Robert Hunter & Comfort
1978-02-07 or 08  San Francisco, CA  Shady Grove  (M1-SBD)

First Set :::
01. --tune-up--
02. Cruel White Water
03. Ariel
04. Hooker's Ball
05. She Gives Me Love
06. Big Wind
07. It Must Have Been The Roses
08. Rum Runners
09. It's True
10. Friend Of The Devil -> Promontory Rider

Second Set :::
11. Arizona Lightning
12. Standing At Your Door
13. Let Me Go
14. Miles High
15. ...Alligator Moon Suite
16. Only You
17. Jesse James
18. That Train

Total Time ::: 01:46:23

::: Excellent crisp stereo soundboard with some instrument mix issues. Check samples for wisdom acquisition or flutters of aural stimulation.
::: Warts: Instrument mix balance was a mess. Fixed what I could, then mixed channels to more normal stereo, but instrument levels do fluctuate & the guitars are still low.
::: Tape labeled "Shady Grove 1977-78" & was dated by giglists & comments Hunter makes about the famous Boston snowstorm! How do you like them chickens?! I was in Boston during that storm. Very cool to see tens of thousands of people out on the streets everyday, walking (no cars allowed), and what was really great was people were amazingly friendly & enjoying themselves for the most part. Excellent vision of humanity facing adversity. In any case, the correct date is almost certainly the 7th or 8th of February, 1978. Hunter played both nights.
::: Dates & band line-up assistance by way of http://lostlivedead.blogspot.de/2009/07/robert-hunter-and-comfort-performing.html - Thanks for your archival work.

Recording Information ::: soundboard -> unknown recording equipment -> stereo reel-to-reel master tapes -> 1st generation Maxell XLII-S 90 cassettes, Dolby B on.

Playback 2012-02-27 ::: 1st generation Maxell XLII-S 90 cassettes on Nakamichi BX-300 cassette deck, Dolby B on, azimuth & pitch adjusted, heads cleaned & demagnatized -> Tascam CD-RW900SL pro CD recorder -> CD-RW -> computer, EAC secure -> wavs -> Audacity (fades &/or glitches, dropouts, volume adjustments, no EQ) -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yer ears. Some mastering notes: The original tape has bizarre, extreme instrument imbalance problems & completely different things going into each channel. The master tape was recorded incredibly low in spots - a problem with no limiter & a small club. The sound engineer wasn't concerned with the recording mix... So, after about 14 full hours of voume diddling, you get what you hear (or see if you look). It may look brickwalled in places as I brought down a lot of high level spots (manually), but only brought up a bit of the low level stuff to keep the music more intact. I then mixed the channels somewhat to balance out the stero mix & I think the result is pretty damn good. The fluctuations on my original cassettes ruin continuous listening but now I find it a pleasure (though the guitars are still a bit low & things change around). Overall quality is a crisp soundoard & it's primetime for Hunter & Comfort. First uploaded week of 2012-06-01.

Line-up (unconfirmed) ::: Robert Hunter - guitar, vocals // Kevin Morgenstern - lead guitar // Rodney Albin - violin, mandolin, (trumpet on "Only You"? banjo on part of "Alligator Moon Suite"? - someone plays them...) // Ozzie Allers - keyboards // Larry Klein - six string bass // Pat Lorenzano - drums // Marlene Molle - vocals // Kathleen Klein - vocals.

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

CoolSonics 157 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader! ::: Corrections welcome ::: This is the jelly in the donut, magical musical mind food. Bob's songwriting has always been as unique & special as it gets, & I find his vocal delivery mesmerising. In my opinion, Comfort gigs were his live performance heyday. Since he has been so generous about letting us trade & archive his music, we can only hope someone can raid his studio archives before most of us are gone. For that matter, original album mixes of his first 2 albums would be REALLY appreciated. Enjoy... almost 2 hours of fun.

Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes&more & Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace). Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Weeks, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift. Thanks to the Mods for keepin' DIME alive. Enjoy, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees

Support the artist! But if you are looking at this, you probably already have & do!

Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!


