Carson were an Australian

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

and

boogie rock Boogie rock is a style of blues rock music that developed in the late 1960s. Its key feature is a repetitive driving rhythm, which emphasizes the groove. Although inspired by earlier musical styles such as piano-based boogie-woogie, boogie rock h ...

band, which formed in January 1970 as Carson County Band. As Carson, their classic lineup was Gary Clarke on bass guitar, Greg Lawrie on

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

and

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars 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 a gui ...

, Mal Logan on keyboards, Tony Lunt on drums,

Broderick Smith Broderick Smith (17 February 1948 – 30 April 2023) was an English-born Australian multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and sometime actor. He was a member of 1970s bands Sundown, Carson, and The Dingoes. In the 1980s, he was part of Br ...

on vocals and harmonica and Ian Winter on guitar. They had a top 30 hit single on the ''

Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...

'' National Top 40 with "Boogie" in September 1972. The group released their debut studio album, ''Blown'', in November on

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

, which peaked at No. 14 on the ''Go-Set'' Top 20 Albums. Their performance at the second Sunbury Pop Festival in late January 1973 was issued as a live album, ''On the Air'', in April, but the group had already disbanded. Founding pianist and vocalist, John Capek had left by mid-1970 and relocated to North America by 1973 where he worked as a composer (often with

Marc Jordan Marc Wallace Jordan (born March 6, 1948) is an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, session musician, and actor. Covering a wide variety of genres, he has written songs for a number of well-known artists, including Diana Ro ...

), record producer and keyboardist both in Toronto, Canada and in Los Angeles, United States. After Carson disbanded, Smith formed the

country rock Country rock is a music genre that 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 sty ...

band the Dingoes in 1973 and also had a successful solo career. Broderick Smith died in 2023, aged 75.

History

Carson formed in Melbourne in January 1970 as the Carson County Band and, influenced by United States group

Canned Heat Canned Heat is an American blues rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts, Alan Wilson and ...

, they performed

and

. Founders of Carson County Band were John Capek on piano and vocals, Ian Ferguson on bass guitar and vocals, Greg "Sleepy" Lawrie on slide guitar and dobro (Creatures, Chocolate), Tony Lunt on drums. Other early members were Tony Enery on piano, Paul Lever on guitar, harmonica and vocals, and guest musician, Matt Taylor on guitar, harmonica and vocals. Their debut single, "On the Highway", was issued in May on Rebel Records. Capek left in mid-1970 to join King Harvest and moved to North America in 1973. He worked as a composer (often with

), record producer and keyboardist both in Toronto and in Los Angeles. In October 1970 Carson dropped the County Band from their name to avoid being confused for a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

group.Ian Winter joined Carson on guitar at the beginning of 1971.

(ex-Adderley Smith Blues Band) joined in mid-year, providing vocals and harmonica. The group released a second single, "Travelling South" in August on Havoc Records, which was written by Lawrie. Ferguson left in July to be replaced successively by Barry Sullivan and then Gary Clarke. Mal Logan on keyboards joined later that year. Carson performed at the first Sunbury Pop Festival in late January 1972. On the Easter weekend, 31 March–2 April 1972, they played two sets at the Mulwala Pop Festival, supporting head-liners Canned Heat and

Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and Manassas (band ...

. Smith spent part of 1972 recording solo material. Meanwhile, Carson, with Smith returned, issued their next single "Boogie" in September 1972, which reached No. 30 on the ''

'' National Top 40. It was co-written by Lawrie and Smith. This was followed in November by their debut album, ''Blown'' on

produced by Rod Coe, which reached No. 14 on ''Go-Set'' Top 20 Albums. Michael Foster of ''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...

'' observed, "a Melbourne group of considerable ability and inventiveness, if still needing some more joint experience. I enjoyed awries bottleneck guitar and found good listening in tracks such as 'Banana Power', 'Sunday in the City' and, nostalgically, 'Boogie'." Australian musicologist,

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

, described it as a "powerful" recording, "full of free-flowing, bluesy hard rock". Carson also performed at the second Sunbury Pop Festival, on the Australia Day long weekend in late January 1973. Ian Winter left soon after and by February, Carson had disbanded. A live recording of their Sunbury set, ''On the Air'' was released in April 1973. Smith was a founding member of

band, the Dingoes and later had a successful solo career. In 2020 Aztec Records issued an expanded version of ''On the Air'' with additional live tracks from performances at Melbourne club Thumpin' Tum in August 1970, Mulwala Rock Festival (April 1972) and at Melbourne's Festival Hall (November 1972). Broderick Smith died in 2023, aged 75.

Personnel

Listed chronologically: * John Capek – piano, vocals, keyboards *Ian Ferguson – bass guitar, vocals *Greg Lawrie –

*Tony Lunt – drums *Tony Enery – piano * Paul Lever – guitar, harmonica, vocals *Ian Winter – guitar *

– vocals, harmonica *Barry Sullivan – bass guitar *Gary Clarke – bass guitar *Mal Logan – keyboards *Mal Capewell – saxophone

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

;General * Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. * Note: n-lineversion of ''The Who's Who of Australian Rock'' was established a
White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd
in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition. As from, September 2010 the n-lineversion shows an 'Internal Service Error' and was no longer available. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Carson Australian blues musical groups Musical groups established in 1970 Musical groups disestablished in 1973 Victoria (state) musical groups 1970 establishments in Australia 1973 disestablishments in Australia