The Band
BRENDON ALVORD
Guitar, harmonica, vocalGrowing up in the isolated Trinity County community of Weaverville and homeschooled at the Pentecostal church orphanage in Mexico where his parents served, Brendon’s background has informed his songwriting with themes of sin, lost love and redemption. As a child he was taught guitar chords by his grandfather, the son of a Mexican norteño street musician, and at 15 he formed his first band, the Hummingbirds, with his younger brother.
Leaving home and church at 18, Brendon turned to the street and its troubles. After years of living homeless in Trinity County and on the Lost Coast, he settled in rural Northern California, assembled his band, and started playing concerts and festivals throughout Northern California. His debut LP will be released in the Spring of 2012 on Tripleshack Records.
STEVEN HUFF
Producer, bass, guitar, vocal harmonySteven got his first guitar in 1964, and a few years later at the tender age of 14, he joined Redding Musicians Union Local 113. Leaving home to work in San Francisco and Los Angeles as a studio musician, he signed on as bassist for The (Paul Collins) Beat, playing on all of the band’s world tours and recordings from 1979 through 1990. For the past 40 years, Steven has performed and recorded with a host of artists, including Bruce Botnick (The Doors), Peter Case (The Plimsouls), Jorma Kaukonen (The Airplane), Kenny Loggins, Bill Spooner (The Tubes) and Phoebe Snow.
ERIC DAY
Guitar, slide guitarArmed with an old Martin, Eric first met Steven Huff at a 1971 Shasta High School band assembly, but it would be thirty years later before they met up again, joining forces to create their trio, The Salamanders, with drummer Rick Harter. Over the course of his career, Eric has shared the stage with George Strait, Merle Haggard and the Strangers, Tanya Tucker, Freddy Fender, the Coasters and Goose Creek Symphony, playing slide, dobro, electric and baritone guitars on their 1998 CD, Going Home.
SCOTT JOSS
Violin, guitar, vocal harmonyBorn in Long Beach and raised in Redding, California, Scott won numerous California State Fiddle Championships as a young teen, but Merle Haggard waited until he was legal to put him onstage at Carnegie Hall for his first gig with the Strangers.
After touring with the Hag, Scott moved to Los Angeles to play fiddle and sing harmony with Dwight Yoakam through the late 1980s and ’90s, but has since returned to Shasta County to rejoin Haggard and the Strangers on tour and in the studio. His original material includes solo albums Souvenirs in 1996 and A New Reason to Care in 2005, on Little Dog Records.
JIM DYAR
Guitar, vocal harmonyJim plays rhythm guitar for Brendon when he's not heading up the JDB (Jim Dyar Band) or his acoustic band, Muletown. Their debut albums Magic Land and Muletown were released in 2010 and 2011.
KEITH MITCHELL
DrumsKeith started drumming as a teenager in country bands in South Bay bars. Throughout the 1980s, he played drums in a roster of L.A. postpunk and Paisley Underground bands, including Monitor, the Romans, Green on Red, Clay Allison and Opal. In 1989 he joined Mazzy Star, playing on their tours and their three albums.
Keith plays drums on several tracks on the LP and at Brendon's live shows.
DEREK MOSS
DrumsDerek is a longtime Shasta County resident, football fan and veteran of dozens of rock, jazz, and country bar bands, with the associated fistfights.
Also:
GRANT RUDOLPH, Hammond, piano
RAY JENSEN, Pedal steel
DUANE THOMPSON, Dobro
TORRI PRATT, Vocal harmony