Billboard Interviews Mickey Hart and Shares “Auctioneers”

“I didn’t want it to sound like a standard record by any stretch of the imagination,” former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recently told Billboard about his new solo release RAMU.

“I didn’t want to use cliche elements that you would normally put in a pop or rock ‘n’ roll (album)… I pulled out a lot of those things that I identify with modern music. I was looking for the new.” The album definitely does sound new, even though it features samples from the past, including a passage of the late Jerry Garcia noodling on a MIDI guitar and a recording from a 1948 tobacco auction. The latter makes up the percussive backbone of “Auctioneers,” an album track which Billboard has premiered here.

The album jumped to a new NACC peak in its second week on the chart, hopping from #150 to #73. Get it spinning on your chart now!