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Marrying Maiden

It's A Beautiful Day

Initial release : June 1970

CBS CS 1058

The second It's A Beautiful Day album. Jerry Garcia plays on two tracks of this release.

Tracks

  • Don and Dewey (Don Bowman / David LaFlamme)
  • Dolphins (Fred Neil)
  • Essence of Now (Mitchell Holman)
  • Hoedown (David LaFlamme)
  • Soapstone Mountain (David LaFlamme)
  • Waiting for the Song (Hal Wagenet)
  • Let a Woman Flow (David LaFlamme / Pattie Santos)
  • It Comes Right Down to You (Fred Webb / Robert Lewis)
  • Good Lovin' (Fred Webb / Mitchell Holman / Marilyn Brodie)
  • Galileo (Hal Wagenet)
  • Do You Remember the Sun? (Fred Webb / Robert Lewis)
Musicians

It's A Beautiful Day;

  • Pattie Santos - percussion, vocals
  • Val Fuentes - drums, vocals
  • Fred Webb - french horn, keyboards, vocals
  • David LaFlamme - flute, violin, guitar, vocals
  • Mitchell Holman - bass, harmonica, vocals
  • Hal Wagenet - guitar, vocals
Guests;
  • Richard Olsen - clarinet
  • Jerry Garcia - banjo (Hoedown), pedal steel (It Comes Right Down To You)
Credits

  • Producer - Brent Dangerfield, It's A Beautiful Day
  • Engineers - David Brown, John Fiore
  • Album cover design and production - Bruce Steinberg
  • Front cover art - James Williams Redo III, Roberto Perez-Diaz
  • Back cover photograph - Bruce Steinberg
  • Back cover lettering - George Pennewell
  • Personal management - John Walker
  • Pipe Organ on Soapstone Mountain courtesy of Avenue Theatre
  • Frame courtesy of North Beach Frames Ltd.

  • Recorded at Pacific High Recording and Wally Heider's Studio
Notes

In a radio interview with David Roberts in 1998 David LaFlamme commented on Garcia involvement on this record and his own (LaFlamme's) involvement with the Grateful Dead.

Asked how Garcia got involved with It's A Beautiful Day he replies;

Well, we were, how should I describe it? Back in the Haight Ashbury we were just sort of a ragamuffin group around there, jamming with one another, hanging out at the donut shop or the coffee house with one another, talkin' ,goin' over to each other's pads playing new records that had come out. Several times I met Jerry. We had a place we used to go mornings about the same time every day for coffee and to read the paper and so on. I lived right near the Grateful Dead house and at that time I was working with Dan Hicks which kept me in the neighborhood. Then I had a rehearsal studio behind the Straight Theatre on Cole Street so we were in and out of there all the time. So, eventually Jerry invited me over to the Dead House, and we got over there and he was then really starting to get into the pedal steel. I didn't know he even played it. I knew he played banjo but I didn't know he played pedal steel. He had it set up in his room and he would just be on that thing all the time. So we did a little playing together and when we got to doing that album I thought I'd really like to include some of those talents that Jerry had that really no one knows about. This was before New Riders.

No one really even knew he played. He didn't play out at all, just at home. So I asked him, I gave him a tape and told him, ya know, if he could play a little on it I'd appreciate it and he said "sure I'd love to" because he was, you know, that kind of guy. I probably gave him a little something for it but I can tell ya it wasn't a lot of money[laughter]..Same thing with the other piece I had him play banjo on. There were a couple of pieces actually that come to mind, but I thought well, nobody ever gets to hear him play banjo either with the Grateful Dead and I know he's very good at that so I'll invite him to sit in on another song and play that.

At the time I wasn't thinking too much about oh, this is Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. I invited other friends of mine I just liked and weren't really getting exposure fully as far as their talents as far as I knew them, like I invited Richard Olsen to play clarinet. I knew he played clarinet, however he never played it in the Charlatans. I knew he played it so I invited him to play on something and just thought, well, I'll invite some of the people I really like to come down, sit in, and play a little music and we'll just make a good time of it.

Asked about being considered as a member of the Dead he replied.
Well, you know I have played a lot of Grateful Dead music. It's very very strange music, it has a certain, well, I don't know how to describe it, there are certain similarities in the way I play and the way Grateful Dead music rolls off. I played with a group for a while that played predominantly Grateful Dead songs. I really enjoyed playing the songs and played them well, unfortunately I never got to perform them with the Grateful Dead group. But I did audition for them years ago. Whether they were thinking of having me or not, I don't know.
Related releases

Two singles were taken from the Marrying Maiden;

  • Soapstone Mountain / Good Lovin', February 1970, CBS 45152
  • The Dolphins / Do You Remember The Sun, August 1970, CBS 45309
Marrying Maiden has been released as part of a two LP on one CD reissue, together with the first It's A Beautiful Day LP as;
Buy from amazon.com

album cover

Reissue cover
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