Saturday, January 7, 2012

Richard Loren's beach house, Stinson Beach, CA


Page 212, 213; more on Richard Loren, Garcia and Stinson Beach:
"I remember when I first came out here in 1970 — at Jerry's suggestion, Grisman and I came across — I couldn't believe the freedom out here," Loren says. "And the weather; you can't overlook the weather. It was December, the sun was shining, it was warm. The East Coast had a different mind-set than the West Coast, and when I came here there was freedom and there was acid and there were beautiful women, tie-dye. There was an attachment to nature I found really appealing. I lived with Marty Balin [in Mill Valley] for three weeks and then I found a place in Stinson Beach for Grisman and me and the Rowan Brothers to live in. We rented this house on the beach; a beautiful place. We all chipped in. Sure enough, one day I ran into Jerry Garcia downtown. He, Grisman and I became very close friends during those early years when I was managing the Rowan Brothers.
"Stinson was cheap back then," Loren continues. "We were paying $750 a month. We had three bedrooms and a room that we turned into a studio and which was also living quarters for the roadies. We all just hustled and scraped. It was like a little commune with David and me and the Rowan Brothers and our wives and lovers. We cooked together, we lived together. We got advances from Columbia Records [who signed the Rowans after they auditioned for Clive Davis]. I'd get them gigs, they'd play in clubs, we'd make a few hundred dollars a week and we'd divide it up: 'Here, you get ten bucks and I get ten,' we'd share a lid of grass, we'd roll joints--'You take three.' It was great. And probably not that dissimilar to what I'm sure the Dead did when they started. Jerry was living up the hill." Garcia would often come down to the beach to visit and jam with the Rowans, and vice versa.(1)


Jerry played here an unknown number of times in 1970. 



1.)^Jackson, Blair, Garcia An American Life, pg 212,213

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