COUNTRY SUNSHINE

 

COUNTRY SUNSHINE

4- 23-2022

I am sitting in my studio listening to Derick and The Dominoes live recording done at Fillmore East. This has been one of my favorite bands throughout the years. 'Course you know my love for Leon Russell's early work, but that's how I learned about Clapton.

The Dominoes, four very fine musicians at the peak of their artistic and creative abilities. Their work just amazes me. The originality of their songs, both original, and redone blues classics is just right.

It always makes me think about a band I was in back during the '70s. Steve White and Country Sunshine. Steve and I had been playing together for sometime in the clubs around Ventura county California. I had put together a band at The Ponderosa in Camarillo. I ran through a bunch of guitar players ranging frome Buck Page, the founder of the Original Riders of The Purple Sage, to a fine young man named Jon Kurnick, who went on to be a very good session player in LA. Phil King was the Bass player.

Steve is one of the best steel guitar players in the world. (no kidding) and an excellent guitar player. He came to me one night and asked me to go on tour with him, and Dale Honsinger, who was probably the best Bass player I ever had the pleasure of working with, and front his band.
So we lumped into Steve's Ford sedan, pulling a little U-Haul trailer. We opened in Salt Lake City and the band just came together. Steve and Dale had worked together, and Steve and I had as well, so we knew what were about. The first night was a little rough, but we came together by the end of the night. The second night we gelled.
We moved on to Wyoming, and played several two week stands in clubs throughout the state. Our first gig was at the Flame Lounge in Sheridan for New Year's Eve. When we left Oxnard, it was 60 degrees and raining. It was cold on the trip, but I didn't think much of it. But that night, at two am New Years Day, we walked out of the club after a successful night. I was laughing, and as the door closed behind me, I took a big lungful of air, and thought I was going to die. It was 40 degrees below zero! My first taste of a north country winter.

We played Kemmerer, then went on to Riverton for a two week gig at Al's Gaslight, that turned into six weeks. We were playing six nights a week, doing a little rehearsal, and living together in a motel across the street. And man, that band got tight. We were monsters! Fast, fancy and together.

We taped our shows every night and critiqued them after the show. Unfortunately, all those tapes are gone. Most of them got taped over the next night. They were work tools, not stuff to keep. A big mistake. I think we were every bit as good as those above mentioned Dominoes. Our western Swing swung. Our barroom music (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, etc. would have made those guys proud. The last two sets were just about pure rock and roll. Lifting the roof off the building, and filling the dance floor. We left that bar in a full sweat night after night. The best band I ever worked with. Three young men at the peak of our creative and artistic careers. Of course we all kwent on to play, record, and have fun on bandstands and recording studios across the nation, but I don't think any group we were eve in was a good as that bunch of crazy, intense, dedicated musicians.
I got a chance to work with Steve and Dale again at an afternoon gig they had at the VFW in Simi Valley. We were good as ever, even though we had not played together in 40 years. I am forever grateful for that day. Dale is gone now, and Steve is in Missouri, while I live in Montana. But you know what, If the esteemed Mr White were to offer me a chance to do another road gig, I'd be across the state line before the dust settled on my driveway.