Gimme Shelter In Place: Corinne West & The Bandits Perform ‘Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie’

Gimme Shelter In Place is JamBase’s new daily archival video series launched for fans who right now can’t go see live music. Canceled concerts and music festivals due to social distancing and sheltering in place in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic brought a halt to tours around the globe. We know nothing can truly replace seeing live music in person, but we hope the Gimme Shelter In Place live videos provide a taste of those memorable experiences.

In 2015, members of Team JamBase recorded San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Corinne West performing a cover of “Dire Wolf” for our Songs Of Their Own Grateful Dead 50th anniversary video series. The session took place in a forest near Madrone Canyon in Larkspur, California not far from where Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and his writing partner Robert Hunter were living together in 1969.

At that time, Hunter was inspired to write the lyrics that became “Dire Wolf” after watching a television broadcast of The Hound Of The Baskervilles. The next day, Hunter gave the new lyrics to his roommate in the house in the woods, and soon after, Garcia completed composing the song’s accompanying music.

Given the surroundings, it was natural for West to cover “Dire Wolf” for Songs Of Their Own. Backed by an impressive collection of musicians that have shared stages with many members of the Grateful Dead, West was joined that afternoon by The Bandits, guitarists Roger McNamee and Jason Crosby, bassist Pete Sears and pedal steel guitarist Barry Sless. Team JamBase also recorded an outtake of West & Co. covering Elizabeth Cotten’s “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie.”

The Grateful Dead began covering “Oh Babe Ain’t No Lie” during acoustic portions of shows in fall 1980. The song was originally released on Cotten’s debut album, 1958’s Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar (Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes), and remained part of Garcia’s solo live repertoire for several years.

Watch Corinne West & The Bandits’ performance of “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie” and all of the Gimme Shelter In Place videos in the playlist below:

Stay tuned as we share a new Gimme Shelter In Place live performance video every weekday for the foreseeable future. Keep tabs on livestreams via the JamBase Livestreams Calendar, which offers the ability to toggle back and forth between streams, and be sure to subscribe to the JamBase YouTube channel.

Songs Of Their Own Playlist