The Magic of 13 begins with 1

100 Days of the Dead (and Garcia!) Day 23 Jerry Garcia on Broadway October 15, 1987 Lunt-Fontanne Theatre New York City

21 Years Ago Tonight...

Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

Bright Morning Stars, Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standing On The Corner),
Spike Driver Blues, Short Life Of Trouble, Two Soldiers,
I'm Troubled, Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie, Rosalie McFall,
It's A Long Long Way To The Top Of The World, Ragged But Right

Jerry Garcia Band (electric)

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), Forever Young,
Stop That Train, Think, Mission In The Rain, Evangeline,
My Sisters And Brothers, That Lucky Old Sun, Deal

Encore: And It Stoned Me

13 Magical Nights On Broadway. Actually it was 13 nights of music spread across 17 days with 18 shows in all. And this is the show that started this unique run.

The audio quality of the acoustic set suffers a little. There's excessive crowd noise and the vocals seem a wee bit far away. When the music's playing it ain't too bad. I got used to it just fine. Maybe one day we'll get the soundboard... but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. For now, this is the only source known to exist.

Bright Morning Stars, done a capella, is a tune no one had ever from Jerry until now. It's brand new on this night. Same is true for It's A Long, Long Way To The Top Of The World and Ragged But Right. I'm not so sure about kicking things off a capella on such a mellow note. It mighta been better to start out with somethin' square-dancin' and foot-stompin' to get people a-dancin'. Well, it finishes that way so that's cool. Ragged But Right works well as the acoustic encore (or closing tune) -- leave 'em exhilarated.

One sucky thing about Jerry acoustic in the 80's -- no banjo. Sandy Rothman handled that instrument. Methinks it shoulda been Jerry. Oh well. Still a nice set of acoustic tunes.

Wow -- New York City in the Fall, the Great White Way. Leading things electrically is a perfect How Sweet It Is. Jerry's inspired and you can hear it. Beautiful versions of Forever Young and Stop That Train settle the fans in. I think Think is a tune that was practically custom built for Garcia's guitar playing. Here it's just soooo good and the crowd soooo knows it and soooo appreciates it. Mmmm! Everything that follows is just so smooth and tasty. That Lucky Old Sun reaches some nice heights; it had me practically writhing in my seat. So nice.

Unfortunately, during Deal, John Kahn's bass sounds a bit annoying but really other than that this is an okay recording. Van Morrison's And It Stoned Me is a nice mellow encore to cap the night off.

Someday I'll work on posting more of this legendary run of shows but for now this was a great start!

Source: Front Of Board (Nak 300's) Audience Master Cassette> SHN

Audio Quality:

as of 10/15/08: still no Garcia at Archive.org...

...Download It Right Here

10-15-87 aka 10/15/87 aka 87-10-15 setlist 320 kbps mp3 SBD download

Garcia on Broadway ~ 10/15/87 ~ Acoustic Set

10/15/87 ~ Lunt-Fontanne Theatre ~ Electric