Old & In The Way
Old & In The Way — KSAN, 1973-03-02
March 2, 1973 · Record Plant Sausalito
On March 2, 1973, KSAN broadcast the first public performance of Old & In The Way from the Record Plant in Sausalito. Jerry Garcia's bluegrass side project, formed with Peter Rowan, David Grisman, and John Kahn, played its debut without a fiddler; Vassar Clements would join soon after and become inseparable from the band's recorded sound. Tom Donahue put the show on the air as broadcast number one of a forty-nine-show run of live KSAN broadcasts from the Plant. The band never released a studio album in its short run, and this broadcast catches them at the very beginning, before the sound most fans know had fully formed.
- Type
- Live Broadcast
- Date Recorded
- March 2, 1973
- Date Broadcast
- March 2, 1973
KSAN 95 FM broadcast. Record Plant Sausalito, 3/2/1973. Tom Donahue series. CENSUS 2026-05-30, enriched: Recording CONFIRMED. Best source (URL1): Internet Archive (oldintheway-ksanrecordplant1973), KSAN FM broadcast 3/02/73. Alt source (URL2): jg73-03-02 tamarkin FLAC16 transfer (IA mislabels as Jerry Garcia; OITW label is correct). Audio: Yes, two transfers. Confidence: High. PERSONNEL (March 2 lineup, QUARTET, no fiddle): Jerry Garcia (banjo/vocals), David Grisman (mandolin/vocals), Peter Rowan (guitar/vocals), John Kahn (bass). NO FIDDLE PLAYER on this date. Richard Greene's first confirmed appearance with the band was April 12, 1973 in Santa Barbara. Vassar Clements joined June 1973. The classic quintet (with Clements) recorded the debut album at the Boarding House, October 8, 1973. FIRST CONCERT: March 2, 1973 at the Record Plant was the band's very first public performance (jerrygarcia.com official site confirms; Grokipedia citing OITW scholarship). The band had been forming during winter 1972-73, with Garcia, Grisman, and Rowan picking together at Grisman's Stinson Beach house. MEDIA IMPACT: Berkeley Daily Gazette reviewed the Keystone Berkeley shows on May 3, 1973, noting the crowd had turned out because 'everybody heard them on KSAN's live weekend where Old and In the Way did a smashing one-hour set from the Record Plant in Sausalito.' CONTEXT: The self-titled album (Round Records, 1975) was recorded October 8, 1973 at the Boarding House, engineered by Owsley Stanley. Best-selling bluegrass album of all time until the O Brother soundtrack. At this March 2 broadcast no album existed and the band had never played publicly. Recording Type: FM Broadcast. Quality: Lossless available. Audio: Yes. Confidence: High. ARTICLE: see Articles table (rich-page candidate, Priority 1).
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