* John “Marmaduke” Dawson passed away this week. Marmaduke was a founding member of the New Riders of the Purple Sage along with a couple of guys named Jerry Garcia and David Nelson. Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and bassist Phil Lesh were also in the original band.

Marmaduke was a huge fan of country legends Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, and the Riders covered several of their songs. “Mama Tried” and “Truck Drivin’ Man” were both New Riders staples. He also wrote most of the songs on the band’s early albums.

The band was formed in 1969, about the same time that Bob Dylan released his own take on country music, Nashville Skyline, and Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman were wowing the critics with their country stylings on the Flying Burrito Brothers’ The Gilded Palace Of Sin.

* We also have an Illinois connection to Marmaduke and the NRPS. Bill Laymon, who now lives in Springfield and is a buddy of mine, played with the Riders back in the mid 1980s. Laymon started playing with the David Nelson Band in the 1990s.

Marmaduke eventually retired from the Riders and moved to Mexico, but Nelson reconstituted the group and is still touring.

This video is from one of the few Marmaduke performances with the NRPS in the last nine years. Get up and dance to Dawson’s Garden of Eden…

Rest in peace, man.