Old & In the Way: Show Number One

The March 2, 1973 broadcast was the first public show Old & In the Way gave. The band had formed in private across the winter, picking together at Grisman's Stinson Beach house. Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, and Peter Rowan made up the core of the new group. Garcia hadn't played banjo regularly in years and spent months rebuilding his chops. John Kahn completed the quartet on bass for this first appearance.

They had no fiddle player on this particular date in March. Richard Greene's first confirmed appearance came six weeks later in Santa Barbara. Vassar Clements didn't join the band until sometime that June. The debut album was still seven months down the road.

Tom Donahue put the brand-new quartet on KSAN that night. The response from Bay Area listeners was immediate and strong. The Berkeley Daily Gazette reviewed the Keystone Berkeley shows that May. The crowd had come specifically because they'd heard the Record Plant broadcast.

They played 49 shows between this night and April 28, 1974. Dead soundman Owsley Stanley (aka Bear) recorded the self-titled album that October at the Boarding House. That record became the best-selling bluegrass album of all time. It held that title for two decades before O Brother surpassed it. This KSAN broadcast is where the entire story first started.