Then to have another band that was going to be just like that didn’t appeal to him. The Dead itself was enough to deal with in terms of touring and logistics. You want to go on the road?” We were like, “Yea, OK, sounds good.” We were starting to make money playing bluegrass. Sam Cutler was living around that area, and the Grateful Dead hired him to do bookings. We did some gigs, just the four of us John Kahn on bass. We played some local places with those guys on fiddle. Then we had John Hartford play with us Richard Greene played with us. We rehearsed and played without doing a live gig for a couple of months. He came out of the house playing it was a joyful get together. We went up to his house, and there was a sign over the entrance that said “Sans Souci,” which means “without a care.” We walked into his yard and there he was, “Spud Boy,” playing the five- string banjo. One day he remarked, very shortly after getting together, “You know Garcia lives up the hill, and he likes to pick.” I replied, “Let’s go, man.” I had met Jerry on one of my previous West Coast trips. We were just picking bluegrass and coming back to those roots. We’d already done Earth Opera, so we weren’t exploring new ground if we played any of that materiel. We’d have a “little refreshment” to wake ourselves up and we’d pick. I’d bring my guitar to David’s house and wake him up. Stinson would have these incredible sparkling days. That part of the coast didn’t have a fog bank further up in Tomales Bay they have a fog bank. You had the bird-fly zone: all kinds of migrating birds coming through there. You were in this utopia and close to the elements. You were away from all the traffic and all the busyness over the hill. In fact, the myth of the time was that when the earthquake comes it’s going to break off at Stinson Beach and we were going out to sea. Stinson Beach wasn’t con-sidered a spiritual capital. There was a 7-Eleven, Ed’s Superette, a post office, and a kind of “live-and-let-live” attitude. Not even put shoes on, just walk through the sand dunes. Jerry Garcia lived up the hill, and I would just wake up in the morning living this shiftless Hippie life. David Grisman had been producing them for Columbia Records. After Seatrain, I left to reconnect in the most personal way with my brothers Chris and Lorin. That was all within five years of leaving Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys. Another band, Seatrain, recorded two albums for Capitol Records. We did the band Muleskinner for Warner Brothers. I started the psychedelic folk band Earth Opera with David Grisman.
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