Though they may have started out as a little-brother band to the Grateful Dead, the New Riders quickly established their own personality as kings of '70s stoner-country rock. They could spin seedy, tongue-in-cheek story-songs like the dope-dealer anthem "Panama Red" and the bandit tale "Glendale Train," but their ability to leap convincingly into R&B ("I Don't Need No Doctor") and their instrumental savvy (see Buddy Cage's crazed pedal-steel solo on "Hello Mary Lou") left no doubt about their bona-fide skills.