Track Listing
1. Where Love Goes (Sito)
2. Full Steam Ahead
3. Down the Road
4. Sandman, The
5. Next Step, The
6. Look Away
7. Only the Strange Remain
8. Sangre de Cristo
9. John Cage Is Dead
10. Last Song, The
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Airto Moreira, Babatunde Olatunji, Bob Weir, Bruce Hornsby, Graham Wiggins, The Mint Juleps, Zakir Hussain | | Producer: | Mickey Hart | | Distributor: | Sony Music Distribution ( | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: Mickey Hart (vocals, piano, synthesizer, drums, timbales, guiro, hi-hat, cymbals, bass drum, hoop drum, udu, gourd, dumbek, djembe, surdo, beam, claps, castanets, bird whistle, sandpaper, shekere, shaker, finger snaps, chains, wine glasses, devil chasers, berimbau, angklungs, bells, cowbell, percussion); The Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir (vocals); Bob Weir (guitar); Bruce Hornsby (accordion, background vocals); Graham Wiggins (didgeridoo); Robin Millar (keyboards, marimba, programming); Jeff Sterling (synthesizer, keyboards, burundi drum, door stoppers, low bamboo, programming); Mark Smith (synthesizer, bass); Habib Faye (bass); Taro Hart (drums); Giovanni Hidalgo (congas, bongo, timbales, guiro, bata, djembe, springs, bell, cowbell, metal percussion); Zakir Hussain (dholak, udu, shekere, duggi tarang, dimri, djembe, madal, finger snaps, metal percussion); Sikiru Adepoju (talking drum); Babatunde Olatunji (shekere, background vocals); Airto Moreira (caxixi, sleigh bells, clacker, springs, bamboo on sleigh bells, percussion).
The Mint Juleps: Debbie Charles, Elizabeth Charles, Julie Isaac, Debbie Longworth, Marcia Charles, Sandra Charles (vocals).
Principally recorded at Studio X, Sonoma County, California.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.
Personnel: Mickey Hart (vocals, whistle, synthesizer, drums, hand claps, percussion); Debbie Charles, Debbie Longworth, Elizabeth Charles, Julie Isaac, Marcia Charles, Sandra Charles, The Mint Juleps (vocals); The Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir (chant); Bruce Hornsby (accordion); Jeff Sterling (piano, sampler); Robin Miller (keyboards); Habib Faye (electric bass); Babatunde Olatunji (congas, percussion); Sikiru Adepoju (talking drum, percussion); Zakir Hussain (tabla, percussion); Giovanni Hidalgo, Airto Moreira (percussion).
Recorded directly in the wake of Jerry Garcia's death and originally released in 1996, MICKEY HART'S MYSTERY BOX finds the Grateful Dead drummer eulogizing the best way he knows how: with an exploration of global rhythms and some of his closest musical compatriots--Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo, and the Dead's own Bob Weir and Robert Hunter among them.
Hunter provided all the lyrics for these rhythmic meditations, which began as simple beat experiments and were melodically built from there until Western pop/rock songs emerged. With vocals provided by the English sextet, the Mint Juleps--particularly striking on the elegiac "Down the Road Again" and the haunting "Only the Strange Remain"--MYSTERY BOX's experimentalism might jar some old school Deadheads, but it solidifies Hart's reputation as a first-rate musical innovator in his own right.
Editorial Reviews
...Rather than make one of his admirable, if tedious, conga-class records, drummer and ethnomusicologist Hart has concocted a world-beat pop album. And if that isn't mysterious enough, consider this: It's pretty wonderful... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (06/14/1996)
3 Stars - Good - ...a curious handshake between the chartbound and the almost experimental, all these disparate elements combining surprisingly well.
Q (09/01/1996)
3.5 Stars - Good/Very Good - ...The polyrhythms still soar as percussion titans Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo, Sikiru Adepoju and Airto Moreira join Hart in laying down the irresistible grooves....But pop dominates this song-oriented project....Surprise! It works...
Down Beat (11/01/1996)
...his integration of Third World percussion over dance beats is effortless and unobtrusive. There's a Peter Gabriel feel to some of this stuff...
Musician (07/01/1996)
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