Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia played pedal steel in a field off Novato Boulevard. David Crosby was in the crowd. After the planned concert they jammed in a barn for hours alongside Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Researchers believe “A Day in the Country” is the only time those five men ever played together. There is no public video of it. Which is strange, because a camera crew was there.

Part of the field is now a dog park.

It was Saturday, August 21, 1971. The ranch belonged to the City of Novato. Fifty acres of dry grass, a house, a few shacks, a barn, with Novato Creek running through it. Mickey Hart lived there, reportedly as the caretaker for $250 a month. He drummed for the Grateful Dead, though not that year. He was on leave after his father, the band's manager, took the band's money and ran.

San Marin High School, just across the road from the ranch, was so new it had not yet graduated a four-year class — the freshmen who walked in when it opened in 1968 would soon be seniors.

The New Riders of the Purple Sage played an outdoor stage in front of the barn, Jerry Garcia on pedal steel. He had helped start the band as a side project and taught himself pedal steel to play in it. Garcia was running out of time with the band, though nobody there knew it. Ten weeks later, on Halloween night in Cincinnati, he played his last show as a member.

After the planned concert ended, the filming stopped. The music didn’t.

The musicians drifted into the barn, where Hart had built a recording studio. Garcia. Lesh. Hart. Crosby. Cipollina. They played for hours, including a Crosby song that would be released the following year. Lesh and someone in the crowd both taped audio. Both recordings still circulate among fans.

The film was another story.

It never aired. For nearly fifty years there was no proof the video even existed. The story handed down was that a KQED crew had come out from San Francisco. Videotape was expensive then, and stations reused it. Whole archives went that way.

In 2020, the Dead's former tour manager Sam Cutler posted 44 seconds of it to Facebook, according to Grateful Dead forums. Where did that come from?

The full footage is in the hands of Skip Sweeney, according to Marin Buzz’s source, Jake Baker of the band One from Bolinas. Sweeney co-founded Video Free America. In 2017 the California Revealed program digitized a highlight reel of Video Free America’s work, put together for the Mill Valley Film Festival.

It has been streaming right here ever since.

The part we care about: “New Riders of the Purple Sage concert. The Dead Ranch. August 1971 [with Jerry Garcia].” From 1:26 to 2:16.

Garcia sits at his pedal steel in a patterned shirt and wearing dark glasses, a drummer working behind him. There are shots of the crowd.

This may be the final footage of Jerry Garcia playing pedal steel with New Riders of the Purple Sage. And right now, even the most devout Deadheads have seen less than a minute of it.

If you’d like to see the full video, reply to this email with a short note. We’ll compile them when we reach out to Skip Sweeney about publishing the rest.

p.s. Hart left the ranch around 1981. The buildings sat empty for years. Then one night in the late 1980s a neighbor drove out and found nothing. There had been a fire. Someone hauled away the debris. Within months you could not tell a building had ever stood there. The City of Novato kept the land. Today it is O’Hair Park — 98 acres running alongside Novato Boulevard toward Stafford Lake. Dogs run at Dogbone Meadow. Horses come up from the stable at the Sutro Avenue end. You’d never guess this place’s ties to rock history.

We recently published a video about the September events Allison and I are most looking forward to. Here they are with links:

9/5 Comedy in the Park at Live on the Avenue in San Anselmo

9/12 DJs by the Bay in Sausalito

9/12 Bolinas Film Festival Screenplay Table Read of Fargo at Smiley’s

9/12 Sound Summit on Mt Tam

9/19-20 Mill Valley Arts Festival

9/20 Porchfest in San Rafael

Oktoberfest
9/20 Tourist Club on Mount Tamalpais (Kinderfest, think family friendly)
9/26-27 in Nicasio at the pumpkin patch

If you’d like to be considered for Scenic Photo of the Week (nature, architecture, wildlife, etc.), please fill this out!

Because leaving Marin might take more planning. Look for our Marin events in the Wednesday email.

If you love the Mill Valley Arts Festival, this is a similar event under the redwoods, just held down on the Peninsula. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday 10am-5pm, free entry and parking.

This new food hall at tunnel tops park has been open for a few weeks with three restaurants under one roof. Perhaps this long weekend would be a good time to make a visit. There’s also daily campfire talks at 3pm and Sunday 1-4pm a free dance event.

Please note that this property isn’t associated with the banner sponsor above or Marin Buzz in any way. It is just a unique home you might be interested in seeing, for entertainment purposes only!

200 Tamalpais Rd, Fairfax

A-frames are classic mountain homes, but often they’re too small. This unique home in Fairfax took the A-frame and just kept building.

It appears around 2001 they did the large addition, adding a two-story stucco structure right on the side of the sloped roof. So now the home is 2,693 square feet with a focal point triangle window and French Doors that open to a nice deck.

Now you get the best of both worlds. The high ceiling A-frame view, coupled with the additional space and even an ADU with a separate entrance. It’s been fully updated, yet retains its character. What do you think?

Web link

If you’d like your pet to be considered for Pet of the Week, please fill this out!

Thanks for reading. We will be back with the regular events and activities email Wednesday morning!

— Allison + Brian