This story starts with the RBB. Eric Holle, banjo; Robert Anderson, mando/vocals; Scott Brownlee, bass/vocals; Fiddlin’ Dick Sparks, fiddle.
Mike Aisner had become the boy’s manager and off they went to years of colleges and festivals, clubs, ski resorts, a movie appearance and two TV network soundtracks. Wrote commercials, did a Disney World summer run, and TV Specials … and on and on.
You could track their progress criss-crossing America with the trail of Pennzoil 10W 30 from Vincent, their sometimes trusty heat-challenged 1963 VW van.
“Vincent van go!” they’d yell.
~ Yuma Pioneer 1971 ~
One tour took them to Chicago where they got extended for another two weeks at the Earl of Old Town, a small but mighty venue for folk and bluegrass act. As you can see but the hand-drawn wall sign young unsigned singer songwriters John Prine and Steve Goodman opened for the RBB. Goodman took the band in the back room and played City of New Orleans for them months before Arlo Guthrie heard it.
“Sorry Stevie, not our style.”
Oh well.
Later a stint as Prine’s backup band…
The boys toured with Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs and made the hallowed cover of Bluegrass Unlimited. And then….(drumroll) this band bucked everything sacred in bluegrass and added……(wait for it)….even added DRUMS to punch-up their high-test bluegrass stage energy….oh the humanity!
Elton John’s famed producer drove a hundred miles from the legendary Caribou Ranch studio to Vail to see them…and most importantly the RBB added yet another member…a street-smart pigeon they named Rufus who gigged with them on many a Tour, and in a John Astin feature-film western, eventually retiring in Des Moines after green-washing the iconic white jacket of another guest on a Chicago TV appearance… Col Sanders!
Sometimes clubs, sometimes stadiums and one time a baby elephant??
Whose idea was this anyway?
Dressed appropriately for their untamed cover of a Jacques Offenbach classical can-can on their first TV Special.
The long-hair Colorado bluegrassers (with drummer) miraculously morphed in the Disney World barber shop to conform to a summer of stage frivolity in front of zillions. Oh and Fiddlin’ Dick said no thanks to Disney World so they went as a 4-piece.
After Fiddlin’ Dick, Fiddlin’ Dan (Middleton) sawed with the boys for a few extended tours.
Oklahoma Bluegrass Festival school visit with folk legend Mike Seeger, where the boys jammed with Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.
