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Folk Time

Folk Time
Illustration of a young Jerry Garcia playing a banjo; in the background are the other four members of the band.
Studio album by the Hart Valley Drifters
Released November 11, 2016
Recorded 1962
Genre Folk, bluegrass
Length 42:35
Label ATO
Producer Ted Claire, Marc Allan
Jerry Garcia chronology
Garcia Live Volume Seven
(2016)Garcia Live Volume Seven2016
Folk Time
(2016)
Garcia Live Volume Eight
(2017)Garcia Live Volume Eight2017

Folk Time is an album by the Hart Valley Drifters, an American folk music band. It was recorded in 1962 at the studios of KZSU, a radio station at Stanford University. It was released by ATO Records on November 11, 2016.

The Hart Valley Drifters were part of the American folk music revival of the 1960s. The band included Jerry Garcia (who three years later would co-found the rock band the Grateful Dead), Robert Hunter (who would write the lyrics to many Grateful Dead songs), and David Nelson (who, with John Dawson and Garcia, would co-found the country rock band the New Riders of the Purple Sage).

In American Songwriter, Hal Horowitz wrote, "The songs are mostly bluegrass standards from the catalogs of Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs and others played with youthful enthusiasm from the quintet. Garcia’s talent on banjo is displayed on "Roving Gambler", "Think of What You've Done", a caffeinated "Cripple Creek" and "Run Mountain", among others. He also takes lead vocals on most selections and while his signature approach was a ways off, he acquits himself admirably. There’s plenty of energy on display and the audio has held up remarkably well, especially considering the primitive college studio conditions it was recorded under."

In Relix, Jeff Tamarkin wrote, "Historical value aside, it's an exciting collection — Garcia was already a remarkably facile player and nuanced vocalist. His lead vocal on "Pig in a Pen", a trad number that would become a staple of his short-lived bluegrass side-project Old and in the Way a decade-plus later, contained all of the warmth and command he would fine-tune with more experience. And the picking, too, is superb: "Cripple Creek", an instrumental breakdown, barely lasts a minute and a half, but both Garcia's banjo and the guitar-playing are equal to that of any major folk festival habitués of the time."


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