Great Speckled Bird
| Great Speckled Bird | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Country rock |
| founding | 1968 |
| resolution | 1972 |
| Founding members | |
| Ian Tyson | |
singing |
Sylvia Tyson |
Pedal steel guitar |
Buddy Cage |
Guitar, vocals |
Amos Garrett |
| ND Smart | |
| Ken Kalmusky | |
Great Speckled Bird were a Canadian country rock band.
history
The band Great Speckled Bird was formed as a backing band for the duo Ian and Sylvia by the then married couple Ian and Sylvia Tyson in 1968 to record a studio album in Nashville .
The two wanted to put together a band that could support their own style and didn't want to rely on the studio musicians. In their line-up were musicians such as Bill Keith, who previously played for Bill Monroe , and Buddy Cage , who would later play for The New Riders of the Purple Sage . ND Smart, co-founder of Mountain , could also be won over to the collaboration.
The album Great Speckled Bird , released in 1970, is considered one of the most sonorous in the careers of Ian and Sylvia Tyson. In the ensuing period, the band toured Canada and the United States .
The band peaked in 1970 when they took part in the Festival Express , a concert tour across Canada. The group stayed together for a while, but when Cage and Garrett left the band it began to seem like Great Speckled Bird was just an appendix to the duo Ian and Sylvia and not a separate band.
The next album was released by the Columbia Records label as a work by Ian and Sylvia with the help of Great Speckled Bird. The band officially split up in 1972, but some of the musicians continued to accompany Ian Tyson musically on his The Ian Tyson Show ( aka Nashville North ) on TV.
Discography
- Great Speckled Bird 1970
- You Were on My Mind 1972 (as Ian & Sylvia with the Great Speckled Bird )
Web links
- Great Speckled Bird at Allmusic (English)
- Ian & Sylvia & The Great Speckled Bird in the Internet Movie Database (English)