Sless pre-David Nelson
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Cowboy Jazz was one of our favorite local Baltimore bands... this must have been a quasi-reunion show, as they were around in late 70s and only lasted to mid 80s.
"The six-piece group took Western Swing music of the 1930's, added vocals in the style of the Andrew Sisters (three of the six musicians were women), electrified and acid-washed it in the style of the Grateful Dead and packaged the whole peculiar deal with strong original writing, imaginative arrangements and crackerjack musicianship."
In this band, Barry plays guitar as well as petal steel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNF6n3NuWYc
After this is when I think he fell in with the Kingfish / Dead Ringers crowd, which eventually led to DNB. (A bunch of Baltimore connections to the Nelson band started with the CJ scene.)
Footage of the band is pretty rare, but definitely search out their albums. Here's some info about the band and some stories about their trip to Alaska
http://rhumba.com/frames/alaskaframe.html
http://rhumba.com/alaska/cowboy_jazz2.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/03/11/country-swin...
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Woz
I sa the Dead Ringers back in
I sa the Dead Ringers back in the day as well as the first DNB shows. Good times....
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: An organ grinder’s tune
Nelson/Hunter make Rolling
Nelson/Hunter make Rolling Stone...
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/robert-hunter-unheard-...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Woz
We got to hear it live down
We got to hear it live down in Big Sur last month!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
Have both Cowboy Jazz records
Have both Cowboy Jazz records on rounder records, for completeness’ sake. They both suck hard. DNB alumni Charlie Crane also recorded with this band.
I met a fellow a couple years ago up in AK who was a friend of Barry’s and used to book them up there on a riverboat or something. He may have been responsible for bringing DNB to AK in 2016 too but my memory is lacking atm. Wish I could remember his name. Nice chap.
Look forward to reading about their travels
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
Also so was Liam Hanrahan,
Also so was Liam Hanrahan, who is a Kimock /Zero collaborator, might have been in Garaj Mahal (I know I’ve seen him with them in the past.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Ausonius
"(Barry Sless’ brightly
"(Barry Sless’ brightly moving lead guitar parts also bring Garcia’s style to mind.)"
Understatement of the year.
Thanks for posting, I had some friends who talked up Cowboy Jazz years ago but I never made the trip down to Baltimore to see them.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: I rang a silent bell
Thanks for this thread, good
Thanks for this thread, good stuff.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
Dead Ringers perform "Bye and
Dead Ringers perform "Bye and Bye" at Wetlands, NYC 5/30/93 with Barry Flast, David Nelson, Tom Constanten, Barry Sless, Buddy Cage, Arthur Steinhorn, & Bill Laymon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC144407a7E
Dead Ringers
What a long strange “ring” ...it was the summer of 1991 when Barry Flast, currently hard at work producing a new album for his band KINGFISH was invited by a promoter friend to put together the “acoustic” half of a tribute to THE GRATEFUL DEAD for a summer long tour to coincide with the release of “Deadicated”, the first of what would be many Dead tribute albums (the electric half of the show incidentally was to feature Papa John Creach, Merl Saunders and former KINGFISH guitarist Steve Kimock).Barry was asked to put together an all star acoustic lineup to pay homage to the “American Beauty/Workingman’s” era of the Dead’s music, and it seemed to him the choices were inevitable; David Nelson, fresh from his stint in the Jerry Garcia Acoustic band, Barry Sless master steel player from Kingfish, and Fred Campbell, who though he played bass for Kingfish, also played acoustic lead guitar for The New Riders Of The Purple Sage…..that foursome, joined later in the tour by Tom Constanten, early pianist with THE GRATEFUL DEAD became the acoustic half of ‘GRATEFULLY YOURS” and played all summer long for thousands of Dead Heads all across the USA…..when that tour was over, the members of our band decided to keep it going and would take over doing the electric half of the show as well…but since we were no longer officially sanctioned, David Nelson suggested we change our name to ‘DEAD RINGERS” and we forged ahead in our new identity….three years later, the band split, basically to give Nelson the chance to form his own outfit, THE DAVID NELSON BAND with Barry Sless , Bill Laymon (a bassist who had replaced Fred Campbell in 1993) and Arthur Steinhorn (who had been our drummer for most of the band’s career) essentially gutting what had been DEAD RINGERS
https://holdmyticket.com/event/118352
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
It was while touring with
It was while touring with Cowboy Jazz in Colorado in 1987 that Sless received a phone call from Matthew Kelly from the band Kingfish asking if he'd be interested in playing with the San Francisco band at an upcoming show celebrating the Harmonic Convergence in Telluride, Colorado. So Sless, and then Cowboy Jazz drummer Arthur Steinhorn, joined Matthew Kelly, Barry Flast, and Anna Rizzo for a new edition of Kingfish. "Matthew wanted somebody to round out the band after the tragic accident that killed David Merrill," Sless somberly reflected. - http://www.jcflyer.com/jcband_barry.html
Kingfish
Love Me Or I'll Kill You Babe - 1988
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4DImhS9kLs
Gumbo Love Song - 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaFRyjsgLA&list=PLyd_IiBubVSZt0ejRDllTr...
1991:
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
so the research may have
so the research may have revealed that the omnipresent headband possibly first surfaced in 1990!
[Unrelated tidbit - Liam H played with DC's infamous Root Boy Slim before moving West. (Look him up -- Root Boy, that is)]
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
October 1990 - still no
October 1990 - still no headband!
Kingfish : I Know You Rider @ The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, New Jersey-October 26, 1990
(check out 4 minute mark or so for some tasty pedal steel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot2J0dAX7xw
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Def. High
>>>>>>as well as petal steel.
>>>>>>as well as petal steel.
Steel Magnolia blossom blooming...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Jack Fate
I first saw Barry play at The
I first saw Barry play at The Cubby Bear in Chicago with Dead Ringers. Sometime before 1994 is all I can remember because that's when I came to CA. Barry is all over my studio album Shakey Zimmerman on every song. He played both pedal steel and guitar on the tracks. His steel on Ambulance Blues is downright haunting. Billy Laymon from the early DNB days plays bass on all tracks too.