Origins: early 1960s–1969 The roots of the New Riders can be traced back to the early 1960s
Peninsula folk/
beatnik scene centered on
Stanford University's now-defunct Perry Lane housing complex in
Menlo Park, California where future
Grateful Dead guitarist
Jerry Garcia often played gigs with like-minded guitarist
David Nelson. The young
John Dawson (also known as "Marmaduke") also played some concerts with Garcia, Nelson, and their compatriots while visiting relatives on summer vacation. Enamored of the sounds of
Bakersfield-style country music, Dawson would turn his older friends on to the work of
Merle Haggard and
Buck Owens and provided a vital link between
Timothy Leary's International Federation for Internal Freedom in
Millbrook, New York (Dawson having boarded at the
Millbrook School), and the Menlo Park bohemian coterie nurtured by
Ken Kesey. Inspired by
American folk music,
rock and roll, and
blues, Garcia formed the
Grateful Dead (initially known as The Warlocks) with blues singer
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, while Nelson joined the similarly inclined New Delhi River Band (which would eventually come to include bassist
Dave Torbert) shortly thereafter. Although they lacked the managerial acumen and
cultural cachet of the Grateful Dead and elected to remain in
East Palo Alto, California, unlike the former group, which soon relocated to the
Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, the New Delhi River Band were considered by late 1966 to be the house band of
The Barn (one of the region's few viable concert venues outside of San Francisco) in
Scotts Valley, California. The group continued to enjoy a cult following in
Santa Clara and
Santa Cruz Counties through the
Summer of Love until their dissolution in early 1968. After a period of inactivity Nelson contributed to the Grateful Dead's
Aoxomoxoa (1969) sessions and served as the caretaker of
Big Brother and the Holding Company's rehearsal space while guitarist Peter Albin and drummer David Getz undertook a European tour with
Country Joe & the Fish following the schismatic departure of
Janis Joplin and
Sam Andrew from the former band in December 1968. During this period Nelson and Garcia played intermittently in an early iteration of High Country, a
traditional bluegrass ensemble formed by the remnants of the Peninsula folk scene. Nelson was set to serve as lead guitarist in the reconstituted lineup of Big Brother that coalesced later in 1969 and thus may have contributed to some of the recordings on
Be a Brother (1970) during this transitional period. Dawson—who dropped out of
Occidental College in December 1965 and remained in
Los Angeles for several years thereafter, "hanging out with musicians and weirdos"—had returned to Los Altos Hills by early 1969, allowing him to contribute to the
Aoxomoxoa sessions and briefly enroll at
Foothill College. After a
mescaline experience at
Pinnacles National Park with Torbert and
Matthew Kelly, he began to compose songs on a regular basis. The most commercially successful configuration of the New Riders would come to encompass Dawson, Nelson, Torbert,
Spencer Dryden, and
Buddy Cage.
Vintage NRPS: 1969–1982 After a few warmup gigs throughout the Bay Area in 1969, Dawson, Nelson, and Torbert began to tour in May 1970 as part of a tripartite bill advertised as "An Evening with the Grateful Dead". An acoustic Grateful Dead set that often included contributions from Dawson and Nelson would then segue into New Riders and electric Dead sets, obviating the need to hire external opening acts. By the time the New Riders recorded their first album, there were several personnel changes. Hart temporarily left the Grateful Dead in February 1971. Although Hart contributed to two tracks on the album, former
Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden replaced him in the New Riders prior to his departure from the parent group. Dryden would remain with the group for ten years, ultimately serving as the band's manager.
Their first album, eponymously titled was released on
Columbia Records (under a contract informed by
Clive Davis's long-term aspiration to sign the Grateful Dead) in late 1971. It proved to be a moderate success comparable to the Dead's releases of the era, peaking at No. 39 on the
Billboard 200 chart. In 1982, Nelson and Cage left the band, leaving Dawson as the sole remaining member from the classic lineup.
New New Riders: 1982–1997 From the early 1980s to the late 1990s Dawson continued as leader of the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He was joined by
bluegrass-oriented multi-instrumentalist Rusty Gauthier, who sang and played acoustic guitar,
slide guitar,
mandolin, banjo, and
fiddle. During this fifteen-year period, an evolving lineup of musicians played with Dawson and Gauthier in the New Riders. These included among others, guitarists Allen Kemp, Gary Vogensen, and Evan Morgan; bass players Fred Campbell, Bill Laymon, and Michael White; and drummers
Val Fuentes, and Greg Lagardo. Some projects had the current line-up performing new material and others reworked older material. On some albums, such as
Midnight Moonlight, the band's sound was less influenced by electric country rock and more by acoustic bluegrass music.
Retirement: 1997–2005 In 1997, the New Riders of the Purple Sage split up. Dawson retired from music and moved to Mexico to become an
English teacher. By this time,
Nelson had started his own David Nelson Band. There was a reunion performance in 2001. In 2002, the New Riders accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from
High Times magazine. On hand were a frail Dawson (suffering from
emphysema), Nelson, Cage, Dryden and Torbert's widow Patti. The band performed "Panama Red" and "Lonesome LA Cowboy" with Peter Rowan as part of the celebration. In the spring of 2004, Cage sat in at several gigs with the David Nelson Band.
NRPS revival: 2005–2017 Shortly after the death of Spencer Dryden, a reconstituted line-up of the New Riders began touring in late 2005. It features David Nelson and Buddy Cage, alongside guitarist
Michael Falzarano, bassist
Ronnie Penque, and drummer
Johnny Markowski. John "Marmaduke" Dawson died in Mexico on July 21, 2009, at the age of 64. Pedal steel guitarist Buddy Cage died on February 5, 2020, at age 73. Prior to Cage's passing, the band had not performed for over two years and it has not been active since. ==Discography==