The Band
Woodstock, 1991 and/or 1992
Jericho demos, rehearsals, outtakes

1. Caves of Jericho (5:42)
2. Shine A Light (4:44)
3. Move to Japan (4:53)
4. Country Boy (3:21) REMOVED
5. Night On The Town (3:54)
6. The Same Thing (4:02)
7. Amazon (5:36)
8. Atlantic City (4:47)
9. Circle of Time (5:22)
10. The Tide Will Rise (3:51)
11. Nobody Sings ‘Em Like Ray (4:42)
12. Remedy (4:22)
13. Keep The Home Fires Burning (4:48)
14. Stuff You Gotta Watch (2:53)
15. Blind Willie McTell (7:33)
16. Atlantic City (4:47)
17. Soul Deep (4:24)
18. Remedy (live) (5:36) REMOVED
19. Blind Willie McTell (live) (4:11) REMOVED

Rick Danko
Levon Helm
Garth Hudson
Richard Bell
Randy Ciarlante
Jim Weider
and the ghost of Richard Manuel

with
Colin Linden
John Simon (?)
Bobby Strickland (?)
Dave Douglas (?)
Aaron Hurwitz (?)
Others (?)

Note: these tracks were received as a double cdr set in a trade, with tracks from three different sources. The original Wav files were not named (just Track 1, track 2, etc). I changed the track names after extracting, before compressing. The log files included here reflects the discs as i received them.

I cannot detail the lineage, but I did check to ensure these are not from a lossy or cress-encoded source. The lineage I can offer is:

Studio demos > cassette (unknown generation) > digital conversion > CDR > WAV files with extracted & compressed to FLAC level 8 (verified) with xACT 1.71. Log file & fingerprints included in torrent.

I have removed “Country Boy” from this torrent. Although the overdubs are all different on the version released on “Jericho”, the base track is the same, which violates two separate Dime polices of what’s not allowed:

• The audio of any performance used as the sound on officially released video material – even if the recording is from another source than that of the sound in the officially available material;
• Remixes, remasters, alternate mixes, and alternate edits of any official material;
  I also dropped the final two songs which were from an official, if somewhat obscure, release:
  http://theband.hiof.no/albums/remedy_blind_willie_mc_tell.html

Notes, mostly stolen from
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/demos_viney.html
which you should read in it’s entirety if you’re interested in this sort of thing:

These are all different versions to the released album. These are said to be out-takes, but none of them are final mixes. There seems little overdubbing and backing voices are less pronounced. There’s an almost live feel – rehearsals rather than out-takes. The bass is over-present throughout, a common problem with live recordings. As bass isn’t directional it leaks onto every mic and over-amplifies itself. There rarely seem to be two drummers, and Garth plays a lot of accordion throughout the first half. These tracks can’t have been sequenced as an album, as the four numbers with horns are in a row together. They might well be the earlier versions of the album with John Simon.

Caves of Jericho
Levon lead vocal.

Shine A Light
Rick takes the first verse, then hands over to someone else for the next. This could be Randy Ciarlante or John Simon (who plays piano and does backing vocal on the final version) or someone unknown. Great slide guitar which was dropped from the final version. the unknown voice and slide guitar sound a lot like Colin Linden.

Move to Japan
This has a very live feel. Garth’s accordion is prominent.

Country Boy
Richard Manuel. This is the older tape that they preserved for the final album.

Night On The Town (Bruce Hornsby)
Title track of a Bruce Hornsby album. Lead vocal is Randy – Rick and Levon can be heard in the background. It starts with ‘shave and a haircut- two bits’ rhythm. Then this version takes too many directions and is ultimately too messy to get anywhere, There’s a great bit of wild Garth organ.

The Same Thing
Levon counts this in and sings. A looser feel than the final cut.

Amazon
‘tikki tikki’ birds sound effect starts before Same Thing finishes and runs right into this – suggesting some post production effort. Rick sings.

Atlantic City
This has some odd and interesting breaks where only a drum flourish is heard. A nice idea that got dropped (probably for the best though). Levon’s vocal is not quite as subtle.

Circle of Time
This is new and it’s a loping mid-sixties style soul influenced song. Think about mid-period Robert Parker or Levon & The Hawks to get the feel. Rick Danko sings lead, supported (I think) by a female singer. The prominent instruments are bass, drums and guitar with less piano and a touch of synth with a horns sounds. I’d guess an unfinished demo rather than a finished out-take, the bass is so over-prominent that it can’t be a final mix, though all the elements are there. Jim Weider bends some very un-Band like guitar sounds. If this had made it through to Jericho. it would definitely have been one of the best tracks on the album. The bass on Circle of Time doesn’t sound like Rick Danko; my guess is that it’s Rob Leon. Guitar is likely Colin Linden again.

The Tide Will Rise (Music: Bruce Hornsby / Words: Bruce Hornsby and John Hornsby)
Levon sings lead. This song found its way to Hornsby’s January 1993 Harbor Lights album, and is a song to his ancestors, the watermen of Virginia. This is presumably an earlier version then. With words like ‘they say we’re a dying breed, they say we’re gonna disappear’ it reminds me of Cahoots, complete with tinkling orientalish synth and guitar sounds. They put out worse than this in the past (most of Islands and Cahoots for starters). Also it’s hard to tell how different a clean final mix would be.

Then next four songs run after each other, and all feature Garth on horns rather than keyboard. There are usually multiple horns. On the final versions on Jericho Bobby Strickland added sax, and Dave Douglas added trumpet. They (or others) may well be on these sessions too.

Nobody Sings ‘Em Like Ray
Co-written by Jim Rooney. Jazzy tribute to Ray Charles with Garth Hudson performing powerfully on horns. Either there’s overdubbing or assistance. Three voices share equal honours, Levon, Rick and probably Randy. It’s also very catchy, and has great lyrics. It’s incomprehensible that it wasn’t used.

Remedy
The bass sounds more prominent than the final version. The piano is terrific.

Keep The Home Fires Burning
This opens with a jaunty sax lead. Vocals are shared. The harmony chorus has a C&W feel.

Stuff You Gotta Watch
Opens in Sgt Pepper style with a voice announcing ‘the triumphant return of the Kenny Wayne Orchestra!’ then goes into a very live sounding big band pastiche version of Stuff You Gotta Watch which is faster and better than the album cut. Phenomenal!

When the Crossing The Great Divide bootleg appeared, it had the demo versions of Blind Willie McTell and Atlantic City, together with The Box Tops cover Soul Deep. These are dated 1991.