The New Riders
of The Purple Sage
Where I Come From
Woodstock Records
visit The New Riders website
also available on Amazon
This band which originally started because of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart’s desire to play more country music, morphed considerably over the years on their epic journey. David Nelson who at times wrote for and played with the Dead is now doing a lot of writing, seven new songs, with Jerry’s old writing partner from the Dead days Robert Hunter, with their first studio CD in twenty Years. David Nelson is still playing guitar and singing and Buddy Cage has long been sitting in for Jerry on the Pedal Steel Guitar, with Michael Falzarano (guitar and vocals), Ronnie Penque (bass and vocals), and Johnny Markowski (drums and vocals) rounding out this latest edition of the band which has been touring for about 4 years. This edition of the band seems to have revitalized the old spirit that was prevalent in the beginning and the new songs
carry on with that same energy and spirit that was there in the beginning. Whether it is the addition of these three new members, that happened in 2005, or the rekindling of the Hunter and Nelson songwriting partnership or a combination of the two, or just plain old alchemy, who cares. The energy is back and this 12-song studio disc has captured the spirit and feel of the band in its heyday. The psychedelic country sound lives to gallop off toward the sunset and bring in more glorious evenings of music and fun. Kudos to Michael Falzarano for his work as the producer to get this live joy translated to the disc.