It was recorded live by the band of the same name at the Top of the Tangent coffee house in Palo Alto, California in July, 1964, and released in 1999.

They played the recordings on the folk music show Live from the Top of the Tangent which was broadcast on Stanford's FM radio station KZSU.

The Tangent, a folk music coffee house operated by Stanford Medical Center doctors, Stuart "Stu" Goldstein and David "Dave" Shoenstadt, on University Avenue in Palo Alto, was a venue where other performers who later had flourishing careers also played, including Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, and Jorma Kaukonen.

The tapes were thought to be lost to history until Pete Wanger and his brother Michael found them in the attic of their mother's house after she died in 1997.

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions includes several songs that were later played in concert by the Grateful Dead – "Overseas Stomp" (also known as "Lindy"), "Ain't It Crazy" (a.k.a.