). All through 1967 Hawks pianist Richard Manuel had been learning to play the drumset Dylan brought into the basement, Levon Helm still absent from the band. Helm had worked on an oil rig in the Gulf Of Mexico, then relocated to Los Angeles where he became part of the local music scene (Leon Russell, Delaney & Bonnie, etc.), giving drum lessons to make money (one of his students became the drummer in Linda Ronstadt’s first backing band.).
The Dead’s second and third albums (Anthem Of The Sun and Aoxomoxoa) were (and I guess still are) amazing examples of psychedelic music, probably my favorites of the genre (though my exposure to that music is admittedly limited). And those 1968 and 1969 albums (respectively) are extreme examples of how against the direction Rock music was heading that were John Wesley Harding and Music From Big Pink (and even more so the music found in The Band’s 1969 s/t second album). There are other examples, for instance the Country & Western movement in Rock (spearheaded by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman in The Flying Burrito Brothers. Their 1969 album The Gilded Palace Of Sin is a stunning piece of work), following their redirection of The Byrds from Folk-Rock (Roger McGuinn and David Crosby were Folkies) to pure C & W (Hillman had been in several Bluegrass bands before joining The Byrds) on the 1968 album Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, a hugely influential album amongst musicians (at least the one’s I knew).
That The Dead would follow their above two albums with Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty in 1970 is astonishing. I think everyone agrees that WM and AB toil in roughly the same field as do The Band in their s/t second (brown) album. Jerry Garcia had deep roots in Bluegrass music, so it wasn’t a stretch for him. In his musical journey he alternated between abstract psychedelic improvisation and more structured Hillbilly music (though Bluegrass also features lots of instrumental improvisation), but was unfortunately limited by his lack of vocal ability. IMO, of course. And he was a barely adequate pedal steel guitar player, certainly not a master of the instrument. IMO.
By the way, for those who don’t know:
- Dead lyricist Robert Hunter has collaborated with Jim Lauderdale on a coupla albums. Jim is another favorite Hillbilly Singer/Songwriter of mine, whom I first saw live when he was serving as Lucinda Williams’ rhythm guitarist/harmony singer/bandleader on her Car Wheels On A Gravel Road tour. Playing drums in her band was the great Jim Christie.
- In his later years Band bassist Rick Danko did quite a bit of music making with Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. I much prefer Jorma’s acoustic guitar playing to his electric.