The BEST country rock band... no one ever heard of!..

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 14 Mar 2011 11:03 am

Al Anderson joined NRBQ after oiginal member Steve Ferguson left. Al left the band after a long time with them and was replaced by Joey Stampinato's brother.
Steve Ferguson died in October 2009.

Skeeter Davis with NRBQ and Buddy Emmons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm0IKZHCwbA

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 14 Mar 2011 11:52 am

Joachim,I played a few gigs with Steve Ferguson after he left NRBQ,A very strange&tortured soul.

Daniel Morris · Post by **Daniel Morris** » 14 Mar 2011 2:00 pm

OK, I remember an LP I had, probably from the early to mid '70s. It was two guys - not a band per se - one of whom was named Moran (I believe). The cover was this beautiful autumn scene, the two guys walking down the tree-arched road.
I think Sneaky Pete played on it.

Does anyone know this album? I can't recall anymore info, and would love to have this hole in my memory plugged. It was a nice folksy/countryish sounding album, but it may have had some rockier pieces as well.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 15 Mar 2011 8:38 am

I played a few gigs with Steve Ferguson after he left NRBQ,A very strange&tortured soul.

Stu, what kind of music was that and when, and which instrument did you play. Just curious.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 15 Mar 2011 8:45 am

Joachim,

Great song by Skeeter, NRBQ, and Buddy.

Thanks for that.

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 15 Mar 2011 9:20 am

Joachim,I played pedal steel guitar with him around Woodstock N.Y,I had been at it for about a year and a half,He turned me on to George Jones.He was a great singer but had very serious problems being a junkie.I had to drive Steve and his junkie girlfriend to the gigs,On the way home one night Steve was sniffing glue which consisted of a wash cloth rolled up and held between his teeth so the fumes went into his nose...His girlfriend said something to him that pissed him off,and he punched her in the mouth,All three of us were sitting in the front seat,I slammed on the brakes got out of the car grabbed him by the neck and threatened to beat the crap out of him if he tried that again,The poor girl was bleeding everywhere.That was the last time I saw him.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 15 Mar 2011 9:55 am

Thanks for the reply, Stu. Now I understand the tortured soul, as you caracterised him.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 10 Jul 2011 2:49 am

May I ad Wings to the list?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cznTG4i5dl0

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 10 Jul 2011 5:26 am

Did anyone mention Medicine Ball? It was a band started by Dewey Martin after Buffulo Springfield broke up. Buddy Emmons on steel. I don't much about them. I heard part of the album recently on Steel Guitar Radio a few months before Don passed away. That was the first I heard of them, or maybe they're not as obscure as I think.
http://www.rockdetector.com/artist/usa/ ... icine+ball

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 10 Jul 2011 6:15 am

I had their album when it came out. I liked it. Btw there's a mistake in the article, concerning the two songs mentioned from the album. It wasn't Ray Davis, but Ron Davies who wrote them.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 10 Jul 2011 12:19 pm

i just listened to the clip first offered on this thread. there were many early country rock groups with good vocals and 'nothing special predictable steel' like this. no real magic compared to the few (like poco) that had something. like pure prairie league's john call...kinda good...but no comparison to the pickers that had a special touch/tone thing going on. red rhodes had beautiful tone..so did rusty. al perkins didn't really have it next to buddy. never liked sneaky pete's weird effect driven tone. then we heard how good real steel players like hughey, rugg, myrick, jernigan etc. sounded...and we realized there was something to learn beyond pushing pedals.

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 10 Jul 2011 12:36 pm

chris ivey wrote:i just listened to the clip first offered on this thread. there were many early country rock groups with good vocals and 'nothing special predictable steel' like this. no real magic compared to the few (like poco) that had something. like pure prairie league's john call...kinda good...but no comparison to the pickers that had a special touch/tone thing going on. red rhodes had beautiful tone..so did rusty. al perkins didn't really have it next to buddy. never liked sneaky pete's weird effect driven tone. then we heard how good real steel players like hughey, rugg, myrick, jernigan etc. sounded...and we realized there was something to learn beyond pushing pedals.

What????

... Well Chris, with all due respect, those mediocre players, and nothing specials like John Call, did a lot more than you or I ever did as far as the pedal steel...
As far as Sneaky's "weird effect driven tone", I should let that comment pass and let our forum mates judge it on its own merit. Lets just say that I and probably 99.9% of our forum friends would disagree with your observations.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 11 Jul 2011 5:46 am

When "Sneaky" and the FBBs-in-tow came along, that just sealed it for me, on getting serious with the steel.
There were many others I heard first that made me go and buy a steel; but when "Sneaky" showed up to the party, that was it.
There was no goin' back now, for me.
JMHO

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 11 Jul 2011 9:28 am

yeah, i know....i'm a rebel! when sneaky came to the party it showed me just how good buddy emmons really was. john call had a real flat dry tone. al perkins was basically 'pitchy' compared to the pros i mentioned. this is the way i heard it and how it affected me.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 11 Jul 2011 9:35 am

while we're on the subject, i always wondered how jimmy day could be mentioned in the same breath as emmons. my first exposure to day was some very pitchy recordings. i've never heard emmons be 'pitchy' dawg!

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 11 Jul 2011 12:19 pm

More flat, dry, tone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-c1az4uJzo

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 11 Jul 2011 12:54 pm

Well, Chris...

I guess you are a rebel.

A rebel who hates treble.

...to each his own, as they say; lest we forget...

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 11 Jul 2011 1:28 pm

BTW, Pete...
Thanks for that link. It took me back to my old Leadville CO days. When John Call and PPL were on top of the world.

Back then....nothing for educational pedal steel. Only what your ears could pick up on record, radio, or the interstellar cosmos. No visual steeler images; except at some club.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 11 Jul 2011 5:29 pm

pete... i know..classic song and i liked lots of it too at the time and now. i'm not saying all these players i'm knocking aren't all better than i. i of course, learned from listening to these....just some grabbed my ear in a more special manner for one reason or another. i guess everyone appreciates certain things from their own personal perspective. different tones for different bones.

Jeremy Steele · Post by **Jeremy Steele** » 12 Jul 2011 4:32 am

I actually HAVE heard of Free Beer (one of MANY bands with that name, BTW)...I used to hang out with them in Greenwich Village in the mid-70s...nice guys, as I recall, with some great songs.

Olaf van Roggen · Post by **Olaf van Roggen** » 15 Jul 2011 1:40 am

http://www.glennfreyonline.com/download ... faudio.htm
Longbranch pennywhistle the pre-eagles band of Glenn frey and JD Souther made a nice country rock album which you can download on the link above.
Herb Steiner wrote a nice personal story when he used to know them in L.A.somehwhere on the forum.
This album has Buddy Emmons on steel,James Burton and Ry Cooder on guitar.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 28 Jul 2011 8:46 pm

Olaff, I really love the Longbranch Pennywhistle record .. the only thing wrong with it is that certain boneheads have dismissed it as a second or third rate record, whereas I think it's aces and well and truly deserving more than a pathetic footnote in the Eagles story. That of course is the problem, all the folks who usually write about it compare it to the sleek Eagles sound, which of course is steeped in 70s MOR and not twee 60s folk aspects.

In other words, the slicker 70s sounds are still more popular than the warmer quainter 60s sounds and productions, which I understand as that 70s LA sound is still all over most singer-songwriter records on major labels, and of course mainstream country music in general.

Going right back to the original topic.. Free Beer were on RCA, and RCA were totally sh!thouse at promoting their acts.. they signed so many awesome regional bands, and did next to nothing to promote them. To busy trying to fill orders on Elvis, whose own albums post 1970 were delivering ever diminishing returns.. well, c'mon the guy wouldn't ever leave home to record.

Swampwater, The Sidewinders, Michael Nesmith, Rio Grande, Eliza Gilkyson, and so many other early 70s RCA artists were left to rot on the vine with no decent promotion, most of those bands sold well in their home base, but couldn't crack it any further. Even Pure Prairie League broke up .. Amy was a fluke radio hit, and then RCA got behind them for a bit.. but they had to tour their asses off to keep any momentum.

Back to Longbranch Pennywhistle, Herb Steiner was indeed associated with the group, as were bassist Colin Cameron (from John Hartford's Iron Mountain Depot band), and David Jackson (Dillard & Clark), and even John Beland played guitar with them at the Troubador in '68, before he worked with Linda Ronstadt and Swampwater.

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