12-19-69: fillmore auditorium, san francisco, CA. w/osceola, rhythm dukes, jef jaisun, and lightyear.

this performance is highly significant in grateful dead history in that it is the first to feature an acoustic set. by all accounts, it appears that this evening’s wooden music was necessitated because of some significant technical problems. it was enough of a hit though that they rolled it out the next week in dallas, and then again numerous times in 1970 (with and without the new riders).

the tape opens with a few comments by jerry on the topic of a missing bass player. he shares that phil “...is stuck somewhere, but he is on his way and will be here in some short time and we’ll be able to play loud and all that…in the meantime, me and bobby ace are going to regale you with some old favorites.” these early acoustic takes on monkey & the engineer, little sadie, and been all around this world come off quite nicely, similar to how they’d sound on bear’s choice. the one wild card is the vern stovall/bobby george song, long black limousine. weir, in fine voice, gets a chance to step it up on the tune, and garcia’s backing vocals are a perfect compliment. although the band played the song beautifully, they shelved it before realizing its full potential. the final performance–at the fillmore east–came just five months after this evening’s debut.

in due time, the full band is assembled and gets down to business with the electric portion of the show. it kicks off with an absolutely smoking mason’s children. from here, the lads settle into the usual late ’69 song selection with a solid black peter, a vibrant hard to handle, a rocking cumberland blues, and a funky take on good lovin’. the show concludes with a stirring other one suite that segues nicely into uncle john's band, followed by a well-jammed lovelight that spirals into a bold climax, which certainly must have left the crowd exhausted and satisfied. without question, this owsley tape is worthy of your full attention.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-12-19.sbd.clugston.5584.sbeok.shnf/gd69-12-19d1t01.shn