, if the Dead had played, they would have bought Hunter along, and perhaps having already accepted the offer to be Garcia's co-writer, perhaps Hunter would have considered the possibility of writing with Nelson, but that too was not to be.

September (8?), 1967 San Bruno Recreation Gym, San Bruno Park, San Bruno, CA: New Delhi River Band/Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band (date assumed)
[update 20230626] A Commenter writes in

In the late sixties, my friends and I put on a couple of concerts at the San Bruno Recreation Gym located in San Bruno Park. One of the concerts had both The New Delhi River Band and the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band. We also had our own light show called Temporary Optics which provided the lights for the show. I don't remember what year, but the month was September. We had a great crowd and both bands were well received.

San Bruno is on the Peninsula, just above San Francisco Airport (SFO).  San Bruno City Park is on Crystal Springs Avenue, just near El Camino Real, but below Junipero Serra Park. Temporary Optics was the regular light show at the Family Dog on The Great Highway for many of the 1970 shows at the venue. The Cleanliness And Godliness Skiffle Band were from Berkeley, and had arisen out of the same scene as Country Joe And The Fish. I have assumed the date to be an open weekend, but it just as well could have been at the end of the month (September 29-30).

A poster for Moby Grape and the The New Delhi River Band at the Continental Ballroom in Santa Clara on September 15-16, 1967. Note the odd spelling of NDRB (thanks to Colin for the scan).

September 15-16, 1967: Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA:  Moby Grape/Nu Delhi River Band/Om
The Continental Ballroom was San Jose's leading rock venue, although it was actually in the nearby town of Santa Clara, at 1600 Martin Avenue. All of the major San Francisco bands played there, albeit for a variety of different promoters. Moby Grape was riding quite high at this time, soon after the release of their debut album, and the shows were probably well attended. Why, exactly, the New Delhi River Band's name was misspelled on the poster is a mystery, but I assume it was an intentional one. I assume the opening act 'Om' was the same as The Ohms Band who had played at Azteca Hall the month before.

September 17, 1967: Provo Park, Berkeley, CA: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band/New Delhi River Band/Strawberry Window
The New Delhi River Band played yet another Sunday at Provo Park, with Berkeley's own Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band and the Strawberry Window, from San Leandro.

A flyer for the New Delhi River Band's show at The Bold Knight in Sunnyvale. Once again, note a variant spelling for the band's name--I don't think these were accidents

September 22, 1967 The Bold Knight, Sunnyvale, CA New Delhi River Band/The Art Collective
The NDRB were still popular in the South Bay. The Bold Knight was one of the best paying gigs in the area. On this September weekend, the NDRB played a free concert Thursday in Palo Alto, a well paid show in San Jose on Friday, and a San Francisco show on Saturday where they may not have made much money at all. That pretty well summed up the NDRB's career.

A poster for the New Delhi River Band's performance at the Western Front on September 23, 1967 (thanks to Ross for the scan)

September 23, 1967: The Western Front, San Francisco, CA: New Delhi River Band/Mad River/The Other Half
The Western Front was an obscure concert venue at 895 O'Farrell (at Polk), just 4 blocks from San Francisco's run-down Tenderloin District. The venue was a former car dealership. Like many such venues, it has a vague, murky history, which I have done my best to sort out. After a dramatic opening weekend around July 4 of 1967, it closed for over two months, due apparently to the lack of a dance permit. The New Delhi River Band played the second night of their re-opening weekend.

The bands on the bill were very hip: Mad River had relocated to Berkeley from Ohio, and are widely revered today as being far ahead of their time, although they were merely strange back then. The Other Half have also become popular in collector's circles, with the great guitarist Randy Holden. However, I have never read an eyewitness account, much less a review of any Western Front show, and despite being one of the NDRB's few bookings in the city, it can't have led to much.

The building that housed the Western Front is just two doors down from the Great American Music Hall. 895 O'Farrell now houses the notorious Mitchell Brothers Cinema (don't google it at work).

October 1, 1967 El Camino Park, Palo Alto, CA Steve Miller Band/Blue Cheer/New Delhi River Band
Palo Alto had a series of Be-Ins at El Camino Park, the city's first downtown park. The Grateful Dead had played one on June 24, and unlike most cities Palo Alto continued to have free concerts in the park all the way through the Summer of 1968. This Sunday afternoon Be-In was produced by the Mid-Peninsula Free University (or "Free You" as it was known), yet another one of those South Bay stories that's too much of a tangent to explain. At this time, all three of the acts were popular locally, but none of them had a record. Blue Cheer went on to a certain kind of infamy, and the Steve Miller Band, along with rhythm guitarist Boz Scaggs, went on to huge success. Yet the New Delhi River Band, somewhat on a par with these groups at the time, has slipped into total obscurity outside of my blog [note: i had originally thought that this show was September 21, but JGMF found a mention of the date in the September 26, 1967 Stanford Daily].

>Fall, 1967 Fraternity Row, Berkeley New Delhi River Band
An eyewitness remembers a trip to Berkeley where the group played a hall overlooking ‘Fraternity Row’ in Berkeley. This could have been any number of smaller buildings. In fact, Frat Row at the time was moving from Northside (Euclid Ave and Hearst St) to Southside (Piedmont Ave and Warring St), so I'm not even sure which side of campus it would have been on.

Fall, 1967 Peninsula School, Menlo Park, CA
Peninsula School is a legendary Menlo Park instituion, a K-8 school founded in 1925 on Quaker principles. It was very popular with progressives prior to and during the 1960s (not to mention afterwards), and it was the kind of place where kindergartners addressed their teachers by their first name. Jerry Garcia and Bob Hunter played their first paying gig at Peninsula in 1961, and the school has been intertwined with Grateful Dead history ever since. Alumni of the school include John Dawson, Bob Matthews, Steve Marcus and me. Jerry Garcia's first wife Sara worked there at one point, as well.

There was a fundraiser type rock concert at Peninsula in the Fall of 1967 for Pacific High School, and a then-student thinks that the New Delhi River Band may have been present. Given the social circles, this seems like a very likely possibility. Pacific High School is another of those 60s South Bay tangents that cannot be summarized easily. Pacific was sort of conceived as the High School successor for Peninsula School graduates. Suffice to say, students calling teachers by their first name was just the starting point.

From the Fall of 1967 onwards, it gets harder and harder to find any evidence of the New Delhi River Band performing. There were more and more rock shows around the Bay Area, but as the underground and commercial scenes started to merge, as Fillmore music started to appeal out in the suburbs, not every band made the transition. I think the New Delhi River Band's lack of formal management meant that they didn't have any entree into the universe of booking agents and promoters that lead to paying shows. Without any recording opportunities on the horizon, the band seems to have just slowly ground to a halt.

October 28, 1967 Channing Place, Berkeley, CA: New Delhi River Band
JGMF found a listing in the SF Chronicle of October 21, which mentioned several bands that would be playing Channing Place over the next several days, through Saturday October 28. Channing Place was at 2511 Channing Way (at Telegraph). The other bands mentioned were the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Purple Earthquake and Ball Point Banana. It's possible Ball Point Banana was a Palo Alto band.

An ad from the San Jose State College newspaper, the Spartan Daily, for a Nov 3 '67 show headlined by The Doors (h/t JGMF).

November 3, 1967: Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA: The Doors/Heatherstones/Orphan Egg/New Delhi River Band
JGMF uncovered this gig, advertised in the San Jose State's Spartan Daily.

November 7, 1967: Rancho Diablo, La Honda, CA: New Delhi River Band/Black Shit Puppy Farm
This was more of a party than a gig. This was actually a birthday party for a popular student at Pacific High School (the date was inferred from a friend who recalls her birth date).

The friends of the birthday girl lived at a La Honda Road commune known as Rancho Diablo. Rancho Diablo had been the location of the commune that housed the group Anonymous Artists of America, who had to some extent succeeded the Merry Pranksters and taken over their equipment, including Ron Boise’s ‘Thunder Machine.” However, the AAA commune had moved out mid-year and others had moved in. Many of the others were former or current Pacific High School students who later became known as the Black Shit Puppy Farm, which was both a light show and a rock band, depending on the gig. The band was named after the commune dog, a Black Lab named Arnold.  The lead guitarist of BSPF remembers this birthday party event with the NDRB, as it was one of their first public performances.

November 22, 1967: The Bold Knight, Sunnyvale, CA: Heatherstone/New Delhi River Band/Bogus Thunder/Art Collection
The Bold Knight usually only put on shows on Friday nights. However, the audience was primarily teenagers, so the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was like a Friday to them. The NDRB played along with some other South Bay stalwarts. Bogus Thunder (is that a 60s name or what?) were connected to groups like The Chocolate Watch Band and The Other Side, and The Art Collection, though a South Bay band, were fronted by New Zealand singer Ray Columbus. Heatherstone, sometimes billed as Heather Stone, are familiar to me from old flyers, but I don't know anything about them.

December 17, 1967: The Steppenwolf, Berkeley, CA: Mad River/New Delhi River Band/Lincoln’s Promise/Sky Blue
I have a suspicion that this show was another benefit, since Mad River could have filled the tiny place by themselves, and their was hardly a need for four groups if they were all expecting to get paid. This was a comparatively early show by the Berkeley group Sky Blue.

January 5, 1968: The Bold Knight, Sunnyvale, CA: New Delhi/Blueberry Jam/Steve Jenkins Group/Glare
The Bold Knight was a well paying booking in the South Bay, as the shows were held on Friday nights in a restaurant ballroom that could include up to 1000 patrons. Since no drinks were served, it was accessible to the many young people with cars in the South Bay. If the NDRB could still headline the Bold Knight in early 1968, they definitely had a following in the South Bay. Yet they had been headlining the Bold Knight six months earlier, and they had gotten no further in other markets. According to Nelson, around this time the New Delhi River Band simply stopped playing, without really breaking up.

It's not clear from the poster whether "Blueberry Jam" and "Steve Jenkins Group" are the same or different. Glare was a Los Altos High School band.

According to a 1977 interview with Kingfish leader Matt Kelly in the English fanzine Dark Star, Kelly's group St. Matthews Blues Band had opened for the New Delhi River Band sometime in late 1967, although I have been unable to determine exactly when or where. Kelly said that he took to jamming regularly with the NDRB so regularly that he became a member of the group. This too has been hard to pin down, but it must have been around this time [update: Kelly told me he was never actually a member of the New Delhi River Band, and did not start jamming with some of the members until after they broke up]

I know the name of the woman in the poster, and I know that the cat belonged to one of her roommates. Her roommate, however, can no longer remember whether the cat in the modified photo was "Fear" or "Trembling." Research continues.

January 27, 1968: Cowell College Dining Commons, UCSC, Santa Cruz: New Delhi River Band/Living Color
The last trace of a New Delhi River Band performance that I have been able to find was a Satruday night show at the Cowell College Dining Commons, at the newly opened University of California at Santa Cruz. The Cowell Dining Commons is within walking distance of the McHenry Library, the site of the Grateful Dead Archive. A very nice copy of the poster endures (thanks to Queenie, Kindy and Georgiana). It's uncertain if Kelly had joined the band by this time, but the NDRB fully evaporated shortly after this, whether or not Cowell was truly their last performance, which it very well may have been.

Aftermath
In the Dark Star interview, Kelly recalled that David Nelson and John Tomasi left soon after Kelly joined. Peter Sultzbach soon followed. He and Nelson were replaced by guitarists Ryan Brandenburg and Tim Abbott, another Palo Altan from various groups including The Good News, from whence Torbert and Herold had come. Abbott had also had a stint in San Jose's great Chocolate Watch Band.. Around this time the band changed its name to Shango. Kelly recalls that the biggest gig Shango did was headlining a wake for Neal Cassady at Big Sur (on March 21-23, 1968), a weekend show attended by as many as 4000 people. Shango led to Horses, but then that group too disintegrated. I will tell the whole story of the subsequent adventures of the band members, but for now a brief survey will have to suffice.

David Nelson went to ground after the New Delhi River Band, surfacing several months later with old friends like Jerry Garcia and Peter Albin. After playing some bluegrass and almost joining Big Brother and The Holding Company, he joined Garcia and John Dawson in the band that became The New Riders Of The Purple Sage. He still leads the group.

Dave Torbert went to Hawaii after 1968 to go surfing. In early 1970, Torbert was on his way to England to join Matt Kelly in Gospel Oak, when he 'coincidentally' received a call at his parent's house from John Dawson, who invited him to join the New Riders. After a few fine years and five albums with the Riders, Torbert and Kelly finally teamed up in the band that would become Kingfish. Torbert died of long-standing health issues in 1982.

Sweet John Tomasi remains the most elusive of the New Delhi River Band members. For the next few years, he performed periodically as the singer for the groups Mountain Current and Lonesome Janet (with Matthew Kelly and Chris Herold), but his subsequent activities remain obscure. Hopefully he is well and well-off somewhere.

Chris Herold managed avoided the draft as a Conscientious Objector. However, he was obligated to other service, in his case driving a hospital truck from 1969-71. As a result he could only play on weekends. He played in an apparently excellent Santa Cruz Mountains band called Mountain Current, but they only played the local haunts. I have always thought that when the drum chair for the New Riders opened up in late 1970, with the departure of Mickey Hart, Torbert and Nelson would have liked to get Herold into it, but it would have been impossible. With the initial demise of Kingfish in 1976, Herold seems to have stopped playing music professionally, although every few years he seems to have sat in with Kingfish for a song or two. Herold is now a widely respected writer of Haikus.

Peter Sultzbach joined Linda Tillery's band after NDRB broke up. Tillery had been in The Loading Zone, with whom NDRB had shared the stage many times at Provo Park, so I assume that was the initial connection. In 1968-69, Columbia was trying to make her a star as 'Sweet Linda Devine.' Ultimately she returned to the Loading Zone. Loading Zone, a fine band, faded away after 1972. However, they had shared management and rehearsal space with Oakland's finest, Tower Of Power. Sultzbach became Tower's road manager, and a google search of his name will turn it up on the credits to some of their albums. Sadly, Sultzbach died of cancer in 1981, far too young, fondly remembered by his friends.

The New Delhi River Band lived on, however faintly, when Nelson and Dawson's pre-New Riders history was ever alluded to. They were never huge, but they were big in their county. Still, being Palo Alto's second psychedelic blues band didn't quite have the impact of being the first one. Hopefully Nelson will rescue their demo tape from his garage, and some South Bay grandparents can have a long awaited flashback or two.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders Band Members, 1971-75

Live At Keystone, Fantasy Records, 1974, credited to Merl Saunders/Jerry Garcia/John Kahn/Bill Vitt

What is a rock band? This may seem like a simple question, and perhaps it is, but if you have a serious interest in rock music the problem is subtler than it appears. Prior to The Beatles, rock groups were just entertainers, essentially "High Concept" marketing vehicles, although such a term would not have been used at the time. Did anyone really know who was in The Coasters? Even if they did, would it have mattered if different people sang the parts? In that respect, early rock groups were like The Ice Capades: what was presented was more important than the actual participants. The Beatles changed all that.

The Beatles were fully self-contained: they wrote, they played, they sang, one for all, and all for one. The Beatles effect was just as powerful on musicians as it was on fans. Folk musicians like Roger McGuinn or Jerry Garcia saw A Hard Day's Night and decided more or less in the movie theater that being in a rock group was where it's at. The Byrds, the Grateful Dead and a thousand other groups would follow. Yet who were "The Beatles?"

There had been pre-Beatles groups like The Quarrymen, and the very first version of the Beatles featured bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. Sutcliffe died, and Best was fired, and once Ringo Starr joined they were the "real" Beatles. Did that mean the six shows that The Beatles played in early 1964 with substitute drummer Jimmy Nicol when Ringo was very ill were not "real" Beatles shows? Clearly not. So what is a rock group?

Rock's first and best prosopographer, Pete Frame, inventor and author of The Rock Family Trees series, has gone the farthest in codifying our views of rock groups. In general, most rock fans--and me-- feel that a "group" is equal to more than the sum of its individual parts. Something magical happens when a certain set of musicians play together in the studio or on stage. As a concession to reality, most fans implicitly feel that there are core members of groups, and perhaps some peripheral members can change without affecting the group. However, when a key member leaves or joins, the group evolves. Frame addresses the problem by dividing bands into periods: The Byrds #1, The Byrds #2, and so on. Rock fans implicitly accepted this. Some went further, and started blogs.

Almost all Grateful Dead fans, for example, consider the version of the Grateful Dead that recorded Blues For Allah in 1975 and toured "different" than the lineup that preceded it, even though the only change was the return of Mickey Hart on drums. By the same token, the few shows in early 1979 when Donna Godcahaux was not present did not constitute enough of a break with the group zeitgeist to make those performances "non-Grateful Dead."

How, then, to consider the recording and performing history of the Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders collaboration? I have gone to great lengths to detail the personnel of the Jerry Garcia Band, the New Riders of The Purple Sage, Old And In The Way, Bobby and The Midnites and several other groups. While it's necessary to account for the occasional substitute drummer of fiddler, by and large the Pete Frame superstructure works very well. Rock groups have "periods," and they change when personnel changes, as all the current members see the new members as a chance to re-think and re-work their approach to their own music. However, after much struggling, no such configurative history works for Garcia and Saunders. There is no meaningful Garcia and Saunders #1, nor #2, and in fact the whole Frame concept that my historical analysis is generally based on does a disservice to Garcia and Saunders.

Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees is profoundly appropriate to rock groups, but not to all music. The Garcia-Saunders group was best understood as a jazz group, and only makes sense in that context. As it happens, the Garcia-Saunders group was a jazz band that played rock music, but they still had a jazz approach and configuration, particularly from a financial and professional perspective. This post will look at the history of band members in the various Garcia-Saunders collaborations from 1971 through 1975, and in so doing will explain how the very conception of the group was opposite to rock groups such as The Jerry Garcia Band which would soon follow it.

An ad for Miles Davis' appearance at San Francisco's Both/And Club for the week of April 11-17, 1967 (from the April 13, 1967 San Francisco Chronicle)

What Is  A Jazz Group?
In the 1950s and 60s, the concept of a jazz group or "combo" was very different than that of a sixties rock group. Over time, the jazz and rock conceptions have merged for a variety of commercial reasons, but when Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders started playing together in the early 1970s, they would still have been working off a 60s conception of jazz groups. Merl would have been a member of such groups, and Jerry would have been a fan and consumer, but their concept would have been the same.

Jazz musicians are generally profoundly talented. You could inadvertently spill ink on music paper, and the Miles Davis Quintet could make it sound great. Since jazz musicians are so talented, they can rarely find a platform for all of them to use all their ideas at once. What evolved from the 1950s onward was the idea that each jazz live or studio session had a leader and sidemen, and the music evolved from that. The leader picked the band, defined the concept and picked the tunes, and the members played accordingly. Of course, much of the music was improvised, but the improvisation was subsumed under the leader's plans. For example, many Blue Note Records albums from the 1960s have the same players, but the records sound different based on the leader. If Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock played on a Tony Williams album, they followed Williams' ideas; if Williams and Hancock were on a session for Shorter, they followed his ideas. And yet, all of them were in Miles Davis's great quintet at the time, where they followed Miles' directions.

By the same token, if you saw Miles Davis at a jazz club in the late 60s, you expected to see a group led by Miles, playing his music. If you were lucky, and probably in New York, you might get to see the "Great Quintet" with Shorter, Williams, Hancock and bassist Ron Carter. If you were in San Francisco, you might see a sextet lineup with both Shorter and Joe Henderson on saxophones, but with Albert Stinson on bass, as Ron Carter rarely toured. A "jazz group" meant that the leader or leaders defined the music, and the best available players played it. It was still Miles Davis, and it was still jazz. Garcia and Saunders were built on the Miles Davis model, not that of The Beatles.

Garcia/Saunders History
I have dealt with the genesis of the Garcia/Saunders partnership at length, and will only briefly recap it here. Drummer Bill Vitt and organist Howard Wales were responsible for hosting Monday night jams at The Matrix in early 1970. Over time, Jerry Garcia and John Kahn became regulars with them. Wales had some hesitation about the popularity associated with playing with Jerry Garcia, and after some brief flirtations with Vince Guaraldi, Kahn brought Merl Saunders into the jams at The Matrix. Initially, Garcia, Saunders, Kahn and Vitt only played at The Matrix, but starting in 1971 they started to play out a little more. Since Garcia was a rock musician, they were considered a "rock group", but really they weren't. In fact, Garcia and Saunders' partnership was built on a jazz concept, whatever music they happened to be playing.

By early 1971, the Garcia-Saunders group had started to play somewhat regularly. Mostly they played The Matrix, until it closed, and then they mostly played The Keystone Korner. In the tradition of jazz groups, they had a core membership, but there seems to be evidence that it was fluid. In general, ias long as Garcia and Saunders were present, it was "The Garcia-Saunders Group." John Kahn was usually the bassist, and Bill Vitt was usually the drummer. In jazz terminology, Kahn and Vitt were the "first call" rhythm section, meaning they got the first phone call, as they were the preferred choices. However, if one of them was booked, someone else got the call, and it was still the Garcia-Saunders band. From what limited evidence we have, Bill Kreutzmann played drums on a number of occasions. There were probably substitutions on bass as well, when John Kahn was booked. This would have been standard operating procedure for a jazz group: Garcia and Saunders were the leaders who defined the music, Kahn and Vitt got the first call, and others filled in when required.

A Keystone Korner flyer for October 1971--should we read anything into the fact that John Kahn is not named on the flyer?

Garcia-Saunders 1971-1973
When thinking about "Garcia and Saunders" as a rock band, it's important to note that the group did not even have a name. "The Grateful Dead" may have been known informally as "The Dead" or occasionally by some 'substitute' name like "Jerry Garcia And Friends," but The Grateful Dead was a very real entity. They toured and recorded as The Grateful Dead, and a concert or album booked or sold as The Grateful Dead explicitly implied a certain repertoire and personnel. To some extent, the identity associated with their own name is what distinguishes a rock group from other musical aggregations.

When Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders played a nightclub or concert in the early 1970s, they could be booked any old way: "Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders," 'Garcia and Saunders," "The Garcia-Saunders Band" and so on. The implication was clear in any case: Garcia and Saunders would lead the band playing their unique jazz/rock hybrid, and other players would join them as available. Indeed, some interviews from this period refer to the Garcia-Saunders band as "The Group." Bill Vitt and John Kahn were generally seen as the 'other' members, but great care was taken to never define them as a rock band. As far as I know, whatever money was made was split between the individuals who played. A few bucks may have been passed on to Ramrod or other crew, but in general the musicians split the take evenly.

By the end of 1971, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty was playing at least some gigs with Garcia and Saunders, but he was more of a 'participant' than a 'member,' just as the others were. By the end of 1972, Garcia and Saunders seemed to have been experimenting with adding additional players to the group. Sarah Fulcher sang with the group from late 1972 until late 1973, but she didn't play every show. Guitarist George Tickner played several shows in Spring 1973. Will Scarlett occasionally played harmonica, and Martin Fierro played tenor sax one day in 1973 (July 19). At other times, different players would join the group for a song or two, often on an apparently casual basis, possibly simply because a band member had invited them on stage. All this was typical for a jazz group, but not a rock group.

From a jazz perspective, the Garcia-Saunders aggregation looked like this from 1971-1973:

Jerry Garcia-lead guitar, vocals
Merl Saunders-organ, keyboards
John Kahn-bass
sub: Marty David or others-bass
Bill Vitt-drums
sub: Bill Kreutzmann-drums
plus: Tom Fogerty-guitar (1971-72)
       Armando Peraza-congas (Spring 1972)
       George Tickner-guitar (Spring 1973)
       Sarah Fulcher-vocals (Dec 1972-Oct 73)
      Will Scarlett-harmonica (1973)
      Martin Fierro-tenor sax (July 19 1973)
and occasional guests on trumpet or other instruments for a number or two

Of course, given the limited number of tapes and reviews in our possession, there may be a wider number of subs than we may know about now. I would note that of the relatively few surviving Garcia/Saunders tape from this era, Bill Kreutzmann drums on a lot of them. No one really has any idea if Vitt played most of the shows, or only half of them, or what. At the time, besides being a session musician, Vitt was also a member of The Sons Of Champlin, so he may have had a lot of conflicts. Kreutzmann, of course, would not have been working if Garcia had a gig, so he would have been readily available.

John Kahn also had a parallel career in the early 1970s. Besides working as a session man in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Kahn performed regularly, if intermittently, with Brewer And Shipley, in the studio, on TV and on tour. So the occasional Garcia/Saunders show without Kahn (such as January 19, 1973, with Marty David on bass) were most likely conflicts with Brewer And Shipley. I think Kahn played more consistently with Garcia/Saunders than Vitt did, but truthfully we don't know for certain how many of those shows he actually missed.

The important point to consider here, however, is to dispense with the idea that the Garcia/Saunders aggregation had "members" in the sense of The Byrds or even the Jerry Garcia Band. If Armando Peraza was present, he was in the band; if he wasn't, he wasn't. In neither case was he exactly a "member." in the sense that Chris Hillman had been a member of the Byrds. Certainly, John Kahn and Bill Vitt were the first call players, and they were members in the sense that Ron Carter and Tony Williams had been members of the Miles Davis Quintet from 1964 to 1968. Albert Stinson and a few others played bass for the Quintet many times, but Ron Carter was no less a "member" for not making every show. Garcia and Saunders' music only required Garcia, Saunders and a rhythm section. Kahn and Vitt were the first and best rhythm section, but the music was played in any case.

As I have discussed at length, Jerry Garcia's first independent contract after he and the Grateful Dead left Warner Brothers was an agreement to make an album on Fantasy Records, the early 1974 album Live At Keystone. Tellingly, the artists on the record were not "Garcia and Saunders" but "Garcia, Saunders, Kahn and Vitt." This was a very jazz conception for a rock album, and I think a telling one. JGMF has marshaled some solid evidence that the quartet was experimenting with other players in early 1973, such as Sarah Fulcher and George Tickner, in consideration of future recording, but they seem to have gone with the core quartet. Garcia and Saunders were playing rock, if improvised rock, but their musical and financial conception of their band was that of a jazz group, not a rock band.

An obscure flyer for the Garcia/Saunders show at USF Gym on Halloween 1974. They are billed as Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends. Opening act is Osiris, featuring Kevin McKernan.

Garcia And Saunders 1974-75
Bill Vitt stopped playing with Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders by the end of 1973. As usual, no reason or explanation was ever given. According to my theory, it's likely rather than that he "quit the band" or "was fired," he just stopped getting calls. The Garcia-Saunders aggregation had started to become more successful, thanks to the Dead's growing popularity and the attention that came with the Live At Keystone album. As a result, they were less able to always act like a casual jazz group who played the same few Bay Area nightclubs over and over.

'Membership' in the Garcia-Saunders aggregation for 1974-75 appears from the outside to be a very confusing story. I have made sense of it by dividing the known performances into three separate configurations, all of which overlapped with each other. You'll have to temporarily bear with some of my naming conventions until I explain them fully. The three concurrent configurations were

• "Garcia-Saunders"
• "Merl Saunders and Friends" and
• Legion Of Mary

After Bill Vitt 'left' the Garcia-Saunders group, or at least stopped getting phone calls, the band played their shows with Bill Kreutzmann on drums. Meanwhile, during the Winter of 1974, John Kahn, Merl Saunders and finally Jerry Garcia were recording Garcia's second solo album in Southern California, which is how drummer Ron Tutt came into their orbit. After what appeared to be a live dry run with Ron Tutt at the tiny Inn Of The Beginning in Cotati, Tutt did not play with Garcia and Saunders until December 1974.

In the meantime, Bill Kreutzmann played Garcia/Saunders shows at smaller auditoriums and weekends at the Keystone Berkeley. Late in the Summer, the great Paul Humphrey played drums for some gigs--it's hard to pin down the exact date--and by the time the Grateful Dead had gone on touring hiatus, Humphrey was the regular drummer for Garcia/Saunders. Humphreys played the notable Bay Area shows and the out-of-town shows throughout most of 1974. At some point, tenor saxophonist Martin Fierro became a regular part of the band as well.

By the end of 1974, Ron Tutt had joined Garcia/Saunders. Although there seems to have been a bit of confusion on the part of promoters, the name Legion Of Mary appears at the end of 1974. From December 1974 through July 1975, the lineup of Garcia/Saunders/Fierro/Kahn/Tutt was known as Legion Of Mary. What is confusing, however, was that if a show was booked with a different drummer, then it was billed as "Garcia-Saunders." A good example was June 8, 1975, at El Camino Park in Palo Alto. Someone other than Ron Tutt, an African-American (possibly Paul Humphrey), played drums, and the show was booked as Garcia-Saunders

It is not a relevant point here if a show was billed as "Garcia/Saunders Band," "Jerry Garcia And Merl Saunders" or some other slight variation. Both Legion Of Mary and Garcia/Saunders played more or less the same material. Legion Of Mary was conceived like a real rock group, like The Byrds, with a fixed membership; Garcia/Saunders had some fluidity, like a jazz group.

However, the real confusion with Garcia and Saunders performing lineups in 1974 and '75 has to do with what I am artificially naming here as "Merl Saunders And Friends." From mid-1974 until Summer '75, although the Grateful Dead made two studio albums and Garcia started working on the Grateful Dead movie, relatively speaking Garcia had more time on his hands than he had at any other time in the decade. After 1974, the Dead simply stopped performing; and even before that, Garcia only had one working band. Jerry was Jerry--if he had a free night and a guitar, he was going to play.

Garcia's access points to pickup shows was Merl Saunders. Garcia had long since passed the time when he could simply "drop in" and jam with someone without a hullabaloo, and in any case it was clear that Garcia didn't consider playing a ragged version of "Hideaway" with some strangers to be a fulfilling evening. Independent of Garcia/Saunders shows, however, Merl Saunders was a working musician with his own career. On his own, Merl was much jazzier, in the tradition of organ groups, and played with a rotating cast of players. Saunders played a lot of shows with just Martin Fierro on sax and a rotating cast of drummers, and his son Tony Saunders on bass when he was available. If Garcia was free--remember, the Dead weren't touring for much of this period--Garcia dropped in to play as well.

The reason we have any history at all of Garcia from places like The Sand Dunes, a tiny joint near Ocean Beach (at 3599 Taraval in San Francisco), or The Generosity, or The Inn Of The Beginning, another distant watering hole, was plainly that Saunders had booked the gig for his own band, and Garcia managed to make the show. Of course, Merl, the club owner and even Jerry were all hoping that any and every Merl gig featured a guest appearance by Garcia, but Merl was playing the show regardless. It seems clear to me that in some cases Garcia could give enough advance warning that the club owner--much to his delight--could actually advertise Garcia's presence. In other cases, Garcia seems to have just dropped by.

The important thing about club bookings is that they have to be scheduled 30 to 60 days in advance. A large club or an Auditorium wasn't going to book Saunders without Garcia, but a smaller place had to be open most nights anyway. Saunders had a regular Monday night gig in 1974 at The Sand Dunes, for example. My guess is that there were usually about 50 people there, although maybe various people came and went and the total head count was larger. At least once Garcia seems to have dropped in. The night's music was mostly instrumental jams, much looser and freewheeling than the rock-focused sound of the Garcia/Saunders band.

Tony Saunders usually played bass for his dad's gigs, although not always--Merl could play the bass with his foot pedals if needed. Various drummers sat in: E.W. Wainwright, Bob Steeler, Gaylord Birch and probably others, too. A variety of other musicians seemed to have dropped in, in the jazz tradition. Everybody wanted Jerry to show up, but even if he didn't, Merl was going to play anyway. The "Merl Saunders And Friends" shows, however they were variously billed, was a final year where Garcia could find a free night and sit in with a willing but talented band of friendly players and just lay it down, opportunities that all but disappeared after the Summer of 1975.

The June 1975 Keystone Berkeley calendar has billings for both Garcia/Saunders and The Legion of Mary (among many other interesting bookings)

Garcia & Saunders Band Lineups 1974-75

Garcia/Saunders, February-November 1974
Jerry Garcia-guitar, vocals
Merl Saunders-organ, keyboards, vocals
John Kahn-bass
Bill Kreutzmann-drums
then> Paul Humphrey-drums Aug-Nov '7
various subs>Paul Humphrey (Jun 8 '75) Gregg Errico (Jun 22 '75)
late 1974> Martin Fierro-tenor sax, flute

It's my current contention that Martin Fierro was a regular in Merl's band throughout 1974, but not necessarily in Garcia/Saunders. However, once it was clear that the Grateful Dead would be going on hiatus, I think Fierro became a "permanent" member of Garcia/Saunders and then Legion Of Mary. 

It remains uncertain exactly when Paul Humphrey first performed with Garcia and Saunders, but it appears to be August 11 or 12, 1974. It's also uncertain exactly when he became the regular drummer, and indeed when he was replaced by Ron Tutt. I can assure you that checking The Jerry Site won't help, since many of their sources were derived from me (via Deadbase IX) and I can vouch for my own mistakes there. The whole problem stemmed from a mistaken notion on my part that the drummers were "leaving" and "joining" the Garcia/Saunders "Band" as if they were members of The Byrds.

Merl Saunders & Friends with Jerry Garcia mid-74-Sunmer '75
Jerry Garcia-guitar
Martin Fierro-tenor sax
Merl Saunders-organ
Tony Saunders-bass (sometimes absent)
EW Wainwright, Bob Steeler, Gaylord Birch, others?-drums
various guest musicians on various instruments

By definition, Merl Saunders played numerous shows in this period with similar lineups, but without Garcia. For my purposes, it's not important how these shows were billed. The "Merl Saunders And Friends" period seems to have gone from late Summer 1974 through June 1975. I myself have not made the attempt to determine which shows might qualify as "And Friends" date. At this point, I am simply trying to assert and defend the proposition that Merl Saunders and Friends with Jerry Garcia was a different animal than Garcia and Saunders, even if they were sometimes billed the same way. There may have been more such appearances by Garcia than we initially realized.

Legion Of Mary December 1974-June 1975
Jerry Garcia-guitar, vocals
Martin Fierro-tenor sax, flute
Merl Saunders-organ, keyboards, vocals
John Kahn-bass
Ron Tutt-drums

Legion Of Mary began when Ron Tutt joined the group in December 1974. Any Garcia show that had the following lineup counted as a Legion Of Mary show. If Tutt wasn't present, the show was billed as Garcia/Saunders, not Legion Of Mary. For my purposes, it's moot if a few promoters called Legion Of Mary shows "Garcia-Saunders" shows. Tutt's arrival foretold the idea that Garcia's side band would be a regular, working rock band, with a name and a fixed membership.

Once again, I have not been been able to pin down Ron Tutt's first appearance with Garcia and Saunders in late 1974, and hence the beginning of Legion Of Mary. Ironically, Tutt's first appearance may still have been followed by dates with Paul Humphrey on drums, so that too clouds the trail. In a strange twist, the next-to-last show billed as Legion Of Mary, on June 22, 1975, featured Gregg Errico on drums, so by my system it would count as a Garcia/Saunders show, but you are free to make your own decision.

Aftermath
Garcia And Saunders, to the extent it was a "band," was institutionally a jazz band, even though they played rock. Certain players like John Kahn and Bill Vitt got the first phone call, but their absence on any given date was part of the professional life of the band. Both Garcia and Saunders put out solo albums from 1971 through 1974 featuring various players, and a live album was released with the core four of Garcia, Saunders, Kahn and Vitt. If you look at the careers of working jazz musicians during this period--Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, anyone you like--that was what their recorded output was like. Different leaders made records using their various collaborators, and they shared credits on a live album.

When Garcia and Saunders stabilized in mid-1974 to become more like a rock band, first with Paul Humphrey and Martin Fierro, and finally with Ron Tutt, it foreshadowed the future Jerry Garcia Band. The Jerry Garcia Band had a fixed lineup at any given moment, and many of the members of the group stayed in the band for years. The practical realities of touring meant that there was the occasional substitute on bass or drums, but those were kept to a mere handful.

What was lost, ne'er to be seen again, was anything resembling Garcia's guest appearances with Merl Saunders' group. For almost a year, Garcia had enough time to drop in on Merl's little gigs, and just funk out on whatever jazz the band was playing. In some ways, this was a reflection of what Garcia apparently had enjoyed in the 1969-70 period at the Matrix, but that scene had disappeared with the Matrix itself. In some ways, the 1979 band Reconstruction may have been designed to provide an encore. John Kahn had alluded to the idea that Reconstruction would continue without Jerry, and indeed they played a few obscure gigs, but it ground to a halt. If Reconstruction had stood on their own, however, it might have provided a forum for Jerry to just drop in, without having to lead the band. It was not to be.

The last sign of a Garcia appearance with what I am calling "Merl Saunders And Friends" was at The Shady Grove in San Francisco, on October 2 and 3, 1978. The Shady Grove was a popular little musician's hangout, at 1538 Haight Street, between Ashbury and Clayton, that was under threat of closing. Merl played there regularly, and Garcia came out to play for one and possibly two nights, sitting in with Merl's band. A tape endures of October 3, and Garcia gets to jam away in some tiny joint, an opportunity that was already largely denied to him even by that date. The substantial legacy of Garcia and Saunders and Legion of Mary has left Garcia's final run at being one of the boys in the band largely obscured by clouds.

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.