Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Cynthia, during the summer of ‘64 when the Tangent tapes were
recorded, I was traveling around the country in a ‘56 Chevy wagon
loaded with camping equipment, guitars and a banjo.  I was with my
friend Vance Frost, whom I had met through Bob Weir and with whom I
would later produce the Grateful Dead audio documentary in 1969.  It
was Vance, actually, who sparked the release of the Mother McCree’s CD
when he came across one of the old tapes in his garage in late 1995.

As for any tapes that aren’t part of this release, I have the 10
original “Live from the Top of the Tangent” programs, but the other
performers on those recordings - The Enigmas, The Jaspers, Bolek and
Dave, Buddy Bonn - were not part of Jerry’s gang.

David Parker, a Mother McCree’s former band member, remembers
practicing in Jerry’s dirt floor garage.  He said it was separated from
the house, in sort of an orchard, some distance from other houses,
making it a perfect place to jam away without bothering anyone in the
neighborhood.

I remember some of us thinking of Jerry as the “old guy,” too.  He had
a white T-bird and was old enough to have already been in the Army. 
Whoa!
  

    
Where do the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers fit into this?
  

    
I thought it was a Corvair.
  

    
Most of the playing that Bob and I did together was just the two of us
on our own.  When I re-connected with Bob in ‘95 to give him a copy of
the Mother McCree’s tape, he said, “I think you’re the first guy I
ever played guitar with.”  For a while, Michael Cooney, the musician
who beat Jerry in the banjo contest at the Monterey Folk Festival, was
a major inspiration for us.  Debby Peckham, who Bob knew from the
progressive school in Palo Alto, knew a lot of Cooney’s stuff and
taught it to Bob, who then taught it to me - still some of the best
stuff I can play.

One Open Mic night at the Tangent, Bob and I both showed up to play,
independently of each other.  He asked me to join him in a version of
“Long Black Veil” because he’d worked out a harmony part and needed
someone to sing lead.  

In the fall of ‘63, Bob asked me to join a band he was forming with
Debby and another friend, Rachel Garbett. (Rachel is the sister of Mike
Garbett, one of the Mother McCree’s band members.)  At my father’s
suggestion, we called ourselves The Uncalled Four.  Bob and Debby
played guitar, Rachel played autoharp, and, since we were all way into
bluegrass music, they needed someone who could play Scruggs-style
banjo.  I barely knew the rudiments, but it was better than no banjo at
all. We had a great time working up arrangements to old-timey stuff
that we found on a popular album, "Dian and the Greenbriar Boys." We
performed only once at Top of the Tangent. It was another Open Mic
night and, as I recall, we played "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down,"
"Alabama Bound," "Green Corn," and "Brown's Ferry Blues."
  

    
The Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers was one of Jerry's bluegrass bands that
preceded The Wildwood Boys and The Black Mountain Boys.  And all those
preceded Mother McCree's.
  

    
Mike Garbett? I remember him. He had an old Indian motorcycle that he
took me riding on once. Cool!
  

    
Was Debby Peckham related to Judge Robert Peckham, by any chance?  He was
memorable for many progressive decisions, most notably (in my youth) paving
the way for kids to wear their hair long as schools in the area. :^)


>At my fathers suggestion, we called ourselves The Uncalled Four.

Your dad is quite the wise guy!
  

    
Cynthia, did you know Sue Swanson and/or Connie Bonner?
  

    
>Your dad is quite the wise guy!

I'll second that emotion!  As to Debby Peckham's family, maybe someone
out there knows...

Sue Swanson has worked for GDP, I believe, for quite some time now. 
She knew Bob Weir at Menlo-Atherton H.S.
  

    
*I* know that, Michael!  I'm wondering if Cynthia knew her back then.
  

    
I assumed you knew that, David.  I just threw it in there for general
consumption as another small piece of the Palo Alto scene.
  

    
Garbett!  Good heavens!  Mike & Rachel are 2 of the older siblings
of my friend Becca Garbett.  These connections are news to me.
  

    
I love these small-world collisions!
  

    
>> Cynthia, did you know Sue Swanson and/or Connie Bonner?

No, sorry. At least their names don't sound familiar to me.

And as for these "small-world collisions," it's darned amazing, ain't it?
  

    
As for Small World Collisions, there's one that I would like to make
happen.  In the process of producing the Mother McCree's CD, I was able
to track down everyone involved except Tom Stone, one of the former
band members.  If anyone has a lead to his whereabouts, please let me
know or have him get in touch with me.  GDP will soon have a royalty
check waiting for him.  Thanks.
  

    

How cool *that* would be -- to get a royalty check for something you did 35
years ago, with no expectations except to have a good, goofy time!
  

    
Michael, how is the CD selling...  I don't mean how much, but to whom.
Does this CD have appeal for bluegrass fans, or is it mostly of interest 
to those who are (also) deadheads?

And are you getting reviews...  ?
  

    
I don't have any demographic information about CD sales.  However,
from what I hear, beyond its historical significance,  it's such fun
music played with so much enthusiasm that both folkies and Deadheads
alike are really groovin' on the tunes.

There have been several articles written about the release, but the
only review I've seen was in the San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook,
Sunday, April 11, 1999, page 49.  They gave it 4 Stars!
  

    

We have been enjoying it!
  

    

Michael, what's the deal with the spelling of the band name on that poster in
the CD booklet?
  

    <scribbled by vidkid Mon 17 May 99 16:26>
  

    

I don't know why this message got stuck in my queue, but here it is:

From: "Peter Jurew" <pjurew@smartmoney.com>
To: <inkwell-hosts@well.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 14:27:19 -0400


kudos to those involved for bringing these tapes to public attention.J Part
of a renaissance -- Harry Smith, Dylan/The Band '66, Mother McCree -- of a
kind of soul music.
  

    

>Michael, what's the deal with the spelling of the band name on that poster
>the CD booklet?

That's discussed somewhere in the liner notes -- the band, out of sheer
prankster perversity, decided to spell the name differently from gig to gig
(I think one of the clubs misspelled it first, and they just decided to go
with it!).
  

    
A nice piece of email to receive, David!
  

    
(Note: This is a modified version of my posting (#46 of 49) regarding
the different spelling of the band’s name.  The first one, which I
scribbled on May 17, caused a misprint in the message. - MW)

Dave Parker, one of the Mother McCree’s band members, provided the
poster that appears on the back tray of the CD jewel case.  The poster,
which incorporates lots of odd little graphics and text styles, was
put together by the band, coincidentally, for the series of
performances from which the CD recordings were made: July 16, 17 & 18,
1964.  It seems that very few people have noticed that the spelling of
the band’s name on the poster is “McRhea.”  

According to Dave, “Some of us, or at least me, went around Palo Alto
putting these things up because we were totally unknown.”  Regarding
the spelling, Dave says, “That was kind of an inside joke.  'McCree'
was the way it appeared in ads and on the Tangent marquee.  But when it
came time to print the flyers, we had a sort of anarchic go 'round
about the whole thing and ended up deciding to spell it a different way
each time we printed a flyer, just for kicks and general confusion."

You can see a copy of the poster on my website: www.vidkid.com  
From the Mother McCree’s link, just find your way to The “McRhea”
Flyer.