Jerry Garcia's early studio material to launch

Jerry Garcia’s studio recordings will be released as a new record Folk Time on November 11.

Dating back to 1962, it sees the late Grateful Dead guitarist, then 20, on lead vocals, banjo and guitar in his folk and bluegrass band, Hart Valley Drifters. It also features his longtime Grateful Dead collaborator Robert Hunter on bass, David Nelson on guitar, Norm Van Maastricht on dobro and Ken Frankel on banjo, fiddle and guitar.

Listen to their cover of folk classic Roving Gambler below.

They recorded the songs during autumn of that year at Stanford University’s KZU radio station in two sessions named Folk Time and Flint Hill Special, which were organised by DJ Ted Claire. They covered tracks by American songwriters including the Stanley Brothers, Dock Boggs and the Mississippi Sheiks along with a variety of traditional folk songs.

Folk Time is available for pre-order in various bundles via Garcia Family Provisions. The artwork and tracklist can be viewed below.

Hart Valley Drifters’ Folk Time Track List

Band Introductions
Roving Gambler
Ground Speed
Pig In A Pen
Standing In The Need Of Prayer
Flint Hill Special
Nine Pound Hammer
Handsome Molly
Clinch Mountain Backstep
Think of What You’ve Done
Cripple Creek
All The Good Times Have Past And Gone
Billy Grimes, The Rover
Paddy On The Turnpike (Boys, My Money’s All Gone)
Run Mountain

Jerry Garcia's gun among Grateful Dead auction lots

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.