Studio Recordings By Bob and Betty

Thc eover of the 1968 Grateful Dead album Aoxomoxoa, engineered by Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor

The Grateful Dead were a unique organization in many ways. It is rare enough in rock history to have studio projects consistently recorded by in-house staff over many years, but the Dead have to be the only rock band with multiple in-house engineers. Some of the Grateful Dead studio projects, whether by the band or various members, were recorded by Dan Healy, and some of them were recorded by the team of Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor (later Betty Cantor-Jackson). While as a practical matter there was always a little crossover, in general any given project was engineered by Dan Healy or the team of Bob and Betty, save for a few outsiders. The vast number of Grateful Dead projects makes this a subject of contemplation in its own right.

Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor are best known for engineering and mixing live Grateful Dead projects, first and most famously Live/Dead, but other album projects as well. Betty Cantor, of course (later Betty Cantor-Jackson), achieved Deadhead immortality for her beautiful live recordings of Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead and others. To most Deadheads, a 'Betty Board" is the gold standard for live field recordings. However, the team of Matthews and Cantor had a lengthy track record of recording studio projects as well, and those mostly get second billing to their deservedly famous live recordings. The purpose of this post is to create a running tab of Bob and Betty studio projects, whether directly associated with the Grateful Dead or not.

Bob and Betty
Bob Matthews was a friend of Bob Weir's from Menlo Park. He had attended Peninsula School (K-8) with Weir, John Dawson, Steve Marcus and others, and he attended Menlo-Atherton High School with Weir, although Weir's checkered academic history meant that he attended numerous schools besides M-A. When the Grateful Dead started, Matthews worked his way into the gang as a sound engineer, initially focusing on live sound, but he seemed to have been fired in December 1967 and shipped home from the Grateful Dead's Eastern tour (per McNally).

Only in the Dead, however, does it appear that you can be fired from a band's crew and spend the next 15 years recording their albums. Somehow, after his departure Matthews eventually migrated to studio duties. He helped Owsley build the Carousel sound system in early 1968, and later Matthews seems to have been central to the whole Alembic enterprise begun by Owsley, Ron Wickersham, Rick Turner and others.

Betty Cantor was a teenager from Martinez, CA, in farthest Contra Costa County, who had met the Dead at 710 Ashbury through mutual acquaintances. She worked at the Avalon in 1967, first as a gopher, then in administration, then in the ill-fated "Denver Dog" in late 1967. When she returned to the San Francisco Avalon in early 1968, she assisted Avalon soundman Bob Cohen with various set-up duties. By early 1968, Betty was working at the Carousel, helping house manager John McIntire while also learning about sound and stage set-up from Owsley and Bob Matthews.

Since Betty was friendly with the Grateful Dead crew, she managed to get involved with the recording of various Grateful Dead projects, including the Kings Beach Bowl shows in February 1968. Due to her friendship with Bob Matthews and others, Betty was part of the team that set up Pacific Recording in San Mateo, recording Aoxomoxoa and Live/Dead.

"Bob and Betty" became a familiar name on Grateful Dead albums. From 1968 top 1970, while Dan Healy was a staff engineer at Mercury Records in San Francisco, Bob and Betty were the house engineers for the Grateful Dead. In general, Bob managed the board while Betty focused on mike placement and equipment set-up, but their actual roles were considerably more fluid. They shared duties for recording, mixing and mastering for Aoxomoxoa, Live/Dead and Workingman's Dead. Both of them were a key part of the original Alembic team.

When Dan Healy returned in late 1970, the roles of Bob and Betty became more diffuse. However, there were so many projects in the Grateful Dead world that there seemed to be plenty of work to go around. Betty Cantor seems to have taken it on herself to record the Garcia/Saunders and Jerry Garcia Band concerts throughout the 70s--and god bless her for that--but she worked on numerous other projects as well. Bob and Betty were responsible for a lot of in-house engineering for various studio projects (as was Healy), and Betty was also a member of the Grateful Dead's crew in the 70s and early 80s, mainly as Weir's guitar tech. Once she finished setting up Weir, of course, she would record the Grateful Dead, and thus elevated herself to heroic status to Deadheads everywhere.

Studio Projects
This post lists all the known studio projects engineered and/or mixed by Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor. I have not attempted to separate their roles on each project, as they can do that themselves as needed. I am just making a list of the scope of their studio work. Plenty of attention has been paid to Betty's glorious live tapes, and similar attention has been paid to Grateful Dead live album projects, so I do not need to recap that, but Bob and Betty's studio work has been taken for granted.

I am not focused on what was actually released, since that often had to do with finances or record company business, and would hardly be the province of engineers. I have also ignored the fact that almost any Grateful Dead project would have some input by Bob or Betty, setting up equipment and so forth. Just because a Healy produced project lists Bob or Betty as a production assistant does not make it worthy of a mention here. I am trying to focus on projects were either or both of them put their golden ears and self-taught expertise to work to shape the music they were hearing.

Aoxomoxoa-Grateful Dead, Pacific Recording, San Mateo, Fall 1968-Spring 1969
The Grateful Dead began to record their third album in late Fall 1968 at Pacific Recording in San Mateo. Bob and Betty had to actually build the studio from scratch. Why the band chose to record in San Mateo in an unbuilt studio is not at all clear to me, but Bob Matthews seems to have been an employee of Pacific Recording at the time. The Dead initially used an eight-track tape player, and then a twelve track, and recorded an album tentatively titled Earthquake Country.

Ampex Electronics was near the studio, and the band managed to encourage some Ampex engineers to let Pacific Recording have one of the first 16-track tape machines. The Dead instantly decided to re-record the entire album, going massively into debt to Warner Brothers in order to do so. After a lengthy process, the studio album Aoxomoxoa was recorded, with Bob and Betty listed as engineers.

In the meantime, the band snuck the 16-track out of the studio and in to the Fillmore West and the Avalon and recorded the material used on Live/Dead. Ampex engineer Ron Wickersham also threw in his lot with the Dead, and the band spawned Alembic Engineering in Novato. Alembic was located in the Dead's rehearsal space and equipment warehouse in Novato, near Hamilton Air Force Base.

In an appropriate footnote to the Aoxomoxoa, Bob and Betty remixed the album in 1971 at Alembic itself, and the re-mixed album was the only one available for much of the 1970s.

New Riders demo, Pacific High Recorders, San Francisco, November 1969
The New Riders of The Purple Sage, with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, had been playing around Bay Area clubs throughout the back half of 1969. A four song demo was recorded in November 1969, at Pacific High Recorders in San Francisco, at 60 Brady Street--no connection to Pacific Recording in San Mateo. The tracks were released on the 1986 Relix NRPS lp Before Time Began.

The peculiar thing about this demo was that Bob Matthews appears to have been the principal bassist for the New Riders at this point. This is worthy of (yet) another post, but Matthews and Phil Lesh seem to have shared bass duties for the band. Lesh was better, of course, but apparently had little interest in playng obscure Bay Area clubs on Thursday nights, thus leaving the gig to Matthews. When it came to recording, however, Matthews was needed on the board, and in any case Lesh was the better bassist, so it's no surprise that Phil recorded with them.

The cover to the 1970 Warner Bros lp Workingman's Dead. Note Robert Hunter at far left.

Workingman's Dead-Grateful Dead, Pacific High Recorders, San Francisco, January-March 1970
Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor's two great contributions to the Grateful Dead were the recordings of Live/Dead and Workingman's Dead, which to this day represent the glorious spectrum of the band's music to most listeners. In contrast to Aoxomoxoa, Workingman's was recorded and mixed in a disciplined manner at Pacific High in short sessions in early 1970. The exact dates remain a mystery to this day, but it seems to have been between late January and early March 1970.  Bob and Betty are listed as the producers of the album, "in association with the Grateful Dead."

Stoneground project, Trident Studios, London, August 1970
Bob and Betty were an essential part of Alembic, which was conceived of by Owsley as the Grateful Dead's "engineering wing." The Dead had planned to go on a Tom Donahue (KSAN) promoted international tour called "Medicine Ball Caravan," where they would play free concerts across the country, but the Dead pulled out at the last minute. The tour went on, however, and the Alembic crew was already committed to the road trip, so Bob and Betty toured America and England with various groups. Since Bob and Betty were out of town, Stephen Barncard ended up producing American Beauty.

The Medicine Ball Caravan was conceived as a sort of rolling Woodstock, with a film crew capturing the proceedings. A very obscure documentary was released, as well as a soundtrack album, and I assume Bob and Betty played a role in the recordings.  The final concert of the "Caravan" was in England on August 31, 1970, at Charlton Park near Kent. Pink Floyd and The Faces headlined the show, but only 1500 attended, since the giant Isle Of Wight Festival was happening the same weekend. Although the event was filmed and recorded, none of the English bands apparently gave their approval, so the event had no part in the movie.

Donahue's "house band" Stoneground was the only American band to play the English Festival. The one London addition to Stoneground was bassist Pete Sears, who came into the San Francisco orbit by joining Stoneground in London in 1970 for the Kent festival. Stoneground had recorded an album at Trident Studios in London during August of 1970, with Bob and Betty working the board, and Sears had joined the band through an oblique connection to Donahue.

However, the London Stoneground album was not released. The band re-recorded most of the material in San Francisco later in the year. Sears went to San Francisco with the band, but returned home to work with Rod Stewart. Of course, Sears would shortly come back to live and work in the Bay Area, but his first contact was with Bob and Betty at Trident in London.

The cover of the 1971 James And The Good Brothers lp on Columbia Records, produced by Betty Cantor and engineered by Bob and Betty at Alembic Studios in Novato

James And The Good Brothers, Alembic Studios, early 1971
Members of the Grateful Dead met James Ackroyd and Bruce and Brian Good when they toured Canada on the infamous Festival Express tour in Summer 1970, and invited them to San Francisco. The trio played a little around Bay Area clubs, and Jack Casady and members of the Dead got the group a record deal. The self-titled album was released on Columbia. Various members of the Dead and the Airplane played on the record. When James and The Good Brothers opened for the New Riders at Fillmore West in February 1971, Jack Casady and Jerry Garcia (on banjo) sat in.

The album credits say that it was engineered by Bob and Betty at "Alembic" and Eastern Sound in Toronto. Alembic Studios was the Dead's technology headquarters, full of equipment but not really a studio. I suspect that Bob and Betty used the James and The Good Brothers album as an experiment to see if Alembic was a good place to record. Since I don't know of any other recordings there, I have to assume Bob and Betty were unhappy with the results. I also wonder if Bob and Betty were actually flown to Toronto to record--my guess is probably not. Record liner notes are not obligated to be accurate, and I suspect that different engineers handled the board in Toronto. In any case, Betty Cantor is actually listed as the producer of this album, as well as sharing the engineering credits with Bob Matthews. 

The cover to the 1972 Garcia album, engineered by Bob and Betty

Garcia-Jerry Garcia, Wally Heider's Studio, San Francisco, July 1971
Garcia went into the studio to record his solo album in part because he needed the advance to buy a house for Mountain Girl. At this time, Warner Brothers and Columbia were courting the various members of the Dead in anticipation of signing them once the band's Warners contract ran out. The story about this album was that they put up a sign that said "Anita Bryant Sessions" to discourage the likes of Paul Kantner and David Crosby from disrupting the work. 

Bob and Betty had not worked on a project with extensive overdubs since Aoxomoxoa, but no doubt their experience served them in good stead here.

Bob Weir's 1972 album Ace, engineered by Bob and Betty

Burgers-Hot Tuna, Wally Heider's Studio, San Francisco, late 1971
Betty was credited with mixing the classic third Hot Tuna album, released on RCA/Grunt in early 1972. Jorma Kaukonen was the producer, but given his schedule Betty must have had a substantial role in the preparation of the album.

Ace-Bob Weir, Wally Heider's Studio, San Francisco, Winter 1972
Weir had his own solo album, engineered by Bob and Betty at Wally Heider's, probably around January 1972. Both Garcia and Ace were fairly conventional album projects for the early 1970s, and Bob and Betty's work stands up well compared to similar efforts of that time. Regardless of the peculiar means by which Bob and Betty became recording engineers, their work was just as good as conventionally trained engineers in Hollywood or New York at the time. Ace was mixed at Alembic, so it seems that Alembic was a good room for mixing, but not for recording.

Baron Von Tollbooth vs The Chrome Nun-Paul Kantner, Grace Slick and David Freiberg, Wally Heider's Studio, San Francisco, November-December 1972
The Jefferson Airplane had some deal with RCA where they had all but unlimited studio time at Wally Heider's, so they recorded constantly. The Airplane only existed in name only, if that, by the end of 1972, so the recordings were for a Paul Kantner-Grace Slick album. David Freiberg, an old friend who joined the Airplane for their final tour, had such a substantial contribution that his name was added to the album credits.

This recording was the last of the major PERRO projects. Bob and Betty engineered most of the tracks, although Columbia engineer Jim Gaines was also involved. Bob and Betty shared the mixing with long-time pro Al Schmitt. So while its unclear exactly what tracks Bob and Betty worked on, they clearly played a major role. Jerry Garcia played on 8 of the 10 tracks on the album. A number of faces who would soon become part of Jefferson Starship made their first appearances in the Starship orbit on this album, including Pete Sears and Craig Chaquico.

Manhole-Grace Slick, Wally Heider's Studio, San Francisco 1973
This Grace Slick "solo" album was really a hodge-podge of tracks recorded at Wally Heider's, at least one of which did not even include Grace. Bob Matthews was credited as one of four engineers. The album was released on RCA/Grunt in 1974.

Tales Of The Great Rum Runners-Robert Hunter, The Barn, Novato early 1974
Bob Matthews was one of a number of engineers for Hunter's debut. Columbia Records had apparently helped Mickey Hart build a studio in his barn at his ranch in Novato. However, the tapes from The Barn in the early 70s, including Hart's 1972 Rolling Thunder album, don't sound that great to me. I love the songs on Rum Runners, but the actual recording leaves a lot to be desired.

Tiger Rose-Robert Hunter, The Barn, Novato late 1974
At some point In 1974, Mickey Hart acquired the mixing board that the Dead had used at Pacific High Recorders for Workingman's Dead, and the sound of his barn studio improved significantly. Pacific High, by now called His Master's Wheels, apparently upgraded their equipment, and Hart managed to get ahold of the old board.

Jerry Garcia produced Robert Hunter's second album for Round, Tiger Rose, recorded at Mickey's ranch. Bob and Betty engineered the recording, which had a nice, crisp sound, appropriate for Hunter's voice and songs, and appropriately reminiscent of Workingman's.

Seastones-Ned Lagin, The Barn, Novato late 1974
Ned Lagin's unique project lists a number of engineers and studios, and Bob and Betty at Mickey's barn was just one of four listed studios. It's not at all clear how much recording Bob and Betty did for Lagin's project, nor how much of what they actually recorded was actually released on the Seastones album itself, but they definitely participated. 

The Fish-Barry Melton project, The Barn, Novato, early 1975
The Barry Melton solo album The Fish was only released in the UK in late 1975, on United Artists Records. While the album features one song that Melton co-wrote with Robert Hunter ("Jesse James"), two Melton co-wrote with Mickey Hart ("Speed Racer" and "Marshmellow Road") and two more he co-wrote with Peter Monk, the album credits say that it was entirely recorded in Wales with English musicians. However, Betty clearly recalls producing the album in Novato. I presume that most or all of the album was re-recorded in Wales (at Rockfield Studios), and Betty would have had no say in the matter and may not have even known that her work was superseded.

Diga Rhythm Band-Mickey Hart, The Barn, Novato, 1976
This unique percussion album was recorded in Mickey Hart's studio in 1976, with guest appearances from Garcia, David Freiberg and a few others.  Betty was one of the engineers, and it was released in late 1976 on United Artists. 

Cats Under The Stars-Jerry Garcia Band, Club Front, San Rafael August-November 1977
The Jerry Garcia Band decided to record their album at their rehearsal studio because they loved the sound, so Betty persuaded Jerry Garcia to fund some expensive recording equipment and built a studio at Front Street in San Rafael. Bob and Betty engineered the wonderful Cats Under The Stars album, which went nowhere, much to Garcia's dismay. 

Alligator Moon-Robert Hunter project, Club Front, San Rafael, late 1977/early 1978
The next project at Front Street was the Alligator Moon album with Robert Hunter and Comfort. I have a lengthy post on this subject, so I won't recap it all here. Suffice to say, Hunter was not happy with the recording and it never saw the light of day. A few tracks were released on the Relix album Promontory Rider, but the studio version of the wonderful six-song "Alligator Moon" suite has never circulated, to my knowledge.

Go To Heaven-Grateful Dead, Club Front, San Rafael July 1979-January 1980
Veteran producer Gary Lyons (Aerosmith and others) managed the album (released April 1980) and also did some of the engineering himself. Since it was at Club Front, Bob and Betty are listed as engineer (Betty, along with Lyons) and assistant engineer (Bob). It was Gary Lyons' project, but they played a role in the engineering.

Run For The Roses-Jerry Garcia, Club Front, San Rafael 1981
Betty engineered most of the tracks for Garcia's final solo album in the Fall of 1981. Bob Matthews was credited with the mixing and the overdubs. A few tracks were recorded in Los Angeles with a different engineer [thanks to Commenter LIA for pointing out my omission of this album].

Brent Mydland project, Club Front (?), 1982
Betty's final major studio project was Brent Mydland's solo album, from around 1982. I assume it was recorded at Club Front. I know that former Silver guitarist Greg Collier played on it, but I do not know what other musicians may have participated. Tapes circulate, and I have heard a little of it. It seems very well recorded, but it's in a more conventional "80s rock" style. The few times that Bob and Betty made records that were intended to be more conventional with the contemporary record industry, they sounded as good as what was around at the time, so the fact that they were almost entirely self-taught seems not to have impeded their development.

At some point in the mid-80s, Betty Cantor and Bob Matthews both faded away from the Grateful Dead scene. Since the band had largely stopped recording, I presume their opportunities to participate were fewer in any case. No doubt the financial and personal politics of the crew and the band played a part in some complex and difficult way, but that is the subject for other biographers. Bob and Betty's legacy was fabulous live tapes, some of which were turned into records and some of which we just listen to for our own enjoyment. Nonetheless it's fascinating to see the extensive number of projects they worked on in the studio. If I missed any non-live recording projects, released or not, please mention them in the Comments. 

Ron Tutt-Backing Vocals

Note Ronnie Tutt's vocal mic on the cover of the Let It Rock cd

Ron Tutt is one of rock's great drummers, by any accounting. He was the drummer for Elvis Presley from 1968-77, and apparently Elvis's band leader as well, and for the last three years (75-77) he was in the Jerry Garcia Band at the same time. He also did a zillion sessions and has played on too many great records to count. From the 1980s onward, he has also been Neil Diamond's drummer. Whatever you might think of Diamond's music, he is a hugely popular singer who can afford anyone for his band, so it's a sign of Tutt's talent that he got the call.

However, one completely unremarked fact about Tutt's tenure in the Jerry Garcia Band was that he also sang harmony vocals on a few songs. There are a number of points to make about this obscure fact, but I don't believe Tutt has ever commented on it, nor were Jerry Garcia or John Kahn ever asked about it. Tutt has only been interviewed about playing with Jerry Garcia very rarely, and I don't believe his singing ever came up. I happen to think that one of the reasons that Tutt liked playing in the Jerry Garcia Band was that he got to sing harmony vocals. This is complete speculation on my part, of course, but that is what this blog is for. So until someone interviews Tutt and asks him about this, here's my take on the curious significance of one of rock's great drummers singing harmonies on stage with Jerry Garcia.

Ron Tutt
Ron Tutt was a trained drummer, playing in a well regarded jazz program at North Texas State. He had played trumpet and violin as a child (just like Phil Lesh...hmm), and seems to have come to the drums somewhat later. Tutt was a successful studio musician in Dallas and Memphis, and through those connections he got a chance to audition for Elvis Presley. When Elvis returned to touring in 1969, his core group was his "TCB" (Taking Care of Business) Band, with James Burton on guitar, Jerry Scheff on bass, Glen Hardin on piano and Tutt on drums. Although he missed a leg or two of a tour here and there (such as in early 1970). Tutt stayed with Elvis all the way until his final tour in 1977.

Deadheads who are interested in Tutt's drumming would do well to look at the 1972 movie Elvis On Tour, which showcases Tutt's disciplined and high powered drumming to good effect. Elvis's show was a huge production, with singers, an orchestra and numerous sidemen, and Tutt absolutely drives the sound in a completely different way than he did with the Jerry Garcia Band. One reason that I think Tutt enjoyed alternating tours with Elvis and Jerry was that he had a chance to excel in both a structured and unstructured settings, as Tutt was the rare musician who thrived in both.

Singing Drummers
It's a convention of rock music that drummers don't sing. The joke is that drummers take up the drums because they can't carry a tune in the first place, but that is only true in junior high school. Real drummers are listening to the music they are playing along with, and even if they aren't skilled at other instruments--many are--they at least have to have an intuitive feel for melody and harmony. One larger issue is that drumming is a much more physical activity than playing the guitar or piano, and it can be difficult to have the breath control to sing while playing the drums.

Another sixties issue with singing drummers was the difficulty of the drummer actually hearing the music well enough to stay in tune. Monitors were not great back then, and in many cases the drummers had to play as loud as they could to make up for deficient sound system, yet another barrier to singing. The typical rock band cliche was that the drummer sang one song, usually to give the lead singers a rest. It usually had a simple beat--so he could sing while drumming--and not much of a melody. Famous examples of this include Ringo singing "Act Naturally" with The Beatles, and Keith Moon's immortal "Bell Boy" from The Who's Quadrophenia album.

There were a few singing drummers in the sixties, but very few of them were really reknowned for both vocals and drumming at the same time. Buddy Miles was a high energy soul singer, which fit in well with his drumming style. Karen Carpenter had a beautiful voice, but she played quiet pop music, which in turn fit in well with her drumming style. Only Levon Helm really stands out as a major rock singer who was also a fine drummer. As far as the Grateful Dead went, Mickey Hart's few vocal attempts over the years have really emphasized what a fine drummer he is.

All in all, the cliche that drummers don't sing is largely true. With the advent of considerably improved equipment, such as ear monitors, drummers with decent voices are much more able to participate on stage, but back in the day a singing drummer was little more than a novelty. Thus, it was quite a surprise to me when I saw the Jerry Garcia Band for the first time, at the Concord Pavilion on October 17, 1975, and Ron Tutt sang harmonies on some country song I'd never heard of (which turned out to be "Catfish John"). Back in '75, singing drummers were rare, and "harmony singing drummers" was a misnomer, since there was only Levon Helm, so it wasn't plural.

The Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins
When the Jerry Garcia and John Kahn decided to stop working with Merl Saunders in 1975, the switch to Nicky Hopkins also marked a distinct transformation in the sound of Garcia's "other" band. The Garcia/Saunders aggregation, under various names, had derived from a soul and jazz feel. Although many of the songs they performed were actually rock songs, such as Bob Dylan songs, they were done in a modified R&B style, appropriate to a band featuring Merl Saunders's funky Hammond organ playing. Hopkins, however, not only played grand piano, he played in a remarkable mixture of American piano styles, from ranging from Chicago blues to New Orleans jazz, with nods to everybody from Jerry Lee Lewis to Horace Silver along the way. The new Jerry Garcia Band had a more "Americana" sound that was distinct from the R&B sound of Garcia/Saunders.

One characteristic of the Garcia/Saunders sound was that while there was a variety of lead vocalists over the years, there were almost no shared or harmony vocals. Jerry and Merl sang lead on different songs, and at various times Sarah Fulcher, Tom Fogerty and occasional guests also sang lead, but shared vocals were very rare. I can think of no song where Jerry and Merl sang together, for example. The only song I can think of where there backing vocals at all were some rare performances of "WPLJ," sung by Fogerty, with backups on the chorus by Garcia. Call and response style vocals are very common in soul music, but Garcia and Saunders never used that format in any performance that I can think of, nor was harmony singing part of the mixture.

Once Hopkins joined the band, however, the door was open for some more honky tonk sounds that featured more country style vocals, very much in tune with Garcia's tastes. Garcia has an effective singing voice, in my opinion, but it is a little thin, and it sounds better with harmonies on many choruses, a pattern that defined many Dead songs. One problem with the 1975 Garcia Band, however, was the absence of harmony vocalists. John Kahn never sang on stage or in the studio, to my knowledge, so he was not a candidate. Hopkins actually liked to sing, but he was an absolutely terrible singer. In fact for the first few '75 JGB shows Hopkins sang lead on a few of his own songs (from his solo albums), and he was just dreadful. There was no chance that Hopkins could sing harmony, since he couldn't effectively carry a tune.

That left Tutt. Tutt actually has a nice singing voice, a bit thin and reedy, but in fact that made it a nice fit for Jerry's voice. I have always wondered how this came about. When the band first rehearsed "Catfish John," who suggested singing harmony? Jerry? Ron Tutt? I have to think Garcia ruminated over the need for some harmony, and Tutt offered to sing the part. Since we know that Tutt played had played other instruments, it's not like he didn't know what a harmony part would be. I have to guess that no one had ever offered to let Tutt sing harmonies before. He was such a good drummer that he seemed to be at ease while playing, so that must have made it easy to control his voice, and the Dead always have great sound, so the monitors must have allowed him to hear Garcia's vocals.  I'm not aware of Tutt singing harmonies with any other group or on any other recordings.

Writing a long post about Jerry Garcia's drummer singing harmonies may seem trivial, and indeed trivial Grateful Dead scholarship is the purpose of this blog (the research blog is elsewhere). Nonetheless, I think harmony vocals were a very big part of the sound that Garcia was looking for with his own electric group. In general, the trend over the next several years was towards increased harmony vocals, and Ron Tutt's contribution in 1975 was the first indicator of that, however minor that may have seemed at the time.

It's worth noting that even when Donna Godchaux joined the band, Tutt continued to sing harmonies. Not on every song, of course, as with Donna around it was less critical, but here and there Garcia would have been looking for a three part harmony and Tutt could handle it. It's true that Keith Godchaux had a mic as well, but in my experience he only joined in on the chorus parts of "Don't Let Go" and "Who Was John," and otherwise avoided singing. The fact that Tutt continued to sing harmonies even after Donna joined the band indicates both that Garcia thought the sound was important and that Tutt enjoyed doing it. By the time Maria Muldaur joined the band, Tutt had left, but the three part harmony sound remained mostly intact for the life of the Jerry Garcia Band, albeit with a variety of different singers.

Ron Tutt does not seem interested in giving interviews about his time with Jerry Garcia. He still speaks fondly of Garcia's music, but based on an interview on an Elvis site, he seems bothered by financial issues related to the release of various Jerry Garcia Band archival material. Given that Tutt and Kahn were actually partners with Garcia in the original Jerry Garcia Band, this is probably no small matter to him. As a result of these serious issues, however, there's no chance to ask him how he came to be singing in the Jerry Garcia Band. Tutt, great a drummer as he is, probably never got asked to sing, and appreciated the chance to show his talents. Garcia, in turn, seems to have been intrigued by the possibility of harmonies and took his music further in that direction, all because he had a drummer who could sing.

December 31, 1977 Winterland: New Riders of The Purple Sage with Spencer Dryden

Marin County Line-The New Riders Of The Purple Sage (MCA Records 1977)

The Grateful Dead show at Winterland on December 31, 1977 was a great show, and it is usually remembered for the Grateful Dead starting their second set at 12:30 instead of midnight, because Bill Graham was over with Santana at the Cow Palace and he wanted to participate in the Grateful Dead's New Year's Eve celebration as well. While it has been famously reported that little flyers were handed out at the door that said (I paraphrase) "Good things come to those who wait. New Year's Eve will start at 12:30 tonight," those flyers were not handed out to everyone. Certainly I didn't get one, nor did anyone around me (about 60 feet back on the floor, Phil side-stage right), so we had no idea why the start of the set was delayed. But that's not the purpose of this post.

The New Riders Of The Purple Sage opened the show, and performed a fine set. The Riders had undergone a Renaissance of sorts, with new bassist Stephen Love and drummer Patrick Shanahan. Love had replaced Skip Battin, and Shanahan had replaced Spencer Dryden, who had become the band's manager. The New Riders had a pretty good new album, Marin County Line, their best album in some years. You don't have to take my word for it--in 2009 the New Riders released a Betty Board tape of the set as part of their archive series. I admit, I haven't gotten around to getting the cd, although I will eventually. But this too is not the purpose of the post.

There was certainly quite a party on the Winterland floor that night, so I assume the party backstage was pretty good, too, and probably better. However, because I'm me, I actually wrote down the fact that newly promoted New Riders manager Spencer Dryden sat in on drums that night. So for the only night that I'm aware of, the New Riders had two drummers. Since Dryden knew all the songs, he played more confidently than some friend who would have just been grooving along, so the Riders had a much more active Dead-style rhythm section than usual. The lively drumming made the Riders rock a little harder than usual, just what the doctor ordered for opening a New Year's Eve Dead concert at Winterland.

Noting the fact that I attended one of if not the only show where the New Riders played with two drummers is exactly the sort of trivia that this blog was intended for, and I would have posted it anyway. Nonetheless, in looking at all the promotional material for the album on the website, and various other places, nobody seems to have mentioned that Dryden sat in with the Riders that night. I have a feeling that everyone just forgot. Now, possibly its alluded to somewhere on the album, but I don't know that. In any case, even if it was announced from the stage (I no longer recall--I knew what Dryden looked like, so I didn't need to be told), it may not have been clear that Dryden sat in for the entire show. Dryden died in 2005, so he's not around to check in with--although of course for all we know, since it was New Year's Eve, he didn't remember either--but at least for the record I wanted to mark down that the Riders were six strong that night and the better for it.