rock-'n'-roll

Artists like the Doors, Cream and the Jefferson Airplane had come on the scene celebrating sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.

“Brighter Days” finds the artist fusing rock ’n’ roll, country and bluegrass touchstones into a clarity of vision that he’s honed since rising from the Los Angeles cowpunk scene in the 1980s.

So was grunge rocker Kurt Cobain when he died of suicide in 1994 and rock ‘n’ roll queen Janis Joplin when she succumbed to a heroin overdose in 1970.

One advantage to forgoing a showy rock ’n’ roll persona is that you never get too old to pull it off.

During all this, the band was able to record two pivotal studio albums: “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty,” lively, folk-inflected rock ’n’ roll records that contained many of the band’s enduring songs, including “Uncle John’s Band,” “Casey Jones,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Sugar Magnolia” and Lesh and Hunter’s “Box of Rain.”