from the CD That High Lonesome Sound, Acoustic Discs, released: 1996, recorded: 1973Jerry Garcia was always burning the joint at both ends, so to speak, filling every available moment that wasn’t spent playing in the Dead (or nodding out…) with a swollen heap of side projects and guest appearances; although Old & in the Way only played together for a couple of months, their subtle update on the traditional bluegrass template later became a clarion call to the new-school bluegrass movement, not to mention facilitating one of Garcia’s longest standing friendships outside of the Dead in mandolin prodigy David Grisman. Although some of the songs they covered were modern hits (for example, their take on the New Riders’ “Lonsome L.A. Cowboy” is priceless), this was no crossover act, and all the support players here came from traditional bluegrass backgrounds; that facts lent them the credibility needed to cover a Monroe classic like this without more than a mere hint of irony. This music was Garcia’s first love and obsession, long before the days of acid tests & psychedelic ballrooms, set adrift in the memories of jug bands and ragtime.
