The Deadcast cruises into two April ‘78 shows on Virginia college campuses alongside a pair of chartered buses from New York filled with seething Dead freaks and gets into Jerry Garcia’s favorite music and guitar tips from rare interviews.
by Jesse Jarnow
Thanks once again to the Retro Photo Archive for access to Jon Sievert’s incredible interviews with Jerry Garcia from 1978. During one, Garcia runs down some of the music he’s been listening to lately. These are the tracks we sampled.
“Take the A-Train” - Duke Ellington (1941)
“Tea For Two” - Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here (1968)
“The Wizard” - Al Di Meola, Land of the Midnight Sun (1976)
“White Rabbit” - George Benson, White Rabbit (1972)
“Caminto De Totana” - Paco De Lucía, El Camarón De La Isla (1973)
“Joyous Lake” - Pat Martino, Joyous Lake (1976)
James Adams assembled a loving handmade zine about the Blackburg show as part of his much-recommended Virginia Music History zine series.
Young photographer Bob Minkin encountered Phil Lesh in the parking lot outside the William and Mary show.
Guitarist Sanjay Mishra attended the William and Mary show, too, not long after moving to the United States from India to study music. In Calcutta, he’d played lead guitar in Mahamaya, likely the city’s only Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers cover band, which we discussed during our Playing Dead episodes. Around 15 years after the Williamsburg show, Jerry Garcia contributed to Mishra’s adventurous album, Blue Incantation, now available as part of Front Street Outtakes. He continues to record and perform.