Week of January 17, 2011
Part 1 15:34
Open
Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack (10/19/74)
EYES OF THE WORLD
ID
Part 2 38:56
Intro
Interview by Rich Mahan: DAVID NELSON
“The Log Cabin Boys” 11/23/86
ROSALIE McFALL
COLD JORDAN
Interview by Rich Mahan: DAVID NELSON
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, Ragged But Right
TWO SOLDIERS
Interview by Rich Mahan: DAVID NELSON
Jesse McReynolds and Friends, Songs of the Grateful Dead
BLACK MUDDY RIVER
Interview by Rich Mahan: DAVID NELSON
Outro
Rich Mahan caught up with David Nelson at a New Riders of the Purple Sage show in Arizona last November. I aired this interview on KPFA’s Dead to the World in December, and listener Damien Palermo sent these notes – not quite a verbatim transcript, but all the facts are here. Thanks, DP!
In the summer of 1960, Nelson was living in San Carlos. Rodney Albin invited him to go to a bookstore on Tuesdays and Thursdays to play music. They setup a bookcase stage with an amp and mike.
Rodney wanted to go looking for beatniks at Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park. Jerry Garcia played 12-string on a borrowed guitar. Nelson had a banjo. They invited Jerry to come up to San Carlos and play the bookstore there.
Jerry came up from Palo Alto to San Carlos to play. Dave McQueen (aka David X) from EPA, Robert Hunter, and Marshall Leceister were also there. Garcia sang songs including When First Unto This Country and Fennario.
During this period, after-parties were held at houses and became bigger over time with bands forming out of the party scene.
The Boar’s Head was a room upstairs at Mr. Hutchins’ bookstore that was used for music from 9-11pm a few nights a week. The following summer (1961?) another Boar’s Head was located in San Carlos (Carlos Bookstall?). Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was there one night and wanted everyone to go to Palo Alto for after parties.
Jerry wanted to learn 5-string banjo, but didn’t have one. He had a good, old Martin D-18 guitar. Nelson had a 5-string banjo, but not a good guitar, so they traded instruments. This led to the formation of the Wildwood Boys.
The Wildwood Boys played from November 1962 until about February 1963. The band had Jerry on banjo, Nelson on guitar, Hunter on mandolin or bass, and Norm van Maastricht on Dobro and guitar. The band folded when Hunter could no longer play the gigs.
Jerry brought a mandolin for Nelson to play and said they could get Eric Thompson to play guitar. This resulted in the Black Mountain Boys, who played from late 1963 to the spring of 1964. Then, Eric went off to New York and they got Sand Rothman from Berkeley to play guitar.
NRPS formed in 1969. John Dawson came back from England and had written some songs. Nelson was playing in different bands at the time. Nelson said that Jerry and Dawson played a pizza parlor in Palo Alto in ’69 (possibly The Underground on El Camino Real in Menlo Park, 5/14/69?)
The band had practices at Jerry’s place in Marin County and also played a gig at the Bear’s Lair student union at UC Berkeley, billed as Garcia & Friends (possibly 7/23/69?). The band tried to come up with a name and even kicked around ideas like “The Murdering Punks.” Hunter suggested Riders of the Purple Sage, but Nelson pointed out that the name had already been used in the 1940’s by Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, so then Hunter suggested NRPS.
Jerry had the diabetic coma in the summer of 1986. His doctor said he needed old, familiar things as part of his recovery. A Thanksgiving party was held in November 1986 where Jerry, Nelson, and Sandy Rothman played music together (Log Cabin Boys 11/23/86 in San Anselmo?)
Jerry was booked with John Kahn to play an annual artists benefit for Bill Graham (11/14/86 in San Rafael?), who pointed out that they were playing old songs that traced the roots of the Grateful Dead. Jerry then told Graham that he ought to take them to Broadway.
In October 1987, the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band played the run of shows at the Lunt Fontanne Theater on Broadway. On the JGAB CD, Almost Acoustic, Nelson sang I’m Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (by Karl Davis and Harty Taylor). Nelson said he likes the old songs of Frank Wakefield and Red Allen on the Folkways and Kitchen Tapes recordings.
The JGAB followed the Broadway run of shows with a tour of the Wiltern and Warfield Theaters in Nov/Dec 1987. The last JGAB show was on 7/9/88 at Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford University campus, followed the next day by a JGB show at the Greek Theater in Berkeley.