The multi-instrumentalist group Rusted Root integrated the Grateful Dead's jam-heavy rock with percussion influences based on the music of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The six-piece formed in Pittsburgh in 1990 with Michael Glabicki (vocals, guitar), Liz Berlin (vocals, percussion), Patrick Norman (bass, vocals), and Jim Donovan (drums, percussion) as the initial lineup, though John Buynak (percussion, winds) and Jim DiSpirito (percussion) joined later that year.
Rusted Root's self-produced debut album When I Woke appeared in 1994 on Polygram.