In early June 1964, Garcia and Rothman made their way to Panama City, Florida to visit and play a gig with Scott Hambly, a friend and musician who was stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base at the time. Rothman recalled, “Jerry and I also drove down to Florida to visit Berkeley mandolinist Scott Hambly, another highly original and accomplished instrumentalist like Jerry, and a one-gig replacement for David Nelson in the Black Mountain Boys, while he was stationed at Panama City's Tyndall Air Force Base. I listened to the two of them picking as we played an impromptu show that Scott had arranged at the NCO club and thought that it would be hard to find two city-based bluegrass musicians better matched for sheer profusion of notes and ornamentation. A flock of notes flew with the airplanes over the warm Florida sands that night."