No one is more surprised by the recent revival of the New Riders of the Purple Sage than David Nelson, the band's lead guitarist and singer.
Formed in Marin County in 1969, the New Riders (NRPS) broke through nationally in 1973 with a pair of psychedelic country rock hits, the pot smoker's paean "Panama Red," and the Hollywood rock-star lament "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy," both written by Marin's Peter Rowan.
The New Riders were part of a nouveau country zeitgeist that included urban-cowboy, baby-boomer bands like the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Buffalo Springfield.
"We made country music OK for the hip community," Nelson says.
After 13 years with the New Riders, a burned-out Nelson left the band in 1982, when the road-weary group was going nowhere fast.
"It was the disco dark ages," he recalls. "We were hitting the skids. It was costing us to go on the road and I needed a break.
"But everything orbits around, you know, and now they want us back. Can you imagine? A group from 30 years ago. It's totally amazing."
The reconstituted New Riders, with a new live double album recorded New Year's Eve, are enjoying a second coming on the youth-oriented jam band circuit, where they are looked upon as revered elders.
"The amazing thing is we get kids of the kids who were our original fans," Nelson says from his home in Petaluma. "I see kids walking through the audience with vintage New Riders T-shirts. When I ask them where they got them, they say, 'Oh, from my dad.'"
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New Riders of the Purple Sage The reconstituted New Riders, with a new live double album recorded New Year's Eve, are enjoying a second coming.
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The 63-year-old Nelson goes as far back as anyone with Grateful Dead icon Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995.
In 1963 in Palo Alto, he, Garcia and his songwriting partner, lyricist Robert Hunter, formed the bluegrass group the Wildwood Boys.
Nelson went on to play guitar on the classic Grateful Dead albums "Working Man's Dead," "American Beauty" and "Aoxomoxoa."
When Garcia wanted to practice a new instrument that fascinated him at the time - the hard-to-play pedal steel guitar - he put the New Riders together.
The first rehearsals were in Garcia's house in Larkspur, when he lived across the creek from Janis Joplin. Nelson, pedal steel player Buddy Cage, who eventually replaced Garcia in the group, and bassist Dave Torbert roomed together in what they call "Kentfield House," a band pad immortalized on the back cover of their debut album.
The fledgling New Riders started as an opening act for the Dead, showcasing the songs of Garcia's friend, John "Marmaduke" Dawson, the lead singer.
After Nelson left the group, Dawson, against Nelson's advice, struggled along as a trio for another 15 years or so. "That's what burns you out," Nelson says.
In poor health in recent years, Dawson has been living in the Mexican artist haven San Miguel de Allende. He isn't part of the new group, although he gives it his blessing. Nelson hopes his frail former bandmate will be well enough to play some gigs with his old pals somewhere down the line.
While the original New Riders were born in Marin, the reformed group is very much an East Coast phenomenon. Nelson is the only West Coast guy in the band.
Two younger musicians, 39-year-old Johnny Markowski of the band Stir Fried, who recently won a Jambands.com contest as the most impressive drummer on the jam band scene, and bassist Ron Penque, once of the Grateful Dead cover band Ripple, were the impetus behind the New Riders revival.
Nelson, who has been touring and building a fan base for his David Nelson Band, was skeptical about any kind of New Riders reunion, seeing no market for it.
But after Markowski and Penque, whom he calls "the kids," put together a sold-out East Coast tour in 2005, he came on board along with Cage, the only other former member of the original group, on pedal steel.
The catalyst was veteran guitarist/singer/songwriter Michael Falzarano of Hot Tuna fame. "He was the key," Nelson says. "He sees a perspective that links the two generations. That made it click."
They recorded the live double CD at the Mexicali Blues Cafe in Teaneck, N.J. Released on the Danville indie label ArSeaEm Recording, it's available online at www.nrpslive.com.
While the band's two hits, "Panama Red" and "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy," are conspicuously absent from this set, the discs feature other NRPS classics such as "Last Lonely Eagle," "Garden of Eden," "I Don't Know You" and "Dirty Business."
In keeping with their new jam-band genre, one song is almost 19 minutes long, another goes on for 16 minutes-plus.
The new New Riders are booked solid through August on the East Coast, their stronghold.
"People come to see us because they realize we're historic," Nelson says. "I guess we fill some kind of gap for them. The interesting thing is that they come to see history, and they end up kind of liking us."
Why NRPS?
Dead lyricist Robert Hunter suggested the Riders of the Purple Sage, but there had been another old cowboy band with that name, so David Nelson added "New" to make the group unique. Jerry Garcia wanted to call the band the Murdering Punks, but in light of the Charles Manson killings in 1969, the other members didn't think that was such a good idea.
