New Riders of the Purple Sage began as a Grateful Dead side project and ended up becoming a seminal country cult band. In their early years, the New Riders began picking up the pieces of American Beauty and Working Man's Dead. Jerry Garcia picked the pedal steel, while John Dawson sang and played rhythm guitar; Phil Lesh took on bass duties as David Nelson picked the Telecaster and mandolin. Although Mickey Hart played drums for awhile, it wasn't long until the band became more serious and recruited Spencer Dryden from the Airplane to take over. Dave Torbert replaced Lesh and Buddy Cage replaced Garcia. And New Riders began to solidify their own sound. Tongue-in-cheek Country Rock songs are still their specialty.

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