The Bigger Picture
Long Journey Home: The White Brothers and the Birth of Country Rock
by Bob Moses
When Roland returned from the Army in 1963, he discovered his brother had taken their music to a higher plane. Because Roland’s mandolin, the traditional lead bluegrass instrument, was missing, Clarence filled the gap. When asked if Clarence’s guitar virtuosity pushed his own playing, Roland replies, “Oh, gosh yes. When I got out of the Army those guys were on fire. He had to take my place and take the breaks. He was playing the breaks to banjo tunes, slow tunes, whatever they were playing. He had this beautiful right-hand technique.” The Ash Grove set finds the brothers back together, Clarence taking a break from his electric guitar to revel in his Martin and the bluegrass standards they used as a springboard for invention.
Roland also described a less well-known steppingstone to the country-rock cradle at Nashville West: a plugged-in version of the Kentucky Colonels that held court at a bowling-alley lounge. “The last year we were together, the coffeehouse scene dried up,” he recalled. “In 1966, we got a job in this bowling alley, this lounge in a bowling alley in Azusa, California. The guy said, ‘It’s yours, but you gotta play something they can dance to.’ We got a drummer, Bart Haney. Clarence bought a Telecaster. I had an electric mandolin my dad made, and mostly played acoustic through my vocal mic. [Longtime Country Boys and Colonels member] Billy Ray Latham had an electric guitar that he played rhythm on, and Roger Bush got an electric bass. We mostly played the popular country songs of the day, Buck Owens and the like. Merle Haggard songs. If you played a song that was popular, they’d all get on the dance floor. We’d throw in about a 15-minute set of bluegrass. People were hurting themselves! They were jumping around and laying on the floor, whooping and hollering. The bartender said, ‘Someone’s gonna get hurt in here.’ Clarence got to playing more electric guitar. The first thing I remember him playing on electric was ‘Buckaroo.’ We did all kinds of things, ‘Never On Sunday.’ I used to play it on the mandolin, just fooling around. ‘Caravan.’ Next thing you know the drummer’s out in the audience playing on the tables and chairs. It was a lot of fun. Word got around there was a pretty good little country band in Azusa, the Kentucky Colonels. People mostly came to see Clarence. He was really wailing, really soulful guitar breaks.”
We’ve heard from the producers at Wolfgang’s Vault that the Ash Grove collection includes Kentucky Colonels shows and even some early Country Boys performances. In addition to the Byrds performances already in the Concert Vault, the collection fills in a more complete picture of the bluegrass influence on country rock — and the continuing influence of two of its most important godfathers.
Share
