Showing posts with label Uncle John's Band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uncle John's Band. Show all posts

Friday, November 21, 2025

20th Century Americana: Top 100 Songs

20th Century Americana:

Top 100 Songs

Americana music is a celebration of roots-oriented musical forms that are heavily associated with the United States. It reaches back hundreds of years to traditional music, gospel, Negro spirituals, folk, blues, and country for its influence although it is framed in a more modern context. It really surfaced in the late ‘60s as an outgrown of the folk rock movement with artists like The Band and The Grateful Dead becoming some of the best known groups to incorporate it into their music.

To create this list, 27 lists focused on Americana songs were aggregated alongside lists about folk, folk rock, country, and country rock. Added into the mix were other songs from artists featured on those lists. Those songs appearing on the most lists were then ranked based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database. This list is focused on Americana music in the 20th century. A separate list has been created that focuses on Americana music in the 21st century.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. The Band “The Weight” (1968)
2. The Band (1969), Joan Baez (1971) “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down”
3. The Band “Up on Cripple Creek” (1969)
4. The Grateful Dead “Truckin’” (1970)
5. The Black Crowes “Hard to Handle” (1990)
6. Bonnie Raitt “Something to Talk About” (1991)
7. The Grateful Dead “Uncle John’s Band” (1970)
8. Neil Young “Harvest Moon” (1992)
9. Steve Earle “Copperhead Road” (1988)
10. Jerry Jeff Walker (1968), The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1970) “Mr. Bojangles”

11. The Grateful Dead (1970), Lyle Lovett (1991) “Friend of the Devil”
12. The Grateful Dead “A Touch of Grey” (1987)
13. Bonnie Raitt “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (1991)
14. Steve Goodman (1971), Arlo Guthrie (1972), Willie Nelson (1984) “City of New Orleans”
15. Stray Cats “Rock This Town” (1981)
16. Bruce Springsteen “Atlantic City” (1982)
17. John Stewart “Gold” (1979)
18. Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (1995)
19. Townes Van Zandt (1972), Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard (1983) “Pancho and Lefty”
20. Bonnie Raitt “Love Sneakin’ Up on You” (1994)

21. Bonnie Raitt “Nick of Time” (1989)
22. The Grateful Dead “Sugar Magnolia” (1970)
23. The Black Crowes “Remedy” (1992)
24. The Byrds “Hickory Wind” (1968)
25. Traveling Wilburys “Handle with Care” (1988)
26. Tom Petty “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (1994)
27. Gram Parsons “Return of the Grievous Angel” (1974)
28. Lyle Lovett “If I Had a Boat” (1988)
29. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “An American Dream” (1979)
30. The Grateful Dead “Dark Star” (1968)

31. The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969), Emmylou Harris (1975) “Sin City”
32. The Traveling Wilbuys “End of the Line” (1988)
33. The Byrds “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (1968)
34. Bruce Cockburn “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” (1984)
35. The Black Crowes “Jealous Again” (1990)
36. Bruce Springsteen “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (1995)
37. The Band “Rag Mama Rag” (1969)
38. John Prine (1971), Bonnie Raitt (1971) “Angel from Montgomery”
39. The Black Crowes “She Talks to Angels” (1990)
40. The Grateful Dead “Casey Jones” (1970)

41. Bob Dylan “Mississippi” (1997)
42. Lyle Lovett “She’s No Lady” (1988)
43. Lyle Lovett “Nobody Knows Me” (1989)
44. Lucinda Williams “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” (1998)
45. The Flying Burrito Brothers “Christine’s Tune (Devil in Disguise)” (1969)
46. Gram Parsons “She” (1973)
47. The Byrds “Ballad of Easy Rider” (1969)
48. Robbie Robertson “Somewhere Down the Crazy River” (1987)
49. The Jayhawks “Blue” (1995)
50. The Byrds “One Hundred Years from Now” (1968)

51. John Hiatt “Have a Little Faith in Me” (1987)
52. Stray Cats “Stray Cat Strut” (1981)
53. Bruce Cockburn “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” (1984)
54. Lyle Lovett “Private Conversation” (1996)
55. The Grateful Dead “Ripple” (1970)
56. The Flying Burito Brothers “Hot Burrito #1” (1969)
57. The Grateful Dead “Box of Rain” (1970)
58. Bruce Springsteen “We Shall Overcome” (1998)
59. Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris “Love Hurts” (1974)
60. The Band “I Shall Be Released” (1968)

61. Emmylou Harris “Boulder to Birmingham” (1975)
62. Cracker “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)” (1992)
63. The Flying Burrito Brothers “Wild Horses” (1970)
64. Dillard & Clark “Train Leaves Here This Morning” (1968)
65. Lyle Lovett “Pontiac” (1988)
66. Bruce Springsteen “Johnny 99” (1982)
67. Billy Bragg & Wilco “California Stars” (1998)
68. Son Volt “Drown” (1996)
69. Little Feat “Willin’” (1978)
70. Lyle Lovett “Step Inside This House” (1998)

71. Lyle Lovett “Give Back My Heart” (1987)
72. The Jayhawks “Waiting for the Sun” (1992)
73. Lyle Lovett “L.A. County” (1988)
74. Lyle Lovett “Cowboy Man” (1986)
75. Lyle Lovett “Here I Am” (1989)
76. Bob Dylan “Everything Is Broken” (1989)
77. The Grateful Dead “Alabama Getaway” (1980)
78. John Hiatt “Memphis in the Meantime” (1987)
79. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Make a Little Magic” (1980)
80. Steve Earle “Guitar Town” (1986)

81. John Prine “Hello in There” (1971)
82. John Hiatt “Drive South” (1988)
83. Stray Cats “She’s Sexy + 17” (1983)
84. The Black Crowes “Thorn in My Pride” (1992)
85. The Byrds “Chestnut Mare” (1970)
86. The Traveling Wilburys “She’s My Baby” (1990)
87. Bonnie Raitt “Love Letter” (1989)
88. John Hiatt “Child of the Wild Blue Yonder” (1990)
89. John Hiatt “Slow Turning” (1988)
90. Gram Parsons “Brass Buttons” (1974)

91. Bonnie Raitt “Thing Called Love” (1989)
92. John Hiatt “Tennessee Plates” (1988)
93. Lyle Lovett “Church” (1992)
94. Robbie Robertson & BoDeans “Showdown at Big Sky” (1987)
95. Lyle Lovett & Keb’ Mo’ “Till It Shines” (1999)
96. Neil Young “Philadelphia” (1994)
97. The Grateful Dead “Dire Wolf” (1970)
98. Bob Dylan “Dignity” (1989)
99. John Stewart “Midnight Wind” (1979)
100. Lyle Lovett “You Can’t Resist It” (1986)

Resources/Related Links:

First posted 11/20/2025; last updated 11/21/2025.

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Sunday, June 14, 1970

Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead released

Workingman’s Dead

The Grateful Dead

Released: June 14, 1970

Peak: 27 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU, 12 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US

Genre: folk rock

Tracks:

Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks)

  1. Uncle John’s Band (7/1/70, 69 BB, 4 CL, 6 DF)
  2. High Time
  3. Dire Wolf (5/2/81, 16 CL, 37 AR, 27 DF)
  4. New Speedway Boogie (21 CL)
  5. Cumberland Blues
  6. Black Peter
  7. Easy Wind
  8. Casey Jones (3 CL, 11 DF)

Total Running Time: 35:33

The Players:

  • Jerry Garcia (vocals, guitar, piano)
  • Mickey Hart (percussion)
  • Robert Hunter (lyrics)
  • Bill Kreutzmann (drums)
  • Phil Lesh (bass, guitar, piano, vocals)
  • Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (harmonica, vocals)
  • Bob Weir (guitar, vocals)

Rating:

4.307 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings)

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

From Psychedelic to Roots Rock

The “Dead are long-term champions of the mind-shredding psychic frontier.” JSH Prior to this album, they “were already established as paragons of the free-form, improvisational San Francisco psychedelic sound.” AM Their previous album, Live/Dead, was “their magnum opus of the free-jamming style.” JSH Then they “abruptly shifted gears for the acoustic Workingman’s Dead” AM and “concentrated on writing a more concise series of songs.” JSH

The group was also in a position where they needed to make the album cheaply. They owed Warner Bros. nearly $200,000 and were in trouble with the law after a marijuana bust. This compelled lead singer Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter to return to their “roots and come up with a collection of tight, melodic songs with a simple acoustic framework.” TB The band “knew exactly what needed to be done right from the start – and the simplicity of the arrangements made the going that much easier.” TB

“Despite its sharp contrast to the epic live space jams on which the group’s legend primarily rests, Workingman’s Dead nonetheless spotlights the Dead at their most engaging, stripped of all excess to reveal the true essence of their craft.” AM

They offer up “a lovely exploration of American roots music illuminating the group’s country, blues, and folk influences.” AM “There’s a rollicking western outlaw spirit to this album that actually lives up to the album cover, which shows ‘em hangin’ out in a railyard like hippie hobos.” JSH They churn out “eight spooky blues and country songs that rival the best of Bob Dylan.” 500 Joe S. Harrington, in writing for the web zine Blastitude, called it “the best country-rock album of all-time.” JSH It was also their commercial breakthrough.

The Influence of CSN

The sound was influenced by the band’s friendship with Crosby, Stills & Nash. Grateful Dead frontman Garcia said, “Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, ‘We can try that.’” WK He also said, “We weren’t feeling like an experimental music group, but were feeling more like a good old band.” 500

Drummer Mickey Hart further explained that “Stills lived with me for three months…and he and David Crosby really turned Jerry and Bobby onto the voice as the holy instrument…That turned us away from pure improvisation and more toward songs.” WK

The Title

The album’s title came from a comment Garcia made to lyricist Robert Hunter (who is featured on the album cover as the band’s seventh member) that “this album was turning into the Workingman’s Dead version of the band.” WK

The Songs

Garcia and Hunter “proved themselves one of rock’s sharpest songwriting teams, with the acoustic hymn Uncle John’s Band, “a nod to the three-part harmonizing” of CSN. TB Hunter said, ‘It was my feeling about what the Dead was and could be. It was very much a song for us and about us, in the most hopeful sense.’” 500 It “opens the record and perfectly summarizes its subtle, spare beauty; complete with a new focus on more concise songs and tighter arrangements, the approach works brilliantly.” AM

That song as well as “the countrified” TB “High Time and Cumberland Blues were brought to life with soaring harmonies and layered vocal textures that had not been a part of the band’s sound” WK previously. There’s also the “slow blues” TB of Black Peter.

The album features “Garcia’s best singing ever” on Casey Jones and the “amazing Dire Wolf,” JSH which Harrington calls “purely American expression…as good as Hank Williams or the Everly Brothers.” JSH New Speedway Boogie “is the Dead’s ode to Altamont, and it’s one of their best rockers.” JSH

Notes:

An expanded edition was released in 2003 which included an alternate mix of “New Speedway Boogie” as well as live versions of “Dire Wolf,” “Black Peter,” “Easy Wind,” “Cumberland Blues,” “Mason’s Children,” and “Uncle John’s Band.”

Reviews:

Related DMDB Links:

First posted 8/1/2011; last updated 11/4/2025.

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