The New Riders of the Purple Sage look like a cross between the Grateful Dead and a gospel choir. And in a way, they are. They got started around two years ago when the Dead, in their infinite rock-wisdom, began to "get into" country rock. The band introduced a new concert format: instead of five hours of Electric Dead. Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Phil Lesh (bass), Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir (acoustic guitars and vocals) would play "country Dead" for an hour. The songs were those later to comprise Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, along with other country and spiritual tunes. When they sang "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," a little fellow, not much more than five feet tall, with long blond hair and a blond van dyke, sang bass.

He would leave, the Dead would do a few more songs and then introduce the New Riders: Dave Torbert on bass: Mickey Hart (also from the Dead) on drums: David Nelson (who looks like a refugee from the Band) on mandolin and acoustic guitar: Garcia on pedal steel guitar; and that little fellow. John "Marmaduke" Dawson, composer lyricist and "prime mover" for the New Riders, a prince of acoustic guitarists and lead vocalists.

For those of us who came to the Dead by way of Anthem of the Sun or Live Dead, this country nonsense was a little hard to take. We barely kept ourselves together the first time. When next we saw it, we were tolerant. By the third time, the New Riders were the most consistent "ups", as it were, of the show. Then the message came: these dudes were all right. We frequented the Coop--Discount Records, Sam Goody's Record Hunter and Dayton's Department Store--every two days, just to ask when the Riders album was coming out.

Finally, a year later, it's arrived. And it, to tell the truth, is a little disconcerting. The people are the same--aside from Spencer Dryden, the ex-Airplane drummer who replaced Hart when he left (or was purged) from the Dead sometime last winter. But the album doesn't get it all on.

It contains good, solid country rock, and the music is layered nicely. In general, Marmaduke sings very well; his voice is especially fitted for the Riders' kind of wispy, mournful tunes. Dryden's percussion adds to the tone of the songs without obscuring the foreground. Garcia, as always, is Garcia: often out of tune, occasionally absent-minded, but nevertheless, undisciplinedly great. He shoots off long, sinuous strands of pedal steel, especially in "All I Ever Wanted": his guitar turns a semi-Paul McCartney lament into a really moving love song.

The two best songs on the album are "Dirty Business" and "Henry". The "true" "Dirty Business" is one of the most malevolent songs I have ever experienced--and this does not quite come across on the album. In concert the song starts low and loose but builds and swells, pushed by Garcia's merciless use of the wah-wah, until it drains everyone who hears it--both musicians and audience. The story is High Noonish but their rendition is so powerful and tense that it makes you alternately sweat and shiver. Since the song is overwhelming in concert. I'm not sure that my judgment is objective--the Dead sound system, the crowd, and the visual presence of the New Riders are all missing from the album. Despite this, for those who have seen them or have vivid imaginations, this song is surely the best.

Unlike "Dirty Business", "Henry" comes off as well on the album as it does live. The song jumps and moves as "fast, fast, fast" as its hero does. The most characteristic part is the guitar riff just before the end of the song. "All I Ever Wanted", as noted above, is another of those Dead songs, like "Cold Rain and Snow", which effortlessly expresses heartache and disappointment in love without being sentimental.

The rest of the songs are all pretty usual country-rock and are all well-done, especially "Portland Woman" and "Glendale Train." If the album has one general failing, it is that the songs are not consistently top caliber, and tend to fall into types. This, however, seems an inevitable function of country sound influence.

As good as the album is, there are problems: sins of omission, rather than commission. The album should have been done live and as a two record set. One can understand Marmaduke's desire to get some royalties by putting ten songs on an album (all his own) but it was a real sin for them not to include "The Weight" and "Honky Tonk Women". In pre-album fantasies, I envisioned one side each of "Dirty Business", "The Weight", and "Honky Tonk". There is no dispute among Dead freaks that the Riders do their best on these three numbers.

Their "Honky Tonk" is, believe it or not, more exciting and clearer than the Stones' live version. While the Stones' studio "Honky Tonk" is sharp and clean and hard (especially Richard's guitar), the track on "Ya-Yas" is notable chiefly for its all-around muddiness. It's not so with the New Riders--Garcia plays the pedal steel with a wicked clarity that sends every audience I've ever seen into paroxysmic ecstasy. Their version of "The Weight" is similarly superb.

The group's future, for many reasons, is uncertain. The New Riders split from the Dead sometime between April and July. They had a concert scheduled in Boston earlier this fall but cancelled it. While there have been no reports on what they sound like without Garcia, there almost has to be something missing.

The Dead certainly seem to miss them. Their East Coast summer tour was uninspiring (to be charitable). Superstitious as I am about these things. I attributed this to the audience. But a friend of mine saw the Dead three times in California and called their performances "shitty."

They weren't playing their good songs, just their hack-around junk. They were listless and basically uncaring. When the Dead are good, they are truly magical--they can create a frenzy out of nothing. But even "Dark Star" was done mostly (so it seemed) for form's sake. It was a crumb thrown to their fans in lieu of a real "Evening With the Grateful Dead"--the mystical communion of souls and music that only the Dead can initiate and then sustain. Lately, their magic hasn't been much in evidence.

Perhaps the Riders wanted to establish an identity as something other than a Grateful Dead spin off. If so, they have succeeded. But if they have problems without the Dead, as the Dead seem to have without them, (something, unfortunately, we can't yet tell), they should get back together. They should once again give the two best shows in rock.

There is a youth culture adage about the Dead that, unlike other youth culture wisdom, has been empirically verified: they're sometimes the best in the world, but when they're bad, they're the pits. And much as I like the New Riders on their own, my irresistible allegiance turns to the parent group's brand of insanity. The Dead seem to have lost their way. If the New Riders can help them find it again, they should do all of us a favor and do so quickly.