Since the beginning of the Grateful Dead’s career, even when they were called The Warlocks, fans have been keeping track of what they played at each venue. Eventually, a group of dedicated Deadheads got together and began publishing this information in a coherent database format, an effort that went on for years and went through at least five editions in book form. But even so, nobody was cross-referencing detailed gigs by any of the individual performers.

Harry Angus began backtracking and researching Jerry Garcia’s gigs in September of 2009, and now, finally, after exhaustive research and an astonishing degree of dedication, we have The Encyclopedia of Jerry Garcia Music Venues.

Now, any fan, musicologist, or historian can trace the entire universe of Garcia’s gigs, shows, and jams, covering exactly where Jerry Garcia – and not by coincidence, the Grateful Dead – played or even tuned a guitar.

This is a comprehensive guide to every theater, coffee house, topless bar, dive, and juke joint Garcia ever played in or outside of over his lifetime. You may think this is a bit excessive, but along with Garcia’s playlists and gigs comes an avalanche of important information and rare, never-before-seen pictures and facts about the Grateful Dead and hundreds of other people important to the music scene in San Francisco throughout Garcia’s life.

It took Harry Angus at least sixteen years to give us a global database of fresh information that reveals insights into and about Garcia and everybody he ever played with. This encyclopedia doesn’t just cover the obvious bands like Old and in the Way or the New Riders, it also covers the not-so-obvious, perhaps even the obscure, covering Garcia’s studio gigs and even the time he sat in with Ian and Sylvia using George Harrison’s Telecaster.

Without question, The Encyclopedia of Jerry Garcia Music Venues is an important addition to the American road excursion, the Beat Generation, and the entire world of the San Francisco sound. No library should be without this guide on its reference shelf, and no one researching any Haight-Ashbury-based band should be without this book.
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Hank Harrison (1941–2022), original Warlocks/Grateful Dead manager