THE GRATEFUL DEAD's country inflections
heard on "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty," back-to-back 1970 hits,
seemed astonishing more in the context of the band's counter-cultural bona fides
than their musical training: Before they became psychedelic rock pioneers, Jerry Garcia ... more and his cohorts were steeped in folk, bluegrass
and jug band music, all tied to the same Southern musical root stock, long
before Garcia added pedal steel to his arsenal. (Scott Weiner/Retna
Ltd.)
