Cumberland Blues | 1970-06-24 | Grateful Dead

1:14:29
Rating:
8.71 / 17 ratings
Transferrer:
This is from the Usher Tree; for further source info, the notes from that tree are appended following the track list.
SHNID:
gd1970-06-24.aud.lee.5339.sbeok.shnf
Source:
Aud > cassette x 2 > CD, mics balcony center 15' spread
Taper Notes:
View Notes"Source Information for The Usher's Tapes Tree

"the person who is responsible for the bulk of the capitol theatre audience recordings is a fellow by the name of ken lee (not sure of his last name spelling). this is the
guy who was employed by howard stein (local ny area promoter of the time) my source is his brother in law, mark c (a long time dead head & quite a nice &
unassuming person) i owe mark a huge debt of gratitude. 

ken's port chester masters were recorded on a sony cassette deck (don't have the 'model # or mic info) his positioning was generally center lodge with mic's mounted
on the rail. 3/21/70 had the mic's spaced at over 15 feet, and the recording bears out that information. 6/24/70 set#2 was mastered on a 120-minute cassette. 

ken is reported to be very un-friendly and intimidating (6 foot 5 inches with a security guard attitude) he was at tompkins square park, nyc 6/67 and reported a ? hour
dancin' in the street, fwiw. he recorded many local shows (queens college, all 4 stands at port chester, Manhattan center.etc. mark says he was doing this only for
himself and never did much of anything at all with his recordings. at port chester he had howard steins permission to tape, with the footnote of never letting them out.
so...marks older sister is married to this guy & he would occasionally let mark have tapes & mark was apparently pretty free with his copies over the years. most of
what circulates from gd @ port chester originated mainly from mark's 1st gen copies, not ken's masters. as time went on their relationship deteriorated (now they are
estranged) and ken literally & figuratively shut the door on mark. 

marks last score from ken's tapes was back in 1986. when ken was out, mark & an instigating friend went armed with sony tc d5m's and recorded as much from the
masters as they could get away with. ken arrived in the middle of all this and was outraged and shut it all down & proceeded to take all the copies (not all it turned
out) mark told me that at that point in time, all the tapes he witnessed were badly in need of restoration (and this was back in 1986) i am sad to relay that even though
these master still exist, there are rotting in un-kind hands it took me close to 2 years & many phone calls to hook up with mark, and then only for one day. things were
haphazard & i taped what i could given the time i had on hand. 

mark had 2 separate copies of 6/24/70 late show. the older copy he received with ken's blessing in the mid '70's, this was on a xl 2, no dolby, the fresher copy was from
the incident in 1986. this was on a mx metal cassette and had a better frequency response, but there was a bad squeal & lisp on the right hand channel and proves the
deterioration of the recording. i went with the older copy that was made when the master was in better condition set list has; nfa easy wind (very powerful), me & my
uncle, dark star ikyr, then uncle johns band (which is not the encore, as they never leave the stage. the encore is an acoustic "swing low sweet chariot" it was mia, but
I WILL get it 3/21/70 has never sounded this good. it's actually quite fantastic in spots. it's the best recording i've ever heard coming out of that room 11/5/70 is a
powerful psychedelic feast. i could never sit through it before, because of the abysmal quality 

i want to, and enjoy bringing pleasure to fellow music lovers. please let it be known i have zero tolerance for any suspicion, or dishonesty. criticism, on the other hand
i can handle fairly well. so give me a few days & i'll get seeds to someone who has already volunteered to handle the administration and decimation on deadlist. our
1970 caretaker, jim powell, will get cd's from me for his analysis 

that's the story"

THANKS, Jim!