Area Code 615 was an American country rock band from

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 ...

, active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, taking their name from the telephone

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...

, which at the time covered all of Central and Eastern Tennessee. The band was made up of session musicians, recording only two albums before resuming normal session work. Several of the members were backing musicians for Bob Dylan's ''

Blonde on Blonde ''Blonde on Blonde'' is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as a double album on June 20, 1966, by Columbia Records. Recording sessions began in New York in October 1965 with numerous backing musicians, ...

'' and '' Nashville Skyline'' albums plus recordings by

Billy Swan William Lance Swan (born May 12, 1942) is an American country singer-songwriter, best known for his 1974 single, "I Can Help". Biography Swan was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States. As a child, he learned drums, piano and guitar ...

and The Monkees. Their best known work was "Stone Fox Chase", which was used as the theme to the British Broadcasting Corporation's music programme '' The Old Grey Whistle Test''. Area Code 615 members Wayne Moss, Mac Gayden and

Kenny Buttrey Aaron Kenneth Buttrey (April 1, 1945 – September 12, 2004) was an American drummer and arranger. According to Country Music Television, CMT, he was "one of the most influential session musicians in Nashville history". Buttrey was born in Nashvi ...

went on to play with Nashville-based Barefoot Jerry, while David Briggs later worked with Elvis Presley and Joan Baez. Their cover of "Classical Gas", from their self-titled 1969 album, is sampled and featured in Irish and UK

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

TV commercials.

Musicians

* Mac Gayden – Lead guitar, vocals * Charlie McCoy – Harmonica, vocals * Bobby Thompson – Banjo, guitar (died 2005) * Wayne Moss – Guitar, bass *

Buddy Spicher Buddy Spicher (born July 28, 1938 in DuBois, Pennsylvania; pronounced “Spiker”) is an American country music fiddle player. He is a member of The Nashville A-Team of session musicians, and is Grammy-nominated. He was nominated as Instrumental ...

– Fiddle, viola, cello * David Briggs – Keyboards *Ken Lauber – Keyboards * Norbert Putnam – Bass, cello *

– Drums (died 2004) * Weldon Myrick – Pedal steel guitar (died 2014) * Elliot Mazer – Co-producer

Discography

*''Area Code 615'', 1969 *''Trip in the Country'', 1970

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 615 (Band) Musical groups from Nashville, Tennessee Musical groups established in 1969 Musical groups disestablished in 1971 1969 establishments in Tennessee 1971 disestablishments in Tennessee