Received our copy of "Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage" this weekend. As to be expected with Bear's recordings the sound is great. So far we have only listened to the first show featured, 8/1/69 which was one of the first gigs and billed as Jerry Garcia and Marmaduke. I was surprised by how competent Jerry already was on pedal steel at this point. He didn't play the pedal steel parts on Aoxomoxoa so I am guessing he had been playing steel less than a year when the show was recorded. It is a difficult instrument to play and even more difficult to play well, I kept wondering how he had enough time to woodshed and learn the instrument considering how many shows a year the Dead were playing at that point and how much time they were spending writing, rehearsing and recording new music. Ron, Susan, Mica and Alembic get a thank you call-out in the liner notes. If you like the Riders and are interested in hearing how the music came together, grew and developed in the early days of the band I highly recommend this release.
