Article Contributed by Gabriel David Barkin
Published on November 11, 2025
David Nelson | Fairfax, CA | November 9th, 2025 | photos by Gabriel David Barkin
David Nelson, founding member of the New Riders of the Purple Sage (NRPS), assembled an all-star cast of musicians in Marin County this weekend to celebrate the music of his seminal psychedelic bluegrass band. The Fairfax Pavilion hosted the hippie sock hop, which was billed as “The Harvest Hootenanny.”
“When I play in Marin, it always feels like a homecoming,” Nelson said recently. “The songs tell their stories, but the real magic happens between the people on stage and in the crowd.”
The ensemble for this special event included:
Jackie Greene, acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Phil Lesh & Friends and The Black Crowes.
Garrett Deloian, guitarist and frontman of Jerry’s Middle Finger.
Pete Grant, legendary pedal steel player and NRPS veteran who recorded with the Grateful Dead (specifically, he is credited for playing on “Doin’ That Rag”).
Bill Laymon, longtime NRPS bassist.
Jerry Saracini, drummer for Forgotten Space.
Sunday’s show, the second of two this weekend, also included an opening set by Eric and Suzy Thompson. Eric played alongside Nelson and Jerry Garcia in the bluegrass and roots Americana group the Black Mountain Boys way back in their Palo Alto days. The Thompsons played for about half of the first set with Nelson and company after performing as a duo to open the show.
Fairfax, widely known as one of Marin County’s premier enclaves, was the ideal setting for this special show. It’s the geographic and metaphorical center for the many hippified denizens of Marin – which range from the 1960s OGs to their myriad literal and spiritual descendants. Young and old alike turned out to hear classic NRPS songs and the like, including “Henry,” “Kick in the Head,” and covers of songs written by Bob Dylan (obligatory, perhaps even required by law to appear at least once per set in such settings) and the Rolling Stones.
The Fairfax Pavilion is a community center on a small hill above the downtown area. It’s essentially a big, open gym with a small stage set up on one side of a basketball court. A pastoral painting of pastures covering the undeveloped Marin Headlands provides a backdrop for the stage. During the Hootenanny, a live Grateful Dead stadium performance from the 1980s was projected silently on one of the walls, and it seemed like Jerry, Brent and Bobby were singing along with Nelson. There were tie-dyes hanging all around, and a few local vendors got to sell their tie-dye merch Inside.
As I said in the intro above, it was a very hippie sock hop’y event.
The roots of NRPS go way back to Garcia and Nelson’s pre-Grateful Dead days on the peninsula south of San Francisco. Pete Grant, Eric Thompson, NRPS co-founder John “Marmaduke” Dawson, Robert Hunter – all those cats and more played bluegrass and roots country music together in numerous ensembles while earning a living teaching youngsters how to play guitar and stuff like that.
Fast forward five or six years past a whirlwind of Acid Tests, Haight Street and Panhandle shows, and Monterey Pop. Now it’s 1969, and Garcia was learning to play pedal steel. He teamed up with Nelson, Dawson and others from the old Palo Alto scene with the intent of starting a band somewhat in the spirit of Gram Parsons’ Flying Burrito Brothers. Pete Grant was along for the ride in some of the earliest incarnations of NRPS prior to their first record. He played pedal steel in the band for many years after Garcia’s departure.
Nelson, who is 82, plays frequently these days in the Bay Area and elsewhere, usually with the David Nelson Band. (Side note: in September, Nelson appeared on stage with Peter Rowan at a Camp Winnarainbow benefit. I have not found anyone who can remember seeing those two legends together on stage ever. Your results may vary.) He plays sitting down, but his voice remains strong, and his stories and singing are always entertaining.
The Hootenanny had a completely different lineup assembled for the NRPS tribute. Nelson sang most of the songs, but everyone else except drummer Saracini sang at least one tune. My friend pointed out that except when Laymon stood up to sing, everyone except guitarist Deloian was seated.
They opened with “Diamond Joe” after Nelson said hello and told the crowd how he learned that song. “I got it from Tex Logan, a fiddle player and also a mathematician at MIT. He sang it one time in the back room at a New Riders show. He said, ‘You’ve got to play my song.’ I hummed it to myself on the plane all the way home, and as soon as I got home, I grabbed a guitar to play it.”
The stories were a highlight all evening long. Later, introducing “Glendale Train,” which was on the first NRPS album, Nelson recalled how John Dawson took the band to see the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “I think that’s where he got the idea for this song.”
At the set break, Nelson got corny. “We’re gonna take a five-minute break now for about ten minutes. So we’ll see you in fifteen. Then we’ll play the second set, that’s in about twenty minutes. So we’ll see you in about a half an hour.”
He talked about growing up watching young Ricky Nelson on TV’s Ozzie and Harriet before the boy turned into a teen idol. (Nelson noted they’re not related. Oh, and by the way, my wife was off seeing Lukas Nelson that night, also no relation. So many talented country music Nelsons!) After that intro, Laymon sang the Nelson, Ricky song “Hello Mary Lou.”
“Garden of Eden,” another NRPS debut album track, was among the songs that was played with a definite Grateful Dead vibe. Deloian in particular added that Jerry-esque vibe with his rhythms and leads. Garcia, still projected on the wall of the pavilion, smiled with approval.
My personal highlight came midway through the second set when Nelson described how he would flip over quarter inch reel-to-reel tapes to play them backwards. “I’d learn to sing them that way.” I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but then he demonstrated by singing the backwards a Capella version of “Panama Red.” Really backwards, enunciating syllables the way they sound when you play a song in reverse. Brilliant and hilarious – talk about secret skills!
The songs, as Nelson said, may tell their own stories. Nelson has plenty of stories too, and I look forward to hearing more of them in the years to come. Old rider, new rider, it’s all good. Long may you ride, Mr. Nelson!
SET LIST
(All songs sung by David Nelson except where noted.)
Set One
Diamond Joe
Ashes of Love
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail
Teardrops in My Eyes
Froggy Went A-Courtin’
Paddy on the Turnpike
Henry (Bill Laymon)
Blues Barrel
The Way She Dances (Jackie Greene)
Truck Drivin’ Man (Bill Laymon)
Glendale Train
Swimming Song (Pete Grant)
Absolutely Sweet Marie
Set Two
No Time
Hello Mary Lou (Bill Laymon)
Big Six
Llewelyn (Jackie Greene)
Garden of Eden
I Don’t Know You (Bill Laymon)
Panama Red
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Bill Laymon)
Friend of the Devil
Ragged But Right (Garrett Deloian)
Honky Tonk Women (Jackie Greene)
Gypsy Cowboy (Bill Laymon)
Rosalie McFall (Garrett Deloian)
Lonesome L.A. Cowboy
Kick in the Head
Encore
Ripple
