Worcester, MA 4/4/73 [Digipak]

Performer: New Riders of the Purple Sage
Engineer: Mike Zasuly
Producer: Rob Bleestein
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: KUFALA releases are available at www.kufala.com. New Riders Of The Purple Sage: John Dawson (vocals, guitar); David Nelson (guitar, background vocals); Buddy Cole (pedal steel guitar); Dave Torbert (bass, background vocals); Spencer Dryden (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals); Keith Godchaux (piano). Recorded live at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts on April 4, 1973. New Riders of the Purple Sage: David Nelson, John Dawson (vocals, guitar); Dave Torbert (vocals, bass guitar); Buddy Cage (pedal steel guitar); Spencer Dryden (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals); Keith Godchaux (piano). Once upon a time a listener was lucky to get one live recording from their favorite group. Even then, the recording was likely to have been pieced together from a dozen different performances and only offer a facsimile of the real thing. It's a real bonus then that more and more live shows -- both old and new -- are being released intact over the span of a couple of discs. Worcester, MA 4/4/73 offers a snapshot of the New Riders of the Purple Sage at the top of their game. The New Riders, unlike the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, only occasionally qualify as a jam band, which means that the live versions of their songs are only slight variations of the studio cuts. The album includes nice versions of "I Don't Know You," "Whatcha Gonna Do," and "Rainbow" and good covers of "Long Black Veil," "Hello Mary Lou," and "Down in the Boondocks." It doesn't hurt the overall sound to have the Grateful Dead's pianist, Keith Godchaux, sitting in, nor to feature Donna Jean Godchaux delivering a good-time rendition of Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough." The Worcester show wraps up with an epic, 11-minute version of "Willie and the Hand Jive," a song that no doubt incited the audience to dance in the aisles. Worcester, MA 4/4/73 will please New Riders fans and anyone who appreciates the special blend of country and rock that flourished during the early '70s. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.

Formed in 1969 by Bakersfield country obsessive John Dawson and guitarist David Nelson, the New Riders Of The Purple Sage counted among their original line-up Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead. Cutting their teeth as the Dead's opening act, the New Riders quickly established an independent identity through the strength of Dawson's original songs. Their 1971 debut, which featured Garcia on pedal steel, blended country rock with a loose, hippie aesthetic. POWERGLIDE introduced steel ace Buddy Cage and a punchier, more assertive sound, which yielded their 1973 fourth album, THE ADVENTURES OF PANAMA RED, gold status. After this commercial peak, the band continued recording and touring in various guises in the ensuing decades--although the '00s lineup did not feature John Dawson.

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