''Oh, What a Mighty Time'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...

band the

New Riders of the Purple Sage New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969 and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. The band is sometimes referred ...

. Their sixth studio album and their seventh album overall, it was released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in 1975. ''Oh, What a Mighty Time'' was produced by

Bob Johnston Donald William 'Bob' Johnston (May 14, 1932 – August 14, 2015) was an American record producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, and Simon & Garfunkel. Early days Johnston was born into a professional mus ...

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

of the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

plays

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

on three songs,''Oh, What a Mighty Time''
at the Grateful Dead Family Discography and

Sly Stone Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the ...

plays

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and sings on one song.

Track listing

#"Mighty Time" (

Don Nix Don Nix (born September 27, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American songwriter, composer, arranger, musician, and author. Although cited as being "one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock", he is a key figure in ...

) – 5:13 #"I Heard You Been Layin' My Old Lady" ( Russell Wier) – 3:24 #"Strangers on a Train" (

Skip Battin Clyde "Skip" Battin (February 18, 1934 – July 6, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter, bassist, performer, and recording artist. He was a member of the Byrds, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Εarly life C ...

, Kim Fowley) – 2:45 #"Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother" (

Ray Wylie Hubbard Ray Wylie Hubbard (born November 13, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter. Early life Hubbard was born in the town of Soper, Oklahoma. His family moved to Oak Cliff in southwest Dallas, Texas, in 1954. He attended W. H. Adamson High Scho ...

) – 4:13 #" Take a Letter, Maria" (

R. B. Greaves Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III (28 November 1943 – 27 September 2012) was an American singer who had chart success in 1969 with the pop single " Take a Letter Maria". A number two hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, this single sold ...

) – 4:07 #"Little Old Lady" (Richard Wilbur) – 2:52 #"

On Top of Old Smoky "On Top of Old Smoky" (often spelled "Smokey") is a traditional folk song of the United States. As recorded by The Weavers, the song reached the pop music charts in 1951. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 414. History as folk song ...

" (traditional, arranged and adapted by Frank Wakefield) – 2:39 #"Over and Over" ( John Dawson) – 3:08 #" La Bamba" (

Ritchie Valens Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens was killed i ...

) – 3:44 #"Going Round the Horn" (Dawson, Wakefield) – 3:33 #"

Farewell, Angelina ''Farewell, Angelina'' is the sixth studio album by American folk singer Joan Baez, released in late 1965. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. History The album represented a further shift from the strictly traditional folk mu ...

" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) – 2:42

Personnel

New Riders of the Purple Sage

* John Dawson –

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

, mouth harp, baby guitar,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Acme siren The Acme siren is a musical instrument used in concert bands for comic effect. Often used in cartoons, it produces the stylized sound of a police siren. It is one of the few aerophones in the percussion section of an orchestra. The instrument is ...

* David Nelson –

, vocals, percussion, regular tuning Heineken's bottle *

Buddy Cage Buddy Cage (February 18, 1946 – February 5, 2020) was an American pedal steel guitarist, best known as a longtime member of the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

–

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can p ...

, vocal *

– bass, vocals, percussion *

Spencer Dryden Spencer Charles Dryden (April 7, 1938 – January 11, 2005) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He also played with Dinosaurs, and the Ashes (later known as the Peanut B ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, percussion, vocal

Additional musicians

– vocals, organ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

on "Mighty Time" *

– guitar on "Mighty Time", "I Heard You Been Layin' My Old Lady", and "Take a Letter, Maria" *Jeff Narell –

steel drum The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descripti ...

on "Over and Over" *Pepper Watkins, Bootche Anderson,

Marilyn Scott Marilyn Scott (born December 21, 1949 in Altadena, California) is an American jazz vocalist. Scott got her start performing locally at age 15. She went to college in San Francisco, singing in both jazz and pop ensembles there. She was noticed by ...

– vocals on "I Heard You Been Layin' My Old Lady", "Strangers on a Train", "Up Against the Wall, Redneck", and "Take a Letter, Maria" *Ray Park –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

on "Going Round the Horn" *St. Beulah's Church Choir – vocals on "Mighty Time" *Portion of Glide Memorial Church Choir – vocals on "Mighty Time" *Patty Santos Cockrell, Peña Blanca, Lucha Cardenas – vocals on "Over and Over", "La Bamba" *The Senator – vocals on "Over and Over" *Andrea Ahlgren – vocals on "Over and Over"

Production

– producer *Joe Garnett – front cover illustration *Ron Kriss – back cover illustration *

Herb Greene Herb “Herbie” Greene (born April 3, 1942) is an American photographer best known for his portraits of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, The Pointer Sisters, Carlos Santana, and Sly Stone, pu ...

– cover and inside photography *Tyler Thornton – back cover photography *Bob DeSantos – color prints *Ron Coro – design

Notes

{{Authority control New Riders of the Purple Sage albums 1975 albums Albums produced by Bob Johnston Columbia Records albums