Blues Traveler
Barnard Springfest
New York, NY
1989-04-14

Source:   Nak CM-100 ("flat") + SBD (see notes) > D5 by Luke McCormick
Transfer: MC (XLIIS-90) > Nak Dragon > Tascam DA-3000 (DSF 1-bit/5.6 MHz) > Tascam HRE > PCM @ 2496
Master:   Wavelab 11 (split tracks, correct phase shift, reimage to stereo, tracking, DDI Codec (Dolby B @ -29.6 dBFS), levels / Ozone Vintage Limiter) > FLAC 2496

Thanks to Luke McCormick for taping and loaning his cassette to be digitized

Set I
01. Set I intro
02. Rock Me Baby
03. Out Of My Hands * >
04. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
05. banter
06. 100 Years *
07. Alone
08. Set I outro

Set II
09. Cleopatra's Cat #$% >
10. Gotta Get Mean $% >
11. Gloria $% >
12. Gotta Get Mean $%
13. But Anyway $%
14. Hard To Exist $%
15. stage announcement
16. Mother Funker

* with Roger Fox on flute
# with Chris Barron (Spin Doctors) on vocals
$ with Avram Lavinsky (Dreamspeak) on keys
% with Gordon Clay (Dreamspeak; Groove Collective) on percussion

These files are a direct transfer from the master cassette made by Luke McCormick at Barnard Springfest on Friday, April 14, 1989.  This is a significant improvement over SHNID # 13921, which is a C(2) version of the same recording.

The tape captures Blues Traveler as its career was taking off.  The band had been playing for a while with members of Dreamspeak and the Spin Doctors at a Columbia fraternity, Delta Phi, and was playing local clubs like Nightingales, Mondo Perso, 712 Club, and Wetlands (opened February 1989), as well as free concerts in Prospect Park and at local colleges (RealityFest at SUNY Albany was the following day, the 15th).

The taper, a member of the Phi and friend of the band, decided to "matrix" the SBD and AUD feeds by recording each to a separate channels, but this resulted in a 12 ms delay between channels.  This delay is audible and present in all other circulating recordings.  Here, the delay has been removed and each mono feed mixed to stereo.  (From the start through Rock Me Baby, the SBD feed was barely present and thus the first two tracks are mostly AUD.)

The master cassette is marked 04/13, which is incorrect.  All circulating copies come from it and some are also misdated as April 13, which some folks stubbornly cling to.  The correct date is April 14, because...

1) April 14 is confirmed by the taper here: https://web.archive.org/web/19990224185129/http://www.sgi.net/bluestraveler/gig.html

2) The date is confirmed in the Columbia Spectator.  See the article accompanying these files.

3) Barnard and Columbia had classes on Thursday, and the college administration would never have allowed a rock concert on Lehman Lawn while classes were in session.

4) Dreamspeak, which also played, dates the performance as April 14, and provides photographs:  https://www.dreamspeak.com/gig/1989-barnard-springfest-wjohn-popper

This is a significant improvement over existing sources and sounds great.  Play it loud!

-- mhg :: 2022-10-15

bt1989-04-14t01_Set I intro.flac:652e4ff806aeed6ac4f6edcc863b26f3
bt1989-04-14t02_Rock Me Baby.flac:e273291cd2a61d58c401616527319008
bt1989-04-14t03_Out Of My Hands.flac:73eaf44a312dbefbde345754b8f6d0bc
bt1989-04-14t04_Should I Stay Or Should I Go.flac:84b2cf2fb498dac1f934cb026434a0df
bt1989-04-14t05_banter.flac:398b7eff79a1b4da6702c667baa8a1b6
bt1989-04-14t06_100 Years.flac:39534463817f65d098f0d885a84bd782
bt1989-04-14t07_Alone.flac:5a266f5b0a719af7f42a86875390f0e2
bt1989-04-14t08_Set I outro.flac:f34c95de588456390de9a532de2dbf23
bt1989-04-14t09_Cleopatra's Cat.flac:50e87c1f85d480410103e75783d43278
bt1989-04-14t10_Gotta Get Mean.flac:e9ae090c22ca598efffc0543490cb3f2
bt1989-04-14t11_Gloria.flac:305442daea081f3920ec80155275ce6d
bt1989-04-14t12_Gotta Get Mean.flac:f83e58c85cc400ec48cc5755de06c695
bt1989-04-14t13_But Anyway.flac:5dd8647cc253aa4fa907fe87dd1b84c5
bt1989-04-14t14_Hard To Exist.flac:998c3b38607d8c5de6601168b05f07d2
bt1989-04-14t15_stage announcement.flac:96835e85e73e262f0297ebd43b18c104
bt1989-04-14t16_Mother Funker.flac:50d462d602105cb854a403080cef108f