Brave Belt was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rock band from

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

originally consisting of

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a num ...

(guitar/vocals), his former

Guess Who Guess Who may refer to: *Guess Who (B.B. King album), ''Guess Who'' (B.B. King album), 1972 *Guess Who (Slim Whitman album), 1971 *Guess Who (EP), ''Guess Who'' (EP), a 2021 EP by South Korean girl group Itzy *Guess Who (film), ''Guess Who'' (film) ...

bandmate, Chad Allan (vocals/keyboards), and Randy's brother

Robbie Robbie or Robby is a surname. It is usually encountered as a nickname or a shortened form of Robert, Rob (given name), Rob or Robin (name), Robin. The name experienced a significant rise in popularity in Northern Ireland in 2003. People Given nam ...

(drums). Randy also provided bass tracks for the recording of the band's first album, ''Brave Belt'' (

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

, 1971). But C. F. "Fred" Turner was added shortly after as bassist for the supporting concerts.Gormley, Peter. "BTO (Bachman–Turner Overdrive) Frequently Asked Questions,", July 31, 1997 The band made the Canadian Top 40 with the minor hit "Crazy Arms, Crazy Eyes," which peaked at No. 35 in November 1971. However, they missed the U.S. charts completely. In 1972, Turner became the lead vocalist for the ''Brave Belt II'' album. Allan left the band after the recording was completed. During the supporting concerts for ''Brave Belt II'',

Tim Bachman Timothy Gregg Bachman (born August 1, 1951) is a Canadian guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with rock bands Brave Belt and Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Bachman was one of the four founding members of BTO, a group that have sol ...

was added as a second guitarist. Despite the changes, ''Brave Belt II'' sold poorly and the band struggled to book live shows. In a 1974 ''Rolling Stone'' interview, Randy estimated there were losses of about $150,000 in 1971-72 ($923,000 in 2020 dollars), with himself personally absorbing about 60% of the loss, as he was paying the other band member salaries from his Guess Who royalties. Although dropped from the Reprise label, the ''Brave Belt II'' lineup (C. F. Turner with Randy, Tim and Robbie Bachman) recorded and shopped around a demo that was supposed to be a ''Brave Belt III'' album. New management convinced them to change their name − they eventually settled on

Bachman–Turner Overdrive Bachman–Turner Overdrive, often abbreviated BTO, were a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, founded by Randy Bachman, Robbie Bachman and Fred Turner in 1973. Their 1970s catalogue included five top-40 albums and six US top-40 single ...

. Thus, the eponymous first

album is essentially ''Brave Belt III'', the album that was rejected by Reprise Records. Bachman had contacted many record labels to get the ''Brave Belt III'' tapes signed. Charlie Fach at Mercury eventually listened to the tapes and liked what he heard. Bachman listened to some suggestions, remixed and re-edited the tapes, and the band recorded at least two new songs. The result was the first Bachman–Turner Overdrive album for Mercury, released in May 1973. Though Brave Belt is relatively unknown some 40 years later, the importance of the band was summed up by Randy Bachman in a 2001 interview: "It was an innocent time of soul-searching. Nobody would play with me when I left The Guess Who. I was completely black-listed. I couldn't get a decent musician to play with me, except Chad Allan, who had also been in The Guess Who and left. He and I bonded together, and I might not have gotten started without him, even though he left sometime after that first album. Those rave Beltalbums are so important to me because, for the first time, I was making my own music, paying for it, finding strengths in it, and going through the process of finding the right music for the record. It led to me becoming a stronger producer for BTO." ''Brave Belt I'' and ''Brave Belt II'' were re-released on a single CD March 17, 2009.

Albums

''Brave Belt'' - Reprise Records - 1971

Track listing

;Side One # "Crazy Arms, Crazy Eyes" - (

) - 2:44 # "Lifetime" - (

) - 1:53 # "Waitin' There For Me" - (

) - 3:17 # "I Am The Man" - ( Chad Allan) - 4:03 # "French Kiss" - ( Chad Allan, Rob Matheson) - 3:46 # "It's Over" - (

) - 3:05 ;Side Two #

"Rock And Roll Band" - ( Chad Allan) - 3:52 # "Wandering Fantasy Girl" - ( Chad Allan) - 2:50 # "I Wouldn't Trade My Guitar For A Woman" - ( Chad Allan) - 1:47 # "Holy Train" - ( Chad Allan) - 3:05 # "Anyday Means Tomorrow" - (

) - 3:02 # "Scarecrow" - ( Chad Allan, Rob Matheson) - 5:38

Personnel

* Chad Allan -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

(4, 5, 8, 10, 12), co-lead (1, 2, 7, 9) and backing (11) vocals,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

(3, 6, 11), co-lead (1, 2, 7, 9) and

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

, bass, herzog *

Robbie Bachman Robin Peter Kendall Bachman (born February 18, 1953) is a Canadian drummer and the youngest brother of guitarist, singer and songwriter Randy Bachman. He was the original drummer for both the Brave Belt and Bachman–Turner Overdrive bands. He is ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(1-8, 10, 11),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Additional Personnel * Wally Didduck -

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

Ron Halldorson Ron Halldorson (born 1943) is a Canadian jazz musician, arranger, and producer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, best known for his work with guitarist Lenny Breau. Beginning his career as a country musician in the 1950s, Halldorson switched to jazz in the ...

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

* Billy Mac -

(9, 12)

''Brave Belt II'' - Reprise Records - 1972

Track listing

;Side One # "Too Far Away" - (

) - 3:38 # "Dunrobin's Gone" - ( Chad Allan, Bob Ericson) - 3:10 # "Can You Feel It" - ( C. F. Turner) - 2:36 # "Put It In A Song" - ( C. F. Turner,

) - 3:34 # "Summer Soldier" - ( Chad Allan,

) - 3:23 # "Goodbye, Soul Shy" - ( C. F. Turner) - 3:45 ;Side Two #

"Never Comin' Home" - (

) - 3:40 # "Be A Good Man" - ( C. F. Turner) - 2:51 # "Long Way 'Round" - ( C. F. Turner, Bachman) - 2:15 # "Another Way Out" - ( Chad Allan,

) - 3:30 # "Waterloo Country" - ( Chad Allan) - 5:00

Personnel

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Chad Allan -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

(tracks 2 & 10) * C. F. Turner - bass,

(except tracks 2 & 10) *

Additional personnel

(touring only)

Canadian chart singles

* "Rock and Roll Band" (1971) - #64 * "Crazy Arms, Crazy Eyes" (1971) - #35 * "Never Comin' Home" (1972) - #57 * "Dunrobin's Gone" (1972) - #58 * "Another Way Out" (1972)

References

Bibliography

External links

Allmusic.com entry AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

br>CanConRox entry
*

{{Authority control Bachman–Turner Overdrive Canadian country rock groups Musical groups from Winnipeg Musical groups established in 1971 Musical groups disestablished in 1972 1971 establishments in Manitoba 1972 disestablishments in Canada