Sam Briger

You said that this album was inspired by a summer when you ran away to become a cowboy in Wyoming.

How old were you?

So did you already know how to ride?

Were you herding cattle?

Through your career, you've seemed to be drawn to cowboy and country songs.

Some of them you've written, like Mexicali Blues.

And then you've also covered a lot of songs like Me and My Uncle, Marty Robbins' song El Paso.

You've also done songs like Johnny Cash's Big River.

Why do you think you're drawn to those tunes?

I wanted to ask you about that because I've noticed that it feels like you like songs that have a narrative to them.

A lot of your songs, they tell us some kind of a story, which I think contrasts with the other main songwriting team of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and Robin Hunter.

Their songs were often like impressionistic.

They would generally like evoke a mood or something, whereas when I listen to your songs,

I find myself imagining a specific narrator character.

Do you think that's true?

So you have a song on the new album, Blue Mountain, that's called Kaibasi, which is about 12-step meetings and addiction.

The Grateful Dead had a long and intense history with drugs.

The band got its break as the house band for Ken Kesey's acid tests.

And ever since then, the dead had been linked to psychedelics.

And you've been forthright saying that for a time, LSD was very informative to your way of thinking.