Borderline was an early-1970s band from
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 2000 ...
, that fused elements of folk, rock, country and jazz. Consisting of brothers David Gershen (born 1947) and Jon Gershen (born 1950) as well as
Jim Rooney (b. 1938), the trio recorded two albums, the second of which was not officially released until 2001,
[Ankeny, Jason, www.allmusic.com, artist biography, www.allmusic.com/artist/borderline-mn0000769420/biography] and then only in Japan, due to record company problems.
Though the group did not enjoy a great deal of commercial success,
[Zimmerman, Lee, album review, nodepression.com magazine, May 26, 2013, http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/lee-s-listening-stack-twenty-count-em-twenty-reviews-for-the ] it was part of the "Woodstock scene" of the early 1970s that included
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in t ...
and
the Band.
[Unterberger, Richie, liner notes to U.S. release of "Sweet Dreams and Quiet Desires"/"The Second Album," Real Gone Music, 2013, RGM-0120] Borderline was a forerunner of musical artists who would eventually be grouped under the "
Americana
Americana may refer to:
*Americana (music), a genre or style of American music
*Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States
Film, radio and television
* ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
" genre. Also notable is that their two albums featured some well-known backing musicians including members of the Band.
[Sarlin, Bob, album review, Crawdaddy magazine, July 1973] After Borderline broke up in 1974, the Gershen brothers pursued various projects while Rooney became a successful producer in Nashville, working with artists including
Iris DeMent
Iris Luella DeMent (born January 5, 1961) is an American two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and musician . DeMent's musical style includes elements of folk, country and gospel.
Early life
DeMent was born in Paragould, Arkansas, the 14t ...
,
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She appeared many times on the PBS music program ''Austin City Limits'' starting in 1985 (season 10). In 1994 she won a Grammy Award fo ...
and
John Prine
John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...
.
Origins
In 1968, the Gershen brothers, who were raised in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, formed a rock band in New York City called the Montgomeries. Another founding member of this band was Tony Brown who would later appear on
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's album "
Blood on the Tracks
''Blood on the Tracks'' is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 20, 1975, by Columbia Records. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia Records after a two-album stint with Asylum Records. Dy ...
." In 1969, the Montgomeries relocated to Woodstock, where they crossed paths with other recently transplanted musicians including Van Morrison, who often played gigs with them.
[Heylin, Clinton, ''Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison, A New Biography'', Chicago Review Press, 2003, pp. 217-218] Morrison, in fact, became a good friend of the Montgomeries and the band that would become Borderline during the early days in Woodstock.
After the Montgomeries broke up, Jon Gershen met Rooney, a veteran of the Boston folk music scene who had moved to Woodstock in 1971. Rooney was at the time working as business manager at
Bearsville Studios
Bearsville Sound Studio was a recording studio founded by Albert Grossman in Bearsville, New York,
west of Woodstock in 1969.
History
Albert Grossman, who was the manager of Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, first arrived in Bearsville in 1 ...
, which was built by
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman (May 21, 1926 – January 25, 1986) was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music and rock and roll scene. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful performers of folk and ...
, who managed Bob Dylan,
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...
and the Band. Guitarists Rooney and Gershen got together for some informal music-making sessions and discovered they had a unique sound that should be pursued further. Soon after, they invited David Gershen – who specialized in folk and country music – to join in.
[Hagiwara, Kenta, liner notes to Japanese reissue of "Sweet Dreams and Quiet Desires," EMI Music Japan, 2000, TOCP-53124] The trio, still unnamed, began seriously working together in the fall of 1971. They landed a record contract with
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B.
History Genres
In 1959, ...
, which had once expressed interest in the Montgomeries. They eventually chose the name Borderline to reflect the way their different styles existed in close proximity to each other.
First album
Borderline began recording its first album in April 1972, helped by a stellar cast of musicians that lived in and around Woodstock.
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a pianist and one of three lead singers in The Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and ...
and
Garth Hudson
Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...
, keyboardists in the Band, dropped in for a few tunes (they were later credited under pseudonyms, following Grossman's wishes). Other musicians included former
Mothers Of Invention
The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Originally an R&B band c ...
drummer
Billy Mundi
Billy Mundi (born Antonio Salas, September 25, 1942 in San Francisco – March 29, 2014) was an American drummer best known as a member of The Mothers of Invention and Rhinoceros. He also worked as a session musician. He sometimes used the name To ...
, fiddle player
Vassar Clements
Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and ...
, saxophonist
David Sanborn
David William Sanborn (born July 30, 1945) is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album ''Taking Off'' in 1 ...
, bassist Jim Colegrove and longtime
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
sideman
Ben Keith
Bennett Keith Schaeufele (March 6, 1937 – July 26, 2010), better known by his stage name Ben Keith, was an American musician and record producer. Known primarily for his work as a pedal steel guitarist with Neil Young, Keith was a fixture of ...
on pedal steel guitar and
dobro
Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar.
The Dobro was originally ...
.
John Simon, who produced the band's first two albums, played piano on several tracks. The resulting album, "Sweet Dreams and Quiet Desires," was released on UA's Avalanche label in April 1973. In addition to the U.S. pressing, editions of the record were manufactured and sold in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Australia. The press materials promoting the album featured a blurb of approval by Van Morrison. The album was well-received critically but did not sell in great numbers. The 11 tracks included traditional
bluegrass songs like "Handsome Molly" and "
Clinch Mountain
Clinch Mountain is a mountain ridge in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Virginia, lying in the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachian Mountains. From its southern terminus at Kitts Point, which lies at the intersection of Knox, Union and G ...
," plus originals including Jon Gershen's jazzy "Dragonfly" and David Gershen's country/rock tune "The Distance." Lead vocals were distributed more or less evenly by all three members. Avalanche/UA also issued a single from "Sweet Dreams" in the United States and the UK featuring two songs by David Gershen. The "A" side of the 45 was "Don't Know Where I'm Going," and the "B" side was "Marble Eyes."
Second album
The group began working on its ill-fated second album in August 1973. This time around, they chose to record at CRS Studios in
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...
, owned by award-winning producer
Paul Leka
Paul Leka (February 20, 1943 – October 12, 2011) was an American songwriter, record producer, pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, most notable for co-writing the 1960s hits "Green Tambourine" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", the latter of ...
. Once again, they were backed by a well-known assemblage of musicians, including guitarist
Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett (born November 26, 1941) is an American-Canadian blues and blues-rock musician, guitarist, singer, composer, and musical arranger. He has written instructional books about music and guitar. Garrett holds dual citizenship and was rai ...
, bassist
Will Lee
William Lee (born William Lubovsky; August 6, 1908 – December 7, 1982) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television and film roles, but was best known for playing Mr. Hooper, the original store proprietor of the eponymous Hooper' ...
, Ben Keith, David Sanborn and drummer Chris Parker. Jon Gershen, who produced, even brought in a New York City horn section of
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of M ...
,
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was born on Nov ...
and
Barry Rogers
Barron W. "Barry" Rogers (May 22, 1935 – April 18, 1991) was an American jazz and salsa trombonist.
Career
Born in The Bronx, he descended from Polish Jews and was raised in Spanish Harlem. His family (original name: Rogenstein) possessed a ...
.
The album, originally titled simply "Borderline" but later changed to "The Second Album," was scheduled for release in January 1974.
One of the album's more notable tracks was the energetic opener, Dave Gershen's "Sonny Boy," a catchy horn-driven tune which had tentatively been chosen as the single. As with the first album, all three band members contributed original songs and shared lead vocals. Unfortunately for the band, a personnel change within UA Records around this time ended up scuttling the planned release of "The Second Album."
[Marchese, Joe, article in theseconddisc.com, Feb. 15, 2013, http://theseconddisc.com/2013/02/15/reviews-three-from-real-gone-music-pozo-seco-kenny-odell-and-borderline/] As Jon Gershen has explained, the executive who signed Borderline to UA, who was also the band's greatest proponent at the label, unexpectedly left the company. His replacement ended up putting a hold on all the projects that were not yet released.
The result was that "The Second Album" was shelved. It would not become available until long after the band had broken up.
Shortly after UA pulled the plug, Borderline decided to call it quits. The story of the never-released second album had a happy ending of sorts when
EMI Japan
, formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Whe ...
released it on CD in 2001 (in the mid-1980s, EMI acquired the entire UA Records catalog). The original master tapes were thought to be lost, and so the CD was sourced from an old acetate. This release occurred one year after EMI Japan issued Borderline's first album on CD. The 2000 release of "Sweet Dreams and Quiet Desires" in Japan marked the first time Borderline's music had been made available on CD.
The packaging featured extensive liner notes by critic Kenta Hagiwara. The Japanese releases, though somewhat hard to find, suggested that Borderline was finally gaining some recognition as a historically important part of the "Woodstock music scene" of the early 1970s.
U.S. releases of CDs
In January 2013, Real Gone Music (distributed by
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...
) released the group's two albums (on one disc), representing the first time the trio's music had been released on CD in the United States. The sound quality was a step up from the Japanese reissues, with Real Gone using the original two-track master tapes for both albums finally located by EMI after a recent reorganization of its archives. The packaging included new liner notes by
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Life and writing
Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...
and rare photos supplied by Jon Gershen.
Rooney, the Gershen brothers after Borderline
After Borderline broke up, Rooney turned his attention to recording a solo album and participating in releases by the Woodstock Mountains Revue. He then moved to
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
where he worked with legendary producer and songwriter "Cowboy"
Jack Clement
Jack Henderson Clement (April 5, 1931 – August 8, 2013) was an American singer, songwriter, and record and film producer.
Biography Early life
Raised and educated in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, Clement was performing at an early age, ...
for many years at his studio Jack's Tracks. Rooney went on to make a name for himself as a successful producer in his own right,
[allmusic.com, artist biography, http://www.allmusic.com/artist/borderline-mn0000088977] winning a Grammy Award in 1993 for Nanci Griffith's album ''
Other Voices, Other Rooms''. Dave Gershen moved to
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
and pursued a solo career, occasionally performing and recording. Jon Gershen moved to
Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts, known colloquially as “Western Mass,” is a region in Massachusetts, one of the six U.S. states that make up the New England region of the United States. Western Massachusetts has diverse topography; 22 colleges and u ...
and established a music publishing company while continuing to write and record.
The Gershen brothers reunited in 2003 for the album "Faded Glory," released on Boardinghouse Records under the name of "Dave Gershen & Jon Gershen." Some work has been done on a follow-up to "Faded Glory," but the project remains unfinished. In addition to working with his brother, Jon Gershen has produced a number of albums for other recording artists.
References
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 1968
Musical groups disestablished in 1973
Rock music groups from New York (state)
American jazz ensembles from New York (state)
Country music groups from New York (state)
American folk musical groups