Frequently Asked Questions

A lot of these are just questions we ask ourselves, rather frequently.

How are free-form sections of music listed in setlists?

Often a judgement call, but these are the ways they end up getting represented.
  • "Drums"Only the drummers (and their guests) are playing. Some very short drum breaks are not listed, needs to be longer than about 10 sec.
  • "Space"Drummer-less, and completely free-form. This tends to not get listed, if brief (less than a minute), or contained within a song that commonly can include such sections anyways (e.g. Dark Star, Other One, etc.).
  • "Jam"An improvisation that does not engage a known theme. This tends to not get listed, if brief (less than a minute), or contained within a song that commonly can include such sections anyways (e.g. Dark Star, Other One, etc.).
  • As a footnote on adjacent or "containing" song
  • We no longer have songs called XXX Jam (e.g. "Playin' Jam", or "Other One Jam"). Many traditional setlists have these, but we've moved to just calling these "Playing In The Band" or "Other One" or whatever, then having "theme only" as a footnote.


    Why are some thematic jams listed in the setlists while other are just listed in footnotes?

    Some jams such as Spanish Jam and Mind Left Body Jam are listed in the sets lists. Others such as "Feelin' Groovy Jam" are not, but are listed in footnotes. This is purely for historical reasons. We try keep our setlists more or less inline with how the community has been doing it for years. But we recognize that it is inconsistent so we may change this in the future.


    Why is X date, or X song not listed in Jerrybase?

    Here are some possible reasons:
  • Jerry was not there.Jerrybase just covers Garcia, so shows where he's not there are not listed. Songs is more nuanced, for GD, all songs will be listed, even if Garcia bails for some reason. For side projects and guest spots, songs where he's absent will just not be listed, or they will be listed in muted text.
  • Recording is mislabeled.Have a look at our spurious events page, or read the show notes, sometime we talk about common tape mislabels.
  • We just don't know about it!Please email us! admin@jerrybase.com