In 2018 Jeff Knudsen donated his 5000+ cassette tape collection to www.shnflac.net.
The ensuing GEMS Lossless Legs production is releasing each of these tapes as raw transfers in digital format, one file per cassette side.


These shows were during the "free admission for May" deal if you were a Keystone Club member. I was.

We went to the show in our usual manner-- all hot to party with no concern at all how loaded we would get. Since I lived only a couple of miles away in Mt. View, it was a zip to get home, listen to the tape and party-on!  We never once considered the implications of going down the road whacked to the gills. No fear!

The party started in the parking lot--- around noon with lots of dope to smoke and massive quantities of beer to drink. There was a very Palo Altoian hip and green market a couple of doors down from the venue and we all spent a lot of $$ there. They sold a load of beer!

Once it started to look like they were going to let us in the show the vial of "liquid" made its appearance. Gordon from Santa Cruz was there. He was always there. Gordon had a long beard and wore a colorful Mexican blanket-style poncho. I never saw him in anything but the same poncho -----ever, in all the years I knew him.  He was a major character in a sea of characters. I asked him if he wanted a drop of liquid. He brightened up and snatched up the vial, opened his mouth and went ---squirt!  He must have squirted about 10 drops!! I could not believe what I saw him do. This was exquisite acid and I just could not imagine anyone taking that much. I was a bit worried for him. I did a single drop and could barley function to get into the show, snatch the proper table and get the recorder set up. I had to "practice" putting in the cassette, taking it out, turning it over and using the 'pause' button. It's an acid thing. Later, I saw Gordon on the dance floor having a great time. Somehow he ended up at my house that night. He sat in the corner in a wicker chair all night, all curled up and he never budged an inch. The next day he vanished. Of course he re-appeared at the next Jerry shows a couple of weeks later.

In the first set you can hear someone guessing the next song. That was Craig Norton, my roommate. We were both in the Navy stationed at Moffett Field in Mt. View.  He guessed Tangled Up as the next song and instead, the first electric "Run For The Roses" was played. I had heard the acoustic version that was done in New York the month before and I was all excited (loaded) and hopeful (dosed) that Jerry would play that song. I was high enough to make what I thought at the time, was a very funny comment about Jerry and that he should play it. We all roared over that observation. I guess ya had to be there. Now in 2009 it sounds rather rude.  Those who frequented the Keystones will remember how Jerry's appearance changed from late 1981 to fall of 1982, and will understand.

The reason the first song of the 2nd set is cut is because we all ran out to the parking lot during the break and played the "Run For The Roses" over and over again. It was quite the bizarre scene. There were about 30 people dancing and twirling around my car. Suddenly we heard the first notes of the tune up for the 2nd set. All these people instantly split to go back in. The herd was freaked out that they had lost track of the time and would miss the opening notes of the 2nd set. How embarrassing! I had to secure the car, get back in the show and figure out how to get the recorder going again. This was no easy task but someone had to do it.
                                            Jeff Knudsen November 1 2009

Taped By Jeff Knudsen w/Marantz SuperScope Mics > borrowed unknown model Aiwa Deck, front row of tables

Transfer info: Nakamichi CR-7A (Rebuilt by ESL August 2019) -> Sound Devices MixPre-3M
Transfer by: Jay Haines on June 19, 2020.


Jerry Garcia
May 15, 1980
Keystone - Palo Alto, CA

AUD

Side 1
Set 1

01. How Sweet it Is
02. They Love Each Other
03. It's No Use
04. Mississippi Moon
05. Run for the Roses

Side 2
Set 2

01. The Way You Do the Things You Do
02. Don't Let Go
03. The Harder They Come
04. Midnight Moonlight


********** The GEMS Knudsen Tape Project  **********

In 2018, Jeff Knudsen bestowed his tape collection to the AZ GEMS
team for distribution and archiving. We have cherry picked some shows
and released them but have only scratched the surface. The process
of producing a complete and accurate mastered file set is time consuming:
select the show, compare to existing sources, adjust the tape deck,
transfer to digital, speed correct, master, aquire the source ID and
torrent. We realized we would never release most of collection using this
method.

As long as music is on tapes in a closet, it is useless. If it circulates
it is preserved for others and for the future. Rather than go through
the whole file set creation process, we transfer each tape or tape
side as a single digital file. A two tape concert consists either two big
audio files, 1 for each tape or 4 big audio files, one for each side of
the two cassettes.  We transfer professionally using the best gear and
a high quality Analog to Digital device. The Azimuth and Dolby settings
are correct. We release these files for everyone. We do not evaluate
the quality of the source, master it, or track it.

The Knudsen Tape Project is about sharing the tapes.

In each numbered release, along with the digital music files, we
include a photo of the tapes. The goal is to release as many of the
tapes as possible to the website www.shnflac.net.

We think the fruits of this project will become more interesting as time
passes. We believe that access to raw, properly transferred audio will
be of value to both present and future listeners, researchers and others.
Audio mastering technology is moving at breakneck speed. We can only imagine
the future technology that will be available. Having access to unmastered sources
could be invaluable.

HISTORY

The collection was started with a box of tapes Jeff Knudsen recieved
from his friend Dick Latvala in the late 70's. Dick was just a regular
guy in Pahoa, Hawaii and had not yet begun officially working with the
Greatful Dead. Over time, Jeff's collection grew. At that time, tapes were
currency and Jeff had gold. His collection increased to about 5000 coveted
tapes, via mail trades and all night copy-athons. Jeff shared them freely
and widely. If you had a soundboard tape in your collection years ago there
is a good chance it came from Jeff Knudsen.

WHAT CAN I DO WITH IT ?

Every release in this project is from a band that allows it's fans
to trade music non-commercially. We neither add or take away from that
permission. We only ask that you credit the Knudsen Tape Project if you
use the material. We ask nothing else of you and you do not need
to ask permission to use them. Since we ask only for source credit, we would
rather not hear complaints. Take what you need and leave the rest.

LINEAGE QUESTIONS

The notion of documenting lineage is a modern one, or simply one Jeff
did not entertain. We do not have lineage information on most of these
tapes. Any information we have will be in the photo of the tapes.
Some of the tapes sound absolutely fantastic. Others may remind
you of a tape you had long ago.

Now the rest is up to the community, with whom we have absolute faith
in the ability to discern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contact shnflac@gmail.com if you need more information.


SHNTOOL OUTPUT



    length     expanded size    cdr  WAVE problems  fmt   ratio  filename
    42:08.840     728305916 B   cxx   h-   ---xx   flac  0.6292  jg1982-05-15-A.flac
    43:38.118     754017938 B   cxx   h-   ---xx   flac  0.6554  jg1982-05-15-B.flac
    85:46.957    1482323854 B                            0.6426  (2 files)

jg1982-05-15-A.flac:ad97705f8542daf1ff95bbad376a55b1
jg1982-05-15-B.flac:cce280b1c8c4e3110bfe7419df0919d5