Country Gazette | |
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Genres | |
Years active | 1971 | –1991
Past members | Byron Berline Roger Bush Kenny Wertz Alan Munde Roland White |
Country Gazette was an American country rock and progressive bluegrass band, formed in 1971 by Byron Berline and Roger Bush. They played traditional bluegrass and contemporary songs on acoustic instruments. [1]
When the members of the country rock ensemble Dillard & Clark went their separate ways in 1971, bluegrass fiddler Byron Berline and guitarist/bass player Roger Bush formed the band Country Gazette. [2] Guitarist Kenny Wertz and banjo player Alan Munde soon joined. [2] Herb Pedersen wrote songs and was a guest artist on Country Gazette records, but did not tour with the band. [3] [4]
Country Gazette recorded their first album A Traitor in our Midst in 1972, produced by Jim Dickson. [5] Herb Pedersen, Skip Conover, and Chris Smith were guest artists. [6]
The Sierra Records compilation Silver Meteor (released in 1980 and reissued with additional tracks in 2010) contained two unreleased songs from these sessions: "All His Children" and "The Great Filling Station Holdup." [7]
After tours of Europe and the U.K., Country Gazette recorded their 1973 album Don't Give Up Your Day Job, again produced by Jim Dickson. Guests included Herb Pedersen, Clarence White, Leland Sklar, and Al Perkins. [8]
In 1973, Kenny Wertz left Country Gazette, and Roland White (mandolin, guitar) joined up. [9] Country Gazette released Live, an album recorded in November 1974 at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California. The album was produced by Jim Dickson and released on the Transatlantic label. Skip Conover guested on dobro.
Byron Berline left Country Gazette in 1975, and soon Kenny Wertz returned, along with fiddler Dave Ferguson. They recorded the 1976 album Out to Lunch for Flying Fish (Ferguson was listed as a guest artist). Jim Dickson produced, and Al Perkins played pedal steel.
Kenny Wertz, Dave Ferguson, and Roland White left the group. Alan Munde and Roland White were the only members of Country Gazette in 1977, when they recorded the album "What a Way to Make a Living" on the Ridge Runner record label. Guest musicians included Byron Berline, Skip Conover, Mike Richey, Richard Greene, and Bill Bryson.
From the Beginning was released in 1978 by Sunset Records, located in London, England (Album SLS50414). In the band for this recording were Byron Berline, Roger Bush, Kenny Wertz and Alan Munde.
Joe Carr and Michael Anderson joined Country Gazette in 1978. The band released the album, All This and Money Too, in 1979, [2] on Ridge Runner with guests Dave Ferguson, Slim Richey, Tommy Spurlock, Mike McCarty and Michael J. Dohoney.
Their next album American & Clean was produced by Slim Richey and featured guests Sam Bush, Dahrell Norris and Slim Richey. It was released in 1981 by Flying Fish Records. [2]
Michael Anderson left the band and was replaced by Gregg Kennedy and then Bill Smith. They recorded America's Bluegrass Band in Nashville with Herschel Freeman assisting in production. [10]
For the 1991 album Keep On Pushing, the Country Gazette line-up was Alan Munde (banjo), Dawn Watson (mandolin), Steve Garner (bass), and Dave Hardy (guitar). [11]
Country Gazette recorded several songs for the 1971 film Welcome Home, Soldier Boys , including "Further Along." [12]
The members of Country Gazette joined the Flying Burrito Brothers to record their live album The Last of the Red Hot Burritos in 1972. [2]
Byron Berline and Alan Munde were among those performing with Clarence White on April 4, 1973 at Bob Baxter's "Guitar Workshop" TV show. Video of this show was released by Sierra Records in 1998 as Together Again For the Last Time (later reissued on DVD as Clarence White: The Video). [13] [14]
Note: most Country Gazette members released solo and collaborative recordings which featured other Country Gazette members. This article does not attempt to list or describe these for the sake of repetition and article length.
Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal styles, and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitars. Country rock began with artists like Buffalo Springfield, Michael Nesmith, Bob Dylan, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, The International Submarine Band and others, reaching its greatest popularity in the 1970s with artists such as Emmylou Harris, the Eagles, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Linda Ronstadt, Little Feat, Poco, Charlie Daniels Band, and Pure Prairie League. Country rock also influenced artists in other genres, including The Band, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rolling Stones, and George Harrison's solo work, as well as playing a part in the development of Southern rock.
The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band best known for their influential 1969 debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin. Although the group is perhaps best known for its connection to band founders Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes and has existed in various incarnations. Now officially known as The Burrito Brothers the band continues to perform and record new albums.
Clarence White was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, as well as for being a pioneer of the musical genre of country rock during the late 1960s. White also worked extensively as a session musician, appearing on recordings by the Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker, Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, the Monkees, Randy Newman, Gene Clark, Linda Ronstadt, Arlo Guthrie, and Jackson Browne among others.
Bernard Matthew Leadon III is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of three country rock bands: Hearts & Flowers, Dillard & Clark, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He is a multi-instrumentalist coming from a bluegrass background. He introduced elements of this music to a mainstream audience during his tenure with the Eagles.
Charles Samuel Bush is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time in 2023 as a solo artist.
Byron Douglas Berline was an American fiddle player who played many American music styles, including old time, ragtime, bluegrass, Cajun, country, and rock.
Last of the Red Hot Burritos is the fourth album by country rock group The Flying Burrito Brothers, released in 1972. By the time this album was recorded, "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow and Bernie Leadon had left the band, leaving Chris Hillman as the sole founding member. In their places, Hillman recruited Al Perkins and Kenny Wertz respectively. Wertz had previously played with Hillman in the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. The band also added two guest musicians for their fall 1971 tour in Byron Berline and Roger Bush from Country Gazette. This lineup toured until Hillman left the band in October 1971, leaving the rights to the band's name to Rick Roberts. Once Hillman departed, A&M Records apparently lost faith in the group. Instead of allowing a Roberts-led version of the band to record a new studio album, A&M released this live recording. It fulfilled the band's contract, but it was subsequently dropped from the label.
Dillard & Clark was a country rock collaboration between ex-Byrds member Gene Clark and bluegrass banjo player Doug Dillard.
Roadmaster is the third studio album by Gene Clark, released in January 1973. The album was compiled from various unreleased recordings for A&M Records made in 1970 through 1972. Eight tracks are from an April 1972 recording session featuring Clarence White, Chris Ethridge, Spooner Oldham, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Byron Berline and Michael Clarke; two tracks derived from an unissued single reassembling the five original Byrds prior to their 1973 reunion album; and the remaining track, "Here Tonight", had been recorded with The Flying Burrito Brothers. Initially released in the Netherlands and Germany only on the A&M subsidiary Ariola, it was reissued on compact disc for the American market in 1994. Other recordings of songs on Roadmaster featuring Clark have been released elsewhere: "One in a Hundred" initially appeared on Clark's previous solo album White Light, Full Circle Song was later rerecorded with the Byrds for the Byrds reunion album, and was released as the albums only single, while "She Don't Care About Time" had originally been recorded with the Byrds in 1965 and was released as the B-side to "Turn! Turn! Turn!".
Roland Joseph White was an American bluegrass music artist, performing principally on the mandolin. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
Alan Munde is an American five-string banjo player and bluegrass musician.
John Christopher Ethridge was an American country rock bass guitarist. He was a member of the International Submarine Band (ISB) and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and co-wrote several songs with Gram Parsons. Ethridge worked with Nancy Sinatra, Judy Collins, Leon Russell, Delaney Bramlett, Johnny Winter, Randy Newman, Graham Nash, Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Jackson Browne, and Willie Nelson.
The Kentucky Colonels were a bluegrass band that was popular during the American folk music revival of the early 1960s. Formed in Burbank, California in 1954, the group released two albums, The New Sound of Bluegrass America (1963) and Appalachian Swing! (1964). The band featured the influential bluegrass guitarist Clarence White, who was largely responsible for making the acoustic guitar a lead instrument within bluegrass, and who later went on to join the Los Angeles rock band the Byrds. The Kentucky Colonels disbanded in late 1965, with two short-lived reunions taking place in 1966 and 1973.
Pieces is a compilation of alternate takes and outtakes from Stephen Stills’s band Manassas's two albums, 1972’s Manassas and 1973’s Down the Road. Released in 2009.
The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers were a San Diego-based bluegrass group best known as the band that launched the careers of founding Byrds' member, Chris Hillman and founding Eagles' guitarist-songwriter, Bernie Leadon. The lineup included Hillman on mandolin, future Hearts & Flowers member Larry Murray on Dobro, Ed Douglas on stand-up bass, Gary Carr on guitar, and future Flying Burrito Brothers and Country Gazette member, Kenny Wertz on banjo. Leadon would replace Wertz on banjo when he left the group to join the Air Force in 1963.
Douglas Flint Dillard was an American musician noted for his banjo proficiency and his pioneering participation in late-60s country rock.
Doug Dillard is an American bluegrass banjo player. In addition to his solo albums and recordings with the Dillards and Dillard & Clark, he has been featured as a performer and composer on numerous albums by other artists.
Roger Bush is an American bassist and guitarist.
Ridge Runner Records was a record label based in Fort Worth, Texas, specializing in acoustic music from Texas and Oklahoma. Ridge Runner was one of the first labels to release and market bluegrass music in the southwestern U.S.