When Jerry Garcia Played Two Bands every Night — The New Riders Experiment

In 1969, Jerry Garcia taught himself the pedal-steel guitar and formed New Riders of the Purple Sage with John Dawson and a small circle of friends. His partner, Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Adams, later recalled Garcia’s “perverse yearning” to master the instrument—waking up early each morning to practice for hours, treating it like a kind of musical yoga despite its notorious difficulty. Before long, Garcia was living a double life onstage: pedal steel with the New Riders, then electric guitar leading the Grateful Dead later the same night, all while recording and touring relentlessly. That overlap quietly shaped the Dead’s country-rock turn. Robert Hunter later explained that “Friend of the Devil” emerged from New Riders writing sessions, with Dawson contributing the now-iconic line, “a friend of the devil is a friend of mine,” before the Dead absorbed the song into their own repertoire. During the recording of “Box of Rain,” Phil Lesh brought in two New Riders musicians—bassist Dave Torbert and guitarist David Nelson—while Garcia stepped away from guitar to play piano, deliberately avoiding a familiar Dead sound. The pace was unsustainable. During the 1970 Festival Express tour, mounting pressure and looming deadlines forced Garcia to leave the New Riders and urge them to find a full-time steel player. He later downplayed his own technique, describing his pedal-steel approach as intuitive rather than polished. This film examines how that two-band marathon reshaped the Dead’s music—and the personal cost it demanded from Garcia. Chapters: 0:00 — When One Ticket Meant Two Bands and Six Hours The forgotten 1970 concert format where Jerry Garcia played acoustic Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and electric Grateful Dead—all in one night. 0:43 — Jerry Garcia’s Pedal Steel Obsession Begins How Garcia’s self-taught dive into pedal steel in late 1969 created a parallel musical life few fans ever noticed. 2:09 — The Coffeehouse Experiment That Became the New Riders From informal jams with John Dawson to a full second band featuring David Nelson, Dave Torbert, and Mickey Hart. 3:21 — A Touring Hack That Changed Everything Why the Dead only needed “two extra plane tickets”—and how practicality quietly turned into an unsustainable system. 3:48 — The Six-Hour Show Format (May 1970) Acoustic Dead → New Riders → Electric Dead, and the moment the experiment pushed past reasonable limits. 6:17 — The New Riders as the Dead’s Hidden Laboratory How NRPS rehearsals directly shaped American Beauty, Workingman’s Dead, and songs like “Friend of the Devil” and “Box of Rain.” 8:42 — The Physical Cost of Playing Two Bands Every Night Why switching between pedal steel and electric guitar was literally painful—and how creative pressure compounded the damage. 10:45 — When the Band Got Too Good for Jerry Garcia Why Garcia stepped away in 1971, Buddy Cage’s arrival, and how the end of this era set the stage for Europe ’72 and the Wall of Sound. ☕ Support The Archive Help preserve Grateful Dead history at buymeacoffee.com/theshakedownarchives 🔔 Subscribe for Dead stories, history, and culture:    / @theshakedownarchives   About The Shakedown Archives Welcome to The Shakedown Archives — a home for Grateful Dead stories, sound, and history. I’m a lifelong Deadhead using this channel to explore and preserve the music, the moments, and the culture that made the Dead legendary. I create original documentaries, song histories, and storytelling pieces that keep the band’s legacy alive for future generations. Whether you’re rediscovering legendary nights or learning the stories behind the music, this channel is built for people who love the Dead as much as I do. Contact for inquiries, questions and comments: [email protected] © 2025 The Shakedown Archives #GratefulDead #GratefulDeadReactions #Documentary