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David Nelson Biography

david-nelson
  • Born:
  • Years Active: 1970s-2000s
  • Member of: New Riders of the Purple Sage
  • Genre: Rock & Alternative

Since the early '60s, David Nelson has enjoyed a quietly successful musical career characterized by a willingness to experiment with improvisational song structures and playing. Coming out of a varied Haight-Ashbury scene bubbling with idiosyncratic artists, Nelson's music moved from the psychedelic country-rock of the New Riders of the Purple Sage in the early '70s to his own, more free-form David Nelson Band in the '90s, all the while gaining a devoted audience if not extensive commercial success. Nelson first began performing in the early '60s as a member of the Wildwood Boys with Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Like his Wildwood bandmates, he became a major part of the late-'60s/early-'70s San Francisco music scene, maintaining a friendship with Garcia and Hunter which led to Nelson's appearances on three classic Grateful Dead records: Aoxomoxoa and the two landmark acoustic records of 1970, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead. With Garcia and John Dawson, Nelson formed psychedelic country-rock legends, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, in 1969, even singing their countercultural anthem, "Panama Red," before exiting the band. In the mid-'80s, Nelson performed as a member of the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band and as a member of the bluegrass band the Good Old Boys with Don Reno, Chubby Wise, and Frank Wakefield. Their album Pistol Packin' Mama was produced by Garcia. 1996 found Nelson forming his own David Nelson Band, playing shows coast-to-coast and garnering acclaim for their loose, improvisational performances of original songs, many of them co-penned with old friend Hunter. The David Nelson Band features noteworthy musicians on the San Francisco scene: guitarist/pedal steel player Barry Sess, who honed his skills in his own band, Cowboy Jazz, and in Kingfish with Bob Weir; Mookie Siegal on keyboards and accordion, who also played with Kingfish as well as Bob Weir's Ratdog; bassist Bill Laymon, whose various stints include the New Riders, Jefferson Starship, Kingfish, and the Jerry Garcia Band; and drummer Arthur Steinhorn (the New Riders, Kingfish, Cowboy Jazz). The band's debut album, Limited Edition, was released in 1996 and received significant airplay on commercial, college, and public radio stations. The live Keeper of the Key followed in 1997. The third album by the David Nelson Band, Visions Under the Moon, appeared in early 1999. Like the finest "jam bands" (the Grateful Dead, Phish, etc.), the David Nelson Band has already developed, and continues to develop, a loyal following of fans, called Freaks of Nature, or simply Freakies. ~ Stanton Swihart, Rovi

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