The Beat Farmers

The Beat Farmers
Origin San Diego, California, United States
Genres Cowpunk, roots rock, country rock
Years active 1983–1995
Labels Rhino, Curb, Sector 2
Associated acts Rank and File, The Crawdaddys, The Penetrators, Shames, The Rockin' Roulettes, The Pleasure Barons, Country Dick & the Snuggle Bunnies, The Buddy Blue Tribute Band, The Farmers
Website sdam.com/artists/bf/
Past members

The Beat Farmers were an American cowpunk band, which formed in San Diego, California, in August 1983, and enjoyed a cult following into the early 1990s before the death of drummer and sometime lead singer Country Dick Montana.[1] Their music has been described as an amalgamation of cow punk, jangle pop, roots rock, hard-twang Americana, country rock, rockabilly, and swamp rock.

Formation

In 1983, the Beat Farmers were formed by Country Dick Montana, former drummer for San Diego bands The Penetrators and The Crawdaddys, and Jerry Raney, singer and guitarist with The Shames and formerly of 1970s psychedelic band Glory.[2][3][4] Singer-guitarist Bernard "Buddy Blue" Seigal and bassist Rolle Love from local rockabilly band The Rockin' Roulettes were recruited to round out the line-up.[5] The band regularly played at the Spring Valley Inn and venues around San Diego State University. In 1984, they won the annual San Diego Battle of the Bands and gained a Southern California following.[1]

The Beat Farmers were born out of an earlier band formed by Dan McLain called Country Dick & the Snuggle Bunnies. That band included many San Diego musicians who would later play important roles in both the Beat Farmers and the neo-traditional Country and cow punk scenes. Country Dick & the Snuggle Bunnies were: McLain (aka Country Dick Montana), drums and vocals; Richard Banke (aka Skid Roper), mandolin, washboard and vocals; Robin Jackson, guitar and vocals; Paul Kamanski, guitar and vocals; Joey Harris, guitar and vocals; and Nino Del Pesco, bass and vocals.[6]

Harris later replaced Buddy Blue in The Beat Farmers, Kamanski penned a number of Beat Farmer songs, Banke teamed up with Mojo Nixon, and Del Pesco later formed The Lonesome Strangers with bandmates Randy Weeks, Jeff Rymes, and Joe Nanini and Snake Farm with Barry McBride of The Plugz.

History

In 1984, they were signed to a one-off record deal with Rhino Records. The first album, Tales of the New West, was produced by Blasters and Los Lobos saxophonist Steve Berlin and released in January 1985. The album included cover songs "Reason to Believe" by Bruce Springsteen, "There She Goes Again" by The Velvet Underground, and "Never Going Back" by John Stewart. It also featured their most well known song, "Happy Boy", which gained national exposure through the Doctor Demento radio show, and was played as a novelty song across the country, notably by disc jockeys Jim McInnes and Pat Martin on San Diego radio station KGB-FM, on Pittsburgh station WDVE, where it has been played weekly for more than twenty years, and in the early 1980s on San Francisco, California, FM radio station KQAK aka The Quake FM 99, particularly on the morning show with DJ Alex Bennett (the Quake closed its doors on June 18, 1985).

In 1985, they traveled to England to record Glad 'N' Greasy, a six-song EP for Demon Records. It was co-produced by Graham Parker and The Rumour keyboardist Bob Andrews and included a dancehall version of Neil Young's "Powderfinger" and Country Dick singing of "Beat Generation" with backing vocals from Dave Alvin, Nick Lowe, Gene Taylor, Dan Stuart, and Loudon Wainwright III. Their month-long tour of England drew praise from critics, particularly from Melody Maker, whose editor followed them around and subsequently compared them to The Beatles.

In 1986, the band continued to tour and signed a seven-record deal with Curb Records. Fed up by working with Curb Records, Buddy Blue left the band. Their major-label debut Van Go was produced by Craig Leon and featured performances by both Blue and new member Joey Harris, who previously played with John Stewart, The Speedsters, and Country Dick and the Snuggle Bunnies.[7]

The next year, The Pursuit of Happiness was released on Curb Records/MCA. The single "Make It Last" was briefly played on dozens of Country-Western stations across the nation, but the rest of the album was too rock n' roll-oriented for the format, and the single was dropped from rotation. "Hideaway" was featured in the soundtrack to the film Major League and "Big Big Man" was featured in The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. Poor and Famous was released in 1989, and included "King of Sleaze", a collaboration by Montana and Mojo Nixon. Later in the year, Montana and Harris formed a side project with Nixon and Alvin called the Pleasure Barons, a group that specialized in lounge music. The Beat Farmers finished the year with a three-night stand at San Diego's Bacchannal nightclub. The album Loud and Plowed and . . . LIVE!! was culled from those three nights and released the next year.

In 1991 Montana was treated for a thyroid condition and continued to visit a doctor for cancer treatments. The band appeared on Late Night with David Letterman on Friday, June 14, 1991, on NBC.[8]

Over the years, the band grew increasingly dissatisfied with its relationship with Curb Records, and repeatedly attempted to get out of their seven-album contract. Finally succeeding in 1993, the group began to record Viking Lullabys in Vancouver, Canada. It was released in August 1994 by Sector 2, an Austin, Texas, record label. In 1995, Curb/MCA released The Best of the Beat Farmers without the consent or involvement of the band.[9] That same year, the Beat Farmers released Manifold, their second record for Sector 2. Paul Kamanski, who wrote several songs on previous Beat Farmers releases, appeared on vocals and guitar.

Death of Country Dick

On November 8, 1995, Country Dick Montana died of a heart attack while performing "The Girl I Almost Married", three songs into the set at the Longhorn Saloon in Whistler, British Columbia. The remaining Beat Farmers decided to dissolve the band three days later.

In 1996, Bar None Records of Hoboken, New Jersey, posthumously released The Devil Lied to Me, the Country Dick Montana solo album. The performers included members of the Farmers, Katy Moffatt, Rosie Flores, Nixon, and Alvin.

Later activity

In 2002, Rhino Records digitally remastered and reissued the first CD release of Glad n' Greasy, now subtitled "The Lost Beat Farmers Recording", and an extended version of Tales of the New West.

The remaining members formed several new bands including Raney-Blue (Jerry Raney and Buddy Blue), Powerthud (Jerry Raney and Joey Harris), The Joey Show (Joey Harris), Joey Harris and The Mentals, The Flying Putos (Jerry Raney, Buddy Blue, & Rolle Love), and The Farmers (Jerry Raney, Rolle Love and Buddy Blue).[10]

On April 2, 2006, Buddy Blue died of a heart attack at his La Mesa home at the age of 48. Also that year, a live recording of an early show was released as The Beat Farmers Live at the Spring Valley Inn, 1983 on Clarence Records.

On January 7, 2013, the band put on the third in an annual series of reunion shows at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California. This show featured Raney (playing with his band, The Farmers), Harris (playing with his band, Joey Harris and the Mentals) and Love (who now plays with Billy Joe & the Roosters) on stage once again as the Beat Farmers. They also played with Dave Alvin, Steve Berlin, Mojo Nixon, and Paul Kamanski as a tribute to Country Dick Montana and Buddy Blue. The show is called The Dick Blue Ball - a Beat Farmers Celebration of the Life and Times of Country Dick and Buddy Blue.

Band members

Partial discography

All U.S. releases unless otherwise noted

Albums

Singles and EPs

Promotional samplers

Soundtracks

Live albums and compilations

Appearances

Media occurrences of music

References

  1. 1 2
  2. ↑ "The Penetrators". San Diego Reader. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  3. ↑ "The Crawdaddys | Che Underground: The Blog". Che Underground. Archived from the original on July 16, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  4. ↑ Archived September 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "Buddy Blue's history of the San Diego band The Rockin' Roulettes". Trageser.com. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  6. ↑ "Bunny call". San Diego Reader. 2013-11-06. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  7. ↑ "Joey Harris". San Diego Reader. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  8. ↑ Archived February 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ Smith, William Michael (Oct 16, 2008). "Lonesome Onry and Mean: Tim McGraw Takes On His Label". Houston Press. Houston Press. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  10. ↑ Trageser, Jim (May 2005). "Music - The Farmers". Turbula. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
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