1. PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

The starting point Jerry Garcia and Sandy Rothman’s bluegrass journey to seek out the legends of bluegrass in the eastern United States began in Palo Alto, California. Both Garcia and Rothman were major figures in the Bay Area bluegrass scene, but the west coast was far removed from the heart of the music in the American South and Northeast. Rothman had ventured east the year prior, and Garcia was interested in making the same trip.

In a 1961 white Corvair that Garcia had purchased from his father-in-law’s secretary, the duo decided to make the trip with their bluegrass friends, Clarence and Roland White, and the Kentucky Colonels. The Kentucky Colonels were in Los Angeles, California, so Garcia and Rothman headed south to meet up with the band. The duo left the Bay Area with their instruments, a Wollenczak reel-to-reel recorder borrowed from Sara Katz’s (Garcia’s first wife) father, and a sack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.