The P Speaks: In My Top 20…

Old & In The Way is an album that has been on my hotlist for as long as I can remember. Recorded in 1973 in San Francisco, the songs on this record are timeless for me, and was/is a ‘must have’ for every road trip. The cover art, by Greg Irons, is also worth a look.

The album, and the band of the same name, was composed of some of the best pickers in the business:

Banjo + vocals – Jerry Garcia. Ol’ Jer was a talent with a banjo in his hands. In addition to his 30 years with the Grateful Dead, Garcia co-founded New Riders of the Purple Sage and had many side projects, the most notable being the Jerry Garcia Band.

Mandolin + vocals – David Grisman. A fantastic bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music, Grisman created his own style of acoustic madness known know as Dawg Music – a compelling blend of Django-esque swing with traditional bluegrass melodies. (Check out Svingin’ with Svend for a taste of that.) In 1990, Grisman started a record label, Acoustic Disc, to preserve/share acoustic music, which has showcased some amazing musicians.

Guitar + vocals – Peter Rowan. An alum of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, Rowan founded/played with some of the most interesting experimental rock/bluegrass groups the day: Earth Opera, Seatrain, Muleskinner, and with some of the best acoustic musicians in the land. Some of his songs – “Panama Red” and “Midnight Moonlight” – have been widely covered by others.

Fiddle – Vassar Clements. Another alum of the Blue Grass Boys, Clements taught himself to play the fiddle at age of seven. He had a number of jobs outside of music (plumber at the Kennedy Space Center, switchman for the railroad, and owner of a potato chip franchise), yet in his 50+ year career, he played on over 2000 albums with a wide variety of musicians: Paul McCartney, Dickey Betts, Bonnie Raitt, the Grateful Dead, John Hartford, Jimmy Buffett, Earl Scruggs and numerous bluegrass bands.

Acoustic bass – John Kahn. Kahn played in nearly every line-up of the Jerry Garcia Band, as the tall lanky figure at the back of the stage. During his career, he played with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (later incarnation), Maria Muldaur, Nick Gravenites, and John Lee Hooker. Kahn was also an artist – he painted the cover art for the 1991 live album, Jerry Garcia Band, which portrayed *his* view from the back of the stage, looking out at the audience at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, where the album was recorded. (To the delight of a tiny portion of the JGB subculture, his drawing clearly shows the illicit tapers recording the show. That’s a story for another post…)

Sadly only David Grisman and Peter Rowan are still with us in 2007, but both are still very active.

Here’s a sample of one of my personal favorites: Wild Horses

Tags: banjo, bluegrass, Old and in the Way, tapers