Songs Of Their Own | Fiver Brown – Row Jimmy

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, JamBase teamed with Telefunken to produce the Songs Of Their Own video series. We began with a list of 100 Grateful Dead original songs (exclusively their tunes, not covers they often played) and tapped many of our favorite artists to record a cover version either at the JamBase office in San Francisco or at one of the many venues around town and beyond. No song was allowed to be covered twice, and today’s participant Fiver Brown ran off “Row Jimmy.”

Debuted along with several other new tunes at the February 9, 1973 show at Roscoe Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, California, and ultimately performed over 270 times, “Row Jimmy” was recorded for the band’s 1973 studio album Wake Of The Flood – the first to feature Keith Godchaux and Donna Godchaux. An often performed part of Dead shows throughout the rest of the decade, by 1981 the Hunter/Garcia song became less commonly played, being brought out a few times a year until its final live rendition on June 21, 1995 at Albany’s Knickerbocker Arena.

Atlanta native and current Bay Area houseboat resident Fiver Brown brought along bassist Eric DiBerardino and guitarist Chris Haugen to the JamBase offices this week to record “Row Jimmy.” With DiBerardino on upright acoustic bass and Haugen on acoustic slide guitar, Brown and the trio executed a twangy, gentle rendition of the tune for the assembled JamBase staff.

Watch all of the Songs Of Their Own entries including Jackie Greene, Strangefolk, Midnight North, Anders Osborne & Luther Dickinson, Keller Williams, Yonder Mountain String Band and more via the YouTube Playlist below.