Halfway through the tour The Dillards took a fortnight’s engagement at The Ice House in Glendale, CA. No longer requiring their electric instruments or, for that matter, their drummer, they let Martin go and entrusted their gear to Dickson and Tickner. Douglas apparently gave Martin a number and the name of a hot new band that needed a drummer; Buffalo Springfield. Following the Ice House shows, they completed the Byrds tour and discovered that some of the gear they’d left had been, ahem, borrowed by Martin’s new band.
1966 also saw The Dillards part with Elektra and sign with Capitol for two excellent yet ill- fated singles. Alongside a lush version of Tom Paxton’s ‘The Last Thing On My Mind’, ‘Nobody Knows’, ‘Ebo Walker’ and ‘Lemon Chimes’ were all strong originals with a pronounced folk-rock slant that showed a considerable stylistic leap from the super-traditional sound of Fiddlin’.
Dean Webb later recalled, “Curly Walters signed us to Capitol. He seemed to understand exactly what we wanted to do and we never saw the guy again! Then they started putting us with all these other producers – I don’t know how many of ‘em we went through.”
It was all academic anyway as nobody heard them and the group soon found themselves re-signing with the newly sympathetic Elektra, then riding high on the twin successes of their rock acts Love and The Doors. In June ’67 The Dillards supported former teen star Rick Nelson’s country music debut at LA’s Shrine Auditorium where he was backed by a veritable super-group including James Burton, Clarence White, Glen D Hardin and others.
It was around this time that Doug became disillusioned with the direction the group’s music was taking. He wanted to retain the traditional elements of their sound while ambitious younger brother Rodney was hatching more extravagant plans. As Rodney later explained, “I wanted to take what I’d learned in my roots music – what I grew up with – and apply that in a broader rhythmical sense and structure. I wanted to retain those instruments that gave the identity to that mountain stuff we did.”
Doug departed in early ’68 and ironically accepted an offer to tour with The Byrds, who were in the midst of pursuing a pure country sound following the addition of Gram Parsons, formerly of California act The International Submarine Band, and head Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman’s rediscovery of their folk and country roots.
Doug then hooked up with the now ex-Byrd Gene Clark, then 18 months into a slow- burning solo career that had begun with the
48 Suite sounds. Herb Pedersen (front) joins in ’68.
Doug’s banjo playing graced countless sessions around this time including records by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Harry Nilsson and Glen Campbell, whose ‘Gentle On My Mind’ – penned by Doug and Rodney’s one-time musical partner John Hartford – had broken Campbell as a solo star in ’67. Amazingly Doug also found time to cut The Banjo Album, a self-explanatory collection highlighting his lightnin’ fast banjo picking and featuring support from such players as
distinctly country-fied Gene Clark & The Gosdin Brothers, which featured Doug prominently. The pair put together The Dillard & Clark Expedition, a loose conglomerate of friends, ex-Byrds and session players. The two albums cut by the Expedition are now rightly revered as cornerstones of LA country-rock but the partnership’s existence would be inconceivable were it not for the Clark’s long- standing admiration of The Dillards.
Clark, Hartford, Bernie Leadon and Don Beck. His future was assured.
Not to be outdone – and finding his more progressive instincts less questioned – Rodney steered The Dillards into pastures new. First, they recruited California-born Herb Pedersen as Doug’s replacement. Herb had returned from Nashville where he’d been playing with both Flatt & Scruggs and Vern & Ray, the latter collaboration captured for posterity on a live album. Described by Mitch as “that shy giant of a man”, Herb not only boasted impeccable credentials as a musician but was also a deft writer and arranger. His clear tenor added further depth and complexity to The Dillards’ harmonies and his willingness to experiment suited Rodney’s vision perfectly.
The first fruit of their labour was Wheatstraw Suite, released on Elektra in ’68 and co- produced by Rodney. It mixed traditional bluegrass material, Beatles and Tim Hardin covers, original compositions and re- workings of those ill-fated Capitol sides rendered using electric instruments, drums, pedal steel and Al Capps’ lush strings and woodwinds and sounded not only unlike any previous Dillards records but pretty much unlike anything that had gone before.
Rodney has a theory about this magical time. “I think that’s the secret to that particular project. It was where the organic raw met the orchestrated structure. But it didn’t come out like muzak because you heard the guitar and you heard the squeaks.”
Opening with a short a capella take of the spiritual ‘I’ll Fly Away’, there follow gossamer-light folk ballads like ‘Listen To The Sound’ – featuring some of the group’s
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