New Orleans House

The New Orleans House as it was in October 2005

NEWORLEANSHOUSE

Latest Update: February 10, 2012

New Orleans House, 1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA (at Jones near Hopkins and Cedar Streets)

All this interesting stuff has been researched and prepared by Ross Hannan and Corry Arnold

Grateful thanks are also give to Colin Hill, Jef Jaisun, George Smith, Sara Ruppenthal Garcia

The New Orleans House was located at 1505, San Pablo in West Berkeley. Kitty Griffin, the proprietor, taught handicapped children by day across the street and ran the club at night. The club was open from August 1966 to 1975 as a restaurant and music venue, shifting quickly from the traditional jazz that gave it its name to a rock venue. While the New Orleans House always had a diverse mixture of music, including blues and zydeco, its principal focus was on rock. Rock bands playing original music dominated the bookings, and there was usually a light show on weekends. Bands that were 2^nd or 3^rd on the bill at The Fillmore or The Avalon would headline at the New Orleans House, and newer bands would get their start there also. Since the concept of “Roots” or “Americana” had not yet been invented, the New Orleans House was known as a “Music” club. In the mid 70s, the New Orleans House briefly becomes West Dakota.

Hot Tuna recorded their first album here in September, 1969. Most of the images shown below have been taken from the Berkeley Barb where they appeared as advertisements.

Art of the New Orleans House

Annotated list of Performances

New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA 1966-69

This list is an effort to chronicle every performance at the New Orleans House in Berkeley from its opening in 1966 through the end of 1969. My own focus is on rock music, so considerably more attention has been paid to the rock performers. I have attempted to comment on every performer at least once, with the focus on live performance and band membership rather than recording details. For groups with a more complicated and more interesting history, I have interjected comments at relevant points in the timeline. For comparison, I have identified a few relevant markers in musical history, like the opening of Fillmore West and the releases of some famous albums.

A list of performers unknown to me appears at the end of the list. The first appearance of each of these performers is identified in red. Please forward any details or recovered memories about these bands.

This peculiar historical project would not have been remotely possible without Ross Hannan’s committed research into this venue, and not least his willingness to scrutinize and scan the ads for The Berkeley Barb from 1965-69 Anyone with real or imagined information, updates, insights or corrections are eagerly encouraged to contact me.

Corry Arnold

Chapel Hill, NC

April, 2009

August 26, 1966: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA

The opening date of the club is confirmed from The Berkeley Barb. The New Orleans House was at 1505 San Pablo in West Berkeley. Kitty Griffin, the proprietor, taught handicapped children by day across the street and ran the club at night. She had recently run a restaurant on the College Avenue (which was on the other side of town) called Kitty’s. For a brief bio of Griffin, see here.

It’s not clear whether or how much music the club initially featured, and the initial implication is that it featured traditional New Orleans Jazz. It may have been mainly a restaurant to start with. However, by 1967 the New Orleans House joined The Matrix in San Francisco as a club that primarily featured original electric rock bands. Most of them were East Bay bands, but groups from San Francisco, Marin County, Santa Clara and other counties also played. While there were many gigs available to rock bands in 1967-68, many of them were one-off gigs at a local hall or high school auditorium. The Matrix and The New Orleans House were among the very few places where local bands could try and build a following playing original music.

December 9-10, 16-17, 1966: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Earl’s New Orleans Jazz Band

An ad in the December 9, 1966 Berkeley Barb suggests that Earl’s New Orleans Jazz Band played every Friday and Saturday night. There had been a substantial jazz scene on San Pablo Avenue stretching back before World War 2 (and thanks to the War, every other kind of music was represented in the East Bay as well), so there is no doubt that high quality New Orleans Jazz musicians were available. The name of the club suggests that this was the original concept, but the odds are that rock and other forms of music drew better crowds.

December 13-15, 1966: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

The Second Coming was a Berkeley Band featuring guitarist Vic Smith and keyboardist Mike Lafferty, and they regularly played the New Orleans House (they were not the Chicago band Buddy & The Citations, who moved to the Bay Area around 1969 and changed their name to The Second Coming). The group had existed at least since September, and had probably played the club before. The Barb ad suggests the group plays every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Vic Smith had played a little bit with the Berkeley act Blackburn and Snow, and would go on to lead the Berkeley club bands Sky Blue and Grootna. Lafferty appears to have remained a musician, mostly playing trombone, but not a rock professional. Lonnie Turner was the bassist in mid-1966, but he would have joined the fledgling Steve Miller Blues Band by this time. Drummer Paul Tillman Smith, later well-known as an R&B writer and producer, was also an early member of the group.

In early December 1966, Country Joe and The Fish drummer John Francis Gunning was forced out of that band, and he joined Second Coming. Gunning’s last gig with CJF was in early December, so he had probably joined Second Coming as early as these shows.

1967

January 12-19, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

Notes From The Underground were a Berkeley group whose sound fell between Country Joe and The Fish and The Loving Spoonful. They featured Southern California high school friends Fred Sokolow and Mark Mandell on guitars and vocals, as well as an electric pianist (Jim Work) and a rhythm section (Mike O’Connor-bass and Peter Ostwald-drums).

>January 14, 1967: The Human Be-In, Polo Grounds, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

The San Francisco bands play for free on a Winter afternoon with acid, incense and balloons, thus setting the stage for the Summer of Love to come.

January 20-21, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground, Blackburn and Snow

Berkeley Barb Benefit

Jeff Blackburn and Sherri Snow had been part of the San Jose State folk scene in the early 1960s. They had formed a duo, and had been recording for Frank Werber (manager of The Kingston Trio). They released a well-regarded if obscure single (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) in 1966, but their excellent work on an album did not see the light of day until 1999 (on a Sundazed CD of their unreleased studio work). They mostly played as a duo, but they sometimes had casual pick up bands of Berkeley musicians.

January 27, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA El Teatro Campesino Delano Grape Strike Benefit

El Teatro Campesino (literally “The Farmworkers Theater”) was a political theater group founded by former SF Mime Troupe member Luis Valdez (who among many projects made the film “Zoot Suit”). The United Farmworkers (led by Cesar Chavez) were striking against California Grape Growers in Delano, CA, and it was a significant political issue in California.

For a brief history of the Troupe, see here.

January 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

January 29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Country Joe and The Fish, The Loading Zone

Delano Grape Strike Benefit

Country Joe and The Fish were probably in the process of recording their first album at this time, but took time out for this benefit.

The Loading Zone was actually based in Oakland, and although intimately connected with the psychedelic ballroom scene, their sound was much closer to soul music and they never managed to ride the wave of popularity that other groups did. The Zone had grown out of a Berkeley group called The Marbles, who as a result of being managed by original Family Dog member Luria Castell, played the very first Family Dog Dance at Longshoreman’s Hall (on October 1June 65).

The Marbles had disintegrated in late 1965, and guitarists Pete Shapiro and Steve Dowler had joined forces with organist, vocalist Paul Fauerso, whose soul trio had just broken up. Along with bassist Bob Kridle and drummer George Newcom, The Loading Zone played not only the burgeoning underground psychedelic scene but also soul clubs throughout the East Bay.

January 31, February 1-3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

Tuesday, January 31^st was advertised as “Ladies Night.”

>February 1967: The Jefferson Airplane release Surrealistic Pillow, and “Somebody To Love” immediately climbs the charts (“White Rabbit” will hit in the summer), thus inaugurating international awareness of the San Francisco rock scene.

February 4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mardi Gras Party with Notes From The Underground

As a result of substantial migration in the 1940s to provide workers for the shipyards in the Bay Area during World War 2 (primarily in Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco and Vallejo) every area of the South and Southwest was represented in the region by many immigrants. As a result, every imaginable style of blues, country and other forms of music (including Zydeco, Texas Swing and just about anything else) was well represented in the East Bay.

February 7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

February 8-11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

Saturday February 11^th was billed as a “Love Feast”

February 17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Blues Band

Steve Miller, from Madison, Wisconsin, had been a successful musician in Texas and Chicago. In Texas he had a band with Boz Scaggs (who by 1966 had became a folk singer in Sweden, where he released a now-obscure album), and in Chicago he had a band with pianist Barry Goldberg, who taught him to name bands after himself. Miller moved to Berkeley in October, 1966 and lived in his VW Microbus. Miller had visited SF in 1965 and he found the SF scene fun but unprofessional. However, after having moved to the area (and jamming at the Fillmore with his friends the Butterfield Blues Band the first night), he called on old Madison friends Curley Cook on guitar and Tim Davis on drums to join him in California. He added Berkeley bassist Lonnie Turner (whom he’d met at The Jabberwock on the previous year’s scouting trip). They rehearsed over Thanksgiving weekend in the unlocked basement of Wurster Hall, the UC Berkeley Architecture building. According to Miller, he rapidly had a band that knew 25 tunes, “in tune and tight.”

By December, however, Miller had run out of money. He had a gig at a coffee shop on Telegraph Avenue called The Forum, however, and that led to a paying gig at the Avalon on December 23-24, 1966 (opening for the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape). The advance (the gig paid a princely sum of $500) allowed him not to be evicted and forced to return to Chicago. To celebrate, Miller rented a room on College Avenue, and took his band to dinner and a movie. Those shows were the first paying performances of what would become The Steve Miller Band.

At the time of this New Orleans House gig, Miller was still 10 days shy of his Fillmore debut. History has made Steve Miller appear as a slick professional musician, an appellation Miller would be proud of, but he has remained friends with Country Joe McDonald, Chet Helms and other denizens from his scuffling days in Berkeley.

February 18, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

In some ads, the band was billed as “The Motors.”

February 21, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

February 22-23, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

February 24-25, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities

Lights were provided by The Stella Birdhikers.

February 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

March 3-4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities

This amusingly named ensemble is well-remembered from various Fillmore posters, but I know nothing of its actual membership or music. They did occasionally back singer Mimi Farina (Joan Baez’s sister) but that appeared to have been a temporary arrangement.

March 10-11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground, Lights by Stella Birdhikers

March 14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

Motor seems to be playing every Tuesday

March 15-16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

March 17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ulysses S. Crockett and The Afro Blues Persuasion

Ulysses S. Crockett and The Afro Blues Persuasion were regular performers at local soul and blues clubs, particularly the Haight Level Lounge (on Haight and Ashbury) in San Francisco. Crockett was a vibraphone (vibes) player who released two 1968 singles (“Resurgence”, ’Tamura’s Theme” and “Sunshine Superman”) on the Transverse label, and they were recorded in a “soul-jazz” style. The combo probably featured Crockett on vibes and flute, John Richard Miller on piano, Bing Nathan on bass, Clark Miller on drums and Butch Haynes on congas.

In the subsequent decades Ulysses Crockett appears to have gone on to a distinguished career as a Law Professor. Butch Haynes was well known in East Bay funk circles (he was in a group called East Bay Rhythm with Paul Jackson, Bill Summers and James Levy, prior to those three joining Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters).

March 24-25-26, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Blues Band

March 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

March 29-30, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

March 31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA New Delhi River Band

The New Delhi River Band was based in Palo Alto, and they were a very popular band on the South Bay underground psychedelic scene, such as it was. The group was more or less the house band at the Scotts Valley venue The Barn (just East of Santa Cruz), and regularly played gigs throughout Santa Clara County. They never managed to extend their fan base much beyond those counties, however. The New Delhi River Band played Chicago blues, more or less, in the style of the Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. They were one of the first white blues bands in the South Bay.

The band featured two former members of the East Bay garage band Bethlehem Exit (singer John Tomasi and guitarist Peter Schultbach), along with David Nelson, former bluegrass partner of Jerry Garcia, playing guitar in his first electric band. Nelson and NDRB bassist Dave Torbert went on to be in the New Riders of The Purple Sage, and Torbert and drummer Chris Herold were subsequently in the 70s band Kingfish.

>April 1967: Country Joe and The Fish release Electric Music For The Mind and Body.

April 7-8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The New Age, Drongos

The New Age were a sort of ‘folk trio’ who played acoustic music with odd, dreamy rhythms. They performed at the Human Be-In, A sense of their sound could be found on the obscure album Light of Day (Elektra) by Berkeley folksinger Pat Kilroy, on which the group played. Kilroy and the other members of the group, flautist and multi-instrumentalist Susan Graubard and tabla player Jeffrey Stewart, had spent most of the Spring living in an unused monastery in the Santa Cruz mountains.

In 2007, RD Records released an LP of their unreleased 1967 Warner Brothers album, giving a clearer idea of their unique and forward looking sound, with koto, flute and tables swirling around vocals and acoustic guitar.

The Drongos were an outgrowth of a Berkeley High School band called The Answer. After graduation, most of them continued playing, and the band even released a single on White Whale, but the band did not survive the summer of 1967

April 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Orkustra, The New Age, Congress of Wonders, Annie Johnston and The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Malvina Reynolds, Paul Arnoldi, Larry Hanks, Notes From The Underground, Eric Vaughn

Congress of Wonders were a comedy duo who had gotten their start at Berkeley’s Open Theater (see June 16, 1967).

Malvina Reynolds was a topical songwriter, most famous for writing “Little Boxes”, a rare pop hit for Pete Seeger in 1964 (ostensibly about tract homes in Daly City off Highway 101).

The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band had formed out of a loose pool of musicians that played the Berkeley folk club The Jabberwock as The Instant Action Jug Band. They played a sort of modern skiffle music, a mixture of folk music and New Orleans style jazz, but with contemporary original songs. The group was lead by singer, guitarists Phil Marsh and Annie Johnston.

Paul Arnoldi was a Cambridge folksinger who moved to Berkeley in fall 1962 (to get a graduate degree in architecture), and oscillated between Cambridge and Berkeley for the next several years. For a brief bio of Paul Arnoldi, see here.

Larry Hanks was a folk singer and also a former member of The Instant Action Jug Band.

April 14-16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities

April 21-22-23, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

On April 3, 1967 Notes From The Underground recorded a 4-song EP for Arhoolie Records, later released as part of the Big Beat cd The Berkeley EPs. According to Alec Palao’s liner notes, the group had a lengthy residence at the New Orleans House, so the band may have played even more gigs than the ones listed here. The EP was a “non-seller” according to Arhoolie label head Chris Strachwitz, but served to give the group some notoriety.

April 28-29-30, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Orkustra

The Orkusta (aka Electrik Chamber Orkustra) was led by guitarist Bobby Beasoleil, and featured violinist David LaFlamme. They played all instrumentals, and all played sitting down, and were making an effort to have their audience take their music seriously. Beausoleil was a notorious Haight Street character who ended up falling in with the Manson Family and doing 30 years of hard time for murder. Some 1967 Orkustra recordings were released in 2005 (on Arcanium Records).

May 2, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Barnstormers

May 3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor, Notes From The Underground

May 4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA A Program of Dancers

Probably the Graham Leath Dancers (see below). Whoever The Graham Leath Dancers may have been, the fact that The New Orleans House booked a dance troupe every Thursday night for most of a year set them apart from almost every rock club in America (and probably England and anywhere else for that matter).

May 5-6, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Anonymous Artists of America

The Anonymous Artists of America were a group linked to the Merry Pranksters and based in a commune in the La Honda Mountains, called Rancho Diablo a hideaway off Skyline Boulevard, built by one of the railroad barons. The AAA got together at Stanford (where most of them were students or employees), and their name was as an expression of the belief that every person is an artist. The band debuted publicly in the early hours of July 24, 1966, at a private party at the Fillmore that was a reception for Lee Quarnstom's wedding, held during the Saturday night Quicksilver concert.

Sara Ruppenthal Garcia recalls: "The AAA got together at Stanford (where most of us were students or employees), as an expression of our belief that every person is an artist. The makeup of the group was basically Lars Kampmann, a drama major; Norman Linke, who was in graduate school as an economist studying Chinese; Michael Katz, a PhD candidate in Psychology; Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, (Communications/film undergrad) separated from her husband Jerry and returned from helping put on the L.A. Acid Tests with the Pranksters; Manny Meyer, Trixie Merkin, Len and Toni Frazer, Annie Balaam (an art student), and Adrienne Berkun (a chemist). Some other folks came and went, but during my two+ eventful years with the group I do not remember Chuck Schoening ever playing with us -- certainly he was not in the band. Alas, we did not have a Boise Thunder Machine, but an idiosyncratic early Don Buchla electronic music generator, provided by our honorary uncle Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass). Our music and presentation were psychedelic in the extreme. We lived first at Rancho Diablo, a hideaway off Skylilne Blvd. in La Honda built by one of the railroad barons. Later we moved to Potrero Hill in SF. For a while we had a killer young drummer from Texas known as Little Richard, whose last name I cannot recall. Michael Katz and I left in 1968 and the AAA moved to Colorado, where they played for several years."

The AAA were captured on film and this is available through The Kartemquin Films Collection.

May 7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA CIA, Second Coming

The CIA appears on a few ballroom posters for lesser events in San Francisco in 1967, but little is known about them. I believe one poster lists the group as Citizens for Interplanetary Activity. They supposedly recorded the soundtrack for a 23-minute “Art Film” called Kusama’s Self-Obliteration (which was also the name of a ‘Performance Art’ troupe).

May 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Barnstormers

May 10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor, Notes From The Underground

May 11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA A Program of Dancers

May 12-13, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Loading Zone

May 14, 1967New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA CIA, Second Coming

May 16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA John Henry and The Barnstormers

May 17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor, Notes From The Underground

May 19-20, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor

May 21-22, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

The Barb ad says “Second Coming on Sundays,” and the group appears to play every Sunday for some time, and often Mondays as well.

May 24, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor, Notes From The Underground

May 28-29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

June 2-3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Orkustra

June 4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

June 5, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Afternoon: Notes From The Underground (Graduation Party for the Jefferson School for Retarded Children - each of which received a signed record); Evening: Second Coming

June 6-7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Wildflower

The Wildflower had formed at Oakland’s California College of Arts and Crafts in 196May They released a few singles, and played many early Ballroom events. In the late summer of 1967, they played some East Coast shows in Philadelphia, New York and Boston, but broke up soon after they returned to San Francisco. They did do some recording, and a cd may be released in 200August Guitarist, Songwriter Stephen Ehret remains active in the music business today.

June 8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Dancers

June 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mad River

Mad River was one of the most unique bands on the Berkeley scene. They had formed in Yellow Springs Ohio, in the general milieu of the very progressive Antioch College. Unlike almost every other 60s band who had a penchant for rambling jams, Mad River had carefully orchestrated parts, even though their feedback laden sound suggested no preparation at all. The group arrived in Berkeley in April 1967, and began gigging in Berkeley and San Francisco almost immediately. Due to an early meeting with popular writer Richard Brautigan, Mad River had an early affiliation with San Francisco’s radical Diggers group. At this time, the band lived together in an apartment on Blake Street near the Berkeley campus.

The definitive story of Mad River has been written by esteemed journalist David Biasotti, and will be published in forthcoming issues of Ugly Things.

June 10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Orkustra

This is the last performance date of The Orkustra that I know of. Guitarist Bobby Beausoleil went on to work with filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Beasusoleil’s group Magick Powerhouse of Oz performed only one tumultuous show at the Straight Theatre (September 21, 1967), and then disintegrated. Beausoleil ended up in Southern California and began his unfortunate association with the Manson Family. Violinist David LaFlamme went on to form It’s A Beautiful Day, while bassist Jaime Leopold ended up with Dan Hicks (with whom LaFlamme worked intermittently) and drummer Terry Wilson joined the revamped Charlatans.

June 11-12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

June 13-14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mad River

June 15, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Dancers

June 16-17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground, Congress of Wonders

Congress of Wonders were a comedy trio from Berkeley, initially from the UC Berkeley drama department and later part of Berkeley’s Open Theater on College Avenue, a prime spot for what were called “Happenings” (now ‘Performance Art’). The group performed at the Avalon and other rock venues.

Ultimately a duo, Karl Truckload (Howard Kerr) and Winslow Thrill (Richard Rollins) created two Congress of Wonders albums on Fantasy, Revolting and Sophomoric. Their pieces “Pigeon Park” and “Star Trip”, although charmingly dated now, were staples of San Francisco underground radio at the time.

For some photos of The Congress of Wonders, see here (Earl Pillow (actually Wesley Hind) was the original third member) and here.

June 18-19, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

June 20-21, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Blues Band

The Steve Miller Blues Band had just returned from performing at The Monterey Pop Festival the previous weekend (June 16-18). Organist Jim Peterman had joined the Miller Band, making the group a five-piece. At the end of the month, the group opened at the Fillmore for Eric Burdon and Chuck Berry, and the Miller Band backed Berry (who always used pickup bands). One of the performances was recorded and released by Mercury as Chuck Berry Live At Fillmore (released October 67). The Berry recording was the Steve Miller Band’s first appearance on an album.

June 23-24, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor, Frumious Bandersnatch

Frumious Bandersnatch had been formed in Lafayette, but in mid-1967 the group was based in Oakland. The group would become somewhat well-known locally in 1968-69 (see March 31, 1968), but at this time they had a female singer (since Jefferson Airplane-style “chick singers” were all the rage) and featured guitarist George Tickner and bassist Ross Valory, who founded Journey 8 years later. The groups warehouse rehearsal space burned down in late 1967, and the group returned to Lafayette and reappeared the next year with a different lineup, including neither Tickner nor a female singer.

June 25-26-27, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

June 30-July 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Loading Zone

>June 1967: The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

July 2-3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

July 4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The High Mass

July 5, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Siegel Schwall Band

Siegel Schwall were another of the ‘crossover’ white blues bands coming out of Chicago on the heels of the Butterfield Blues Band. Corky Siegel played harmonica, and Jim Schwall played guitar, and the group expanded the Chicago blues repertoire to include a lot more improvisation than other groups at the time. They recorded for Vanguard. In 1967 they released their second album, Say Siegel Schwall.

July 6, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

July 7-8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Anonymous Artists of America

July 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA John Fahey, Red Krayola

John Fahey was an acoustic guitar pioneer, founder of both Takoma Records and a whole style of music. Fahey had been a regular performer on the Berkeley folk scene for several years by this time, and was a significant influence on County Joe McDonald’s compositions.

The Red Krayola were from Texas, at a time when Freaks in Texas took their life into their hands merely by growing long hair. Fahey and the Krayola met at that year’s Berkeley Folk Festival (which ended July 4), and Fahey invited the group to open for him. Within 10 minutes, the Krayola were paid $10 if they would stop.

>July 9, 1967: The Jabberwock, hitherto Berkeley’s premier folk club, closes due to its inability to meet the Berkeley Public Safety code. Symbolically and actually the club’s closing represents a shift from folk to rock as the music of choice for ‘serious’ college students. Indeed, the private party that serves as The Jabberwock’s wake features rock rather than folk music.

July 9-10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

A confusing Barb ad shows separate items for Second Coming and Fahey on Sunday, July 9^th. Fahey definitely played (see above), but the listing says “6-10pm,” so it seems Second Coming played a late show on Sunday.

July 11-12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Hastings Street Opera

July 13, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

July 14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, The Second Coming

July 15-16-17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

July 16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Similar to the Fahey show the previous Sunday, the Rabbi is listed from 6-10pm, and presumably The Second Coming happened afterwards (an interesting evening for the religious minded). A Berkeley musician recalls The Rabbi:

“Rabbi Shlomo - YEAH! Unforgettable guy - he was a Hassidic rabbi who was all over the place leading his own kind of life-celebration thing which included dancing the Horah, etc. Can't recall if he had a Klezmer-type group with him or not - I think not, maybe he just played guitar. He did his thing up on UC campus a lot, in Sproul Plaza. Really got folks revved up, ‘cause he was revved up!”

July 18-19, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The New Salvation Army Banned

The New Salvation Army Banned was formed in the Haight Ashbury in 1967 They went on to release two albums for ABC Records in 1968, although by that time they had changed their name to Salvation because of the record company’s fear of being sued by the actual Salvation Army.

July 21-22, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Yajahla

Yajahla was probably Yajahla Tingle, a group formed by former members of The Chocolate Watch Band, mainly lead guitarist Mark Loomis. The Watch Band, while an excellent group and possibly the best group to come out of the South Bay in the 60s, had an extraordinarily tortured history, with members coming and going and recordings released without the band’s approval.

July 23-24, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

July 25-26, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Strawberry Window

The Strawberry Window were a four piece Oakland-based garage band with Jack Eskrich and Marc Rich on guitars, Steve Wilson on bass and Andy Kennedy on drums. Two tracks recorded at Golden State Recorders were released on the Big Beat CD What A Way To Come Down. The band later changed their name to Dandelion Wine.

July 28-29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth

There were various micro-communities within the Bay Area music scene that were formed by expatriates from other tiny, hip scenes in other parts of the country. One such micro-collective was the various Texas musicians who migrated to the Bay Area. Chet Helms and Janis Joplin are the most memorable of the Texas-San Fran crowd, and the 13^th Floor Elevators were based in the Bay Area for a time in late 1966, but there were many others. Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet escaped Sahm’s pot bust in mid-66 to become Bay Area transplants. Supposedly so many Texans lived in one San Francisco neighborhood (near Connecticut Street on Potrero Hill) that it was called “Little Texas.”

Mother Earth was formed by Texas musicians (and a singer from Madison, WI), all of whom lived in the Bay Area, and they are rightly located as part of the Texas expatriates in San Francisco. Songwriter and sometime singer R.P. St. John had been in an early 60s group with Janis Joplin (The Waller Creek Boys), which accounts for Big Brother and The Holding Company recording one of his songs (“Bye Bye Baby”). He had gone on to a seminal Austin group called St. John and The Conqueroo. One of the members (Tommy Hall) left to form the 13^th Floor Elevators, which is how the Elevators ended up recording another of Powell’s songs. When St. John left the group, they changed their name to The Conqueroo and continued on (see July 19, 1968). The other members of Mother Earth (guitarist Toad Andrews, bassist Bob Arthur and drummer George Rains) were also Texans.

The primary lead singer, Tracy Nelson, was from Madison. While a teenager in college (at UW) she started singing in local bands, and ended up recording an album for Prestige in 1964 called Deep Are The Roots. She tried various ways of making a living, but despite her distaste for having a high profile, music turned out to be the best way to earn. As well as being a fine keyboard player, Nelson had a soulful country and blues voice that belied her college-girl Midwestern roots. She had relocated to California in 1966 and ended up in the Bay Area by 1967 and helped form Mother Earth.

These shows were probably among Mother Earth’s earliest gigs in the Bay Area. The New Orleans House at this time was clearly establishing itself as a place where bands that were new to town could get a gig, which is very much in line with the Berkeley tendency to seek out the new and unknown.

July 30-31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

August 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth

August 2, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Blues Band, Mother Earth

August 4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Strawberry Window, Liquid Blues Band

August 5, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Loading Zone, Yajahla

August 6, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Second Coming

The Barb ad also lists a Sunday afternoon benefit for Delano Workers (3-7 pm).

August 7-8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth, Second Coming

August 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Blues Band

August 11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Strawberry Window

August 12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Yajahla

August 13, 20, 27, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Proposals

The Proposals were a local ‘modern’ jazz group. These were Sunday afternoon shows (5:30-9:30).

August 13-14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

August 15-16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Side Sound System

The South Side Sound System featured Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica and vocals and Harvey Mandel on lead guitar. Both were white, and they led a racially mixed band from Chicago. Musselwhite had been born in Mississippi and moved to Memphis and ultimately Chicago. He was one of a small number of white musicians in Chicago (including Nick Gravenites, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop and a few others) who stumbled onto the blues scene by themselves.

A club regular, Musselwhite eventually recorded an album for Vanguard in 1967 called Stand Back, which had started to receive airplay on San Francisco’s new underground FM station, KMPX-fm.. Friendly with the Chicago crowd who had moved to San Francisco, his band was offered a month of work in San Francisco, so Musselwhite took a month’s leave from his day job and stayed for a couple of decades.

August 18, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Indian Head Band

The Indian Head Band were an improvisational ‘Raga Rock’ group featuring lead guitarist Hal Wagenet and a trained opera singer (Mickey Mader) as lead vocalist. The group broke up in 1968 when Wagenet joined It’s A Beautiful Day.

August 19, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Yajahla

August 20, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Strawberry Window

August 21-22-23, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth

August 23-24-25, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamin’ Groovies

The Flamin’ Groovies were a few years younger than the first wave of Fillmore and Avalon musicians, but had still been connected to the scene from the beginning. The Groovies continued to play in the British Invasion style that preceded the acid-tinged jamming that characterized the Fillmore scene. The Groovies short rock songs and snotty attitude was not popular in San Francisco and opinions remain divided about them. The group intermittently broke up and reformed over the next few decades. When punk hit a decade letter the Groovies were seen as precursors, but despite popularity in England and elsewhere they remained (and remain) small beer in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

August 26, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Yajahla, Congress of Wonders

August 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

August 27, 29-30-31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sandy Bull, Pyewacket

Sandy Bull was a unique guitarist, years ahead of his time. He had released two albums on Vanguard (Fantasias For Guitar and Banjo in 1963 and Inventions in 1965) that merged folk and blues with Indian, Brazilian and Middle Eastern sounds. He overdubbed electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, bass and various other instruments, with only jazz drummer Billy Higgins as accompanist. The material was all instrumental, and the longest track on Inventions took up an entire side of the album.

Had the term ‘World Music’ been invented, Bull would have been one of its first practitioners. Not only was he well-versed in American music styles, he had spent time in Paris and London in the early 60s and met and played with musicians from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Bull had moved from England to California in the Spring of 1967 to play the San Francisco Folk Festival and soon became a regular at the Fillmore and The Matrix. Unfortunately, Bull had many drug and personal problems, and never lived up to the spectacular promise that he initially showed. Nonetheless, he managed to clean himself up by 1974, and continued to record and perform until he died in 2001.

Pyewacket were a Southern California group.

September 1-2, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming, Clover

Clover were a Marin band that had formed out of the isolated Muir Beach scene in Western Marin. Bassist John Ciambotti had been in a San Francisco group called The Outfit in 1966 and 67, but he left the group as it fell apart. He joined a group called Tiny Hearing Aid Company, and the group changed its name to Clover. Clover’s debut had only been on July 4, 1967, so they were still quite a new group. Clover lead guitarist John McFee went on to join the Doobie Brothers, among many other groups.

September 3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming

September 4-7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Side Sound System

After one of the nights at Cream’s Fillmore stand (between August 22 and September 3), Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton supposedly went across the bay to catch Buddy Guy at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, and ended up getting on stage to jam. None of the chronology works out, however. Did Buddy Guy play a date one of these nights? Did Buddy Guy sit in one night with South Side Sound System (he surely knew the Chicago members of the group)? The South Side Sound System had opened for Cream for a week at the Fillmore. Or has the story simply been amplified in the retelling?

It is also possible that while Clapton and Bruce went to see Buddy Guy in the East Bay, Guy was not in fact playing at the New Orleans House.

September 8-September 10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth, Prime Movers

The Prime Movers were a Michigan band, most notorious for their former drummer James Osterberg “Iggy.” Iggy had moved on to The Stooges by this time, but The Prime Movers, who played driving blues, were friendly with Mike Bloomfield and summered in Sausalito, hoping to break into the California music scene. Despite Bloomfield’s good offices, this was one of the few gigs that the band played. The band returned to Michigan in the Fall of 1967. Lead singer Michael Erlewine went on to found the All Music Guide in the 1990s.

The Prime Movers did not play on Sunday September 10, 1967.

September 10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamin' Groovies

There is a flyer (probably drawn by band members or friends), but its not clear whether it’s a late addition, an afternoon show, or the group simply opened for Mother Earth.

September 11-12-13, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Side Sound System

September 15-16-17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA West Coast Natural Gas

The West Coast Natural Gas were from Seattle. They signed with the notorious Mathew Katz (whose litigation with the Airplane and Moby Grape lasted 20 and 39 years, respectively) and moved to San Francisco in 1968 For obscure reasons, Katz had them change their name to Indian Puddin and Pipe, even thought there was another band with that name (also managed by him).

September 18, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Guest Night, Martha’s Laundry

The Barb ad says “Every Monday Night, starting Sept. 18—Guest Night—performers welcome. Folk Music Poetry, Variety. M.C. Larry Hanks, 8:30-11:30 pm. Dancing to Rock Bands 11:30-1:30.” Larry Hanks had been one of the regular MCs for Hoot Night at the recently closed Jabberwock, nearer to the campus. The wording of the ad carefully encourages any interested folkies while broadening the appeal beyond the Hootenany concept.

Martha’s Laundry were a San Francisco group (named after a laundry they had passed by when forming in 1966). They did jazzy arrangements of blues tunes, but had little original material. Lead guitarist Jim Lehman and drummer Randy Smith had formed the group. Tom Peterain played rhythm guitar, Dave Kessner played keyboards and Michael Husser played bass (who is interviewed about it here). After the band ground to a halt in 1968, Smith, Lehman and Kessner started a Berkeley music store called Prune Music (1345 Grove at Rose), which later moved to Mill Valley. Smith built a small, powerful amplifier (initially to play a prank on Barry Melton) and formed a company called Mesa Engineering. After Carlos Santana said “man, that amp really boogies,” Smith named the product Mesa Boogie. Jim Lehman now runs a guitar shop in Austin, while Dave Kessner remains a producer and writer in Marin, and owned Church Studios in San Anselmo in the 70s.

September 19-20, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Band

Curley Cook had been replaced in the group by an old Miller friend from Dallas named Boz Scaggs. Scaggs had left Texas and gone to Sweden, where he recorded a folk album. When Scaggs joined the band, they changed their name from the Steve Miller Blues Band to the Steve Miller Band. Scaggs was a tremendous vocalist, and a pretty good guitarist as well, so the Miller Band was suddenly a very hot commodity to record companies. Unlike many other local musicians, Steve Miller had been an ambitious professional for some time and he did not leap at the first contracts offered to him.

September 22-23-24, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Strawberry Window

September 25, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Guest Night, Martha’s Laundry

The MC is Larry Hanks.

September 26-27, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Generation

The Generation was a San Francisco based R&B group with two vocalists and a three-piece horn section. Members included future Cold Blood members Lydia Pense (vocals), Larry Fields (guitar) and Rod Ellicott (bass). Pense had been a professional singer for some years on the Peninsula. The photo of the group in the 1966 SF Band ID Book shows a pretty straight-looking bunch, the sort of band who played teen dances and debutante balls. Other Generation members included co-vocalist (and bandleader) Don Herron, organist Craig Parker and drummer Dick Sidman.

Bill Champlin credits The Generation with being the first band in the Bay Area to play original rock with a horn section, before The Sons of Champlin.

September 29-30, October 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Morning Glory

The Morning Glory were a Mill Valley band with a sort of Jefferson Airplane sound. Since the Airplane were huge in 1967, those sort of groups got signed, and Morning Glory put out an album on Fontana in 1968 The back cover was photographed on a cable car, just to insure that no one missed the San Francisco connection. The album isn’t bad, but its not that memorable. Bassist Bob Bohanna wrote most of the songs, and shared the vocals with Gini Graybeal.

October 2-4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Band

October 5-8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamin’ Groovies

October 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Guest Night, Short Yellow

Short Yellow recorded some demos at Golden State Recorders in 1967 - Highway Highway and Start Seeing. The group featured singer Sandy Gurley, and the two tracks were released on the Big Beat compilation What A Way To Come Down. Sandy Gurley released a solo album on Tower in 1968.

October 10-11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Quicksilver Messenger Service, Congress of Wonders

Although these shows were on a Tuesday and Wednesday night, Quicksilver were already headliners at both the Avalon and the Fillmore, and had little need to play the New Orleans House. After this date, however, numerous lesser groups that shared management with Quicksilver started to play the New Orleans House, so I believe that this show was a quid pro quo, since Quicksilver surely packed the place even on a weeknight.

Quicksilver Messenger Service’s manager was a shrewd Chicagoan named Ron Polte. Polte was friends with Nick Gravenites and Paul Butterfield and was primarily responsible for the many connections between Chicago and San Francisco musicians. Polte’s management group was called West-Pole and came to include Quicksilver, Congress of Wonders, Freedom Highway, The Sons of Champlin, The Ace of Cups, Phoenix and numerous other groups.

October l3-14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Freedom Highway, Congress of Wonders

Freedom Highway had formed in the Haight Ashbury in 1965, and may have opened for the Buffalo Springfield at the Fillmore in November 1966 (local bands often opened shows and did not appear on the poster). In 1967 the group moved to Marin and contrary to almost every other San Francisco group became a power trio influenced by English groups like The Who. Richie Ray Harris was the guitarist, Scott Inglis played bass and Bruce Brymer played drums. Freedom Highway fell under the West Pole management umbrella and lasted until 1970. In 2002 Switzerland’s RD Records released a CD of Freedom Highway demos called Made In 68.

October 15, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (Afro Jazz 5-9pm), Rock & BlueJam Session (Musicians Invited 9:30-2 am)

October 16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Short Yellow, The Time Being

October 17-18, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Strawberry Jam

October 20-21, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Zuckerman Clavichord, Paul Arnoldi

October 27-28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Zuckerman Clavichord, Paul Arnoldi

October 29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9 pm), Short Yellow and Jam Session (9:30-2:00 am)

October 31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Halloween Costume Party.

The Bay Area loves Halloween; always did, always will.

November 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Miller Blues Band

This is an inaccurate booking, since the Steve Miller Band no longer used this name, but since the group had played here so much, it hardly mattered. This was the last appearance by the Steve Miller Band at the New Orleans House, as they simply became too well known.

November 2, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

November 3-4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite Band

Once Harvey Mandel left the group, The South Side Sound System became the Charlie Musselwhite Band.

November 5, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9pm), Short Yellow & Guest Musicians (9:30-2am).

November 7-8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Hair

The Barb ad says “The Darby Slick Band,” to distinguish this from the then-current Broadway musical. Hair was a short-lived San Francisco band featuring singer Jean Piersol and guitarist Darby Slick. Slick had been in The Great Society (his brother had married the former Grace Wing) and had co-written “Somebody To Love.”

November 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

November 10-11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Morning Glory, Short Yellow

November 12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9pm), Short Yellow & Guest Musicians (9:30-2am).

November 14-15, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Liberty Street

Liberty Street was so named because the group lived on Liberty Street in San Francisco. One member (bassist Mike Friedman) had been in a Berkeley High School group called The Answer.

November 16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

November 17-18, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Gale Garnett & The Gentle Reign, The Black Messengers

Gale Garnett was born in New Zealand, and after a variety of family difficulties re-settled in Canada at age 1May She moved to New York and became an actress, and then moved to California. She became an actress and folksinger, and had a 1964 hit called “I’ll Sing In The Sunshine,’ for which she won a Grammy. She mostly focused on her singing career in the 60s and was primarily located in the Bay Area.

In the 1970s Garnett returned to Canada and focused on acting. She remains a professional actress with a wide variety of credits (she appeared in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, to name just one).

November 19, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9pm), Short Yellow & Jam (9:30-2am).

November 21-22, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charles Musselwhite Band, Congress of Wonders

November 23-24-25, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Hair, Congress of Wonders

November 27-28-29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi

The Youngbloods were a Boston and New York folk-rock band in the mode of the Lovin Spoonful. Lead singer and bassist Jesse Colin Young (nee Perry Miller from Queens) and the rest of the band (singer-guitarist Jerry Corbitt , pianist Lowell ‘Banana’ Levenger and drummer Joe Bauer) would move to San Francisco in September 1967 By late 1966, Young had released two solo albums, one called Young Blood. The band had now been signed to RCA, and would release their first album as a band for RCA in late 1966

The early Youngbloods were much more bluesy than their lighter, better known work a few years later would suggest. It is a little-known fact that the Youngbloods recording of Dino Valenti’s “Get Together” appeared on the first RCA album in late 1966 It was a modest hit single, but did not attract much attention until 1969 Valenti was well known around the scene, and both The We Five and The Jefferson Airplane had already recorded the song.

>.December 1967: The Beatles release the American LP of Magical Mystery Tour.

December 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, ”Xmas Carol” by Congress of Wonders

The Ace of Cups had formed in San Francisco in the Summer of 1967 While they played fine original music and had well-crafted songs with excellent harmonies, they are mainly remembered for being the only all-woman group on the Fillmore scene. By late 1967 they were managed by Ron Polte and West Pole and based in Tam Valley in Marin. Denise Kaufman, the primary songwriter in the group, had gone to Berkeley High with the son of New Orleans House owner Kitty Griffin.

Kaufman, however, despite only being in her early 20s, had already had a remarkable history. Soon after high school, she had joined up with Ken Kesey’s gang of Merry Pranksters (she appears in Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test as ‘Mary Microgram’). After breaking up with boyfriend Jann Wenner (future Rolling Stone publisher), she moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains and joined the remains of a group called The Frantics. They changed their name to Luminous Marsh Gas and played some obscure joints in El Camino Real in the South Bay. Kaufman sang for the group and played occasional guitar and harmonica—the other members were all from Seattle: guitarist Jerry Miller, drummer Don Stevenson and organist Chuck Schoening. Schoening subsequently joined a different commune in the Mountains and became part of the group Anonymous Artists of America (see May 5, 1967 above); Miller and Stevenson formed the legendary Moby Grape. The entire story is detailed in Patrick Lundborg’s fine article in Shindig Magazine #7.

Despite their local popularity and substantial talent, the Ace of Cups never recorded while they were still an active band. Good taste won out, however, and a scant 36 years after their formation, Big Beat released a fine CD of the group’s demos and live recordings. Further details are available on the Ace of Cups website. Denise Kaufman now divides her time between Southern California and Hawaii, excelling at yoga and surfing, still adept at catching the wave just as it breaks.

December 2, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Savage Resurrection

The Savage Resurrection were from nearby Richmond. They released an album on Mercury in 1968 (subsequently re-released as a CD on Mod Lang in 1998).

December 3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9pm), Short Yellow (9:30).

December 5-6, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Clover, The Natural 7

The New Orleans House was becoming not only a regular gig for East Bay bands, but for Marin County groups as well. While this was partially a result of the profusion of West Pole groups (although West Pole offices were on Martha Street in San Francisco, most of their bands lived in Marin), it was also a function of the fact that bucolic Marin had very few paying gigs. A Mill Valley band like Clover could easily exhaust what few gigs there were in Marin County, and they were not yet established enough to be San Francisco regulars.

December 7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

December 8-9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Loading Zone, Robert Baker

Robert Baker was a comedian.

The Loading Zone often had a horn section that played with them, although in smaller clubs there was often no room for them on stage. The players were probably Todd Anderson on tenor sax and Pat O’Hara on trombone. Their roadie, high school student Steve Kupka, played baritone sax when there was room on the stage and if he was allowed into the venue.

Todd Anderson shared vocals with organist Paul Fauerso. At one point (the exact chronology is unclear) they had a female vocalist (possibly named Suzanne Lewis), but she did not last.

December 10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9pm), Short Yellow (9:30).

December 12-13, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ball-Point Banana

December 14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

December 15-16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Morning Glory, T&A Rhythm & Blues Band

The T&A Rhythm and Blues Band featured bassist John Kahn, saxophonist Ron Stallings and drummer Bob Jones. Bob Jones had actually been a guitarist and singer in the folk-rock group the We Five, but had changed his instrument to drums. Stallings was also an actor, and had been a leading player in the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Kahn was an experienced musician from Los Angeles, and (like many West Coast musicians) had logged a fair amount of time in strip clubs, likely accounting for the name.

The West Coast still had an extensive strip club scene. Strip Clubs in the 60s were a leftover from Burlesque shows of an earlier era. By modern standards, the titillating activity would merely be Cable TV fare. Club owners did not care what sort of music a band played as long as they kept the beat going, so psychedelic jams were just as welcome as blues or jazz. It is unlikely the T&A Rhythm & Blues Band played very many gigs under that name. Stallings, Kahn and Jones all became the core of the group that backed Mike Bloomfield from early 1969 onwards, and Stallings and Jones also ended up leading a band called Southern Comfort (see October 24, 1969).

December 17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Black Messengers (5-9pm), Short Yellow (9:30).

December 19-20, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Celestial Hysteria

Celestial Hysteria was a Berkeley and, or San Francisco based band, and played the Straight Theater and the North Beach club Deno and Carlo’s among other venues. There apparently was some record company interest in 1968, and the band recorded some demos, but the band members were minors and their parents refused to sign a contract so the band went no further. The organist was John Barsotti, now a Professor of Broadcast Arts and Communications at San Francisco State University. No doubt Professor Barsotti is a relative of the many Berkeley Barsotti’s who played a critical role in the Bill Graham Presents organization.

According to Professor Barsotti (in an email to Gray Newell):

“Celestial Hysteria had a male lead singer named Greg Renfro who later left the band and was replaced with a female singer named Mary Lou Hazelwood. The band also consisted of Buddy Greer on traps, Mark Buvelot on Bass, John Formosa and Jim Logue on Guitar (later a guy named John Allen also on guitar), and I played Hammond organ. We recorded and played shows from 1967-69… I believe I am the only member of the band that stayed in the music Industry.”

December 21-22, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamin' Groovies, Country Weather

Country Weather were a Walnut Creek (Contra Costa County) group, from just over the Berkeley Hills. They had originally been called The Virtues, but soon after lead guitarist Greg Douglass joined, they changed their name to Country Weather. This was probably one of their earlier gigs as Country Weather.

Country Weather never released a record when they were together from 1967-7March Since the group was familiar from many posters from 1968 onward, Country Weather became one of the great lost San Francisco groups of the 1960s. Ultimately, the group reformed in the 21^st century and still performs occasionally. RD Records released a vinyl edition of some of their 60s demos and live performances, and a CD release is ultimately scheduled.

Greg Douglass became a successful guitarist in the Bay Area, best known for co-writing “Jungle Love” for Steve Miller, with whom he played for many years. Douglass was also a member of Hot Tuna for one brief, sensational tour in Spring 197May

December 23, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamin' Groovies

December 29-30-31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Musselwhite Blues Band, Congress of Wonders

1968

January 1, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Congress of Wonders, Phoenix

George Smith recalls in respect of Phoenix: "Kitty...who ran it was well known in the community, she said we did not have to play but you true pros went and did it anyway. 3 people showed but you played anyway and did a tremendous and extended version of Knock On Wood. Astounding to see a band play their best no matter what the crowd, the beat goes on."

January 2-3, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Toad

January 4, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath

January 5-6, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Freedom Highway, Dominic Cummins

Freedom Highway, while still favoring British invasion bands over psychedelia, had become a four-piece with the addition of guitarist Gary Phillipet. Philippet had been in various Marin garage bands, including Electric Train.

>January 17, 1968: The Grateful Dead and other groups take over the former El Patio Ballroom at 1545 Market Street (at Van Ness), attempting to compete with Bill Graham and Chet Helms. The inaugural show features the Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. At this point, there are 4 major rock venues in San Francisco: The Fillmore, The Avalon, The Carousel and The Straight Theater (at 1702 Haight).

January 19, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Short Yellow

January 20-21, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Black Messengers, Short Yellow

January 23-24, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charley Musselwhite, Mowry Black

January 25, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

January 26-27, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley Wildflower, Dominic Cummings

Wildflower replaced Gale Garnett and Gentle Reign. Assuming (as is likely) this was the same Wildflower as the 1966-67 group, they had been dormant for some time (since late 67), and this would be the last date I know of.

January 28, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Black Messengers, Short Yellow

January 30-31, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Martha’s Laundry, Glen Fremoll

>February 1968: Bob Dylan released John Wesley Harding

February 1, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

February 2-3, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Morning Glory, Daisy Overkill, Susan Levin & Trio

Although nothing is known of Daisy Overkill’s music, it appears they shared a houseboat in Sausalito with the infamous group Blue Cheer.

February 4, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Lydia E Pinkham Superior Orchestra

The Lydia E Pinkham Superior Orchestra were an old time jug band from the Pacific Northwest.

February 5-6-7, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi

February 9-10, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamin’ Groovies, Preston Webster and Company

Bookstore owner Moe Moskowitz was a patron for Preston Webster and Company – who were named after their drummer. Once he left, the name was dropped. Aside from the New Orleans House, Preston Webster and Company also appeared at the Avalon Ballroom and the Straight Theatre in San Francisco.

February 11, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Black Messengers, Short Yellow

February 13-14, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Country Weather

February 15, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions

February 16-17, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth, Curley Cook’s Hurdy Gurdy Band

Curley Cook, from Madison, WI, had been brought out to California by old friend Steve Miller to play in the original Steve Miller Blues Band. He only played on the Chuck Berry with The Miller Band album on Mercury (recorded in June 1967, released in November 67). He was subsequently replaced by Boz Scaggs. Cook (sometimes spelled Cooke) started his own group, which also featured Doug Kilmer on bass, but I know little else about them.

February 18, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Wildflower, Charles Musselwhite, Congress of Wonders, Dominic Cummins, Paul Arnold, Short Yellow, Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band [Peace and Freedom Benefit]

February 19-20-21, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Blues Project, Sky Blue (19^th-20^th), Rejoice (21^st)

Sky Blue was a Berkeley band featuring guitarist Vic Smith, singer Anna Rizzo, bassist Jack O’Hara and drummer Tom Ralston. They all lived in a house on Warring Street. Smith had led the group Second Coming, who had played New Orleans House with great regularity in 1967 (see below for The Blues Project).

February 23-24, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Blues Project, The Maze

The original Blues Project, featuring Danny Kalb on lead guitar, had formed in Greenwich Village in 196April By late 1965, Al Kooper had joined on keyboards, and the Blues Project was the heaviest and jazziest white blues band on the East Coast. They were one of the very first groups to tour the fledgling circuit of progressive colleges, clubs and early ballrooms. Kooper left the group in early 1967 and the group fell apart soon after playing the Monterey Pop Festival in June. Kooper and Blues Project guitarist Steve Katz went on to form Blood, Sweat and Tears.

In early 1968, two original band members, drummer Roy Blumenfield and bassist, flutist Andy Kulberg, reorganized the group and based it in Marin County. The band featured John Gregory on guitar and vocals (ex-The Gordian Knot and the final lineup of Mystery Trend) and Don Kretmar on bass and saxophone. This was one of the reformed Blues Project’s earliest gigs, althougth they had just finished a run at The Matrix (February 6-18, 1968) and one show at the Avalon (February 21, 1968)

The Maze were from Fairfield (in Solano County). In 1969 they released an album called Stonehenge (later released as a Sundazed cd).

February 25, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Short Yellow, Black Messengers

February 27-28, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite

Around this time, Musselwhite’s band featured two new members from Michigan, guitarist Larry Welker and drummer Lance Dickerson. Both had been in the group Billy C And The Sunshine Band. Dickerson would leave Musselwhite in mid-1969 to rejoin Billy C Farlow (of The Sunshine Band) in Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen when they arrived in Berkeley.

February 28, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath

March 1-2, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, band tba

March 8-9, 1968New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Buddy Guy and His Guest Band

March 10, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Las Flamencos De La Bodega, John Fahey, Curley Cook’s Hurdy Gurdy Band

Flamencos de la Bodega played The New Orleans House on many Sunday nights for the next year. Regular appearances by a Flamenco group was one of many things about the New Orleans House that set it apart from other rock clubs (then and now, it might be added).

March 12, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth

March 13-14, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Son House, Clover

Bluesman Edward James “Son” House (1902-1988), from Clarksdale, MI, had been an important influence on both Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. He recorded 9 commercial sides in 1930, and made additional recordings for folklorist Alan Lomax in 1941-42, and then “disappeared.” In fact, from 1943 onwards he lived in Rochester, NY, where in 1964 he was rediscovered by Dick Waterman and others, working for the New York Central Railroad, long retired from music.

The appearance of Son House at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 was a significant event in the blues revival. House returned to being a performing musician, touring America and Europe until 1974, when he retired again. He made numerous recordings in the 1960s, but the release history is decidedly confusing.

March 15-16, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine were an Oakland group previously called Strawberry Window (see July 25, 1967).

March 17, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Las Flamencos De La Bodega, John Fahey

March 19-20, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite

March 21, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Curley Cook

March 22-23, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Loading Zone, Clint Swank (22^nd), Suzie Levens Unit (23^rd)

March 24, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Las Flamencos De La Bodega, John Fahey

March 26, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Siegel Schwall

March 27-30, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Charlatans

The Charlatans were the founders of the San Francisco Ballroom scene, but they had been surpassed by their original contemporaries like the Airplane and Big Brother. Original founder George Hunter was now out of the group. Dan Hicks (originally the drummer) had switched to guitar and was the principal vocalist. Terry Wilson, the former drummer of Orkustra, had taken over on drums. Original members Mike Wilhelm (lead guitar), Mike Ferguson (piano) and Richie Olsen (bass) remained in the group along with Hicks.

March 31, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Benefit for Port Chicago Vigil featuring Mad River, Frumious Bandersnatch, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Notes From The Underground (an earlier ad in the Berkeley Barb also had Country Weather appearing).

Mad River was one of several Berkeley groups who followed Country Joe and The Fish in releasing an EP. It was recorded in September 1967 in San Francisco and released on a jazz label called Wee. 1000 copies were pressed, but its not clear how many were sold. Nonetheless, the record allowed them to get airplay on the new underground station KMPX-fm (KSAN’s predecessor) so it provided a valuable service. In 1995, Big Beat released a CD of the four earliest and most legendary Berkeley EPs, by Country Joe and The Fish, Mad River, Frumious Bandersnatch and Notes From The Underground.

Although Notes From The Underground had released an EP on an Arhoolie subsidiary had sold almost nothing, it had attracted the attention of Vanguard Records, who signed the group. Their Vanguard album was released around this time and the group toured out of the area a little bit, including some gigs at Vancouver’s Retinal Circus the next weekend (April 4-6, 1968). However, the album got little airplay and sales were modest.

Frumious Bandersnatch was based in Lafayette (Contra Costa County). The group had formed in late 1967, featuring the best players of a number of Contra Costa teenage outfits. The early lineup fell apart when most of its equipment was stolen from their Oakland rehearsal space in late 1967 However, the group reconstituted itself in early 1968 and based itself at bassist Ross Valory’s parents ranch in Lafayette. The new lineup featured twin lead guitarists (David Denny and Jimmy Warner), a dynamic lead singer who also played guitar (Bobby Winkelmann) and a solid rhythm section (bassist Valory and drummer Jack King).

In the style of many Berkeley bands, Frumious Bandersnatch also recorded and released their own 3-song EP. It did not sell many copies, but it served as an advertisement for the band (and became a significant collector’s item over the years). The EP was recorded in Berkeley in April and May of 68 and released soon after. For the balance of the year, Frumious was picked up by Bill Graham’s Millard Agency and received numerous bookings, where their free flowing guitars were well received in concert. However, due to management and other issues, the band passed on some record company offers and despite their local popularity, the EP was the only official release of the group. After some personnel changes, the group made their last live appearance on November 22, 1969 at Concord Armory, opening for Steve Miller.

Frumious Bandersnatch’s component parts were far more successful than the original group. Most of the 1968 lineup ended up in the Steve Miller Band at various times in the next decade (Winkelmann, King, Valory and Denny). More importantly, bassist Ross Valory and guitarist George Tickner (who had been in the 1967 version) founded Journey, who sold millions of records in the 1970s and 80s, and the Journey empire was run by Frumious’s road manager and van driver Walter ‘Herbie’ Herbert.

In 1996 Big Beat released a fine Frumious Bandersnatch cd called A Young Man’s Song, featuring a collection of studio and demo recordings from all lineups of the group. Bobby Winkelmann has kept the Frumious flag flying.

Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band had continued to play since the closure of The Jabberwock. After some changes, the group had stabilized with Annie Johnston and Phil Marsh fronting the group, along with Fiddler Hank Bradley and bassist Richard Saunders, harmonica player Brian Voorhees.

April 2-3, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Festival of Indian Music with Chayanodas Chakravorty-Sitar and Naua Kunda Panda-Tabla.

April 4, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fred McDowell

“Missisippi” Fred McDowell was born in Rossville, TN in 190April After a time in Memphis, he moved to Como, MS by the 1930s where he lived the rest of his life. Though mostly a farmer, he played locally most weekends for decades. McDowell was discovered by folklorist Alan Lomax who recorded him in 1959 and released a few tracks as part of an Atlantic Records compilation. Berkeley’s Chris Strachwitz, proprietor of the Arhoolie record label, tracked McDowell down and recorded McDowell for Arhoolie. The success of the first two Arhoolie albums (in 1964 and 1966) made Mississippi Fred McDowell a sudden hit—after 40 or so years of incubation—on the folk and blues circuit. McDowell’s song “You Got To Move” was recorded by The Rolling Stones on Sticky Fingers, Bonnie Raitt was proud to cite Mississippi Fred McDowell as a significant influence, and recorded a number of his songs, and Hot Tuna made his “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” a staple of their electric and acoustic live sets.

Much loved by everyone who knew him, McDowell died in 1972,

April 5-6, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Clover, West

West was a sort of countryish Byrds-sounding group featuring Michael Stewart, formerly of The We Five and lead guitarist Ron Cornelius. Stewart (the brother of singer, songwriter John Stewart) had been in The We Five for their brief run of success in 1965 (primarily the song “You Were On My Mind”), and Cornelius had been a teenage guitar prodigy who had backed many rock, country and pop acts on West Coast tours in the early 60s.

The first West album on Epic was released in 1968, and while it is pleasant it does have the whiff of record company interference, as the liner notes are very vague about how many members are actually in the group. The group had a modest hit with a Bob Dylan song “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.” West put out another album on Epic, and then one final one on Paramount around 1970. Cornelius moved to Nashville and became a successful session guitarist and producer. In the 1970s, he acted as Leonard Cohen’s bandleader for recording and touring. From 1980 onwards, Cornelius has focused on a successful career as a Nashville producer and song publisher.

April 7, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Jazz Cardinals (New Orleans Jazz): 3-7 Flamencos de la Bodega: 9-12

During World War 2 and afterwards, San Pablo Avenue (which runs from Richmond to Oakland) was known as Music Row. It served as the entertainment and red light district for the workers in the shipyards, factories and oil refineries along the East Bay. There were substantial traditional country, blues and jazz scenes all along the Boulevard. By the 1960s, the economy and traffic patterns had changed (Interstate Highway 80 had become the main corridor), and the local constabularies were less sympathetic to many of the establishments’ non-musical activities. It appears, however, that the New Orleans Jazz played at The New Orleans House was played by older musicians who had been playing the music professionally for many years.

April 9-10, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Curley Cook’s Hurdy Gurdy Band

Misbilled in the Berkeley Barb as “Charlie Cook’s Hurdy Gurdy Band.”

April 11-13, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sons of Champlin, Edsel Boogey (12^th and 13^th).

The Sons of Champlin were a Marin County band that were managed by West Pole. The genesis of the group was a Mt. Tamalpais High School R&B group called The Opposite Six. The group, very successful on the ‘teen’ dance circuit, played tight rhythm and blues. Lead singer Bill Champlin aspired to sing like James Brown or Lou Rawls rather than like Bob Dylan. When the draft decimated the group, it reformed at the College Of Marin in 1966 However, the Dean of Students objected to their name—The Master Beats—and on a whim they changed their name to The Sons of Father Champlin.

The Sons of Champlin played a kind of soulful rock with Beatles-like harmonies, and were discovered at the Fillmore and signed by local entrepreneur Frank Werber, who had produced the Kingston Trio. From late 1966 they mostly recorded and played to a teenage audiences. While a single (“Sing Me A Rainbow”) had some play on local station KFRC-am, the expanding consciousness of the group was at odds with Werber’s pop-oriented production. In mid-1967, by mutual agreement, the group struck out on their own. The Big Beat cd Fat City is a wonderful representation of this mostly unreleased period.

By early 1968 the Sons had a horn section and were playing their unique brand of soul and jazz inspired psychedelia. Unlike many other rock bands that featured ex-folkies still learning to play electric, the Sons were all superb musicians who could play many instruments. Lead singer Champlin was a fine organist and guitarist, lead guitarist Terry Haggerty was one of the best lead guitarists in the Bay Area, and newly arrived (late 67) Geoff Palmer played piano, vibes, saxophone and pretty much everything else spectacularly well.

Edsel Boogey is unknown to me, but there was a group called Boogie who rehearsed at the Sausalito Heliport with The Sons, so perhaps there is a connection.

April 16-18, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups

April 19-20, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Phoenix

Phoenix was another group that was handled by Ron Polte’s West-Pole management organization (along with Congress of Wonders, Sons of Champlin, Ace of Cups and Freedom Highway).

April 24-25, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Charlatans

April 26-27, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Loading Zone, Golden Gate Meditation Society (26^th), Melting Pot (27^th)

Early in 1968, The Loading Zone were joined by singer Linda Tillery, then about 18 years old. Tillery had a huge, soulful and classically-trained voice and RCA Records were suddenly extremely interested in the group. Janis Joplin and Grace Slick had been successful coming out of the San Francisco ballrooms, and Tillery was a better singer than either of them, if less of a character. Loading Zone went on to record their debut album on RCA with Tillery taking the lead vocals, and the band went on a national tour in the summer. The album, sort of heavy handed soul with longer guitar solos, seems somewhat antiseptic except for a few moments.

Throughout the balance of 1968, the Loading Zone were regulars at the Fillmores and other ballrooms, including the Fillmore East.

Melting Pot may have been a group featuring pianist Wayne Talbert, a transplanted Texan associated with (but not exactly a member of) the Sir Douglas Quintet. More likely, however, it was a Marin band featuring singer Mary Ann Peluso, guitarist Gary Cride, pianist David Smith (who played with Ike & Tina Turner) and drummer Randy Seol (ex-Strawberry Alarm Clock).

May 1-4, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite

On Friday (May 3, 1968) Angel Food was also on the bill.

May 5, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA New Orleans Jazz (4-7 pm), Melting Pot (8-12 pm).

May 7-11, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Junior Wells, Daemon (10^th only), Diesel Ducks (11^th)

Junior Wells (born 1934), was also part of the younger generation of Chicago blues performers but he was still significantly older than most of the members of the ballroom bands. The Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band initially featured the great Buddy Guy on guitar. Wells had released the fabulous album Hoodoo Man Blues (Delmark 1965) that had established him as a presence outside of Chicago. Vanguard released It’s My Life Baby (1966) and Comin At You (1968), both featuring Buddy Guy. Wells also released the You’re Tuff Enough album on Blue Rock (a Mercury subsidiary) which featured James Brown-influenced blues. Guy and Wells were both managed by Cambridge’s Dick Waterman, and while they periodically played together, Guy was touring on his own and probably did not play this gig.

Diesel Ducks were a loose aggregation from Marin that featured guitarist, songwriter Kent Housman.

May 15-18, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller and Linn County, Melting Pot (17^th and 18^th)

Stephen Miller (1942-2003) was the organ player in Linn County, and later a mainstay of the original Elvin Bishop Group. The better known, guitar playing Steve Miller, although a regular at The New Orleans House in 1967, had long since graduated to headline status at the Fillmore and Avalon. Linn County were from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by way of Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago. Known as The Prophets in Cedar Rapids, they had become the house band at a Chicago club called Mother Blues and changed their name to Linn County Blues Band (Cedar Rapids is in Linn County). They were signed by Chess Records and began to record, but Mercury Records heard them, signed them and moved them to San Francisco. For a detailed history of Linn County’s Iowa days, see here.

May 24-25, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Gale Garnett & The Gentle Reign, plus guest artists

Sometime in 1968, Gale Garnett and The Gentle Reign released their very obscure first album An Audience With The King Of Wands (Columbia).

May 29-30, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Charlatans, Rick Taylor (30^th)

Rick Taylor was advertised as a folk singer.

May 31-June 1, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Curley Cook’s Hurdy Gurdy Band, Melting Pot

June 2, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA New Orleans Jazz (3-7pm), Melting Pot (8-12pm)

June 5-8, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite, Bronze Hog (7^th and 8^th)

The Bronze Hog were from Cotati (in Sonoma County), and were soon to become regulars at Cotati’s first rock venue, the Inn of The Beginning. The Inn of The Beginning opened in September of 1968, and was another of the smaller clubs in the Bay Area that featured original rock music, and served to help build a secondary circuit for local bands trying to break into the Fillmore and other halls.

June 11-12-13, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Buddy Guy, Memory Pain (11^th), Maggie’s Farm (12^th), A.B. Skhy Blues Band (13^th)

AB Skhy were a progressive blues group from Milwaukee, WI where they had been known as The New Blues, and featured organist Howard Wales. They had recently moved to the Bay Area from Wisconsin.

Maggie’s Farm was a Berkeley band that included keyboardist Mark Batterman, who had been in Berkeley High bands like Haymarket Riot and John Douglas Company.

June 14, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sea Train, Melting Pot

Sea Train had been formed from the ashes of the Blues Project (see February 23, 1968). Violinist Richard Greene had departed the Jim Kweskin Jug Band (based in Cambridge, MA) in the Spring of 1968 to join the Blues Project on the West Coast. For various murky reasons, the group changed their name to Sea Train. Greene’s classical training and bluegrass sensibility (he had toured with Bill Monroe) gave him a distinct and powerful sound, and his fiddle acted more like a horn in the group.

The Blues Project still owed an album to Verve, so this lineup of Sea Train (Kulberg, Blumenfield, Kretmar, Gregory, Greene) recorded their “first” album as the last Blues Project album with the title Planned Obsolescence, released in late 1968 This freed the group to make the first Sea Train album for A&M, released in 1969 The Sea Train album is a baroque, eclectic and somewhat rambling album. I do not know how close either album was to Sea Train’s live performances.

June 18-19-20, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Kaleidoscope, AB Skhy Blues Band

Kaleidoscope were an eclectic band from Los Angeles, light years ahead of their time. They had been formed by David Lindley, Solomon Feldthouse (who had often cropped up in Berkeley as Saul) and Chester Crill, and pioneered the integration of exotic Middle Eastern instruments and music into an electric format, all the while retaining the traditional folk and blues influences common to other groups. Every member of the group was an exceptional instrumentalist on any number of instruments.

At this time, Kaleidoscope’s current album was the classic A Beacon From Mars on Epic. Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page had seen them at the Avalon, and was regularly quoted as saying that the Kaleidoscope were his “ideal band.” For the full story on the group, see David Biasotti’s Kaleidoscope website, and for the complete recordings, the 3 CD retrospective called Pulsating Dream collects all four of their Epic albums plus some miscellaneous recordings.

June 21-22, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congess of Wonders, Sea Train, Ace of Cups

June 26-27, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlatans, Sea Train

June 28-29, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlatans, The Crabs

An earlier ad has Sea Train continuing to play the club, but it appears The Crabs were booked in their place. The Crabs were a local Berkeley group. They were fondly remembered by other Berkeley musicians like Brian Voorheis, who remembers a 5 or 6-piece band with a lead singer and hot lead guitar and organ, playing in a “rootsy” style (although that term was not in use at the time).

June 30, 1968New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

July 2-3, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Free Spirits, Pure Funk

The Free Spirits were a jazz rock group from New York. Larry Coryell had appeared on their album in 1967, but he no longer played with the group.

Pure Funk is unknown to me. “Funk” had a different musical connotation at the time (as Larry Graham’s string-popping bass style was unknown in the wider world), and while the band probably had a bluesy feel, it is more likely that they were a rock group.

July 4, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Free Spirits, Dancing Food and Entertainment

Dancing Food and Entertainment was a group featuring violinist Naomi Eisenberg and bassist Tom Glass (aka poster artist Ned Lamont). They were associated with Bill Graham’s management group, and recorded a few demos, but the group did not last into the 70s. Tom Glass had provided music for the Congress of Wonders performances (whether in person or taped isn’t entirely clear). At this time, Dancing Food used the New Orleans House as their rehearsal hall.

July 5-6, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Buddy Guy, Free Spirits, Dancing Food and Entertainment

>July 5, 1968: Bill Graham takes over the lease of The Carousel from The Grateful Dead, who are doing a poor job of managing the venue. Graham moved his operation from The Fillmore to the Carousel, and renames it the Fillmore West.

July 10-11, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA AB Skhy Blues Band

July 12-13, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA It’s A Beautiful Day

Electric Violinist David LaFlamme had been in Orkustra, but he had to search for a new gig when Bobby Beausoleil left to form The Magick Powerhouse of Oz. Notorious San Francisco manager Mathew Katz (the first manager of Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape) had determined the names of his next rock groups but had no members for the groups. He met LaFlamme, and connected LaFlamme and his keyboard playing wife Linda with a teenager Katz had met while she was bagging groceries. The LaFlammes liked singer Patti Santos, and in Fall 1967 agreed to form a group called It’s A Beautiful Day that was managed by Katz.

Katz had started to assemble a band, but the LaFlammes didn’t particularly like the players. LaFlamme tried out bassist Jaime Leopold from Orkustra, but he didn’t fit the group. Katz refused to let the group play locally, but sent the group to play six weeks at an obscure venue in Seattle that he managed (the Encore Ballroom). When the group returned at the end of 1967, they began their split with Katz, although that would be mired in difficult and expensive lawsuits for the next two decades.

By Spring 1968, It’s A Beautiful Day had stabilized with Patti Santos and David LaFlamme sharing the vocals, LaFlamme on electric violin and Linda LaFlamme on organ. Val Fuentes on drums and Miitch Holman on bass completed the group. The songs and the style were in place, but the group still sounded a bit thin whenever LaFlamme stopped playing violin to sing. Guitarist Hal Wagenet, leader of The Indian Head Band (see August 18, 1967), saw the group at The Carousel in April and introduced himself to the group. Although this spelled the demise of Indian Head Band, Wagenet’s stylish guitar was the missing piece of the puzzle. The group rapidly ascended up the ballroom ranks, releasing their first of five albums on Columbia Records in 1969

July 14-15-16, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Buddy Guy

The Barb ad says “Recording Live for Vanguard.” These are presumably the sessions for the album This Is Buddy Guy.

July 17-18, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA West, Robin Kent

July 19-20, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Curley Cooke’s Hurdy Gurdy Band, The Conqueroo

The Conqueroo were an Austin, TX group who were originally called St. John and The Conqueroo. One member, Tommy Hall, left in 1965 on to help form the legendary 13^th Floor Elevators, and another member, R.P. St. John, moved to Berkeley in 1967 and formed Mother Earth with Tracy Nelson (see July 28, 1967). The remaining members of the group changed their name to The Conqueroo (a reference to a root used in voodoo rituals). The Conqueroo were a critical part of the Austin scene, and helped found The Vulcan Gas Company, an Austin ballroom that was contemporary to the Fillmore and Avalon, if mostly featuring local Texas groups.

Like many Texas ‘underground’ bands, The Conqueroo found it very difficult to break out of the Texas scene, so the group moved to the Bay Area briefly in 1968 and played various gigs. This was not successful and the group returned to Texas and broke up. An archival 1968 album was semi-privately released in 1987 (From The Vulcan Gas Company on 5 Hours Back Records).

July 23-2April 25, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mad River

Mad River had moved to the Haight Ashbury in the fall of 1967 (to 1968 Oak Street on the Panhandle), but the scene in the Haight was disintegrating, and the band moved back to Berkeley in early 1968, although they all no longer lived in the same apartment. The band had been signed to Capitol Records. Capitol had signed the Steve Miller Band, and like every other record company, were looking to scoop up any rock band with long hair that had gigs at the Avalon or the Fillmore. Mad River tended to play the Avalon rather than the Fillmore, because Chet Helms liked them and Bill Graham didn’t. In any case, Capitol staff producer Nik Venet was assigned to the group. Venet, a successful producer with the likes of The Beach Boys and Bobby Darin, had little idea what to do with their carefully orchestrated and somewhat inscrutable material.

July 26-27, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Initial Shock, Shiva’s Head Band

Initial Shock, feauturing guitarist William ‘Mojo’ Collins, had formed in Montana because Collins had been assigned to an Air Force base there. When Collins left the service in 1968, the group moved to San Francisco. They released at least one single, and played a lot of gigs, but never recorded an album. According to Collins, the group had an excellent sound system and many groups liked to be billed with Initial Shock so that they could use their sound equipment.

When the group broke up, Collins went on to play in Sawbuck with Ronnie Montrose (they played the closing of The Fillmore West, among other gigs), who released an album on Fillmore Records. Collins moved to North Carolina in 1971, where he lives and performs today ().

Shiva’s Head Band were from Austin, TX and featured violinist Spencer Perskin. They were a fairly successful Texas band, but they moved to the Bay Area thinking their opportunities were greater, which turned out not to be the case. The band was based in the East Bay for only a short time. The group soon returned to Austin, and still plays to this very today.

August 2-3, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Linn County, They Resemble Faces

Linn County were from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by way of Chicago (see May 15, 1968). They ended up recording 3 albums for Mercury Records. Their first album, recorded around this time, was called Proud Flesh Soothseer. The band featured organist and vocalist Stephen Miller (a different Steve Miller then the guitar player who was already headlining the Fillmore).

August 6-7-8, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Cleveland Wrecking Company

For a group whose name appears on so many posters, surprisingly little is known about the Cleveland Wrecking Company. They appear to have played from 1968-72, and may have briefly reformed in 197March The group was led by organist Jim Lowe and lead guitarist Norman Beale. An early lineup may have included artist Victor Moscoso’s brother Jim on bass. Limited evidence suggests they played a more soulful jazz-rock style than some Fillmore-era groups, but its hard to be certain about their sound at this time. It appears that many of their gigs may have been dance shows for young but largely non-hippie audiences.

By 1972 they were a 7-piece band with a horn section and a female vocalist (Maggie Lowe), but its not certain what their earlier configuration might have been. Leaders Beale and Lowe were more interested in live work than recording, and I know of no surviving records or even recordings.

August 9-11, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Carnival and Resurrection of The Blind God Orpheus

Was this a group, a performance or an event? The ad does not say. It seems surprising that an unknown group with such an unwieldy name would play the club on a weekend. This sounds more like a “Happening”.

August 14-15, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

August 16-17, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Magic Sam Blues Band, Milkwood

Magic Sam was Sam Maghett, who was born in Missisippi in 1937 and moved to Chicago in the early 50s. A soulful vocalist and an excellent guitarist, he released some successful singles for Cobra Records from 1957-5September When Cobra folded, Sam ended up joining the US Army, which did not go well. He returned to Chicago, and mainly giggled profitably on the West Side, but there were few recording opportunities. However, Delmark Records finally picked him up and released the exceptional album West Side Soul in late 1967 Magic Sam is best known for his definitive electric remake of Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago.”

August 18, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega, Dementia (Improvisational Theatre)

August 21-22, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Shiva’s Headband

Spencer Perskin describes playing the New Orleans House while there were riots on the Berkeley Campus. While the Campus was far from the New Orleans House, the police activity cut down dramatically on people’s desire to go out. He does say that the proprietress was surprised that while only 35 people showed up to see the group, since they were all Texan, they each ordered a pitcher of beer for themselves.

The entire story is recounted here. The part about the New Orleans House is bucolic compared to the surreal and apparently true stories recounted on Perskin’s site. The statute of limitations appears to have expired on the group’s various escapades and the site is well worth a read for people interested in true tales of the 60s.

August 23-24, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Congress of Wonders

August 25, 1968: Los Flamencos De La Bodega, Dementia Improvisational Theatre

August 28-29, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Overbrook Express

August 30-31, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Shiva's Headband, Maze

September 1, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos De La Bodega, Dementia Improvisational Theatre

September 4-5, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CACircus

September 6-7, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Seatrain

September 8, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos De La Bodega, Dementia Improvisational Theatre

September 11-12, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Curley Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band

September 13-14, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band, Jeffrey Stevens, Queen Lily Soap

September 15, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos De La Bodega, Dementia Improvizational Theatre

September 16-17, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band

September 18-19, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Wedge

September 20-21, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Queen Lily Soap, Shiva's Headband

September 22, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos De La Bodega, Dementia Improvizational Theatre

September 24-26, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Shiva's Head Band

September 27-28, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Youngbloods, The Crabs

The Youngbloods had gone through substantial changes since the previous time they played the New Orleans House (see November 27, 1967). The group had released their fine album Elephant Mountain, but guitarist Jerry Corbitt had left the group, and they were now a trio. This brought Jesse Colin Young’s voice even more to the fore, and in live performance Lowell ‘Banana’ Levenger’s electric piano dominated the sound.

September 29, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega, Dementia

In late 1968, the Barb ads say “Every Sunday, Flamencos de la Bodega and Dementia (Improvisational Theatre).”

October 2-3, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sky Blue

By this time, Sky Blue drummer Tom Ralston had probably joined the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band. Lead singer Anna Rizzo simply took over the drum chair for Sky Blue.

October 4-5, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Charlatans

October 6, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega, Dementia

October 11-12, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sons of Champlin, Congress of Wonders

October 13, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega, Dementia

October 15-16-17, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Linn County, Paul Arnoldi

October 18-19, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA AB Skhy Band, Hoffman’s Bicycle

Hoffman’s Bicycle is unknown to me. Swiss Chemist Albert Hoffman inadvertently synthesized LSD in 1943, and he was riding his bicycle when the first effects came upon him. His first self-conscious ‘Acid Trip’ was a few days later at 4:20 pm on April 19^th, 1943.

October 20, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega, Dementia

October 22-23-24, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Stonehenge

Possibly this was the Fairfield group Maze under another name (see February 23, 1968).

October 25-26, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mad River, Pop Corn

Orion was originally booked as the opening act.

Mad River’s first album had been released on Capitol. Today, the album is legendary, but at the time it was inexplicable. Firstly, Mad River’s music was carefully arranged, and not built on any folk or blues influences. The lyrics were not direct at all, and the tone was contemplative and dark, far from the peace-and-love vibe prevalent at the time. To top it off, the cover art was completely butchered by Capitol (including identifying the band members incorrectly) and the recording was sped up in order to fit the album on to the lp. Thus the detached and thoughtful music of the group was given a high-pitched intensity that was not intended by the band.

Ironically, Mad River was simply ahead of their time. The group was essentially performing progressive rock, although the term had not been invented, and even the band members admit (in the forthcoming Ugly Things epic) that their ideas exceeded their musical abilities. Nonetheless, the album was known in England, and The Yes, among others were significantly influenced by the album. However, Mad River were prophets without honor in their own land, because although FM radio existed, audiences were not really ready for the group’s music.

Pop Corn was probably a group that had formed in Los Angeles out of the rehearsals for a group called Rhinoceros. Rhinoceros was planned as a “Super Group” by Elektra, and there were sports team-like auditions for the group. Some musicians dropped out of the competitive process altogether and formed a different group entirely, moving north to the Bay Area. Pop Corn (assuming this to be the same group) featured two former members of the Seattle group Daily Flash, guitarist Steve Lalor and drummer Jon Keliehor, along with Kerry Magness (bass, ex-Kingsmen), David Brooks (keyboards) and Eric Karl (vocals). The group later released an album on MGM under the name Bodine, produced by Bill Cowsill.

October 27, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega, Dementia

October 29-30, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From The Underground

October 31, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sea Train

>November 1968: The Beatles release The White Album.

November 8-9, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Initial Shock, Orion

November 10, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

November 12-13-14, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth

Mother Earth by this time had moved significantly up in the world. Throughout 1968 they played all the San Francisco ballrooms, and keyboard player Mark Naftalin joined the group in the Spring. Naftalin had left the Butterfield Blues Band and moved to California. Naftalin had co-produced the group’s debut album for Mercury, Living With The Animals, along with Mercury staff Engineer Dan Healy (the once and future Grateful Dead soundman). However, Naftalin may have left the group by the time of these shows.

Mother Earth’s debut album was partially recorded in Texas and featured guest appearances by a number of Texas musicians (such as Martin Fiero and Spencer Perskin), thus leading to endless confusion as to who was actually in the group.

November 15-16, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA, Ace of Cups, Freedom Highway

Early in 1968, Freedom Highway bassist Scott Inglis had surprised his bandmates by enlisting in the military. His replacement on bass was Dave Shallock, who had been in bands like The Pullice with drummer Bruce Brymer. Most of the Freedom Highway cd Made In ‘68 was recorded by this lineup (Richie Ray Harris and Gary Phillipet on guitars, Brmer on drums and Shallock).

November 22-23, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Linn County, Lazarus

Lazarus was a band that had evolved out of the Berkeley High School scene. They had originally been known as Haymarket Riot, but had changed their name to Lazarus in honor of their erstwhile manager (Laz Lewis) who was dodging the draft in Canada. Lazarus had been regular performers at the First University Church of Kensington (consider the acronym), a sort of teenage mini-Fillmore in the East Bay in late 1967 The band played regularly in Provo Park, but never seriously pursued success. The complete story of the group is told in Cream Puff War #February Lead singer Pete Barsotti became an important player in the Bill Graham organization, and guitarist Dave Carpender was in the Greg Kihn Band for many years in the 1970s.

November 24, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

November 26-2July 28, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sound

One of the Barb ads says “Sound (of Light Sound Dimension).” Light Sound Dimension was Bill Ham’s Light-Show-Plus-Jazz-Group experiment of the previous year. This was the jazz group associated with the ensemble, featuring saxophonist Noel Jewkes, and generally included drummer Jerry Granelli and bassist Fred Marshall (Vince Guaraldi’s rhythm section). Jewkes was married to Ace of Cups member Denise Kaufman, so while Sound may not have been a West Pole band per se, it was another branch of the Marin tree that worked the New Orleans House.

November 29-30, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Loading Zone, The Motowns

The Motowns were led by San Leandro saxophonist Emilio Castillo, and had evolved out of a group called The Gotham City Crimefighters (and their song “Who Stole The Batmobile”). Loading Zone roadie Steve “Doc” Kupka (so-called because his father was a doctor), who sometimes played baritone sax as part of the Loading Zone horn section, had joined the Motowns in June 1968 and they would rapidly evolve into Oakland’s first major musical export of the 1970’s, Tower of Power.

The Loading Zone, despite the release of their album on RCA and a furious touring schedule throughout 1968, did not persist beyond Spring 1969—until they broke up and reformed for another incarnation in the Fall.

December 1, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

>December 1, 1968: After many financial difficulties, the Avalon Ballroom closes. The final night is a benefit for the Dog itself, featuring the final performance of Janis Joplin and Big Brother and The Holding Company before the group breaks up. There will be additional shows at the Avalon in 1969 (not promoted by Chet Helms and The Family Dog), and the Family Dog will soon resuscitate itself for a few more years. However, with the Fillmore moved to The Fillmore West, the Avalon closed and The Straight on its last legs, the initial great era of San Francisco ballrooms has already peaked.

December 4-5, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Crabs, Stained Glass

Stained Glass had formed in San Jose in 1966 They released an album on Capitol in 1969 called Crazy Horse Roads.

December 6-7, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sea Train, Cain, Jimmy Sunshine Jug Band

Cain is Jeffrey Cain (see March 25, 1969)

December 10, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sound (of Light Sound Dimension)

December 11-12, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Lightnin’ Hopkins

Lightnin’ Hopkins, based in Houston, was a unique bluesman who had been recording since the 1950s. He largely improvised his material, and as a result recorded numerous albums without ever repeating a song. At this time he was recording for Arhoolie Records and was well regarded on the folk scene. He generally played with a bass player or drummer, usually hired locally for the gig. There are numerous stories of superb musicians struggling to follow Lightnin’s freewheeling improvisations.

December 13-14, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth, Sweet Linda Devine

Sweet Linda Devine was (Loading Zone singer) Linda Tillery. Its not clear if she had left the Loading Zone, or was simply doing some gigs as a solo act, but in any case the Loading Zone broke up in early 1969

December 15, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

December 17-18, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Magic Sam Blues Band

Magic Sam’s talent and charisma made him a rising star as established blues musicians found new markets on the “Fillmore Circuit” of white college kids. His second Delmark album Black Magic (attributed to the Magic Sam Blues Band) was recorded in late 68 and probably released in early 1969 Tragically, Magic Sam died of a heart attack on December 1, 1969

December 20-21, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Magic Sam Blues Band, Stained Glass

December 26-27-28, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Johnny Shine’s Chicago Blues Band with Big Walter Horton, Mark of Kings

Johnny Shines was born in Memphis in 1915, and heard Blind Lemon Jefferson on the street. By 1935, he had met Robert Johnson, and became Johnson’s traveling partner, learning Johnson’s music as well as anyone. When Johnson died, Shines relocated to Chicago. He recorded for various labels, but without significant success. He quit the music business in 195August However, with the blues revival of the mid-60s creating a market for blues musicians (and the correspondingly magnified legend of Robert Johnson), Shines returned to touring and performing.

Big Walter Horton (aka Shakey Horton) was also somewhat older than his Chicago contemporaries, having been born in 1917 near Memphis. As a youngster, he played and recorded with the legendary Memphis Jug Band, and later played around with Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey and many others. He may have been one of the first professionals to amplify his harmonica. He moved to Chicago in the 1940s, and largely stopped performing, although he was a mentor to local harmonica players like Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson (I). In the 1950s, he returned to an active career and became a regular sideman on Chess Sessions. A relatively shy man, he had little interest in leading his own band or recording sessions, but blues aficionados and other musicians knew of his substantial abilities. Charlie Musselwhite, another Memphis-to-Chicago transplant, was one of Horton’s protégés.

December 29, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

December 31, 1968: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups

1969

January 1-2, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Congress of Wonders

January 3-4, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Phoenix

January 5, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

January 8, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA AB Skhy Band

An earlier ad has the group playing the weekend (January 10-11) as well, but they appear to have been replaced by Sea Train.

January 10-11, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sea Train, Dementia

January 12, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Flamencos de la Bodega

January 15-18, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sons of Champlin, Notes From The Underground (17^th and 18^th)

The Sons were now signed to Capitol Records, and were recording their first album around this time, the great double LP Loosen Up Naturally (released in July 1969). Apparently, the album was pretty representative of the Sons live set at the time.

Notes From The Underground had been dropped by Vanguard after their album was a non-starter. The original rhythm section (Mike O’Connor and Peter Ostwald) had moved on, and original partners Mark Mandell and Fred Sokolow had kept the group going. However, the group ground to a halt in early 1969 and broke up for good. Oddly enough, Notes were also scheduled to be headlining at nearby Mandrake’s (1048 University, at 10^th Street), on the 17^th and 18^th (Friday and Saturday nights), so perhaps the ad was misleading or there had been a change in plans.

January 19, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Dementia

January 22-23, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Lou Allison’s Blue Nebulae

January 24-25, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Loading Zone, Terry Dolan

Terry Dolan was a folksinger from Washington, DC who had moved to San Francisco in 196May He shared management with Country Weather. When Dolan had the opportunity to record demos in the early 70s, he was joined by various friends who included John Cipollina, Nicky Hopkins and Country Weather’s Greg Douglass. This led to the popular Bay Area bar band Terry & The Pirates, which featured Dolan backed by whichever of his friends were available. Terry & The Pirates first album was released in 1979, and Dolan has continued to periodically release albums into the 21^st century.

January 26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

January 28-29, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Albert Collins

Albert ‘The Iceman’ Collins was born in Texas in 193February He played guitar in Houston as a teenager, seeing and learning from Clarence Gatemouth Brown, T-Bone Walker and his cousin Lightning Hopkins. Starting in 1958, Collins had a series of successful instrumental singles, starting with “The Freeze” (1958) and peaking with the million-seller “Frosty” in 1962 (Texas teenagers Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter were supposedly in the studio when he recorded it). Although Collins stinging guitar runs earned him the monicker ‘Master of The Telecaster’ he continued to work day jobs throughout the 60s and limited his performances to the Houston area and weekend gigs.

Bob “The Bear” Hite and other members of Canned Heat went to see Collins in Houston in 1968 (Collins had moved to Kansas City by this time) and brought him to Los Angeles. Collins was rapidly signed by Imperial Records and became a full-time musician once again. His first album for Imperial was Trash Talkin, released in early 1969 After some ups and dpwns in the 1970s (he stopped playing between 1974 and 75) Collins finally received his due as a Blues legend in the 1980s after a series of albums on Alligator Records. Sadly, Collins died of cancer in 199January

January 30-31, February 1, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sweet Linda Devine & The Brown Bag

The Brown Bag — whether or not they were backing Linda Tillery — would have featured both Eddy Brown and former Country Joe and The Fish drummer John Francis Gunning.

February 2, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

February 5-6, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Gale Garnett

Sometime in 1969 Gale Garnett and Gentle Reign released their second album (even more obscure than their first), Sausalito Heliport (Columbia). Sausalito Heliport was a widely used rehearsal space by many Bay Area bands (the helicopter community did not find the rock bands particularly noisy). According to the description on Lysergia.com, the album is long and unfocused, but features some good moments. New Zealand born Garnett had hit the charts in 1964 with the mellow We'll Sing in the Sunshine.

February 7-8, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sea Train, Asmodeus

February 9, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite

February 12-13, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller, Mount Rushmore

The headliner was almost certainly the organ player from Linn County, not the better-known guitarist. Linn County was still an active group, but Stephen Miller seems to have played weeknight gigs at clubs like The Matrix and The New Orleans House, as well as sitting in with the newly-formed Elvin Bishop Group.

Mount Rushmore was another band managed by West Pole. The group had formed at ‘The Blue House’ in San Francisco at 1915 Oak as an outgrowth of The Blue House Basement band, but had undergone a variety of significant personnel changes, including the departure of guitarist Warren Phillips and drummer Ed Levin. The new lineup featured Mike Bolan on lead guitar. The group recorded two albums for Dot, 1968’s High On Mount Rushmore and Mount Rushmore ’6September

February 14-15, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA AB Skhy, The Brothers And

An earlier ad in the Barb has The Melting Pot opening.

An FM broadcast of AB Skhy playing at the Avalon Ballroom around this time (actually March 30, 1969) has survived. While they play standard B.B. King style blues material, the four-piece group leans heavily on the remarkable improvisations of Howard Wales on organ.

February 16, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

February 19-20, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Cleveland Wrecking Company

February 21-22, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mount Rushmore, Shades of Joy

Shades of Joy appears to be a group of Texas transplants, featuring guitarist Jackie King, saxophonist Martin Fierro and organist Jymm Young. They did release an album on Fontana, released in 1969, but their history is vague. In the early 1970s, Fierro ended up playing with Jerry Garcia, and Young played organ for Boz Scaggs.

February 23, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

February 25-26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The 4^th Way, The Electric Church

The Fourth Way (often incorrectly billed as 4^th Way) were one of many groups of jazz musicians on both coasts who began playing modern jazz with electrified instruments. The group formed in 1968 to play with San Francisco jazz giant John Handy, a tenor saxophonist who had played with Charles Mingus among many others. Due to some dispute, however, Handy never played with the group and the band struck out on its own. The group was one of the few jazz groups to play the Avalon Ballroom in 1968

The Fourth Way featured electric violinist Michael White, pianist Mike Nock (playing Fender Rhodes electric piano), bassist Ron McClure and drummer Eddie Marshall. White and McClure had played with Handy as well as local guitarist Jerry Hahn, and McClure had played with the Charles Lloyd Quartet. Nock was a New Zealand-born pianist who had recorded in Australia before he moved to the United States in the early 60s. Nock was attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston, but dropped out because he had more fun jamming with local musicians. Nock was part of Yusef Lateef’s band from about 1963 to 1965, and played with Larry Coryell and many other 60s jazz musicians.

The Fourth Way was signed to Capitol, and released the first of three albums in 1969 None of their three LPs have been released on cd (to my knowledge). All the members of The Fourth Way continued to have successful jazz careers. Eddie Marshall in particular became one of the mainstays of the San Francisco jazz scene as both the house drummer at the famed Keystone Korner club and as a faculty member at San Francisco State. The Fourth Way had a reunion performance at the 2000 San Francisco Jazz Festival.

February 28-March 1, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Initial Shock, Welliver Fields

March 2, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

March 5-8, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Loading Zone

Loading Zone broke up soon after this, and Linda Tillery went solo as Sweet Linda Devine, for whom Al Kooper produced an album. However, Loading Zone reformed around organist Paul Fauerso and remained together from 1970-7March For at least some of that time, Tillery returned but played drums as well as sang, and subsequently became a successful drummer in Southern California. In recent decades, Tillery has been working with a variety of traditional vocal forms, having left her jazz and rock careers behind.

March 9, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

March 12-15, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Albert Collins, Melting Pot (12^th and 13^th), Michael Brown (14^th and 15^th).

An earlier Barb ad has Albert Collins, Loading Zone, All Spice Rhythm Band for the weekend shows on the 14^th and 15^th. Possibly Loading Zone’s cancellation was related to their breaking up.

March 16, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Los Flamencos de la Bodega

March 19-20, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Salloom Sinclair and Mother Bear

Lead guitarist Roger Salloom and singer Robin Sinclair were originally from Texas. They moved to Chicago, where they recorded the 1968 album Saloom Sinclair and The Mother Bear (on Cadet Concept). Their second album, 1969’s Salloom-Sinclair, was recorded in Nashville and had more of a country rock sound. The group appears to have relocated to the Bay Area in 1969 Ultimately Roger Salloom returned to Texas and Robin Sinclair became the lead singer of Gold in about 197January

March 21-22, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Linn County, This Ole World

March 23, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Fourth Way

March 25-26-27, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Youngbloods, Cain

The Youngbloods were still struggling along on the rock circuit, modestly popular but not really successful. In the summer of 1969, their 1966 version of “Get Together” would be used in a Public Service Announcement for the National Council of Christians and Jews, and the song took off and became a huge hit single (it reached #5 on the Billboard charts on August 2, 1969).

Jeffrey Cain was a songwriter friend of The Youngbloods. He wrote some songs that were recorded by both The Youngbloods and Jerry Corbitt. When the band had a big hit with “Get Together,” Warner Brothers gave them their own label (Raccoon), and Cain released albums for it in 1970 and 7February

March 28, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups

The Ace of Cups continued to be a popular local act, but manager Ron Polte kept turning down record company offers to make the group seem more desirable. Ultimately this turned out to be a failed strategy, since the group never released a record while they were together. At this time, eyewitnesses report that Denise Kaufman would play electrified sitar on a few numbers.

March 29, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sons of Champlin, Ace of Cups

March 30, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Fourth Way

April 2-3, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Circuitry (Jazz)

April 4-5, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Shades of Joy, Immaculate Contraption

April 6, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

April 9-10, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Crabs

Yale Law Professor Charles Reich, an older “convert” to hippiedom, wrote a tendentious bestseller called The Greening of America (Random House 1970). Although an embarrassment now, it was the proverbial “big deal” at the time. Brian Voorheis remembers that Reich was a big fan of The Crabs, and went to all their gigs. The Crabs thought little of it, only finding out later that he was an important sort of guy. The book is chock-full of dated bromides like “Bell bottoms have to be worn to be understood” (page 211).

Those with the patience to wade through his book (not recommended, but available for one cent plus shipping on Amazon.com as I write) will find The Crabs favorably mentioned on page 222: “…music by The Crabs, a local group, mostly soaring, ecstatic, earthy rock that shakes the crowd, the buildings and the heavens themselves with joy.”

April 11-12, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Mad River

Mad River had been recording a second album for Capitol, but after the long struggle of the previous years and the unsuccessful results from their first album, the group was simply drifting apart. Unlike many other groups of the era, the band remained friends even at the time, and neither drugs nor disputes over money played much of the role in the demise of the group (beyond the fact that they were all broke). Although the band’s final performance was at UC Berkeley’s Bear’s Lair Coffee Shop a few weeks after this, Mad River was already on its last legs. Drummer Greg Dewey was offered the drum chair for Country Joe and The Fish in June 1969, and he took the gig, ending up playing Woodstock in the process. At this time, Country Joe and The Fish were a major headlining act on the national rock circuit.

Mad River’s second Capitol album, Paradise Bar and Grill, was released in July 1969 even though the group was effectively gone. Once again, Mad River defied expectations by releasing what amounted to a country-rock album, and a good one at that. Of course, Mad River—having already anticipated Progressive Rock on their first album—were too early for country rock success either. While there were country rock uprisings all over, with The Byrds Sweetheart of The Rodeo and The Band’s Music From Big Pink (and Dylan’s John Wesley Harding) leading the way, there wasn’t yet any commercial value in being a good country rock band, so the album went nowhere, and Mad River went the way of legends. The band has periodic reunions, but only to hang out, as few of them are now performing musicians.

April 13, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

April 16-17, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Cold Blood

Cold Blood was an East Bay funk band founded by Berkeley guitarist Larry Fields and originally called the New Invaders. When South Bay singer Lydia Pense joined (a 21-year old veteran of the El Camino Real scene in the South Bay, who had played with Fields in The Generation—see September 26, 1967)), they changed their name to Cold Blood. The group was booked by Bill Graham’s Millard Agency and signed to Fillmore Records (an Epic subsidiary). Cold Blood played similar gigs to Loading Zone and Tower of Power, a mixture of rock ballrooms and East Bay soul clubs. Cold Blood shared the funky style of Tower of Power (albeit with female vocals—or as it was known in the day “a chick singer”) but featured longer instrumental solos. Cold Blood’s self-titled first album was released on Fillmore, Epic in 1969

April 18-19, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Joy of Cooking, Conqueroo

The Joy of Cooking had formed as a duo in Berkeley called Gourmet’s Delight, featuring guitarist Terry Garthwaite and pianist Toni Brown. Garthwaite was a veteran of the Berkeley folk and bluegrass scene, and Brown was an artist as well as a musician. The group expanded to include conga player Ron Wilson, bassist David Garthwaite (Terry’s brother) and drummer Fritz Kasten. They changed their name to Joy of Cooking and shared management with Country Joe and The Fish.

Joy of Cooking was a significant group on the Berkeley scene, because both Garthwaite and Brown were accomplished musicians. Although both were excellent singers as well, Joy of Cooking featured the same kind of lengthy jamming popular at the time, rather than short and sensitive neo-folk songs. The group were ultimately signed to Capitol Records and released their first of three Capitol albums in 197January

April 20, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

April 22-23, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA It’s A Beautiful Day, San Paku

It’s A Beautiful Day was now a regular at the Fillmore West and other venues. Their first, self-titled album featured the popular FM song “White Bird,” and was released later in 1969

San Paku was a local ensemble that played some sort of jazz-rock, complete with a horn section. The group was booked by the Millard Agency (a wing of Bill Graham Presents). They featured guitarist Mark Pearson, later in the Neilson-Pearson band.

April 24-25-26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Elvin Bishop Group, Mother Bear

Elvin Bishop was a teenager in Tulsa, OK who fell in love with the blues he heard over the radio. In 1960 Bishop got a National Merit Scholarship to the University of Chicago, where educating himself about the blues took precedence over book learning. Bishop was part of the small cadre of young white musicians who learned Chicago blues from the blues masters themselves. Bishop formed a group with Paul Butterfield that included black and white members, and it became a sensation in Chicago. Guitarist Mike Bloomfield joined the group when they were signed to Elektra Records, and in late 1965 the Butterfield Blues Band rolled over everything in its path.

Bloomfield left the group in early 1967 and moved to the Bay Area. Bishop took over the lead guitar chores for the next two Butterfield Blues Band albums (Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw and In My Own Dream), but then Bishop left as well and moved to the Bay Area in mid-1968 The Butterfield Blues Band had been particularly successful and popular in the Bay Area, and Chicago had a significant expatriate community in the Bay Area.

By early 1969, Bishop had put a group together. The first Elvin Bishop group featured Elvin on guitar and vocals, Art Stavro on bass, John Chambers on drums and fellow Chicagoan ‘Applejack” (Jack Walrath) on harmonica and vocals. The group was signed to Bill Graham’s Millard Agency in April 1969 and also to Fillmore Records, for whom the band recorded The Elvin Bishop Group, released later in 1969 Organist Stephen Miller, from Linn County, played on the album and seems to have been a sort of ex-officio member. When Linn County broke up later in 1969 Miller would join the Elvin Bishop Group permanently for the next few years.

Chambers and Stavro were San Francisco musicians who had played with a variety of local groups (Chambers had apparently played with both The We Five and The Loading Zone). For backup vocals, Bishop had a quartet of young women who were experienced gospel singers. However, since they were all in high school and their father was a preacher, they were limited as to what nights they could play and what venues they could appear at, and I do not know if The New Orleans House met those standards. The Pointer Sisters went on to considerable success later.

April 27, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain, Listen

Billed correctly in the Barb ad as “The Fourth Way.” Listen was probably a jazz group featuring one Bert Wilson.

April 30-May 3, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Musselwhite, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band had released an album on Vanguard in late 1968 called The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band’s Greatest Hits. Although such a title for a first album is a trite joke now, CGSB was the first group (to my knowledge) to release a first album named ‘Greatest Hits’ or something similar. Although Country Joe and The Fish drummer Chicken Hirsh, a friend of the band, played drums on a few album tracks, contrary to many mistaken Internet biographies, he was never a member of the group.

May 4, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain, Listen

>May 1969: Bob Dylan released Nashville Skyline

May 7-8, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Womb

Womb were a San Francisco based band sounding somewhere between psychedelic and progressive. They released two 1969 albums on Dot, their self-titled debut and Overdub. According to Fuzz, Acid and Flowers, their albums were “prone to over-indulgent improvisation but they had their moments.” The group was a 7-piece with a horn section, featuring lead singer Rory Butcher, who had been in the noted SF garage band The Hedds.

May 9-10, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Birth, Blue Sky

I am assuming “Blue Sky” was Sky Blue, but I don’t know that for a fact.

May 11, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

May 13-14, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Annabee Nox

(There was an early 60s Swedish Pop Group called Annabee Nox, but it seems an extraordinary leap of faith, even for me, that they would turn up in Berkeley some years later).

May 15-16-17, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Initial Shock

May 18, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

May 21-22, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Bicycle

I do not know anything about Bicycle, but they were a common name on lesser-known handbills around the Bay Area at the time.

May 23-24, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Charlatans, South Bay Experimental Flash

Richmond teenager Norton Buffalo, local harmonica whiz, describes the South Bay Experimental Flash as follows:

[South Bay Experimental Flash] was a jazz funk band in the Bay Area. When I was in High School, The B-3 player, Harry Critchfield, and drummer, Kirk Harwood, moved in across the street from me, and used to practice there. I hung out a bunch with these guys … They kicked some serious ass!! Harry is a monster keyboard player ... and Kirk, one of the most musical drummers i have ever known. They were a huge inspiration to my music. They put so much heart and soul into their performance that they blew me away! In fact, it was sitting in with this group at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, that gave me my first time on stage in a night club when I was about 17 or so.

David Ladd Anderson was the Sax and Flute player with this group. I loved what David did both with his horn and flute playing as well as his stage presence. An amazing talent he fronted this group with an exiting musical presence. I grabbed a lot of both licks and style from David as well as from the entire band ... and eventually grabbed the drummer and bass player from that group to form my first recording band The Stampede back in 197May The "Flash"... Harry, Kirk, David and Dick and Gary were probably the biggest influence of my younger years.

June 13-14, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, Billy Roberts Blues Band

June 15, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Joel Dorham Afro Blues Quintet [afternoon]; Fourth Way [evening]

June 18-19, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Papa Bears

June 20-21, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Tongue and Groove, The Mother Bear

>>The Berkeley Barbs and Tribes for the rest of 1969 need to be reviewed for missing dates. No doubt this will happen ….

July 25-26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Livingstone Manor

July 27, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

July 30-31, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks

Dan Hicks had been the drummer in the 1965 incarnation of The Charlatans, but by 1968 he was playing guitar and fronting the band. The Charlatans never rehearsed or gigged much (in any incarnation), and Hicks had an interest in psychedelically modified Texas Swing music, so in 1968 he formed Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks as a side project to open for The Charlatans and occasionally play local clubs like The Matrix. The original configuration of the band featured David LaFlamme of It’s A Beautiful Day on violin, and that was the band playing on Hicks’s first solo album Original Recordings (on Epic).

By mid-1969, the last version of The Charlatans had ground to a halt, and Dan Hicks And The Hot Licks were a full-tiime proposition. The lineup at this point was probably Hicks (guitar and lead vocals), John Girton (lead guitar), Sid Page (violin), Jaime Leopold (bass) and Sherry Snow (of Blackburn and Snow) and Marianne Price joining Hicks on vocals. Its not clear if there was a drummer this early, and the configuration of female vocalists changed in the early days. Naomi Ruth Eisenberg of Dancing Food And Entertainment may have already replaced Snow. Although Original Recordings includes some of Hicks’s classics, including immortals like “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away” and ‘I Scare Myself” Hicks and The Hot Licks had considerably more success with their early 70s Blue Thumb albums (such as Striking It Rich and Last Train To Hicksville).

August 1-2, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Phoenix, Freedom Highway

Freedom Highway had continued to struggle forward despite their lack of tangible success. Soon after this time, bassist Dave Shallock left to join a reformed version of Big Brother and The Holding Company (where he mostly played guitar). Shallock played on Big Brother’s next two albums (Be A Brother and How Hard It Is), and ended up joining The Sons of Champlin (then temporarily called Yogi Phlegm).

Freedom Highway continued on as a trio, but finally broke up at the end of 1969 Guitarist Gary Phillipet would go on to play with Earthquake, Copperhead and Greg Kihn.

August 3, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

August 5-6, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Maximum Speed Limit

.>September 1969: The Beatles release Abbey Road.

September 5-6, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Black Ghost, Joy of Cooking

September 11, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mount Rushmore

September 12-13, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Buddy Guy, South Bay Experimental Flash

September 14, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Bay Experimental Flash

September 16-17-18, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Hot Tuna, Ace of Cups (16^th), Mt. Rushmore (17^th, 18th)

The first night was the basis for the first Hot Tuna album, with Jorma and Jack playing acoustic along with Will Scarlett on harmonica. The show was advertised as “Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy [sic] recording for RCA.”

September 19-20, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ace of Cups, Fourth Way, Mount Rushmore

This bill replaced Southern Comfort and South Bay Experimental Flash

September 21, 1969New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

September 26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Sea Train, Mendelbaum

Mendelbaum were a progressive blues band from Madison, WI. They moved to the Bay Area in June 1969, and were gigging regularly within a few weeks. Lead guitarist Chris Michie, in his autobiography Name Droppings, recalls that the group first played The New Orleans House in June of 1969, but we do not yet have a precise date. Mendelbaum were regulars at the New Orleans House, The Matrix, The Fillmore West and other local venues.

The band featured lead guitarist Michie, later to play with Van Morrison in the 1980s, as well as producing and writing a lot of music for commercials. He passed away in 2003. Drummer Keith Knudsen played with Lee Michaels and later The Doobie Brothers and country rockers Southern Pacific. He too passed away, in 200May Bassist Tom LaVarda was the other major writer in the band along with Michie, and organist Ronnie Page (also deceased) and saxophonist George Cash filled out the lineup. The German label Shadoks released a fine double-CD in 2004 of 1970 demos and 1969 Matrix performances.

September 28, 1969New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

October 1-2, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charley Musselwhite Blues Band

October 3-4, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA AB Skhy, Commander Cody

For a relatively new band, Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen already had an extremely colorful history.

University of Michigan graduate students George Frayne (Fine Arts, piano) and John Tichy (Physics, guitar) formed the group at Ann Arbor in 1967 as Kommando Kody and His Lost Planet Airmen as an homage to an obscure movie serial. The group was a loose aggregation of local musicians, and was a continuation of a band that they had begun as undergraduates. The band continued on until early 1968, when Frayne’s teaching appointment at Wisconsin State-Oshkosh cut too deeply into the band’s opportunity to perform.

Nonetheless, a satellite member of the group, guitarist Bill Kirchen, late of the Grande Ballroom blues band The Seventh Seal, had moved to Berkeley with his group The Ozones. Frayne, tired of teaching after just one year, persuaded Tichy to belay graduate school and joined Kirchen in California. The first Commander Cody gig was for free on Telegraph Avenue on June 4, 1969 (Frayne played accordion), amidst a huge riot. However, Folk Festival producer Barry Olivier heard them and booked them at the 1969 Berkeley Folk Festival (see October 23, 1969), after which they rapidly regulars at Mandrake’s and elsewhere.

As the band was still unknown, this was probably one of the group’s earliest formal gigs. The lineup at the time of this show was probably Cody (piano), Billy C Farlow (lead vocals), Bill Kirchen (lead guitar, vocals), John Tichy (guitar, vocals), Steve “West Virginia Creeper” Davis (steel guitar), probably Lance Dickerson (drums) and an unknown bass player. Dickerson, formerly in Billy C. Farlow’s group (Billy C And The Sunshine Band), was previously the drummer for bluesman Charlie Musselwhite (bassist Bruce Barlow, another Californian had not yet joined, and fiddler Andy Stein had would not come out from New York until December).

In 1969, the band lived in Emeryville, near the Berkeley line. The Airmen played a forward looking mix of honky tonk, Bakersfield country, rockabilly and rock and roll, mixed with an overeducated sensibility that made them part and parcel of the local Berkeley scene. The band was an interesting mixture of career musicians and moonlighting academics. The fact that there were numerous expatriates from Ann Arbor in the East Bay only helped the matter. The group was signed by ABC Paramount, and their legendary first album Lost In The Ozone was released in 1971 (the iconic single “Hot Rod Lincoln” reached #9 in 1972).

George “Cody” Frayne has continued a successful music career to this day, although he long ago reactivated his painting career as well, and remains a multiple threat. Guitarist Bill Kirchen and singer Billy C Farlow (one-time member of Billy C and The Sunshine Band) have also had lengthy music careers. Guitarist John Tichy left the Airmen after a few albums, in the early 1970s, and presumably with few other professional options, ended up becoming Professor and Chairman of the Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY with a long list of distinguished publications (one of his current research interests is “to develop continuum rheological models for lubricant and granular flows from molecular simulations and apply them to realistic engineering surface configurations”).

At this time Cody and The Airmen were simply local legends, singing honky tonk ballads about weed, a radical proposition at the time. George Frayne’s huge record collection was put to good use, as the band made obscure songs like “Hot Rod Lincoln” national hits. The band was initially signed to ABC, Paramount and released their first and most famous album in 1971. The group had the usual rise and fall of rock bands, but they were an influential band, well ahead of their time.

October 5, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

October 8-9-October 11, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Big Mama Thornton, Floating Bridge

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (b. 1925) had recorded “Hound Dog” in 1952, years before Elivs Presley, and hit #1, but like many artists of her era saw little money from her success. She also wrote and recorded “Ball and Chain,” a song made famous by Janis Joplin and Big Brother. The renewed interest in the blues in the 1960s revitalized her career as well, and she continued to record well into the 1970s. Her big voice and tough persona were a considerable influence on Janis Joplin. At this time, Big Mama Thornton was recording for Mercury, and her most recent album was Stronger Than Dirt.

Floating Bridge were from Seattle. They were a “heavy” band featuring the twin guitar leads of Rich Dangel and Joe Johansen. They had been an established band in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest since about early 1968, but were probably touring California in support of their album on Vault Records. Dangel had been the lead guitarist for Northwest legends The Wailers (now mostly known as The Fabulous Wailers, to distinguish them from Bob Marley) and Dangel was widely regarded as one of the best guitarists in Seattle (not least by his former roommate, Larry Coryell). At various junctures, Floating Bridge also featured an electric cellist (who doubled on saxophone), setting them apart from most contemporaries.

The Wailers, from Tacoma, WA had hit it big nationally with the song “Tall Cool One.” The Wailers and The Sonics were anchors of the Tacoma, Seattle scene, particularly a place called The Spanish Castle (memorialized by Jimi Hendrix in “Spanish Castle Magic”). Dangel left around 1965 (The Wailers continued on, as they do to this day) and moved to California. After briefly forming a band called The Rooks, he ended up in The Time Machine, in San Diego. The Time Machine broke up, Dangel and another member (bassist Joe Johnson) moved to Seattle and formed The Floating Bridge.

The Floating Bridge were fondly remembered by those who saw them live. Their album features a lengthy jam on a medley of “Eight Miles High” and “Paint It Black.” Dangel continued to be a highly regarded guitarist on the Seattle scene until his death in 200February

October 12, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

October 15-16, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charley Musselwhite Blues Band

October 17-18, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Congress of Wonders, South Bay Experimental Flash

October 24, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Southern Comfort, Bronze Hog

Southern Comfort was led by saxophonist and vocalist Ron Stallings, and drummer, vocalist Bob Jones. Jones and Stallings had been in the informal T&A Rhythm and Blues Band (see December 15, 1967) with John Kahn, and Kahn, Jones and Stallings were among the musicians who intermittently backed Mike Bloomfield when he felt like playing a gig. Southern Comfort released an album in 1970 on Columbia, produced by Kahn and Nick Gravenites. The album mostly featured songs by Stallings and Jones, and also featured trumpeter Mike Wilmeth and guitarist Fred Burton, both part of the same crew of musicians who worked with Gravenites and Bloomfield in the studio and live. Other members were bassist Karl Sevareid and organist Steve Funk. (The album also features a number of bass players--Bob Hubermans and Art Stavro, with Kahn at least in the room).

October 26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jeffrey Cain

October 29-30, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Crabs

November 7-8, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Loading Zone, Smoke

A number of bands floated around the Bay Area using the name Smoke (not to mention out of town bands), and I don’t know who this group might have been.

In the late summer of 1969, organist Paul Fauerso reformed the Loading Zone. in the absence of lead singer Linda Tillery, Fauerso reclaimed vocal duties, but the group focused more on instrumentally difficult jazz rock hybrids. Only trombonist Pat O’Hara remained from the prior lineup. New members included Mike Eggleston on bass, George Marsh on drums, Steve Busfield on guitar and Ron Taormina on saxophones. The group recorded a very obscure 1970 album (One For All on Umbrella Records) that probably confused fans expecting Tillery. The album was somewhat ahead of its time and sank without much notice. Loading Zone continued in various forms until about 1973, with many personnel changes.

In the last few years, Fauerso, Eggleston and Marsh have reformed the group for a new album and do occasional performances as well. Marsh has some samples of Loading Zone on his website, including sound clips from their 21^st century reunion.

November 9, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

November 12-13, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Beggar’s Opera

There was a Lafayette group called Beggar’s Opera who had hung out with Frumious Bandersnatch, but I do not know if this was the same group.

November 14, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Jef Jaisun

Jef Jaisun had just, this day, ‘released’ his self-produced Friendly Neighborhood Narco Agent single. Fourth Way was advertised as recording for Capitol Records. Presumably, this was for their album The Sun and Moon Have Come Together, released in 1970.

November 15, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way, Paul Arnoldi, Jan Tangen and David Friedman

Jan Tangen was subsequently a successful studio guitarist and music instructor who became an Associate Professor at Sonoma State (he passed away in 1998).

November 16, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fourth Way

November 19-20, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Jerry Corbitt

Jerry Corbitt had been an original member of The Youngbloods, and had moved from Cambridge to California with them in September 1967. However, by mid-68 he had left the group, leaving all the lead vocals and most of the songwriting to Jesse Colin Young. Nonetheless, he continued his career as a singer, songwriter. These shows would have most likely been in support of his 1969 album Corbitt, on Polydor.

Jerry Corbitt continues to record as a solo artist but he has had more success as an A&R man and independent producer. Off and on he has reunited with The Youngbloods as well, although most Youngbloods reunions are casual, friendly and brief.

November 21-22, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Fast Bucks, Bronze Hog

Fast Bucks were formed earlier in 1969 by ex-Mystery Trend member Ron Nagle. By 1968, the Mystery Trend, just called The Trend were on the wane and Nagle formed the short lived Marlow. Fast Bucks faded just as quickly, despite recording a demo, Clay 61. Nagle went on to release a solo album, Bad Rice, in 1970.

November 23, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA “Sock Hop”

Presumably an “event” (in 50s, 60s parlance, a sock hop was a school event where students were allowed to dance in the gym, as long as they removed their shoes in order not to scuff the hardwood gym floor).

November 25-26, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Bay Experimental Flash

November 28-29, 1969: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Southern Comfort, Beggar’s Opera

Appendix 1: Unknown acts (with first performing dates).

First performance noted in red in the main list.

Motor February 7, 1967

Eric Vaughn April 9, 1967

The Barnstormers May 2, 1967

John Henry and The Barnstormers May 16, 1967

The High Mass July 4, 1967

Hastings Street Opera July 11, 1967

Liquid Blues Band August 4, 1967

Short Yellow October 9, 1967

The Black Messengers October 15, 1967

The Time Being October 16, 1967

The Zuckerman Clavicord October 20, 1967

The Natural 7 December 5, 1967

Ball-Point Banana December 12, 1967

Toad January 2, 1968

Dominic Cummins January 5, 1968

Mowry Black January 23, 1968

Glen Fremoll January 30, 1968

Daisy Overkill February 2, 1968

Rejoice February 21, 1968

Clint Swank March 22, 1968

Suzie Levens Unit March 23, 1968

Edsel Boogey April 11, 1968

Golden Gate Meditation Society April 26, 1968

The Melting Pot April 27, 1968

Angel Food May 3, 1968

Daemon May 10, 1968

Memory Pain June 11, 1968

Pure Funk July 2, 1968

Robin Kent July 17, 1968

They Resemble Faces August 2, 1968

Milkwood August 16, 1968

Hoffman’s Bicycle October 18, 1968

Stonehenge October 22, 1968

Orion October 25, 1968

Jimmy Sunshine Jug Band December 5, 1968

Mark of Kings December 26, 1968

Lou Allison’s Blue Nebulae January 22, 1969

Asmodeus February 7, 1969

The Brothers And February 14, 1969

The Electric Church February 25, 1969

Welliver Fields February 28, 1969

All Spice Rhythm Band March 14, 1969

This Ole World March 21, 1969

Immaculate Contraption April 4, 1969

Birth May 10, 1969

Annabee Nox May 13, 1969

Bicycle May 21, 1969

Livingstone Manor July 25, 1969

Maximum Speed Limit August 5, 1969

Black Ghost September 5, 1969

Smoke November 7, 1969

Beggar’s Opera November 12, 1969

Appendix 2: Sources

While many of the basic biographical and discographical information for the artists listed here is generically available, and specific sites or sources for artists are mentioned in the text, a few specific background sources deserve mention.

Pete Frame’s Book of Rock Family Trees, Volume One (Omnibus Press 1980), a classic by any standard, is particularly relevant for its San Francisco 1&2 Charts. The SF2 chart is particularly good at illustrating the interconnection of the various East Bay groups.

The impossibly scholarly and epic Fuzz, Acid and Flowers Revisited by Vernon Joynson (Borderline Books, 2004) is an inexhaustible resource about 60s psychedelic groups, and it is particularly knowledgeable about the obscure recording history (including staggeringly rare 45s) of each of these groups. The now out-of-print predecessor to this book, American Rock History Part One 1963-1985; California: The Golden State (Borderline, 1987) also had some surprisingly useful details.

Gray Newell’s Yahoo Psychedelic Group has an ongoing project attempting to identify every Bay Area psychedelic band. Using Fuzz, Acid and Flowers as a jumping off point, it delves into the deeply obscure and was tremendously valuable.

The www.bay-area-bands.com website is a great resource for many fine gone-but-fondly-remembered Marin County bands from the 60s and 70s.

Cambridge, MA blues entrepreneur Dick Waterman was initially responsible for booking many of the rediscovered blues artists of the early 1960s, such as Mississippi John Hurt. As those players receded from performing, Waterman focused on the mostly younger blues players from Chicago. Waterman’s excellent memoir, Between Midnight And Dawn (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003), captures the spirit and milieu of determined blues artist like Buddy Guy and Junior Wells (for whom Waterman acted as booking agent) as well as an older generation of players like Fred McDowell. As if that weren’t enough, Waterman is an exceptional photographer and the book is a visual treasure.

And of course, Max Scheer’s Berkeley Barb.

List of Performances at the New Orleans House

		New Orleans House, 1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Friday	26 August 1966	Earl's New Orleans Jazz Band [Opening of the New Orleans House]
Saturday	27 August 1966	Earl's New Orleans Jazz Band [Opening of the New Orleans House]
Sunday	28 August 1966	Earl's New Orleans Jazz Band [Opening of the New Orleans House]
Sunday	30 October 1966	Dick Oxtot's Conspiracy
Sunday	06 November 1966	Dick Oxtot's Conspiracy
Sunday	13 November 1966	Dick Oxtot's Conspiracy
Sunday	20 November 1966	Dick Oxtot's Conspiracy
Sunday	27 November 1966	Dick Oxtot's Conspiracy
Sunday	04 December 1966	Dick Oxtot's Conspiracy
Tuesday	13 December 1966	The Second Coming
Wednesday	14 December 1966	The Second Coming
Thursday	15 December 1966	The Second Coming
Friday	30 December 1966	Earl's New Orleans Jazz Band
Saturday	31 December 1966	Earl's New Orleans Jazz Band
Wednesday	04 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	05 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Wednesday	11 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	12 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Wednesday	18 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	19 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	20 January 1967	Notes From The Underground, Blackburn and Snow [Barb Benefit]
Saturday	21 January 1967	Notes From The Underground, Blackburn and Snow [Barb Benefit]
Wednesday	25 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	26 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Saturday	28 January 1967	Notes From The Underground
Sunday	29 January 1967	Country Joe and the Fish, The Loading Zone [Delana Grape Strikers Benefit]
Tuesday	31 January 1967	Notes From The Underground [Ladies Night]
Wednesday	01 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	02 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	03 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Saturday	04 February 1967	Notes From The Underground [Gala Mardi Gras Party]
Tuesday	07 February 1967	Motor
Wednesday	08 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	09 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	10 February 1967	El Teatro Campesino, Notes From The Underground
Saturday	11 February 1967	Notes From The Underground [Love Feast]
Sunday	12 February 1967	Country Joe and the Fish [Delana Grape Strikers Benefit]
Wednesday	15 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	16 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	17 February 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Saturday	18 February 1967	Motor
Tuesday	21 February 1967	Motor
Wednesday	22 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	23 February 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	24 February 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Saturday	25 February 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Tuesday	28 February 1967	Motor
Wednesday	01 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	02 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	03 March 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Saturday	04 March 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Tuesday	07 March 1967	Motor
Wednesday	08 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	09 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	10 March 1967	Notes From The Underground, Stellabirdhikers
Saturday	11 March 1967	Notes From The Underground, Stellabirdhikers
Tuesday	14 March 1967	Motor
Wednesday	15 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	16 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	17 March 1967	Ulysses S Crocket and the Afro Blues Persuassion
Friday	24 March 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Saturday	25 March 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Sunday	26 March 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Tuesday	28 March 1967	Motor
Wednesday	29 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Thursday	30 March 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	31 March 1967	New Delhi River Band
Friday	07 April 1967	The New Age, Drongos
Saturday	08 April 1967	The New Age, Drongos
Sunday	09 April 1967	Graham Leath Productions, The Orkustra, The New Age, Congress of Wonders, Annie Johnson, Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band, Malvina Reynolds, Paul Arnoldi, Larry Hanks, Notes From The Underground, Eric Vaughn and Lights by Bob Holt [Benefit]
Friday	14 April 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Saturday	15 April 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Sunday	16 April 1967	The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
Friday	21 April 1967	Notes From The Underground
Saturday	22 April 1967	Notes From The Underground
Sunday	23 April 1967	Notes From The Underground
Friday	28 April 1967	The Orkustra
Saturday	29 April 1967	The Orkustra
Sunday	30 April 1967	The Orkustra
Monday	01 May 1967	Closed
Tuesday	02 May 1967	The Barnstormers
Wednesday	03 May 1967	Motor, Notes From The Undergraound
Thursday	04 May 1967	A Program of Dancers
Friday	05 May 1967	Anonymous Artists of America
Saturday	06 May 1967	Anonymous Artists of America
Sunday	07 May 1967	Closed
Monday	08 May 1967	CIA, Second Coming
Tuesday	09 May 1967	The Barnstormers
Wednesday	10 May 1967	Motor, Notes From The Undergraound
Thursday	11 May 1967	A Program of Dancers
Friday	12 May 1967	Loading Zone
Saturday	13 May 1967	Loading Zone
Sunday	14 May 1967	CIA, Second Coming
Tuesday	16 May 1967	John Henry and the Barnstormers
Wednesday	17 May 1967	Motor, Notes From The Underground
Thursday	18 May 1967	Graham Leath: Aprogram of Dancers: AA Leath, John Graham and Jani Novak
Friday	19 May 1967	Motor
Saturday	20 May 1967	Motor
Sunday	21 May 1967	Second Coming
Monday	22 May 1967	Second Coming
Wednesday	24 May 1967	Motor, Notes From The Underground
Thursday	25 May 1967	Graham Leath Dancers
Friday	26 May 1967	CIA
Saturday	27 May 1967	CIA
Sunday	28 May 1967	Second Coming
Monday	29 May 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	30 May 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Wednesday	31 May 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Thursday	01 June 1967	Graham Leath Dancers
Sunday	04 June 1967	Second Coming
Monday	05 June 1967	Afternoon: Notes From The Underground (Graduation Party for the Jefferson School for Retarded Children - each of which received a signed record); Evening: Second Coming
Friday	09 June 1967	Mad River
Saturday	10 June 1967	The Orkustra
Sunday	11 June 1967	Second Coming
Monday	12 June 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	13 June 1967	Mad River
Wednesday	14 June 1967	Mad River
Friday	16 June 1967	Notes From The Underground, Congress of Wonders
Saturday	17 June 1967	Notes From The Underground, Congress of Wonders
Sunday	18 June 1967	Second Coming
Monday	19 June 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	20 June 1967	Steve Mller Blues Band
Wednesday	21 June 1967	Steve Mller Blues Band
Friday	23 June 1967	Motor, Frumious Bandersnatch
Saturday	24 June 1967	Motor, Frumious Bandersnatch
Sunday	25 June 1967	Second Coming
Monday	26 June 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	27 June 1967	Second Coming
Wednesday	28 June 1967	Second Coming
Friday	30 June 1967	The Loading Zone
Saturday	01 July 1967	The Loading Zone
Sunday	02 July 1967	Second Coming
Monday	03 July 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	04 July 1967	High Mass
Wednesday	05 July 1967	Siegel Schwall Band
Thursday	06 July 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	07 July 1967	Anonymous Artists of America
Saturday	08 July 1967	Anonymous Artists of America
Sunday	09 July 1967	John Fahey, The Red Crayola, Second Coming
Monday	10 July 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	11 July 1967	The Hastings Street Opera
Wednesday	12 July 1967	The Hastings Street Opera
Thursday	13 July 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	14 July 1967	Congress of Wonders, Second Coming
Saturday	15 July 1967	Second Coming
Sunday	16 July 1967	Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Second Coming
Monday	17 July 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	18 July 1967	The New Salvation Army Banned
Wednesday	19 July 1967	The New Salvation Army Banned
Friday	21 July 1967	Yajahla
Saturday	22 July 1967	Yajahla
Sunday	23 July 1967	Second Coming
Monday	24 July 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	25 July 1967	The Strawberry Window
Wednesday	26 July 1967	The Strawberry Window
Friday	28 July 1967	Mother Earth
Saturday	29 July 1967	Mother Earth
Sunday	30 July 1967	Second Coming
Monday	31 July 1967	Second Coming
Tuesday	01 August 1967	Mother Earth
Wednesday	02 August 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band, Mother Earth
Friday	04 August 1967	Liquid Blues Band, Strawberry Window
Saturday	05 August 1967	Loading Zone, Yajahla
Sunday	06 August 1967	The Second Coming
Monday	07 August 1967	The Second Coming, Mother Earth
Tuesday	08 August 1967	Mother Earth
Wednesday	09 August 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Friday	11 August 1967	Congress of Wonders, Stawberry Window
Saturday	12 August 1967	Congress of Wonders, Yajahla
Sunday	13 August 1967	The Second Coming, The Proposals
Monday	14 August 1967	The Second Coming
Tuesday	15 August 1967	Southside Sound System
Wednesday	16 August 1967	Southside Sound System
Friday	18 August 1967	Indian Head Band
Saturday	19 August 1967	Yajahla
Sunday	20 August 1967	Strawberry Window, The Proposals
Monday	21 August 1967	Mother Earth
Tuesday	22 August 1967	Mother Earth
Wednesday	23 August 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Thursday	24 August 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Friday	25 August 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Saturday	26 August 1967	Congress of Wonders, Yajahla
Sunday	27 August 1967	Sandy Bull, Pyewacket, The Proposals
Monday	28 August 1967	The Second Coming
Tuesday	29 August 1967	Sandy Bull, Pyewacket
Wednesday	30 August 1967	Sandy Bull, Pyewacket
Thursday	31 August 1967	Sandy Bull, Pyewacket
Friday	01 September 1967	The Second Coming, Clover
Saturday	02 September 1967	The Second Coming, Clover
Sunday	03 September 1967	The Second Coming
Monday	04 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Tuesday	05 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Wednesday	06 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Thursday	07 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Friday	08 September 1967	Mother Earth, Prime Movers
Saturday	09 September 1967	Mother Earth, Prime Movers
Sunday	10 September 1967	Mother Earth
Monday	11 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Tuesday	12 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Wednesday	13 September 1967	Southside Sound System
Friday	15 September 1967	West Coast Natural Gas
Saturday	16 September 1967	West Coast Natural Gas
Sunday	17 September 1967	West Coast Natural Gas
Monday	18 September 1967	Hoot with Larry Hanks, Martha's Laundry
Tuesday	19 September 1967	Steve Miller Band
Wednesday	20 September 1967	Steve Miller Band
Friday	22 September 1967	Strawberry Window
Saturday	23 September 1967	Strawberry Window
Sunday	24 September 1967	Strawberry Window
Monday	25 September 1967	Hoot with Larry Hanks, Martha's Laundry
Tuesday	26 September 1967	The Generation
Wednesday	27 September 1967	The Generation
Friday	29 September 1967	Morning Glory
Saturday	30 September 1967	Morning Glory
Sunday	01 October 1967	Morning Glory
Monday	02 October 1967	Hoot with Larry Hanks, Steve Miller Band
Tuesday	03 October 1967	Steve Miller Band
Wednesday	04 October 1967	Steve Miller Band
Thursday	05 October 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Friday	06 October 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Saturday	07 October 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Sunday	08 October 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Monday	09 October 1967	Short Mellow (Hoot and Dancing)
Tuesday	10 October 1967	Quicksilver Messenger Service, Congress of Wonders
Wednesday	11 October 1967	Quicksilver Messenger Service, Congress of Wonders
Thursday	12 October 1967	Closed
Friday	13 October 1967	Freedom Highway, Congress of Wonders
Saturday	14 October 1967	Freedom Highway, Congress of Wonders
Sunday	15 October 1967	Freedom Highway, Black Messengers
Monday	16 October 1967	Short Yellow, The Time Being
Tuesday	17 October 1967	Strawberry Jam, The Zuckerman
Wednesday	18 October 1967	Strawberry Jam
Friday	20 October 1967	The Zuckerman Clavicord, Paul Arnoldi
Saturday	21 October 1967	The Zuckerman Clavicord, Paul Arnoldi
Sunday	22 October 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	24 October 1967	Steve Miller Blues Band
Thursday	26 October 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	03 November 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Band
Saturday	04 November 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Band
Sunday	05 November 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	07 November 1967	Hair [Darby Slick's Band]
Wednesday	08 November 1967	Hair [Darby Slick's Band]
Thursday	09 November 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	10 November 1967	Morning Glory, Short Yellow
Saturday	11 November 1967	Morning Glory, Short Yellow
Sunday	12 November 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	14 November 1967	Liberty Street
Wednesday	15 November 1967	Liberty Street
Thursday	16 November 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	17 November 1967	Gale Garnett and the Gentle Reign, The Black Messengers
Saturday	18 November 1967	Gale Garnett and the Gentle Reign, The Black Messengers
Sunday	19 November 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	21 November 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Band, Congress of Wonders
Wednesday	22 November 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Band, Congress of Wonders
Thursday	23 November 1967	Hair, Congress of Wonders
Friday	24 November 1967	Hair, Congress of Wonders
Saturday	25 November 1967	Hair, Congress of Wonders
Monday	27 November 1967	Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi
Tuesday	28 November 1967	Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi
Wednesday	29 November 1967	Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi
Friday	01 December 1967	Ace of Cups, Congress of Wonders (performing Christmas Carol)
Saturday	02 December 1967	Ace of Cups, Savage Resurrection
Sunday	03 December 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	05 December 1967	Clover, The Natural 7
Wednesday	06 December 1967	Clover, The Natural 7
Thursday	07 December 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	08 December 1967	Loading Zone, Robert Baker
Saturday	09 December 1967	Loading Zone, Robert Baker
Sunday	10 December 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	12 December 1967	Ball-Point Banana
Wednesday	13 December 1967	Ball-Point Banana
Thursday	14 December 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	15 December 1967	Morning Glory, T&A Rhythm and Blues Band, Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show
Saturday	16 December 1967	Morning Glory, T&A Rhythm and Blues Band, Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show
Sunday	17 December 1967	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	19 December 1967	Celestial Hysteria
Wednesday	20 December 1967	Celestial Hysteria
Thursday	21 December 1967	Flamin' Groovies
Friday	22 December 1967	Flamin' Groovies, Country Weather, The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show
Saturday	23 December 1967	Flamin' Groovies, Country Weather, The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show
Sunday	24 December 1967	Closed for Remodelling
Monday	25 December 1967	Closed for Remodelling
Tuesday	26 December 1967	Closed for Remodelling
Wednesday	27 December 1967	Closed for Remodelling
Thursday	28 December 1967	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	29 December 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band, Congress of Wonders
Saturday	30 December 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band, Congress of Wonders
Sunday	31 December 1967	Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band, Congress of Wonders
Monday	01 January 1968	Ace of Cups, Congress of Wonders
Tuesday	02 January 1968	Toad
Wednesday	03 January 1968	Toad
Thursday	04 January 1968	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	05 January 1968	Freedon Highway, Dominic Cummins
Saturday	06 January 1968	Freedon Highway, Dominic Cummins
Friday	12 January 1968	T&A Rhythm and Blues Band, Marvin Gardens
Saturday	13 January 1968	T&A Rhythm and Blues Band, Marvin Gardens
Sunday	14 January 1968	Short Yellow, Black Messengers (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Monday	15 January 1968	Closed
Tuesday	16 January 1968	Loading Zone, Purple Earthquake
Wednesday	17 January 1968	Loading Zone, Purple Earthquake
Thursday	18 January 1968	Graham Leath
Friday	19 January 1968	Short Yellow, Congress of Wonders (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Saturday	20 January 1968	Short Yellow, Black Messengers (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Sunday	21 January 1968	Short Yellow, Black Messengers (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Tuesday	23 January 1968	Charlie Musselwhite, Mowry Black
Wednesday	24 January 1968	Charlie Musselwhite, Mowry Black
Thursday	25 January 1968	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	26 January 1968	Wildflower (replacing Gale Garnett and The Gentle Reign), Dominic Cummings
Saturday	27 January 1968	Wildflower (replacing Gale Garnett and The Gentle Reign), Dominic Cummings
Sunday	28 January 1968	Short Yellow, Black Messengers
Tuesday	30 January 1968	Martha's Laundry, Glen Fremoll
Wednesday	31 January 1968	Martha's Laundry, Glen Fremoll
Thursday	01 February 1968	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	02 February 1968	Morning Glory, Daisy Overkill, Susan Levin & Trio
Saturday	03 February 1968	Morning Glory, Daisy Overkill
Sunday	04 February 1968	Lynda Pinkham Superior Orchestra
Monday	05 February 1968	The Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi [Dragons, Quince, Volcanoes, Lasers, Rocking Clouds, Rembrandt, Point Reyes, Supersonic Transports]
Tuesday	06 February 1968	The Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi [Dragons, Quince, Volcanoes, Lasers, Rocking Clouds, Rembrandt, Point Reyes, Supersonic Transports]
Wednesday	07 February 1968	The Youngbloods, Paul Arnoldi [Dragons, Quince, Volcanoes, Lasers, Rocking Clouds, Rembrandt, Point Reyes, Supersonic Transports]
Friday	09 February 1968	Flamin' Groovies, Preston Webster and Company
Saturday	10 February 1968	Flamin' Groovies, Preston Webster and Company
Sunday	11 February 1968	The Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Tuesday	13 February 1968	Country Weather Band
Wednesday	14 February 1968	Country Weather Band
Thursday	15 February 1968	Graham Leath Productions
Friday	16 February 1968	Mother Earth, Curley Cooke's Hurdy Gurdy Band
Saturday	17 February 1968	Mother Earth, Curley Cooke's Hurdy Gurdy Band
Sunday	18 February 1968	[Peace and Freedom Benefit]
Monday	19 February 1968	Blues Project, Sky Blue (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Tuesday	20 February 1968	Blues Project, Sky Blue (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Wednesday	21 February 1968	Blues Project, Rejoice (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Friday	23 February 1968	Blues Project, Maze (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Saturday	24 February 1968	Blues Project, Maze (with The Great Northwest Phantasmagoria Light Show)
Sunday	25 February 1968	Black Messengers, Short Yellow
Monday	26 February 1968	Closed
Tuesday	27 February 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Wednesday	28 February 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Thursday	29 February 1968	Graham Leath
Friday	01 March 1968	Congress of Wonders
Saturday	02 March 1968	Congress of Wonders
Friday	08 March 1968	Buddy Guy and His Guest Band (on one of these two dates Buddy Guy was joined on stage by Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce who had been performing a series of Cream shiows at the Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland)
Saturday	09 March 1968	Buddy Guy and His Guest Band
Sunday	10 March 1968	Los Flamencos De La Bogeda, John Fahey, Curley Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band
Tuesday	12 March 1968	Mother Earth
Wednesday	13 March 1968	Son House, Clover
Thursday	14 March 1968	Son House, Clover
Friday	15 March 1968	Dandelion Wine and Guest
Saturday	16 March 1968	Dandelion Wine and Guest
Sunday	17 March 1968	Los Flemencos De La Bodega, John Fahey
Tuesday	19 March 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Wednesday	20 March 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Thursday	21 March 1968	Curley Cooke
Friday	22 March 1968	Loading Zone, Clint Swank
Saturday	23 March 1968	Loading Zone, Suzie Levens Unit
Sunday	24 March 1968	John Fahey, Los Flamencos de la Bogeda
Tuesday	26 March 1968	Siegal-Schwall Blues Band
Wednesday	27 March 1968	The Charlatans
Thursday	28 March 1968	The Charlatans
Friday	29 March 1968	The Charlatans
Saturday	30 March 1968	The Charlatans
Sunday	31 March 1968	Mad River, Frumious Bandersnatch, Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band, Notes From The Underground [Benefit for Port Chicago Vigil]
Monday	01 April 1968	Closed
Tuesday	02 April 1968	Chayanodas Chakravorty (Sitar) and Naua Kunda Panda (Tabla) [Festival of Indian Music]
Wednesday	03 April 1968	Chayanodas Chakravorty (Sitar) and Naua Kunda Panda (Tabla) [Festival of Indian Music]
Thursday	04 April 1968	Fred McDowell - Country Blues
Friday	05 April 1968	Clover, West
Saturday	06 April 1968	Clover, West
Sunday	07 April 1968	Jazz Cardinal, Flemencos De La Bodega
Monday	08 April 1968	Closed
Tuesday	09 April 1968	Charlie Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band
Wednesday	10 April 1968	Charlie Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band
Thursday	11 April 1968	Sons of Champlin
Friday	12 April 1968	Sons of Champlin, Edsel Boogey
Saturday	13 April 1968	Sons of Champlin, Edsel Boogey
Sunday	14 April 1968	Closed
Monday	15 April 1968	Congress of Wonders
Tuesday	16 April 1968	Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups
Wednesday	17 April 1968	Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups
Thursday	18 April 1968	Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups
Friday	19 April 1968	Congress of Wonders, Phoenix
Saturday	20 April 1968	Congress of Wonders, Phoenix
Sunday	21 April 1968	Closed
Monday	22 April 1968	Closed
Tuesday	23 April 1968	Closed
Wednesday	24 April 1968	The Charlatans
Thursday	25 April 1968	The Charlatans
Friday	26 April 1968	Loading Zone, Golden Gate Meditation Society
Saturday	27 April 1968	Loading Zone, Melting Pot
Sunday	28 April 1968	Closed
Monday	29 April 1968	Closed
Tuesday	30 April 1968	Closed
Wednesday	01 May 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Thursday	02 May 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Friday	03 May 1968	Charlie Musselwhite, Angel Food
Saturday	04 May 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Sunday	05 May 1968	New Orleans Jazz, Melting Pot
Monday	06 May 1968	Closed
Tuesday	07 May 1968	Junior Wells
Wednesday	08 May 1968	Junior Wells
Thursday	09 May 1968	Junior Wells
Friday	10 May 1968	Junior Wells, Daemon
Saturday	11 May 1968	Junior Wells, Diesel Ducks
Sunday	12 May 1968	Gale Garnett and the Gentle Reign
Monday	13 May 1968	Closed
Tuesday	14 May 1968	Closed
Wednesday	15 May 1968	Stev Miller, Linn County
Thursday	16 May 1968	Linn County
Friday	17 May 1968	Linn County, Melting Pot
Saturday	18 May 1968	Linn County, Melting Pot
Sunday	19 May 1968	Closed
Monday	20 May 1968	Closed
Tuesday	21 May 1968	Albert Collins
Wednesday	22 May 1968	Albert Collins
Thursday	23 May 1968	Gale Garnett and The Gentle Reign
Friday	24 May 1968	Gale Garnett and The Gentle Reign
Saturday	25 May 1968	Gale Garnett and The Gentle Reign
Sunday	26 May 1968	Closed
Monday	27 May 1968	Closed
Tuesday	28 May 1968	Closed
Wednesday	29 May 1968	The Charlatans
Thursday	30 May 1968	The Charlatans, Rick Taylor, Folk
Friday	31 May 1968	Curley Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band, Melting Pot
Saturday	01 June 1968	Curley Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band, Melting Pot
Sunday	02 June 1968	New Orleans Jazz, Melting Pot
Monday	03 June 1968	Closed
Tuesday	04 June 1968	Closed
Wednesday	05 June 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Thursday	06 June 1968	Charlie Musselwhite
Friday	07 June 1968	Charlie Musselwhite, Bronze Hog
Saturday	08 June 1968	Charlie Musselwhite, Bronze Hog
Sunday	09 June 1968	Flicks
Monday	10 June 1968	Closed
Tuesday	11 June 1968	Buddy Guy, Memory Pain
Wednesday	12 June 1968	Buddy Guy, Maggie's Farm
Thursday	13 June 1968	Buddy Guy, AB Shye Blues Band
Friday	14 June 1968	Seatrain, Melting Pot
Saturday	15 June 1968	Seatrain, Melting Pot
Sunday	16 June 1968	Closed
Monday	17 June 1968	Closed
Tuesday	18 June 1968	Kaleidoscope, AB Skhy Blues Band
Wednesday	19 June 1968	Kaleidoscope, AB Skhy Blues Band
Thursday	20 June 1968	Kaleidoscope, AB Skhy Blues Band
Friday	21 June 1968	Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups, Seatrain
Saturday	22 June 1968	Congress of Wonders, Ace of Cups, Seatrain
Sunday	23 June 1968	Closed
Monday	24 June 1968	Closed
Tuesday	25 June 1968	Closed
Wednesday	26 June 1968	The Charlatans, Seatrain
Thursday	27 June 1968	The Charlatans, Seatrain
Friday	28 June 1968	The Charlatans, Crabs
Saturday	29 June 1968	The Charlatans, Crabs
Sunday	30 June 1968	Flamencos De La Bodega
Monday	01 July 1968	Closed
Tuesday	02 July 1968	Free Spirits, Pure Funk
Wednesday	03 July 1968	Free Spirits, Pure Funk
Thursday	04 July 1968	Free Spirits, Dancing Food and Entertainment (note that Dancing Food and Entertainment were a local band)
Friday	05 July 1968	Buddy Guy, Free Spirits, Dancing Food and Entertainment
Saturday	06 July 1968	Buddy Guy, Free Spirits, Dancing Food and Entertainment
Sunday	07 July 1968	Closed
Monday	08 July 1968	Closed
Tuesday	09 July 1968	Closed
Wednesday	10 July 1968	AB Skhy Blues Band
Thursday	11 July 1968	AB Skhy Blues Band
Friday	12 July 1968	It's A Beautiful Day
Saturday	13 July 1968	It's A Beautiful Day
Sunday	14 July 1968	Buddy Guy [Recording Live for Vanguard Records]
Monday	15 July 1968	Buddy Guy [Recording Live for Vanguard Records]
Tuesday	16 July 1968	Buddy Guy [Recording Live for Vanguard Records]
Wednesday	17 July 1968	West, Robin Lent
Thursday	18 July 1968	West, Robin Lent
Friday	19 July 1968	Curley Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band, The Conqueroo
Saturday	20 July 1968	Curley Cook's Hurdy Gurdy Band, The Conqueroo
Sunday	21 July 1968	Closed
Monday	22 July 1968	Closed
Tuesday	23 July 1968	Mad River
Wednesday	24 July 1968	Mad River
Thursday	25 July 1968	Mad River
Friday	26 July 1968	Initial Shock, Shiva's Headband
Saturday	27 July 1968	Initial Shock, Shiva's Headband
Sunday	28 July 1968	Los Flamencos De La Bodega
Monday	29 July 1968	Closed
Tuesday	30 July 1968	Closed
Wednesday