Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter met in the spring of 1961, a few months after Garcia’s discharge from the Army left him drifting around the Palo Alto coffeehouse and bohemian scene. Both were broke and both loved folk music, so they began singing together, working up traditional songs and topical folk material in the style of the early-60s revival. As “Bob and Jerry” they played only a handful of times: a Stanford lounge (Arroyo Lunge May 5 1961), a private party in Menlo Park (Barbara Meier’s house May 26 1961), and the Peninsula School in Menlo Park (June 1961).
A home recording from May 26, 1961 survives and was issued on the 2018 Before the Dead box set, making it one of the earliest documented Garcia performances. The duo was short-lived, but the friendship lasted for life: Hunter would go on to write the words to most of Garcia’s best-known Grateful Dead songs.
