The Rainer archive is pleased to present The Tucson Tapes, 31 years after the recording session and 25 years after Rainer’s passing.

Mid November 1991. The members of the Cajun band BeauSoleil were on tour with a stop scheduled for Tucson at a now defunct club, The Wild Wild West. Producer John Chelew (R.I.P.) thought he would seize the opportunity to pair them together with Tucson guitar whiz Rainer Ptacek to record a track for an upcoming Richard Thompson tribute album. The tune selected was Thompson’s Valerie. The session was booked at (the also now defunct) 7 ‘N 7 recording studios. Chelew flew in from Los Angeles a few days ahead to meet with Rainer and set things up at the studio.

The recording took place during the afternoon of November 13th and was accomplished without much if any trouble. The next night at the gig, Rainer joined them on stage to reprise the tune during the encore portion of their set. Unfortunately, when the tribute album Beat the Retreat was released in 1994, Rainer’s guitar track had been removed. This disappointed him greatly as he had been a Thompson fan since the earliest Fairport Convention days. The Rainer archive has the original recording with his excellent contribution intact, as well as a recording of the concert version taped by Jim Blackwood. We will be releasing both visions soon here on Bandcamp. Which leads us to…

… later that day back at 7 ‘N 7, where Rainer, Nick & Ralph set up for a marathon session lasting late into the night with Chelew & Schiff at the controls for what was to be the only “proper” studio recording by this final version of Das Combo. The band would officially break up six months later. Plowing through more than a dozen takes live with no overdubbing, these recordings are raw and powerful examples of what they were performing live at the time. Thankfully, Ralph Gilmore had a cassette copy made of the complete session for his archive as it is the only remaining copy available. This is the source for the release at hand.

Hard to say what Rainer thought of the session. He was already hard at work with Billy Gibbons on what would become The Texas Tapes and he would be recording his solo album Worried Spirits in July of ‘92. With the demise of Das Combo it would seem that there was no need to bother with the tapes and the session was shelved. Until now.

All but two of the tunes recorded during the session were completely finished, road tested, with the arrangements thoroughly worked out. It almost goes without saying that Rainer was always changing up the arrangements making these versions completely unique. Of the two tunes, Tasted Better… did not have that title or the lyrics yet. On Ralph’s tape it is listed as “New Tune.” Perhaps the session on the Thompson tune inspired the final product, which can be heard on Worried Spirits. The other tune, which we have titled Lights, was also a work in progress. Rainer worked on it over the years but never came up with a final version. We offer both as a look into his process. Also of note is the inclusion of the Nick Augustine instrumental Happy, one of several of his they performed often in concert.

So here you have it, a missing puzzle piece in the history not only of Rainer and Das combo but also of the sessions producer, John Chelew. Both John and Rainer are gone now and we hope this addition to their legacy is a fitting tribute to them both.