The In Room, Swiss Chalet, 635 Old County Road, Belmont, CA 1965

Warlocks, In Room, Belmont, Fall 1965 (photo probably by Paul Ryan)

The Warlocks made themselves into a real band with a two-month stint at a Belmont, CA, "Lounge" called The In Room. The In Room was a bar attached to a Steak House restaurant called The Swiss Chalet, at 635 Old County Road. Old County Road was a frontage road across the railroad tracks from El Camino Real. El Camino Real ran from San Jose to Daly City (where it would turn into Mission Street), and was the main commercial district for all the towns in between. During the 60s, there was a general trend to make El Camino a center of entertainment like the Las Vegas Strip, so there were hotels, bars and restaurants in each Peninsula city. By the 1970s, the Peninsula had quieted down, and El Camino nightlife faded away.

The Warlocks' time at the In Room has been immortalized by Dennis McNally and others, and all the band members have told stories about how it was where they really became a band. Playing five sets a night, six nights a week for eight weeks, maybe sometimes backing touring singers or burlesque dancers, the Warlocks got a crash course in the '60s music biz, most of which they promptly set out to blow up as the Grateful Dead. The In Room, tacky name and all, was a seminal experience in the Grateful Dead zeitgeist. 

The only actual artefacts of the Warlocks' performance at the In Room, however, are some posed photographs (one of them is above). These were clearly done for promotional purposes, probably by the club itself, as the Warlocks couldn't have afforded it. Note the bright lighting, a clear indication that these were not real "performance" shots with the dark lights of a night club. Still, we can see the band's gear, their clothes, and at least a whiff of their on-stage demeanor. The only hint of things to come is the not-standardized lettering of the "Warlocks" band name. The drum head was painted by roommate, future banjo legend and artist Rick Shubb.

Further non-standardization would follow shortly. Given the importance of the In Room, let's figure out what we can about the brief history of the lounge.

A rare outdoor shot of The Chalet and The In Room marquee, from 1965 (source unknown)

The Warlocks at The In Room
The Warlocks were booked at the In Room for an 8-week stint in September and October of 1965. Deadcast host Jesse Jarnow and I looked in vain for any advertisement of the Warlocks. We are certain of the timeline, but neither Jesse nor I have never found an ad for the Warlocks at the In Room (and we tried). Per Dennis McNally, they earned at most $800 a week, but that was real money back then.

Their first week, the Warlocks backed the Coasters. It's not impossible they backed other singers during that time--it was common practice for a "house band" to back up a local singer--and they apparently backed some burlesque dancers. They probably weren't topless, but no one exactly knows. By the end of their 8-week shift, the Warlocks were a real band. Not exactly tight, maybe, but they had a groove.

Dennis McNally interviewed Dale O'Keefe, one of the managers of The In Room, so his description reflects the reality rather than the legend:

The Warlocks had found a home at a club halfway between Palo Alto and San Francisco in the town of Belmont. The In Room was a heavy-hitting divorcee's pickup joint, the sort of swinging bar where real-estate salesmen chased stewardesses and single women got plenty of free drinks. Dark, with red and black as the color scheme, it was the kind of place that sold almost nothing but hard liquor. The Warlocks' agent at the time, Al King, booked the headliners, like the Coasters, Jackie DeShannon and Marvin Gaye. Managed by Donald Johnson, also known as Whitey North, and Dale O'Keefe, it was a hot room, with bouncers escorting the waitresses through the crowd. 

At first the Warlocks seemed a mistake, playing too loud and too strangely. As O'Keefe saw it, the band would be okay for the first two of their fifty-minute sets, but by the third they'd be high, and by the fifth they'd be "barbaric." But in some sort of mysterious transference, they began to develop their own audience, and held their own, avoiding the management of the bar, except for Larry, their favorite bartender. Each night they'd show up with their equipment stuffed into Kreutzmann's Pontiac station wagon, set up, and get to work. One of the complications to their lives was that Kreutzmann and Weir were not only considerably but obviously underage. [Band friend] Bobby Petersen stole some draft cards that somehow passed muster, and the cops would look at the ID, chuckle and warn them not to drink. O'Keefe swore that he did not pay off the cops, so such tolerances could only be ascribed to providence.

[update 20260319] In a Palo Alto Facebook group, a photo of the In Room turned up. It was posted by Dale Vaughn, who says he was one of the managers back then (he could very well have been the Dale O'Keefe noted by McNally).

A 1965 photo of the marquee and parking lot for the the Chalet and The In Room, in Belmont, CA in 1965 (photo via Dale Vaughn from FB). 

 

Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)
McNally: "The In Room was located quite near the railroad tracks that run up the Peninsula to San Francisco, and as the band grew more and more attuned to the schedule, they learned to play with, instead of going against, the sound of the trains as they rumbled by."  [p92]

Between sets at the In Room, the band would cross the street and smoke (something) next to the railroad tracks. According to legend, there was a large sign that said "Caution: Do Not Stop On Tracks." The Warlocks heard Them's single "Mystic Eyes," took the chord changes and stapled them to their chugga-chugga train rhythm, and named it after the sign. Versions of "Caution" would appear in Grateful Dead performances at least as late as 1981, a legacy of the In Room. 

Kentucky writer (and Kesey pal) Ed McClanahan

Visitors
Writer Ed McClanahan, a friend of Ken Kesey and the Pranksters, dropped by the In Room to see the band. In an infamous August 1972 article in Playboy magazine called "Grateful Dead I Have Known." McNally excerpted McClanahan's description of the Warlocks at the In Room (p. 89)

Even though the Warlocks bohemian pals were hardly In Room material, a few friends did drop by. Tom Constanten, who had been friends with Phil Lesh since meeting him at UC Berkeley in 1962, was now in the US Air Force, stationed at Las Vegas. Constanten was also friendly with Garcia and the others, and had hung out a little at the Chateau. TC did find an opportunity to see the Warlocks at the In Room, however.

Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson, later of Moby Grape, were in The Frantics in 1965. They released the "Human Monkey" single on local Action Records in 1966, with lead vocals from bassist Bob Mosley.

Another late-night visitor at the In Room, was guitarist Jerry Miller, then leading a group called The Frantics. The Frantics had moved from Tacoma, WA, and were currently living in the mountains of San Bruno, not far from the In Room. The members of the Frantics (Miller, organist Chuck Schoning and drummer Don Stevenson) and their wives had gone to the Steak Pit to eat, only to find out there was a band playing. Miller loved hearing the Warlocks, and hung out a little with Garcia and the others. The Frantics would become regulars on the El Camino Real in early 1966, and would later evolve into the band Luminous Marsh Gas. By the end of '66, Miller and Stevenson would be in a rising band called Moby Grape, jamming with Garcia at The Ark in Sausalito and playing gigs at the Fillmore and Avalon.

[update 20240326: I forgot that I had 2013 email exchange with Wayne Ceballos]

Guitarist Wayne Ceballos was another young musician in the El Camino circuit. His first band was The Ethics, and by late '65 he had joined the Noteables, who played at the Fireside, also on El Camino. Ceballos was later in the band AUM, and jammed with the Dead on stage a number of times in 1969. In an November 2013 email to me, he recalled his days with the Warlocks: 

There was a club called "The Inn Crowd" [sic] on the Belmont/San Carlos border where I first heard and met The Warlocks.  They were backing up Bobby Day. ("Rockin' Robin.")  I saw them and thought to myself:  "What a mismatch!!"  lol.  But I liked the fact that the Warlocks played R & B and Blues, in spite of their looks.

In spite of our difference in dress, I made friends with the Warlocks, but especially Pigpen, while we were playing the Fireside.  A funny story:  One night I invited Pigpen to come to the Fireside to sit in with the Noteables, to sing and play some Blues.  One of the owners, an Italian guy named Phil, read me the riot act after Pigpen left.  "Don't you ever bring in hippie scumbags like that to my stage again!  This is a class joint!!"  ; )   

Bobby Day had scored a huge hit with "Rockin' Robin" in 1958, reaching #2 on the Billboard chart. Most modern rock fans, myself included, are more familiar with the 1972 Michael Jackson version, which had a similar arrangement, and also peaked at #2. Day never had another hit. It's hard to imagine Jerry, Bob and Phil singing "tweet, tweet" but we can dream, can't we?

 

The first ad for The In-Room was in the San Mateo Times on February 12, 1965

The In Room, 635 Old County Road, Belmont, CA (Opened February 1965)
The first notice of the In Room was an (in the San Mateo Times) for the weekend of February 12, 1965. The Furys were advertised as "Young America's Top Entertainment," along with "Leslie, Demonstrating Bay Area's Leading Dance Craze." It adds: Your Hosts: "Rich Romanello and Ralph Silva." Although Romanello and Silva had surely left by the time the Warlocks were booked in September, Romanello's career, at least, is worth noting in the context of 1965 Bay Area Rock and Roll. 

A San Mateo Times ad (June 19 1964) for the Beau Brummels at the Morocco Room, on 2010 El Camino Real in San Mateo (near W. 20th Avenue). The hosts were Jimmie and Rich Romanello (father and son).

Rich Romanello
Rich Romanello is actually an important name in Bay Area rock and roll, and I did not realize until recently that he had any connection to the In Room, and hence by extension to the Grateful Dead story. Since Romanello has been interviewed various times (for good reason) about his rock and roll history, and never mentioned the Warlocks, we can be confident he had no part in booking the Warlocks. Nonetheless he seems to have co-founded the In Room, which made the band, so it only adds to his interesting saga.

In 1964, Romanello's father James ran a club called The Morocco Room on El Camino Real in San Mateo. The address was at 2010 S. El Camino Real, near W. 20th Avenue. San Mateo is halfway up the Peninsula, midway between Stanford University and San Francisco, and near San Francisco Airport (SFO). The name and pitch of the Morocco Room had a Vegas slant, a cocktail lounge with entertainment and dancing all night long. Rich Romanello had discovered a new San Francisco rock band called The Beau Brummels, who performed original songs in a kind of Beatles-style, and the Morocco Room packed them in. 

Word about The Beau Brummels filtered up the line to KYA dj Tom Donahue, one of the biggest disc jockeys in the Bay Area. KYA (1260) and KFRC (610) were the two big rock stations in town. Donahue, transplanted from Philadelphia, was partners with another Eastern transplant, Bobby Mitchell. The two of them held down the afternoon and evening shifts at KYA, so everyone heard them. They also promoted concerts at the Cow Palace, ran a radio "tip sheet" and also race horses. Donahue and Mitchell had also started Autumn Records, and they had scored a big hit with Bobby Freeman's "C'mon And Swim" in 1964, produced by KSOL dj Sylvester Stewart, later better known as Sly Stone. 

Donahue later claimed to have heard about the Beau Brummels gig in the Morocco Room from a prostitute ("I always listen to prostitutes," he would say). In any case, El Camino Real and San Mateo was not a likely place to find a hit act, but find them he did. Rich Romanello acted as manager for the Beau Brummels, and Donahue and Mitchell knew hit songs when they heard them. Their song "Laugh, Laugh" would reach #15 after it was released on Autumn Records in December, 1964. The Beau Brummels went on to have other hits in 1965. Romanello would later lament that it was too bad that neither he, nor the Brummels nor Donahue and Mitchell knew anything about running an actual business. 

The February 17, 1965 Redwood City Tribune had an ad for the Grand Opening of The 'In' Room, describing The Furys as "The NEW ENGLISH SOUND by America's Top Entertainers DANCING 7 NIGHTS." The small print explains how to cross the tracks from either Freeway exit--there was no GPS.  Note the "FURYS", not FURIES, and no "Lesley."

In December 1964, a notice in the San Mateo Times indicated that James Romanello had sold the Morocco Room. But in early '65, Rich Romanello would have been right in the center of the action, and that action appeared to be on El Camino Real. The suburban Peninsula might seem an unlikely place for a rock and roll explosion, but it was happening on the El Camino just as it was everywhere else. After the Morocco Room and the Beau Brummels, The In Room would have been the second rock joint on the boulevard, and it was started by the proprietor of the first one. Fall '65 saw the Cinammon Tree in San Carlos, and the Tiger A-Go-Go in Burlingame, near SFO. By 1966, it was followed by the Big Beat in Palo Alto, the Nu Beat in Redwood City (which was later the Spectrum) and The Trip in San Mateo.

The Tiger A-Go-Go lounge at the SFO Hilton in Burlingame was a hopping scene, with future Fillmore players (Joel Scott Hill was later in Canned Heat, and his band included Lee Michaels, Bob Mosely [Moby Grape] and John Barbata [Turtles, CSNY, Starship]. This ad is from the Nov 12 '65 San Mateo Times.

The El Camino Real clubs were rising in exact parallel with the Family Dog, Fillmore and Avalon underground scene in San Francisco. The El Camino clubs tried different angles: the In Room and the Tiger A-Go-Go were bars for adults, primarily pickup joints (the Tiger A Go Go pointedly emphasized that stewardesses hung out there. In the 60s, stewardesses were understood to be glamorous unmarried party girls, fairly or not), The Cinnamon Tree was a "teen club," no liqour. The Big Beat and its sister club, The Trip, were pizza-and-beer places that allowed 18 year olds. There isn't any doubt that they were competing with the Fillmore. The Trip ads offered "LSD: Lights, Sounds, Delicious Pizza."

New Year's Eve 1966-67 at Winchester Cathedral, 3033 El Camino Real in Redwood City, with Sly and The Family Stone

The last of the important El Camino Real nightspots was also a "Teen Club," called Winchester Cathedral. Winchester Cathedral was at 3033 El Camino Real in Redwood City. It opened around December 1966, managed by Rich Romanello. Lots of fine band played there, including the Chocolate Watch Band and the Santana Blues Band. One of the first acts booked at Winchester Cathedral, however, was Sly And The Family Stone, who first played on December 16, 1966, and shortly after headlined New Year's Eve. They were an instant sensation. Sly and The Family Stone played all over the Bay Area, but at the beginning of 1967 they also played "Breakfast Shows" at Winchester from 2-5am every Friday and Saturday night (Saturday and Sunday morning). All of the local musicians showed up, including Mickey Hart, and were totally knocked out.

Romanello had an early management role with Sly And The Family Stone, too, but he lacked the clout to move them up the entertainment ladder. Joel Selvin's oral history of the band goes into this in some detail, but the short version of the story is that Columbia Records swooped in and made the band into huge stars. Winchester Cathedral didn't last until Summer '67, as far as I know, and El Camino Real more or less gave up on rock and roll. The Fillmore and Avalon won decisively. Since suburban kids would have to get into their (parents) cars to go to El Camino, driving another 30 minutes to the city seemed more enticing.

An ad for Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell's club Mother's, at 430 Broadway (from the Dec 19 '65 Chronicle). Reputedly the first "psychedelic" nightclub, Mother's generally booked standard Broadway nightclub acts rather than hip rock bands

Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were still thriving when the Warlocks left the In Room in Fall '65. They had signed numerous local bands, such as the Great Society with Grace Slick, and seemed very tapped in to local happenings. They also opened a club at 430 Broadway in San Francisco, amongst the local topless joints. Mother's has been recognized as the first "psychedelic" nightclub, but I think it was mainly for the decor. The usual Broadway lounge acts were booked there, along with a few rock bands, including the Lovin Spoonful. Rhoney Stanley describes going to Mother's in her book, but the context is a bit fuzzy. 

Donahue and Mitchell must have heard about the In Room, since they recorded a Warlocks demo in San Francisco on November 3. The tape is now legendary, of course, but while The Warlocks showed promise, they were still an inexperienced rock band somewhere in between the style of the Beatles and the Stones. Autumn Records passed on the band. Within a few months, Autumn would go bankrupt, and their master recordings would be sold off to Warner Brothers.

 

The last sign of the In Room was an ad for a New Year's Eve party, with the band Group Therapy.  The Chalet itself closed shortly afterwards. In January, the San Mateo Times reported that Chalet owner Phil Martinelli was going to start a "Teen Club" at the site selling memberships and putting on dances on weekends. In fact, versions of this business model were tried out up and down El Camino throughout 1966, but this one failed pretty quickly.

April 11, 1966 Redwood City Tribune

A headline in the April 11, 1966 Redwood City Tribune exclaimed "Teen Club Closing Asked By Neighbors." The owners and tenants of the two office buildings next to the Chalet petitioned the Belmont City Council to revoke the permit of the Chalet Teen Club due to vandalism. It must have happened, since the club was closed shortly afterwards.

August 13, 1966 San Mateo Times

By August, a headline in the San Mateo Times said "Debris-Ridden Chalet 'Filthy,'" with a picture of the derelict club. At this point, 635 Old County Road truly was on the wrong side of the tracks. Soon there was no sign of the Chalet building. The Madison Apartments, at 649 Old County Road, first appears in listings in 1968. The Madison Apartments remain on the site.

The railroad has changed hands over the decades as well. I do not know if the Caution: Do Not Stop On Tracks sign is original.

April 21, 1965 San Mateo Times, listing the marriage license issued to Ralph N. Silva, 23, of Millbrae, and Leslie J. Renta, 20 of San Mateo.

Appendix 1: Ralph Silva
I know almost nothing about Ralph Silva, but searching "Ralph Silva" gave me some links, so I'm assuming the "Ralph Silva" from Peninsula newspapers is the same one. If anyone knows better, please hit up the Comments and I will add to or change anything I've written here. 

The April 21, 1965 San Mateo Times lists marriage licenses, and includes "Silva-Renta--Ralph N. Silva, 23, of Millbrae and Leslie J. Renta, 20 of San Mateo." Millbrae was two towns North of Belmont, and up the hill a little bit. One has to wonder if Leslie Renta was the same Leslie who had demonstrated the Bay Area's leading dance crazes when the In Room opened. I am going with "pretty likely."

The February 21, 1964 San Mateo Times also includes a notice for the wedding of Thomas Coster of San Bruno, and Ralph Silva is listed as an usher. Those who know too much will recognize the organist later made famous in Santana (who also played with Loading Zone, Larry Coryell, Steve Kimock and many other fine artists). San Bruno is the next town North of Millbrae, so this suggests that young Ralph Silva was a music guy early on. 

January 7, 1966 San Mateo Times

The January 7, 1966 San Mateo Times has a brief note that "Bob Mitchell and Ralph Silva, former owners of "Mother's" in San Francisco, have opened up a new night club in Redwood City called The Nu Beat." Bobby Mitchell and Tom Donahue's "Mother's" club was at 430 Broadway, and history has marked it as the City's first "psychedelic" night club. If Silva was a co-owner, it seems logical that as a young man partnering with two busy radio station djs, Silva probably actually ran the club for Mitchell and Donahue. The Nu Beat was 1836 El Camino Real in Redwood City (between Belmont and Palo Alto). The address was near "Five-Points," where Woodside Road intersected with El Camino Real.

Starting with the Morocco Room and the Beau Brummels, El Camino Real seemed like a ripe location for a rock and roll explosion. The In Room would have been the second rock joint on the boulevard, started by the proprietor of the first one. Fall '65 saw the Cinammon Tree in San Carlos (at 900 American Way, near El Camino), and the Tiger A-Go-Go in Burlingame, near SFO. By 1966, it was followed by the Big Beat in Palo Alto (on San Antonio Road), the Nu Beat in Redwood City (which was later the Spectrum) and The Trip in San Mateo (at 4301 El Camino). Note that the Nu Beat opening features acts from Autumn Records, including the Mojo Men and the Beau Brummels, and "Leslie, Our Go-Go Girl," most likely Mrs. Silva. 

When Mitchell and Donahue's businesses went bankrupt, the Nu-Beat seems to have become The Spectrum, and probably changed owners. One of the bands that played The Spectrum was Luminous Marsh Gas, a somewhat more psychedelic version of The Frantics. Ken Kesey gave them their name. Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson were in the band, along with organist Chuck Schoning, joined by singer Denise Kaufmann, soon to lead The Ace Of Cups.

Appendix 2: 635 Old County Road, Belmont, CA
The Belmont Casino, 635 Old County Road, Belmont, CA (circa 1959)
As near as I can figure out, the Chalet was originally called the Belmont Casino, and seems to have opened about 1959. I don't know if the building was new or remodeled. Presumably, no gambling was allowed. I believe the "Casino" name invoked Las Vegas, however. I'm not sure if there was initially entertainment or not. Old County Road was the former main road, on the opposite side of the train tracks from El Camino Real. Thus the location was broadly part of the El Camino Real "strip," but not on the boulevard itself (as noted above, the train tracks would turn out to play a role in the conversion of the Warlocks to the Grateful Dead).

San Mateo Times, October 27, 1954

[update 20230529] Exceptional researcher and friend-of-the-blog David Kramer-Smyth found that the Belmont Casino opened on October 27, 1954. The featured act was The Pratt Brothers Quartet.

From 1959 onwards, there were various mentions of events at the Chalet such as Singles Club dances. For example "The Peninsula Guys And Dolls Club," a club exclusively for divorced people, announced that it had expanded its membership to include widows and widowers (bonus points if you figure out the connection). The Peninsula Guys And Dolls Club held a private dance on a Tuesday night, when the Casino was closed. The Casino's draw on the El Camino was thus established early on.

The March 8, 1963 San Mateo Times announced the opening of Phil Martinelli's Steak Pit restaurant at the historic Chalet, 635 County Road, Belmont (San Mateo was one town South of Belmont)

The Swiss Chalet, 635 Old County Road, Belmont, CA (circa 1962)
The Belmont Casino was re-named to The Swiss Chalet, or sometimes just The Chalet, around 1962. By 1963, it principally advertised as a Steak restaurant, with a heavy emphasis of the "steak pit" on the premises. Steaks were the height of luxury dining in 1963 California, and the "Steak Pit" presumably allowed diners to see their dinner being cooked, instead of just kept in a freezer somewhere. The Chalet advertised itself as a family restaurant, and encouraged diners to bring their kids. By 1964, The Chalet advertised "Phil Martinelli's Steak Pit." Martinelli also had Steak Pit restaurants in other cities on the Peninsula. 

The Chalet continued to hold various private dances, presumably in an adjacent room. I assume the financial draw was that many of the attendees had dinner or drinks at the Steak Pit. I also assume that the adjunct building was later converted into the In Room. 

New Riders of The Purple Sage Tour History, January-April 1973 (NRPS IV)

The ad in the February 22, 1973 Village Voice mentions "Special Friends" on the bill, a reference no one would have missed. The Grateful Dead were booked in Long Island during this weekend.

New Riders Of The Purple Sage Tour History, January-April 1973 (NRPS IV)
The music of Jerry Garcia casts a large shadow, if a shadow that is bright rather than dark. It is so large, however, and so bright, that it outshines many things around it. In the 21st century, the New Riders of The Purple Sage are best known as the vehicle through which Jerry Garcia created an opportunity to play pedal steel guitar as a sideman in 1970 and '71. When the demands of playing full-time with both the Grateful Dead and the New Riders became too gargantuan a task, Garcia stepped aside from the Riders. For most Deadheads, that's where the story ends.

Yet the story of the New Riders of The Purple Sage was only beginning. For obvious reasons, the Riders are always compared to the Dead, and like almost every other 20th century rock band, the Dead outshone NRPS by many orders of magnitude. Compared to all the other bands struggling to make it in the early 1970s, however, the New Riders of The Purple Sage were hugely successful. After their debut album with Garcia in late 1971, they released four more albums with Buddy Cage on pedal steel in 1972 and 73. The albums sold well--Panama Red eventually was certified Gold--and the New Riders were a popular concert attraction. 

On top of the Riders' undeniable success, they were still part of the Grateful Dead's business operation. Grateful Dead tours were booked by their in-house Agency, Out-Of-Town Tours, led by Sam Cutler. Cutler and Out-Of-Town also booked the New Riders. So a review of the New Riders touring history in 1972 and '73 shows both what lessons Cutler had learned from the Dead's rise to success in 1970 and '71, and also provided an avenue for Cutler to expand his relationships with promoters who worked with the Grateful Dead. So the New Riders touring schedule was both a do-over for what had come before and a rehearsal for what would come later for the Grateful Dead. 

This post will continue the series on the tour history of the New Riders of The Purple Sage in 1972 and '73, with a particular emphasis on how their saga was both similar to and different from that of the Grateful Dead. These posts would not have been possible without the stellar research of fellow scholar David Kramer-Smyth, whose contributions have been both deep and broad. The first post focused on the New Riders' performance history from January to April, 1972. The next posts focused on the New Riders' performance history from May through August 1972, and then the New Riders' performance history from September through December 1972. This post will focus on the New Riders' performance history from January through April 1973. Anyone with additions, corrections, insights or just interesting speculation, please include them in the Comments. Flashbacks welcome.

The New Riders of The Purple Sage had released Gypsy Cowboy, their third album on Columbia, in December 1972

New Riders Status Report, New Year's Eve 1972
The New Riders of The Purple Sage had had an excellent 1972. They had released their second and third albums on Columbia, and established themselves as separate from Jerry Garcia. Heavy touring in the Northeast, particularly in colleges, was creating a solid fan base for them. The Grateful Dead were more popular than ever, and the Riders' association with them only helped. At the same time, there was an undeniable merger occurring between hippies and country music, with more "country-rock" bands and more country bands letting their hair grow a little bit. 

The New Riders were now a tight live band, playing two-hour shows that were a mix of old and new material, both originals and covers. John Dawson was still the focal point, but Dave Torbert's singing and writing made a nice contrast. David Nelson sang the occasional country cover, too, just to widen the band's scope. The record industry was booming, the concert industry was booming, and the New Riders were good and signed to a major record label. By any reasonable standard, the future looked very bright for the band at the end of 1972.

The New Riders were still part of the Grateful Dead family, and not just socially. Grateful Dead manager Jon McIntire shared the same duties for the New Riders with NRPS road manager Dale Franklin. McIntire was the principal go-between for the record companies. The Riders were booked by Sam Cutler and Out-Of-Town Tours, who also booked the Dead. By booking multiple bands, Cutler had more to negotiate and thus more leverage with promoters and agents throughout the country. The Riders didn't have to worry about being left out of the mix--Cutler's principal assistant was Sally Mann Dryden, the drummer's wife (whom Cutler refers to now as "Mustang Sally," perhaps a reference to her 428ci Ford Mustang). Travel arrangements were made by the Grateful Dead's in-house agency, Fly By Night Travel.

The New Riders of The Purple Sage, January-April 1973
John Dawson-vocals, rhythm guitar
Buddy Cage-pedal steel guitar (ex-Great Speckled Bird and Anne Murray)
David Nelson-lead guitar, vocals (ex-New Delhi River Band)
Dave Torbert-bass, vocals (ex-New Delhi River Band, Horses)
Spencer Dryden-drums (ex-Jefferson Airplane)

February 14-17, 1973 The Gallery, Aspen, CO: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday-Saturday)
The New Riders had worked very hard throughout 1972. In the back half of the year they had recorded a new album and that had a grueling, but seemingly very successful National tour. So it's no surprise that they seemed to take a break the first six weeks of 1973. Apparently, their first shows of the year were four nights at a tiny club called The Gallery, in Aspen, CO. We have not yet been able to confirm this booking, but it seems likely.

Now, we think of Aspen, CO as a wealthy resort town, just a playground of the elite. But of course it became such a playground because it was an appealing place to go. Besides the skiing, and the beautiful Rocky Mountains, a bunch of freaks had congregated around the area. The most famous of these freaks was Hunter S. Thompson, who lived in nearby Woody Creek. So Aspen was a ski resort where long hair and weed were welcome, when that wasn't always the case in comparable destinations.

The Gallery itself was apparently the main (possibly only) nightclub in Aspen. Most famously, when David Geffen constructed The Eagles out of some Hollywood rock veterans who hung out at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, he apparently sent them to The Gallery to be the house band for several weeks.  The new band played a couple of weeks in October of 1971, and then returned for a few more weeks in November. By the end, they were a real band. Glenn Frey would end up purchasing a house in Aspen, and became a long-time resident. The status of Aspen as a hip playground rose along with the career of Frey and the Eagles. Hunter Thompson remained based in Woody Creek until he traveled on in 2006.

In February of 1973, the New Riders would have been rusty after several weeks, the Aspen booking seems like a sort of paying rehearsal.

February 19, 1973 International Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Monday)
The New Riders of The Purple Sage had built a strong market in the Northeast, but had less of a footprint elsewhere. The strategy for this leg of a tour seems to have been designed to use the Grateful Dead to introduce the Riders to a broader audience. The New Riders had played Chicago in December of '72, opening for Mott The Hoople (of all bands). I think this Monday was a Federal celebration of Washington's Birthday (which was actually February 22, 1732).

February 21-22, 1973 Assembly Hall, U. of Illinois, Champaign, IL: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday-Thursday)
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, colloquially known as the University of Illinois, had been established in 1867. It is a huge school, currently enrolling 56,000 students. It is a few hours South of Chicago, in the flat plains of the agricultural Midwest. The size of the school, however, means it can support a huge rock market. Assembly Hall, at 1800 South 1st Street, was the school's basketball arena. It had opened in 1963, and had a basketball capacity of 15,000. It is surprising to see the Grateful Dead (or any band of the era) play two nights at a University instead of one, but the University of Illinois was  large, with many students from the greater Chicago area. I don't know what the attendance was like.

February 25, 1973 [venue], U. of Missouri, Columbia, MO: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Sunday)
While the Grateful Dead played the University of Iowa (February 24) and the University of Nebraska (February 26), the New Riders of the Purple Sage went West on Saturday night to play the University of Missouri, in Columbia, MO. The University of Missouri had been founded in 1839, and it, too was a large Midwestern school (currently 30,000 students). 

While Columbia, MO was a small college town at the time (population about 60,000), the University of Missouri was on I-70, midway between St. Louis and Kansas City. The New Riders had headlined in both cities, so they would have a ready-made audience at the University. I don't know what venue the band played.

February 28, 1973 Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, UT: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday)
The Dead and the New Riders closed out their tour by playing together at the Salt Palace. Salt Lake City was conveniently located between the Midwest and California, so a lot of bands made tour stops there. The Salt Palace, at 100 S. West Temple street, had opened in 1969. It had a basketball capacity of about 12,000. At this time, the Salt Palace was home to the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association. The Stars would fold in early '75, ultimately replaced in 1979 by the Utah Jazz (who had relocated from New Orleans). 

The New Riders had not played in Utah or generally in the Mountain West, so opening a Dead show was a proven way to introduce them to their future audience. We have a setlist from this show (possibly incomplete). The New Riders followed the Grateful Dead path, making a point to play songs that were not on albums. This was appealing to fans who had seen them before (not likely an issue in Salt Lake), and also allowed the band to hone their arrangements before going into the studio. The Salt Palace set included a cover of Red Allen's "Teardrops In My Eyes" (sung by Nelson), Dawson's new song "One Too Many Stories" and Dave Torbert's homage to Sally Mann Dryden, "Groupie." All three would end up on The Adventures of Panama Red, not recorded until the Summer.

SF Examiner March 5, 1973

March 8, 1973 Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen/Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Thursday) Jolly Blue Giant Presents
6'7" Bill Ehlert, known locally as "the Jolly Blue Giant" was a club operator and promoter in Berkeley. He had run Berkeley's Jabberwock until it had closed in 1967, and ran the Matrix for a while after that. In the 1970s, he promoted local concerts under the name Jolly Blue Giant. Berkeley Community Theater was both the local civic auditorium and the Berkeley High School auditorium. It seated about 3,500. It's unlikely that the New Riders and Commander Cody could sell it out on a Thursday night, but they probably drew a pretty good crowd. The New Riders were now a Bay Area concert headliner.

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen had moved from Ann Arbor, MI to Berkeley in Summer 1969. Their hippie honky tonk was instantly popular. They regularly performed locally with the Dead and the New Riders, and were often booked with the Riders around the country. Their weren't a lot of long-haired pot smoking hippie bands playing rocking country music, so they made an excellent fit. George "Commander Cody" Frayne had even played on a few tracks of the NRPS debut album. 

Paramount Records had released Cody and the Airmen's own definitive debut, Lost In The Ozone in November, 1971. They scored a memorable regional hit with Cody's cover of "Hot Rod Lincoln." Their second album, Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Trucker's Favorites had been released in May, 1972. At this time, although the Austin, TX based "Outlaw Country" scene was just starting, "country rock" seemed like a sound whose time had come. The Riders and the Airmen seemed to be among the harbingers.

Legendary folksinger (and Bob Dylan influence) Ramblin' Jack Elliott lived in the North Bay. He, too, was booked by Sam Cutler's Out Of Town Tours. He would often open for the New Riders, and often joined in to sing backup on a song or two. On this evening, he joined the Riders to help sing the Rolling Stones' song "Connection."

The New Riders had other guests in Berkeley, both of whom would appear many times in 1973. Singer Darlene DiDomenico was from New York, where she had been part of a singing duo with Dan Healy in 1970 and '71. When Healy returned to the West Coast to sign on as the Grateful Dead's soundman, she went, too, although she split with Healy. DiDomenico sang with a local band (whose name I have lost), but she was also employed as part of the Grateful Dead/New Riders complex (possibly with Out Of Town Tours). Thus she regularly sang with the New Riders, both in the studio and on stage. For example, she had sang on the Gypsy Cowboy album. In Berkeley, she sang on "Whisky," just like on the record.

Harmonica player Matthew Kelly had been in various bands with Dave Torbert in 1968 and '69. Kelly had ended up in England, in an American band (Gospel Oak) that had needed a new player. He sent a plane ticket for Torbert, then in Hawaii, to join him in London. David Nelson's girlfriend "coincidentally" called Torbert when he had stopped at his parents' house in Redwood City, and the boys had invited him to join the New Riders. Torbert called Kelly, who graciously told him to take the gig with Jerry Garcia. So Kelly was in good with the New Riders, notwithstanding he had known Nelson and Dawson as long as he had known Torbert. In Berkeley, Kelly sat in on 5 songs, including Torbert's newly-written "It's Alright With Me," which would end up on Panama Red.

March 16, 1973 Nassau Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday)
The New Riders had expected to begin their Eastern tour on Saturday, March 17, at SUNY Stony Brook (see below). Meanwhile the Grateful Dead were playing three nights at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. For some odd reason, the Dead were booked for Thursday (March 15), Friday (March 16) and Monday (March 19). Saturday, March 17, had not been available, as the New York Islanders had a home game (they beat the St. Louis Blues 6-4). Interestingly, these shows were produced by Bill Graham Presents, making a rare foray out of his Bay Area territory.

In any case, the opening act booked to open for all three Nassau shows were Marin's Sons Of Champlin. The re-organized Sons had just released a new album on Columbia Records, Welcome To The Dance. The Sons were also booked by Sam Cutler's Out Of Town Tours, so it seemed that the plan was to build an East Coast audience for the Sons by introducing them to the Northeastern Grateful Dead fanbase. The New Riders, meanwhile, having built such an audience, could largely tour on their own. 

The Sons opened the Dead show on Thursday, March 15. Tragically, however, the family of Sons bassist David Schallock was murdered in San Rafael by a disturbed young man with a shotgun. The Sons instantly abandoned their tour and returned home. The New Riders, already on the East Coast, filled in at Nassau on Friday and Monday. 

The Grateful Dead were getting to be very popular in the Northeast, but they were not yet the automatic sellout that they would become. By adding an opening act, the shows were a longer party, and thus more appealing, even if the openers themselves (the Sons or the New Riders) did not in themselves attract a different audience.

March 17, 1973 [venue], SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Saturday)
The Grateful Dead had started playing Long Island's SUNY Stony Brook as far back as 1967. The New Riders had opened for the Dead there in 1970. Now, as the Dead had grown too large to play the school, the New Riders had played again on April 20, 1972 and now in  '73. Granted, since college students graduate, almost no one in the school would have seen all the shows there. Still, there would have been undergraduate continuity and thus word of mouth.

The New Riders probably played Pritchard Gym, with a (basketball) capacity of about 2,000, where the Dead had played previously. Ramblin' Jack Elliott opened the show and joined the New Riders for the encore of "Honky Tonk Women." The entire concert was released as an archival CD in 2007.

March 18, 1973 Felt Forum, New York, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Sunday) Ron Delsener Presents
Ron Delsener was a major Manhattan promoter who had taken on a bigger role in the rock market once Bill Graham had closed the Fillmore East. The Felt Forum was a theater in the basement of Madison Square Garden, first opened in 1968 (and now the Hulu Theater). The concert capacity appears to have been 4,332, although the theater could be configured at various sizes. The Grateful Dead and the New Riders had played four memorable nights at the Felt Forum on December 4-7, 1971. Now, the New Riders hd returned as the headliners.

The March 18, 1973, New Riders Of The Purple Sage show at The Felt Forum was broadcast in its entirety on WNEW-fm, New York City's leading rock station. Besides being a fine broadcast of the New Riders in their prime, the show featured numerous special guests. Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Donna Godchaux helped out on vocals on different songs, Jerry Garcia played electric guitar and banjo on a few numbers, Bob Weir sang a couple, and Keith Godchaux played grand piano for much of the show. The most memorable part of the performance, however, was when Garcia, Weir and Godchaux joined the New Riders and began the second set with a trio of gospel numbers: "Cold Jordan", "I Hear A Voice Calling" and "Swing Low". Garcia played banjo and Weir played acoustic guitar, the only instance of the two playing acoustic together on the East Coast between 1970 and 1980.

The Grateful Dead were playing three nights at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale in Long Island, but they had the Sunday night off to hang out with the New Riders. It's remarkable enough that the Dead guested on a radio broadcast, but thanks to the great Its All The Streets You Crossed blog, we can now see that the Grateful Dead were all but advertised in the Village Voice. The ad above is from the February 22, 1973 edition of the Voice, a full month before the show, and the ad says "New Riders Of The Purple Sage & Special Friends." The message would be unmistakable: in 70s rock talk, "Special Guests" would have meant 'opening act who hasn't been booked yet', but "Special Friends" would imply extra people on stage. It wouldn't take a genius to note the Dead's performance dates on Long Island and see that they had the night off.

There were plenty of live FM performances in the 1970s, but relatively few of them featured guests, as the record company was paying for the band to be on the air. The economics of 70s FM broadcasts depended on some entity, usually a record company, buying up the ad time that was "lost" during the time the band was playing live on the air without commercials. Generally speaking, if a record company paid for their band to be broadcast live on FM radio, they did not want their sponsored act upstaged by friends, however talented, when the purpose of the financial subvention was to promote the company's act. Columbia Records, the New Riders label, would have paid good money to make sure that the New Riders were broadcast live for some hours on the biggest New York rock station. As a practical matter, I suspect that Columbia agreed to purchase a substantial number of ads through the month of March, rather than laid out cash per se, but the net effect would have been the same.

In the case of the Dead, however, since they were bigger than the New Riders and had a unique relationship to them, Columbia would have been ecstatic to have the Dead join the New Riders on the FM broadcast throughout the entire Tri-State area. For the Dead, the significant factor here was that by Spring 1973 they had left Warner Brothers and were working for themselves, so they didn't have to concern themselves with whether their own record company "approved" of them appearing with their friends.  Since both the Dead and the New Riders were booked by Out Of Town Tours, Sam Cutler's agency,  coordination would have been easy.

In fact, as an indication of the clout of the Dead in this context, not only were the New Riders broadcast in their entirety, but the set of opening act Ramblin' Jack Elliott was broadcast as well. At the time, Elliott, though a legend, did not have a label and had not released an album in three years (his last album had been released in 1970 on Reprise). However, Elliott was also booked by Sam Cutler, and clearly the presence of Jerry Garcia was enough to induce Columbia to subsidize the broadcast of Ramblin' Jack's set as well as that of the Riders.

However, since the Dead were performing elsewhere, their contract with the Nassau promoter, old friend Bill Graham, would have prevented them from being mentioned by name. Also, since the name "Grateful Dead" was not formally invoked, the band members could show up and perform on whichever or whatever songs they felt like. Knowing what we know today, Garcia must have had his banjo with him because he was probably practicing constantly, trying to get up to speed for Old And In The Way, which had just begun to play in the Bay Area. It's a great touch that he used it to perform with the Riders--I think March 18, 1973 was almost the only time he played banjo on stage with them (Garcia did play banjo briefly at a unique show at The Matrix on July 7, 1970). Besides the mini-acoustic set, Garcia played banjo on "Henry" as well as electric guitar on "Glendale Train," obviously just having the kind of fun he couldn't have if the marquee had said "tonight: NRPS with Jerry Garcia."

Of all the unreleased New Riders tapes that circulate, the Felt Forum show is surely the most memorable. Hopefully it will be released in its entirety someday (I have discussed this concert at some length elsewhere).

March 19, 1973 Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Monday)
On their return to Nassau, Ramblin' Jack joined the New Riders for their "Connection" encore. He did not open the show, however.

For the opening leg of their Northeastern tour, the New Riders performed on eight consecutive nights (from March 16 through 23). Bands on the road rarely played this often, typically playing a couple of nights in a row and then having a few nights off. One thing to note, however, about this stretch was how the New Riders' gigs clustered around New York City. The travel obligations were a lot smaller, mostly only going from Long Island to Manhattan and back.

March 20, 1973 Field House, U. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Tuesday) S.C.O.P.E Presents
The New Riders broke out of their New York Metro bookings to play two gigs in New England. The University of New Hampshire is in Durham, about 270 miles from Manhattan (and just 65 miles North of Boston). Given the consecutive dates, the New Riders probably flew from La Guardia to Manchester airport (likely on long-gone Northeast Airlines). Durham, NH, is on the border of Maine, near the ocean, and has a population of about 15,000. The English had made their presence known as far back as 1622. UNH was founded in 1866. The University currently has a student body of 14,000, although I doubt they had that many students in 1973.

While Durham is only an hour North of Boston, the school seems pretty isolated. So the students would have heard Boston FM radio, yet there probably weren't that many local concerts. Thus a lot of students might attend a show on campus, even if they had only barely heard of the band. Also, although Durham itself was isolated, the students were often from suburbs or big cities, so a band like the New Riders could build a regional audience by playing colleges. The Riders played at the Field House, which had built in 1938. Most likely they played Lundholm Gym (part of the Field House), which had a capacity of 3,000.

March 21, 1973 Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Hot Tuna (Wednesday) Shelly Finkel and Jimmy Koplik Present
On Wednesday night, the New Riders played for promoters Shelly Finkel and Jim Koplik in Central Connecticut. Finkel and Koplik had been promoters in the New England area for about two years, initially using the name Cable Music. They had booked the New Riders in December, 1972 in Boston.

Jim Koplik had gotten his start as a promoter in college, putting on a Steppenwolf concert in 1968 at Ohio State when he was a student. Around 1972 he teamed up with Shelly Finkel to form Cable Music. Finkel was a bit older, and Koplik was the "house hippie," a common enough arrangement in concert promotion at the time. Entrepreneurs who knew the business side were not necessarily able to navigate who was cool and who was not, so they needed a younger partner.

Shelly Finkel (b.1944) wasn't some neophyte in the concert business. In 1967, Finkel (then running a dating service) managed to parlay a job passing out flyers into managing the Action House in Long Island. The Action House was the premier rock club in the region, breaking local bands like Vanilla Fudge and the Vagrants, and also putting on shows by touring bands like the Doors, Cream and the Grateful Dead (on November 9-10, 1970). 

The owner of the Action House was an infamous Long Island club owner named Phil Basile. Over the years, he was involved in numerous other Long Island clubs and discos, including Speaks (the re-named Action House), My Father's Place,  Channel 80 and Industry. In the late 60s, however, thanks to the Action House, Basile had recognized how much money there was in live rock music. Basile formed the promotion company Concerts East, who put on most of the Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin shows in the East in the 68-70 period (the Grateful Dead had opened for Hendrix at a Concerts East production at the Temple Stadium in Philadelphia on May 16, 1970). While Finkel had just been Basile's house manager at the Action House, he would have had plenty of intersection with the larger business of rock promotion. Finkel and Koplik played a critical role in the Grateful Dead's success in the early to mid-70s, and did so for the New Riders as well.

Finkel and Koplik booked the New Riders at a now-legendary venue called the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. Waterbury is between Hartford (33 miles to the Northeast) and New York City (77 miles to the Southwest). It had (and has) a population of around 110,000. In the first half of the 20th century, it was a thriving industrial city. From the 60s onward, however, Waterbury underwent a severe economic decline. As a rock peculiarity, however, Waterbury had a large movie theater from its glory days, and easy freeway access from larger areas. The Palace Theater, at 100 E. Main Street in downtown, had been built in 1922. By the early 1970s, it wasn't apparently in great shape, but it had a capacity of a few thousand and fantastic acoustics. It went from being an oversized movie house to a destination rock concert venue. 

The New Riders had played the Palace in May 1972 (for different promoters), and now they returned to play for Finkel and Koplik. By pairing them with Hot Tuna, the weeknight show was a more appealing draw, while still providing a payday for both bands. The show would not have had to sell out to be worthwhile financially for all concerned. This very same night, about 200 miles Northwest of Waterbury, Finkel and Koplik were presenting the Grateful Dead in Utica, NY.

March 22, 1973 46th Street Rock Palace, Brooklyn, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage/others (Thursday) (ABC In Concert Taping) broadcast May 11
In December, 1972 ABC debuted ABC In Concert, a bimonthly 90-minute rock show on Friday nights at 11:30pm. In Concert was instrumental in breaking open the late night market for TV networks, paving the way for Tom Snyder's Tomorrow and Saturday Night Live, because the show indicated that young people would stay up to watch interesting "non-family" TV. For suburban teenagers like me, ABC In Concert was like a portal to a New World. The shows were staged for TV, yes, but the bands were playing in real venues with their real equipment in front of a live audience. I was stuck in the suburbs, but at least I got a glimpse of all the bands touring the United States while I was in High School.

The New Riders appearance on ABC In Concert was filmed on a Thursday night in Brooklyn. The former Loew's Theater was called Banafish Gardens at the time. Back in 1970, the theater was briefly a competitor to the Fillmore East called The 46th Street Rock Palace. The Grateful Dead and the New Riders had headlined four thinly-attended shows on November 11-14, 1970. The 3000-capacity former movie theater had first opened in 1927, had been converted into a rock venue around October 1970. The venue was located at 46th Street and 11th Avenue in Brooklyn, near Alben Square. The venue booked some of the top touring acts: The Byrds, The Youngbloods, the Dead, Jefferson Airplane and others. The venue had only been open for a few weeks.  There were plenty of Grateful Dead fans in New York City, and plenty even in Brooklyn, but for whatever reasons fans did not come to the 46th Street Rock Palace. By 1973, the theater was called Bananafish Gardens and periodically used for taping ABC In Concert, but it's not clear how many other times the venue was used.

The New Riders episode of ABC In Concert was broadcast on May 11, 1973. Other acts on the show were Hot Tuna, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gladys Knight And The Pips. I don't know for sure if all three of those acts also recorded this night in Brooklyn (I would bet that Hot Tuna did, since we know where they were the night before). At this time of the In Concert broadcast, I had all three New Riders' albums, but had never seen them live. When they jammed out on"Willie And The Hand Jive," teenage-me was thrilled: I had no idea they sounded that cool in concert. It's impossible to underestimate the impact of ABC In Concert (and competing shows on other networks) on expanding the audience for different touring bands during this era. The New Riders were no exception.

 

March 23, 1973 Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Friday)
For this weekend, pity poor John Scher. In New York at the time, Howard Stein and Ron Delsener promoted shows North of the Hudson River (New York City proper) and John Scher generally promoted shows South of it (in New Jersey). Scher's principal venue was the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. Scher booked both the Grateful Dead and the New Riders throughout 1972 and '73. Scher had booked the New Riders at the Capitol for Friday, March 23, 1973, five days after the Felt Forum show. The New York City (Tri-State) metro area is so large that the Passaic show would have drawn a different crowd than the Felt Forum show, even though they were only 20 miles away from each other.

However, with the Dead having made a surprise guest appearance at the Felt Forum show, and the Riders opening for the Dead, the buzz would have been in the air, so everybody in New Jersey must have assumed that the Dead were going to drop in at Passaic, too. Never mind if that's a rational judgment: I guarantee you everybody standing in line for the show that night had heard about New York (probably in a greatly exaggerated fashion) and was fully expecting Jerry and the boys to make an appearance. Anyone on the Deadheads mailing list could have seen that the Dead were booked for Utica on March 22 and the Spectrum March 24, so it would have seemed perfectly plausible.

The 1973 New Riders were a great live band, and I'm sure they put on a terrific show at the Capitol. Kathleen Miller of the Paterson News gave the band a very positive review, although she didn't seem that familiar with the material. Still, I think that the audience was probably still let down. It must have been tough for the Riders to rock through their best songs while a crowd of Jersey Deadheads (plus some Philadelphia lunatics, of course) shouted "Jerrrry!" 

Per the Miller review, Ramblin' Jack's opening set was poorly received, even if he was backed on a few numbers on drums by actor Michael J Pollard. Sound problems marred Elliot's set, a common  enough scenario for solo performers playing big halls.

March 25, 1973 Playhouse, Hofstra U., Hempstead, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Sunday) early and late shows
The Hofstra University Playhouse was an 1105-seat theater on the Hofstra campus. Hofstra is a private college that was founded in 1935. It currently has about 10,000 students, although I don't know if it had that many in 1972. Ramblin' Jack sang at least one song with the New Riders in the early show, so I wouldn't be surprised if he opened the shows as well.

March 30, 1973 War Memorial Auditorium, Rochester, NY: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday) Festival Presents
The New Riders played a couple of Grateful Dead dates, where they had a chance to add to the Dead's audience and also pick up some new fans. Although the New Riders' audience overlapped about 100% with the Dead, by booking them, the show was longer and more of an event, so it would have been appealing to bored teenagers looking to fill up the whole evening.

The Grateful Dead had been playing Rochester since 1970. After playing some smaller halls, they were moving up. The Community War Memorial Auditorium in Rochester had opened in 1955, and had a capacity of over 11,000 for concert (now the Blue Cross Arena). 

We know that Keith Godchaux played piano on at least some of the New Riders' songs, possibly all of them. Keith would go on to sit in with the New Riders a number of times over the next two weeks, occasionally joined by his wife.

March 31, 1973 Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, NY: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Saturday) Harvey n Corky Present
The Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (not "War Memorial") was a big old concrete block, built in 1940 with a concert capacity of around 18,000.

It's doubtful that the Dead sold out an 18,000 seater in Buffalo in 1973, even on a Saturday night. But they probably didn't have to. The economics of the show were probably that the promoter could break even on a half-filled arena, and the band and promoter split the overage. Why was there such a big venue in Buffalo? Buffalo, in its way, is a symbol of the history of the Erie Canal and New York State. When the Erie Canal took hold in the 1830s, Buffalo was the gateway to Lake Erie and thus the city was a critical transportation hub linking Canada, the Atlantic Ocean (via the St. Lawrence Seaway) and Manhattan, all via canals and later railways, feeding the Central and Upstate manufacturers. In 1940, Buffalo had a population of 575,901.

By 1970, however, the world had changed and Buffalo was declining significantly, with a population of only 462,768. It was shrinking during the Baby Boom. Still, there were still a lot of people in Buffalo, many of them young, and they wanted to rock and roll like everyone else. The biggest local promoters were "Harvey 'N' Corky." The independent production company was run by Corky Burger and two brothers, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. After some years as successful concert promoters, the Weinstein brothers moved into the movie business. Miramax pictures was extremely successful in ensuing decades. Harvey Weinstein is also widely known as a convicted rapist.

It's pretty likely that Harvey Weinstein, a former SUNY Buffalo student, had had some engagement with a Howard Wales/Jerry Garcia concert in Buffalo in January 1972, and at a New Riders show at SUNY Buffalo on April 12, so that probably provided a level of confidence for the bands to book with an untried promotion company.  Things must have gone well, since the Dead played for Harvey 'N' Corky Productions again later in the year, and again in 1977.  

Once again, it's known that Keith Godchaux sat in with the New Riders for a few numbers, possibly more.

April 2, 1973 Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Grateful Dead/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Monday) Cable Music Presents
The Boston Garden, at 150 Causeway Street, was the city's principal arena. It had been built in 1928 and had a capacity of about 15,000. It was the home arena for both the NHL Boston Bruins and the NBA Boston Celtics. As a result, potential concert dates were limited. At this time, no specific promoter had an exclusive least on concerts at the Garden. Jim Koplik and Shelly Finkel were presenting the Dead for their debut at the Garden.

Boston was both awash in college students and a big city surrounded by suburbs, so it's no surprise that the Grateful Dead had a big following. Still, the Dead had played Boston less than you might expect prior to 1973. Nonetheless, per a Boston Globe review, the Dead managed to sell out the Boston Garden, even though it as a Monday night. Once again, booking the New Riders as part of the show seems to have been a strategy to help fill out the crowd when the Dead were playing in bigger places than they had played previously. 

As a funny footnote, sometime earlier in the tour, David Nelson had told Robert Hunter that he had a dream where he was writing songs like "serving up cheeseburgers." Hunter then than turned up in Nelson's hotel in Boston with the lyrics to the song "Crooked Judge" (supposedly adding "do you want fries with that?"). Nelson would write the music, and the song would turn up in New Riders' sets in the Fall. It was later released on the 1974 album Brujo.

April 3, 1973 Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA: Hot Tuna/New Riders of The Purple Sage (Tuesday) Don Law Presents
The Grateful Dead's Spring tour had ended at Boston Garden on Monday night, but the New Riders kept right on rolling. The next night, the band played their first gig for Boston promoter Don Law. The Grateful Dead had played for Don Law at the Boston Tea Party in October and December 1969, including New Year's Eve in Boston. Law was one of many promoters in the Boston area, but the Dead had not played for him since '69. By the mid-70s, the Grateful Dead would play the Boston area exclusively for Don Law, a relationship that remained intact until 1995. Similar to John Scher and Jim Koplik, it seems that the New Riders were the ones who re-initiated the Dead's relationship with Law.

Don Law Jr was the son of Columbia Records Staff Producer Don Law Sr (1902-1982). You can look up Law Sr's remarkable career, yourself, but among many other things he produced Robert Johnson's recordings (yes, that Robert Johnson) and became head of Columbia's Nashville division, steering the careers of the likes of Johnny Cash. Law also produced numerous legendary country hits himself, like "El Paso" (Marty Robbins) and "Battle Of New Orleans" (Johnny Horton). 

Don Law Jr was a Boston University college student when he started presenting local events. By mid-1968 he ran the Boston Tea Party, Boston's principal underground rock venue. The Tea Party was particularly legendary for booking touring English bands like Jethro Tull and Ten Years After. Law also co-owned Boston's first full-time FM rock station, WBCN. WBCN began broadcasting on March 15, 1968, with dj's often spinning records from a studio on an upper floor of the venue itself (the all-night DJ, known as "The Woofuh Goofuh," was future J Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf). 

The tiny Tea Party had closed by the end of 1970. Law went on to book other venues, but initially he was just one of many promoters in the competitive Boston marketplace. There were numerous college students in the center of town, plus public transport to bring in teenagers from the suburbs, so there was a market for far more events than in some typical bohemian downtown neighborhood. Every hip band came through Boston, whether mainstream or underground, but they didn't just play one or two places.

By 1973, Don Law Jr's principal, though not only, venue was the 2700-seat Orpheum Theater, at 1 Hamilton Place. On this Tuesday night, Law booked Hot Tuna and the New Riders together, like so many other promoters. One interesting thing to consider is whether Keith and Donna Godchaux played with the New Riders this night, since we know they played at least two of the next three nights.

April 4, 1973 Atwood Hall, Clark U., Worcester, MA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday early and late shows)
Worcester, MA is about an hour West of Boston, and the Grateful Dead had played at Clark University there in 1967 and '69. The Dead returned to Worcester on May 9, 1970, with the New Riders but this time at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The bands had played Harrington Auditorium (at 100 Institute Road), built in 1968 and home to the school's basketball teams. The venue held about 3,000.

The New Riders now returned to headline Atwood Hall at Clark. Atwood has only 658 seats, so there were early and late shows. An archival cd of the complete show was released by Kufala Records in 2003. Keith Godchaux sat in with the New Riders for both sets, and Donna Godchaux sang a few numbers as well, including singing lead on Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man." Keith would have known all the New Riders material from all the shows the bands played together, and he adds a lot to the band's sound. 

It's worth noting that the Godchauxs' presence couldn't have been casual. The Grateful Dead had returned home, and yet Keith and Donna stayed on tour. Bringing a piano player on stage also means that a piano has to acquired, and at Clark it seems to have been a grand piano. It may have been a university piano.

April 6, 1973 [venue], Syracuse, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday)
On Friday night the New Riders played Syracuse. I don't know the venue, but given that it was a weekend it could have been Loew's Theater, a 2900-capacity theater at 362 S. Salina Street. I'll bet Keith and Donna sat in, too.

April 7, 1973 McGonigle Hall, Temple U., Philadelphia PA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Meters/Dr. John (Saturday)  Electric Factory Presents
McGonigle Hall was a relatively new 3900-capacity basketball arena at Temple University. The arena had only opened in 1969, and was located at Broad and Montgomery, just North of downtown. The concert was co-promoted by the Temple Student Union and Electric Factory. The Electric Factory were Philadelphia's biggest rock promoters, and had been presenting the Grateful Dead since 1968 (and would continue through 1995). The size of the venue and Electric Factory tells us that the audience wasn't exclusively students, but also downtown rock fans (although Temple Students got tickets for $4 instead of $5).

The Electric Factory probably didn't expect the New Riders to sell McGonigle out, but by having a bigger venue they could absorb as big a crowd was available. The show must have been an absolute banger. Dr. John The Night Tripper had played with the New Riders many times in 1972. In late February, he had released his sixth album, In The Right Place, on Atco. It was Dr. John's best selling album, and it would reach #24 later in the summer. The signature hit single "Right Place, Wrong Time" would reach #10 in the Summer. There were other great songs on the album, too: "Qualified," "Such A Night" and "I Been Hoodoo'd," to name a few. 

As if The Night Tripper wasn't enough, his backing band on this tour was the same as his album, namely New Orleans very own Meters. Each member of The Meters--guitarist Leo Nocentelli, organist Art Neville, bassist George Porter and drummer Ziggy Modeliste--was an absolute monster. So The Meters would play an incredibly funky set, Dr. John would come out, and then the New Riders had to follow that.

At least the New Riders came heavily armed. Keith Godchaux played electric piano for the whole show, and Donna sang on a few songs, including joining in for the "Honky Tonk Women." Such a night, indeed.
 

Newsday listing from April 7, 1973 for the Monday, April 9 New Riders show at Queens College

April 9, 1973 Colden Auditorium, Queens College, Flushing, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Monday) 7pm-9:30pm shows
The Grateful Dead had played Colden Auditorium at Queens College on October 10, 1970. Once again, the New Riders were following a prior trail.

Queens College had been established in 1937, and by 1970 was part of CUNY (City University of New York). In 1970, the school had also adopted an "Open Admissions" policy, allowing any New York High School graduate to attend regardless of scores and grades. So, no matter what, it was a forward looking place at the time. There were probably about 15,000 undergraduates in 1970. Colden Auditorium had been built on the campus in 1961, and had a capacity of 2,085. The fact that there were early and late shows suggest that the show was trying to draw people from around the area, not just college students.

April 13, 1973 [venue], Pittsburgh, PA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday)
April 14, 1973 [venue], Providence, RI: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Saturday)
A tour ad lists two final weekend dates, in Pittsburgh and Providence. Both seem very plausible, and these may have happened, but we can't find any confirmation.

May 1. 1973 Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show/Bruce Springsteen (Tuesday) 
Whenever the New Riders Northeastern tour exactly ended, the band returned to California and took most of the month off, prior to a run along the West Coast later in May. In between, however, there was one extremely interesting performance in downtown Los Angeles, a reminder that the hippie New Riders were signed to a very big corporation.

Columbia Records was the largest record label in the world, and also a division of the powerful Columbia Broadcasting System, so the label could do things on a scale beyond that of other labels. In early 1973, Columbia chose to book all their major acts in Los Angeles' finest theater for seven consecutive nights. The real purpose of this mini-festival was to showcase their acts for radio djs, talent agents and Columbia sales staff. This was commonly done at company sales conventions. At a typical sales convention, however, with the drinks flowing, newly-signed bands found themselves playing to drunk industry pros catching up on gossip with their pals. By selling tickets at a big theater, the hall was filled with regular civilians who liked the bands. It was more of a true concert atmosphere, and the pros could more fairly guage the impact of each band.  

The Ahmanson Theatre had opened in 1967, as part of the Los Angeles Music Center. It was Los Angeles' premier theater, and regularly featured prominent Broadway productions. For the week of April 29-May 5, Columbia booked the 2084-capacity Ahmanson for seven nights, with three acts each night. The acts ran the gamut, as Columbia was prominent in rock, soul, country, jazz and pop styles. Billboard reviewed all seven nights, which were apparently 95% sold out (Part 1 is here, and Part 2 can be seen here). 

The New Riders played Tuesday, May 1, headlining the show over Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show. Dr. Hook had released their album Sloppy Seconds, which included their lasting single "Cover Of The Rolling Stone." Opening the show was one Bruce Springsteen, who had released his debut album Greetings From Asbury Park in January 1973. Columbia recorded and filmed the shows professionally. Bits and pieces of all seven nights have turned up over the years. A tape of the five-song Springsteen set has circulated for decades, and a fragment of the video even turned up in a 1998 BBC documentary. Apparently the entire set can be found on YouTube now.

An unnamed Billboard reviewer ran down the Ahmanson show in the May 19, 1973 issue:

If any one artist captured the essence of what the week was really about it was Bruce Springsteen. Latest in Columbia's recent acquisitions of singer-songwriters (Bill Quateman & Andy Pratt) he has an appeal that borders on the universal...a glowing and vibrant performer in his own right.

Conversely, the reviewer was scathing about Dr Hook, calling them "insufferably self-indulgent...instrumental sloppiness and vocal insipidity did nothing to salvage their performance."

All in all, the Riders came out fairly well. He says:

The New Riders of The Purple Sage have uncovered nothing new or outrageous, but they do what they do very well and with more than a little bit of inspiration. The mode is country, mellow and laid back yet ready to set off sparks at a moment's notice. Joined by Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Keith Godchaux and Donna Godchaux they transformed the staid Ahmanson into a veritable hoe-down.

So Bob Weir made his last appearance with the New Riders, and Keith and Donna played yet another gig with the band, lending a little star power to the proceedings. This was never nothing in status-conscious LA. Also, given that we know the Springsteen material exists, it's just possible that there is professional audio and video of the May 1 NRPS Ahmanson show, deep in the Columbia vaults. 

New Riders of The Purple Sage Status Report, May 1, 1973
By May, 1973, the New Riders of The Purple Sage had released three albums on Columbia Records, all of which had been moderately successful. The band had established themselves as a successful touring entity independent of Jerry Garcia. They were inevitably associated with the Grateful Dead, which was not at all a bad thing, but it made it harder to establish a fully separate identity. Long-haired country rock seemed to be rising in popularity, although no one suspected that the Outlaw Country sound coming out of Austin at this time would supersede it. The New Riders were becoming an established act in the Northeast, able to fill the smaller halls and college gyms that the Grateful Dead had been filling just a few years earlier. 

For the next post in the series (NRPS Tour History May-Sep 1973) see here