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MUSICIANS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BYRDS
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Harvey Gerst
Jim Gordon
Emory Gordy
The Gosdin Brothers
Rick Grech
Lloyd Green
Gib Guilbeau
Harvey Gerst was a friend of the Byrds in their early days. He co-wrote their songs "It Won't Be Wrong" and "Please Let Me Love You." Today Gerst runs Indian Trail Recording Studios with his son. Gerst has a website with some cool photos of the Byrds from his personal collection. He also has pix of lots of other well-known musicians from the folk and rock worlds.
Jim Gordon
Jim Gordon was one of the top session drummers in the '60s. After backing the Everly Brothers in 1963 at age 17, he went to California. Hal Blaine, king of session drummers, began to send Gordon his overflow work.
During this period, Gordon appeared on Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (Columbia, 1967) and Notorious Byrd Brothers. Later, Gordon was a member of Derek and the Dominoes, where he had the good fortune to co-write the song "Layla" with Eric Clapton.Gordon worked with Hillman again when he was the drummer in the Souther Hillman Furay Band from 1973 to 1975.Gordon also played with John Lennon, George Harrison, Frank Zappa, Traffic, Delaney & Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, and Jackson Browne. Though he was initially known for being a straight-laced guy, Gordon eventually began to use heroin and cocaine like many of his colleagues in the music business.Sadly, in the '70s, severe psychological problems began to manifest in Gordon's behavior. He once punched Rita Coolidge for no apparent reason, and he complained of hearing voices, especially the voice of his mother. By the late '70s, Gordon's mental difficulties -- later diagnosed as acute paranoid schizophrenia -- had ruined his musical career. Then, in 1983, Gordon brutally murdered his own mother. The insanity defense having been narrowed in California, Gordon was convicted of second-degree murder in 1984 and sentenced to 16 years to life. Most of his time has been served in Atascadero State Hospital. Gordon remains wealthy, thanks to royalties from "Layla" and a handful of other songs. See Martin Booe, "Bang the Drum Slowly," in The Washington Post (July 3, 1994) at F1.Emory Gordy
Bassist Emory Gordy, Jr., provided the bottom for Elvis Presley's TCB Band. Fellow band members James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, and Ronnie Tutt backed Gram Parsons on his first solo LP; Gordy joined them for the second, Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1974).
This led to a long stint with Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band. Gordy also played on albums by the Dillards, Billy Joel, Hoyt Axton, Linda Ronstadt, and Albert Lee. Gordy played on Chris Hillman's Morning Sky (Sugar Hill, 1982).By the '80s, Gordy had become a prominent record producer in Nashville. One of the acts he produced was Patty Loveless, who later became his wife.The Gosdin Brothers
Singer, guitarist, mandolin and banjo player Vern Gosdin and his brother, bassist Rex Gosdin, played with Chris Hillmen in the bluegrass band the Golden State Boys, which became the Hillmen. After the dissolution of that band, Vern and Rex recorded as a duo, (earning a minor hit with "Hangin' On") and worked as session men in LA. They won second billing when they played on the first Gene Clark solo LP, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (Columbia, 1967).
The brothers left performing in the late '60s, but Vern mounted a successful comeback in 1976 with "Yesterday's Gone," a duet with Emmylou Harris. Vern Gosdin earned considerable success in the '70s and '80s with country chart hits like "It Started All Over Again," "Break My Mind," and "Sarah's Eyes." In 1984, Gosdin released a cover of "Turn, Turn, Turn" with Roger McGuinn on guitar. After switching to Columbia in 1987, Gosdin began another series of country hits, including "Do You Believe Me Now?" and the chart-toppers "Set 'Em Up Joe" and "I'm Still Crazy."Rex Gosdin passed away during the 1980s.Rick Grech
Bassist Rick Grech played in the Farinas starting in 1965. That group mutated into the Roaring Sixties, which in turn became Family in 1967. Family made progressive rock that was popular in the UK but not in the States.
Grech stuck around for two albums, then split on the eve of their first US tour when he was invited to play with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood in Blind Faith.With Clapton's departure, Blind Faith devolved into Ginger Baker's Airforce, which featured Winwood, Baker, Grech, Chris Wood of Traffic, singer Graham Bond, and Denny Laine of the early Moody Blues. After playing on the two 1970 LPs by the Airforce, Grech followed Winwood and Wood back into Traffic. Grech played on the live Welcome to the Canteen (Island, 1971) and The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Island, 1971).In '72 Grech played at Clapton's Rainbow Concert. The next year he released an album of tracks accumulated during The Last Five Years (RSO, 1973). After working on the first Gram Parsons solo album, GP (Reprise, 1973), Grech did sessions and kept a low profile until joining the putative supergroup KGB, along with singer Ray Kennedy, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and guitarist Mike Bloomfield of the Electric Flag, and drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge. Grech left after one LP, KGB (MCA, 1976).Lloyd Green
Lloyd Green is a veteran Nashville steel guitar player. Chris Hillman spoke admiringly of Green, who risked his credibility in country circles by playing with the Byrds at the Grand Ole Opry. "I've got to hand it to Lloyd Green: it took a lot of balls to get up there [onstage at the Opry] with a band of long-haired, weirdo, strangers-in-town, knowing that a lot of his friends and peers were so antagonistic toward us."*
Gib Guilbeau
Gib Guilbeau is a cajun fiddler with close ties to several Byrds. He began his career in the mid-60s with Gene Parsons and Wayne Moore in Vegas country act the Castaways. That band metamorphosed into Cajun Gib and Gene, and then, with the addition of Clarence White, into Nashville West. After White and then Parsons defected to the Byrds, Guilbeau formed Swampwater.
Meanwhile, the Gene Parsons-Clarence White version of the Byrds recorded "Your Gentle Ways of Loving Me," a ballad co-written by Guilbeau and Gary Paxton, on Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde. Rod Stewart and fellow Face Ron Wood also had separate covers of Guilbeau's song "Big Bayou.In the late '60s, Guilbeau put together the country-rock band Swampwater with John Beland and Glen D. Hardin.In the mid-'70s, Guilbeau revived the name "The Flying Burrito Brothers," along with Gene Parsons and two original Burritos, steel player Sneaky Pete Kleinow and bassist Chris Ethridge. Guilbeau remained part of the "Refried" Burritos through the '70s, (along with ex-Byrd Skip Battin and Kleinow) and as half of the band's songwriting team with John Beland, was instrumental in their commercial success as a mainstream country act on MCA/Curb Records under the name "The Burrito Brothers" in the '80s. Guilbeau also participated in the '90s version of the band with Beland and Kleinow among others.Thomas Aubrunner of Austria hosts a Gib Guilbeau Web Page.Notes
"I've got to hand it to Lloyd Green...." Frame at 36.
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