New Riders Of The Purple Sage : New Riders 1976

Origins: Early 1960s – 1969

The roots of the New Riders can be traced back to the early 60s folk/bohemian/beatnik scene in San Francisco, where future Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, then considered to be one of the finest banjo players of the folk revival, often played gigs with like-minded guitarist David Nelson. The young John Dawson, also known as "Marmaduke", from a well-to-do family centered in Millbrook, New York, also played some concerts with Garcia, Nelson, and their compatriots while visiting relatives on summer vacation. Enamored with the sounds of Bakersfield-style country music, Dawson would turn his older friends on to the work of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens while providing a vital link between the East Coast, Timothy Leary-dominated psychedelic scene and the West .


After attending a junior college in the Los Angeles area, Dawson returned to the Bay Area, where he decided to find his fortunes as a solo folksinger. Attending some of the Acid Tests and visiting the Dead at their commune in 1967, Dawson decided that it was his life's mission to combine the psychedelia of the San Francisco rock scene with his beloved electric country music. An early 1969 mescaline experience confirmed this, and the erstwhile perpetual student-cum-folkie began to compose songs on a regular basis. Some, such as "Glendale Train", were traditional country pastiches, while a number of others ("Last Lonely Eagle" and "Dirty Business") found him working in the milieu of a countrified Dead. Others, including the shuffle "Henry", were a combination of the two — traditional music combined with then-contemporary lyrics (the exploits of a marijuana smuggler, drug-related themes being a common motif in the New Riders' repertoire).

John Dawson
David Nelson
Spencer Dryden
Skip Battin
Buddy Cage


Tracks :

1. Fifteen days under the hood
2. Annie May
3. You never can tell
4. Hard to handle
5. Dead flowers
6. Don't put her down
7. Honkie Tonkin' ( I guess I done me some )
8. She's looking better evert beer
9. Can't get over you
10, The Swimming song

Size : 74 MB
Label : MCA Records
Made : In California USA
Format : Vinyl LP
Year : 1976
Genre : Country Rock
Bitratre 320

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