The Souther–Hillman–Furay Band (SHF) was a

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 ...

supergroup led by singer-songwriters

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey ...

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Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin (musician), Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely know ...

Poco In software engineering, a plain old CLR object, or plain old class object (POCO) is a simple object created in the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) that is unencumbered by inheritance or attributes. This is often used in opposition to the comp ...

Chris Hillman Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his w ...

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The 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) being the so ...

The Flying Burrito Brothers The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1968, best known for their influential 1969 debut album, ''The Gilded Palace of Sin''. Although the group is known for its connection to band f ...

Manassas Manassas (), formerly Manassas Junction, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 42,772 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Prince William County, although the two are separate jurisdi ...

, and later Desert Rose Band), and

JD Souther John David Souther (November 2, 1945 – September 17, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was "a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters". Souther wrote and ...

(

Longbranch Pennywhistle Longbranch Pennywhistle was a country rock/folk music group featuring Glenn Frey and John David Souther. They originally performed as "John David & Glenn," but when they added bass player David Jackson, they were encouraged to come up with a new ...

, noted songwriter for

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

and

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

). The band recorded two albums during the mid-1970s before breaking up due to disagreements and personality conflicts between the members.

History

The band was formed in 1973 at the suggestion of

David Geffen David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American film producer, record executive, and media proprietor. In music, he co-founded Asylum Records with Elliot Roberts in 1971 before founding Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1 ...

, then head of

Asylum Records Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/As ...

. Hillman brought three other former members of Manassas to the group: keyboardist/flutist Paul Harris, percussionist

Joe Lala Joseph Anthony Lala (November 3, 1947 – March 18, 2014) was an American musician and actor. In 1966, he co-founded the rock band Blues Image. Life and career Lala was born in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, into a family of Italian-American bac ...

, both of whom had also worked with Barnstorm; and pedal steel guitarist

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential Dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in 2 ...

, who had also played with the Flying Burrito Brothers. The septet was rounded out by Jim Gordon, a noted session drummer and former member of

Derek and the Dominos Derek and the Dominos was an English–American blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by singer-guitarist Eric Clapton, keyboardist-singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. All four members had previously playe ...

and

Traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

. The band had a substantial hit in 1974 with its self-titled first album, which was

certified gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

, and the single "Fallin' in Love" (US #27). However, during the recording of that album, and influenced by Perkins, Furay converted to evangelical Christianity.Richie Furay's home page
/ref> Tensions among the members increased, and Gordon, who may have been experiencing the onset of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

, left the band and was replaced by Ron Grinel. In the midst of this chaos, SHF's 1975 album ''Trouble in Paradise'' was not critically well received. Soon after, the group disbanded and its namesake members continued on their solo careers.

Discography

Albums

*'' The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band'' (

, 1974) US #11, Gold, AUS #58 *'' Trouble in Paradise'' (Originally on

now available on Line Records, 1975) US #39, AUS #100

Singles

"Fallin' in Love" (1974) (Asylum) (US Billboard #27)
"Safe at Home" / "Border Town" (1974) (US Cash Box #80)
"For Someone I Love" / "Move Me Real Slow" (1975)
"Mexico" / "Move Me Real Slow" (1975)
"Trouble In Paradise" (1975)

Members

- vocals, guitar, drums *

- vocals, bass, mandolin *

- vocals, guitar * Paul Harris - keyboards, flute *

- guitar,

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

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 ...

- percussion * Jim Gordon - drums (1973–74) *Ron Grinel - drums (1975–76)

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Souther-Hillman-Furay Band American supergroups American country rock groups Musical groups established in 1973