Healy Treece Band	February 8, 1980
Stage West, West Hartford, CT

Source: Patch off Healy's deck (unknown mics on a stand at the mixing desk)-> AGFA normal bias cassette masters w/Dolby B recorded on a TEAC A-170S.

Transfer: Nakamichi Dragon (Dolby B) playback-> Lexicon Lambda-> Logic (wav tracking only)-> xACT (sbe correction)-> FLAC  TRT 02:07:37

Personnel:
Dan Healy - guitar, vocals
Richard Treece - guitar, vocals
Diane Margolis - vocals, tambourine
Keith Godchaux - keyboards, vocals
Mike Larshied- bass
Bill Kruetzman - drums

		Set 1 (58:58)
1	//Willie & The Hand Jive	06:25
2	Just A Song			08:15
3	Bye Bye Love			05:26
4	Miss You			08:45
5	Unchain My Heart		07:47
6	Don't Knock It			06:34
7	You Better Move On		05:06
8	Slippin' Into Darkness		10:38

		Set 2 (68:37)
9	-tuning up			01:40
10	I've Been Working		16:51
11	Runaway				09:26
12	I Shall Be Released		07:30
13	Nadine				04:34
14	It Takes A Lot To Laugh,
	  A Train To Cry		06:48
15	Bring It On Home		10:56
16	Stagger Lee & Billy		05:27
		encore:
17	Johnny B. Goode			05:22

Notes:
Recorded back during my college days, when I often worked as a stage hand at this venue, which would continue off and on during the Agora Ballroom years. That place was quite the education and I wound up wearing many hats, doing everything from stage work, house mixing, monitor mixing or lights to hospitality and even security a few times (which was laughable, since I was the smallest guy on the crew and totally irresponsible). At this early stage in my career, this essentially translated into humping gear during load ins and load outs. This particular night was a strange setup and a last minute scramble in terms of my recording. I had no deck or blanks with me and hadn't planned on recording. And to make matters more challenging, Healy Treece didn't want to use the house system anyway, nor did they want to play on the stage!

For those who might remember Stage West/The Agora or any of its other permutations, it had a big room and a small room.  Naturally, this gig took place in the small room, as it was a snowy winter night and they only drew a couple hundred people at best. Instead of setting up on stage, Healy Treece insisted on setting up on the floor directly in front of the stage - the only time I've ever seen a band do this there. They also brought in their own relatively small PA. Everyone sat at tables directly in front of the band.

About 10 minutes before showtime I noticed their FOH engineer setting up a rig and struck up a conversation with him. He said he was recording it for the band using Healy's mics (I didn't note what they were) and I was welcome to patch off his deck if I wanted to. So, I ran to the house equipment, found a couple of cassettes, grabbed the house deck (a beat up old TEAC A-170S toploader with VU meters), a patch cord and scrambled to get myself plugged in as the first song was starting. I missed the first minute or so, but it was smooth sailing after that.

I don't know if this recording has previously circulated, but it may have, as I made cassette copies for a bunch of friends shortly afterwards. I also later made CD copies for a few friends and Richard Treece's daughter, but it was before I had the Nak Dragon (for more good vibes - Jerry Moore's Dragon, which I had rebuilt several years ago). The blanks were just cheap no-label normal bias AGFAs, but they were better than nothing at the time. Despite the equipment and the tape stock, this sounds quite good and remains my favorite recording of this band. They were having a good time on the East Coast and so was everyone else. As you can tell from the setlist, Healy Treece was essentially a covers band, but one with good taste. The two peak moments of the show for me were at the tail end of the first set and the start of the second set. Their cover of War's "Slippin' Into Darkness" had everyone on their feet clamoring for the second set and they delivered with an extended jam on Van Morrison's "I've Been Working" to kick that second set off.

Even if this is circulating, this is the definitive transfer. Feel free to spread it far and wide.  Alan Bershaw - January 2017





