Ozark Mountain Daredevils

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are a country rock band formed in 1972 in Springfield, Missouri, USA. They are most widely known for their singles "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" in 1974 and "Jackie Blue" in 1975. Some have described the band's sound as a "countrified Steely Dan".

The Daredevils are also mentioned in the "Don's Story" chapter of American humorist David Sedaris' book, Barrel Fever. Bassist Michael "Supe" Granda has also written a book about the band, It Shined.

Name

The "Daredevils" name has much to do with the long hair and beards sported by the band in the 1970s, a rejection of the more conservative style of their native Midwest during that decade. It is mentioned in the book about the band, "It Shined", by bassist Michael 'Supe' Granda, that the band name was derived from "Cosmic Corn Cob & His Amazing Ozark Mountain Daredevils", a name which John Dillon came up with at a Kansas City "naming party" after the band was told that the name they had previously been using, "Family Tree" was already taken. The band shortened the name because none of the band members at the time wanted to be called "Cosmic Corn Cob", and they did not want the name to sound similar to The Amazing Rhythm Aces.
Formation and the family tree

In 1971, Steve Cash, Randle Chowning, John Dillon, Elizabeth Anderson, Larry Lee and Michael Granda began playing together with Bill Jones (flute, horns, formerly of Dillon's band Granny's Bathwater) and Rick Campanelli (piano) at Springfield, Missouri's New Bijou Theater for small crowds of friends on Wednesday night under the name "Family Tree"("Emergency Band", "Burlap Socks" and "Buffalo Chips" were other names they considered for this grouping in the early days). Larry Lee was working at the New Bijou as a bartender. The band recorded a demo at Springfield's Top Talent studios and that demo, containing such early songs as "Rhythm of Joy", found its way to New York music executive John Hammond, per the hands of band friend Steve Canaday, who was co-owner of the New Bijou Theater. Hammond sent a producer, Michael Sunday, to the band's Ruedi-Valley Ranch in Aldrich, Missouri, the house rented from Randle Chowning's Southwest Missouri State teacher Mrs. Ruedi, where the band rehearsed and where Chowning and his brother Rusty lived. Sunday offered the group $500 to make another demo tape but ultimately decided to pass on offering them a contract.

The band later sent a tape to the team who managed fellow Missourians Brewer & Shipley, Kansas City's Paul Peterson and Stan Plesser (who also owned the Vanguard, a popular coffee house), who gave the band a chance and became their managers as well. The band then changed their name to the Ozark Mountain Daredevils in 1972 (see "Name") and by that time had rid itself of Campanelli and Jones and added Buddy Brayfield, a friend of Granda's, as the piano player. Anderson, though still romantically involved with Dillon, retired from the stage. Campanelli left on his own to pursue a masters degree in music; Jones joined the Daredevils briefly later on and would continue to appear as a guest player on some of their shows and recording sessions.

The A&M years

The group's demo tape eventually caught the attention of A&M Records staff producer David Anderle, who was looking for an Eagles country rock type of band to place on the label. Anderle and the Eagles first producer, Glyn Johns, flew to Missouri to catch one of the band's performances. But the band, nervous about Johns and Anderle being in the audience, did not play their best. Later on, Peterson invited the two men back to his place to hear the band give an unplugged performance by candlelight. This time Anderle and Johns were blown away and they were signed to A&M and sent to England to record their first record with Johns at the helm.

The first record, Ozark Mountain Daredevils (also referred to as "The Quilt Album"), was released in December 1973 and spawned the Top 30 hit "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" in the summer of '74. The album introduced the band's unique mixture of rock, country, bluegrass and pop to the world and is still the favorite of many of the group's fans.

For the second album, It'll Shine When in Shines (Fall 1974), Johns and Anderle came to Missouri to record, utilizing a mobile recording truck set up outside of the band's rehearsal home. During the sessions, Johns overheard Larry Lee sitting at a piano playing and singing a song about a mysterious friend of his who sometimes dealt drugs on the side. Johns loved the melody and thought it could be a smash hit if the lyrics were altered to be about a girl and the drug references downplayed. Lee and Cash did as Johns asked and the song, "Jackie Blue", became the Daredevil's signature song and a huge hit (#3)in early 1975.

The Ozark's third release, The Car Over the Lake Album (Fall 1975), produced by Anderle alone, featured their old compatriot, Bill Jones, joining them to play and arrange their songs. He also toured with them in 1975-1976. Another face from the past, Steve Canaday, also came back into the group's life at this same time as road manager and opening act before joining the band in 1976. The album sold fairly well but produced no hits. One reason why the band's fortunes began to falter might have been their reluctance to relocate to Southern California after being asked to do so by A&M co-head Jerry Moss. As a result, A&M might also have begun to lose a bit of their enthusiasm for the act at this point.

Personnel shifts within the group also began to change the chemistry. Randle Chowning left in May 1976 (following a European tour), after a falling out with the others, to form his own Randle Chowning Band. Norwegian musician Rune Walle, whom the band had met while on tour in Europe with his band The Flying Norwegians, then joined to replace him.

That same year the Daredevils headed west to the Rockies to Caribou Ranch near Nederland, CO to record their fourth album which they'd originally titled Nuclear Fishin ' but then changed to Men From Earth after A&M objected. The Nuclear Fishin ' title was later used up in Canada for a greatest hits pack. Anderle was once again in the producer's chair and Evergreen, CO native Jerry Mills joined the band on mandolin and also served as the group's advance publicist.

In the fall of '76, Buddy Brayfield departed to study medicine and Ruell Chappell (vocals, keyboards) from the popular Springfield group Spillwater Junction came in. But the band's next several releases, Men From Earth (Fall 1976), Don't Look Down (Fall 1977) and It's Alive (September 1978) sold in lesser quantities than their previous records had. Jerry Mills and his mandolin were dropped from the group after It's Alive since the band was performing fewer acoustic numbers in their show by this time.

During the summer of '78, the Daredevils went out for a short run of shows where they opened for Fleetwood Mac. Granda was not available since he was at home helping his wife with the birth of their second child. Springfield bassist Larry Van Fleet (from the Randle Chowning Band) sat in for 'Supe' for these dates.

Later years

In 1978, John Dillon and Steve Cash contributed to an album, White Mansions, that documented life in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Waylon Jennings, Eric Clapton, Jessi Colter, Bernie Leadon and several other musicians appeared on this record as well.

Also in 1978, Larry Lee recorded a solo album for A&M that wasn't released.

By 1979 the group had moved over to CBS Records and put out Ozark Mountain Daredevils in May 1980. This album was produced by famed country rock pioneer producer John Boylan and did not feature Chappell or Canaday, and Walle only appeared on two songs, since Boylan insisted on bringing in session players for a more typical "California country rock laid back sound" that was popular at the time. But the country rock sound's popularity seemed to be on the wane at the dawn of the 80s as groups like the Ozarks, Poco, Firefall, etc. saw their sales begin to slip away. CBS dropped the group after only one record.

In 1980, Walle left the Daredevils to be replaced by Springfield guitarist Terry Wilson.

In December 1980, Brayfield, Chowning, Jones and Walle reunited with the band for two shows, one in Springfield and one in Kansas City. The first was at Hammons Student Center on December 9th and the second, on December 31st, occurred at the Uptown Theater in K.C. The latter show was later put out(in 2006) on CD and DVD as 1980 Reunion Concert: Rhythm & Joy.

Larry Lee left the band and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a solo career in 1982. When that failed to pan out, he continued to work as a songwriter and country producer (for Alabama, Juice Newton and others) and would still play drums on occasion with other acts. In the mid-80s he even did a stint with Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band. Chappell also split in 1982.

Later the same year, there was another major upheaval as Dillon and Cash decided that they'd had enough as well. After some consideration, it was decided that the group would continue with Granda and the returning Randall Chowning leading a new lineup that included Bobby Lloyd Hicks (vocals, drums, percussion, ex-Steve Forbert), Joe Terry (vocals, keyboards, from the St. Louis group The Couch Dancers) and Tulsa guitarist Gary Smith. Canaday stayed on and once again became the band's road manager.

This new grouping was short-lived as Chowning once again decided that touring was not to his liking, Hicks took a job with Kerry Cole & the Lefty Brothers, Joe Terry joined a new band, The Morells, and Gary Smith relocated to Branson, MO in 1984. At this point, Dillon and Cash agreed to rejoin. And the 1984 Ozarks lineup was: John Dillon, Steve Cash, 'Supe' Granda, Steve Canaday and Jason LeMasters (guitar), the latter soon replaced by Chowning, back for his third stint with the Daredevils.

In 1985, the band followed their erstwhile singer/drummer, Larry Lee, to Nashville to record a new album produced by Wendy Waldman. Lee briefly rejoined for this project, but Chowning quit again during the recording and once the album was finished, there was, surprisingly, no interest at all from any of the labels in Nashville. A small French company, Dixie Frog Records, eventually picked up the record and it was released in France as Heart of the Country in 1987. Many of the same songs were released in England in 1989 as Modern History on the Conifer label.

In the meantime, the Daredevils continued on with Morells guitarist Don Clinton Thompson joining to replace Chowning. A group of mostly unreleased tracks (the demos that they used to send around to the record companies) from 1972 was released on Varese Sarabande Records in 1985 as The Lost Cabin Sessions.

There were more personnel changes as Canaday left to move to Nashville in 1988 (sadly, he was killed on September 25th, 1999 when the small plane he was traveling in crashed in Nashville, TN while he was working as an aerial photogapher) and was briefly succeeded on drums by the band's roadie, Rick 'Lumpy' Davidson, who, prior to this, had sometimes joined the group onstage playing washboard.

At the tail end of 1989, Thompson quit to reform his old band, The Skeletons, and Davidson moved to Branson, MO to take a job as sound mixer at Ray Stevens' theater. In 1990, guitarist Bill Brown (from Supe's side band Supe & the Sandwiches) and Morells drummer Ron Gremp came aboard and the Daredevils lineup was stable for the next 14 years.

A 1990 release, Now Here This, was put out on cassette only. After their live commitments were satisfied in the summer of '91, the Daredevils decided to take a little time off. Granda, like Lee and Canaday before him, decided to uproot himself and settle in Nashville where he peddled his songs, searched for a deal for his side band, Supe & the Sandwiches, and became involved in other projects, including a stint as bass player in Michael Clarke's Byrds. In the summer of '92, the Daredevils resumed their ever dwindling schedule of gigs.

The Ozarks were approached by their former manager, Stan Plesser, to re-recorded some of their best known songs for a company called Eclipse Records. This was recorded in Nashville with producer Bob Wright with only Dillon, Cash & Granda (and Larry Lee & Steve Canaday guesting on backup vocals) playing on this project accompanied by session players. The CD was titled Jackie Blue and appeared in 1996 as a budget product sold mostly at truck stops.

New Era Productions, a company formed by an old Springfield buddy of the group's, Benny Smith, agreed to fund another album of brand new material, 13. This was produced, mostly in Nashville, by Larry Lee, who played and sang on it as well(Chowning had been slated to appear too but dropped out of the project early on). 13 was released in June 1997. Also that year came Archive Alive, a CD of one of their 1973 shows.

On July 23rd, 2004, Bill Brown died of smoke inhalation in a house fire in Springfield, MO. On October 16th of this same year, the group and several other Springfield bands appeared at the Shrine Mosque in a memorial show for Brown and benefit for his family. Since that time the band has gone into semi-retirement but usually emerges each year to play shows, sometimes joined by former members Larry Lee and Randle Chowning. The current lineup contains Dillon, Cash, 'Supe', Ron Gremp and Dave Painter (who joined for the 2004 Shrine Mosque show).

Members
Original band

* John Dillon - (vocals, guitars, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica, mouth harp, autoharp, dulcimer, percussion, keyboards)
* Mike 'Supe' Granda - (vocals, bass, guitar, mandolin, percussion)
* Buddy Brayfield - (vocals, woodwinds, keyboards, percussion)
* Randle Chowning (vocals, lead electric & acoustic guitars, steel guitar, harmonica, mandolin)
* Steve Cash (vocals, harmonica, percussion, keyboards)
* Larry Lee - (vocals, drums, acoustic guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion, saw)

Additional members

* Steve Canaday (deceased) - (vocals, drums, percussion, guitar, bass)
* Bill Jones - (woodwinds, horns)
* Rune Walle - (vocals, guitars, sitar, banjo)
* Jerry Mills - (mandolin)
* Larry Van Fleet - (bass)
* Ruell Chappell - (vocals, keyboards)
* Terry Wilson - (vocals, guitars)
* Bobby Lloyd Hicks - (vocals, drums, percussion)
* Joe Terry - (vocals, keyboards)
* Gary Smith - (vocals, guitars)
* Jason Le Masters - (guitars)
* Don Clinton Thompson - (vocals, guitars)
* Rick 'Lumpy' Davidson - (drums, percussion, washboard)
* Bill Brown (deceased) - (vocals, guitars)
* Ron Gremp - (drums, percussion)
* Dave Painter - (vocals, guitars)

Discography
Official US studio albums
Year Album
1973 The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
1974 It'll Shine When It Shines
1975 The Car Over The Lake Album
1976 Men From Earth
1978 Don't Look Down
1980 Ozark Mountain Daredevils
1997 13

Official US live albums
Year Album
1978 It's Alive
1997 Archive Alive
1999 Concert Classics
2006 Rhythm And Joy

European releases
Year Album
1987 Heart of the Country
1989 Modern History
1990 Now Hear This!
2006 Our Most Dangerous Stunts

Solo albums
Year Album Solo
1978 Hearts On Fire Randall Chowning Band
1982 Marooned Larry Lee
1987 Profit Man Michael(Supe)Granda
2005 Beyond Reach Randall Chowning/Larry Lee

Live DVDs
Year DVD
2006 Rhythm And Joy
2008 Live At The Gillioz