''Backbone'' is an album by the rock band Backbone. Their only album, it was released by

Grateful Dead Records In 1973, the Grateful Dead established their own record label, Grateful Dead Records. The band released four vinyl LPs on the label in the mid-1970s: '' Wake of the Flood'' in 1973, ''From the Mars Hotel'' in 1974, ''Blues for Allah'' in 1975, a ...

on January 13, 1998. It contains ten original songs, plus a version of the Grateful Dead tune "New Speedway Boogie". Backbone was a trio of Rick Barnett on guitar, Edd Cook on bass, and former

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

member

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...

on drums Their music was heavily influenced by

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

and R&B, and included substantial amounts of improvisational jamming.

Track listing

# "Preserve the Blues" (Rick Barnett) – 4:34 # "Sittin' Here Thinkin'" (Barnett, Philbrick) – 3:03 # "Make Me Laugh" (Barnett) – 6:27 # "Breathe Deeply" (Barnett) – 4:42 # "Nothing's Different" (Edd Cook) – 3:26 # "Fly Away" (Barnett,

, Cook) – 4:10 # "Only Son" (Barnett, Kreutzmann, Brandon) – 5:51 # "New Speedway Boogie" (

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 ...

, Robert Hunter) – 5:47 # "Stayed Away Too Long" (Barnett) – 4:12 # "Earthchild (Barnett, Kreutzmann) – 3:45 # "Ocean Laughter" (Barnett, Kreutzmann, Becker) – 4:52

Personnel

Backbone

* Rick Barnett –

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 string ...

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 withou ...

* Edd Cook –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

, vocals *

–

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

Additional musicians

* Janice Barnett – background vocals * Michael Ruff –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

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 ...

* Bruce Harris – Hammond organ * Nadia Deleye – background vocals on "New Speedway Boogie"

Production

* Rick Barnett – producer, recording * Casey Jones – second engineer * John Cutler – mixing * Jeffrey Norman – mixing * Joe Gastwirt – mastering * Steve Parish – crew * Billy Grillo – crew * Ken Friedman – photography * John Werner – photography * Todd Michael – photography * Amy Finkle – package design

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backbone (Album) Bill Kreutzmann albums 1998 albums Grateful Dead Records albums Blues rock albums by American artists