@mangrovevalley @bourgwick yeah!

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia with merl saunders’ aunt monk, his rhodes-centric other band, playing decidedly non-legion of mary repertoire & way more exciting to me, with a bunch of cool rarities & jams. audience tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZPtByE4s4k
@FateMusic breaks it down: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/11/ln-jg1975-05-09aunt-monk84minsaud.html [1/2]

4/12/75 scranton: missing a few songs up top, starting with a snappy TOUGH MAMA. great soundboard mix highlights quiet conversation in WONDERING WHY. TALKIN’ ‘BOUT YOU pretty convincing to close early set, super-quiet vocals, burning guitar outro. 12-minute LA LA with sweet guitar valley, though (again) feeling less exploratory with tutt. extra-quiet late show combo of MISSISSIPPI MOON followed by return of GOING GOING GONE, with soaring finale. #garciafreaksunite #jg041275 [2/2]

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia & the legion of mary truck out to #scranton. spring ’75, show #8. nice soundboard mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t94QaS-ES8I
in which jerry is presented with a bong onstage, scroll down for bong image (thanks to @FateMusic for pointer): https://busada.com/2016/10/08/jerry-garcia-and-busada-tubing/ [1/2]

@InstituteJerry yeah!

Look what had fallen between the couch cushions. More complete than what circulates, and better sounding. I quite like the ambience on this one, the kids are losing it, and with good reason. #gratefuldead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwbvb9h9Dco

50 years ago tonight, fresh from the 1st day of #GratefulDead writing sessions for “blues for allah” at bob weir's studio, #JerryGarcia plays in #SanFrancisco with merl saunders’s other band, aunt monk, on merl’s 41st. muffled tape, but kind of a peak for a certain garcia/saunders thread. no vocals, no B3, just rhodes jams. slightly monochromatic, but bountiful with garcia/saunders conversation. happy birthday, merl! robert castelli audience tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RvF3cVyy1M [1/2]

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia & merl saunders in #berkeley with saunders’ aunt monk rhythm section. oversaturated in places, but 2 pretty fantastic once-on-tape tunes by weather report & marvin gaye, presumably from aunt monk’s repertoire. nice stereo mix by end, saunders on left & garcia on right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrA6vtsD2f0
originally circulating as 7/22/74, correct date decoded by @FateMusic. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OV6dzjskYWA5gHcKZPgvbYZmtvqutmqG/view [1/2]

1/22/75 keystone berkeley: tape cuts in during raging AFTER MIDNIGHT. 18-minute YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAT ON finds dense garcia/saunders weave before cooling out some. good fun 21-minute CUCUMBER SLUMBER by weather report, only garciaverse version, garcia hangs back until he doesn’t, widening to open conversational groove. adventurous 26-minute instrumental of marvin gaye’s WHAT’S GOING ON, only known version, flute-led at first, & picking up as it wanders. #garciafreaksunite #jg012275 [2/2]

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia & merl saunders in #berkeley, the 1st tape of ’75, the lineup tilting towards saunders’s aunt monk with tony saunders on bass & gaylord birch on drums. garcia’s 1st tape with birch, briefly in the garcia band a decade later. with the next night, often labeled 7/21/74 + 7/22/74 + tapes switched around, forensics by @FateMusic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OV6dzjskYWA5gHcKZPgvbYZmtvqutmqG/view.
betty cantor-jackson tape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-1qlM0bSP8 [1/2]

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia & the not-yet-named legion of mary in huntington beach, the middle night of 3, with appearances by donna jean godchaux & maria muldaur. audience tape, early show only: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tez5tt-ssC8 [1/2]

12/28/74 huntington beach: 11-minute FREEDOM JAZZ DANCE starts off oddly deconstructed but finds smooth conversational bliss. donna jean godchaux joins midway into ARE YOU LONELY FOR ME, getting cheers, final version by any garcia band (too bad), also sung at her first show with the dead in ’72. garcia’s 1st onstage appearance with any dead members since their retirement. maria muldaur & donna jean join for 17-minute HARDER THEY COME, a preview of the ’78 band. #garciafreaksunite #jg122874 [2/2]

12/29/74 huntington beach: 17-minute FAVELA plods (or maybe it’s fierro’s cowbell) but the jamming action is in the 18-minute YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAT ON, slashing & stretching (though oy with the cowbell). maria muldaur joins for SITTING IN LIMBO, duet with garcia. 22-minute LA LA > PEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND is sleepy (besides cowbell) & intensely quiet 23-minute GOING GOING GONE is comically extended. panoramic 17-minute EXPRESSWAY TO YOUR HEART. #garciafreaksunite #jg122974 [2/2]

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia & the just-about legion of mary in huntington beach, with another drop-in by maria muldaur. the last garcia tape of ’74 & nice audience recording, but both early & late sets could use some extreme cowbell de-mixing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_huoiNdcP4
@FateMusic *really* loves this “expressway to your heart”: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2021/12/expressway-day-garcia-saunders-at.html [1/2]

12/7/74 keystone berkeley: 14-minute VALDEZ IN THE COUNTRY, not as driving as with previous drummer paul humphrey, though maybe that’s the audience tape (or the prevalence of fierro’s shaker in the mix, followed by too much cowbell). 1st known version of stevie wonder’s recent hit BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN, 18 minutes, sung not-quite-convincingly by saunders, garcia still feeling his way around the changes & finding a few bright corners. #garciafreaksunite #jg120774 [2/2]

50 years ago tonight in #berkeley, the 1st circulating tape by legion of mary, #JerryGarcia & merl saunders’s newest lineup featuring drummer ronnie tutt from #elvis’s TCB band, debuted the previous evening (though they won’t go by the new name until the next month). bob menke audience tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6rkl58aCSo [1/2]

50 years ago tonight, #JerryGarcia & merl saunders in #worcester. only the late show, decent soundboard. financial forensics via @FateMusic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E475rcGyYoU [1/2]

11/15/74 worcester: effortless 11-minute FINDERS KEEPERS, garcia flowing over changes. highlight is 21-minute WONDERING WHY > PEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND, gorgeous rhodes by saunders in cool dialogue with garcia, who continues chattering with fierro’s flute as saunders sings. on LET IT ROCK intro (& sometimes between verses) garcia plays fun counterpoint to fierro’s leads (or is that fierro’s effects?). garcia’s voice sounds scratched-up by HOW SWEET IT IS. #garciafreaksunite #jg111574 [2/2]

11/14/74 boston: crisp garciaing on opening HARDER THEY COME. unidentified woman vocalist, probably from crowd, joins at end of MYSTERY TRAIN, can’t really follow band. early show gets 3 jazzy jams, including 19-minute MY FUNNY VALENTINE > PEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND. final known VALENTINE, garcia leading brief freakout transition. MYSTERY TRAIN cooks minus any stage crashers. brisk FAVELA in both sets, with big UNCLE JOHN’s-y closing in late show. #garciafreaksunite #jg111474 [2/2]

50 years ago today, #JerryGarcia & merl saunders finish up 3 nights in #boston at paul’s mall. unusually, there are 3 songs repeated on the early & late show tapes, which i don’t think happens on any other known show & makes me suspect one set is mislabeled.
slightly chompy (but still listenable) early show tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGAEHE2abHA
slightly chompier (but also still listenable) late show tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0tvFz3y0Nw [1/2]