_____Gary Duncan, founding member of Quicksilver Messenger Service and guitarist extraordinaire, played
his second Jacksonville show in a year on June 21 at Ben-EEE's in Jacksonville Beach. Duncan was joined
by current Quicksilver keyboardist Mike Lewis and Jacksonville's Crawfish of Love
_____Duncan and the Crawfish treated the sold-out house to an evening of psychedelic guitar improvisation
during three hours of Quicksilver standards, Crawfish tunes,and newer jazz-based offerings. The show was
recorded and is being mixed for CD release. ___
_____Duncan was painfully overlooked during his Quicksilver days,playing in the shadows of the deservedly-
noticed John Cipollina. Duncan was Quicksilver's "engine",supplying the churning pistol-like rhythm guitar
under Cipollina's quivery leads and developing for himself a lead guitar style based on the excursions of late
'50's-era Miles Davis. ___
_____Duncan's lead guitar style evolved into one of the more highly recognizable styles to originate from the
Bay Area and his place in history as a founder of psychedelic guitar places him in the unique "founder's club"
along with Garcia, Cipollina,Jorma,Barry Melton, and James Gurley.
_____During the evening Gary reminded us time and time again of this well-earned historical attribute. His guitar
lines were fractured and bent into musical shapes that evoked thoughts of the Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms. We
truly had a little bit of 'Frisco bubbling away in Jax Beach and everyone had one hell of a good time.
_____With the Dead community still reeling from the loss of Garcia, it seems a natural that Deadheads would
embrace Duncan as the legitimate inheritor of the mantle. Garcia was a great admirer of Duncan's playing and
shared many stages with him over the years.

___SONGLIST

Wardance in a Boxcar.....Maiden Voyage.....When Nancy Tones Down the Gaze.....Senor Blues..
Midland Fats Shuffle.....Mona.....Close Enuff for Jazz.....Vegetable House Dreams.....Minor Swing.....Fresh Air
Gold and Silver.....Frosted Sneeze.....Red Mummy Swamp.....Green Dolphin Street.....You'se A Viper.....Popeye
When Santa Claus Works the Telethon......Solea.....Basketball Jones.....

Quicksilver Messenger Service was one of the best bands to emerge from the Sixties Haight Ashbury - San Francisco scene. They loaded up their from-the-heart songs with free-form jamming; in gigs at classic venues like the Fillmore and Avalon, they stretched out and improvised, pushing their music in unpredictable directions. Tougher than the Dead, looser than the Airplane, but never managing to achieve the popularity of either; they faded away after 1975. Maybe they just weren't ambitious enough; in the words of guitarist Gary Duncan, "We had no ambition toward making records, we just wanted to have fun play some music, and make enough money to be able to afford to smoke pot". Sadly, today Quicksilver is too often overlooked as an essential classic rock experience. They made hippie music, simple straight forward lyrics, mostly love songs and some social commentary thrown in (from the freak point of view). Musically loose, plenty of rough edges, rarely over-produced, no slick singer, just a tough dual guitar attack always looking for a little open space to stretch it out as far as they could go. Their personnel sometimes changed based on who was busted on the latest pot possession rap. But the two guitar attack of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan was generally a constant. With the nasal-voiced former folkie Dino Valenti, the band had its most recognizable singles "Fresh Air" and "What About Me". However there is much to enjoy in all the bands phases from the heavy jamming of the first albums, through the hits of the Valenti folk pop period (spiced up by Nicky Hopkins keyboards) and finally sweet cowboyish love songs like "Gypsy Lights" and "Don't Cry My Lady Love" Listen to Quicksilver and enjoy a time when rock was still about making music for fun, not money for corporations.

_____DISCOGRAPHY

_____BAND MEMBERS (1968-1998)

Gary Duncan- guitar, vocals
John Cipollina - guitar,vocals
David Freiberg- bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals
Greg Elmore - drums, percussion, vocals
Dino Valenti - vocals, guitars
Nicky Hopkins - keyboards
Jim Murray - vocals, harmonica (left group before first Capitol album)
Michael Lewis - keyboards
Mark Naftalin - keyboards
Chuck Steaks - keyboards
Mark Ryan - bass
Greg Errico - drums
Bobby Vega - bass
Jim Guyett - bass
John Bird - guitar, vocals
Tony Menjivar - L/P percussion