What texture,rhythm an melody would describe ripple by the grateful dead?

Country-rock. It has country instrumentation, including mandolin played by a famous mandolinist named David Grisman, but Grateful Dead were primarily a rock band. The album this is from, "American Beauty," and the one just before this, "Workingman's Dead," featured a lot of acoustic instruments, including guitar and mandolin, and also pedal steel guitar, which is usually used in country music.