Grateful Dead Hour no. 549

By David Gans

Week of March 29, 1999

This week's archival GD Hour podcast announced the 1999 release of a 1964 live performance by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a good-time band that included future Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. The CD was produced by Michael Wanger, a high-school pal of Bob Weir, who was involved in the original broadcast and who had the tape in his stash all those years.

We begin with a couple of songs from the Grateful Dead's 1981 acoustic album Reckoning, "The Monkey and the Engineer" and "She's On the Road Again." Both these songs go back to the Dead's jug band incarnation.

For more on the jug band phenomenon of the early '60s, check out GD Hour #1012, discussing an excellent documentary titled Chasin' Gus' Ghost. Bob Weir appears in the film, along with Geoff and Maria Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, John Sebastian, Fritz Richmond, and others. Interestingly, both Muldaurs recently released new CDs in the jug band vein: Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks, and Maria Muldaur and Her Garden of Joy - which includes a delightful two-song duet with the great Dan Hicks.

Enjoy!

Grateful Dead, Reckoning
THE MONKEY AND THE ENGINEER
SHE'S ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
OVERSEAS STOMP
AIN'T IT CRAZY
BIG FAT WOMAN
BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE
BEEDLE UM BUM

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band
MY GAL

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
MY GAL
BORNEO
BAND INTERVIEW

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band
WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
IN THE JAILHOUSE NOW

Every Wednesday, we post a program from the Grateful Dead Hour archives for your enjoyment and enlightenment. You can browse or search the playlists at gdhour.com or on the GD Hour Search page, and let me know what program(s) you'd like to hear by emailing me at gdhour@dead.net.

Thank you for listening!
- David Gans

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