Pics of Garcia and Klienow

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 22 May 2018 12:24 pm

Massachusett's archival portal Digital Commonwealth led me to some cool, gritty 1960s concert photos of various artists like Buddy Guy, Santana, Livingston Taylor and these two .... of Jerry Garcia and Snaky Pete Kleinow. There are more in the same vein here: http://credo.library.umass.edu/cgi-bin/ ... sl029-i010

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 22 May 2018 1:37 pm

Dave Torbert on bass with Garcia and The New Riders. Torbert was a fine bassist and solid vocalist. He died way too young from a heart attack in 1982 at age 34.

Phil Lesh of the Dead was the original bassist for New Riders but it didn't last long and Torbert replaced him.

Dave left after a few years because he wasn't really a country/rock guy at heart, went on to co-found Kingfish, and Bob Weir joined the group later as another side project or diversion for a Grateful Dead member. The guys in the Dead did a lot of that around the Bay Area in the '70s and beyond.

Having grown up around all this I couldn't tell you how often I saw New Riders and Kingfish - many, many times.

I saw Jerry in the early New Riders period a few times when he was on pedal steel before giving way to Buddy Cage.

There he is on the ZB, owned for decades here in Northern California by Pete Grant.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 22 May 2018 1:51 pm

...as for Pete Kleinow, a few of us forumites got to see him play in one of his last gigs before hanging it up, this was with Burrito Deluxe at the no longer open club called The Last Day Saloon in nearby Santa Rosa. The original Last Day Saloon was in San Francisco. I don't recall who all was in attendance, but Dave Zirbel and I were paying close attention to Sneaky Pete.

At the time another legend was touring as a
member of Deluxe on keys and accordion: Garth Hudson, formerly of the Band.

Cosmic connection relating to the above: I was at Frost Amphitheater at Stanford University in 1976 when that era's version of the Burrito Brothers opened for the Band, with Pete on pedal steel.

Pete Kleinow passed away at age 72 due to complications from Alzheimer's Disease in 2007 in Petaluma, about 25 miles south of where I live.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 22 May 2018 6:34 pm

I don't recall who all was in attendance, but Dave Zirbel and I were paying close attention to Sneaky Pete.

Barry Sless was there and I think Henry Nagle and Jon Mitgard as well....

Sorry to say that was the first and last time I'd seen him perform..

Russ Tkac · Post by **Russ Tkac** » 23 May 2018 6:27 pm

I saw Pete at Blissfest in Northern Mi with Burrito Deluxe in 2005. He was real nice and kind in talking to me but I knew he was struggling with things.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 24 May 2018 6:10 am

Mark, since you have seen Kingfish perfom live, did you ever see them with a steel player? His name is either Ron Eglit or Robbie Hoddinot according to the credits of an album from Matt Kelly. (Buddy Cage is on that record also).

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 24 May 2018 7:42 am

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 24 May 2018 8:01 am

Joachim, I don't recall ever seeing Kingfish with a steel player - but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Certain memories are getting sketchy with age. It would likely have been Ron Eglit playing some steel with them. Ron is sort of a not super well known California music legend: guitar, bass. pedal steel and producer. Dick Dale's bass player for many years, I've seen him a couple times with Dale.

Probably not Robbie Hodinott on steel - I don't recall that he had that in his toolbox. He passed away a year ago - same age as me. Great guitar player.

Dave mentioned in the post above that Barry Sless was at the Burrito Deluxe show we attended and I now vaguely recall seeing him that evening - I just hope Dave doesn't chime in and say, "Mark, you were actually talking to Barry that night." Yikes!

Kingfish trivia: Barry was a member of a latter version of Kingfish after Robbie H. departed the band.

My favorite place to see Kingfish was at a bar in the Santa Cruz Mountains above the town of Los Gatos (a San Jose suburb) called the Chateau Liberté. Also saw there among others, New Riders and Hot Tuna. One of my older brothers would go to the Chateau to see the original Doobie Brothers for a one dollar cover charge.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 24 May 2018 10:02 am

Thank you! Here's a nice video about the Kingfish days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOlfxjVOR3k