Outside of the members of the Grateful Dead, the man who performed the most with Jerry Garcia was bassist John Kahn. They first got together in 1971 playing bass with Garcia and organist Howard Wales (with Merl Saunders and Martin Fierro) for their far-out, jazz thing. They continued to play together Old & in the Way, The Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, and of course, the Jerry Garcia Band.
Periodically from 1982 through 1986 Jerry and John would perform as an acoustic duo. I couldn’t find any particular reason for it. Sometimes they would do little mini-tours, sometimes the gigs were smashed in between regular Jerry Garcia Band shows. And I don’t really know why they suddenly stopped doing them.
But they were really cool while they lasted. Obviously, Garcia was an incredibly talented electric guitar player, but I’ve always loved hearing him on acoustic. I especially love that this arrangement allowed him to play a lot of songs he didn’t usually play with the Grateful Dead or his electric band.
So, I thought it would be fun to collect all the shows Jerry Garcia and John Kahn played as an acoustic duo. I used the always wonderful Jerry Base to identify all the shows they played as a duo, but if I missed any please let me know.
Lastly, I included a couple of compilation albums. The first is from Mr. Completely who shared this fabulous little comp, mostly from 1982, on Reddit and the other is the tenth, and final volume in the amazing Garcia Comp series from Chris Davis.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful collection of Jerry Garcia and John Kahn as an acoustic duo.
1982.04.21 – New York, NY
1982.06.04 – Portland, OR
1982.06.05 – Salem, OR
1982.06.06 – Eugene, OR
1982.06.25 – New York, NY
1982.06.26 – Washington, DC
1982.06.27 – Upper Darby, PA
1982.06.28 – Boston, MA
1982.06.30 – Rochester, NY
1982.07.01 – Chicago, IL
1982.07.02 – Boulder, CO
1982.08.21 – San Francisco, CA – Missing
1982.08.23 – San Francisco, CA
1982.09.06 – San Francisco, CA
1982.09.07 – San Francisco, CA
1984.06.03 – San Francisco, CA
1984.08.28 – San Francisco, CA
1984.09.28 – Guerneville, CA
1984.09.29 – San Rafael, CA
1984.11.16 – University Park, PA
1984.11.17 – Boston, MA
1984.11.18 – New York, NY
1984.11.20 – Washington, DC
1984.11.21 – Upper Darby, PA
1984.11.23 – Norfolk, VA
1984.11.24 – Passaic, NJ
1984.11.26 – Hartford, CT
1984.11.27 – Rochester, NY
1985.05.23 – Denver, CO
1985.05.31 – Beverly Hills, CA
1985.08.17 – Guerneville, CA
1985.08.18 – Oakland, CA
1985.08.27 – San Francisco, CA – Missing
1985.09.27 – San Francisco, CA
1985.09.28 – Palo Alto, CA
1985.10.11 – Guerneville, CA
1985.10.16 – Santa Cruz, CA
1986.01.16 – Palo Alto, CA
1986.01.18 – San Francisco, CA
1986.01.19 – San Francisco, CA – Missing
1986.01.24 – Washington, DC
1986.01.25 – Upper Darby, PA
1986.01.27 – New York, NY
1986.01.28 – New York, NY
1986.01.30 – Hartford, CT
1986.01.31 – Passaic, NJ
1986.02.01 – Boston, MA
1986.02.02 – Boston, MA
1986.02.28 – San Rafael, CA
1986.04.28 - San Francisco, CA – Missing
1986.05.13 – San Francisco, CA – Missing
1986.05.15 – Berkeley, CA
1986.11.14 – San Rafael, CA
1982-1985 – If You Could See My Heart
1982-1985 – Garcia Comp, Vol. 10
Oh my! Can’t wait to look through this incredible list! Wish I had the chance to see one of these but I was only 10 when the last one happened. They are just so simple and so enjoyable. Cheers Mat!
I hope you enjoy. I love these shows.
Super cool! I’m not a Deadhead so I’d never heard of John Kahn; I would have thought Merl Saunders was Jerry’s main collaborator outside of the Dead. I will check out the compilation to get oriented – thank you!
Merl played with Jerry quite a lot in the 1970s, but eventually he did his own thing and Jerry formed the Jerry Garcia Band. They apparently remained friends though as it was Merl who helped Jerry relearn the guitar when he came out of his coma in 1986.
Kahn was the bassist in most (if not all) of Jerry and Merls various collaborations in the 1970s and remained in the JGB.
Kahn was a great bass player but a bit of a controversial figure as he often smoked heroin with Jerry and some say he was a detrimental influence.
Thank you so much for these!
You are very welcome. Enjoy!