question about Jerry Garcia & PSG

[Ron Victoria]

I read somewhere that he had only been playing psg about 3 months before doing Teach Your Children. Was he a lap steeler before that or new to steel for those 3 months?

[Dave Zirbel]

In this video dated 1967 it shows him playing an old metal national. (no audio though). I don't think he really pursued electric lap steel. He did do some bottleneck slide on a few records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC5KQsrPZmA

Also in the video you see an old Fender 1000 that he eventually gave to Banana of the Youngbloods. He didn't like the Fender from what I hear. I also heard he played the Teach Your Children track three months after getting the ZB.

[scott murray]

I've heard that Garcia got his first pedal steel in '67 but didn't get serious about it until '69.

[Mark Eaton]

If Pete Grant sees this and chimes in I'm sure we will get the definitive answer.

For those who haven't seen it, here is a link to the article on Pete's website that he wrote as a tribute to Garcia after his passing:

http://petegrant.com/flash_garcia.html

Pete mentions Garcia's Corvair. Prior to Jerry becoming a celebrity and able to afford a BMW, one of my older brothers, a young "longhair " at the time, was hitchhiking in San Francisco and Garcia gave him a ride in the Corvair!

[Joachim Kettner]

Jerry did know at least one pedal-steel player: Peter Grant, who played it on Doin' That Rag on Aoxomoxoa. (His part was recorded in '69.)
I'd express great skepticism, though, that in 1968 Jerry would borrow, practice & play on Grant's pedal steel for one brief Dawson demo, if Grant himself might've been available! (Note the obvious: Jerry didn't play it on Doin' That Rag either, in early '69.)

It comes from this article:
http://lostlivedead.blogspot.de/2011/10 ... mateo.html
Here's "Doing That Rag" (You may need headphones to identify the PSG)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aFHc-C-WR8

[Brint Hannay]

The steel is much more audible in the original 1969 LP mix of Doin' That Rag.

(Parenthetically, I much prefer the ending of Doin' That Rag on the LP mix, with the a capella barbershop harmony tag.)