John Dawson, R.I.P.

I'm a longtime Deadhead, but I've only recently started to get into the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Kind of a country-rock Dead alter-ego during a period when, on the one hand, the Dead were already pretty drunk on country-rock and, on the other hand, most of the SF bands were dissolving into loose agglomerations of fluid membership (otherwise known as creative communes), the NRPS quickly took on an identity of their own, although they'd always be pretty indelibly linked with the Dead.

Anyway, John Dawson, founding member of the NRPS, died the other day. The Dead's own website eulogizes him better than I could.

Here's my current favorite song by NRPS, with Dawon singing. It's an obvious choice, but an irresistible one. One of the better drug-smuggling hippie songs I can think of (along with this one).