albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com
The Great American Music Band with Maria Muldaur - Pilgrimage Theater, Hollywood, CA, 4-20-1974
Back in May 2026, I posted a concert by the Great American Music Band. Here's how I described it in my write-up back then: "This band was a collaboration between David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Taj Mahal, and others. It was a mostly instrumental and acoustic band that combined folk, bluegrass, and jazz. It was a loose association, with people coming and going."
Unfortunately, for the Ebbets Field concert I posted then, Jerry Garcia didn't take part in that particular concert. His involvement in this music project was one of the most interesting things about it, so I was interested to find a concert where he did take part. Nothing from this band has ever been officially released. But I did find this concert with great soundboard sound quality, and it does have Garcia playing on all the songs.
Plus, this concert has a guest vocalist: Maria Muldaur sang lead or backing vocals on many songs. Interestingly, this came right around the time her song "Midnight at the Oasis" reached the Top Ten in the U.S. singles chart. (It was released as a single in November 1973, made a slow climb, peaking in June 1974.)
It seems this band was basically a bunch of musical friends experimenting with musical collaboration on stage. Perhaps that's why nothing from the band has ever been released. For instance, Garcia played banjo instead of guitar on all the songs, and he rarely played banjo, relatively speaking. He also didn't sing at all, and kept a low profile. Taj Mahal played stand-up bass, an instrument he also rarely played. However, he did sing some, although about half of the songs are instrumentals.
This album is 58 minutes long.
01 talk by emcee (Great American Music Band)
02 talk (Great American Music Band)
03 Limehouse Blues [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
04 talk (Great American Music Band)
05 Dawg's Bull [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
06 talk (Great American Music Band)
07 My Plastic Banana Isn't Stupid [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
08 talk (Great American Music Band)
09 Swing '42 [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
10 talk (Great American Music Band)
11 Coloured Aristocracy [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
12 talk (Great American Music Band)
13 Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Great American Music Band)
14 talk (Great American Music Band)
15 Dawg's Rag [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
16 talk (Great American Music Band)
17 I'll Be a Gambler If You Deal the Cards (Great American Music Band)
18 talk (Great American Music Band)
19 Midnight at the Oasis (Great American Music Band)
20 talk (Great American Music Band)
21 Sweet Georgia Brown (Great American Music Band)
22 talk by emcee (Great American Music Band)
23 talk (Great American Music Band)
24 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Great American Music Band)
25 talk by emcee (Great American Music Band)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/1gNENLpH
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/x6UZLnVagHrp0F5/file
The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Maria Muldaur, Taj Mahal and David Nichtern. As an aside, Nichtern is the person who wrote "Midnight at the Oasis." Another band member, Richard Greene, is not shown. Bob Gurland guested on trumpet on some songs in this concert, and he also isn't shown.
