HARLEY DAVE
Harley
Dave provides the twang for Too Country. Back in the ‘70’s, he was playing
for Chicago-style blues band Chaingang when he was invited to play guitar for
American singer/songwriter Bob Rosenthal. They spent a couple of years playing
their West Coast style Country Music, then Bob returned to the U.S. and sent for
Harley Dave to join him in his new band, The Jukes.
After
touring across upstate New York, Canada and the Mid-West, Dave returned to the
U.K. and involved himself in dep work and studio sessions, being featured on
several albums.
He
found himself supplying fancy licks for Ivor and the Engines, a cult alternative
country band signed to Fury Records, whose traditional Country Music with
ATTITUDE endeared them to many who would not normally have regarded Country
music as their kind of thing.
This
lead on to the sadly short-lived Not From Texas, which included two other former
"Ivors", plus (ironically) Texan singer, Eddie Choate and steel-player
Myron Cox from New Mexico, along with veteran fiddle player, Robin McKidd of the
Balham Alligators.
That
was all back in the 20th century though.
Since
the millennium, HD has stepped in to help Eddie Choate re-form his band, Texas
Nightlife, and has guested with country bands, playing gigs from Arizona to
Yarmouth. Along with Gareth, he is a regular visitor to Austin, Texas, where he
has played The Broken Spoke, Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, The Carousel
Lounge and Jovita’s – taking the Too Country gospel back to its spiritual
homeland.
As
a founder member of Too Country, he has opened for US acts like Dale Watson,
BR549, Slaid Cleaves, Alison Moorer, Hot Club of Cowtown, Billy Yates, Moot
Davis & Pete Anderson, Jesse Dayton and his personal guitar hero, Bill
Kirchen – he also played onstage with Bill back in Texas, while playing with
the Cornell Hurd Band.
Dave
has also been called upon to provide acoustic guitar backing for various
artists, including Canada’s Victoria Boland on both her UK tours, and U.K’s
own Niki Dean.
Dave's
personal taste in Country Music tends more towards Texas Honky-tonk, Outlaw
music and the Bakersfield Sound, rather than the Nashville sound.
His first country influences were Commander Cody and his LPA (which
included Bill Kirchen), The Flying Burrito Brothers, Cornell Hurd, New Riders of
the Purple Sage – Hippies at the time, but who are now truer to real
country music than a lot of current Country stars.