To continue my thoughts from my Connections post where I discussed trying to share shows in a more meaningful way. Or more specifically how my dumb brain can’t remember the details of any artist’s tours and shows. I only recently realized how few actual tours Jerry Garcia did in his various solo projects.
He performed a lot of gigs outside of his duties with the Grateful Dead but for the most part he stayed close to home, doing gigs throughout the San Francisco Bay area. I’d never really paid much attention to where he was performing, I’d only noticed that he did a lot of solo shows.
In May of 1994, he did what you might generously call a tour. He played six gigs with the Jerry Garcia Band, five of which were in California (but slightly farther away than his normal gigs) and one in Phoenix, Arizona.
Truth be told I was poking around at the Jerry Base site, trying to find something to post and came across this. They call it the May 1994 tour so I grabbed the shows and then realized they were still mostly played in California. But whatever. I’m still getting the hang of this thing 🙂
1994.05.13 – Glen Helen, Ca
1994.05.14 – Ventura, CA
1994.05.15 – Irvine, CA
1994.05.17 – San Diego, CA
1994.05.18 – San Diego, CA
1994.05.19 – Phoenix, AZ
themidnightcafe.org 
Cool – interesting post. I’m not a Deadhead (even though I was lucky to see the Jerry-era Grateful Dead twice), but because you so generously share shows in that zone, I’ve checked some out. I’ve marveled at how many shows Jerry played with Merl Saunders in particular … like, that side gig would be a whole career for some artists!
So I think it’s interesting that Jerry chose not to hit the road much with “solo” shows … maybe he wanted to keep an informal feel compared to the huge train that was a Dead tour.
My understanding is that Jerry just loved to play music. Dude just constantly had a guitar in his hand doodling out something. He often would just gather with whoever was available and jam. And I’ve read stories where after a couple of jam sessions he’d decide they might as well do it in front of an audience and get paid.
His solo stuff is really fascinating because in the early days up through a chunk of the 1970s he was constantly playing with a variety of people. So you’ve got Merl Saunder and Old and in the Way, Howard Wales, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and just a random rotation. Then eventually he settled into the Jerry Garcia Band (although there were various lineup changes with that.).
But yeah, no iteration really toured all that often outside of California. If I was guessing I’d say that was a mix of Jerry not wanting to be back on the road since he was out there so often with the Dead and a general laziness (Jerry was certainly ambitious in some ways, but I don’t see him as a guy who would have had the get-up-and-go spirit to plan big tours for his solo projects.). The solo projects really seem like somethng he just liked to do. He loved playing music and he could easily book gigs near his home so why not? Also it was a great way for him to get away from the insanity that was the Grateful Dead machine. the Jerry band could play small club gigs, Jerry could play whatever songs he wanted to and he didn’t have to deal with all the nonsense.
Sorry, I’m rambling. But I do think Jerry solo is a fascinating subject. But also I am by no means an expert.
So here’s an obscure Jerry solo tour you might look into. In January, 1972 he and Howard Wales played a number of small theatres in the northeast on the “Hooteroll” Tour, named for the album they had just released. The only recording I’ve seen surface from that tour is a nice soundboard of 1/26/72 from Boston. I was lucky enough to see them in Buffalo 3 days later, on 1/29/72. Looking at Jerrybase this was a short, 7 gig tour and it’s not clear if there are recordings available beyond the Boston show. But it would certainly open up some ears if you could post any of those shows. By the way, the opening act for the tour was the Mahavishnu Orchestra! Quite the night.
Oh that is interesting. I knew Jerry and Howard played a few gigs together and I have the Boston show, but I’ve never looked into the details. At a guess I’d say the other recordings have never surfaced but that’s definitely something fun to look into.
I’ve just stumbled across this and the information is incorrect. Jerry played many, many shows outside of California over the years. His main parts of the US for shows was the North-East, Mid-West and West. The earlier shows with Merl were predominately Northern California; from 1974, he started branching out to others parts of the USA. During 1975, for example, playing with both LOM and JGB, he played many shows in the NE and Mid-West. Some years he concentrated more on the West; other years, however, like 1981, he did 2 big North-East trips, playing such venues as the Tower Theatre, Bushnell auditorium and the Warner Theater. Fall ’82 was the NE, as was fall ’83. Other years, such as 1989 and 1991, he also spent time in the NE and Mid-West. It was only certain year where he primary remained in California, such as ’73 and -’92. Towards the end, he solely played in San Francisco.
That’s true he did play plenty of gigs as a “solo” artist outside of California. One can see that in the many shows I’ve posted on this site. But he played many more in California. I could have been more specific in this post, but I think my point stands – As a solo artist Jerry primarily gigged close to home.
This is simply untrue. If someone who knew little about Jerry’s solo touring read this, they would truly believe that he rarely played outside of San Francisco. NOTE – you never stated California as a state, which would be true that, primarily, adding up all shows, his shows in California would win out over the rest of the USA easily, (notably the North-East); you clearly referenced how he tended to play in the San Fran area; this is not backed up by facts, and is misleading. Perhaps refer to ‘Garcia base’. Jerry played many, many shows in Southern California as well as shows in venues in Northern California, outside the bay area. He also intermittently visited the Pacific Northwest. If you added together all shows he played outside the bay area, versus those played in the bay area, the numbers speak for themselves. I skimmed through Garcia base and counted well over 135 shows played outside the bay area, and that was just from what I could see; there would be more shows I did not count. Also, by saying about the ‘few actual tours’ he did, this is eyebrow raising, at best. As previously pointed out, Jerry went on many tours with LOM and JGB, notably whole tours covering the North-east and Mid-west, oftentimes stretching to 4 weeks, squeezed between GD tours, (example being 1981 – a short North-east and Mid-West tour prior to the start of the Dead’s touring in Feb ’81, as well as the North-East and Mid-West tour of October and November ’81, squeezed between Europe and the winter tour). Jerry had whole tours, outside of the bay area, in the following periods, (list not exhaustive): Fall 1974, Spring 1975, Fall 1975, Spring 1976, Fall 1977, Spring 1978, Spring 1980, Winter and fall 1981, Fall 1982, Fall 1983, Summer 1984, Fall 1987, late summer/early fall 1989, Fall 1991, Fall 1993, (and that isn’t counting his various acoustic tours, which took him to such places as NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA and Philadelphia). There were many other, shorter tours, or ‘visits’ to areas outside of San Francisco that I haven’t listed. Even in the later years, when he started doing the extended runs at the Warfield, he was still doing multiple nights at the Wiltern Theatre in LA, including 1987, 1988 and 1990, as examples. But perhaps agreeing to disagree is best, as no doubt this response will be fruitless, despite the facts speaking for themselves. You claim to never have paid attention to his touring and shows – well, as trivial as it is, I have, and, having poured over ‘Garciabase’ umpteen times, his schedule is fairly well ingrained in my memory. So the point doesn’t stand, not unless you class Southern California as being ‘close to home’ to Jerry, (London is not ‘close’ to Edinburgh, yet the miles between these two cities is less than the miles between San Fran and LA, to put it into perspective).
You are right. I got it wrong. Congratulations.