Songs Of Their Own - #48 "Help On The Way" The New Mastersounds

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, JamBase teamed with Telefunken to produce the Songs Of Their Own 50-day tribute series featuring a daily cover of a Grateful Dead original song. Our grand finale 50th video, a Playing For Change Songs Around The World rendition of “Ripple,” will premiere the day of the final Fare Thee Well show in Chicago on July 5. With a focus solely on Grateful Dead original songs, we asked many of our favorite artists to record cover versions at the JamBase office in San Francisco, at one of the many venues around the Bay Area, at Telefunken's Connecticut studios and beyond. No song was allowed to be covered twice, and today’s participants The New Mastersounds flew with “Help On The Way.”

“Help On The Way” first appeared, instrumentally, at the Grateful Dead concert on
June 17, 1975 at the Winterland in San Francisco. The second performance of “Help”
came on August 13, 1975, and by then Robert Hunter’s lyrics had
been added to Jerry Garcia’s composition. That more official debut came at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, which became
'One From The Vault.' From its inception, both over 100 times live and on the
band’s 1975 'Blues for Allah' LP, “Help” was followed by “Slipknot!” and
“Franklin’s Tower.” Outside of its debut in 1974, the only performances of
“Slipknot!” came following every time “Help” was played. By 1977 the
“Help/Slip/Franks” trio fell in and out of rotation, four and five years between
performances at times. The final trifecta coming at the Dead’s June 22, 1995 concert
at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York.

British funk quartet The New Mastersounds were in the Bay Area in June while on a short tour of gigs through Northern California. We caught up with guitarist Eddie Roberts, drummer Simon Allen, bassist Pete Shand and keyboardist Joe Tatton before their show at City Winery in Napa. Like the first time The Dead played “Help On The Way,” The New Mastersounds presented an instrumental - and a bit more groove-forward - arrangement of the song.

Audio and video recorded and edited by: Jake Alexander

Видео Songs Of Their Own - #48 "Help On The Way" The New Mastersounds канала JamBase