the Wildebeest connection

Joe and Corry tossed this around for a second back in 2016, so this is no great discovery, but the discographical nerd in me needs to mark this very marginal release with a post.  I had stumbled upon this record a a few months ago while looking around Discogs for recordings that John Kahn played on.  What really caught my attention was the presence of Jimmy Warren, who played electric piano alongside organist Melvin Seals in the JGB for 15 months in 1981-1982.  $2.11 later (plus shipping), and I present: Reckless Dreams by Wildebeest.

I am curious about John Kahn spent his downtime when the Dead were on the road, since it doesn't seem like he played regularly with anyone else (did he?), so it makes sense that he would get involved with producing a local Bay Area band.  The eyebrow-raiser is that the Dead organization was involved.  Kahn brought Palo Alto's own Wildebeest into Club Front from April 1-5, 1981 to record a 5-song EP using the studio's 24-track Studer @30ips and Neve 24-track console.  I know this because it says so prominently on the back cover, before the names of the bandmembers are given.  Kahn was credited with co-writing one song, and also played synthesizer on every track (Kahn owned an Oberheim synthesizer, not a common household item, and had encouraged keyboardist Ozzie Ahlers to play the same model in the 1980 edition of the JGB).  Jimmy Warren was involved enough in the project to get a co-producer credit, and he also adds a few synth parts of his own.  Betty Cantor-Jackson and John Cutler were working the boards -- and, notably, Betty is also credited along with Kahn on the record label itself.  That's a really unusual thing for an engineer, so I am inferring from this that her name had significant cachet with Deadheads even back then (remember, this was still years before anyone had heard of a Bettyboard).  Even Sue Stevens of GDP is credited on the sleeve with "logistics and planning."  So I am assuming that Kahn was calling in a favor here.  He had certainly logged plenty of hours at Club Front with Garcia, but given that this project had no direct connection to the JGB or the Dead, one might assume that this happened only because Garcia must have given it the okay.

engineered by Betty Cantor-Jackson, in case you were wondering.

pardon the unintentional selfie

This may be unrelated, but I can't help noticing that Kahn also performed onstage with the Dead twice in this same time period, the only time such a thing happened: two acoustic sets at benefit shows (4/25/81 and 5/22/81), although neither was actually billed as the Grateful Dead.  The story goes that Lesh claims nobody told him about it.  That may have absolutely nothing to do with Kahn bringing a small local band into Club Front for a week, but I wonder.  [edit, July 2025: Lostlivedead made a recent examination of the Dead's acoustic benefit performances, including these two shows, if you want some well-informed speculation]

This also prompts some speculation (on my part, anyway) about Club Front's function as a recording studio outside of the Dead's immediate orbit.  I don't have any sense that it was used that way.  But it certainly could have been -- and it certainly could have brought in some additional income, but the Dead's/Garcia's cashflow problems is not my area of expertise.  Placeholder for that one for now.

Oh, right: and how's the music?  It's okay for what it is.  The cover could suggest either metal or loopy psychedelia, but it's more middle-of-the-road than either: some tunes have a Heart/Pat Benetar kind of vibe, others have a more rootsy blues-rock boogie with slide guitar.  The beat goes on.  But to be fair, I am sure they sounded much better in a bar like the Keystone than at home on the record player (this less-than-rave review in the Sanford Daily appears to agree).

Ah well.  One more piece of the puzzle.  For two bucks, it was a worthy purchase.

postscript: a few words about Jimmy Warren

pic from Jake Feinberg's page, presumably a screenshot from the JGB 6/24/82 video

Until Jake Feinberg aired an interview with Jimmy Warren in 2018, almost nothing was known about him in the deadhead world besides the strong implication that he was a drug buddy of Kahn's and Garcia's.  In his fine interview, Feinberg understandably goes easy on the question of drugs.  Warren explains, in short, that he moved to Mill Valley in the late 70's with his then-girlfriend Liz Stires, met and became friends with Kahn, and would hang out at his home 8-track studio and help record demos (Warren recalls playing on the demo of the Kahn/Hunter tune "Leave the Little Girl Alone," later recorded for Run for the Roses; Liz Stires also apparently recorded several demos with Kahn and Warren).  Eventually, he was finally invited to audition for the JGB -- and Stires, as you probably know, also became one of the backup singers.  Others have implied that he was there more for the procurement of the substances that were of great interest to Kahn, Garcia, and Rock Scully.  No one seems to have spoken explicitly about it on the record one way or the other, and I am sure that the situation involves several stories that are both contradictory and true.  But regardless, Kahn and Warren seem to have been close for a time.  Warren also tells Feinberg a nice story: after leaving the JGB and moving to Annapolis, MD, John Kahn sat in with Warren's band after a JGB show (which must have been in the wee hours of 11/6/82).  I have a hunch that Warren's role in this Wildebeest record was a mitzvah from Kahn.  But, as always, this is conjecture, and I would love to know more.

8/22/81 JGB and Phil

First, rest in peace to Jim Vita, taper of many fine GD and JGB shows in the early/mid 80's, including this one.  We all owe him and all tapers a great deal.

So what's the deal with this show?  It sticks out because Phil Lesh is playing bass with the JGB (and a Fender Jazz Bass, at that), which had also happened that June for a small run of shows that John Kahn missed in order to travel Europe with his mother.  JGMF has posts on 6/24/81 and 6/25/81, and Lostlivedead has an eyewitness account of 6/26/81 (also officially released in part).  But Lesh popped up again at this show two months later, in a place Garcia had never played before or again, in the middle of a normal weekend run of Keystone shows where Kahn was otherwise present.  

Why would Kahn play Friday, Saturday, and Monday, but miss the Sunday gig?  My uninformed guess is that it had something to do with the show itself, a benefit for "Fairfax schools" (and a pricey one at that: $15 as compared to $7-10 for the average JGB or Dead show that month).  The venue was the Fairfax Pavilion, a community rec center in the heart of tiny downtown Fairfax, right next to the little league field.  Phil Lesh happened to be a Fairfax resident since 1968 and, at this stage in his life, a regular patron of Fairfax's drinking establishments (although he moved to San Rafael around this time, according to his book, so I don't know if he was still getting mail there or what).  It seems like a strange coincidence that he just happened to play a one-time gig with Garcia at his local community center that was a benefit for a local community interest.  Dave from Grateful Seconds saw this show and remembers knowing in advance that Lesh would be playing, so the "subbing for Kahn" idea seems even less likely.  Does anyone know more about that one?

There are a number of well-circulated Bob Minkin photos from this night (some here) of Garcia beaming at Lesh and both of them looking pretty happy (compared with Minkin's pics of two nights earlier at the Keystone, where Garcia and Kahn both look like overcooked seafood).  Unfortunately, though, according to some attendees, it was a weird night with heavy police presence and a phoned-in death threat (see Jerrybase comments).  And I am sorry to say that musically it isn't great, either.  The brief 38 minute first set is the worse of the two.  Garcia totally loses the changes during his first solo in How Sweet It Is and blows the "open my eyes at night" verse after his second one, neither of which seems like a good sign at all.  Mission in the Rain has some tempo issues at first, but is otherwise decent.  Keyboardist Jimmy Warren is not having a particularly good night either, and fizzles through most of his solos.  Sugaree lifts off a bit during Garcia's second solo.  Tangled Up in Blue has more tempo issues, wobbling from 125 to 135bpm from the beginning to the first solo, more lyric flubs, then Garcia sparks a quick two minute jam before punching out quickly.  The second set (about 45 min) is a bit more together.  I'll Take a Melody isn't bad (I hear some scatting from one of the singers in the jam), but the highlight is The Harder They Come, a tune I usually feel more ambivalent about than not.  As was usual for this lineup, Warren and Melvin Seals lay down a bubbling, interlocking two-keyboard groove for the jam, which Lesh complements with a minimal bass accompaniment (compared with Kahn's typically more bustly part), and Garcia rolls out the carpet over it.  Not bad!  Knockin' sounds fine to me, if a little stiff at first, and Midnight Moonlight finds a solid, steady tempo for itself.

Like the June shows, it's hard to say anything specific about Lesh's bass playing.  You would think he would stick out for his trademark unusual style, but he mostly plays it pretty safe here and (probably wisely) sticks to the parameters of the songs.  Occasionally something pops out as an only Phil would play that moment, but those are few and far between.

Also of note, this weekend were the last shows drummer Daoud Shaw played with the band.  Kreutzmann seems to have filled in for the September gigs (there's a picture of him at the next JGB show on 9/7/81), and then Ron Tutt returned for the November '81 east coast tour (and presumably two Keystone warm-up gigs immediately beforehand, which do not yet circulate on tape).  And Phil Lesh never played with the JGB again after this one strange night in downtown Fairfax.

photo by Bob Minkin

Merl Saunders & Friends 8/23/78

While googling images for the last post, I came across this (from the site of Bolerium Books):

Robert Pruzan, photo & David Wilts, design

I know, I know.  Every time the words "Merl Saunders" and "special guest" appeared together, it was obviously code for only one thing.  Still: just for John Kahn's presence, this is one more piece to add to the pre-Reconstruction puzzle.  The Shady Grove was the club where Garcia joined Saunders & Friends for a benefit (to keep the club opened) on 10/3/78 (edit: also 10/2, which doesn't appear to have been taped).  He hadn't played onstage with Saunders since July 1975, although Saunders apparently did a week of recording with the JGB in Sept 1977, per JGMF (mysterious).

EDIT: commenter David Kramer-Smyth reports being in touch with "one of the partners of the Shady Grove" and reveals that Garcia was actually present!?  Saunders, Kahn, Garcia, plus Maria Muldaur.  Um, wow.

The timeline fits, at least: Garcia doesn't seem to have been doing anything on 8/23/78, except for maybe working with John Kahn on overdubbing and mixing Shakedown Street.  Studio dates at Jerrybase and a Bettyboard studio cassette dated 8/25 (from the ABCD batch) make it seem pretty likely that Garcia was local on 8/23. 

I would love to know what Kahn was up to in 1978 when not playing with the JGB, if anything.  Lostlivedead had a great series of posts (almost 10 years ago) on Kahn's work history, but the last one ended with 1974.

The Shady Grove was (as far as I can tell) the local Haight-Ashbury club and hangout for a time until it closed in 1980.  According to the Facebook page of Leif Grafix,"the Haight Street Fair evolved out of a cooperatively run night club on Haight Street called Shady Grove. Merl Saunders & Friends performed regularly at SG and as the street fair formed they essentially became its house band, performing at every fair for decades."  Robert Hunter played there regularly in 1976 (and later).  And in his book Skeleton Key, Steve Silberman recalled that, circa 1979-80, "Garcia would occasionally be seen at the bar in a Yankees jacket."  Seems like the perfect disguise for an incognito San Francisco rock star.

2/5/74: Martin and Martin?

[addendum, 2024: I'm adding a small further bit of defense for my theory below]

A casual listen to Garcia & Saunders at the Great American Music Hall on 2/5/74, to double-check a comment about a mystery guest saxophonist, yielded (of course) a scad of observations that are not quite as coherently unified as I would like.  But such is the practice of observation, I guess.

2/5/74, courtesy gdsets

The recording of this show:

This show (and its neighbor, 2/9/74 at the Rheem Theatre in Moraga, CA) are unusual for being recorded a by taper, Ed Perlstein, who was able to connect his deck to a feed from the soundboard.  He got unplugged at the Rheem, but taped the full show on 2/5.  One drawback of a straight sbd feed is that it's not meant to be heard in isolation, i.e. at home (which is no fault of Mr. Perlstein's, of course): it's a mix for the room that is supplementing the sound coming from the band's gear onstage, so we get very prominent vocals, kickdrum, and saxophone, a little bit of everything else, and less electric guitar, since Garcia's amps tended to be really loud.  At times, his guitar is almost inaudible on this tape, which is not a point in its favor.  The 2/9/74 tape doesn't suffer from this as badly, but it was also a bigger venue (it held 1000; the GAMH held less than half that, see below).

The show itself:

is enjoyable, but not one for the ages.  To my ears, 1/17/74 at the Keystone is the one great performance from the first half of the year (which got better as it progressed: see the 6/4-6/6 shows, much of August, and Paul Humphrey's run in October-November).  2/5/74 sounds like it was a fun old night at the office for the band, who play nothing wildly inspired, but are in a nice, loose, happy groove.  I am pretty sure that Billy Kreutzmann is on drums, and he gives everything an ideal swing and pop -- it's always worth highlighting what a great drummer he is, even if he rarely stands out like Paul Humphrey or even Ron Tutt would have.  But check his work on Someday Baby, Roadrunner, It's Too Late: all meat 'n potatoes rhythm & blues, but Billy K puts 'em all right where they should be.  In terms of highlights from Garcia, though, there's not a lot that stands out to my ear.  Tunes that blossomed into more extended vehicles elsewhere are relatively restrained here: La-La, My Problems Got Problems, Wondering Why, Are You Lonely For Me, and so on.  My favorite "jam" here is My Funny Valentine, stretching past 20 minutes and worth every second.

Martin Fierro and the mystery saxophone:

Maybe it's my imagination, but Fierro seems to be given more of the spotlight early in the night: he gets the first solo on the first song, Someday Baby (nice touch to hear Garcia call out "Martin!"), and follows it with La-La, his own composition.  One big mystery of this show -- the reason, actually, that I revisited it -- is that a second saxophone is audible for almost the entire second set, starting at the end of The Harder They Come.  A few mystery trumpet players notwithstanding, I think there is only one other recording of a guest saxophonist from this period: 9/2/74, a baritone sax which might be Snookie Flowers.  What stands out about 2/5 is that this second saxophone doesn't take a single solo, as far as I can tell.  Nearly everything he(?) plays are simple unison lines with Fierro, with pretty close harmonies.  At no point does this second saxophone seem to do anything other than mirror what Fierro is doing: there are some very brief moments in My Funny Valentine and Are You Lonely For Me where the two horns are playing lines that are independent, but otherwise they are in lock-step with each other.  The only times that the second sax disappears is during Wondering Why -- where Fierro plays flute -- or when Fierro is taking a proper sax solo of his own (e.g. Think).

So, I wonder, is this actually a second horn player, or is it all Fierro?  It's not an electronic harmony effect (those exist now, but I don't know if they did in 1974, and Fierro doesn't seem to have used any electronic attachments until later that summer, anyway).  Could he have been playing two horns at once, a la Rahsaan Roland Kirk?  In jazz, that technique is associated almost exclusively with Kirk (who could do it with three), and although many surely dismissed it as a gimmick, it was nevertheless done.  To my knowledge, George Braith was Kirk's only contemporary who regularly used the technique on his recordings, but search Youtube for "two saxophones at once" to see more contemporary examples.  Here is Jeff Coffin (of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones and the Dave Matthews Band) demonstrating how it's done (start at 4:30).

Granted, if this is the case, this would be the only Garcia/Saunders recording where he does this, which would also be pretty strange.  But is it as strange as a second saxophonist playing nearly perfect unison parts with Fierro all night -- but never taking a single solo break -- for just this one performance?  Nothing that both horns plays is in any way complex, mostly just little accompaniment riffs, but it seems far too tight to be just an off-the-cuff guest appearance, and I can't imagine that Fierro and another player would have rehearsed for this.  I can far more easily imagine Fierro playing two horns, then never doing it again after a single raised eyebrow from Garcia, or simply because it was a pain in the ass.

Any thoughts?

[edit: I posted more evidence in the comments.  I'm not going to re-edit this post, though, so see below if you're still not buying it]

[addendum Nov 2024; this occurred to me out of the blue today and I wanted to add it here rather than tuck it away down in the comments]

Further thoughts on why Fierro might have done this just once at this one particular show: consider the sense of occasion.  As outlined below, this show established the GAMH as Garcia's San Francisco room of choice for the next year-and-a-half.  I wonder if it also wasn't something of a debut for Fierro?  Granted, he'd already been playing with the band in a more casual capacity -- he plays on 7/19/73 and 10/2/73 (Winterland) which were both unusual shows with added musical guests; he's on two of the four circulating Keystone shows from Oct-Nov 73 -- but there are plenty more known G/S shows with no tape/setlist, so we don't know how regularly Fierro was present.  On the next available tape, 1/17/74 Keystone, someone in the crowd asks who the sax player is and Garcia introduces him by name.  So it seems safe to assume he may not have been established as a band member yet (or maybe he was and that's just some doof asking what many people already knew?).  So now, on 2/5/74, the band is playing a bigger, fancier space than the Keystone, right in the heart of San Francisco. Maybe no one says so, but maybe the feeling is that something a little special is happening, for Fierro at least. As I said above, Fierro seems to be given more of the spotlight early in the night (Garcia calling him out name as he plays the first solo of the night, then playing his own tune next).  Maybe Fierro figures he'll mark the occasion by trying something a little extra, maybe a tip of the hat to the room's jazz pedigree, and he does the two-horns-at-once thing.  I dunno.  That seems like a thin argument, but it does get at the "why this show and not any other show?" question.

Garcia at the Great American Music Hall:

courtesy gdsets; not much rock & roll!

The Keystone in Berkeley is rightfully considered Garcia's homebase in the 70's until the mid-80's, but he also played the Great American Music Hall a lot in 1974.  2/5/74 marks the beginning of a long stretch.  The economic implications of this are more in the JGMF/Lost Live Dead wheelhouse, but it nevertheless strikes me as interesting.  Do we know who was promoting these shows?  I am sure they were happy to fill all those weeknights (see below) with a money maker like Garcia.  The venue was only slightly larger -- 470 vs. 435 at the Keystone -- but the GAMH appears to have been a much classier joint: it also served food, and the decor was a considerable step up from the Keystone, not to mention that it also sported a pretty colorful history.  The club seemed to book the typically eclectic range of local Bay Area and national acts, but not much in the way of rock & roll.  A few major jazz artists recorded live albums there: Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Carla Bley, Betty Carter, and Carmen McRae, plus acoustic artists like Doc Watson and David Bromberg.  I am surprised that Old & In the Way never played there.

[edit: Jerrybase has since updated this list, which I will not bother to do myself: see here] 

 7/19/73 (Thurs) - the first circulating recording of G/S with Martin Fierro; Fierro said that he first played with Garcia at the Matrix with Howard Wales, but afaik no other evidence exists of that. [partial sbd tape]
2/5/74 (Tues) [sbd tape]
2/12/74 (Tues) [uncirculating Bettyboard, partial?]
3/2/74 (Sat)
3/10/74 (Sun) - David Grisman, Richard Greene & Vassar Clements, with Garcia as guest (no tape); see jgmf
5/2/74 (Thurs)
5/20/74 (Thurs) [uncirculating Bettyboard]

7/14/74 (Sun) - with Stephen Stills and Jack Cassady as guests - see jgmf

7/23/74 (Tues)
8/7/74 (Weds)
8/15/74 (Thurs) [aud tape]
8/24/74 (Sat) [sbd tape]
8/28/74 (Weds) [8 tunes released on the "9/1/74" Pure Jerry set; see jgmf]
10/6/74 (Sun) - with Jim Nelson, drums [partial sbd tape]
10/30/74 (Weds)
11/28/74 (Thurs) [sbd tape]
12/16/74 (Mon)
2/27,28/75 (Thurs, Fri) - the first time billed as the Legion of Mary? [2/28 partial sbd tape]
5/15/75 (Thurs) [aud tape]
6/18/75 (Fri) - billed as Garcia/Saunders, not Legion of Mary.  fwiw, I am confident that the tape circulating with this date is actually an aud of 7/4/75.
7/4,5/75 (Fri, Sat) [7/4 sbd tape] (ahem)
7/30/75 (Weds) - maybe? as per jgmf
8/13/75 (Weds) - aka the GD's One From the Vault; see Lost Live Dead
8/20,21/75 (Weds, Thurs) - advertised as the Jerry Garcia Band, actually Keith & Donna Band with Jerry as guest [8/20 partial sbd & aud tape]

unknown (blues?) band, courtesy GAMH via 7x7

make good money, five dollars day

Um, did you know about this?  I did not.  Among other things I learned: PARCO is a big chain of Japanese department stores.  This is from 1993.

courtesy GDAO

And, if that wasn't weird enough:

Interesting, indeed.  I hope this paid for at least a year of college for one of his kids.

That is all.  Carry on.

Hells Angels Forever tracks

Saunders and Garcia, 9/5/73

In a fit of obsessive completionism, I took it upon myself to rip the otherwise-uncirculating Garcia music [edit: see below] from a youtube video of the "documentary" Hells Angels Forever.  The movie has little to recommend unless you're already really in love with the Hells Angels, and I won't even begin listing the problems that I have with it.   Garcia was involved in financing it, and a number of familiar names are thanked in the credits (Richard Loren, Steve Parish, Ramrod, Bill "the kid" Kreutzmann), but I don't know the full story other than the fact that the production was apparently a total fiasco, taking ten years and three directors to complete.  But the movie remains precious for preserving a small few minutes of live footage of Garcia, Saunders, Kahn, and Kreutzmann performing outdoors on a boat at a Hells Angels party on 9/5/73 (there's no other known recording; the tape that circulates with this date is bogus, but [edit] according to JGMF there is an uncirculating tape of this show -- see comments).  There is barely any known footage of Garcia performing with Merl Saunders, and this was apparently also Garcia's debut performance on his iconic Wolf guitar. 

Unfortunately, there's not much music to hear, but what is here is interesting in its own way.  There is a small bit of them very quietly playing what sounds like Georgia On My Mind as accompaniment to a Hells Angel wedding during the party (the film is edited to look like it, anyway), and then a truncated version of That's All Right Mama, edited down to a small bit of the tune itself and one shorter Garcia solo.  Then, over the film's closing credits, there's a studio recording of It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry that I've never heard anywhere else, with some prominent piano [edit: the crowd noise beforehand is from the preceding song (by Willie Nelson) that ends the movie and fades into Train to Cry as the credits roll].  The credits list That's All Right and Train to Cry as being performed by the Jerry Garcia Band and, while That's All Right clearly is obviously not the JGB, I wonder if this Train to Cry might be the 1975 JGB with Nicky Hopkins?  It doesn't sound as much like Keith Godchaux to me, but I'm not positive.  The credits list Garcia's involvement as being from 1973-1977, so it's possible -- or maybe it could be a Compliments outtake with session pianist Michael Omartian?  or something else entirely?  It fades out with the end of the film, lopping off the final few seconds.  I'm not sure what to make of it.  The song was barely played live at all by any of the later 70's JGB lineups, and it had already been included on the original Live at Keystone 2LP, so it seems like an unusual choice for a studio recording.  But apparently the JGB did a lot more recording than initially saw the light of day, so who knows if this track was done specifically for the film or was something laying around that Garcia donated to the project. 

Midway through all this, I realized that actually was an official released soundtrack.  Discogs lists an Australian-only(?) RCA Victor LP release with That's All Right Mama and Train to Cry; the track lengths suggest that it's no more than the fragments of music actually used in the film.  I'm not holding my breath that the original tapes will surface, but it would be cool to get the LP to hear these tracks in better quality than VHS>youtube -- until then, though here are the three tracks that I ripped from youtube for you completists (I'm assuming there may be one or two of you).  It sounds like some speed correction wouldn't hurt, but I left it as it was. 

http://www72.zippyshare.com/v/aIpdpEKv/file.html

7/12/74: mystery mandolin

I had heard this 7/12/74 Keystone show years ago and slotted it in my mental fine/cool/whatever file.  But, in an obsessive need to close the Grisman/Garcia/GAS(M)B circle, I gave it a fresh airing because Grisman is noted by some as maybe sitting in with Garcia/Saunders on this night.  JGMF mentions Grisman in his older list of mystery guest appearances, anyway — other sources list the guest as possibly David Nelson.  Hmm: Grisman sitting in with the G/S band a month after Garcia last played with him, and five days after a GAMB gig that billed Garcia, but apparently never happened?  Had to check that one out, fer sure.

But I didn’t come up with much.  Musically, I don’t have a lot to say about it.  It’s a perfectly good performance, but standard-issue Garcia/Saunders: Garcia’s in fine fettle, nothing really stands out, and it’s a strong night-at-the-office kind of show.  Martin Fierro is MIA, making this (afaik) the only hometown show that he missed during his two-year tenure.  The recording is another Louis Falanga stage mic aud, not as sweet as 6/6/74, but not bad at all.  The material tends less towards jazz and more towards the R&B/rock end of the spectrum.  Hi-Heeled Sneakers was a rarity at that point (a good tune for a guest, though) and this was the last time they played it.  And there’s someone else joining them for the entire show who is playing… well, at first I couldn’t even tell if it was a guitar or a mandolin.  It has a more thin, plinky sound that I associate more with a mandolin, but these stage mic tapes don’t always have the best balance, so I wondered if it was just wasn’t coming through as loudly as Garcia’s guitar.  A mandolin onstage with a Hammond B3 organ and Garcia’s Alembicized Fender Twins would have some job of cutting through, but there were solid-body electric mandolins, so maybe that’s the answer?  Whoever it is does play on every song and takes occasional short solos, but most of what he plays sound to my ear more like guitar licks than mandolin things (but I claim no expertise about that).  The only thing that has me convinced it’s actually a mandolin is It’s Too Late (She’s Gone) which has some unmistakable mandolin “trickling” effects, and it sounds just like the same instrument that’s been playing all along.  So I just don’t know.

Even if it is a mandolin, I’m skeptical about it being David Grisman, and I’m assuming that the attribution is another case of someone just associating an instrument with a related musician who was close with Garcia (e.g. flute = Charles Lloyd, violin = David LaFlamme, etc).  Besides, Grisman doesn’t seem like a likely candidate given his own disposition.  From a 2010 interview:

…I had a brief flirtation with playing electric in the Earth Opera [1967-69] (solid body Gibson EM200 or Florentine and customized Johnny Smith pickup on my Gibson K4 mandocello), [but] I never liked the tone or the way amplification interfered with the dynamics. I remember lying in bed with my ears ringing after opening for the Doors at a coliseum in Toronto. It was just too darn loud.

[update: see below]

What I am feeling confident about is that it’s one guest, not two — the recording is clear enough to make out that there’s only one additional musician.  Unusually, there was an opening band that night, a hard rock group from Hungary called Locomotiv GT, but it can’t be one of them — Garcia actually mentions the mismatched pairing in that Oct 77 interview and says they were too loud and not very good.  So I guess that puts us back at David Nelson as the likeliest candidate (the NRPS don’t appear to have been on the road), but that’s just another guess by association.  Any other ideas?   

edit #1: Come to think of it, I don't even know how much Nelson actually played the mandolin, outside of chipping in during some of those 1970 acoustic Dead sets -- was he enough of a mandolin player to play it instead of guitar for a whole show?  Gah!

edit #2 (Nov 2018): So it only now occurred to me to look further into this, and it's still possible that it's Nelson, but I'm doubtful.  He says (here) that he picked up the mandolin at Garcia's behest in 1962: "I tried my hand at mandolin for a couple years" ...which hardly sounds like a a guy who'd be playing a one-shot gig on electric mandolin years after his own band had taken off.  But then  again, Nelson also says (here) that he almost played mandolin on the Dylan & the Dead tour in 1987 (!), so I guess the mandolin never got put away entirely.  Gah!  

Another distant possibility might be another old associate of Garcia's, Ken Frankel, who (according to the GDH) had experience both playing electric rock guitar, classical mandolin, and electric classical guitar. 

edit #3 (Aug 2019): Oookay, so I feel like a supreme dumbass for not seeing what was in plain sight, but David Grisman did play electric mandolin with Garcia & Saunders once: the part he overdubbed on "Positively 4th Street" from the original Live at Keystone album.  Granted that was in a studio rather than onstage in a club, but take another listen to it (his solo starts at 5:07).  Much like the mando on 7/12/74, there are things he does that sound like "guitar licks," but with enough trademark mandolin things to make it clear what he's really playing.  So could it be Grisman on 7/12/74 after all?  It seems like an unusual move for him to make, but now I'm thinking that he's a viable candidate again.  Given that he and Garcia has been playing in such close proximity, it doesn't seem as far fetched to me.