Watch Ryan Adams’ Acoustic Cover of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Wharf Rat’

Ryan Adams said he turns to the Grateful Dead when he isn't feeling great, and he's hoping his recent acoustic solo performance of their classic 'Wharf Rat' will do the same for sick or injured kids.

JamBase reports that following his performance last weekend at the Newport Folk Festival, Adams played the song for MyMusicRx, an organization that uses music to soothe and rejuvenate hospitalized children, teens, their family members and their medical professionals. Watch the video above.

"What I like about ['Wharf Rat'] is that it paints this picture, where you kind of go into this storybook world where you don’t really know who they are and what’s happening, and it kind of just takes you on a journey," Adams says during the introduction to the song, which first appeared on the Dead's 1971 self-titled live album. "I always feel better when I get to end of this long and weird story.”

Also, just in case you missed it, Adams has been debuting songs from his upcoming self-titled album. Check out this performance of the new track 'Wrecking Ball' right here: