Hart Valley Drifters - Folk Time (2016) Hi-Res

In 1961, at 20 years old, Grateful Dead co-founder Jerry Garcia first met bass player and future Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. The following year, the pair began working in folk and bluegrass bands together, playing several clubs throughout California, with a fluid lineup of musicians joining them in groups such as the Thunder Mountain Tub Thumpers and the Asphalt Jungle Boys. One of the groups, the Hart Valley Drifters – made up of Garcia, Hunter, New Riders of the Purple Sage co-founder David Nelson on guitar, Norm Van Maastricht on Dobro, and Ken Frankel on banjo, fiddle and guitar – booked a session at Stanford University's KZSU studio to record several modern and traditional folk and bluegrass tunes for the station's popular Folk Time program.

The session had been recorded but the tape reels were believed to be lost. In 2008, 46 years later, the tapes were discovered by former Stanford student Ted Claire, who had produced and recorded the original session.