Rolling Thunder 1976 started 50 years ago today! So I’m going to be writing about every show, from opening night in Florida today through Hard Rain and the illusive Salt Lake City, with stopovers like Bobby Charles’ alligator bbq and Willie Nelson getting subpoenaed backstage. Follow along!

The Grateful Dead are a California band from San Francisco, but there's more than one California. Highway 99 runs up through the fertile center of the state. I look at the Dead's 60s history in the "other" California. lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-...

I love to see charts where Rick James is beating the Dead at stuff

I did a little patching on this one, taking a bit from Ned's sbd tape to patch the beginning of The Wall Song, which starts with an Other One Jam (of all things). Garcia splits after The Wall Song to go play with NRPS in Cotati, but the party goes on. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vcO...

This has just got to be the first Jerry Garcia Band shirt, see lineup on the back. www.juliensauctions.com/en/items/220...

This video of Jerry's solo on Dancin 10/5/70 is just unreal. Melancholy and gorgeous, as this was the night after Janis' death. Although she might get too much airtime, the lady ecstatically is a plus for me. That is exactly what I would have been doing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rmz...

Great shot of Merl here © Ron Bowman / PlayingInTheBand.com I guess they had trouble finding the right seat that night, but that looks like a sturdy box. Legion of Mary, Laguna Beach 3/9/75

More GD that seems under-circulated to me. Mostly July 4, 1970 from Calgary. Lovingly constructed from the Festival Express movie and Taper's Section posts. Anyway, now it is just a click away. youtube.com/watch?v=C5W8...

aspiring Bob Weir biographers, suggested title "The Yellow Dog Story"

Nice crispy capture of this ❤️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMgE...

For better or for worse this is live now jerrybase.com/nl_search?me... Highly experimental. Set expectations to "low". And give some feedback, we'd like to iterate and improve this.

Originally shared on Tapers Section back on 2018. Since it's sourced from mp3 (and only available in that form) it's less available than it should be, trying to correct that. photo: Marjorie B. King www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw9r...

God bless the Vasseurs ❤️ archive.org/details/jg95...

I recently uploaded a real nice set of Ron Bowman's photos from the an out-of-the-way spot, South Coast Theatre, Laguna Beach, CA, 3/9/75. LOM. Shout out to David Minches for turning me on to these. www.playingintheband.com

IMHO, Bobby was somehow the most GD of all the GDs. He just a kid when he joined, raised by the Band. One of a kind, those physics no longer exist. photo: Greg Gaar, Greek 83

Maybe the weirdest and most wonderful guy ever

Harry”s book! The Encyclopedia of Jerry Garcia Music Venues. Hands down my favorite gift of the year!

Daniel Johnston comic ❤️

One of one.

Anyone happen to know why Lossless Legs is down? @brokensymmetry.art ?

Old country absolute banger youtu.be/2d8Zub6uHF8?...

Thanks to @jerrybase.bsky.social for chasing these down and @bourgwick.bsky.social for starting the discussion - we're now tracking the "NFA reprise" encores on Jerrybase, which, amusingly, are more accurately termed "reprise" than the standard head term "Playin' Reprise"

This is a beauty. AUD is the way to experience these, the kids were losing it. archive.org/details/gd19...

Seahawks only down by 3 field goals! Let’s go!

Map of the Garciaverse, spud factor 2

You might need a hanky for this one. ❤️ Donna Jean ❤️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiWD...

Donna Jean has left the building, fare thee well, and thanks so much ❤️❤️❤️ youtu.be/8y3uVMhXwCs?...

💔 fare thee well, deej. 💔

Rolling into Garcia this fine fall morning

Cannot stop cueing this one up youtu.be/6u1VO7hRhXA?...

Let’s go!

Long may you run Boo Berry, long may you run..

60 years ago today, john coltrane recorded "om" in seattle while (according to several biographers) tripping on LSD. the next night, he performed "a love supreme" in its entirety for one of the only known times. idk seems significant?

deep new @livedeadbook.bsky.social project examining documents from the grateful dead archive. he's got a new scholarly book out in spring about "touch of grey" (!!). "live dead" was ace, too, a close read of the dead's live recordings. gratefuldocuments.substack.com/p/hauling-it... #deadfreaksunite

Celebrating the waning days of Summer in Seattle

Flirting with the LLMs this AM

How I like to spend my free time deadessays.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-...

@bourgwick.bsky.social has reminded me that today marks the 50th anniversary of the first Jerry Garcia Band show. Gone of course are Merl and Martin, welcome Nicky Hopkins! This lineup just lasted through NYE of that year, but I am guessing you knew that already ;) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w8R...

Can you OD from acai? In San Diego, need to know

This new Warfield release ❤️ got me thinkin'. Oh boy, by 1991 JGB had LOTS of tunes. Here's a lil query to demonstrate. I am counting 1991 as the top year, 1975 and 1976 are tilted by wasted piano guys hogging the mic. jerrybase.com/saved_search...

Sadly not enough of these, but here's all times Jerry played outside the US. Someone asked me this and the site does not allow for this kind of search natively. jerrybase.com/saved_search...

Why is everyone so worried about Al? No way this guy could do my job!

Figured it was time to pick one of these up, legend

Over a Jerrybase we have an experimental feature to be able to ask stuff like "Show me all the times Jerry played in Golden Gate Park". It converts natural language into a database query. Not sure how you feel about that. In any case, it generated this result. jerrybase.com/saved_search...

Young Ozzy Osbourne spotted backstage at the Hollywood Festival, Newcastle-under-Lyme, England (May 23-24, 1970), at which Black Sabbath and the Grateful Dead performed. This split-second cameo appears in the lost documentary of the Dead’s first trip to England. Thanks for everything, Ozzy.

Am I just high or is Playin in the Band from 1977-05-04 really exceptional?

New source for this show, sounds excellent. Might sound better and be more patched up than other circulating sources. In any case, this has always been one of my favorite JGB shows. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Sk...

Starting the day with some deep alien funk, a mega-mix www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-OB...

Happy 4th of July everyone, hope you have the day off. Enjoying this Reinhart Hohlwein tape, drunk folks and all. 50 years ago tonight. youtu.be/fyeSLEDjIpI?...