By late 1962 Garcia had moved from old-time music to bluegrass, and the Hart Valley Drifters were the first of his bands to sound like a professional bluegrass outfit. They had tight harmony singing, clean instrumental breaks, and Garcia’s fast-improving Scruggs-style banjo out front. Hunter held down the bass, David Nelson played guitar and Norm Van Maastricht added dobro. On November 10, 1962 they played two shows in one day, at San Francisco State and the College of San Mateo.
Around December they cut a studio session at Stanford’s student station KZSU. That tape was released by ATO Records in 2016 as Folk Time, over fifty years later, and is a key document of Garcia as a young bluegrass player. The group soon changed shape and name, turning into the Wildwood Boys early in 1963.
