Mother McCree’s Jug Champions on Grateful Dead Hour 🎶

David Gans interviews Michael Wanger, producer of the Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions CD, the earliest recorded collaboration between Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.

More Grateful Dead History:

Bob Weir’s High School Days
Michael Wanger on "Tales from the Golden Road,” January 18, 2026, hosted by David Gans and Gary Lambert. Topics include Bob Weir’s high school days and Bob’s first band, “The Uncalled Four.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLLcR5MgGPU

Tales from the Golden Road, April 19, 2026
Michael Wanger & Vance Frost on “Tales from the Golden Road”, April 19, 2026, hosted by David Gans and Gary Lambert. Topics include Bob Weir’s early musical influences, SF Bay Area music scene in the early ’60s, 1963 Monterey Folk Festival, Bob Weir’s first band, “The Uncalled Four,” recording Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, making the 1969 KSAN Grateful Dead Documentary, and making the “Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions” CD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoHs_fChYxs

Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions CD
Recorded by Pete Wanger, Jr. and Wayne Ott at The Top of the Tangent, Palo Alto, July, 1964, and produced for Grateful Dead Records by Michael Wanger, this is the earliest recorded collaboration between Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_OnTJ6zqE

KSAN Grateful Dead Documentary, 1969
KSAN Grateful Dead Documentary, produced for KSAN-FM in 1969 by Michael Wanger and Vance Frost, documents the legendary San Francisco band from their roots as a jug band up through the production of their first two studio albums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69bKYJdjEaQ

Bob Weir Plays “Ripple.”
Bob Weir plays an acoustic version of “Ripple” at the Smith Rafael Film Center in January, 2011. Courtesy of the California Film Institute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ck5g5FFuyY