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| The New Riders of The Purple Sage, including ex-and-future Burritos Gib Gilbeau and Skip Battin, on state at the University of Minnesota on May 28, 1978 (from the May 29 Minneapolis Star-Tribune) |
With the rise of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, one of the calling cards of rock music in the 1960s was its assumption of authenticity. The Beatles wrote their own songs, sang them and played all the instruments. Even the cover versions were specifically chosen and arranged by the four lads, so it was an expression of themselves, not some record company. Elvis Presley, for all his talent and charisma, was implicitly dismissed as a sort of puppet of his producers, singing what he was told and appearing in foolish movies. Bob Dylan's "Don't Look Back" wasn't fictional, and although "A Hard Day's Night" was a sort of fantasy, it was a play on the Beatles themselves, not pretending to be some other character.
Magazines like Rolling Stone placed great import on who was actually a "member" of a band, as that defined the authentic creation of "real" music. Producers had a huge role, of course, but their contributions were inevitably presented as "technical" rather than "artistic," since it would deter from the authentic art being created. In the 1960s, and well into the '70s, breathless descriptions of band personnel changes read like sports transaction columns: Cream and Traffic, for example, "broke up" because Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood formed Blind Faith with Ginger Baker. Traffic, in fact, was out of commission for only about 18 months, but the premise that they had "broken up" rather than being "on a break" was fundamental.
"Country-Rock" was a sub-genre of sorts, but an important one. By the mid-1970s, the Eagles were one of the most successful rock bands, and their music was grounded in the Buck Owens-inspired Californian country-rock that had bben initiated by the Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco back in 1968. The New Riders of The Purple Sage, with no less than Jerry Garcia on board, had followed in 1970 with a distinctly hippie ethos, singing country songs about dope and ecology with Jerry on pedal steel. The Eagles had since shown that there was money in the Burrito sound, while the New Riders seemed to open the door to rednecks growing their hair and lighting a phat one. Sub-genre or not, Country Rock was important.
By 1978, however, both the New Riders of The Purple Sage and the Flying Burrito Brothers were well back on their heels. The Burritos, now with only one remainng original member in the band, had produced seven albums that had gone nowhere, and didn't even have a record company. The New Riders had ten albums, but they hadn't had a big one since Panama Red in 1973, and they had been dropped by their record company, too. The Grateful Dead's appeal was infinite, yes, but the market for being the Dead's country cousins was shrinking. The Burritos had been aced out by the Eagles and their ilk. The New Riders, meanwhile, had fallen away when the likes of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings had moved to Austin and grown their hair. They were real country, and better songwriters, and by 1978 the Riders seemed passe.
In April 1978, a syndicated Rolling Stone gossip column noted that the New Riders had been joined by three members of the "now-defunct" Flying Burrito Brothers. In fact, the Burritos were not defunct, but that fiction was essential to the rock press of the time. It was a marriage of convenience that both ensembles preferred to subsequently ignore, so the merger was rarely mentioned in future interviews or narratives. A close look at the two bands' brief merger from April through June 1978 tells us plenty about the live concert business of the time.
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| The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1978 (l-r): Greg Harris, Skip Battin, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Gib Gilbeau, Ed Ponder. This lineup played both before and after the temporary merger with the New Riders. |
Status Report, April 1978: Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers, as we know them, had formed in Summer 1968 after Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman had left The Byrds. They were joined by pedal steel guitarist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, bassist Chris Etheridge and a variety of drummers. The Burritos recorded their debut Gilded Palace Of Sin album in late 1968, and it was released on March 1969 by A&M Records. The band mixed Everly Brothers harmonies with Bakersfield country, stirred it up with hip songs and crisp rock production, and founded the new genre of country-rock. The only plausible predecessor was The Byrds' 1968 Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album, and that had featured Hillman and Parsons anyway. In the ensuing years, Gilded Palace Of Sin has gotten more respect every decade, and it's rightly seen as an influential 60s classic.
At the time, however, even FM radio wasn't ready for the Burritos. Gilded Palace Of Sin didn't sell. It didn't help that the Burritos barely toured in '69, since Gram Parsons preferred to hang out in LA with Keith Richards. Also, the Burritos didn't rehearse much either, so while they could be great live when the circumstances were right, that didn't happen much. Hard touring with a tight band might have helped record sales, but that's not how the Flying Burrito Brothers rolled. By the mid-70s, the band had put out six more albums (one live), all worthwhile to some degree. They had never recorded an album with the same lineup as the previous one, they had broken up and reformed more than once (their family tree is dense) and never had a hit.
Ex-Burrito Bernie Leadon was a hit in the Eagles, Gram Parsons had been an intriguing sensation before meeting an untimely end in 1973 and Chris Hillman had been in some successful ensembles (Manassas, SHF), but the actual Burritos were nowhere. In early 1977, they had released an album on Mercury under the name Sierra, but the "re-brand" hadn't gotten them anything, and they had reverted to the name Flying Burrito Brothers for most of the year (the permutations of the various lineups are discussed here). In March 1978, the touring version of the Flying Burrito Brothers was
- Greg Harris-lead guitar, banjo, vocals
- Gib Gilbeau-guitar, fiddle, vocals (ex-Swampwater, Linda Ronstadt)
- Sneaky Pete Kleinow-pedal steel guitar (original Burrito and Gumby animator)
- Skip Battin-bass, vocals (ex-Byrds, ex-New Riders 1974-75)
- Mickey McGee-drums
Even back in '78, the Flying Burrito Brothers were a legendary band, but that name didn't translate to record sales or even good gigs. The band was without a record contract, and were booked pretty far down on the food chain (see below for the March 1978 Burrito gigs that I could find). Greg Harris had been a last-minute replacement for guitarist Robb Strandlund (who had written "Already Gone" for the Eagles) and McGee had been the connection for Harris.
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| Who Are Those Guys?, by the New Riders of The Purple Sage, had been released by MCA Records in mid-1977 |
Status Report, April 1978: New Riders of The Purple Sage
In some senses, the New Riders of The Purple Sage were San Francisco's answer to the Flying Burrito Brothers. And it wasn't some coincidence. I have documented at some length how Jerry Garcia bought a pedal steel guitar the week after the Burritos opened for the Dead for three nights at the Avalon Ballroom (April 4-6, 1969). I'm not guessing, either: Burrito (and Byrds) road manager Jimmi Seiter said in his book that not only did Garcia watch Sneaky Pete raptly, on the last night Garcia rented a pedal steel and played through headphones, behind a curtain, trying to mimic Pete's unique style. When Garcia's old pal John Dawson showed Garcia some new country songs, Garcia was on board as his pedal steel guitarist. Another old pal, David Nelson, joined on his Telecaster, and soon there was a rhythm section, too, and the New Riders started to play around Bay Area clubs, sometimes opening for the Grateful Dead.
By 1970, bassist Dave Torbert had joined the band, and Garcia and Mickey Hart were regular members. The New Riders opened for the Grateful Dead across the country. Dawson had a huge backlog of great songs, and the Riders mixed in some Bakersfield classics from the likes of Merle Haggard and also some "Top 40" tunes, too (like "Big Yellow Taxi" or "Lodi"). The New Riders didn't have the musical depth of the Burritos, and Garcia was no Sneaky Pete, but the Riders toured hard and played all the time, and continually got better. By the time Columbia signed the band, with ex-Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden on board in place of Hart, the Riders were road-tested, and their debut NRPS album got a lot of FM airplay and attention.
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| Columbia would release the New Riders album Panama Red in October 1973 |
Columbia had released NRPS in September 1971, and after some high profile FM live broadcasts, Garcia left the band after Halloween. He was replaced on pedal steel by Canadian session ace Buddy Cage, so that the New Riders could become a full-time, stand-alone band. Dave Torbert stepped up to sing along with Dawson, and brought along some cool songs of his own. The band's fourth Columbia album Panama Red, produced by Nashville veteran Norbert Putnam, was released in October 1973. It provided a signature song for the band, and would ultimately go Gold. The New Riders were great live, and had started to carve out an identity formed by but still separate from the Grateful Dead. They were also a growing live attraction, particularly in the Northeast.
By 1978, however, the New Riders' promise was in decline. Dave Torbert had left after the Panama Red album, and his songs weren't replaced. John Dawson had written numerous great songs by 1970, and they had filled out the first few albums, but his songs since then weren't memorable. "Panama Red," the band's signature song, had actually been written by fellow traveler Peter Rowan, and was subsequently made even more famous by Old And In The Way. Skip Battin had replaced Torbert for two years, but when he left in early 1976 to join the Flying Burrito Brothers, he had been replaced by bassist Stephen Love. The last two New Riders albums, on MCA, both released in 1977, had featured more Love songs than Dawson ones. They weren't bad, but the New Riders' musical personality was less pronounced.
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| Willie Nelson's breakthrough hit album Red Headed Stranger was released on Columbia in May 1975 |
While the New Riders had seemed primed to capitalize on the merger of redneck and hippie culture, it was Willie and Waylon down in Austin who did that. They were releasing classic albums, and the New Riders were releasing tired re-workings of what they had done five years earlier. Their last album for MCA, Marin County Line, wasn't that bad, but it got no airplay and didn't sell anything. The New Riders were a popular live act, but they had toured relentlessly in the Northeast and every Deadhead had seen them a few times. The New Riders of The Purple Sage had a much bigger concert footprint than the Flying Burrito Brothers, but their recording career needed a reset. MCA Records dropped the band, so it wasn't going to be easy.
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| A rare photo of the merged Burrito/Rider lineup. (L-R) Skip Battin, John Dawson, David Nelson, Gib Gilbeau, Sneaky Pete (drummer Pat Shanahan not pictured). The photo is from the amazing Burrito Family Tree web page. I suspect that the photo was taken in Minneapolis (see below). |
What Likely Happened?
We don't know how three members of the Flying Burrito Brothers ended up as part of the New Riders of The Purple Sage, but I can make a pretty good guess. Keep in mind, I don't have any special sources, or inside knowledge (please share it if you do!), but there are precedents for this. In the Fall of '73, Dave Torbert had wanted to leave the New Riders, and booking agent Ron Rainey arranged to have Skip Battin take his place. Booking agents put together touring bands with venues, making sure that a band from San Francisco has a gig on a Friday night between, say, Baltimore on Thursday and Manhattan on Saturday. Rainey, of Magma Entertainment, booked the New Riders and the Byrds, so he had known that Battin was available and that Torbert was leaving. Battin would tour with the New Riders for two years (1974-75) and would make three albums with them, and was generally remembered fondly by other band members.
I think the New Riders of The Purple Sage and the Flying Burrito Brothers both disintegrated in March 1978, and booking agents intervened and helped the bands combine. Whether or not it was actually Ron Rainey at Magma, which seems most likely, booking agents would have known what was going on. A booking agent committed to a New Riders tour from April from June would want to make sure that it happened. Drafting the remaining Burritos made that work. I think both bands knew that it was a temporary arrangement, and both trios of musicians would move on afterwards.
The New Riders, despite their stumbles on the recording front, were still a lucrative touring act. New Riders fans were a subset of Dead fans, and they came early, danced, bought beer and hung out, to the delight of promoters and club owners. The Burritos, despite their legendary status, had much smaller gigs (see a comparison of March bookings for both bands in the Appendix below). Probably some Flying Burrito Brothers gigs were canceled to accommodate the New Riders, but they would have been the lesser of the two bands' bookings.
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| Sneaky Pete Kleinow (1934-2007), founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, inspiration for Jerry Garcia and the animator of Gumby. |
Tour History, New Riders of The Purple Sage with Sneaky Pete Kleinow, April-June 1978
The New Riders had a pretty high profile tour in March, 1978, as you can see in the Appendix. Their MCA album Marin County Line hadn't gotten airplay, but at least had generally gotten good reviews. The New Riders had separated from the Grateful Dead management in mid-1973, but had still been inevitably associated with the Dead ever since. Generally speaking, the New Riders did emulate some of the Dead's signatures, like playing two sets when they headlined. The Riders also salted every concert with cover versions done in the Riders' style, so that concerts were not just a reshuffling of old album tracks. By 1978, many of those covers (like "Take A Letter, Maria") had made it onto albums, but it meant that even casual fans recognized some of the songs. In secondary markets, where the Dead rarely or never played, an appearance by the New Riders was a chance for fans to meet their fellow travelers, hang out and perhaps engage in some commerce, so there was more than just music on offer.
The New Riders last known date on the March tour had been March 19 in Champaign, IL. The club was called "Panama Red's," a marker of how far the band had penetrated into hippie consciousness by this time. Presumably the band had returned to Marin County in March after three hard weeks on the road. It appears, however, that bassist Stephen Love and steel guitarist Buddy Cage abruptly quit the band at this point. The reasons are obscure, but I'm sure that they had to do with personalities, money and promises broken, as they do with every band. The New Riders had a lot of booked shows in April, however, as I have seen ads for many of them in March newspapers. So that meant they had to find a steel guitarist, a bass player and a harmony singer pretty darn quick.
The evidence suggests that the New Riders had a pretty good idea of who they wanted to replace Cage and Love. Pedal steel guitarist Bobby Black, an old pal from the Commander Cody band, and bassist Allan Kemp, who had played with drummer Pat Shanahan in various groups, woud join the New Riders in July (see the Aftermath: July 1978 entry below for the complete breakdown). I think Cage and Love's departure was unexpectedly sudden, however, and Black and Kemp probably had contracted gigs. So the Riders needed an interim solution to get them through the Summer.
Meanwhile, over in Burrito-land, guitarist Robb Stradlund had moved on, temporarily replaced by Greg Harris. The Burritos had no record contract and were playing pretty tiny gigs. The last confirmed sighting I can find of the band was at a joint called The Refinery, in Calgary, Alberta (they were reviewed in the April 5 Calgary Albertan). Apparently they were booked for the week of April 3 through 8 (Monday thru Saturday). A sympathetic writer interviewed the band, and they put on a brave face, but it was no ticket to success. I'm assuming that booking agents had put through the merger of the two bands by this week.
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| The April 9, 1978 SF Chronicle Datebook noted that the New Riders would be playing at the Rancho Nicasio roadhouse in Marin on Wednesday, April 9 |
April 12, 1978 Rancho Nicasio, Nicasio, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday)
The Sunday San Francisco Chronicle quietly noted that the New Riders of The Purple Sage were booked on Wednesday (April 12) at Rancho Nicasio. Nicasio was a tiny town in Marin, a half-hour and a thousand light years from San Rafael. The Rancho Nicasio was a roadhouse built in the 1940s, but it was pretty much the only commercial establishment in the town. The little community had a population of about 100 (still does). The actual address was 1 Old Rancheria Road, but the ad just named the freeway exit (Lucas Valley Road). If you pulled on to the dark, lonely road to Nicasio you weren't going to miss the Rancho.
The Rancho Nicasio actually held up to 500 people, but not that many people would usually take the trip up Lucas Valley Road. Marin bands liked to use the Rancho to try out a new lineup or new material, since shows never got reviewed there anyway. Since Datebook had a Tuesday deadline, that meant the New Riders had already booked the show by April 4. I think the New Riders knew they had a tour coming up, and knew they had to have a warm-up show, so they booked a hometown gig. I'm assuming someone was on the phone putting together the Riders and the Burritos, so by show-time they knew where to be. If the Burritos finished in Calgary by April 8, however, and had a gig in Marin on April 12, they would have had only have had perhaps one or two rehearsals with the New Riders. The Rancho Nicasio show was probably pretty ragged.
April 14-15, 1978 North Shore Club, N. Lake Tahoe, NV: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday-Saturday)
The New Riders had two nights booked at Tahoe's North Shore. This show had been advertised for some time, so the band must have played Nicasio to get ready for it. Lake Tahoe had been a Bay Area playground since 1899. Surprisingly, there had been a psychedelic rock scene in the Summers of 1967 and '68, but that was a momentary thing. Since then, Bay Area bands had still played lucrative gigs there when the opportunity arose. The Lake Tahoe region was unique in Nevada, because it was family, sports and recreation on the California side, and booze and gambling on the Nevada side. Crystal Bay was just across the Nevada line, so drinking and gambling would have been the order of the day. These shows were safely out of the way for a band that was under-rehearsed, but still likely a well-paid gig.
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| The Keystone ad in the April 16. 1978 Chronicle Datebook |
April 22, 1978 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Jordan Playboys (Saturday)
Freddie Herrera had moved his club operation from Keystone Korner in San Francisco to Berkeley in March, 1972. Jerry Garcia was his anchor act, packing the house no matter the night of the week, selling beer all night long. In January 1977, Herrera had opened a sister club, at 260 S. California Avenue in Palo Alto. Garcia was the most profitable booking there, as well. Most acts played both clubs, which was great for touring bands. The Keystone in Berkeley was still a hippie outpost, but by 1978, the Keystone in Palo Alto had somewhat more diverse acts, with jazz and hip country acts popular on KFAT-fm in Gilroy. The New Riders had played Keystone Berkeley numerous times, and were somewhat passe for Palo Alto, which as always was very full of itself. Still, both of these gigs would have paid well. At this point, no local paper was likely to review the New Riders at a Keystone, so we know nothing about either show.
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| This syndicated Rolling Stone magazine "Random Notes" column was published nationwide at the end of April, noting that three members of the "now-defunct" Burritos had joined the New Riders (this from the April 21, 1978 Danville Register) |
Rolling Stone magazine syndicated a column for daily newspapers that seems to have been a re-write of Random Notes. This specific column was run throughout the country from April 22 through April 30. It included the note that "New members of the New Riders of the Purple Sage include three from the now-defunct Flying Burrito Brothers--Sneaky Pete Kleinow on steel guitar, bassist Skip Battin and fiddler Gib Gilbeau..." The wording was typical of Rolling Stone in this era. When a musician joined a band, it was as if a new third baseman had joined the Yankees. Just as a Yankee couldn't be on another team, the Burritos had to be noted as "now-defunct." In reality, the three Burritos were just hired guns for the tour, rather than "members" of the Riders, and the Burritos were really just on hiatus, as they went on tour as soon as the Riders finished in June. But that wasn't how Rolling Stone liked to explain it, so the story was described as a merger.
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| The sign for Zachariah's Red-Eye Saloon in Columbus, OH, probably in the 1970s |
April 26, 1978 Zachariah's Red-Eye Saloon, Columbus, OH: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday)
We only have the faintest traces of the New Riders touring schedule in the Spring of 1978. In this case, we have an ad and a review of a show in Lexington, KY, and some tapes listed in etree note dates in Columbus and West Virginia. Now, to be clear, dates on tapes are not always accurate, but the two dates bracketing Lexington seem pretty plausible.
Zachariah's Red-Eye Saloon was on or near the Ohio State University campus. Starting around 1968, it had been known as The Castle, and was apparently the usual psychedelic blues guitar 'n' boogie palace. By 1976, the owners saw that it was time for a change, and revised the club as Zachariah's Red-Eye Saloon, with an emphasis on country rock. I don't actually know anything about the Zachariah New Riders' show, or if it even happened, but it seems pretty likely.
The New Riders were like their country forebears in more ways than just music. By the mid-1970s, there were a lot of country acts with established names and well-known hits, but they had little or no current recording profile. The big labels weren't interested in their new material and they didn't get played on country radio. But the country crowd was older, so they saw their favorites regularly at county fairs and civic auditoriums, so a lot of country acts were still profitable live acts even though their recording careers had flat-lined.
The New Riders' audience wasn't as old as the country audience, but it was older than the teenagers who listened to Blondie or REO Speedwagon. The New Riders were a good booking at nightclubs or college campuses that were far from Manhattan or the Fillmore district. The Grateful Dead never came to those faraway places, so fans who liked that music at least had a chance to see a satellite, if not the planet itself.
The Flying Burrito Brothers were also a sort of legacy act, but unfortunately their legacy was their ever-increasing appreciation from rock critics. The appreciation of the Burritos was well-deserved, but it had never been reflected in record sales. The New Riders had "Panama Red," and to a lesser extent "Henry" and "Glendale Train," but regular rock fans simply didn't know any Burritos songs. Thus when some Burrito Brothers were added to the New Riders' lineup, it gave them "country-rock cred" of a sort, but it was still the New Riders who were getting the more substantial bookings. |
| Lexington Leader ad for the Kentucky Theater |
April 27, 1978 Kentucky Theater, Lexington, KY: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Jerry Belsak (Thursday) 7:30 & 10:30
Lexington, KY was the home of the University of Kentucky. In Spring '78, KU had beaten Duke in the NCAA tournament, behind Jack Givens and Rick Robey, so they were riding high. The Kentucky Theater was at 214 E. Main St, and was a movie theater that had built in 1922. The capacity was apparently just 800, and the Riders were booked for an early and late show. According to a review (Lexington Leader, April 28), however, they were two hours late and barely had time to complete the first show. Since only 200 people were at the early show, they were invited to stay over for the second one. Local guitarist Jerry Belsak had opened the show.
April 28, 1978 Gym, West Virginia Institute of Technology, Montgomery, WV: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday)
When Sam Cutler had been the road manager for the Grateful Dead, he had capitalized on the opportunities for a hard-working band to play college gym throughout the Northeast. Many schools had entertainment budgets designed to attract performers to comparatively remote outposts to entertain their restless student body. The Dead had played numerous colleges in 1970 and 71, and students showed up because there often wasn't much else to do on campus. Much of the crowd would become Deadheads for life.
When Cutler became the booking agent for both the Dead and the New Riders in 1972, the Dead had mostly graduated to larger venues. Cutler followed the same plan with the Riders however, booking them into college after college, and building a audience for their live shows. The Riders hadn't really managed to graduate to the larger halls, and Cutler was long gone, but there will still good bookings to be had at colleges.
The West Virginia Technical University had been established in Montgomery, WV in 1895 (it has since moved to Beckley, WV). The school is deep in the hills of West Virginia. The gym was probably pretty small, but very likely the whole campus turned out for the New Riders. We are very likely missing some New Riders dates during the time between the WTVU show and the next weekend. If they played other schools, they would not likely have been widely advertised outside of the campuses themselves.
May 5, 1978 Gym, Quinnipiac College, Hamden, CT: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday)I have seen listings for a New Riders show at Quinnipiac College on May 5. In any case, the New Riders likely played somewhere in the Northeast on Saturday, too.
Quinniapiac College had been established in 1929 in Hamden, CT. Hamden was in New Haven County, just 5 miles South of Yale. Today it has 10,000 students. Still even in New Haven, there isn't that much going on, so this show was probably a good draw.
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| The Sunday May 7, 1978 Syracuse Times-Herald noted the New Riders concert at the Mohawk Valley CC. The show was sponsored by the College Student Government Program Board. |
May 7, 1978 Stanley Performing Arts Center, Mohawk Valley CC, Syracuse, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Sunday)
The Grateful Dead and by extension the New Riders had become very popular in the greater Syracuse area. Playing the Mohawk Valley Community College wasn't actually that great a booking, a sign that the New Riders indifferent albums over the last several years had not served them well. Still, they could headline a show in Syracuse on a Sunday night.
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| April 29, 1978 Toronto Star ad for the El Mocambo club |
May 8, 1978 El Mocambo, Toronto, ON: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Monday)
The El Mocambo was the "prestige" rock club in Toronto. In the mid-70s, the market had shifted somewhat as the rock audience got older. In the 60s, rock clubs had been the bottom of the barrel, for groups just starting out, and all the imitation Fillmores would book two or three bands, so they got all the touring acts. By the mid-70s, the rock market had aged somewhat. A lot of fans were perfectly willing to pay higher ticket prices and buy a couple of drinks for the opportunity to see a popular band in a nightclub rather than third on the bill at some civic auditorium. Clubs like the Roxy in Hollywood, the Bottom Line in Manhattan and the Old Waldorf in San Francisco became an important part of the touring ecosystem. The El Mocambo was the cool club in Toronto, and the New Riders crossed the border and played there on Monday, May 8.
There may be numerous additional New Riders dates between the El Mocambo and the presumed date at the Lone Star (below). Touring bands are like sharks, and have to keep moving to survive. I assume that since the Riders had crossed the border, there were other dates in Canada. Still, I can find no traces for this two week stretch.
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| Sneaky Pete Kleinow recorded two tracks in 1978 for Pacific Steel Co, produced by Al Perkins and released on the Pacific Arts label (owned by Michael Nesmith) |
We may be missing a some bookings over the balance of May, but it's also possible that there was a break, and the band members flew home. A detailed Flying Burrito Brothers timeline suggests that the Burritos recorded a demo around this time at Conway Studios with Greg Harris on guitar and vocals. If the New Riders had a tour break in mid-May, that would fit the Burritos timeline. As we will see, the Flying Burrito Brothers were looking to reconstitute themselves, so it fits that the three Burritos would fly back to Southern California and record. Besides a 4-song demo, Sneaky Pete recorded two songs for the pedal steel guitar album Pacific Steel Co. (backed by some other Burritos), released on Michael Nesmith's Pacific Arts label.
May 18-19, 1978 Lone Star Cafe, New York, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Thursday-Friday)
A New Riders live tape circulates with dates of May 18 and 19 at the Lone Star Cafe in mid-town Manhattan. The Lone Star was a purposefully contrarian "country bar" at Fifth Avenue and 61st Street (at 61 Fifth Avenue). As country rock and outlaw country were climbing in importance in the music industry, the Lone Star became the Manhattan venue for the likes of Willie Nelson. The club had opened in February of 1976, and the New Riders of The Purple Sage of course played there a number of times.
The source of the tape was a syndicated show from the Lone Star, where the New Riders were paired with singer Janie Fricke, and broadcast in late 1978. The tape, however, is from late Summer or Fall, because Allen Kemp is on bass and Bobby Black in on pedal steel, and they would not join the group until later (see below). Looking at the meta-data of the tape, I think some seeders are tying an undated New Riders tape from the Lone Star with a known date, but they don't actually match up. I think that the New Riders were likely to have played these two nights at Lone Star in May, but I can't find any confirmation.
In any case, I can confirm no New Riders dates between May 8 (Toronto) and May 28 (Minneapolis). There were probably at least a few, but that doesn't guarantee that the Lone Star sighting wasn't spurious. I suspect there was a tour break, and the Burritos recorded their demo during this period.
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| The Minneapolis Star of May 26, 1978 mentions that three Burritos are now members of the New Riders of The Purple Sage, and will be performing on May 28 |
May 28, 1978 Riverfront Park, U of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN: Roy Buchanan/New Riders of The Purple Sage/Marcia Ball/Daisy Dillman Band (Sunday) Noon-Six behind Coffman Union on E. River Rd
The New Riders of The Purple Sage reappeared at a large outdoor concert at the University of Minnesota. This Sunday afternoon event was headlined by guitarist Roy Buchanan. Buchanan, an exceptional guitarist whose career dated back to the 1950s, had received huge publicity in the early '70s as an unheralded giant. That view was shared by other guitarists like Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia, but Buchanan never translated that admiration to a substantial recording career. According to the paper, his band on this tour would include session pros Willie Weeks (bass) and Andy Newmark (drums), so I'm sure the quality of music was high, but Buchanan didn't really do much but solo off blues standards and noodly R&B.
The ads for the concert emphasized that "plenty of beer" would be available, as the sponsor was Budweiser, and the good-time Riders on a nice Sunday afternoon with plenty of beer were always a good time. So everybody probably had fun, but the New Riders were already kind of like an old country act, doing the same old thing that they had been doing for years. They did it well, but it didn't point toward the future. A few discerning members of the crowd would have noted any Burritos classic songs in the set, like "Devil In Disguise," but that was of the same vintage. A review of the concert (see the top of the post) noted that it rained, but made it clear that the big crowd had a good time.
June 5, 1978 Mississippi Nights Club, Laclede's Landing, MO: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Macks Creek (Monday)
The New Riders began steady week of touring throughout the Midwest and Southwest. Are we missing dates between Minneapolis and St. Louis? It's possible that we are not. The U. of Minnesota gig may have been well-paying enough for the Riders to fly out from California with their guitars, and simply fly home.
This St. Louis show was reviewed in the next night's St. Louis Post-Dispatch (June 6), and the trio of former Burritos was mentioned. I don't know whether the New Riders drove or flew on this tour. More likely they rented a bus and drove. The next stop was 430 miles away, in Omaha, via I-70 and I-29.
Omaha, NE, while not a large city, is conveniently situated on Interstate 80 between Iowa and Salt Lake City. More bands than you might think have played Omaha because it was on the way to where they were going. The Grateful Dead, for example, had twice played the 500-capacity club called The Music Box (on 118 N. 19th St) on Tuesday nights in 1969 (on February 4 and April 15). Nine years later, the New Riders were playing the Music Box on a Wednesday night.
John Dawson was interviewed by Steve Millburg for the Omaha World-Herald (on June 7), and put a brave face on the situation. Still, even in a brief article it was clear that he was aware of how the Riders and the Burritos had opened the door, but others had walked through.
"I think we're the definitive version of the kind of combination of country rock 'n' roll coming out of California," he said, "If the New Riders and the Flying Burrito Brothers hadn't done that, Willie Nelson wouldn't be wandering around the country today with a scarf around his head telling people how he went back into his burning house to rescue a pound of grass."
Despite this present-at-the-creation status, the New Riders' commercial success hasn't been overwhelming. They are without a record contract, although Dawson said the band is negotiating with two or three record companies.
Meanwhile, other country rock bands, such as the Eagles, are making millions. Dawson says that disappoints him a little.
"But then, I'm still working, and I've got some new tunes written and like they say, they can't take your fingers away. I'll always play. And I know we can still trip out the audience every time we come on stage."
Millburg reviewed the show, and apparently the New Riders played to a packed house (over 750) and an enthusiastic response. Tellingly, however, Millburg noticed that one of the biggest spontaneous cheers was for a Grateful Dead song played over the PA during intermission.
Tulsa, OK was another medium-sized city not on the main touring circuit. It was 400 miles due South of Omaha on I-75. A lot of touring bands played Cain's ballroom. Note that the ad above says "Dancing BYOL." BYOL means "Bring Your Own Liquor." A lot of Southwestern cities had peculiar local laws about bars and alcohol, dating from the end of Prohibition. I believe that BYOL meant you could bring a bottle of whiskey (or whatever) to the bar, and the bar would sell you "set-ups" (glasses with ice and mixers). My suspicion is that people bringing their own bottles of whiskey would get drunker than people who would have just bought a few beers over the course of the night.
Rusty "Weir," headlining the next night, was actually country singer Rusty Wier. The New Riders had covered a song of his on their 1975 Columbia album Oh What A Mighty Time, "I Heard You Been Layin' My Old Lady."
Etree lists a tape from Cain's on this date. I have not heard it, but assuming the date is correct it would probably give the best example of the breadth of the Burrito-inflected New Riders.
June 10, 1978 River City Music Hall, Shreveport, LA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/A Train (Saturday)
Shreveport was 720 miles South of Tulsa on I-75. The show was reviewed in the Shreveport Times on June 12. John Andrew Prime, an enthusiastic fan of the band, reported that the Riders played two sets for a total of 26 songs in three hours. They saved "Panama Red" for their encore.
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| Jed Palmer, proprietor of Jed's, at 8301 Oak St in New Orleans, sometime in the 1970s. |
June 11, 1978 Jed's, New Orleans, LA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Sunday)
New Orleans, meanwhile, was 328 miles Southeast from Shreveport, mostly on I-49. Jed's was at 8301 Oak Street, not too far from Tulane University, and was run by one Jed Palmer. It had apparently opened in 1967, and was a legendary hangout. I don't have any reports on the show.
June 14, 1978 Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday)
The next show after New Orleans was 500 miles West on I-10, in Austin, but the band seems to have had three days to get there. The legendary Armadillo World Headquarters was prime New Riders territory. The band had played the 1500-capacity beer hall many times. The Armadillo symbolized the hippie intersection of beer and weed, and the New Riders were one of the centerpieces of that junction. The Wednesday night show was reviewed in the Austin American-Statesman (June 16). Writer Joe Frolik gave his qualified approval to the new lineup, but had some reservations. He interviewed John Dawson between sets at the Armadillo.
June 15, 1978 Old Warehouse, Dallas, TX; New Riders of The Purple Sage (Thursday)"This band came together through sheer chance and luck" said Dawson, who started the New Riders in 1970, between sets on Wednesday. "Things just happened that we were all in a position where we could work together. "
Based on Wednesday's show, it's premature to say the two groups of performers are working together. They may share a stage, but their efforts are not well-integrated.
On many New Riders songs, the Burrito additions play very minor roles. Kleinow is not the driving force Cage was, and Gilbeau stands out only occasionally. Battin must still learn songs added during his departure.
And on numbers featuring the Burrito dropouts, the New Riders holdovers figure insignificantly.
Wednesday's shows had some very hot moments, but overall it did not measure up to the former standards of the New Riders or the Flying Burrito Brothers...Dawson said he's pleased with his band's new roster and indicated he expects it to stay together for a while.
But before the show, Kleinow wasn't so sure.
"It's not what it looks like" [Kleinow] said, refusing to elaborate. "I'll just say that there's more to it than meets the eye. Look for a new Flying Burrito Brothers album soon."
The last trace I can find of the New Riders Spring tour was at the Old Warehouse in Dallas on Thursday, June 15. I assume this was another Texas dance hall. I find it surprising that I can't see any other dates in Texas on the weekend (such as in Houston or San Antonio), but there's no trace. Assuming the New Riders and the old Burritos drove on this tour, St. Louis to Dallas via the various stops would have meant going over 2500 miles in 10 days to play seven shows. The pay might have been pretty good, but that's some hard traveling.
June 24, 1978 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Billy C Farlow (Saturday)
The merger of the New Riders of The Purple Sage and the Flying Burrito Brothers came to a close at the Keystones. The New Riders were booked on Friday at Keystone Palo Alto and Saturday night at Keystone Berkeley. Based on some information from the subsequent New Riders tour (see below), we know that the Burritos had to be on board for this one. Probably the trio flew back to LA from Texas, and then just flew up for the weekend to play the shows.
We don't actually know anything about the shows themselves. Unlike the rest of the country, the New Riders played the Bay Area regularly, so a club date was hardly an event, and thus the Riders' local club shows were almost never reviewed. While the Riders' proximity to the Dead carried some cachet out in the world, when Jerry Garcia was playing the Keystones the same month, the fact that the Riders knew him was inconsequential. So the Burritos/Riders merger passed without fanfare at home.
Keystone opened Billy C Farlow had been the lead singer for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who had shared bills (and management) with the New Riders many times. Thus the booking was sort of a trifecta of the remnants of the promising honky-tonk rock of the early 70s that had been passed by the Austin outlaws.
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| The Flying Burrito Brothers, late 1978 (L-R: Ponder, Pete, Gilbeau, Battin and Greg Harris) |
Aftermath: Flying Burrito Brothers, July 1978 and Beyond
The New Riders tour with the three Burritos ended on June 24, and the Flying Burrito Brothers were on tour within ten days. That's a pretty clear indicator that they had been planning this all along, and a pretty good sign that the demo recordings in May were in anticipation of re-activating the band. The assumptions of the era were in force here. Today, the Burritos would have cheerfully announced that they were touring with the Riders and listed their forthcoming dates in July as a stand-alone band. In 1978, however, indicating that they were only "temporary" members of the Riders would have been seen as "inauthentic." It seems comical now, but the Rolling Stone assumptions carried great weight, so the Burritos had to be described as "defunct" while some members were New Riders.
July 2-3, 1978 Palace Saloon, Fair Haven, NJ: Flying Burrito Brothers (Sunday-Monday)
Fair Haven, NJ is in the Jersey Shore region of Monmouth County, just five miles from the coast. The Jersey Shore is a vacation destination all Summer, and this was right before the July 4 holiday. I wouldn't rule out that the Burritos played Friday and Saturday night gigs on the East Coast right before Fair Haven, and I just haven't been able to find them.
The new Flying Burrito Brothers lineup was almost the same as the March lineup, with Greg Harris on guitar and vocals. Ed Ponder had replaced Mickey McGee on drums. Except for the drummer, the band had toured in March, so a few rehearsals would have set them up for touring.
July 4, 1978 Burruss Auditorium, Va Tech, Blacksburg, VA: Flying Burrito Brothers (Tuesday ) Summer Arts Festival free concert
The Flying Burrito Brothers played a free concert at 6pm in the Burruss Auditorium at Virginia Tech University in rural, picturesque Blacksburg. The multi-day festival had plays, music and fireworks. The press release described the Burritos as "city-country singers with lyrics of a different nature." Since this was a subsidized college event, the payday would have been good, but the band would have been playing for a casual tourist crowd, not serious fans who were looking forward to seeing them.
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| Close Encounters To The West Coast, by the Flying Burrito Brothers, had been recorded in Tokyo in July 1978. It was released in Japan by Regency Records later in 1978. In 1979 it would be released in the States as Live In Tokyo. |
Unknown Dates, Tokyo and other cities, Japan: Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers played live in Japan in July 1978. We only know for a fact that they played Tokyo, since a live album was released, but I assume they played other cities. At the time, the Exchange Rate with Japan was such that Japanese record companies had to subsidize any touring by US or English bands. In this case, the legendary status of the Flying Burrito Brothers was in their favor.
It makes sense that the Burritos had booked a Japanese tour that included a live album, and played a few East Coast gigs to warm up. Although the Burritos did not line up an ongoing record deal, a live album was released in Japan by Regency Records as Close Encounters To The West Coast. It was basically a "live greatest hits" album. It's important to recall that in 1978, the Burritos were unheard legends in Japan, and fans would not have just dismissed them by saying "I saw them open for Eric Clapton three years ago" (as I would have). The album was later released in the States as Live In Tokyo.
The Flying Burrito Brothers Today
The Flying Burrito Brothers kept touring on their return to Japan, and snared a record contract in 1981. Gilb Gilbeau (1937-2016) and Sneaky Pete (1934-2007) kept the band going. Numerous albums and tours later, the Flying Burrito Brothers were still on the road as of 2023, led by Gib Gilbeau's son.
Aftermath: New Riders of The Purple Sage, July 1978 and Beyond
The New Riders of The Purple Sage reconstituted themselves in July. Brought on board were Allen Kemp on bass and vocals and Bobby Black on pedal steel guitar. Kemp had played with drummer Pat Shanahan in The Poor (in the '60s) and later Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band (in the '70s), albeit as a guitarist. Black, from the San Jose area, had been the pedal steel player for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen during their peak years of 1972 through '74. For much of that time, the Airmen and the Riders shared management and booking agents, and played many bills together, so Black would have known Nelson and Dawson well and known the Riders' material.
Given the social connections of Kemp and Black to other band members, I have to think they got phone calls as soon as Stephen Love and Buddy Cage quit the Riders at the end of March '78 (that pair would in turn form the band Bones Jones). I have to assume that both Kemp and Black had gigs, since the Riders' dual departure had been a surprise. Thus I think the New Riders intended to reconstitute themselves in July as planned, but needed the income from the booked gigs in the meantime. Thus the Burritos/Riders merger made sense for both camps, as each band had plans after July.
The July '78 New Riders of The Purple Sage:
- John Dawson-vocals, rhythm guitar
- David Nelson-lead guitar, vocals
- Bobby Black-pedal steel guitar
- Allan Kemp-bass, vocals
- Pat Shanahan-drums
July 20, 1978 Grandstand, Moultrie-Douglas County Fair, Mattoon, IL: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Thursday)
The new lineup of the New Riders of The Purple Sage debuted at a county fair in Southern Illinois. The concerts were part of the Fair admission price, so many casual fans would have seen the band. Douglas County was south of Champaign, IL on I-57. Opening in a remote spot was a good way for a band to iron out the bumps without getting a negative review in a major paper or Rolling Stone.
July 22, 1978 Bogart's, Cincinnati, OH: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Saturday) two shows
Bogart's was the big rock club in Cincinnati, at 2621 Vine Street. The New Riders had played there in March, so the fact that they were invited back so soon makes clear that it had been a success. The show was reviewed favorably in the Cincinnati Post on Monday (July 24), so we know who was in the band. The reviewer also noted that it was only the third show by this lineup, so we know the New Riders had played somewhere Friday night.
July 26, 1978 [venue], SUNY Stony Brook, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Wednesday)
The Grateful Dead and the New Riders, and indeed many bands, had a long history of playing at Stony Brook in Long Island. Since it was Summer, this would have been more like a regular rock gig.
July 27, 1978 East Boston Stadium, East Boston, MA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Thursday) free concert
The New Riders played for free at this tiny stadium in East Boston at 143 Porter Street. With no record company, and during the Summer, I don't know who was sponsoring this show. It's not plausible that the Riders would not get paid on a weekend in Boston, so this was probably part of a Summer series of concerts.
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| Dance A Little Light, Richie Furay's 1978 solo album on Asylum Records |
July 28, 1978 Nanuet Star Theater-In-The-Round, Nanuet, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Richie Furay (Friday)
Richie Furay had been in Buffalo Springfield, Poco and then the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. He was now a solo artist. By 1978 he had released his second solo album on Asylum, Dance A Little Light. It's worth noting that Furay, part of some high profile bands and with an album contract, was still lower on the concert bill than the New Riders, who were now without a label. The vast gravitational pull of the Grateful Dead was not fully appreciated at this time.
July 29, 1978 Paramount Theater, Asbury Park, NJ: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Richie Furay Band (Saturday) 7pm & 11pm
July 30, 1978 Music Inn, Lenox, MA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Richie Furay/Tracy Nelson (Sunday)
This New Riders new lineup continued to tour for another year, although they were unable to secure a record contract until 1980. I saw this configuration open for the Grateful Dead on December 31, 1978, when they helped close Winterland. They were an excellent, road-tested live band, with a pronounced Western Swing sound driven by Black's pedal steel. Still, they weren't breaking new ground, and their newer material wasn't at all memorable. I enjoyed seeing them, but I remember thinking they were already stuck on a plateau.
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| In 2009, the New Riders of The Purple Sage released Where I Come From on Woodstock Records. Seven of the songs were written by David Nelson and Robert Hunter. |
The New Riders of The Purple Sage Today
Buddy Cage would return to the New Riders by 1980, and he was on the band's final major label release Feelin Alright (on A&M). Both Cage and Nelson would leave after 1981, however, and Dawson kept the band going intermittently through the mid-90s. Eventually, Dawson, in ill health, retired to Mexico and the New Riders of The Purple Sage seemed just like a memory.
But they weren't, not at all. Buddy Cage and David Nelson reconstituted the band yet again in 2006 with Dawson's approval. The new quintet was more of a country-styled jam band than a country rock band, but who better than them? Robert Hunter came on board and wrote a bunch of new songs with Nelson, and through 2017 the New Riders were a popular live band with interesting new material, unlikely as that may have seemed at century's end.
David Nelson got ill, so the Riders stopped touring, and then Buddy Cage died in 2020. Still, Nelson has led the occasional New Riders tribute date with Barry Sless (of the David Nelson Band) on pedal steel, so just like the Flying Burrito Brothers the New Riders continue to fly the flag they helped hoist so long ago.
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| Gilded Palace Of Sin, by the Flying Burrito Brothers (A&M Records 1969) |
Appendix: Early 1978
In order to research this post, I had to investigate the touring history of both the Flying Burrito Brothers and the New Riders of The Purple Sage prior to April 1978. Anyone who has read this far would probably be interested, so here is what I found. Anyone with additional dates, corrections, insights or useful speculation about the Burritos or the New Riders in the first half of 1978, please put them in the Comments.
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| In 1977, Mercury Records released a Burritos album using the name Sierra, produced by Felix Pappalardi. The band reverted to the Flying Burrito Brothers name by Spring '77. |
Flying Burrito Brothers January-March 1978
According to the two very well researched Flying Burrito Brothers timelines accessible on the web, the band was touring at the beginning of 1978 with Robb Stradlund on lead guitar. Stradlund is mainly known for having written "Already Gone," one of the Eagles first hits. I can find no traces of the band's performances, however, until mid-March. I don't know whether that means they were taking time off or that I simply can't find the dates. I do pick up the trail in mid-March.
March 16, 1978 The Pass, Long Island, NY: Flying Burrito Brothers/Robbin Thompson (Thursday)
I don't know whether Greg Harris had replaced Robb Stradlund by this time.
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| March 20, 1978 Village Voice ad for the Bottom Line |
March 17-18, 1978 Bottom Line, New York, NY: Flying Burrito Brothers/Stormin Norman and Suzy (Friday-Saturday)
It's interesting to note that although the Burritos had never scored a hit, and had not released an album under their own name since 1976 (as Sierra they had released a Mercury Records album in 1977), they could still headline a weekend at the prestigious Bottom Line club. The Flying Burrito Brothers principal constituency had always been rock critics and other musicians. That counted for a lot in Manhattan, even if that didn't particularly sell a lot of tickets at County Fairs in the Midwest.
March 20, 1978 Painesville Agora, OH Flying Burrito Brothers (Monday)
The Agora had been the prestigious Cleveland rock club since about 1968. During this period, there was a satellite Agora club in suburban Painesville. I don't know much about it. The New Riders had played the club the prior Tuesday (see below).
March 22, 1978 Harry Hope's, Carpentersville, IL: Flying Burrito Brothers (Wednesday) two shows
Carpentersville was a distant suburb of Chicago. The listing for the club said "no minors without parent." It just doesn't sound that rock and roll to me. I don't have a sighting of the Burritos until Alberta, below.
April 3-10, 1978 The Refinery, Calgary, AB: Flying Burrito Brothers (Monday-Saturday)
A friendly reviewer praised the Burritos in the Calgary Albertan, as quoted above. The Flying Burrito Brothers were always popular with music writers, and time has proven those writers correct. Given the dated record production, The Gilded Palace Of Sin still sounds like a contemporary "alt-country" record, which is appropriate given its importance. By now, it's probably sold a lot of units, too, but it took several decades. In fact, the lineup reviewed in the Albertan would re-appear in July and tour Japan, but that must have hardly seemed likely at the time.
New Riders of The Purple Sage, January-March 1978
Unlike the Burritos, the New Riders had released an album in late 1977. Marin County Line wasn't a bad record, but it wasn't a hit, and MCA Records dropped the band after three albums. Unlike in sports transactions, when a band is dropped by their record label, there often is no indication. The New Riders would tour California in the Winter, and then the Northeast in March. This was a common touring schedule. Touring the Northeast in the Winter meant hoping you didn't get stuck in a blizzard, which was a great financial risk, so California was much more certain even if the bookings weren't as lucrative.
The early 1978 New Riders of The Purple Sage:
- John Dawson-vocals, guitar
- David Nelson-lead guitar, vocals
- Buddy Cage-pedal steel guitar
- Stephen Love-bass, vocals
- Pat Shanahan-drums
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| January 13, 1978 Santa Cruz Sentinel |
January 12, 1978 Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Cayenne (Thursday)
Santa Cruz is a beach town not far from San Jose and San Francisco, but isolated by daunting mountain roads. It's also the home of UC Santa Cruz (Fiat Slug), and paradise if you don't mind fog. The geography means that the locals go to local venues, not the big city. The Catalyst had opened in 1968 as a coffee shop with folk music, but by 1976 it had moved to a converted bowling alley on 1011 Pacific Avenue that held several hundred. In the New Wave era, Santa Cruz was still a good gig for hippie bands (indeed it still is). The New Riders opened their '78 touring season with a Thursday night show at the Catalyst.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel had a feature on the New Riders at the Catalyst (on January 13). The paper interviewed road manager Bruce Hendricks, who was the head of the three-man road crew. Hendricks would have just replaced long-time road manager Dale Franklin. The band put a cheerful face on their status. "It's a compliment to be copied" said drummer Pat Shanahan.
January 13-14, 1978 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Michael Beargrease Band (Friday-Saturday)
The Inn Of The Beginning was a tiny venue in bucolic Cotati, another hippie college town, near Sonoma State University. The New Riders had played some of their very first gigs at The Inn, back in 1969, with Garcia on pedal steel. Even though it would have been fun, and an easy drive from every band member's house, booking a weekend at a 200-seat venue wasn't the mark of a band on an upward trajectory.
January 18-19, 1978 Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Jay Boy Adams (Wednesday-Thursday)
The Old Waldorf was San Francisco's prestige nightclub, at 444 Battery Street near the Embarcadero Center. It was close to the Financial District and served dinner and drinks. The Old Waldorf was a destination, not a hangout, and it featured bands with a record that were looking for radio play. Cool new bands with record-company supported tours played the club, and the label would provide drinks for the press and radio folks. The New Riders were at least nominally still on MCA, although I don't know if the record company was buying anyone drinks.
Examiner reviewer James Kelton politely dismissed the New Riders in his review of the opening night, even when he acknowledged their professional competence. Kelton's review began "The only conceivable problem with the New Riders of the Purple Sage (who aren't so new anymore) is that they keep traversing the same range." Kelton implicity invokes the Flying Burrito Brothers when he notes that "Another thing working against the Riders is the superlative work of the singers and groups that have (since the Riders' inception) appropriated the Los Angeles-bred sound and evolved an entire subculture around it. Hip country music is no longer anything new."
The Golden Bear, at 306 Pacific Coast Highway, an hour South of Downtown LA, had been presenting music in some form since at least 1929. A weekend at the club wasn't hugely lucrative, and most bands played the club more for Southern California exposure. The New Riders didn't actually need that. Still, it was an easy drive for the equipment truck and band members' airplane flights would have been cheap (due to competition, the LA/SF routes were around $10-$20 a flight), so the booking probably turned a little profit.
January 27, 1978 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Moonlighters (Friday)
January 28, 1978 Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Moonlighters (Saturday)
The New Riders were always welcome at the Keystones, but of course local fans had seen them there many times.
February 9, 1978 The Bodega, Campbell, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Thursday)
I can't confirm this date, but it seems likely. The Bodega was at 30 S. Central Avenue in Campbell, a San Jose suburb. The club was a beer-and-dance joint that booked Top 40 bands, but on Thursday nights they booked bands playing original music. I'm sure everyone danced and the Bodega sold a lot of beer, but this wasn't the Fillmore West.
February 10, 1978 Rio Theater, Rodeo, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Friday)
Rodeo was a small community (population around 8,000) in Contra Costa County in the East Bay, midway between Marin and Berkeley. Geographically it was similar to Santa Cruz, in that while the locals weren't too far from big cities, it was difficult to drive there due to inevitable traffic. Economically, Rodeo had always been near various East Bay industries like meatpacking and oil refineries, so it was hardly a college town. The Rio Theater, a converted movie house, booked bands for the local market and it was generally a good booking for bands who got people up and dancing. The New Riders probably did really well here.
Over the course of a month, the New Riders of The Purple Sage had played nine shows in the Bay Area (plus three down South), for a couple of thousand fans. That was pretty good, and a lot of bands would have been happy with that. Five years ago, however, they were headlining Winterland for two weekend fans, easily drawing that many fans each night. San Francisco was fond of the New Riders, but the Bay Area likes things that are new and different, and that wasn't the Riders.
March 3, 1978 The Rusty Nail Inn, Sunderland, MA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Bricker Band (Friday)
The New Riders were still a solid draw in the Northeast. Even if the band was hardly breaking new ground, out in the cold the New Riders represented California. California, in turn, stood for sunny days, clear air and fresh dope, so they were welcome.
The Capitol Theater in Passaic wasn't far from Manhattan (about 30 miles), but it mostly drew from the New Jersey suburbs. Promoter John Scher had been booking the Capitol since late 1971, and it was a premier stop on the East Coast. Scher had actually booked the New Riders at the Capitol (on April 22, 1972) before he had booked the Dead, so he went way back. The openers were Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn, two original Byrds who had gotten back together as an acoustic duo.
March 7, 1978 Wolf Gym-Auditorium, York College of Pennsylvania, Spring Garden Township, PA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Pure Prairie League (Tuesday)
York, PA was 100 miles and 2 hours West of Philadelphia. York College of Pennsylvania had been founded in 1787, and today has almost 4,000 students. Since this was a University gig, the bands probably got good money. Much of the school and a few townies must have shown up, so it was probably a rocking show. Pure Prairie League was another country rock band that had scored a few hits ("Amie" the best known, from 1975), but the New Riders' status was still higher.
March 8, 1978 Shaboo Inn, Willimantic, CT: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Fat Chance (Wednesday)
The Shaboo Inn was another stop on the touring circuit. Willimantic was about 30 miles East of Hartford. In March, the New Riders bringing thoughts of sunny days would likely have been welcome in Connecticut.
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| Mar 1 Valley Advocate (Amherst MA) |
March 9, 1978 Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Thursday) 7pm & 10pm
Worcester was about an hour West of Boston.
March 10, 1978 Villanova Union, Villanova U, Villanova, PA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Uproar (Friday)
Villanova University was about an hour West of Philadelphia, in the suburbs. A lot of college students must have come to this show. There would not only have been a lot of young men from Villanova and nearby Swarthmore, but if they were lucky some nice girls from Bryn Mawr might have consented to join them.
March 12, 1978 Suffolk Forum, Commack, NY: Jerry Garcia Band/New Riders of The Purple Sage/Robert Hunter & Comfort (Sunday) Monarch Entertainment co-presents
Once more the New Riders were booked for a show an hour outside of the big city rather than in town. In this case it was Long Island. The Suffolk Forum was an aging hockey arena, and John Scher (Monarch Entertainment) had booked the Jerry Garcia Band. Opening the show was not only the never-seen-in-the-East Robert Hunter, with his band Comfort, but the New Riders as well. Back in 1962, Hunter, Garcia and Nelson had formed a little bluegrass trio called The Wildwood Boys. Now, here they were in Long Island in front of several thousand people, with 31 albums between them.
This was an epic, legendary Long Island event that went from 8:00pm until 3:00am. I have written about it at great length (note the awesome Comment thread). The New Riders would only open for the Grateful Dead three more times after this (Giants Stadium, closing of Winterland, 1981 New Year's).
The Painesville Agora was at 54 S. State Street, about 30 miles East of Cleveland, near Lake Erie. Once again, the New Riders were booked an hour outside of a big city. The Flying Burrito Brothers would play the Painesville Agora the next week. The Painesville Agora charged $5.50 for the New Riders, and just $4.50 for the Burritos, which sums up the bands comparative appeal fairly scientifically.
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| March 4, 1978 Elmira Gazette |
March 16, 1978 Decker Gym, Mansfield State College, Mansfield, MA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/James Cotton Blues Band (Thursday)
This was another college gig. Mansfield is between Boston and Providence.
The New Riders closed out their March tour with some good weekend bookings in the Midwest. Youngstown is midway between Cleveland, Akron and Pittsburgh. Major rock bands didn't stop there much.
March 18, 1978 Bogart's, Cincinnati, OH: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Saturday) 8pm & 11pm
The New Riders were booked for two shows at Bogart's on Saturday night. We know it went well, since they were booked to return a few months later (see above). Cincinnati was one of the few large cities that the New Riders played on this tour, and note that they played a club not a concert (albeit a lucrative club).
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| March 11, 1978 Daily Ilini ad for Panama Red's at 35 E. Creek |
March 19, 1978 Panama Red's, Champaign, IL: New Riders of The Purple Sage (Sunday) 6pm & 10 pm
The New Riders March tour closed in Champaign, IL, at a club club called Panama Red's. Champaign was the "college town" for the huge University of Illinois. It had an extensive live rock club scene in the area known as "Cham-Bana" to locals (a reference to the Champaign-Urbana metro area). The best known band to come out of Cham-Bana was REO Speedwagon.
Panama Red's had opened around October 1977. They booked popular local bands and whatever touring bands came to Champaign. "Panama Red" was the New Riders' signature song, although since the Old And In The Way album had been released in 1975, Jerry Garcia was now associated with the song as well. One of the listings for the club said that the Riders were "the perfect band for Panana Red's" and indeed they were.
Still, the booking shows the rapid arc of Pop Culture. "Panama Red" had become widely known when the New Riders had released their Columbia album of the same name in October 1973. Old And In The Way had released their album (recorded in '73) in February '75, effectively recirculating the song again into every college dorm. By October '77, a club in Illinois was named after the song, the name so embedded in the lingo that no explanation was necessary.
The New Riders of The Purple Sage themselves played Panama Red's in March of 1978. Shortly afterwards, Buddy Cage and Stephen Love would leave the band, and the New Riders would continue their long decline. David Nelson would leave the band in John Dawson's hands at the end of 1981. Panama Red's lasted until February, 1983, with fewer and fewer touring bands, when it became a gay bar called The Maxx.
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