David Kemper-Drums: Highlights

David Kemper, drums

David Kemper was the drummer for the Jerry Garcia Band for longer than anyone else, from July 1983 until December 1993. He played more shows with the Garcia Band than any other drummer, and probably more shows than all of them put together. I believe only John Kahn and Melvin Seals played more shows with Garcia outside of the Grateful Dead. Kemper, born about 1948, was contemporary in age to Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann, the younger members of the Grateful Dead. However, in contrast to the Dead's strange oddysey, Kemper went directly to Hollywood studios in 1966, and has been nothing but a successful musician ever since.

David Kemper's story is best told by David Kemper. A legendary interview by Barry Smolin that appeared in 1996 in the magazine Dupree's Diamond News not only tells Kemper's story but gives the best insight into life inside the Jerry Garcia Band. Kemper is witty, nostalgic and clear-eyed all at once. (anyone who hasn't read the interview should do so now).  Kemper summed up his experience in the Jerry Garcia Band with the words "there's something about having a foot on the gas pedal and a foot on the brakes at the same time that's utterly exhausting." Nothing more clearly describes the unique tension of the Jerry Garcia Band than having one foot on the gas and one on the brakes.

Given how well Kemper described his own time with Garcia and how vast his musical experience has been, I thought I would approach my picture of Kemper's drumming differently. When I reviewed the careers of other Garcia drummers, like Paul Humphrey and Gaylord Birch, despite their fantastic musical pedigrees they were just names on the backs of albums--a lot of really great albums, I might add--and building a brief but structured biography made good sense. However, I am going to take a subjective approach with David Kemper, and point out some of his musical contributions that I am aware of. Thus, my post on David Kemper's music will be a few snapshots rather than a continuous movie, but it will give a good picture of the breadth and depth of his music, and it will show how his contributions to the Jerry Garcia Band were not just luck.

The cover of Prisoner In Disguise, Linda Ronstadt's 1976 album on Asylum. David Kemper played drums on the song "Tracks Of My Tears."

"Tracks Of My Tears"-Prisoner In Disguise: Linda Ronstadt (Asylum Records 1975)
David Kemper was born in Chicago in 1947 or '48. His father was an engineer, and Kemper spent most of his youth in Ogden, UT. He learned drums at age 7, and never wanted to do anything else. He was both a member of the school orchestra and in local rock bands, so he was both trained and a rock and roller. In 1966, Kemper graduated High School and just barely escaped the draft. He promptly moved to Hollywood and started working in recording studios. Good drummers are always in demand so he found work immediately, although initially it was on the usual low-level stuff. Although Kemper preferred British Invasion style music to psychedelia, he did see the Grateful Dead somewhere in Los Angeles in 1968, and while he enjoyed them, the details are fuzzy thanks to one Mr. Owsley Stanley.

By the mid-70s, Kemper was a regular drummer for some of the top artists in the record industry. At the time, there was hardly a bigger act than Linda Ronstadt. In particular, Ronstadt was the best selling artist who didn't have her own band. No one "got a call" for an Eric Clapton or Elton John album, as they had their own drummers, but Ronstadt used different musicians on every track. Her sessions paid well and her producers could get any player they wanted. The mere fact that Kemper played on an album like Prisoner In Disguise was a sign of his status in the Los Angeles session player world.

Smokey Robinson's "Tracks Of My Tears" is one of the great pop songs of the 60s. It's a daunting task to cover it in a country style, but Linda Ronstadt pulled it off. Ironically, the record sounds more contemporary today than it did at the time. Most of the popular 'modern country' singers like Faith Hill and Trisha Yearwood are just taller versions of Linda circa the 70s. In her time, however, Linda Ronstadt was too rocked up for Nashville country, yet she had what sounded like an unvarnished throwback sound by the standards of slickly produced 70s rock radio. The twist of switching the narrator from a man (Smokey) to a woman (Linda) added a neat angle to the song.

"Tracks Of My Tears" was the only track on the album that Kemper played on, but the song had a wide impact. Ronstadt's version made the charts in rock (#25), country (#11) and adult contemporary (#4). It is conventional now for country singers, particularly female ones, to have a sort of Motown edge to their ballads, and much of that stems from the success of "Tracks." Of course, most of the credit should go to Linda's fantastic vocal and the powerful yet understated production by Peter Asher, but Kemper's the man behind the band. His easy, soulful drumming keeps the beat going without funking it up and copying the Motown record, a lot harder thing to avoid on a classic than you might think.

David Kemper played drums on the 1975 Atco album Mother Focus

Mother Focus-Focus (Atco Records 1975)
In complete contrast to the spare drumming required for Linda Ronstadt's country rock, shortly afterwards Kemper recorded and toured with the Dutch progressive jazz rock group. I admit I have not heard a Focus album in decades, and at the time I was unaware that Kemper played on Mother Focus, but I am including it here simply to illustrate Kemper's versatility. Focus was a Dutch progressive rock group, playing mostly instrumental jazz-rock, comparable to American groups like Tony Williams Lifetime or Larry Coryell's Foreplay. The musical leaders of the group were guitarist Jan Akkerman and organist Thijs Van Leer, with various players on bass and drums.

Startlingly, the second Focus album (called Focus II or Moving Waves in different countries), released in late 1971, had an AM hit single. A re-edited version of the song "Hocus Pocus" became an international hit in 1972. The song featured Akkerman's melodic guitar riffs contrasted against musical figures played by Van Leer on organ, flute and other instruments, most memorably some playful yodeling, which is what everyone remembers. "Hocus Pocus" was completely unrepresentative of the band, but the song has become a sort of classic, even though no one remembers Focus, and the song is regularly used for soundtracks and commercials (it was the theme for the 2010 Nike World Cup commercial, for example). Thus, a Dutch progressive rock group found themselves touring America and England.

By the time of the sixth Focus album, the band was grinding to a halt. They recorded the album in Los Angeles in mid-1975, and since their drummer (Englishman Colin Allen) had quit, they hired Kemper to play on the album. Thus, relatively soon after he had recorded the spare, tasteful drum parts for Linda Ronstadt's classic Motown cover, Kemper was playing intentionally complex and expansive jazz-rock, although at this time Focus was heading in a funkier direction (as was most jazz at the time). After Atco Records released Mother Focus in October 1975, the band still needed a drummer for an English tour, so they hired Kemper to play on their February 1976 UK Tour. Kemper had liked the band, so he joined for the tour. At the start of the tour, Akkerman abruptly quit. The great French guitarist Philip Catherine filled in, apparently quite well, but that spelled the end for Focus. Kemper returned to the Los Angeles recording studios.

The 1982 Elektra album Television Theme Songs, by Mike Post

Television Theme Songs-Mike Post (Elektra Records-1982)

Mike Post was the best and most prolific composer of iconic television theme songs in the rock music era. The list is endless: "Rockford Files," "Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue," "White Shadow" and "Magnum P.I." are the best known, but there were numerous others. I'm not certain if Kemper played on the original recordings, but when Post released an 1982 album of his best known songs, David Kemper was in the credits. I'm not certain whether the album had the same recordings or not--it might have--but in any case Post always used the cream of Los Angeles session men, like Larry Carlton and Ian Underwood, so the fact that Kemper appeared on the record meant he was a Hollywood studio A-lister.

September 26, 1998 Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA: Bob Dylan/Van Morrison/Lucinda Williams
Kemper drummed for the Jerry Garcia Band for 10 years, and by the end of his tenure the band regularly headlined 17,000 seat basketball arenas in the Northeast. Yet, as Kemper pointed out, the Garcia Band's existence outside of music industry orthodoxy meant that he got none of the recognition that came with drumming in a star band. Without the recognition, he didn't get the phone calls that freelancers depend on for gigs and recordings. He only got into the JGB because Kahn called a producer and asked "who's hot?" (I suspect the producer was Michael Omartian.) Thus Kemper had no real social connections with the Garcia Band, and since he lived in Southern California and flew in for shows, he never hung out with the band except on the road.

Ironically enough, Kemper did get to hang out with one friend of Jerry's, namely Bob Dylan. Dylan used to visit Garcia backstage on the road, which suggests that the story I heard some decades ago that Dylan used to call up Garcia late at night in the 90s when both were on the road had some truth to it. Although Dylan never came on stage with the Garcia Band--darn it--he must have heard them, since he hired Kemper in 1996, three years after Kemper was mysteriously released from his Garcia Band duties.

Dylan and Van Morrison were touring together in the early fall of 1998. The perpetually difficult Morrison had briefly bailed out on the tour, causing Dylan to add Lucinda Williams, only to have Van Morrison rejoin. The two headliners alternated closing the show, whether to assuage egos or simply to facilitate the load out wasn't clear. In any case, I saw both Bay Area shows. On September 25 at Concord, Van had come on before Dylan and played a stunning set that even Dylan had trouble following. Bob returned the favor the next night at Shoreline, coming on before Van and playing his classic songs with a raving intensity. Dylan had a great band that year, but Kemper was the star that night (the other players were Tony Garnier-bass, Bucky Baxter-pedal steel and Larry Campbell-guitar). Ten years with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake seems to have been the perfect training to drum behind Bob Dylan. For all the fine work I had seen Kemper do with Garcia, this night with Dylan topped them all.

David Kemper has had an amazing career as a drummer, and as far as I know it's still going strong. I have just selected a few highlights that I was personally aware of, but you can choose your own. I found a list of credits for Kemper on a Bob Dylan site (below), and while I doubt it's complete, its impressive by any standards. Note that Kemper is listed on numerous 'Greatest Hits' type albums, meaning he played on a lot of pop hits, even if he wasn't a full time member of the band. Besides the remarkable history of having drummed 10 years with Jerry Garcia and 6 with Bob Dylan, Kemper has a broad history in popular American rock, country and television music, and he adds to the great tradition of drummers in the Jerry Garcia Band.

An incomplete list of David Kemper session credits
1971 John Stewart               Sunstorm
1974 Kinky Friedman         Kinky Friedman
1974 Cashman, Pistilli & West  Lifesong
1974 Patti Dahlstrom          Your Place or Mine
1974 Michael Omartian        White Horse
1975 Cliff De Young            Cliff De Young
1975 Elkie Brooks                Rich Man's Woman
1975 Randy Edelman            Prime Cuts
1975 Andrew Gold               Andrew Gold
1975 Johnny Rivers              Help Me Rhonda
1975 Johnny Rivers              New Loves and Old Friends
1975 Glen Campbell            Rhinestone Cowboy
1975 Second Chapter of Acts   In the Volume/with Footnotes
1975 Linda Ronstadt           Prisoner in Disguise
1975 Focus                          Mother Focus
1975 Thijs Van Leer           O My Love
1976 Dion                           Streetheart
1976 Keith Christmas         Stories from a Human Zoo
1976 Michel Polnareff        Michel Polnareff
1976 Johnny Rivers            Wild Night
1976 Geoff Muldaur           Motion
1976 Michael Omartian      Adam Again
1976 Deardurff & Joseph    Deardurff and Joseph
1976 Peter Pringle               Peter Pringle
1976 Manhattan Transfer    Coming Out
1977 Bernie Leadon            Natural Progressions
1977 Joan Armatrading       Show Some Emotion
1977 Focus                          Ship of Memories
1977 Rick Cunha                 Moving Pictures
1978 Dane Donohue            Dane Donohue
1979 Allan Clarke                I Wasn't Born Yesterday
1979 Louise Goffin              Kid Blue
1979 Phillips - Macleod       Le Partie Du Cocktail
1979 Whiteface                    Whiteface
1980 Terence Boylan           Suzy
1980 Danny Kortchmar       Innuendo
1980 T-Bone Burnett           Truth Decay
1980 Allan Clarke                The Only One
1981 Chi Coltrane                Silk & Steel
1981 Gary Wright                The Right Place
1982 T-Bone Burnette          Trap Door [EP]
1982 Mike Post                    Television Theme Songs
1983 Leo Kottke                  Time Step
1984 T-Bone Burnette          Behind the Trap Door
1984 America                       Perspective
1985 Stevie Nicks                Rock A Little
1988 Belinda Carlisle          Heaven on Earth
1988 Jerry Garcia                Almost Acoustic
1989 Green on Red             This Time Around
1989 Peter Case           The Man with the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar
1989  [Soundtrack]             Great Balls of Fire
1989 Matthew Ward           Toward Eternity
1990 John Hiatt                  Stolen Moments
1990 Orleans                      Still the One
1990 Kimm Rogers            Soundtrack of My Life
1991 Second Chapter of Acts   Roar Of Love
1991 Jerry Garcia Band       Jerry Garcia Band
1991 Grass Roots                Anthology: 1965-1975
1991 Stevie Nicks               Timespace: Best of Stevie Nicks
1991 Sam Phillips               Cruel Inventions
1992 David Baerwald         Triage
1992 Belinda Carlisle          Her Greatest Hits
1992 Mitsou                        Mitsou
1993 Chuck Prophet            Balinese Dancer
1993 Steve Young               Switchblades of Love
1995   [Soundtrack]             Boys On the Side
1996 David Cassidy            When I'm a Rock N Roll Star: Collection
1997 Jerry Garcia                How Sweet It Is
1997 Bob Dylan                  Time Out of Mind
1997 Dane Donohue            Dane Donohue
1997 Andrew Gold              Thank You for Being a Friend
1998 Allan Clarke               I Wasn't Born Yesterday
1998 Steve Poltz                 One Left Shoe

Gaylord Birch-Drums

Gaylord Birch playing drums for The Pointer Sisters, circa 1974

When the Jerry Garcia Band ground to a halt in 1978, Garcia fans did not know what to expect with his next group, Reconstuction, which appeared on the scene in January of 1979. Most fans, myself included, were not quite ready for a jazz-funk band where Garcia was just the lead guitarist, singing the occasional song along with some other lead vocalists. I myself enjoyed the band the one time I saw them (May 19, 1979), but I couldn't really take it all in. In retrospect, however, Reconstruction holds up very well as a fascinating, sophisticated band. In fact, although most Deadheads were only barely aware of it, Reconstruction's funky sound was very much in a groove with contemporary jazz at the time, drawing inspiration from groups like Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. One of the keys to Reconstruction's sound was drummer Gaylord Birch (1946-1996). Although Birch was hardly a household name, it turns out that he was well known amongst musicians as one of the best drummers in Oakland, a not at all inconsiderable title.

Oakland, CA
Oakland had been a great California city, primarily because it was the terminus of the first Transcontinental Railroad, and many other rail lines besides. After World War 2, however, when people could afford private automobiles to drive themselves across the Bay Bridge (opened in 1936), Oakland slowly shrank in importance. Still, along with its thriving container port, Oakland had two major exports in the early 1970s: great sports teams and innovative funk music. Along with the Oakland A's, Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors, champions all, Oakland had some popular and influential funk bands. Tower of Power were originally from Fremont, but had relocated to Oakland by the time they burst onto the world in 1970. Herbie Hancock's groundbreaking Headhunters album and band had an Oakland rhythm section, with bassist Paul Jackson and drummer Mike Clark. On the popular side were The Pointer Sisters, four Oakland sisters who had learned to sing in church and played catchy soul music, while still keeping it real with some lowdown Oaktown funk.

The Pointer Sisters were first discovered by Elvin Bishop, who started using them as part-time backup singers when some of them were still in High School. In fact, Elvin alludes to them on the Oct 10 '68 Mickey And The Hartbeats tape, when he says he has some backup singers who "sing like Angels." Through working with Bishop for the next few years, the four sisters (Anita, Bonnie, June and Ruth) started to get known. Not only did they sing like angels, but they were tall, attractive, elegant and great dancers. How could they miss?

They didn't miss. The Pointer Sisters were signed to Blue Thumb Records and released their first album in 1973. They had a great hit with a funky, swinging version of Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can-Can" ("Now is the time for all good men/to get together with one another"). The Pointer Sisters' secret weapon was bandleader and drummer Gaylord Birch. Birch had played in many Oakland ensembles, but he was well-known, by Mike Clark most of all, as the funkiest of Oakland drummers, and that's saying a lot. Birch led the Pointer Sisters band from about 1973 to 1976 (for a glimpse of Birch with the Pointer Sisters, see here).

"How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)" was the Pointer Sisters' biggest and most memorable hit. Anita and Bonnie Pointer, along with producer David Rubinson, wrote the song. It is catchy and hummable, but at the same time Birch drives it along with an irresistible dance beat, pushing and pulling so you can't help feeling the funk. Once again, this is a song that many Deadheads will assert that they don't recognize, until they actually hear it. In some cases, younger listeners may actually recognize the song from a sample (by Salt N Pepa) or a cover (by Queen Latifah), as the song prefigures modern rap and R&B music in all of the best ways. Although the Pointer Sisters have had a variety of ups and downs, they are still together, representing for Oakland and looking and sounding great.

Oakland's primary 70s jazz export was the rhythm section for Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. The Headhunters showed that it was possible to play far out jazz while maintaining an exciting, danceable beat the whole time, and they were hugely successful, even after Hancock moved on. The Headhunters were driven by Oakland's finest players, bassist Paul Jackson and drummer Mike Clark.  Clark recalled Birch's playing in an interview: 

When I developed my funk style in the Bay Area there were two other guys who were playing a similar style: Dave Garibaldi [of Tower Of Power] and Gaylord Birch. That was like the Bay Area style. When you walked by a night club, that's what you heard at that time. It was a really exciting period....

The other drummer who was into this Bay Area style at that time was a really great drummer named Gaylord Birch. He was a strong performer who played funk and jazz and he had a red hot spirit. He was so fiercely hot that it was scary. What made him magnificent was that he had hands like Sugar Ray Robinson. To watch him was gorgeous, his movement around the set was so graceful it reminded me of Sugar Ray. He put shots together that were uncanny and he could raise the spirit so high, you would jump for joy. This guy was an amazing drummer.

He played with the Pointer Sisters and with Cold Blood, but really, he played in his own bands and other people's bands and organ groups around Oakland, and that's where you got to hear the real stuff. That other stuff was great but it was produced and he had to do like we all did, he had to deal with the business. But at home, in the back alley, is where you could really hear Gaylord get down. He was frightening.

The importance of Clark's opinion can't be overstated. Mike Clark's praise of Birch as a funky drummer is comparable to Jerry Garcia praising a guitarist as an improviser. Clark took Oakland funk worldwide, so his influences were important for that alone. Besides the Pointer Sisters and plenty of session work, Birch also had stints with Graham Central Station, Cold Blood and Santana. Birch played with Cold Blood about 1973, and appeared on the live Vintage Blood cd that was released in 2001. He also toured with Santana from July to October 1976, although I'm not aware of any albums he played on.

Gaylord Birch and Jerry Garcia
Gaylord Birch seems to have been friendly with Merl Saunders, which appears to be true of most of the jazz and funk musicians in the Bay Area in the late 60s and early 70s. Since Merl was signed to Fantasy Records by 1968, I suspect that Merl's connection to Gaylord Birch goes back at least to those days, when Fantasy was located in Oakland. Birch played on at least two sessions with Merl where Jerry Garcia played, so Birch and Garcia must have met prior to Reconstruction. On Saunders' Fire Up album, released in 1973, Birch played congas on "Expressway To Your Heart" (Bill Vitt played drums). That track could have been overdubbed, but Birch was the trap drummer on a January 14, 1974 Saunders track called "Bolinas Brown," released in 1997 on the Keepers cd, which featured Garcia on lead guitar.

JGMF reports the intriguing knowledge that Garcia used to sit in for some of Saunders more low key gigs in the 1974-75 period, and a variety of Bay Area drummers may have played the dates, including possibly Gaylord Birch. So it's not impossible that Birch and Garcia had shared a stage prior to Reconstruction, although hardly certain. However, when John Kahn put Reconstruction together, Birch had never actually been in a true band setting with Garcia, even though they had played together.

Merl Saunders reported that Birch asked him once on stage during a Reconstruction show what an unanticipated cheer was for, and Merl said "Jerry moved his leg." While this story was no doubt exaggerated for effect, the point of it was that Birch had no idea of the devotion of Deadheads to Garcia. Birch was no innocent--he had toured for years with the Pointer Sisters and played with Santana, but Garcia was in a different category. Nonetheless, like all the other members of Reconstruction, Birch answered the challenge and played absolutely brilliantly.

Birch was the drummer for Reconstruction throughout their entire existence, from January through September 1979. Interestingly, Birch made an encore appearance, serving as the Jerry Garcia Band drummer for 10 local gigs from October 7, 1985 through February 21, 1986. I assume that David Kemper was otherwise booked, and Birch filled the chair. Certainly it was a mark of his stature that he was invited back, if only briefly. I listened to his final appearance at The Stone, and it seemed to me, in any case, that Birch favored some fairly fast tempos, giving the JGB a surprisingly lively feel.

Aftermath
Gaylord Birch continued his career as a world class drummer, although he never played with Garcia again after 1986, to my knowledge. He did rejoin Santana for a World Tour in the Spring of 1991, filling in for Billy Johnson on the traps. In that role, Birch was in Santana when they co-headlined the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas with the Grateful Dead on April 27-28, 1991. In a broad sense, then, Birch shared the stage again with Garcia, but not at the same time.

Unfortunately, Gaylord Birch died of cancer in 1996, at the age of 50. Clearly he had a lot of music left in him, but it was not to be. However, his musical legacy is powerful, if not widely known. He drives classic Pointers hits like "Yes We Can Can" and "How Long," and his work with Garcia seems better to me every year, as I become more knowledgeable about what he was actually doing. But don't take my word for it; find a Reconstruction tape, turn it up, and listen to Gaylord Birch playing the drums--the man could lay it down.  Like Dave Garibaldi, Mike Clark or Rickey Henderson, he represented and did Oakland proud

Unknown Percussionist, 3rd Set: December 31, 1982, Oakland Auditorium, Oakland, CA

My notes for the 3rd set of the Grateful Dead's 12-31-82 show in Oakland

In the 1960s, no one remembered anything about Grateful Dead concerts. In the 70s, we started to remember highlights, but didn't take notice of every detail. By the 1980s, however, there were a fair number of us trying to take note of everything. We didn't know each other, but one by one we started to make connections, and when our own silos of information got merged, all sorts of details fell into place. Deadbase was the first great collective Grateful Dead historical project, remarkable for prefiguring widespread internet use by a decade. The first edition of Deadbase arrived in my mailbox in 1987, and it set the table for all of us to start fitting the pieces together. Today, thanks to Deadlists, The Archive, Dead.net and numerous blogs, all sort of information is available. That is particularly true for Grateful Dead shows from the 1980s onward, as numerous Deadheads were making a point of noting everything.

Nonetheless, looking back on my old notes, now and again I come across tiny mysteries from the 1980s that remain to be resolved. The Grateful Dead's final show at the old Oakland Auditorium Arena, prior to its upgrade as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, was on December 31, 1982. The guests for the third set were Etta James and the Tower of Power horns. They played a five-song set of R&B songs that for the most part had been long-gone since the Pigpen era: "Lovelight" (sung by Weir), "Tell Mama" (Etta's big hit, not the Savoy Brown song), "Baby What You Want Me To Do," "Hard To Handle" and "Midnight Hour." It was a great little set, with Etta in fine voice and the always-on Tower horns providing a serious jolt, and the Dead stayed tight in the pocket and played a rocking, uptempo set.

However, as my notes (above) attest, the ensemble was joined for all five numbers by an additional percussionist. The Dead didn't really "need" a third drummer, what with two drummers and a driving horn section, but I just assumed the guest was some pal of Mickey Hart's. While I never actually took notes at the show itself--even I draw the line--I always wrote down my notes before I went to bed, so my memory was fresh. You can see that I wrote "Airto-percussion," and then crossed his name out with a question mark. I must have looked at a picture at Airto and seen that it could not have been him. I had seen Airto before with the Dead, but I had thought that perhaps he had shaved his beard, but a closer look at the back of some album must have assured me it was not him.

I remember a wiry white guy, about 40ish, long sideburns but losing his hair on top, playing timbale-style with two sticks. And he was a real drummer, too, tucking into Mickey and Billy's  rhythm machine like a real pro. He wasn't just some token guy goofing along on the congas. Over the ensuing weeks and years, I always figured I would see a reference to a tape or a photo of this guy playing with the Dead on New Year's Eve 82/83, but I never have. Everyone else who sat in with the Grateful Dead seems to have put it on his or her website, but whoever this guy was, I can't find him.

It's not a big deal, really, that there was an additional percussionist for the last set of the Grateful Dead's New Year's Eve show on December 31, 1982. But as a Deadhead you make the decision that you are either going to pursue the details or you aren't. While I have never been a guy who worries much about tape sources and lineage, for example (though I give thanks to the people who do), I obsess far past the normal about venues and guests, because I made the decision that it was something that I Needed To Know. Thus for me, after 29 years, this little mystery about the Dead's guest percussionist is still hanging out there, but I haven't given up yet. One of these days--hopefully in the Comment section--someone is sure to know, and then I can check it off.

Johnny d'Fonseca Jr-drums

The 2004 Jerry Garcia Band cd After Midnight, recorded on February 28, 1980 with Johnny d'Fonseca Jr on drums

Johnny d'Fonseca Jr. was the drummer for the Jerry Garcia Band for a modest period of time in 1979 and 1980. He debuted with the JGB at the Keystone Berkeley on October 7, 1979, and his final show with the band was at the very same venue on March 27, 1980. In between d'Fonseca played on the East Coast tour in February 1980, including a show at Kean College in Union, NJ on February 28, 1980 that was released on Rhino Records as After Midnight in 2004. d'Fonseca was only about twenty years old at the time, but he was a fine drummer with a spare, swinging style that was reminiscent of Ronnie Tutt. Sadly, d'Fonseca died in an auto accident shortly after that, and a promising musical career was cut short along with his life. As a result, Garcia fans tend not to think about him much, not least because it's hard not to feel sad about it. However, despite his young age, d'Fonseca has a unique status in the Garcia universe that is worthy of note, so this post will attempt to accumulate the available information about him and celebrate his brief career.

Overview: Robert Hunter on Johnny d'Fonseca Jr.
The liner notes to the After Midnight set are written by the opening act, one Robert Hunter. Amidst some other interesting observations, Hunter says

Little Johnny Dee was the son of Big Johnny Dee, a jolly Jamaican carpenter who built Mickey's studio in the pastures of Novato. I remember Little Johnny as a quiet kid who grew up around the scene and liked to work out on Mickey's drum kit, which was always set up in the studio, getting tips from the master along the way. This tour was his first chance at the big time. It was damned sweet of Jerry to hand it to him, and the kid proved adequate to the chance. Johnny, Sr., had died a while before (cancer, I think) and Johnny, Jr., didn't have long to live, with a car wreck soon to write Paid to his future, but at least he got a chance to do his dream for a while.

Hunter, as usual, sums up the story succinctly and touchingly, but with clear eyes. Johnny d'Fonseca Jr grew up on Mickey Hart's ranch, practiced on Mickey's drums, with some advice from Mickey along the way, and ended up playing drums with Garcia, coming up through the farm system in the best possible way. Although details are few, it's still a nice story.

Johnny d'Fonseca Sr
Johnny d'Fonseca Sr was the brother of Grateful Dead manager Ron Rakow's wife, Lydia. Johnny Sr seems to have joined the scene around 1969, and according to McNally he was the caretaker and carpenter of Mickey Hart's ranch in Novato. While I think that d'Fonseca was focused on the building side of the equation rather than the electronic side, there were plenty of engineers in the Grateful Dead crew, so that aspect of the studio was covered. However, if a mixing board was getting rained on because the roof leaked, no amount of electronic wizardry was going to help. I assume that d'Fonseca Sr also kept the ranch going while Hart was on the road with the Grateful Dead in the 69-71 period.

Besides working for Mickey in Novato, d'Fonseca Sr seems to have taken on the role of "House Carpenter" formerly held down by Laird "Barney" Grant. Grant, a childhood friend of Garcia's from school days in Menlo Park, had been the Dead's first roadie, but he didn't like the travel. In the end, he stayed home and handled carpentry and construction work for the band in their rehearsal studio and presumably elsewhere. In 1972, Garcia brought Grant some land in Mendocino as a thirtieth birthday present, so d'Fonseca Sr seems to have taken over the carpentry role after Grant moved North. I believe De Fonsesca Sr did some construction work on Front Street Studios in the 1970s, which was just a big warehouse when the Garcia Band started rehearsing there in the middle of the decade.

D'Fonseca Sr is thanked on at least a couple of albums. On Mickey Hart's 1972 Rolling Thunder album, recorded at Mickey's ranch, "Special Thanks" are given to Rock Scully, Johnny D and others. On the 1974 Hunter album Tales Of The Great Rum Runners, the album liner notes thank "Johnny D Jr and Sr," a sign of how embedded in the scene the d'Fonseca's were. d'Fonseca must have been a young teenager then, and it had to be pretty heady to see yourself namechecked on the back of an album. There are some nice pictures of d'Fonseca Jr on the After Midnight album, and he looks pretty Italian to me, not surprising considering his name. How Italians ended up in Jamaica is somewhat of a mystery, but that of course is what makes islands interesting places.

The 1980 JGB and Johnny d'Fonseca Jr
I have never quite been able to figure out when Johnny d'Fonseca Jr was born, but supposedly he was not much older than twenty when he died. Since Hart bought the Novato ranch in 1969, d'Fonseca Jr would have been about 9 or so when he started going there. I don't know for a fact that Jr lived at the ranch the entire time, or even if he lived there at all, but he clearly spent a lot of time there growing up. As a result, he would have been comfortable with Garcia in a way that most twenty-somethings in 1980 would not have been. Veteran musicians like Ron Tutt or Paul Humphrey had no problem dealing with Garcia as a fellow professional, but Garcia had been a rock star since 1966, and for most younger, inexperienced musicians, that would have been hard to get past.

Without question, Garcia placed a high premium on having people in his band who he not only got along well with, but were easy going, low-maintenance band members. In most cases, this meant using fellow pros who were Garcia's age or even older. D'Fonseca was an exception, being so young, but since he probably treated Garcia like a friendly uncle, the vibe would have been much more low key than some star-struck kid. D'Fonseca Jr was a solid drummer, though not great, but his style was good for the band. Hunter called him "adequate to the chance," and given the musical challenges of playing with the constantly improvising Garcia, that's a pretty good benediction for a young player. If d'Fonseca could hold down the chair in 1980, he would have only gotten better with more opportunities.

Prior to playing with the Garcia Band, d'Fonseca Jr had played with a Marin County group called Logos. Originally formed in 1970, the band featured guitarist/songwriter Bernie Chiaravalle and bassist John Lovrien, along with various other people. Initially, the band apparently sounded like Soundhole, who backed Van Morrison for a while. Logos played the Marin club circuit for many years, and d'Fonseca joined the band in 1976. He stayed for three more years, but apparently left Logos when the opportunity to join the Garcia Band came up. Apparently, due to d'Fonseca's connections, Logos had recorded with Mickey Hart in his Novato barn, and they even released a single "Glad To Know." The Bay-Area-Band site has considerably more detail, including a photo of De Foncesca with Logos. Logos was a popular local band, and played gigs like the Lion's Share in San Anselmo and the inaugural Haight Street Fair in 1978. Bernie Chiaravalle's site has some good photos of the band in that period. (A 1986 Relix Records Robert Hunter album, Rock Columbia, lists d'Fonseca as the drummer, but since he had passed away several years earlier I assume this was some sort of error).

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn had mothballed the Jerry Garcia Band after November 4, 1978. When Keith and Donna Godchaux left the Grateful Dead, Kahn had started the jazz-rock band Reconstruction. Garcia was advertised as a "guest" of Reconstruction. The idea, according to Kahn, was that Reconstruction would continue to play with guitarists other than Garcia, and then perhaps Garcia would guest occasionally. There were in fact a few Reconstruction gigs without Garcia, in August of 1979, but it's unclear how much they actually played without him. The last Reconstruction show featuring Garcia was at Keystone Berkeley on September 22, 1979. Garcia and Kahn debuted their new lineup of the Jerry Garcia Band at the same venue two weeks later, on October 7, 1979.

The 1979 edition of the Jerry Garcia Band was a simple quartet, with keyboardist Ozzie Ahlers and d'Fonseca Jr on drums. Ahlers had played with Jesse Colin Young, The Edge (with Lorin Rowan) and Robert Hunter's Comfort. I assume Garcia had heard Ahlers play with Comfort when they opened for Garcia in 1978. While there was an obvious economic component to the quartet, in that a four-piece featuring local players like Ahlers and d'Fonseca was potentially more profitable than a six or seven piece lineup with backup singers and the like, I think Reconstruction was a factor as well. According to Kahn's original plan, Reconstruction and the JGB would have co-existed, with Garcia making occasional guest appearances with the former. If that had panned out, Garcia would have had a vehicle for playing some pretty far out music on the side, so it would have fit for him to have a simpler Garcia Band. However, by the time October 1979 rolled around, Reconstruction seems to have lost any momentum to sustain itself without Jerry on the bill.

"After Midnight-Eleanor Rigby"
The 1979-80 JGB played a pretty conventional setlist. They kept "Dear Prudence" from Reconstruction, and added back Bob Dylan's "Masterpiece," which Garcia hadn't played in a while.  However, the one really memorable song the band added to the Garcia repertoire was an instrumental version of "Eleanor Rigby" embedded within "After Midnight." Since all but a few connected tapers would have heard prior shows, when the JGB dropped the melody on unsuspecting fans, it always brought down the house, as you can hear by listening to any tape from that period. According to the JerrySite, the debut of the AM>ER jam was February 2, 1980 at The Stone in San Francisco, although it's possible that the jam had been hinted at earlier. When tapes started to circulate around, the "Eleanor Rigby" jam stood out.

Unfortunately, by the time most fans had gotten their hands on a tape of "After Midnight>"Eleanor Rigby jam>"After Midnight," Johnny d'Fonseca Jr had died in an auto accident. I recall no article that said that Jerry Garcia's drummer had died in an accident, and when Greg Errico was the drummer for a brief Summer tour, I just assumed it was the usual changing of the guard in the JGB drummer's chair. I presume that JGB was committed to some East Coast dates, so when d'Fonseca died, they had little choice but to hire super-sub Greg Errico, playing a few local dates to go along with it. The Errico-JGB played some decent sounding shows, but they didn't play the "Eleanor Rigby," jam, leaving that as a legacy of the Johnny d'Fonseca Jr iteration of the Jerry Garcia band.

Looking backwards, it's easy to fall into the trap of being maudlin: Johnny d'Fonseca Jr grew up around Mickey Hart's ranch, and Mickey was effectively his drum tutor, and just as he got his chance to play with Jerry Garcia, he died unexpectedly in a car accident. It's sad when anyone dies in a car accident, young or not, and that shouldn't be taken lightly. I try and look at it the other way, however, and say that Johnny d'Fonseca Jr was looking for a bite of the apple, like most of us, and he got one, which many of us never do. Listen to Jerry lead the band into "Eleanor Rigby" and back out to "After Midnight," and think about the nice groove that little Johnny Dee was laying down, because that is how he probably hoped to be known.

Paul Humphrey-Drums

The cover of the 1973 Paul Humphrey Blue Thumb album Supermellow

Paul Humphrey was the drummer for the Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders band for some of 1974. He seems to have joined the band during the late Summer, and left the group in or by December. Since Humphrey was replaced by the great Ronnie Tutt, the Garcia/Saunders ensemble did not suffer a drop in quality, but their sound changed distinctly. Humphrey was a funky, versatile drummer, and he gave the 1974 Garcia/Saunders band an appropriately funky sound that fit in nicely with newly added band member Martin Fiero on tenor sax and flute. That five piece lineup has been permanently and excellent captured on the 2004 3-disc cd set from the Pure Jerry series, Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders Band: Keystone Berkeley, September 1, 1974.

In doing some recent research into Ron Tutt, I was struck by how little I knew about not only Paul Humphrey but his time playing with Jerry Garcia. It's not at all clear who drummed for Garcia/Saunders in the Summer of '74, and its even less clear when Ron Tutt started to play with the group. We do know that the first confirmed sighting of Tutt was on December 15 in Oregon, but its plain that he had started earlier. The question is not only how much earlier, but whether there was any overlap. Bill Kreutzmann was the drummer for early 1974, but an oblique remark by Kahn suggested that Kahn had to "fire" Kreutzmann, which I take to mean telling him he would not be a permanent member of the group, but only a substitute. Gregg Errico may also have been an occasional substitute as well in the 1974 period.

JGMF recently uncovered some new information that identifies May 31, 1974 as a crucial date in Tutt's tenure with Jerry Garcia. It's possible, even plausible, that Garcia, Kahn and Tutt played together in mid-1974 and agreed to start working together at the time. The ever-busy Tutt, however, may not have been able to start immediately, and with Garcia not desiring Kreutzmann as a permanent member, Humphrey may have been drafted as a temporary guest for a few months. Although this is speculation on my part, I looked into Humphrey' history as a drummer and musician, and I was quite startled by what I found, and it makes my "temporary guest" theory more plausible. Humphrey, it turns out, has a truly substantial history as a drummer, in many ways as impressive as Ron Tutt's and that's saying a lot. Since I don't know anywhere else that Humphrey's history has been laid out in the context of Jerry Garcia, I will do so here, and consider the implications for Garcia's band below.

The British 45 rpm picture sleeve for Joe Cocker's 1969 hit "Feelin' Alright"

Paul Humphrey-Drums
Paul Humphrey was born in Detroit in 1935. He made his way to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he was well regarded as a session drummer. He was at least a satellite "member" of the so-called "Wrecking Crew," an aggregation of Los Angeles studio musicians who played on numerous sessions and are generally believed to be the "most recorded" musicians in the world, at least with respect to released albums, singles and movies. One session that Deadheads may recognize was the late 1968 Joe Cocker recording of Dave Mason's song "Feelin' Alright." Although every other track on Cocker's 1969 debut album on A&M (With A Little Help From My Friends) was recorded in London with the likes of Jimmy Page and Steve Winwood, one track was recorded in Los Angeles with the heaviest of LA's players.

Dave Mason's original version of "Feeling Alright" was a mournful lament that appeared on Traffic's famous second album. Cocker, an entirely different singer than Mason, turned it into a soulful funkfest, managing to maintain the irony of the song's lyrics while investing it with a different kind of power. The version was a modest hit on AM radio, but remains a staple of FM rock radio to this day. The sparse arrangement features a modified sort of Latin beat with legendary wrecking crew bassist Carol Kaye bouncing off against Humphrey's urgent drums. Piano (Artie Butler), congas (Laudir de Oliviera) and guitar (David Cohen--not the Fish guy) join in the background, and Cocker and his backing vocalists sing their hearts out. Kaye says

Paul immediately struck up a semi-samba funk drum part and I went a contrasting way with a rhythm for a bassline. The chorus features the bass playing mostly down beats while Paul was accenting up beats, then we switched places for the verse. It was that simple. Joe had a lot to do with the feel though. He is a very soulful guy and we got along instantly. It was a great date. But the real take (I thought) was the take before the one you hear. I always thought that was the better take, but something happened, erased, or not recorded or something like that. But "Feelin' Alright" was a big hit twice, so I guess that's pretty good.

Humphrey has played uncountable sessions, but even a list of the records where he was named is pretty stunning. Pretty much everybody who isn't deaf must have heard Humphrey drum on Marvin Gaye's immortal "Let's Get It On," but Humphrey has played jazz, rock and soul sessions for decades. And it wasn't just easy music, either--he played on Frank Zappa's Hot Rats (he shouldn't be confused with mid-70s Zappa drummer Ralph Humphrey, another phenomenal player). Paul Humphrey even had some modest R&B hits in 1971, "Cool Aid" (#20) and "Funky L.A." (#45). He even released an album, Paul Humphrey and The Cool Aid Chemists, on Lizard Records. Humphrey also released albums in 1973, 1974 and 1981, mostly instrumental funky jazz.

Of course, within the realm of Garcia scholarship, the fact that always gets mentioned was that Humphrey was the drummer for the Lawrence Welk TV show. The syndicated program was on TV five days a week much of the year, and while the Welk "aesthetic" it represented was fairly staid and retro, the quality of the performers was very high. Welk, like Elvis, could hire anyone and he chose to hire Paul Humphrey. However, as best as I can tell Humphrey was the drummer for the Welk show from 1976-1982, so his tenure there actually post-dated his time with Jerry Garcia.

I'm not certain what the connection was between Humphrey and Garcia might have been, but there's good reason to think that the connection was Merl Saunders. Although Humphrey was based in Los Angeles, he recorded various sessions for Fantasy in Berkeley. Saunders was on the Fantasy label and was a regular presence at the 10h Street studios. I'm not aware of Saunders and Humphrey recording together prior to playing together with Garcia, but it's clear they traveled in the same musical circles. Given that Humphrey had recorded with both Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell prior to playing with Garcia, there can't have been any doubt that Humphrey knew how to work with great guitarists.

Paul Humphrey's 1971 album on Lizard Records

At this point, I can only speculate on the professional relationship between Humphrey and Garcia. However, it would fit the profile that Humphrey was a successful studio musician who enjoyed the freedom of playing with Garcia, while still earning enough money to justify missing sessions. Without belaboring my reasoning, I'm going to lay down a series of propositions about Humphrey's tenure in the Garcia/Saunders band, and wait for them to be proved or disproved.

• Bill Kreutzmann was not Garcia's preferred choice for drummer of the Garcia/Saunders band. This appears to stem from a desire to have that band differ from the Dead, rather than any concerns about Billy K's excellent drumming
• Ron Tutt had played on the Compliments album sessions, but hardly or never met Garcia until around May 31, 1974 sessions at Wally Heider
• While Garcia and Tutt no doubt hit it off musically and personally right away, Tutt's busy schedule would have made it difficult to immediately step in as Garcia's regular drummer
• Garcia must have at least anticipated if not actually known that the Dead would be going on hiatus, and that Garcia would play a correspondingly high number of shows
• Garcia, Kahn and Saunders were able to hire Humphrey for a finite period of time from about August through November 1974, with the understanding that Humphrey was only a temp.
• Rumors that Gregg Errico was starting to sub around this time are plausible, since Bill Kreutzmann may not have felt charitable about solving Garcia's personnel commitments during this time
• Once Tutt's schedule was clear, both with respect to Elvis and any recording commitments, Tutt took over full time duties as Garcia and Kahn had always intended

Paul Humphrey appears to still be alive, and I hope well, and I hope still laying it down cool and funky, so maybe we can find out how far on or off the mark my speculation might be.

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.