Jerry Garcia’s First Studio Recordings Set for Release
Jerry Garcia‘s earliest known studio recordings will be released as a new record, Folk Time, November 11th via Round Records.
The album is credited to Garcia’s folk and bluegrass outfit, the Hart Valley Drifters, which he formed when he was 20. Along with Garcia on lead vocals, banjo and guitar, the Hart Valley Drifters features Robert Hunter on bass, David Nelson on guitar, Norm Van Maastricht on dobro and Ken Frankel on banjo, fiddle and guitar. Hunter would of course go on to work extensively with Garcia as a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, while Nelson would co-found New Riders of the Purple Sage.
The Hart Valley Drifters recorded the songs that comprise Folk Time in fall 1962 at Stanford University’s KZSU radio station. A DJ named Ted Claire organized the sessions for his two shows, Folk Time and Flint Hill Special. During the Folk Time sessions, the group recorded several traditional folk songs, as well as tracks by classic American songwriters including the Stanley Brothers, Dock Boggs and the Mississippi Sheiks.
Folk Time is available to pre-order via Garcia Family Provisions on CD or as a digital download. Various bundles for both formats are available with a T-shirt and/or a poster signed and numbered by artist Miles Tsang (limited to an edition of 300).
Hart Valley Drifters’ Folk Time Track List
1. Band Introductions
2. “Roving Gambler”
3. “Ground Speed”
4. “Pig In A Pen”
5. “Standing In The Need Of Prayer”
6. “Flint Hill Special”
7. “Nine Pound Hammer”
8. “Handsome Molly”
9. “Clinch Mountain Backstep”
10. “Think of What You’ve Done”
11. “Cripple Creek”
12. “All The Good Times Have Past And Gone”
13. “Billy Grimes, The Rover”
14. “Paddy On The Turnpike (Boys, My Money’s All Gone)”
15. “Run Mountain”
16. “Sugar Baby”
17. “Sitting On Top Of The World”