[10] Besides trying to avoid the debt that had accumulated while recording Aoxomoxoa, the band was dealing with the stress of a recent drug bust in New Orleans – which could have resulted in jail time.

The almost miraculous appearance of these new songs would also generate a massive paradigm shift in our group mind: from the mind-munching frenzy of a seven-headed fire-breathing dragon to the warmth and serenity of a choir of chanting cherubim.

[13] Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, the companion album that followed months later, were, according to drummer Bill Kreutzmann, both influenced by the Bakersfield sound.

[14]"This was, sort of, stepping out of our spacesuit and coming down to Earth and putting on a pair of Osh Kosh and digging the furrows ... we would have to bring the music in, to support the texts: Hunter's Holy Grail" While on tour in Boulder, Colorado, the previous year, Garcia had purchased a steel guitar and was now keen to use it on the new batch of songs.

Bobby [Weir] also began bringing in covers of his favorite country tunes and some originals in that vein, so we were starting to see a trend developing.

Personally, I was thrilled that the band could make such a complete musical about-face while still maintaining the flat-out weirdness that I’d come to know and love.

"Stills lived with me for three months around the time of CSN's first record," recalls Hart, "and he and David Crosby really turned Jerry and Bobby onto the voice as the holy instrument.

Readers of Rolling Stone voted Workingman's Dead the best album of 1970, followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Déjà Vu and Van Morrison's Moondance.

Bonus track details 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition – disc two 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition – disc three On July 1, 2020, a collection of demos and outtakes from the Workingman's Dead recording sessions entitled Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share was released in streaming and digital download formats.