T
HE SEEDS OF THE DILLARDS were sewn by Douglas Dillard and his younger brother Rodney sometime in 1961 in Salem, Missouri. The siblings
were brought up in a house filled with bluegrass and mountain music – their parents Homer and Lorene picked banjo and played guitar – and young Douglas and Rodney followed in their respective shoes. The duo then hooked up with local musician John Hartford in various bluegrass combos. Hartford later scored as a songwriter, penning ‘Gentle On My Mind’ among others. The brothers’ surname became their band name and they added Kansas- born mandolinist Dean Webb and Mitch Jayne from Indiana. Jayne was several years older than the others and had already served time in the army and as a teacher before becoming a DJ and announcer on local radio. The story goes that he was so smitten with the trio he insisted on learning an instrument and joining. He was duly taught how to play upright bass by Dean and became a fully-fledged Dillard in ’62.
In November of that year the quartet stuffed themselves and their instruments into an old trailer (“a ’49 Hudson” Rodney quipped later) and set off to make their fortunes in California. They quickly established themselves on the Los Angeles folk circuit where their brand of virtuoso musicianship and good ole’ boy humour must have singled them out among the urban blues and folk acts. One night at the Ash Grove on Melrose Avenue they were spotted by record producer Jim Dickson who got them a deal with Elektra Records, then a purist folk label yet to undergo its Damascene conversion to rock.
1963’s Back Porch Bluegrass admirably demonstrated the group’s talents as musicians, singers (their four-part harmonies already honed to a staggering level) and songwriters (Dillards standards ‘Dooley’ and ‘Banjo In The Hollow’ debut here) but its release was overshadowed by the first of The Dillards’ appearances on The Andy Griffith Show. This long-running TV sitcom revolved around the titular star, who plays the sheriff of fictional small town Mayberry and whose life is complicated by various local characters, including bluegrass band The Darlings, played by The Dillards and actor Denver Pyle. The band would make around half a dozen appearances on the show over the next three years and their role as slack-jawed, buckskin-
(Top) The young Dillards Mk I, L-R:
Rodney, Doug, Dean and Mitch. (Below) In 1967 just prior to Doug’s departure.
clad hicks unable to integrate into Mayberry society was to become an all too poignant metaphor. Not that the group did themselves many favours in this regard. Mitch – who’d fast become the group’s mouthpiece and stood aside from the other three members on the show – would introduce the group as “hillbillies” and Rodney as “a reminder that every sixty seconds mental illness strikes.”
Two more albums, Live! Almost!! and Pickin’ And Fiddlin’, the latter an instrumental set credited to The Dillards With Byron Berline, followed swiftly on Elektra. These records managed to capture the excitement of a Dillards live performance and seamlessly mixed original compositions with traditional bluegrass and folk tunes. Indeed, self-penned numbers like ‘There Is A Time’ with its moody minor chords and reflective lyrics exemplify the future experimentation of The Dillards, as does the prescient and – not to put to fine a point on it – brave inclusion of Bob Dylan’s ‘Walkin’ Down The Line’.
Recording at World Pacific Studios in ’64, the group befriended the embryonic Byrds who were there shaping their sound under the
supervision of Jim Dickson, also The Byrds’ manager. Friendships were born – particularly with fellow Missourian Gene Clark and mandolin prodigy Chris Hillman – and the groups freely traded ideas. During this period, Dickson had Doug and Rodney record a couple of tunes for an album of instrumental 12-string guitar music credited to The Folkswingers and released on his own World Pacific label.
But that aforementioned experimental sound would take a further three years to germinate. In the meantime The Dillards continued gurning on The Andy Griffith Show whilst simultaneously wooing virtually every musician in Southern California. 1965 saw sparks fly as the future protagonists of the Los Angeles folk- rock scene – Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Stephen Stills, Bernie Leadon, Don Henley et al – flocked to see Dillards shows and jam with these curious musical magi. Their influence on these willing disciples cannot be underestimated. Within a year The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Gene Clark and
others were flying their country colours high and employing various Dillards – particularly the mercurial Doug – to give their otherwise model LA pop records some homespun authenticity.
In early ’66, The Dillards were invited to support The Byrds on a major national tour, no doubt the result of the groups’ shared managers Jim Dickson and Eddie Tickner. The Byrds had just lost Gene Clark (though not before he’d struck up a friendship with Doug that would blossom a couple of years later) and were about to unleash their groundbreaking ‘Eight Miles High’ single, despite most of their live act still comprising their early hits and covers like ‘Hey Joe’. Between 4th March and early May The Dillards opened for The Byrds across the breadth of America, attaining equal billing on a May 5th show at The Valley Music Theatre in LA. The size of the venues required the usually acoustic Dillards to amplify their instruments, leading Dean to start using an electric mandolin while Doug favoured picking a 12-string semi-acoustic guitar. They even added a drummer to the line-up for the duration of the tour: Canadian Dewey Martin, who’d previously occupied the drum stool in countless bands including The Standells and The Modern Folk Quartet.
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