Jul 27, 2012

January 6, 1967: Freeborn Hall, Davis CA

BIG MAMA TO AID IN RAISING OF THE DEAD (excerpt)

The best of the blues-rock bands in San Francisco - these are the Grateful Dead, featuring one of the top three lead guitars in the country, Jerry Garcia. The group which has seen only two years together has just signed with Warner Brothers Records. The last time the Dead were raised at UCD by the lead voice of Pig Pen, they drew a capacity crowd of 1,500 at Freeborn. The group will appear tonight to dispel the first-day-of-school blues in Freeborn, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. The sound production should be much improved over previous years since MUSC is renting for the first time a P.A. system. Tickets for this dance concert are $2.00.
The concert part of the program promises to be unique. Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton will be singing some real blues. . . .

(The rest of the article is a bio of Big Mama.)

There is a picture of the Dead, with the caption:
The Grateful Dead (from left to right): Phil Lesh, classical violinist gone bass, Bill Sommers, drummer, Jerry Garcia, lead guitar, Bob Weir, rhythm guitar from hi-society, and Pigpen, marauding and mysterious harmonica, will play in Freeborn, Friday, January 6 at 9 p.m.

(from the California Aggie, January 6 1967)

Courtesy of the JGMF blog:
http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/07/gd-19670106.html

As pointed out, the Dead must have played there before to a "capacity crowd" in 1966, on an unknown date.

UPDATE: JGMF found an announcement for the previous show at Freeborn Hall, on 10/28/66:
https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/08/gd-at-freeborn-hall-friday-october-28.html 

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