Grateful Dead Archives - Bluegrass Today

Dead Session coming from Town Mountain

You didn’t really think that a remake of Tommy bluegrass style would be the end of it, did you?

Now here comes Town Mountain with The Dead Session, a special two-track project celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Grateful Dead. Scheduled for a November 13 release, the old school single will feature a pair of Dead songs done up bluegrass, Town Mountain style.

The guys have chosen Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo and Big River, giving them a Dead original and a Johnny Cash cover to play with. And for the cover art, they contracted with Taylor Swope, who has been doing licensed Grateful Dead art this past 12 years.

To explain a bit more about this independent Town Mountain project, here’s a short video explaining their intentions.

Town Mountain is Robert Greer on guitar, Jesse Langlais on banjo, Bobby Britt on fiddle, Phil Barker on mandolin, and Adam Chaffins on bass. Guests for this project include Jon Stickley on guitar and bass, Jack Deveroux on pedal steel, and Evan Martin on drums.

Look for Dead Session next month.

Carolina Moonrise from Jim Lauderdale

Jim Lauderdale is set to release his 21st recording on September 25, a new bluegrass album called Carolina Moonrise.

Like his previous grass projects, Jim has again teamed up with Randy Kohrs, who produced and engineered, and also provided reso-guitar. And like Jim’s most recent prior release, Reason And Rhyme, Randy assembled a crack band of Nashville super-pickers, using the same bunch for each track to get a “band feel” in the studio.

Assisting are Scott Vestal on banjo, Josh Williams on guitar, Tim Crouch on fiddle, Jay Weaver on bass and Aaron Ramsey on mandolin.

Jim said that he again collaborated with his favorite lyricist, a legend in American music.

“I am very excited about this record. I got to write the whole thing with one of my all-time heroes, Robert Hunter. Randy Kohrs really outdid himself as a producer and it was incredible to work with these fine players.

This has been an overall great experience.”

Robert Hunter is perhaps best known for his songwriting output with The Grateful Dead, having written or co-written some of their most enduring numbers (Friend Of The Devil, Uncle John’s Band, Sugar Magnolia, Truckin’). His association with The Dead dates back to Jerry Garcia’s early years as a bluegrass musician, where Hunter played guitar to Garcia’s banjo.

For Hunter, a fondness for bluegrass remains, something he exercises in his collaborations with Lauderdale. Carolina Moonrise marks their fifth project together, and surely not the last.

The album is set to release during World of Bluegrass, and we’ll try to corral Jim next week for more details.

Steep Canyon Rangers at Dead Covers Project

Steep Canyon Rangers have created a video entry for the Dead Covers Project.

Grateful Dead fans are invited to submit videos of themselves performing a Dead song during the month of February. Five fan favorites will be selected in March, and be displayed on all the Dead web properties, and in the Grateful Dead Almanac for 2012.

The Rangers posted this video of them burning though Don’t Ease Me In.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKm2ntgOqnc

Help the guys in the voting by Liking their video on YouTube.