[caption id="attachment_1304" align="alignleft" width="215" caption="Photo by Herb Greene"]
[/caption] The New Riders of the Purple Sage co-founder died in Mexico, where he'd been living for several years. Dawson wrote "I Don't Know You," "Portland Woman," "Glendale Train," and everything else on the group's eponymous 1971 debut album, a dusty gem of post-Summer of Love country-rock with a Bakersfield bent. He also co-wrote "Friend of the Devil" with Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. There's surprisingly little live footage of the original band available on YT, but here's Dawson singing "Garden of Eden" a few years ago with the latest version of NRPS.