Author: Tim O’Shea

Grateful Dead bring back the Boys Club In Buffalo: January 20, 1979

By the time the Grateful Dead “trucked up to Buffalo” in January of 1979, the walls had already begun to crumble on this particular incarnation of the band. The end was nigh for Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux with their last show as members not even a month away now. And for tonight’s show, there would be no Donna Jean at all, making it a “boys only” performance, giving Deadheads a possible glimpse of what’s to come in the near future.

“Promised Land” serves as a fun little opener but this show takes off with the “Sugaree” that follows. The band gets into a relaxed groove immediately and it’s flavored with a trifecta of sublime guitar solos, courtesy of Jerry Garcia, each one growing with intensity. This carries over to a “Peggy-O” later in the set that seems to start off slower than usual but still winds up with a beautiful peak. And the writing certainly seemed to be on the walls for the all-too-fitting “Its All Over Now” that follows with its “I used to love her” lyrics.

The first set at Shea’s also features a “Jack-A-Roe” that has some shaky footing early but gets ironed out nicely with Garcia dropping another couple of slick runs on lead guitar with Bob Weir firmly in command on rhythm. The two pair up again nicely on a “New Minglewood Blues” that comes next and gets stretched out a little before a short but ferocious “Jack Straw” wraps up the set.

For those who were at last week’s show in Utica, well, the second set tonight would begin the same exact way with an opening pairing of “I Need A Miracle” and “Bertha.” The “Miracle” almost seems to be cut a little short or “rip corded,” in the parlance of our times. But a spirited “Bertha” flows effortlessly into a cover of The Young Rascals’ “Good Lovin’” that has the Buffalo crowd screaming in delight. Things finally cool down a little with a “Loser” that’s played more than ably but seems a little misplaced here mid-second set.

The latter part of this particular Buffalo show is vintage Grateful Dead and features something that those who were there would be able to brag about for years to come. It all begins with an “Estimated Prophet” that fires on all cylinders early before settling into a mellow, soulful jam with the bottom end handled nimbly by bassist Phil Lesh. As the mellowness fades and the tempo picks up, he helps steer the jam seamlessly into “The Other One” that gets a round of applause from Shea’s. This yields a jam that quickly goes deep until it’s just Garcia and the drummers remaining, with parrying back and forth. Naturally, this gives way to the “Drums” portion of the evening, with these three songs producing a full 30 minutes-plus worth of sonic wizardry.

After the band reemerges for a brief “Space” with its usual noodle-y nonsense, they immediately go back and complete “The Other One” and its final verse. Instead of raging on afterwards, instead the jam dwindles down to nothingness before the iconic opening notes of “Dark Star” ring out. Deadheads would need to savor this one though as this seminal tune would not be played for another 238 shows, not returning until almost three years later.

From “Dark Star” it almost sounds as if the music wants to return back once more to “The Other One” but instead Garcia starts up the opening chords of “Not Fade Away” as the show begins to come to a close. The set ends with a “Sugar Magnolia” that’s spurred on by clapping from the ever-engaged Shea’s Theatre before Weir belts out another one with “One More Saturday Night.” The tour would then head Midwest afterwards, officially bringing the end of a Grateful Dead era to the East Coast.

Grateful Dead Shea’s Theatre – Buffalo, NY 1/20/79

Set 1: Promised Land, Sugaree, El Paso, Peggy-O, It’s All Over Now, Jack-A-Roe, New Minglewood Blues, Stagger Lee, Jack Straw

Set 2: I Need A Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin’, Loser, Estimated Prophet > The Other One > Drums > Space > Dark Star > Not Fade Away > Sugar Magnolia

E: One More Saturday Night

January 20, 2022
The Grateful Dead Bring A Touch of Heat To Utica: January 14, 1979

Today marks the anniversary of one of the last Grateful Dead shows ever to take place in Utica. It comes at a time that’s the end of an era, so to speak, as Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux’s final shows with the band would take place the following month in February before keyboardist Brent Mydland’s tenure began soon after. It’s not a very widely circulated show by any means; the lone audio copy is far from pristine and, supposedly, technical issues plagued the concert that night. It’s the third of four shows that the Dead would play at Utica Memorial Auditorium and one of the final times that fans in New York, and the Northeast for that matter, would be able to see the Godchauxs on stage.

In a fitting nod to the locale and season, the Grateful Dead greet Utica Memorial Auditorium with “Cold Rain And Snow.” The rowdy auditorium crowd eats it up, whistling and clapping endlessly throughout. A couple of crisp runs from Jerry Garcia on guitar give way to some engaged harmonies by song’s end, starting the show off nicely. First set stalwart “New Minglewood Blues” follows with the Utica faithful still very much engaged, taking the collective whistling of approval to another level. “Dire Wolf” does little to temper the audible energy, with Garcia’s signature guitar solo showing plenty of pep in its step. Bob Weir then tags back in on lead vocals for a jazzy “Me And My Uncle” which flows seamlessly into a rather percussive “Big River,” a song pairing that started the previous year and would remain popular for the rest of the Grateful Dead’s career.

The breakneck speed of all the songs after the opener finally comes to a halt with “They Love Each Other,” played very much in its low tempo format, lending itself much better to Donna Jean’s vocal harmonies which are also prominently featured alongside Weir for the emotional “Looks Like Rain” that comes next. A top notch “Brown Eyed Women” with a few more remarkable runs by Garcia up and down the fretboard follows, although it’s marred a little by some audio difficulties on the recording. The first set then begins to wrap up with a cover Bobby Womack’s “It’s All Over Now,” perhaps foreshadowing the upcoming end of an era. It’s a spirited version though, with Garcia and Keith Godchaux on piano trading fills back and forth. After a run through the folksy “Jack-A-Roe,” a regular cover at future Garcia solo gigs, the set comes to a close with another legendary pairing of songs “Lazy Lightning” and “Supplication.” The jam connecting the two is very much energetic, heavily psychedelic and fueled with extensive work on the drums from the Rhythm Devils, a great sign for the second set to come.

After a set break to rehydrate and reenergize, the second part of the show begins with somewhat of a first set feel to it. “I Need A Miracle” has a slightly extended Garcia-driven jam neatly attached to it which builds the platform for a launch into a boisterous “Bertha.” The communal good vibes keep moving along into a customarily raucous cover of “Good Lovin’” with Weir taking his usual liberties with vocals before “Stagger Lee” mellows things out a tad.

Finally, for a show bereft of much deep end improvisation, the next few numbers do their best to make up for it. The composed section of “Estimated Prophet” is played to near perfection, minus some off kilter early Garcia vocals, before later devolving into near silence (with the exception of more whistlers) for a soaring, exploratory jam that literally builds itself from the ground up. As the pace reaches a crescendo, some familiar guitar chords begin to seep through and the Dead are off and running in Utica with a blisteringly quick “Eyes Of The World.” Garcia dazzles once more in the song’s first jam with a jaw-dropping flurry of notes that can’t seemingly be played any faster. The second one is dominated by the rhythm section of bassist Phil Lesh and the drummers so, naturally, this makes its way into the “Drums” portion of the evening, shining the spotlight on Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart for a while.

View this and more Grateful Dead shows from across the years in New York State with our interactive map below!

A rather choppy-starting “Iko Iko” slowly but surely emerges from “Drums” and it’s played at a much slower tempo than it would be in the years to follow, making for an interesting early version. At its conclusion, the familiar noodley opening jam of “The Other One” begins to develop before Lesh’s thunderous opening bass riff confirms it. It’s a short but sweet take that serves as the evening’s last true dip into psychedelia.

Oddly there would be no encore for this show. Instead it wraps up with the lead singers going back and forth one last time. First, Garcia leads the band through a soulful “Black Peter” before Weir does the same for a show-closing cover of Chuck Berry’s “Around And Around” that has both he and Donna Jean trading lyrics back and forth by song’s end.

Grateful Dead – Utica Memorial Auditorium – Utica, NY 1/14/79

Set 1: Cold Rain And Snow, New Minglewood Blues, Dire Wolf, Me And My Uncle > Big River, They Love Each Other, Looks Like Rain, Brown Eyed Women, It’s All Over Now, Jack-A-Roe, Lazy Lightnin’ > Supplication

Set 2: I Need A Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin’, Stagger Lee, Estimated Prophet > Eyes Of The World > Drums > Iko Iko > The Other One > Black Peter > Around And Around

January 14, 2022
Hearing Aide: Ari Joshua’s ‘RAAR’ Featuring Russ Lawton & Ray Paczkowski

Last winter, with the ongoing pandemic still raging, South African-born and American-raised guitarist Ari Joshua took a trip to the East Coast, specifically Burlington, VT, to work with Russ Lawton and Ray Paczkowski on a much-discussed organ trio collaboration. Now, this bicoastal musical endeavor has come to fruition in the form of the recently released, six-song EP RAAR, an acronym for the three musicians. With the assistance of Phish’s recording engineer Ben Collette, the trio churned out about 25 different tracks of Joshua-penned selections, mostly brand new compositions and concepts. The final product is a nifty little musical excursion that explores elements of jazz, rock, gospel, funk and everything in between.

The making of RAAR was both delayed and aided by Trey Anastasio Band’s eight-show residency at New York City’s Beacon Theatre the year before. While this would require the attention of bandmembers Lawton and Paczkowski, it also helped initiate the quarantine protocols that allowed Joshua to travel east and make this collaboration a reality. “I owe a great thank you to Trey Anastasio for opening the doors to a protocol to collaborate during his Beacon Theater run, and for sharing these great players with the world,” Joshua told Relix recently.

Russ Lawton, Ari Joshua, Ben Collette, Ray Paczkowski (l-r), photo courtesy of Ari Joshua

The EP is bookended with a couple of tributes to Joshua’s grandmothers. Fittingly, “Gramama” begins the musical journey. It’s a soul-fueled, uptempo number that has the feel of a Sunday celebration at church. Joshua mans the lead vocals with some heavenly female backup vocals added later while ebullient play on the Hammond organ from Paczkowski gives the opener a dash of zydeco flavor as well. “For Ray” sounds exactly how one would expect a Soule Monde “side project” to sound like. The steady, infectious shuffle drum beat from Lawton and aggressive organ and clav runs dominate this signature track while Joshua feathers in the occasional effect-laden guitar lick giving it a somewhat more psychedelic Medeski, Martin and Wood vibe. “Audio Bicycle Day” introduces some haunting background special effects behind motivated electric guitar play from Joshua whose Anastasio influences are omnipresent.

“The Bernie Meme” is a song named for exactly that, the viral meme of Bernie Sanders sitting cross-legged in the middle of winter. Joshua takes more of a lead with a beautifully simplistic guitar lick on another Soule Monde-ish number that hits on aspects of pop, soul and funk resulting in a delicious melting pot of sound. “Star Lord” is a fun romp from start to finish riddled with more psychedelic production and sees Paczkowski shifting nimbly back and forth between the clav and organ once more with Joshua delivering a slew of infectious jazz guitar fills. It’s one of the more cohesive and well-produced tracks on the EP. Lastly, “Rae of Life” serves as the other tribute for Joshua’s late grandmother and definitely evokes a celebration of life mantra, with its delicate guitar licks and soaring, inspirational organ fills atop choir-like backing vocals that gives the ending of RAAR a discernible feel-good quality to it.

From the first note of recording I could sense that Ray and Russ were a perfect musical fit, there was a shared respect and love for the music you don’t always find out there.
Ari Joshua

The band has no current tour plans but there is a vinyl release of RAAR expected later this year. For now, the album can be found at Ari Joshua’s website or on streaming platforms. Joshua is also the founder and owner of The Music Factory, an online music lessons portal which has been running for nearly 15 years, employing close to 100 musicians since its inception.

Key Tracks: For Ray, Star Lord

January 13, 2022

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