Nashville West was a short-lived

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which 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 s ...

quartet, that was briefly together in the late 1960s. The group comprised multi-instrumentalist

Gene Parsons Gene Victor Parsons (born September 4, 1944, in Morongo Valley, California) is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and engineer, best known for his work with the Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released sol ...

, guitarist

Clarence White Clarence White (born Clarence Joseph LeBlanc; June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973) 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, ...

, singer-guitarist-fiddler

Gib Guilbeau Floyd August "Gib" Guilbeau (September 26, 1937 – April 12, 2016) was an American Cajun country rock musician and songwriter. As a member of Nashville West, Swampwater, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and later The Burrito Brothers, Guilbeau hel ...

and bassist Wayne Moore. Parsons and White left the band to join

The Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...

while Guilbeau and Parsons later joined

the Flying Burrito Brothers 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 ...

. Along with the

International Submarine Band The International Submarine Band (ISB) was a country-rock band formed by Gram Parsons in 1965, while a theology student at Harvard University and John Nuese, a guitar player for local rock group, The Trolls. Nuese is credited with having persuad ...

and

The Flying Burrito Brothers 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 ...

, Nashville West was among the pioneering groups of the

genre. An album by Nashville West was released in 1978, about ten years after the band had broken up. The material on the ''Nashville West'' album was recorded during a club date in 1968. The album was released again 2003 on Rev-ola, a division of Cherry Red Records.

History

Formation

In the mid-1960s,

and fiddler

, who had been earlier acquainted from their time together in a band called the Castaways, were hired for a recording session with the Gosdin Brothers' singing duo of Vern and Rex Gosdin. The session, being produced by

Chris Hillman Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of and one of the original members of the Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke. With frequent ...

, included guitarist

, who had formerly played bluegrass guitar in the

Kentucky Colonels The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of ...

. Parsons, Guilbeau and White then went on to play on sessions together for several other

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artists and became the house band for

Gary S. Paxton Gary Sanford Paxton (born Larry Wayne Stevens; May 18, 1939 – July 17, 2016) was an American record producer, recording artist, and Grammy and Dove Award winning songwriter. Paxton was a member of Skip & Flip and the Hollywood Argyles and wa ...

's record label,

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

International Productions. In the course of their session work, Parsons and White devised the

B-Bender A B-Bender is a guitar accessory that enables a player to fluidly alter the pitch of a guitar's B-string. This works by mechanically bending the B-string through the use of a series of levers and/or pulleys attached to an external lever that is ...

, or Stringbender, a system installed on White's

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

that made the instrument sound like a

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 ...

. Eventually, Parsons, Guilbeau and White became a band, joining with fellow session player, bassist-vocalist Wayne Moore, who played in the Castaways with Parsons and Guilbeau. The group was known by various names, including The Reasons, Gib Guilbeau and The Reasons, the Gary Paxton Band or Cajun Gib and Gene. The Nashville West moniker was taken from the name of the

El Monte, California } El Monte (Spanish for "The Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city lies in the San Gabriel Valley, east of the city of Los Angeles. El Monte's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte" and is historically ...

club where they sat as the house band, and was the name of an instrumental song composed by Parsons and White.

Break up

Parsons and White were then asked to join

in 1969. White had already played on 1968's ''

The Notorious Byrd Brothers ''The Notorious Byrd Brothers'' is the fifth album by the American rock band the Byrds, and was released in January 1968, on Columbia Records. The album represents the pinnacle of the Byrds' late-‘60s musical experimentation, with the band blen ...

'' and ''

Sweetheart of the Rodeo ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' is the sixth album by American rock band the Byrds and was released in August 1968 on Columbia Records. Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first album widely recognized as c ...

''. After Chris Hillman split from the Byrds with Michael Clarke and

Gram Parsons Ingram Cecil Connor III (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) who was known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist who recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, ...

(no relation to Gene) to form

, White and Gene Parsons joined

Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As a ...

and

John York John C. York (born April 18, 1949) is a retired American cancer research pathologist, married to Marie Denise DeBartolo York, and former co-owner and current co-chairman of the San Francisco 49ers.Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde'', featured White's and Parsons' signature instrumental tune, "Nashville West". White and Parsons were with the Byrds for the albums '' Live at the Fillmore - February 1969'', ''

Ballad of Easy Rider "Ballad of Easy Rider" is a song written by Roger McGuinn, with input from Bob Dylan (although Dylan is not credited as a co-writer), for the 1969 film, ''Easy Rider''. The song was initially released in August 1969 on the ''Easy Rider'' soundt ...

'', '' (Untitled)'', ''

Byrdmaniax ''Byrdmaniax'' is the tenth album by the American Rock music, rock band the Byrds. It was released in June 1971 on Columbia Records at a time of renewed commercial and critical success for the band, due to the positive reception that their two pre ...

'' and '' Farther Along''. When the original line-up of The Byrds reunited in March 1973 to record ''

Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining th ...

'', White left the Byrds to join the bluegrass

supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...

Muleskinner A muleskinner or mule skinner is a muleteer or mule-driver. The word may also refer to: * Muleskinner, the mascot of St. John's Military School, Kansas, U.S. * ''Muleskinner'', an alternate title for the album '' Jack Takes the Floor'' by Ramblin' ...

. He also played on a package tour with several other country rock pioneers at the time, including Gram Parsons. White then reformed his old band, the Kentucky Colonels, with his brothers, but was killed on July 15, 1973 in

Palmdale, California Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

, when he was struck by a car driven by a drunken driver. "Car kills Topanga musician", ''Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram'', Monday, July 16, 1973, p. 13 (A Topanga musician loading instruments aboard his van was struck and killed Sunday...") Guilbeau went on to play sessions with

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

and joined a band called Swampwater. He also played with

Sneaky Pete Kleinow Peter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow (August 20, 1934 – January 6, 2007) was an American country-rock musician. He is best known as a member of the band The Flying Burrito Brothers and as a session musician playing pedal steel guitar for such arti ...

in a group called Cold Steel. In 1974, Guilbeau and Gene Parsons joined

Album

As a session band, Nashville West recorded prolifically, though never under the Nashville West name, backing other artists on

's record label. However, in 1978, an album under the name ''Nashville West'' was eventually released on the

Sierra Records Sierra Records is an independent record label based in Etiwanda, California. History Sierra Records founder John Delgatto first launched Briar Records, which released folk and bluegrass music by artists including Leslie Keith; the Doc Watson Fa ...

label. The material on it came from a 1967 club date in

, which had been recorded by Parsons for personal use, and not necessarily for album release. The songs include an instrumental reading of

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 with her Sou ...

's "

Ode to Billie Joe "Ode to Billie Joe" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released by Capitol Records in July 1967, and later used as the title-track of her debut album. Five weeks after its release, the song topped ''Billboard's'' Pop single ...

". "I had a Sony two-track, and I hooked it up, partly to the sound system and partly to the microphones, and just let it run and recorded the whole night," Parsons said. "There's a lot that never got on the album, thank goodness." The album was reissued on CD by Sierra in 1997, and added four more tracks not included on the LP edition: "C.C. Rider", "Greensleeves", "Mom and Dad's Waltz" and "Columbus Stockade Blues".

Track listing

#"Nashville West" (

) – 0:41 #"Mental Revenge" (

Mel Tillis Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of the outlaw country movement, ...

) – 3:37 #"I Wanna Live" (

John D. Loudermilk John Dee Loudermilk Jr. (March 31, 1934 – September 21, 2016) was an American singer and songwriter. Although he had his own recording career during the 1950s and 1960s, he was primarily known as a songwriter. His best-known songs include "I ...

) – 3:14 #"

C.C. Rider "See See Rider", also known as "C.C. Rider", "See See Rider Blues" or "Easy Rider", is a popular American 12-bar blues song that became a standard in several genres. Ma Rainey, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was the first to record it on October 16, 192 ...

" (traditional) – 3:56 #"Sweet Susannah" (

) – 2:35 #"

Green Green Grass of Home "Green, Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr., and first recorded by singer Johnny Darrell in 1965, is a country song made popular by Porter Wagoner the same year, when it reached No. 4 on the Country chart. It was also r ...

" (

Curly Putman Curly is a surname, given name, nickname or stage name. It may refer to: First name, nickname or stage name * Crazy Horse (1840–1877), Oglala Sioux war chief nicknamed "Curly" * Curly (scout), nickname of Ashishishe (c. 1856–1923), Crow Ind ...

) – 4:30 #"

Love of the Common People "Love of the Common People" is a song written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, eventually released in 1970 on John Hurley's album ''John Hurley Sings about People,'' but first sung in January 1967 by The Four Preps. The Four Preps recording wa ...

" (John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins) – 3:09 #"Tuff and String" (

) – 0:31 #" I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water" ( Joe Babcock) – 2:23 #"

Greensleeves "Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580,Frank Kidson, ''English Fol ...

" (traditional) – 3:23 #"

(

) – 3:43 #"Mom and Dad's Waltz" (

Lefty Frizzell William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country music singer-songwriter and honky-tonk singer. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Frizzell released many songs that charted ...

) – 3:22 #"Louisiana Rains" (Guilbeau) – 2:34 #"Sing Me Back Home" (

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled af ...

) – 3:14 #"Columbus Stockade Blues" (traditional) – 4:13 #"

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

" (

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

) – 3:27 #"

By the Time I Get to Phoenix "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is a song written by Jimmy Webb. Originally recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1965, it was covered by American country music singer Glen Campbell on his album of the same name. Released on Capitol Records in 1967, Camp ...

" (

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including " Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "MacArthur Park", "Wichita Lineman", "Worst ...

) – 5:04 #"Nashville West" (Parsons/White) – 2:03

References

External links

* {{Authority control American country rock groups Musical groups from California